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scarlettinaIt's been at least a week since I did any real exercise and, wow, I can tell. It's not that I'm sore or feeling out of shape. I did fine on my walk/jog today, and completed the Green Lake trail faster than I usually do, about which I'm quite pleased. I can tell because I feel much better physically and emotionally than I've felt in days, and the exercise is the big difference. Well, that and the sunshine. But here's the thing: I feel energized, I feel confident, and I feel like I can get a lot done over the next several hours. I need to remember that this is what exercise does for me on those days when I'm feeling blue and sluggish.
I think some of this is habit and training. As I observed after completing the Turkey Trot, I sometimes don't recognize this person who goes out and exercises because she wants to. There have been times in my life when I've been regularly athletic, two times in particular: the period I did aerobics and studied taekwondo, and the year I trained to go to the Middle East, when I went to the gym and hiked regularly. This feels something like those times. I have a specific motivation and goal to achieve, I've been focused, and I've done the food work and the exercising enough to establish some habits and some regularity about it all.
But old thinking dies hard. There are days, especially now, in autumn and with winter oncoming, that I look at the gray skies and simply don't want to leave the house. I let myself get intimidated by the cold, as if I don't have cold-weather clothes to go out in. There are days when I'm blue and I'll go looking for food for comfort rather than getting myself out of the house to take a walk or go be out among people. ("Be out among people," as though it were a strange, alien thing...) I just forget to use my resources; it's not like I don't have them.
My Weight Watchers leader and I talked about it while we were doing the Turkey Trot, about how it's easy to change behaviors but it can be much more difficult to change ways of thinking. It's strange to think of myself as an active person, but I am. A year ago, it would never have occurred to me to train for a 5K much less complete one, and now I find myself trying to find the next one to do. (Looks like it's the Love 'Em or Leave 'Em Valentine's Day Dash at Green Lake on February 11.) But I still have trouble thinking of myself as someone who gets out there rain or shine, or in the cold, to do the work. I need to change that thinking. Obviously, it's easier to get out when the weather is nice. But I won't melt if I go out in the rain.
We are creatures of habit and comfort. Getting out of the comfort zone can be really challenging. I need to remember how this feels--how this post-exercise goodness feels--so that I'll keep doing it. With the holidays and my trip coming up, it's especially important now. I have to bear this in mind: that I'm an active person, that I don't let things stop me. I have goals to achieve, and I can't let weather, food-focused holidays, or travel get in the way.
I think some of this is habit and training. As I observed after completing the Turkey Trot, I sometimes don't recognize this person who goes out and exercises because she wants to. There have been times in my life when I've been regularly athletic, two times in particular: the period I did aerobics and studied taekwondo, and the year I trained to go to the Middle East, when I went to the gym and hiked regularly. This feels something like those times. I have a specific motivation and goal to achieve, I've been focused, and I've done the food work and the exercising enough to establish some habits and some regularity about it all.
But old thinking dies hard. There are days, especially now, in autumn and with winter oncoming, that I look at the gray skies and simply don't want to leave the house. I let myself get intimidated by the cold, as if I don't have cold-weather clothes to go out in. There are days when I'm blue and I'll go looking for food for comfort rather than getting myself out of the house to take a walk or go be out among people. ("Be out among people," as though it were a strange, alien thing...) I just forget to use my resources; it's not like I don't have them.
My Weight Watchers leader and I talked about it while we were doing the Turkey Trot, about how it's easy to change behaviors but it can be much more difficult to change ways of thinking. It's strange to think of myself as an active person, but I am. A year ago, it would never have occurred to me to train for a 5K much less complete one, and now I find myself trying to find the next one to do. (Looks like it's the Love 'Em or Leave 'Em Valentine's Day Dash at Green Lake on February 11.) But I still have trouble thinking of myself as someone who gets out there rain or shine, or in the cold, to do the work. I need to change that thinking. Obviously, it's easier to get out when the weather is nice. But I won't melt if I go out in the rain.
We are creatures of habit and comfort. Getting out of the comfort zone can be really challenging. I need to remember how this feels--how this post-exercise goodness feels--so that I'll keep doing it. With the holidays and my trip coming up, it's especially important now. I have to bear this in mind: that I'm an active person, that I don't let things stop me. I have goals to achieve, and I can't let weather, food-focused holidays, or travel get in the way.
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Date: Mon, Dec. 12th, 2011 11:45 pm (UTC)If you don't want to go out in the rain, you've really chosen the wrong place to live. ;)
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Date: Tue, Dec. 13th, 2011 12:55 am (UTC)Good for you for finding another 5k!
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Date: Tue, Dec. 13th, 2011 06:10 am (UTC)Creatures of habit and comfort
Date: Tue, Dec. 13th, 2011 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tue, Dec. 13th, 2011 02:57 pm (UTC)