Oh continuity of exercise, why can’t you flow through my veins like blood?  Why must you play this game of hide and seek?  Must I sew you to the bottom of my foot like Peter Pan’s shadow to make you stick? I wish it were that easy, but consistency is not one of my strong points.  I get bored rather easily and so once the newness wears off, I am all too willing to shrug off my latest craft, exercise plan, eating plan, or whatever.  And now I find myself wanting to start the C25K thing and just can’t seem to find the time to even begin, let alone stick with it for the long haul.  I have been thinking about how to make exercise necessary not just optional.  Linda Spangle (Life is Hard, Food is Easy) mentioned in a newsletter about how we can make exercise become important enough to do everyday.  I was thinking about this and I do things everyday that I don’t want to do because the consequences of not doing them would be very bad.  For example, I get up at 5:30 every morning so that I will have time to get ready and get to work on time.  Trust me when I say I do not like getting up at 5:30 am.  It goes against all my intrinsic couch potato tendencies, but if I get up any later, then I will be late for work and my boss will think I’m a slacker (I’ve got him fooled for now).  Heck, just going to work at all is something I don’t really want to do, because there are so many things around my house that need attention, but if I don’t go to work, I don’t get paid, and my little family starves and we all die…okay well maybe it’s not that extreme, but I like getting a paycheck, even a little one.  (And in relation to that, my main excuse for not working out usually runs along the lines of, “I have to do x first, then y and then maybe after I get finished with z then I can work out” which we all know never happens.  However, even if I did have xyz to do, I still go to work and guess what?! XYZ is still there waiting for me when I get home!)   And why do I find myself at 10:00 at night cleaning the kitchen and loading dishes into the dishwasher when what I really want to be doing is sleeping?  Because I don’t like waking up to a sink full of dishes and a dirty kitchen, it casts a gloom over my day and I feel like a bad mom/wife/home manager.  See, actions = consequences, good or bad.   So let’s imagine for a moment that I am a consistent worker-outer, and I decide to NOT work out.  What would be the consequences?  Why would it be very important for me to exercise when I don’t really want to or think I don’t have time?   This is where I need your help.  It’s your chance to delurk and tell what happens when you don’t work out. How do you feel when you skip a work out?  Do you physically feel bad when you don’t, or is it more mental?  Your answers will give me concrete reasons to work out and do it consistently.  So please leave me a comment and help a sistah out!!   Kthxbai!

Posted by Jill in fitness Tags: C25K, consequences, consistency, exercise, Peter Pan, running