My Journey With Health And Fitness – A Few Confessions

I checked the weather before I headed out for my run this morning and saw there was a good chance it might rain. I actually was ok with this as I figured I already get soaked with sweat when running so the rain might actually be refreshing. Unfortunately it held off until a little later when my husband was out on a bike ride and just as he was almost back at the condo a thunderstorm started bringing pouring rain with it. The thing about being down here is you usually get brief thunderstorms and then a few minutes later the sun is shining. The problem with that is it also makes it extremely humid afterwards and trust me it is definitely humid now.

I decided I needed to give a few confessions about me and this journey I am on. The first one is I am inherently lazy when it comes to physical activity. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not lazy when it comes to work or volunteering but when it comes to any sort of workout my brain is always looking for excuses. That is how I got to being obese for so many years and is how I gained back weight in the year after my husband retired. Once he was home it became so much easier to say, not going to run today or only need to do 10k steps as well as returning to some other bad habits. I eventually realized I didn’t like going back down that road hence joining the fitness centre but even now a lot of days I have to mute those voices in my head coming up with all sorts of reasons not to workout.

The 2nd big confession is that I hate running. Seriously, I hate it. It is really hard work and while it technically has gotten easier lately I keep upping the ante to make it harder. Trust me, my muscles usually hate me when I make them run, my lungs are really not fond of the sprinting I am doing and I cannot stand being covered in sweat which in this humidity is even worse. I still don’t get in the ‘zone’ nor do I feel that runner’s high I keep hearing about and I doubt I ever will. The only thing that helps me get through this torture is listening to a good book while running which keeps me distracted.

So, if I don’t like working out or running, why then do I do it? Well, that is kind of the last confession, I love the feeling of accomplishment when I am done. That to me is the high I need to torture myself some more. You add to that the fact that I am looking and feeling really fit and it helps me push through the laziness to get the job done. I admit I have impressed myself on this trip because I haven’t once tried to talk myself out of a workout or run which has always been easy while I am here, I just think of the goal of not gaining weight while I am here and it gives me the motivation I need.

Bottom line, I am lazy but somehow extremely physically active. Who knew that is where I would end up.