Monday, November 23, 2015

Day 23: the post of shame

OK, I'm not really ashamed, that was just to make you laugh. But I am a bit embarrassed, and I was going to tack this on to the end of last night's post in just a sentence or two so maybe no one would notice. But then I decided it would be better as an entire post on its own, because it might work better to motivate me to change my ways if I put up here front and center on Monday morning.

Friday my spouse and I went in to our local athletic facility for our healthy lifestyles checkup, the one I told you about in this post that we did a year ago. Last year we passed easily, which meant we got a reduction in our deductible. This year, we passed again, but I didn't do nearly as well.

I know why. I've stopped exercising. Almost entirely. I haven't missed it. It's been a couple of months since the last time I worked out regularly. My weight is creeping up, my numbers are creeping up (cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure), my muscle tone is down, and it's getting harder to make multiple trips up and down the stairs.

Nothing disastrous-- I still passed the 3-minute stair step test, and I'm still not up to my highest non-pregnant weight, which I hit while writing my thesis a couple of years ago. None of my numbers were in the danger zone. But I can definitely tell a difference.

So I'm posting this on Monday morning to get myself to wake up. Because at the moment, I'm having a hard time caring. I'm a naturally sedentary person. I'd rather sit and read or poke around on the computer, or watch a movie, or do any number of things than exercise.

And yet when I do exercise regularly, I feel better, and I have more energy. Not immediately--exercising often makes me want to take a nap. But over the long haul, the less I exercise, the less I want to do anything else. It's a no brainer to exercise.

Except periodically I go on an exercise strike and quit. I've done that all my life.

There's nothing wrong with that. Everybody needs a break now and again. But it's been long enough. Time to get back to it. And I'm reaching the age where every time I quit, it's harder to get started again.

Before I got off track, I was walking 3-4 times a week (usually 2 miles), and doing yoga plus a bit of strength training on the other days. It's not like I kill myself with hyper-exercise. It's not so bad. I just need to start doing it again.

So I will.

1 comment:

KarenB said...

I've been slacking a bit in the last few weeks and I can feel it. Mostly I get myself out there walking by telling myself, you know you'll feel better. And that is the one thing that actually works. Yes, I do know I'll feel better. So I go.

You can do it!!