I fully believe a huge part of being healthy is moving more. Sure, there are some diets that boast "loose all the weight without moving a muscle!!", but those make me skeptical. Sure you can lose fat, but you aren't building muscle, or learning how to sustain that weight loss.
But I have found that being active is the hardest change to make. I can eat right with relatively no problems. I'm not a fast food junkie, so it's not hard for me to kick the habit. But I am kinda lazy, and that is proving harder to change than I expected.
I have almost every excuse in the book to not work out. "I'm tired. I worked late. It's cold out. It's hot out. It's Tuesday." If I could say my dog ate my running shoes and all I have to wear is stilettos, I would. Sadly my dog doesn't like shoes... Back to the point. I am lazy, and I don't think exercise is particularly fun.
How do I change my mind? Your guess is as good as mine. I have tried rewarding myself with new boots for competing 15 work outs. (Spoiler alert: I worked out once, bought the boots online and stuck my tongue out.) I think the most successful form of exercise for me is the kind where I am having fun. I took a ballroom dance class in college and it was a blast! And dancing is a good work out. Problem with that is I am too lazy too google "ballroom dance classes" in my area.
So I had a thought. I like to have fun, and (believe it or not) I like a challenge. I was looking through the activity tracker on my Weight Watchers ap, and I realizes there are tons of different activities in there that I have never even heard of! Anishinaabe Jingle Dancing? I can earn 4 points for 30 min! My challenge is to work my way through every single activity in the tracker, for 1 minute. Hopefully I will find some fun things that I never knew existed! And all I have to do is follow the list. Obviously if I can do it for more than a minute, I will (like walking) but I'm not sure I want to clean someone's gutters for longer than that (4pts for 30 min).
So my list includes things like canoeing and mountain biking, which may take some time and planning to complete, but I want to do it.
What do you do for exercise. Is there some magic fat burning insanely fun activity I am missing??!? Can you see me cleaning someone's gutters?? Ew...
This was (and still is) a struggle for me. I built working out into a routine and always planned to relax afterward. It gets easier as you go too. Like zumba was insanely hard the first time I did it, but I loved it by the third time. I signed up for 2 "fun" 5k races this summer so I had a goal for running. My husband and I took tennis lessons so I could improve. And by the end of the summer, I could beat him.
ReplyDeleteDo what you're doing and hopefully you'll find something you like. Being lazy always seems more fun than working out. You'll feel better about yourself after you do it though.
I saw your 5K's this summer and I was soooo jealous! Those looked like so much fun! I am determined to do a few next year! I definitely think doing something WITH Andy is key. This is definitely the hardest hurdle for me.
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