How I'm Making More Time for Exercise
2013 was my Year of Advancement. I wanted to focus as much energy as I could into becoming a better person mentally, spiritually and physically. This meant that I wanted to take time to learn new things that I'm curious about that I hadn't taken the time to learn before. It also meant that I would take steps to evolve spiritually to a higher plane of living. I think I did pretty well with both of those (though some might disagree with my spiritual advancement), but physically I did little.
Though my goal for each of my yearly themes is to perpetuate the lessons learned throughout the rest of my years, I didn't quite pull the physical side off. I did change my diet slightly and I did exercise more during the summer of 2013. But I think I let this side of my goals slide because they were the least important for me. So, finally, as we embrace 2015, I've taken a few "steps" to getting back on the right path.
I don't have any ambitions to become ripped or achieving athletic-level fitness, but I do spend more and more time not exercising at all. Does that make me lazy? Maybe, but at least I've decided that I can do something about it. I needed to find a happy medium between doing nothing and and spending 2 hours a day at the gym because neither benefits my life much.
In 2012, my wife spent time at a local gym getting into better shape as one of her goals. Then we thought, "wouldn't it be awesome to have a child and ruin that work?" Okay, that wasn't a verbatim thought, but having offspring was in our plan and unfortunately pregnancy comes with the need to engage in less physical activity for the safety of your child. As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we purchased an elliptical. It's not the equivalent to having a room full of workout equipment, but it is a pretty good form of exercise.
Yes, I've actually opened and assembled it.
I know how hard it is to stay motivated and stick to a workout routine. I don't want to turn into the guy who buys a gym membership only to let money slip away every month because 'Things are crazy at work and maybe next month will be better.' I also don't want the elliptical to end up in a garage of forgotten exercise gear. I have to find a way to actually stick to this goal.
My solution? The only time I'm allowed to watch TV (for entertainment purposes) will be while I'm exercising. I already have cut most TV viewing out of my life, but now I'm allowing myself to dip back into that if I'm also exercising. My hope (and this is probably horribly faulty psychology) is to trick the rewards center of my brain into enjoying working out. Because I already know that I don't particularly like it.
What about you?
Did you make a resolution this year or a past year to get into better shape?
What is (or was) your plan to follow through on your goal?
Let me know in the comments! You just might help me out with this!
