As only the young can, I used to scoff when older, wiser people said stuff like
“You gotta do it for the right reasons, or you won’t last long”
“Love the process, don’t worry about the goal too much”
“The journey matters as much, if not more than the destination”
“Live in the now, love the now and your future will take care of itself”
What does this have to do with exercise? Everything.
We exercise because we want to lose weight and build/tone up our bodies. And we want that because we want to look good naked, we want clothes to fit us perfectly, so that we look and feel attractive, confident and sexy. We want people to compliment us on how fit and in-shape we look, don’t we all just love that!
All these reasons are perfectly fine, of course. But somewhere along this chasing the gold-pot of our dream bodies, we forget something crucial : how incredibly delightful exercise is on its own!
Incredible??!! Many of you must be going, “Exercise is WORK!! What’s “incredible” about it??!”
Try this next time you’re exercising. Stop worrying about stuff, empty your mind and FEEL what you’re doing.
My favourite form of exercise is lifting weights. It doesn’t have to be yours, maybe your thing is running. I have found that it is counterproductive to force yourself to exercise in the way you don’t like most of the time. Prioritise what you love to do first, fill in “the gaps” (cardio or weights) later.
So when I am working out, lifting weights, I be “in the moment”. I focus on how incredible it feels to lift heavy iron, how incredible my muscles feel pumped, how incredible it feels to be strong and getting stronger…. I focus completely in getting every rep right, completely focused on the set. Between sets, I focus on how my body feels… I delight in the PHYSICALITY of it.
After I am done, I bask in the endorphin rush, the amazing feeling we get after exercise. I savour the feeling of achievement, of a task done. I consciously store these feelings away in my mind. And since I exercise in the mornings, I feel GREAT for the entire day.
I don’t worry any longer if the weights didn’t go up in a particular session. I don’t worry about progress. I am focused on it of course, but not worried (believe me I used to so a lot of it before). When I feel I am not making progress over a period of time( getting stronger and/or more muscular and losing fat), and I catch myself feeling bad about it and thinking “What’s the bloody use doing it?”, I pull those feeling out from my memory, reminding myself just how much I love lifting.
I have now been consistently training 3 times a week for the past 4 weeks and guess what? I am loving it.
Oh, did I mention that I am stronger, more muscled and fitter? :D
Like they say about happiness “Happiness is a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled. You cannot purse it by itself.”
This was a guest blog post on http://metabolicmemory.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/deep-thoughts-about-loving-exercise-for-eet-weight-loss-fitness-and-fun/
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