It takes discipline to exercise when you hate it. Having that kind of discipline is a reward in itself!
My absolute fav was the uneven bar. Wish they had that at my gym for us 65+ elders. I also loved the beam, and was thrilled when I could do,simple tasks, like a rollover on it.
I think my time in pilates class is the longest hour of my day. Ok, I made it halfway thru. Then, just 15 minutes to go. I even feel this way when with with my trainer, only a half hour. Now, just 10 minutes more. I,persevere. Why? I don’t want to become an elderly person with no sense of balance, I want to get stronger, there are the nicest people at gym, and so on. Every day, I earn a gold star.
My sister who regularly exercises came to stay with me for six weeks a while back. In spite of eating what I made for dinner every night instead of her “healthy” low fat meals, she lost 8 pounds. How? By keeping up with me. Walking where we went instead of driving, cleaning the house instead of a housekeeper, mowing the lawn, and most importantly watching my grandsons three days a week and taking them to the playground. You don’t have to do boring exercises. Just stay active. By the time she went home she was exhausted but happy. She planned to change her lifestyle.
Like I’ve said before: the silliest thing I see is people driving to the gym
3bm103:
I’m one of those silly people who drive to the gym… It’s the only way that I can get exercise. Plus I do therapeutic exercises there geared to my arthritis and spine degeneration - stuff that being normally active won’t do as well for strengthening and conditioning those body parts. I sleep in my gym clothes and head there as soon as I wake up in the morning, and shower and dress for work. Then I work prettymuch straight from 9-midnight. I do as many stairs as I can while working but some of the hospitals I visit keep the stairways alarmed for security purposes and most of my day is driving to visit shut-in members of the church, working in my office, or hanging around hospice patients for my home care job.
I just got back from a “workcation” where I caught up on a bunch of paperwork while hanging out at a mountain camp. There was a gym available, but there I was able to do a lot of walking outside.
This is literally how I started. My brother gave me the most brilliant challenge back at the beginning. He said I should put on my walking clothes and walk out the front door. No walking the first day. Second day, put on the clothes, walk out the front door and walk to the end of the block. Etc.
Even now, inertia is sometimes a hurdle. On days when I don’t feel like working out, I tell myself “I’m just going to put on my workout clothes.” Once they’re on, I’ve never not gone to the gym.
PizzaGirl, thanks for posting that article in #102. How validating. I also don’t understand why the gym teachers of that era thought team-picking was constructive. This quote especially speaks to my experience of it:
Exactly.
@3bm103 I’m another one of those silly drivers-to-the-gym. Besides the fact that walking would cut into either my workout time, or my already scarce time in the evening, there’s also the weather factor. Around here, it’s often dangerously hot at 5 or 6 pm, when I head over. Nope.
Sleeping in gym clothes, great idea. I, too, have to roll out of bed while I’m too foggy to argue myself out of going.
I’ve been known to crawl into bed in my sweats after working out in the evening and not getting around to showering. 
3bm103 - do not assume everyone can have your lifestyle. If you do not have a garden to weed, a big house to clean, etc. you simply cannot do those activities. Plus, I am skeptical that your sister’s weight loss was solely due to “lifestyle” change: what many consider “healthy” low fat meals are in fact sugar-laden, carb-rich, disgusting swill. She could have simply benefitted from real food, and a good half of that weight could have been water weight loss. Third, some of us are not blessed with perfect “skinny” genes, so we need to be more mindful about weight gain than the person who was born with the right genetic sequence. Fourth, “actively exercises” could mean she walks on a treadmill at a newspaper reading pace. Not going to cut it!
So… here is my personal anecdote. When I was in my 30s, I began to gain weight despite doing all what you described: I have never had a cleaning lady, we moved hundreds of cubic yards or dirt landscaping our almost-acre lot, I was working a demanding job while standing on my feet, etc. I did not eat low fat crap; it was veggie-rich food which still contained lots of carbs. Never was big on sodas or sweet stuff, but the weight crept up and up… What I was missing was the cardio component. When I added that and cut some carbs, I dropped a ton of weight over a period of 2 years. Still have it off. I mind what I eat and I run. Oh, and I still do not have a cleaning lady and I still weed my yard and move mulch, but my work shifted towards more sitting on my butt.
So to sum it up: (i) we are all different; and b) what some folks call “exercise” and “healthy” does not really fall into these categories.
@LasMa, you really get it, how helpful it is to have your own cues that trigger a sequence of behavior that enables you to adhere to your workout plans.
@bookworm, sounds like you need to build yourself a playground in your backyard, lol. My avatar snapshot is of my backyard playground. 14 ft long monkey bars, 12 ft high cargo net with climbing ladder on other side of frame, climbing rope, rings, high and low pull up bars, battle ropes. Was inspired to build it when I was out in Venice Beach and saw all the playgrounds on the beach used young people and those young at heart :).
For those who state they are bored by their workouts or don’t exercise because it’s “boring”, find ways to make it more enjoyable. Bored to tears by doing 45 minutes on an elliptical? Do 2 sets of Tabata intervals instead. Warm up, then do 7 sets of 20 seconds all out with 10 seconds recovery. Recover for a couple of minutes and do it again. Between warming up, cooling down and the Tabattas, you can cut the workout to 25 minutes of listening to your favorite music as the constant change ups avoid feeling like you are droning on. Can’t find something you enjoy? Think about how you got exercise and activity when you were a kid. Go outside and play. Forget about gyms and machines. Go to a playground, move your body, get fit the way you did as a kid, rediscover your inner child. Exercise and fitness don’t require drudgery, they only require setting aside time for yourself.
@morrismm …me, too. 45 minutes, 5 days a week. I can’t wait till it’s over and talk myself into doing it almost each time. But, my back and bones feel so much better when I do. I can feel the aches after 3 days if I let time go inbetween. I sleep better. I’m also enjoying seeing muscle definition from weights. My arms hardly have batwings anymore and I’m working on my trunk.
But it is so boring.
“Can’t find something you enjoy? Think about how you got exercise and activity when you were a kid. Go outside and play. Forget about gyms and machines. Go to a playground, move your body, get fit the way you did as a kid, rediscover your inner child.”
I think for some of us this is still building from scratch. I wasn’t the kid who ran around the playground, playing on the jungle gym, playing tag, etc. – I was on the bench off to the side, reading a book and wondering why all the adults kept wanting me to put it down and go play when a book was so much more interesting!!
3bm103 – I’m one of those pathetic people who “gets up and goes to the gym” (well, right now I’m lying in bed on my laptop, but the jig is up in about 15 minutes). Not only that, I belong to several different places - a park district gym, pilates/barre studio, yoga studio, and a cardio specialty place. It’s expensive, but it’s finally the thing that motivates me. It’s ludicrous to suggest I’d get nearly the exercise cleaning my house, mowing the lawn, etc.
I am also one of those silly people who prefers to drive to the gym. When I get to the gym, I can usually convince myself to stay for anywhere from 45-90 minutes. When I do the elliptical at home, I usually push through only 10-35 minutes (last night was 15 minutes). When DH and I walk in the neighborhood or up to the store, it’s maybe 2 miles. But he can’t do it bow with all the pollen… So indoor exercising is better.
Keep it fresh, conmama, by mixing things up. There are so many exercises that can hit each body part. Try some new ones. Try doing your existing ones in a different sequence. Do super sets, do circuit routines. Try different modalities of resistance training. Tired of weights - try body weight or suspension training. Not only will change ups keep your mind fresh but they will also make your routine more effective. As we do repetitive movements over time, our bodies adapt to become not just stronger but more efficient. The neuro-muscular efficiency that occurs reduces the effectiveness of the muscular load in promoting continued growths in strength and muscle tissue. By mixing it up, you force your body to adapt in new ways thereby promoting further progress.
Might do a tabata interval if I had a clue what it was…
Am not familiar with names of exercise, equipment, etc.
@3bm103
I am offended. I work at a gym. It is about so much more than just being active. It is a community. it is a Y so we have book club, bible study and parents nights out. Loads of classes for seniors and children. Studies show that most people work harder with a group. For seniors it improves cognitive function.
I teach Pilates (at the gym and at a studio) and we are not just “being active” in Pilates class. We are discussing postural faults (like humpback or sway back), balance, osteoporosis. I can work with people on jumping or rotation that would help with their sport. We work on fall prevention as well.
I am glad your system works for you but please refrain from insulting people who “drive to a gym” it may be the highlight of their week.
I’m no more insulting people by giving my opinion than those who have insulted me by insinuating that I just have good genes and I’m doing it all wrong. It’s “ludicrous” to suggest that staying active by working around the house works? Why is that any less insulting?
Walking to the gym cuts into exercise time? Isn’t walking exercise? Back in the good old days, there were no gyms. People just stayed active. I totally agree with the poster who suggested you do what you did when you were a child except that today’s children sit in front of a screen and never go outside.
It works for you. It may not work for everyone.
I know lots of children that go outside.
Never said it works for everybody. But neither does driving to the gym.
This driving to the gym put-down is silly! Most people’s gyms are not within walking distance, are on the other side of the interstate etc. I think it’s time to take a “my bad” on that one, 3bm. And, no, working around the house is not the same as targeted exercising. Yes, you can burn calories and at least you aren’t sitting on your butt, but it isn’t doing much for your cardiovascular fitness or your bone density. Snow shoveling certainly can be a workout!
My husband has a similar attitude about driving to his group bike rides as 3bm has about driving to the gym. It bugs him to load his bike into the car to drive 10 miles or so to meet his riding group. However, I feel it’s safer to drive to where they start and then it doesn’t add on another 20 miles round trip for him to an already 50-75 mile ride.
I will sometimes drive a mile or two to start a run just to avoid a busy road or a hill I don’t want on a particular day- or just to have a change of pace in my route. Generally, I run from the front door during the week.