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Thursday, April 7, 2011

“E” Is for Exercise

Exercise has been the bane of my existence. All my life, the “e” word was like a curse word to me. Never naturally athletic or coordinated, I was the last one picked for teams in gym class. I wasn’t even heavy as a child – that didn’t happen until my third child. Still, even in kindergarten, I had to be taught how to skip because it didn’t come easily to me.
That’s not to say that I didn’t play. I jumped rope, played hopscotch and chased others as we played tag every chance I got. It’s probably one of the reasons I did stay thin in my youth. Once I left childhood and its required daily P.E. behind, regular exercise was a thing of the past.
As I said in my “D” post, I have always loved dancing but it hasn’t always had a place in my life. Work, marriage, kids, divorce, then more work, another marriage and another kid left little room for dancing. If here was no dancing, there was no exercise.
For years that was ok. My busy schedule and youthful metabolism did their best to keep me reasonably thin, even if I thought I looked fat. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to weigh 140 or even 150 now! Sometime after I turned 40 though, my body said that’s enough. Weight doesn’t come off like it used to. In fact it seems to leap onto me from all directions when I’m not looking.
I have tried many diets in an effort to shed the weight and the one thing I’ve learned is that for me, I need to exercise. Anytime I have had even moderate success in weight loss, it has been the result of adding some kind of exercise. You have no idea how irritating I find this revelation. Have I mentioned that exercise and I don’t get along?
Knowing that exercise is imperative to my success, it is one of the things I have been working at this year. I have not yet reached some sort of obsessive devotion to it but I am becoming more committed. Those days when I don’t exercise, I can feel it. I feel sluggish and tired. And after adding physical activity to my life and making a concerted effort to gradually bump it week after week, I feel my endurance improving.
The only advice I can give to someone who, like me, despises regular exercise is to find something you love, employ variation so it doesn’t become boring and keep at it. In the long run, the benefits far out-”weigh” the disadvantages.

5 comments:

Susan Sosbe said...

Excellent post, and advice on finding something you love. I'm with you...I feel it on the days I don't do it. Of course,knowing that still doesn't motivate me to do it every day, but I always feel better on the days I do.

Unknown said...

I'm not a fan of exercise either. I've been able to do it regularly for over 6 years now by focusing on doing what I like to do not what I think I should be doing. You are definitely on the right track to becoming more consistent.

Keena said...

I am waiting for the water ro warm up to start swimming. I am unable to do much more than that.

Anonymous said...

I packed on some pounds a few years ago, when my mid-life hormonal roller coaster took me for a hellish ride. The hormones are better (see my "E is for Estrogen" post), but the extra weight remains. It's time to do something about it though, that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

Oh am I ever glad I was directed to your blog via the A-Z challenge. I was hoping to find a blog that would help me stay on track. I rejoined WW's yesterday for the umpteenth time and am determined to do it.
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