1. What does exercise mean to you?
2. How do you measure success with fitness?
3. Why do you want to exercise?
How would you answer these questions? Does exercise mean an hour of loping along on the treadmill? Does it mean being ready to compete in a triathlon at any moment? What is your measure of success with fitness? Are you successful if you made the attempt, or are you only successful if you sweat hard for 90 minutes? Why do you want to exercise? Are you looking for a significant outward change? Are you looking to blow off some steam? Do you enjoy the social aspect of exercise? Do you simply glory in the miracle of movement?
images from lds.org unless otherwise noted
Many folks I talk with have a professional athlete version of themselves in their head, and they are comparing their current self to that imaginary self. I have been guilty of this many times myself! I find it helpful to take a reality check every so often and redefine exercise, success, and evaluate my motivations for exercise according to the situation I find myself in during that time. Then I can make some realistic goals that will help me determine the kind of exercise I would like to participate in.
So, based on these factors, how much exercise is enough? For me, it's helpful to remember that exercise, to me, is to move my body in a way that promotes my physical, emotional, and spiritual health. That may be different on different days. Exercise on one day may be a brisk walk to the park with my son, or a 15-minute circuit with weights on another, a few yoga salutations on another, or walking around the zoo all day on another, or chasing my son around the house repeatedly on another, or a longer bike ride with my husband on yet another. Each day brings its own challenges, and I find that as long as I manage my expectations reasonably, I have enough time to move my body each day in a way that feels like exercise to me. I try to move intensely for about 20 minutes 3 times a week to increase my strength and promote cardiovascular fitness. Then, the other days, I do what feels good to me on that day. For me, that is enough to satisfy my own expectation that I get some exercise every day. Then I feel that I've obtained success according to my own measure.
So, why exercise? What benefits have you gained in your life from exercise? My own include:
- Increased patience and calmness
- Better ability to see the bigger picture
- Cheerfulness (hooray endorphins!) and decreased irritability
- Better able to accomplish my daily tasks
- Increased confidence from doing hard things
...among others! When I'm feeling less motivated, or like I don't have time, or in a rut, I brush off this list of benefits in my mind and remember how good it feels to move, to sweat, and to work hard with the body, and I move intensely for 15 minutes, and I feel renewed. And then I change it up and do something I really enjoy to remind myself how much I really do love to move. And I remember this from Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
"...[S]piritual communication can be enhanced by good health practices. Exercise, reasonable amounts of sleep, and good eating habits increase our capacity to receive and understand revelation. We will live for our appointed life span. However, we can improve both the quality of our service and our well-being by making careful, appropriate choices." [source here]
What about you? What does exercise mean to you? How do you measure your success with exercise? What do you consider your reasons for exercise? And when is it enough?
xoxo
Laura
I have kind of an inside scoop to the benefits of exercise because I see immediate changes in my blood sugar. My insulin needs go down for more than 24 hours after exercising, which is always a cool thing to witness (since usually you don't see the benefits of exercise for a while). I don't always get to do "formal" exercise (we have a treadmill and some workout DVDs), but I try to walk as much as possible and just keep moving.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool Bethany! When the weather is beautiful, as it has been a lot this winter, I like to go walk/jogging with my kids outside. But since that takes all morning with getting everyone and everything ready, I often just do workouts on TV. Even if I just do a 15 minute workout, I feel better about myself and notice little improvements in my fitness levels. I do like to have goals to work toward, whether it is hiking a certain trail, getting to a certain weight, or participating in a race. Some of my motivations are wanting to feel comfortable in my clothes, and to have enough energy to be an active mom now and in the future. This is a great post, Laura! Thanks for the reminder about exercise. I love how you say that exercise is, "to move my body in a way that promotes my physical, emotional, and spiritual health." I'm sure you are an awesome trainer!
ReplyDeleteI always like to remember how much 'exercise' I get when I'm just cleaning my house. Vacuuming takes a lot of energy and burns a lot of calories. Fridays are my big cleaning days, and I always get tons of exercise on those days! Plus just carrying Jared up and down the stairs is good for me! I usually never have a problem gets adequate exercise when I think in those terms!
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