Finding Time and/or Inclination to Exercise

In all honesty, working out is the ONLY good habit I have ever integrated successfully into my life. I am not saying that my life is nothing but awful vices except for exercise, but I am just not a person who always manages to do things regularly, even things I enjoy. So, the point is that exercise has become something I do whether I feel like it or not, and usually at about the same time every day - but even if I miss my usual time, it proves it's a habit because I do it anyway, just later than usual!

I really was surprised when I found that I LIKED exercise, and I'm sure that helped me stick with it at first. It also made me feel better long before I started looking better, which was another incentive. However, there was still the problem of just figuring out when was the best time to do this - especially because when you are working out, you are not doing something else that probably needs to be done. You are not paying attention to the kids, not doing laundry, etc. and that's something you need to accept and not feel too much guilt about. Hopefully, you will be around longer to do those other things since you will be so healthy, hehehehehehe.

Anyway, although I exercised through my pregnancy, I really consider my fitness journey to have seriously started when I was 2 weeks postpartum, and I would get going an hour or so after my morning coffee. If Moppet 4 wasn't sleeping, I would have Moppet 1 rock him or wear him in the sling. Moppets 2 and 3 were 7 and 4 at the time, so they were old enough to keep themselves busy. But even so, I often had to stop to nurse the baby and just go back to it. Fitness is the first thing I have really learned to approach without my unhealthy all-or-nothing mentality, and that may be the key to why I stuck to it.

I know that your time constraints and schedule are not like mine. You may work all day and have to get up super early or do your exercise at night...I really like working out at night myself. And before you say you are too tired, let me tell you that exercise often gives you a real burst of energy. My midwife for Moppet 1's birth used to tell me how she would go to the gym and work out if she was at an all-night birth and she had clients to see in the morning. At that Time of My Great Sluggishness, I did not believe she could do that, but now I understand.

You might have little children and no 14 year old Moppet to help with them...you will probably have to use nap time or do your exercise in sections...I still have to do that sometimes. Just stop the DVD or videotape and come back when you can. Or, if you have a lot of patience, let the kids exercise with you...they especially like Leslie Sansone. Just be careful with your weights around them, and make sure they are in FRONT of you when you are lifting, so no one gets bashed.

Of course, none of my advice will help you stick to working out if you don't think it's important. Even if you don't love it, if you know that it will do good things for your health and your appearance, you are more likely to stick with it. But remember - you will not see "dramatic results" immediately. You will feel results first, the you will begin to see them, but you will not be ripped, buff or whatever overnight. You have to walk by faith and not be sight at the beginning of this journey. I have been working out regularly, diligently and with growing intensity for 9 months, and it is only recently that I have begun seeing more dramatic changes in how my figure looks. But I do firmly believe that while you can lose weight without exercise, it takes exercise, mainly weight training and alternative methods of strength training to make your body look it's best, and you can look really good whatever your age, and not just "for your age". There is a 57 year old woman in Jari Love's Ripped and Chiseled who looks infinitely better that I have ever looked - she sags a bit around the navel, probably from having children, but she is lean, toned and strong. It can be a real incentive to know that while you DO have to die, you don't have to become decrepit beforehand.

It also helps if you know some people, either online or "in real life" who are on the Fitness Quest with you. Find someone to work out with, join a fitness forum, write to me ;-) Knowing that you are not alone in your striving is a real encouragement in fitness, just as in life itself.

NEXT TIME - Psychological issues that have come up for me related to my Fitness Quest