Which month of the year do think would be the worst time to start a new exercise regime? I'm betting you all answered emphatically and without having to give it alot of thought - December! I'm not sure why I decided to get back on the ball with exercising - I never really stopped, I just wasn't making it a priority - running once or twice a week. So of course I feel inspired to start working out five days a week two weeks ago. That is in the midst of all the baking and cooking and shopping and parties that make up the month of December. Not only is it a month with lots of temptations that make you feel like exercise is pointless, but there just is not alot of time. I've made it through two weeks and often I find myself excercising at 8:30 or 9:00 at night after the kids are asleep. I really don't want to. Take tonight for instance. We had a long weekend. My parents were in town for a few days and there was lots of shopping and running around. Saturday was Ella's little birthday party (I did squeak out some time to run in the afternoon) and then tonight we hosted a group from church at our home. I haven't been sleeping well lately (and Ella has randomly decided to come visit us in bed at night - anyone with experience with this - kind of frustrating) so I was tired this afternoon. I had a hard time staying awake during a very good sermon at church today. I just wanted to lay on the couch all afternoon and watch football in a daze. Of course that doesn't happen - Ella decides not to nap, I realize that the giant frozen lasagna I am planning on serving needs two hours to cook - and it's less than two hours until people will be arriving, and I remember that we never fully cleaned up from Ella's part the night before. So I got about a half hour of relaxing and alot of busyness. Fast forward to 8:15. The kids are in bed, the kitchen is clean - at this point all I have to do is run. Because if I don't run tonight I will have to exercise five days in a row and I like to take a break in the middle of the week. So I got on the computer and checked my email and fantasy football leagues. I played a game of free cell. A half hour later I trudged downstairs and watched a bit of the Sunday night football game with Matt until I finally got myself on the treadmill.
I'm not writing this to make myself look like this great and dedicated exerciser. I'm not. I have to exercise because I like to eat. Also I spend so much time complaining about how I look that I figure I need to do something about it. In January I am going to do something about the eating habits. I like the way I feel when I work out. I like the feeling after a good work out and the way my muscles feel. But I don't particularly enjoy the act of excercising. I really have to convince myself to run - and sometimes two minutes into I want to quit. On Tuesday nights I do a "bootcamp" video with a bunch of friends and even though I enjoy it I anticipate how I'll feel in the middle of a million squats and fun stuff like that I don't want to do it. Even when I was playing sports in high school and college and was in pretty good shape I really hated the conditioning runs. So what I wonder - does it ever get easier? I've always wondered if I exercised regularly long enough - would I become one of those people who loves to exercise and enjoys it so much that they can't imagine their day without a good 5 mile jog. Or when they are stressed they just to unwind with a run. I read about people like that in novels and I even know some. But not me. When I'm stressed I want to lay on the couch. Sure I feel good about running but if someone came up with way to bypass exercise to get that feeling I would be all for it.
For everyone who checks in with blog I would love some feedback. Are you a current excerciser who loves it or one who grins and bears it? If you love it, have you always or did it grow on you (basically are some of us always going to hate working out or is their hope?)? Also for those of you lapsed exercisers - why and for how long - do you ever plan to start again? And, for those of you who never work out and don't plan it - are you just super disciplined eaters? I have more luck doing the exercise thing than I do that the diet thing. My failed attempts at that are a whole other post. For now I would to hear from you!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
To Run or not to Run
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4 comments:
Hey Megs,
Well, you probably know my answer. I'm one of the weirdo's who kind of likes to excercise. Not that I jump on the treadmill with a smile on my face, but it's just not the drudgery that it is for other people. However, that said, I have not excercised regularly at all since coming back to work after the baby. That's one of my biggest frustrations with my schedule right now, along with the fact that Nadia cannot sleep without me. Another story all together. So, I have been not excercising for the past 6 months and feel terrible. I can't wait for this job situation to get figured out so I can get back into a routine...
Erin
i definitely admire the 5 days a week thing! i absolutely love exercising some of the time...other times i just want to be lazy. i think that's natural. sometimes you have to listen to your body too (although many times i ignore the fact that my body wants to exercise - haha!) i hate running, so i admire anyone who runs. my father-in-law runs every other day in the morning and is committed to that. i love the eliptical though! now that nolan is finished with his morning nap, i'm going to make it a point to go to the gym at least 3 times a week. teaching pilates is wonderful - i truly love that and feel great afterwards. i can't wait to get my reformer, cause then i'm going to do that all the time! i definitely think it helps to do workouts that you enjoy.
the holidays are killer.... :)
i like to eat too :)
okay, so you probably didn't expect me to reply to this. umm...i loathe excercising with the firey passion of a billion hells. that probably doesn't fully capture it. but it will have to suffice.
actually, its not that i hate excercising, per se. i hate what we normally think of as excercising. that is, i hate running for the sake of running. or riding a bike. or doing a treadmill or elliptical thing. i don't want to go the gym. i hate this stuff. BUT...
if i could design my own excercise regime, i would love it. and this would be it: i would have other people throwing baseballs and footballs to me, and i would be running around like a banshee trying to field them all. seriously, this i could do for hours everyday! i mean that. i could literally do this everyday. i would love it. but, obviously, i can't find someone with the same loves as me. so, i just get fat.
there's your feedback.
fatty greg.
you'll laugh bc at the reunion i probably seemed like quite the runner, and i have been for almost a year. but now i can't get my rear-end out the door. i blame the weather, but it's been an odd 65 degree week and i only have 2 miles to show for it.
i had a near-death experience with a treadmill so that's my excuse there.
i'm counting on good ol' January 1st as motivation for the next year. we'll see. supposed to run a half marathon in april. we'll see how it goes.
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