How To Do What You Don't Want To Do

I hate to exercise. I'm sure I have written about this in my other blogs, so this is probably no surprise if you are one of my regular readers or on my mailing list. And how I wish to God that I loved it. I mean, I know a lot of people who actually do like to work out! They jog because it makes them feel good, and some of them even run marathons. Meanwhile, I always scratch my head and wonder why I wasn't given that natural love of exercise? Dang, that would be awesome. It would make staying healthy so much easier!

But alas, I didn't get that gene.  And because of that, I have struggled for all of my adult life trying to figure out a way to stop hating exercise. Don't get me wrong - I've gone through phases in my life where I do work out. But I think the longest I've ever stuck to it is about a year. And THAT is only because I had just had my first son, and my mom was helping out. She would come over to help me with the baby and let me go work out. Suddenly, the loathing of exercise was trumped by my desire for some "me-time" - away from my demanding baby for a little while (I know I sound like a bad mom, but anyone know knows me - and my son - would understand! LOL)

Back then, I thought I had figured it out. The only way that I could even remotely stick to a work out routine was to buy a stationary bike and watch TV while I rode it. In my mind, I somehow thought that watching TV would make me "forget" that I was exercising. It didn't really work, but it was better than going to the gym.

Fast forward 13 years, and I no longer find watching TV as a sufficient distraction to fool myself into exercising. Perhaps it is because I am no longer escaping a colicky baby (that colicky baby is now in the 8th grade so I have a built-in baby sitter - school ... haha). 

I can't tell you how I struggle with making lame excuses to myself ("something unexpected came up today") and then beating myself up over those excuses because I know it's a bunch of bull.

I'm not good at lying to myself.

I call myself out on it every time.

So in the last week or so, I came up with another "brilliant idea." You see, one of the lame excuses I tell myself is that "If something unexpected comes up, I really can't find the time to get undressed, go in the basement and do a full workout for 45 minutes." So I decided to try something where I would not be able to use that excuse anymore.

I decided that I would just exercise little bits throughout the day. That way, I could no longer tell myself that I couldn't commit to a 45 minute work-out. I brought up my hand weights and put them in the kitchen. When I get up from the computer, I now grab it and do 25 reps on each arm. Then go back to work. Then I'll do 25 sit ups when I feel like it. And go back to work. Later, I decide to go on a 20 minute walk. Then go back to work. And maybe after that I do some lunges and more sit ups.

You see, it doesn't really feel like I'm "exercising" that way. I know that fitness experts would argue that it's not really doing me any good because I don't break a sweat or get my pulse up high enough. But here's my theory ...

Moving my body is better than NOT moving my body.

Am I going to run a marathon any time soon? Absolutely NOT!! That's would just be insane. Hell would have to freeze over before I would do that. But have I "sort of" come up with a way to be more active and burn some extra calories? Well, I hope so. I think so.

Ask me in 6 months to see if I have stuck with it ;-)

So how does this apply to you? We all have things that we hate doing. So maybe you could try doing something similar to what I'm doing. Break it up. Try to fool yourself. I'm not saying it will work for everyone, but it's worth a try.

Heck, I'm just hoping it works for me.

Wish me luck! :)

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