EXERCISE! WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?

First, this isn't a post to point out anyone specific except for myself. So don't take this personally. This is something that I've been working on and thought I'd share my thoughts, successes, failures and maybe inspire you to do the same.

I LOVE to Exercise and I HATE to exercise. I love the way it makes me feel when it's over, and I love the accomplishment of a long bike ride. But I hate the time it takes. Mainly because I'm lazy.

For years now I've been a average three time a week workout girl. Sometimes more if I'm training for something and sometimes less if I just through in the bag for the whole week.

I can come up with lots of excuses. But when it came right to it I was plain lazy. Or, I'd say I need to do this first and I'll exercise tonight but it rarely happened.

When I first started these challenges I was amazed how easy it was to get 5 or even 6 days in a week. (I don't work out on Sunday. Sabbath is my day of rest.) I was amazed at myself and how when I made it a priority I was happier with myself and still had plenty of time to accomplish what I needed to do and relax at the end of the night.

Here are some things I did to "Make It Work."

Monday was always my hardest day to get a workout in. After several failed attempts I learned that getting my house clean on that day was more important. It set me up for success, but not working out on Monday's also gave me an excuse to maybe get frustrated with my lack of exercise and throw away the whole week. It's amazing what one day can do.

So guess what. I decided and workout out with my very busy husband that Monday I would get up and go to a 5:30 am spin class.
This is tough because I'm not a morning person and I like to go to bed late. But I've learned that maybe one day a week I can go to bed early and get up early. It sets me up for success on Monday and I still get my house cleaned. No more Monday excuses.

My second aha moment came when I did a 5 day challenge with Sue during Spring Break. My next biggest excuse always surrounded my kids being home a day from school. I wanted to make it a fun day not just an ordinary day. So having both boys home from school meant that I was really going to have to figure out when to workout because this challenge had us doing an hour of working out every day. BUT GUESS WHAT I DID IT! One of my favorite days was when my boys were begging me to take them to the park. It was late in the afternoon and I wasn't sure how I was going to get my workout in that day. I told them if they let me stop by that house and change my clothes we could go to the park.

I picked a smaller park that has a pond with a walking path around it. For an hour I walked the path which took me about 4 minutes to go around and they played at the park. I was able to check on them as I walked around and I could see them the whole time. Sam even did some laps with me. I felt great, they had fun and I realized that I just needed to be more flexible with my workouts on days they are home.

It's easy to come up with an excuse why you can't do it. Most of them involve needing to be with your kids but I feel that if I don't take care of myself I'm not going to be very good at taking care of them. My physical and mental health both suffer. SO STOP MAKING EXCUSES! One day I don't want to wake up and ask myself, how in the heck did this happen? oh yeah, remember all those lame excuses you used so you could just sit on the couch and watch more TV..... Visualize me just slapping myself upside the head.

I also look at it as I'm being an example for them to want to lead healthy lives too! I don't want them to use me as an excuse someday for being a bad example.

Now I know that some weeks I may only get in those 3 days, we can't always control what life throws at us but if we take advantage of the days that we can control and don't let our lazy selves sabotage our progress then we win.

I've also learned that you have to keep pushing through. Sometimes all the hard work doesn't show up the way we want it to and we can get discouraged. As soon as that happens it's easy to throw in the towel and give up but that's not a good idea. Whenever I get frustrated Chris reminds me to just keep going. It takes time for that body to get fired up especially when I forget to fuel it the right way.

For those of you who may not have read THIS or THIS, they are two great article written by Trainer Momma about the dreaded Scale. DON'T GIVE-UP. I'm not. I want this to be something that is just part of who I am not just something that I'm doing right now. It takes work, dedication and most of all patience. You have to do it right or when you stop it's all coming right back at ya. Yikes, don't want that to happen.

Thanks for taking this journey with me.