Overcoming My Hatred Of Exercise

Hatred Of Exercise

For longer than I’d like to admit, I turned exercise into an ugly, evil enemy, something to hate and rail against most of my adult life. When I was a kid, I thought climbing trees and running around the woods were the greatest things ever. Somewhere along the way though, my perception of exercise had morphed into a hot-bed of negativity. In pursuit of living a happier, healthier life, I decided it was high-time to make nice with exercise again. I mean, what had exercise ever done to me that was SO bad to deserve all this animosity, I mean, come ON. Exercise, you are no zero, you are now my hero!

Queen of Excuses

Over the years, I manufactured all sorts of reasons of why not to exercise. I came up with just about every excuse known to man to avoid it.

“It hurts too much.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t have the energy.”

“It costs too much.”

“People will laugh at me.”

“It’s too cold (windy, rainy, hot, muggy, foggy).”

“I don’t have the right shoes (clothes, equipment, socks).”

My Bad Attitude

And the list goes on and on and on. If the mental gymnastics I’ve performed over the years for reasons not to exercise could be transformed into actual exercising, I would’ve been be in tip-top shape eons ago. My long-standing hatred goes back many, many years. As a lefty, when everybody was zigging in gym class in grade school, I was zagging. I was tall and awkward on top of it, so when I zagged, I really stood out. It’s amazing how those memories followed me around like a cloud for years, a dark and angry pissed-off cloud. Those fragments of days long past colored each and every single attempt I ever made to exercise over the years and because of that negativity I set myself up for failure each and every time.

A Change of Attitude

In May, 2013, I made a conscious choice to start tackling all of my issues head-on, my weight, my health, my clutter and so on. Once I figured out I had the power all along, it made a world of difference. I could choose! I had the power to make positive choices in my life. Instead of telling myself what I couldn’t do, I started telling myself what I could do. I have been working on achieving my goals and I am delighted that my efforts have been paying off. So far, I have lost over 135 pounds by healthier eating and it feels amazing. And in the last few months, I have also made strides in the exercising department. I think the key to wanting to exercise every day, was to find something I loved. For me, that was walking outdoors. Now, instead of dreading exercise, walking is something I really look forward to each and every day. It’s my chance to not only enjoy the outdoors, but it gives me time to relax and decompress from all the day-to-day craziness. Yeah, Exercise and me, we’re best buds once again and I am having the time of my life.