Recently I've started running farther than I have since high school cross country. With some new running buddies I've found myself running eight miles, over twice what a long day on my own would be. The weird part is I'm having fun pushing past limits I had set in my mind. My new buddies are the only reason I keep going and I am amazed by the power of positive thinking. If they can do it, so can I! Last month I went to the gym a lot for a Barre class - loved it, but found myself wishing I could do some actual dancing. Before that I was hooked on yoga with Adrienne on Youtube (I still am. Love her!). In my backyard. Sometimes the girls share my blanket and I find myself learning the real meaning of "child's pose". :)
I can never stick with one activity too long. I can't walk the same exact route too frequently. I've heard a lot of talk about staying motivated to exercise lately. What I have to ask is, why are we making it so HARD to stay motivated? It's pretty clear to me that I don't exercise nearly every day because I have massive amounts of willpower or motivation. If that were the case I would be a miserable wreck. And I STILL wouldn't succeed. I have some ideas and thoughts about taking the "work" out of working out.
First, because I'm obsessed and always concerned about this, there is such thing as excessive exercise to the extreme. Extreme meaning that exercise takes priority over everything else in life, which can be harming both physically and psychologically. This is often seen paired with an unofficial eating disorder called orthorexia: If you find yourself feeling you're spiraling out of control and respond by further controlling your exercise and diet while your sense of self-worth is tied up and labeled by how well you exercise (or how healthy you eat) you may have a problem. Well you do have a problem, but you may also need some professional help. No shame there.
Quit the "Exercise Diet"
On a slightly less extreme and more common vein, let's talk about the exercise diet. First, I'm defining a diet here as a mindset of restrictions and rules about eating and exercise to lose weight or change your body in some other way. The truth is at the core, diets are almost always motivated by a desire to feel loved and accepted. Why else would we want so badly to lose weight? Once the number on the scale or on our pants reaches the magic number, we will be happy. Right? Sadly, happiness will only come when we can accept ourselves and love every pound of our amazing bodies. I don't know if I love every pound (I'm still working on this too!) but I'm well on my way and the result is actual happiness. Right now.
So back to exercise, consider this:
Why do we diet?
To lose weight.
Why do we want to lost weight?
We want to feel loved and accepted.
Why do we exercise?
To burn calories. To lose weight. To find love and acceptance.
How long do diets last?
They all end.
Why does every diet come to an end?
Diets end because they are diets, not a lifestyle. Anything that isn't normal and enjoyable and inexpensive and permanent will end.Because we are all free-spirited human beings with taste buds, emotions, and real, day-to-day-living-life kind of lives (AKA NOT ROBOTS). We can't run on pure motivation every day, life happens. And if we are denying our bodies and souls what they need (calories, flexibility, a break) our bodies and souls will rebel. Aggressively. And weighing less won't give us happiness.
Why do we feel terrible when we "fail" a diet?
Because we failed at what we thought would bring us happiness. Why can't I just have the motivation to stick with this one thing?? Feeling like failures makes everything worse, not better. Do you see a trend here?
When exercise is motivated by burning calories, restricting or controlling life, failure is the only outcome. Even if you manage to have control and motivation for an extended period of time, you won't gain the original underlying goal, which is to be happy. The only way to make exercise a forever kind of thing, something that can legitimately bring happiness in its own way, is to quit your exercise diet.
I know I'm not speaking to everyone right now. Some of you just don't care about health, or some of you struggle with all the other obstacles preventing healthy-minded exercise. But a lot of people are in this boat. And it's sinking!
Find something you love.
Stop deciding your activity based on the number of calories burned. Do you want to like exercise, or do you want to torture yourself and feel bad about not living up to high expectations? I'm convinced there's something for everyone once we take off the sweat-for-an-hour-at-the-gym blinders.
I can never stick with one activity too long. I can't walk the same exact route too frequently. I've heard a lot of talk about staying motivated to exercise lately. What I have to ask is, why are we making it so HARD to stay motivated? It's pretty clear to me that I don't exercise nearly every day because I have massive amounts of willpower or motivation. If that were the case I would be a miserable wreck. And I STILL wouldn't succeed. I have some ideas and thoughts about taking the "work" out of working out.
First, because I'm obsessed and always concerned about this, there is such thing as excessive exercise to the extreme. Extreme meaning that exercise takes priority over everything else in life, which can be harming both physically and psychologically. This is often seen paired with an unofficial eating disorder called orthorexia: If you find yourself feeling you're spiraling out of control and respond by further controlling your exercise and diet while your sense of self-worth is tied up and labeled by how well you exercise (or how healthy you eat) you may have a problem. Well you do have a problem, but you may also need some professional help. No shame there.
Quit the "Exercise Diet"
On a slightly less extreme and more common vein, let's talk about the exercise diet. First, I'm defining a diet here as a mindset of restrictions and rules about eating and exercise to lose weight or change your body in some other way. The truth is at the core, diets are almost always motivated by a desire to feel loved and accepted. Why else would we want so badly to lose weight? Once the number on the scale or on our pants reaches the magic number, we will be happy. Right? Sadly, happiness will only come when we can accept ourselves and love every pound of our amazing bodies. I don't know if I love every pound (I'm still working on this too!) but I'm well on my way and the result is actual happiness. Right now.
So back to exercise, consider this:
Why do we diet?
To lose weight.
Why do we want to lost weight?
We want to feel loved and accepted.
Why do we exercise?
To burn calories. To lose weight. To find love and acceptance.
How long do diets last?
They all end.
Why does every diet come to an end?
Diets end because they are diets, not a lifestyle. Anything that isn't normal and enjoyable and inexpensive and permanent will end.Because we are all free-spirited human beings with taste buds, emotions, and real, day-to-day-living-life kind of lives (AKA NOT ROBOTS). We can't run on pure motivation every day, life happens. And if we are denying our bodies and souls what they need (calories, flexibility, a break) our bodies and souls will rebel. Aggressively. And weighing less won't give us happiness.
Why do we feel terrible when we "fail" a diet?
Because we failed at what we thought would bring us happiness. Why can't I just have the motivation to stick with this one thing?? Feeling like failures makes everything worse, not better. Do you see a trend here?
When exercise is motivated by burning calories, restricting or controlling life, failure is the only outcome. Even if you manage to have control and motivation for an extended period of time, you won't gain the original underlying goal, which is to be happy. The only way to make exercise a forever kind of thing, something that can legitimately bring happiness in its own way, is to quit your exercise diet.
I know I'm not speaking to everyone right now. Some of you just don't care about health, or some of you struggle with all the other obstacles preventing healthy-minded exercise. But a lot of people are in this boat. And it's sinking!
Find something you love.
Stop deciding your activity based on the number of calories burned. Do you want to like exercise, or do you want to torture yourself and feel bad about not living up to high expectations? I'm convinced there's something for everyone once we take off the sweat-for-an-hour-at-the-gym blinders.
Make it so easy, you can't help but exercise
When checking off a list, we often go for the simple tasks first because they are easy. Why not apply this to exercise? Find the best time. Pack a change of clothes in your car. Put your workout clothes on first thing in the morning. Have someone counting on you joining them. Bike to work. We aren't going to be healthier individuals until we make it second nature.
Don't let waiting for your big moment keep you from making small steps. Translation: don't spend all day in your gym clothes without breaking a sweat because you couldn't find time to make it to the gym. There are people who love the gym. There may be some who actually love getting themselves to the gym. But setting impossible standards will keep you from starting. Getting to the gym is really difficult! Instead of thinking about all the obstacles keeping you from getting to the gym, just get outside to mow the lawn, take a shower and get on with the day.
Do exercise!
Do find something to love! Relieve stress. Be a better person. Release endorphins. Work that heart. Try new things. Go outside. Make new friends. Please, for the sake of cutting the number of people who shoot their husbands...
When checking off a list, we often go for the simple tasks first because they are easy. Why not apply this to exercise? Find the best time. Pack a change of clothes in your car. Put your workout clothes on first thing in the morning. Have someone counting on you joining them. Bike to work. We aren't going to be healthier individuals until we make it second nature.
Don't let waiting for your big moment keep you from making small steps. Translation: don't spend all day in your gym clothes without breaking a sweat because you couldn't find time to make it to the gym. There are people who love the gym. There may be some who actually love getting themselves to the gym. But setting impossible standards will keep you from starting. Getting to the gym is really difficult! Instead of thinking about all the obstacles keeping you from getting to the gym, just get outside to mow the lawn, take a shower and get on with the day.
Do exercise!
Do find something to love! Relieve stress. Be a better person. Release endorphins. Work that heart. Try new things. Go outside. Make new friends. Please, for the sake of cutting the number of people who shoot their husbands...
Mix it up, a lot.
My favorite tip is don't let yourself get sick of any one activity. Switch to something new before you turn to hating Zumba and want to burn all your stretchy pants. That way you'll always be excited about new things. This tip is also great because it will help you prevent injury and help you strengthen your whole body.
Redefine exercise
For those thinking, that's great, but I'm just so incredibly busy that I literally have no time. I could tell you about one of my preceptors that installed a bike machine under her desk, but I think the most important answer is sometimes exercise just doesn't happen. Sometimes extreme life happens and not just something, but A LOT has to give. A lot of important things get ignored. Sometimes people die, or graduate school plus full time work plus kids happens, insert insane applicable scenario here. We have different seasons of life and we just kind of have to take what we can get sometimes. But I will still say that exercise can be most important during these times of extreme stress, and there is always something you can do if you just get creative. But it's okay to not be perfect all the time.
I mean, really think out of the box. Play with your kids instead of watch. Clean your house with the music on. Take the stairs. Park far from the store. Just walk out the door to get some sunshine. Build something. Take your phone calls on a walk. Plant a garden. Go on a bike ride date. Search Youtube for workout videos or have a dance party. Chop wood. Try walking anywhere, we drive too much.
My favorite tip is don't let yourself get sick of any one activity. Switch to something new before you turn to hating Zumba and want to burn all your stretchy pants. That way you'll always be excited about new things. This tip is also great because it will help you prevent injury and help you strengthen your whole body.
Redefine exercise
For those thinking, that's great, but I'm just so incredibly busy that I literally have no time. I could tell you about one of my preceptors that installed a bike machine under her desk, but I think the most important answer is sometimes exercise just doesn't happen. Sometimes extreme life happens and not just something, but A LOT has to give. A lot of important things get ignored. Sometimes people die, or graduate school plus full time work plus kids happens, insert insane applicable scenario here. We have different seasons of life and we just kind of have to take what we can get sometimes. But I will still say that exercise can be most important during these times of extreme stress, and there is always something you can do if you just get creative. But it's okay to not be perfect all the time.
I mean, really think out of the box. Play with your kids instead of watch. Clean your house with the music on. Take the stairs. Park far from the store. Just walk out the door to get some sunshine. Build something. Take your phone calls on a walk. Plant a garden. Go on a bike ride date. Search Youtube for workout videos or have a dance party. Chop wood. Try walking anywhere, we drive too much.
Let YOU be the boss.
Try letting your body tell you what you need to feel good. Most days, I do need to sweat, breathe hard, and stretch myself a little bit. Sometimes it's fun to really just kill it and even be sore for a few days. I can get a kick out of that. But let exercise serve you, don't become a slave to the exercise gods. Slow way down when you are sick. Take time to heal injuries. Deal with life problems. Get some fresh air, get out the house, walk around the mall, or take the stairs. NOT to burn those extra calories. But because that's what your body (or mind) needs at that moment.
I love Intuitive Eating and the insight of Isabel Foxen Duke and I've referenced their ideas here a few times. Love them both, check out the links to learn much much more.
Love,
Lauresa
Try letting your body tell you what you need to feel good. Most days, I do need to sweat, breathe hard, and stretch myself a little bit. Sometimes it's fun to really just kill it and even be sore for a few days. I can get a kick out of that. But let exercise serve you, don't become a slave to the exercise gods. Slow way down when you are sick. Take time to heal injuries. Deal with life problems. Get some fresh air, get out the house, walk around the mall, or take the stairs. NOT to burn those extra calories. But because that's what your body (or mind) needs at that moment.
I love Intuitive Eating and the insight of Isabel Foxen Duke and I've referenced their ideas here a few times. Love them both, check out the links to learn much much more.
Love,
Lauresa