IT'S OK TO HATE IT WHILE YOU DO IT

Such a serious title huh?  Well folks, it's a serious time.  This girl has been promising herself good health for years now...even decades...all the while this girl be gettin' older and older and I'm not too sure that "health" is keeping up.

Let's give a little background... actually there is very little in the way of background on this topic anyhow! The fact is, while I've been relatively healthy for 58 years, I've also never been overly so and never, ever been an "exerciser" person. Nope. Not. Me. And you know what... I think there are probably a LOT more folks like me than not.

Now, I know for those of you (ah-hem...kids) who are reading this saying to yourself, "well there shouldn't be more people like that anyhow" or "wow, that's just too bad", let me just respectfully request that you hold off on your health judgments for one moment.  The fact is that for some of us, exercise/working out is a huge pain in the ass. I know, it's everyones pain in the ass, but you must JUST DO IT. And, frankly, that is true.

But here's the deal, every person I know really does not enjoy or like something. Whether that is reading, or crafting, or social events, or country music, or peas, or the color orange, or their mean old neighbor lady, or something. There may be a logical reason for not liking, or even really despising that thing, that one activity or situation or food or topic, but there may not be any real explicable reason at all. You're just a person and you simply have preferences and, well...whatever that "thing" is that you really hate, that's just the way it is for you.  Right?

I'd like to point out that if you are planning on arguing the last paragraph with me, then you may as well skip on over to someone else's blog post, because from here on out my logic on working out is based on that last paragraph.

Simply put -- I hate it. I just do. And, I've come to the conclusion that, that is ok. It's ok for me to really, really, really not like exercising/working out (why must I reference both?--but I must!). But, what is not ok, is for me to avoid it because I despise it so deeply. It's not ok because it (probably) is good for me.  It's not ok because it may help my health and help me live longer (if it doesn't kill me in the process...alright, a little bit of drama will seep out now and then). It's not ok because it may be a way for me to set a better example for my kids, grandkids or maybe a friend. And it's not ok for me to avoid it, because it's usually not ok for us to avoid even the things we loathe. So, based on that, I know that I must find logic or some minimal virtue in forcing myself to participate in something to which I am so richly adverse.

I like games. I like puzzles. I like trying to figure things out. So, when I walk on that 500 pound treadmill I made my poor husband haul over to the house and set up in his ex-office space last year, I generally have to figure out a way to use it that, A. doesn't hurt my knees too much, B. isn't so dang boring I want to shove daggers in my eyeballs, and, C. allows me to feel as if I have accomplished even a tiny bit. C is easy--I've accomplished nothing in the exercise world in months/years, so anything I do in a week is more than I've done before...for now. A. is kind of tricky because I have to protect these knees as much as possible until I am ready to have something done about them (that is another story for another time) B....B is another story.  

"B" (avoiding shoving daggers in my eyeballs out of boredom) is key...for me. So here's what I've got so far:

•       Radio talk shows - may need additional daggers for that as well
•       TV - not much of a tv watcher and could potentially be distracting
•       Phone conversation - I have a few friends who could just talk and I could just listen    cause no one wants to hear huffing and puffing during an entire conversation, right?
•       Music - Music is a good option. Maybe need to make a playlist that keeps me going for a bit. Again...for me...it's "squirrel" moments.
•       Podcasts - podcasts are a new thing for me. I think I may love (some of) them!!  And they are a real time filler (sucker?). So I can mindlessly listen and workout simultaneously

I suppose the whole point of this is, I'm going to be ok with hating something and I know I'm going to hear all about "better attitude, better result", but for now, for me, I'm going to worry more about problem solving:  Problem-hate working out/exercise, but absolutely need to/must.  Solution-find something that just gets me through it for now and worry about hating it less later.

Let's see how that works out...