Ok well I suck at getting exercise into my day. I don't particulary like exercising for the sake of exercising.
Last time I was on 3FC I was in grad school and couldn't afford gas. I walked to class and eventually was walking all over town.
I have a reasonable commute (well for around here) of about 40 minutes each way. I have the time to exercise I just haven't found the motivation to do it yet. I do live within a mile of a grocery store and an outlet mall so I could find some reason to walk there....especially with daylight savings time.
In some ways I'm feeling ready to add some exercise but the fat girl in me is saying "It's too much trouble!"
I've also wondered about some of the DVDs out there. I remember watching aerobics shows in the 80's but they were a big turn off.
What has worked for me is getting up first thing in the morning and putting my workout clothes on. Even if I don't workout right away, I am ready and conscious of the fact that I have to get it done. Some days it works out well, I get it done by 6am. Other days, it might be 1pm where I finally get butt in gear.
If I do videos at home, I use my Wii for the internet and can watch Leslie Sansone on Youtube. I love doing that when I am in the mood. Otherwise, I bring my tablet and speaker to the treadmill and watch cheesy 80s tv shows on Youtube and walk my butt off. 3 episodes usually kills an hour.
And...as much as I don't LOVE to exercise, I feel like a million bucks when I add it to my MFP journal.
The variety of DVDs out are ridiculously endless. I mean everything from walking, zumba, kickboxing, martial arts, yoga, POLE DANCING!-you name it, its out there; we've definitely come a long way from the 80s.
Here's my problem with walking, it bores me and if there's anything I learned about exercise and dieting, if you force yourself to do/eat something you hate, chances are you are not going to last. Brainstorm about what you would enjoy or have a few weeks where you aim to try a few DVDS (or Wii or Kinect games) especially if you want to work out at home.
If you can get a work-out buddy that might help with the motivation factor. Also, I completely agree with elvislover324. Get done even when you don't feel like it especially in the beginning when its all new. For me, the goal is to get into the habit of exercising so it's weirder not to work out than it is to work out.
Good Luck!
It only needs to be light exercise. The biggest lesson I have learnt from this forum is that weight loss is mostly about calories in versus calories out. As a guy, I assumed the only way to weight loss was through the gym. I did more and more exercise but with no real results because of what I was eating. Now I am on the salads, just walking it doing the trick nicely.
I just read this in an e-book and thought of this thread:
Overcoming inertia (moving from stillness
to motion) is often the hardest part.
Digging in and accomplishing something,
no matter how small, will help motivate
you to keep moving forward.
RodeoGirl I have to schedule it. I got one of those apps on my phone that is a glorified calendar with big red X's on the days I move my body. I started with 3 days, now I am at 5. I was talking to my mom about this today... I have spent more money on exercise tools and things that motivate me than on anything else so far! Kind of weird. But the cost motivates me to continue the good work.
I make sure that I exercise in some fashion on my lunch breaks. Lately I've been doing easy easy stationary bike spinning. I was waist hooping, poi or flow wand dancing on breaks. Other than that, I try to get 10k steps on my pedometer every day!
I know where you are coming from, it's hardest to start for me but once I establish a good routine I am less likely to deviate from it. A life saver for me exercise wise is variety, especially exercise dvds from Jillian Michaels or other programs like Zumba, P90X, and even strength training routines from fitness magazines. It's harder for me to exercise if I don't do it first thing in the morning before work, but I have been able to fit it in before during lunch breaks.
Last edited by Pink Hurricane; 03-13-2013 at 09:59 PM.
The key is finding something you can tolerate, and make it a habit. For me, that was Zumba. I was dragged to a class with friends and pretty much hated it--the instructor was beautiful and fit, I was fat and sweaty...but I loved how sweaty I was. I got dragged back again. And sweated like crazy. Then she moved the class to a smaller venue, a dance studio with mirrors. I HATED that...but I kept going. Soon I was looking forward to Zumba days, and 4 years later, I go to three different instructors, including that first one, who is the warmest, loveliest woman you'd ever hope to meet.
Whether it's running, aerobics, spinning, treadmilling, skipping, boxing...just get moving. Even if you don't lose more weight, you're still getting healthier and doing good things for your mindset, as well.
Rodeogirl I REALLY hear you. The whole exercising for the sake of exercising isn't for me. I force myself to get on my bike for 45 mins several days a week. It helps if I save TV shows to watch, so I look forward to it because I know I can't watch Bones or whatever without exercising.
I'm so glad spring is here because now there's bike riding on pretty trails and hiking and roller blading and lots of fun stuff to try. I'm attempting to get back into exercising more by running and training for something. I started training for a 5K this week. I don't know if that's something you are interested in, it's a nice sense of accomplishment to be working towards something.
I find for me, the discipline is only required at first. Then it becomes habit. It's also helped that I joined a rugby team and I want to get fit to play. So I'm not exercising for the sake of it but to be fitter in order to play better.
I totally get the lack of motivation for exercise. I always tell my husband that I don't understand people who exercise because they like it. One thing that has helped me stick with it this time around is something my doctor told me. She said exercise is just as important if not more important to my health than any medication. So I don't exercise to lose weight. I exercise for my health and have exercised at least 30 minutes every day for a month now. Even when I dread doing it, I think to myself that I wouldn't skip taking my medicine, so I can't skip exercising.
I'm not trying to get my activity level going right at the moment - dealing with the stress about my dad while staying on plan with food and managing everything else going on in my life is enough right now.
But when I am ready, I plan on borrowing an idea that was posted about recently - the two jars and glass stones. Some people are tracking pounds lost that way, but I plan to use it to track exercise. Probably 1 stone for every 10 minutes and/or 1000 steps. Once I get 100 stones, I'll figure out a reward. For some reason, I don't feel motivated by mini-rewards for weight loss (although I am planning on a very nice necklace when I get to goal), but I think it may work for me for exercise.
Exercise - my nemesis
