But I Haaaaaaaaaaaaate Exercise! part 2

Last week I ran an informal poll of some of my friends at thedailyplate.com. I asked some of those who have a significant amount of weight to lose and/or who have lost a significant amount, for their thoughts and feelings about exercise. I wanted to know if my hate affair with exercise was normal. Here are some of the comments:

“I hate to exercise”

“…a little over a year ago I hated exercise. But I did it because I didn't want to be in pain anymore… I just started out going for 15-20 min walks. It was all I could really handle. Now I think I'm an exercise junkie.”

“The more I exercise, the more I like it. Once I've made it into a habit, the less I complain about it and the more motivated I am.”

“I love to exercise.”

“It's one of those necessary evils in the weight loss process.”

“I don't love or hate exercise. It's sometimes hard for me to get going, but once I do, I feel really good. I always feel great afterwards too.”

“I love to exercise! …When I was heavy as a teen I hated to exercise but once I started I learned how awesome it can make you feel.”

“I love to exercise, but I have trouble getting up to do it. It's hard for me to talk myself into going somewhere just to burn calories… I've always hated exercise for exercise's sake, and loved physical activity.”

“It is definitely a necessary evil, but I must say I love the way it makes me feel!”

“The more I do it the more I like it, and it’s definitely harder when you first start.”

The consensus (with a few exceptions) seems to be that even people who hate exercise, once they make it a habit, a regular routine, they begin to like it and many even grow to love it. In fact, I did another, general poll in the forum and over 70% of those polled said they love exercise! (Keep in mind this is a site primarily populated with people who are dealing with their weight.) Of course, there are exceptions, and I would expect that with any group of human beings, on any question! For the vast the majority, however, exercise is a positive force in their lives. Now, the truth is it may not be the exercise itself that they love. In many cases it seems to be the endorphins, how the exercise makes them feel afterwards, or even the results of the exercise on the body (more energy, more muscle, less fat, etc.) I also noticed that many times people were very active as kids, but became inactive as adults, which seems to indicate that an active childhood is no guarantor of an active adulthood. One of the most interesting things to come out of the conversation was that no matter how difficult it was to make oneself exercise, they were always glad, afterward, that they had done it. As one poster said, “I never, ever leave the gym thinking, "Gee, that was a bad idea. I feel like sh*t!"

As I said in my last post, my relationship with exercise has been fairly negative. Even during steady stretches of regular exercise, I never grew to love it. That "30 days make a habit" garbage simply doesn't work for me, seemingly! I thought maybe my endorphin machine was malfunctioning, and besides, LVIMH was always quick to remind me that I simply despised exercise.

Then one day I realized that LVIMH was – don’t be shocked now – lying to me! Yes, indeed. LVIMH does NOT always have my best interests at heart. In fact, I have discovered that LVIMH is lazy, self-indulgent, and has lied to me a lot! I think most of us tend to accept what we tell ourselves without questioning it. The thing is? We really should question it!

I remember I read a book back in high school called Telling Yourself the Truth. I thought it was a really good book, but I don’t think it sank in very well. We are talking to ourselves all of the time. “Self-talk,” the shrinks call it, and it is powerful stuff. More importantly, we can change what we say to ourselves, and by doing that, we can change our behavior. So I have started telling myself “I love exercise. I enjoy it.” even though it is not actually completely true -- yet. I would say that in regards to exercise, I have crawled out of the hate swamp and have reached the level of “It’s hard to make myself do it, but once I do it I am glad I did and it wasn’t so bad.” Furthermore, I firmly believe that if I continue to tell myself that I love exercise, I eventually will love exercise. Proverbs says that “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” which seems to indicate that our hearts and minds have a lot of power over who we are.

Wait a minute, though! If I tell myself “I love exercise,” isn’t that a lie? Aren’t I now lying to myself? Again? Just in a different way? Maybe. But the truth is, I have been lying to myself for years about exercise, and about a lot of things more significant than exercise. And “I love exercise” is perfectly capable of becoming the truth, because I am capable of changing – not just my behavior, not just my weight, but my eating habits, my exercise habits, and what I like or don’t like. Dr. Phil calls it “behaving your way to success.” In other words, decide how you want to be, and behave that way until it becomes who you are.

So given the choice of sitting on my internal high horse, nose in the air, proclaiming that this is who I am and if you don’t like it, tough tooties; or actually changing and growing and becoming a healthier, happier person? I’ll take the latter, thank you.