In our article by Dr. Michelle Segar about midlife women and why we have trouble reaching our health and weight goals, she differentiates between ‘should’ based exercise and ‘want’ based exercise.  Too often we set fitness goals based on what we think we SHOULD do instead of what we WANT to do, and what actually works for us.

This resonated strongly enough with our member Cara Holman that she decided to write an essay sharing her own experiences with it.  Cara has inspired me to look at my own exercise activities differently!  

I had to smile when I read the WomenBloom article "What's Underneath 'I Don't Have Time to Exercise.'". As one who has historically been in the "should-based" rather than the "want-based" category, I have had to make a concerted effort over the years in an attempt to change the balance on this.
 
I have all the motivation in the world for exercising, especially these days. After being treated for breast cancer two years ago, I have no desire to have cancer ever rear its ugly head to plague me again. I am a realist, however. I completely understand that this is not totally under my control, but there are ways of minimizing my risk and I am dedicated to trying them. The way I figure it, I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

The medical experts can't always agree on things, but one point that they are consistently in consensus on: exercising is good for you. It helps with cancer prevention, heart health, stress reduction, and in short, with just about anything relating to health. Still, it hasn't always been easy for me to think of exercising with a sense of enjoyment, rather than a sense of duty. Time and motivation have never been my sticking points. It's just that exercising isn't always fun, and to be honest, it doesn't always feel good either, at least at the time.
 
It's always been my belief, however, that where there's a will, there's a way, so I decided many years ago to apply my mind to the problem, and came up with a prescription for moving myself from the "should-based" to the "want-based" category, as regards exercise. I can't say for sure whether or not it would work for everybody, but it sure works for me!
 
In the first place, I joined a fitness club about six years ago, and I must say, it was one of the best things I ever did for myself. While I truly admire people who create their own exercise routines and work out in a home gym or jog regularly around the neighborhood, I've just had to be honest with myself and admit that this doesn't work for me. My therabands, weights, Pilates balls and workout DVDs just sit gathering dust in my house. To the gym it is then, for me, where I not only can enjoy the camaraderie of  friends, but I can pat myself on the back for getting a return on my investment, in not letting my membership dues go to waste.
 
Joining the fitness club was certainly a good first step, but after the novelty wore off a bit, I realized I need a little something to pep up my drive for going on a regular basis. Flash back to the time, eons ago, when I was potty training my children. Different problem, same basic concept: how to get someone to do something that is good for them that they don't really want to do. I borrowed a little technique I used back in those days for motivating my kids and bought myself a calendar and some shiny star stickers. Each day I work out for at least 45 minutes, I give myself a star. Funny, how nothing works the guilt factor faster than seeing a star-free week staring reproachfully at me.
 
Taking my little motivating technique one step further, I used to give my kids a reward when they earned a certain number of stars, and so I figured, what was good enough for them is good enough for me. My "reward" for regularly exercising is to indulge myself in a fun and flattering new exercise outfit. My exercise wardrobe has grown and is now starting to rival my everyday wardrobe. I justify it easily, though, by reasoning that I am investing in my own success. If I already feel good about myself, it makes it that much easier to feel good about exercising to stay fit and healthy.
 
The final key factor in my constantly being enhanced workout strategy is keeping things fun through variety. Now I may well be different from the average person at my gym, in that I am practically the only person I know who doesn't plug into the TV sets when I use the cardio machines, but then, I've never been much of a TV watcher. So it is vitally important to me to vary my workout in order not to succumb to boredom and consequent loss of motivation. I alternate between cardio, the track, and the weight room, but best of all, I like the classes.
 
There is just something about a nurturing fitness instructor gently guiding your workout that does it for me, and keeps me coming back for more. Just now, I'm taking classes where I am working on learning part two of a Tai Chi routine, after mastering the first 37 movements, doing damage control on my abs with Pilates, and working out the kinks in my muscles with the help of tennis balls and Pilates rollers. Whenever my routine begins to feel a bit monotonous to me, I just shake it up a little, and try something different for awhile.
 
All those years of childhood dance lessons must have paid off, because I am still relatively limber, and while I am perhaps not the star pupil in any of my classes, I'm not the worst either, not that it's a competition, anyway. I'm holding my own at present, and if I need any more incentive to keep up with my regular exercise routine, well I think I just may have found it in those peppy white-haired septuagenarians who so consistently lap me on the track. I should be so fit at their age!

Cara Holman lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and the youngest of her three children. She is a freelance writer of personal essays, poetry and creative nonfiction, and a cancer survivor.  Her pieces have appeared online at Literary Mama, Survivor's Review and Four and Twenty.
 

LIST OF COMMENTS