Necessary Evil

Growing up my parents always taught me to never hate anything or anyone.  To me, working out is a necessary evil and I can confidently say that I HATE it. There are a million other things that I would rather be doing than trying to push my body to extremes or contort my body into some not normal shape.  I had to learn to look at it as a job.  It's not a fun or exciting job, but it's a necessary one. 

I saw a picture on Pinterest the other day that said "No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch."  I can not thinking of a truer quote.  When I first started working out three years ago, I could barely walk to the end of the street before I was out of breath and my legs were on fire.  But everyday I pushed myself a little bit further and eventually I was walking 2 miles 4-5 days a week. Currently I rotate through three workout tapes and I just downloaded a yoga app.

I also compete with myself.   I learned long ago that it never ends well if you compete against what others do.  Compete against yourself.  Challenge yourself to do something that you've never done before.  When I first started the workout tapes, half of the exercises I couldn't even do and the rest I could only do about 5 seconds (literally) before I would collapse on the floor.  But I stuck with it.  I still can't do all of the exercises ( I mean really - how many people can go from laying flat on their back to do a full sit up, touch their feet and then lay back down?) but there are so many that I can do now.  I started yoga and Pilate's not that long ago.  I'm still working on building up my endurance with that. 

It doesn't matter what you do, just be active.  Walking, running, zumba, dancing, yoga, Pilate's, workout tapes.  They all work.

So what do you do to stay active?  How do you keep yourself motivated?

Until Next Time,