Clarification of me and the gym

In a post (My Weight is Shrodinger's Cat), I may have led people to believe that I am hitting the gym 5 or more times a week to try to work off calories eaten through stress-induced poor food choices. While I certainly don't MIND burning off excess calories while working out, these are the reasons I go:

- First and foremost,I get to spend more time with my husband. He's working to 3-11:30 pm, Tues-Sat. My freelance work is 10a-5p T-W-Th and I have a part time job 2 nights a week. Ergo, we don't get to have a lot of time together. We get up early, get each other psyched to work out, cheer each other on while we're there, then I head off to work.

-Second, I'm enjoying challenging my body to lift more, go longer, etc. While my arthritic knees won't let me do things like run, I can still do elliptical, recumbent bike and some treadmill work, as well as weight training. Watching the weights I can move increase (and adding up the number of calories burned each week) is inspiring to me.

- Third, I enjoy the camaraderie of the gym. I've made some friends and, at the very least, gotten to know a lot of people that I chat with on a daily basis. I always stop to encourage someone (especially a heavy person who's just started going and looks like they could use a little nudge) and I love when people tell me that it looks like my work is paying off.

-Fourth, I FEEL better, both physically and emotionally after I've gone.

- Lastly, I LIKE going now. Back when I was almost 400 pounds, I would have rather sat home rubbing glass shards in my eyes than drag myself to the gym. Now, I look forward to it. It's fun. When we were snowed in for 5 days and literally couldn't leave the house, I honestly missed it.