What follows is me sittng on the pity pot having a pity party. Sorry it is so long.
I am feeling kind of low. I have been reading the book discussion of Thin for Life, especially the part about exercise. I am just not interested in exercise. Period. I have tried various things to trick myself into getting a little exercise, but have been totally unsucessful. I can see myself eating in a healthful way forever, but I cannot see myself exercising forever. Period. What most of you gals do sounds like pure torture to me. I was thinking that maybe I could possibly get myself to do something for thirty minutes three times a week, but according to the discussion, I would have to do 60 to 90 minutes a day for weight maintenance, and the ammount I was thinking about isn't even enough to be healty!
It is not like I have never exercised. For about a year, on a previous self-improvent attempt, I got into walking and I joined a little neighborhood gym. I spent quite a bit of time on all this and it had zero effect on my weight maintenance. I walked five miles a day and I went to the gym in the morning and evening for the aerobics classes (this was back in the day of the leg warmers and when dinosaurs roamed the earth). I liked the sociability of the exercise class and to some extent I liked to get good at it, but I just never really got turned on like some of you seem to. I feel good most of the time, and the exercise didn't seem to make me feel any different. I even went to an event in another city where they had a walking competition and I won the race for my age group! Ultimately, the gym closed, and my schedule changed so I couldn't spend so much time on exercise, although I managed to keep walking over a period of several years. I think I was in acceptable physical shape at that time, but the thought of trying to get back where I was, and at my age (65) is daunting and depressing.
Also, it is not like I don't know all about exercise and its benefits. Like the book or one of you said, "knowing isn't doing".. One of you also said something about maintenance being "A stick of celery and a 40 mile walk every day". That makes me grin, but I am afraid of the underlying truth.
I have a nice little mini-stair-stepper. It is something I can do inside (I live in the desert and it is much too hot to do anything outside). Since I have lost 23-24 lbs, my knees don't hurt so much, so I should just do it - starting with five minutes at a time. Right? Five minutes has to be better than no minutes. Right? Get a Richard Simmons old people's video and do it. Right?
Thanks for having the patience to listen to me carry on!