"Exercise: Necessary Evil or Untapped Enjoyment?"

I am late. My meetings are, as you know, on Wednesdays and now it is Monday and I'm finally getting around to writing about the "Exercise: Necessary Evil or Untapped Enjoyment?" meeting topic. Regardless, here goes nothing:

Exercise. Ugh. The bane of my existence. Even growing up, when I tried to play sports as a kid, I was never very coordinated or skilled at anything. I got used to the idea that my brother was the athletic one, and I was the smart one. It's funny how those early memories stick with you and influence your adult life. Still today, when I try some new form of exercise, there is that little voice of doubt in the back of my mind reminding me that I am not athletic and will probably suck at whatever I try. It literally took me months of psyching myself up before I could set foot in a spinning class. I was sure there was no way I was in good enough shape to keep up. Turns out, I was! Plus I really enjoyed myself!

This week I have earned exactly 0 activity points. I have not lived up to my promise from last week that I would keep up the great workouts even though I am going back to school. I was tired and my schedule was hectic and I used that as an excuse to be lazy. I am positive I will see a difference on the scale in the morning... and I hope it will be enough to motivate me to do better this week.

On a related note, I am ending my gym membership and I am totally okay with that! At my meeting last week I came to a realization that although I really detest going to the gym (sometimes enough to make me avoid going altogether!) I actually really enjoy many other types of exercise. I got caught up in the mindset that unless I was slaving away on a cardio machine at the gym (and hating life) I wasn't actually exercising. Last week, I realized that was not true. I had that huge loss and I did not set foot in the gym. I hiked with my dog, I ran intervals on the power line through the woods, I rode my bike. I loved every minute of it, earned a ton of APs, and had a huge loss on the scale. That was a real light bulb moment.

I decided that I am done treating exercise as a necessary evil and that is the attitude I have when I force myself to go to the gym. It doesn't make sense to do something I hate, just because it burns calories. I wouldn't force myself to EAT something I hate, just because it is good for me! Instead, I would find a substitute healthy food that would give me the same benefits but that I could actually enjoy. My new fitness goal is to tap into the enjoyment side of exercise. I will continue to try new things in order to find activities that burn calories and work out my heart, but I will require they are activities I actually enjoy! Plus, it sure won't hurt to have an extra $35 a month that I am currently spending on my gym membership!!