Fitness is fun! Fitness can also be a lot of work. The key to finding harmony with making fitness a lifestyle is to find a way to enjoy the work. Consistency in fitness is about loving the means not just the end.
Fit people enjoy the work. You can’t be a dedicated twerker-outer if you don’t find some love along the way. Here are five parts of the process with which you can fall in L-O-V-E. You may not love all five all the time, but you can mix and match and blend and twirl a few together.
Loving the Actual Exercise
Find an activity that makes you feel great. If you don’t love to run, don’t! Find an activity that you look forward to like dancing, kayaking, Pilates, lifting weights, or yoga with bunnies. There are more choices now than ever before. Do it alone or do it with a friend, but get out there and find something or some things that bring the fun with the sweat.
Loving the Results
What IS your endgame? Do you want to lose weight, get stronger, look leaner, manage stress, sleep like a baby, or age well? Moving your human meat suit can aid in all of these things. I’m sorry about the human meat suit reference, but not sorry enough to delete it. Once you put in some time in the sweat zone you may start to notice a toned tricep here and a stronger core there. This can be hugely motivating for many of us. I’m all about body love as you are/body neutrality, but I also won’t deny that I like the way booty looks when I’m putting some extra time in.
Loving the Community
The people! You love the people that get to see you looking like a hot, sweaty mess making your derpiest derp face. Having a workout crew automatically gives you a tribe with a shared enjoyment or at least peeps to commisurate with! Having a love of fitness can connect you to strangers and help you make connections outside of your sweat space as well. Have you ever bumped into someone with twin hand calluses and give the you lift, brah head nod? When you walk down the street and notice someone's posture and body awareness and think to yourself that they probably do the yoga? Or when you see Nancy at the office squat down to pick up a dropped TPS report with perfect form you know that she MUST be into fitness. Community and connection are something we all crave.
Loving the Grind
You love the push, the discomfort, the inner drive, and the push. You love pushing your mental and physical boundaries. Getting in the zone can be a happy place for some not dissimilar from meditation. Many of us also get addicted to the grind. How far we can push while still being safe can satisfy the inner athlete with a competitive drive.
Loving the Highest of Highs
Dopamine! The euphoric rush, the runner’s high, and the walking on air feeling you get from feeling the post workout effects dopamine (neurotransmitter that activates the pleasure/reward centers). Working out in the morning can set you up for a better day by riding that high vibe cloud. Working out when you are stressed can help bust through the ick and get that good juju flowing. Training can make us feel happier, lighter, healthier, more calm and that feeling alone can be enough to keep you coming back day after day!
If you can find a way to let one or many of these motivate you you will be much more likely to make fitness a lifestyle! It can be fun, I promise.