"Exercise" is a Four Letter Word...

"Exercise" has always been a four letter word to me.  It's not that I haven't tried to like it.  It's just that I can't understand why I would want to run around panting, out of breath and then lay on the couch in agony when I can just lay on the couch and read a good book.  

I've always exercised because I had too, not because I wanted to.  And when I do something because I have to and not because I want to, it becomes a chore instead of pleasurable. 


When I realized this, I decided that in order to bring exercise into my life that might have a chance of being done more than once every three weeks or so, I would need to do a three things. 


1.  Find something that actually is FUN for me. 
2.  Realize that I actually do feel much better when I do something for exercise, so I can reframe it to look like doing something that makes me feel good rather than exercise.  
3.  Stop calling it exercise.

I did CURVES for awhile, but when I stopped working I cut expenses and that was the first to go.  It was fun to meet up with the other ladies there, and I liked that I was weighed and measured regularly.  Well, I liked getting weighed and measured after my gastric bypass surgery. Before that I went about 4 months at a time between getting weighed and measured. 

I have tried several workout DVDs, and they are fun for awhile, but get old kinda quick.  And I miss the energy that comes from being with a group of people when I work out.  So this month I started aqua aerobics at the community college.  So far, I am really enjoying this kind of workout.  In the water, it doesn't feel like exercise, but later my muscles tell me otherwise.  I'm excited to find some sort of exercise that doesn't appear to be exercise.  It's just playing in the water.  


"Playing" is the key word here.  I'm not used to "playing".  I'm always so serious!  Therein lies the key to finding fun in all aspects of my life, not just in the fitness arena.  As adults, we can't forget how to play, and we have to remember that not everything we do has to result in some important finished product.  It's okay to do things just for the sake of doing them and the pleasure within, not for the final outcome.  


Now I look for ways to make exercise seem like play.  So far, it seems to be working for me.  Who knows what class I might take next.  


Bellydance for Any Body, anybody?