Hey gals,

I wanted to ask you all for some advice - i always seem to have a great excuse to not make my workout sessions. Even though i have a personal trainer, a pedometer, a gym membership, and an mp3player... its so sad i know.. i seem to have to tools, but i just can never get myself to go..

do you guys have this problem? if so, how to overcome it?

thanx

Oh, honey - we are ALL great at making excuses, believe me. Even that slim, fit, muscular girl who ran past your house this morning almost certainly didn't bounce out of bed shouting 'Yes! I'm alive - let's go for a run!' (well, she might have, but who wants to be HER friend?! )

We can all find excuses... but we can all find even better reasons to (as Nike tells us) just do it. Why not try making a short list of, say, three reasons why you WANT to be the kind of person who exercises. Post this somewhere - on the fridge... what about on the computer?? Then you have a clear reminder of your goals and aspirations It might help - you won't know if you don't try!

I'm sure others will come along and be more helpful - but there really is no other way to get it done than to just do it The hard part is getting BACK to doing it after you've put it off, believe me!

Heather

Oh gosh, I do the same thing. I'm pretty good at eating what I'm supposed to but I don't exercise nearly as much as I should. I know I'm not being of any help, lol.
I exercise like twice a week, sad huh?

I was the laziest excuse for a human EVER just over 6 months ago. I HATED...no, LOATHED exercise. I hated sweating, HATED feeling my muscles work/burn. HATED every single solitary minute of it and hated everything about it. That's why my weight got so high and that's why I had never been successful about losing in the past. I could NOT get motivated to move my butt.

Now is a different story. In just a few short months, I'm one of those people who have grown to love it, one of those people that I thought were urban legends, or would just lie about loving it to make other lazy people like me get moving. I LOVE feeling my heart rate pick up, feeling my muscles work hard and most importantly I LOVE how much stronger I am. I'm starting to feel like a powerhouse.

So, how did I do it? I didn't think about it. I NEVER let myself think about what I was about to do when I put my sneakers on to go work out. One morning I just put my sneakers on and got on the treadmill. I had no preconceived notions about how fast I'd go, how long I'd do it for, how much I was going to hate and just wanted to sit and watch TV, nothing. I just put my sneakers on and stepped on the treadmill. Then, I did it again. I just got on it. And everyday after that, at my preset treadmill times (I set a specific time each day to it, so it became habit and routine). In the very beginning, I didn't think about it, I couldn't b/c I didn't want to do it. I hated it.

As time went on, I'd have many days that I'd begin to hear myself talking myself out of doing it as my treadmill time would approach. I've always been so good at talking myself out of doing anything that the minute I'd hear those thoughts I'd immediately put my sneakers on. I'd tell myself that I wouldn't work hard, I'd just go slow for a few minutes, it wouldn't be bad. Funny thing is, most of those days would be best work outs ever once I got moving.

The key for me was to stop listening to that nasty little (or rather HUGE) voice in my head that didn't want to miss Dr Phil, or Oprah or whatever was on the time, or that wanted to eat a bag of chips, etc. I just started moving. Slowly, over the period of several months and TONS of hours of agony and being miserable, I grew to love it.

The other thing that helped me was to create exercise/fitness goals over and above my weight loss goals. For example, originally, I wanted to be able to run for 2 minutes without stopping. Don't laugh, I couldn't run more than 30 seconds when I started. Today, I ran 7ks! My new goals are 10ks and to increase my speed. I'm also doing strength training DVD's to gain muscle in the rest of my body. I can't wait to be even stronger than I am now this time next year.

Best of luck, if you can get yourself over the first few months of hating it, you will never regret it!

goingforthegold- That was a great post, very motivating. Someday I hope to be where you are today. I'm going to try your trick about not thinking about the exercise you're about to do.

goinforthegold, I really enjoyed your post. Like you, 3 months ago I prided myself on the fact that I HATED to sweat. Although I don't have a gym membership, I do have a Gazelle, a wonderful weight machine, dvds, yoga blocks, etc. I finally reached the breaking point when my knees started to hurt just walking to work. I had to lean on the counter to do dishes so my back didn't hurt. Enough was enough - strength enough to enjoy my everyday life was the goal. So, I started slowly, weights, walking and a bit of yoga. Now - I panic if I don't think I can get in at least 45 minutes a day. Starting out every morning with exercise really helps. It sets a good foundation for the rest of the day. My best tip for getting myself moving? I ask myself WHAT exercise I am going to do, not IF I am going to exercise. I don't feel like lifting weights? No problem - I will do cardio instead, or yoga, or take a walk, or weed the garden or ...

I had kinda hoped that after 2 years I would WANT to exercise.

I don't. At least not BEFORE. Once I'm DOING, I'm generally okay. But mostly I still prefer to be a couch potato.

So, for me, a big key was setting exercise goals. I chose to set goals for so many minutes each month. I figured that way, if I had a bad week, it wouldn't necessarily tank me. So, since Dec 2005 I've set a goal and met it all but twice (because of illness and injury). The commitment of the goal focuses me and MAKES me do it. I adjust the goal each month depending on how busy I think I'm going to be...

It helps that if I can get started, I often am happy I did.

Thanks gals, I hope it helped.

I agree about deciding what to do, not if you're going to do anything. I kinda do the same thing, except I decide where I'll go, whether it be the treadmill, the race track, around town or my long 10k route. I also use my brain to think about what clean work out clothes I have to put on and busy myself with those types of thoughts instead of not doing it thoughts.

I'm not at the point yet that I panic if I don't get my workouts in. And I will frequently skip a day or two b/c 1/ I'm just too busy with appointments or something or 2/ I"m not perfect and the odd time I can't control my thoughts and can still talk myself out of it. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm trivializing how hard it is to get motivated b/c some days even though I love it, I still get lazy. BUT if I go to many days in a row without doing anything I need to get out. I really feel like I need to.

The other thing that is helping me believe it or not are the days that I allow myself to get lazy and not do anything. I honestly end up sick. Instead of getting outside and getting stronger and fitter, I'll generally sit on the couch and eat...all day. The last time I did this by 11:00 when I'm normally finishing my workouts and feeling AMAZING, I was over full, sick to my stomach and ready to go back to bed b/c I couldn't keep my eyes opened. It was a real wake up call for me, especially when I remembered that's how I felt everyday a few months ago. I much prefer spending my morning doing something that sets me up for a great day, not a day spent stuffing my face and feeling sick...really physically sick.

Getting ready to go to the gym right now (sweatpants are in the dryer.) I hate exercising. I mean I like how my body feels now with the weight off, but man, I loathe exercising. I get all pissy when I know it's time to go to the gym. I sit in my car watching other people stream in and out and sometimes I have gotten all the way there and decided to go home!

Nuts. I don't know how I do it. I don't know why, My gym membership is only 10 bucks a month (and my job paid for a year's membership) so that's not really a motivator.

Some days I am amazed at how I just get off my can and go and other days I'm embarrassed at how many excuses I make in order to get out of going.

I can offer no tips or advice other than bringing a journal to with you to the gym so you can record all the things you did immediately afterwards and that might help the next time you don't feel like going.

Well I tried goingforthegold's tip today and just didn't even let my thought get in the way of me exercising, 1 thought popped into my head that I really should go do my tae-bo, then and there I kinda just stopped thinking, I put my shoes on put the dvd in and went for it and it felt great.