Motivation for Exercise

[Erika]

What was your motivation to start exercising? What's kept you going? What would you recommend to someone who's new to this whole concept and is just barely dipping her toe in the water of "maybe it's a good idea to exercise for my health even if I hate the entire industry built up around exercise/weight loss?"

(Note: I will be speaking to my physician as soon as I can get a damn appointment.)

[Jan]

Exercise was my New Year's resolution for 2009. I was just really tired of feeling heavy and out of shape. Tried some cardio DVDs for a while with limited success, and then managed to completely fuck up my shoulder. So I looked into what I could do that didn't involve a lot of shoulder use, and found....running. And I am so glad, because this is the only exercise that I have ever actually enjoyed and seen real results with. I think that partially it is the aspect of measurable progress that really appeals to me -- at first my goal was being able to run 5K. I did that, and then revised my goal upward to run 10K. Have done that, and now I'm aiming for a half-marathon, etc. And during this progress, I just keep feeling stronger and healthier. Wanting to be fit was what started this process for me, and enjoying the feeling of being fit is one of the things that keeps me going.

Additionally, I know exactly what you mean about the health/fitness industry, and feel compelled to point out that running sidesteps (ha! see what I did there?) a lot of that nonsense. All you really need is a good pair of shoes and some time. Although of course there is plenty of gear available if you are into that sort of thing, not that I know anyone like that. La, la, la.

If running interests you in the slightest, I would highly recommend the Couch to 5K program. It got me from completely and totally sedentary and out of shape, to being able to run 30 minutes at a stretch, in 9 weeks.

(Sorry, I have a tendency to get all preachy about running! It's just, like, my thing these days.)

[Soma]

I always thought I just sucked at athletic stuff. I thought my body wasn't built for it, what was easy for others was too hard for me, and that was just the way it would always be. I half-assedly tried the Couch to 5K program leading up to my wedding, long enough to see a little progress but not long enough that I gained any startling new abilities. A year went by, my weight kept climbing, and I finally got to a point when I started eating better and knew I'd have to build some exercise into my life again. I started with running because I wanted to see if I could go farther than I had the last time - right before I'd given up. So the short answer amidst this rambling is that my motivation was curiosity and stubbornness. I was sick of telling myself what I couldn't do and I wanted to see what I could.

There are loads of ways to exercise, and the key is finding out what works for you. If you need group motivation, try some local fitness classes, team sports, or a learn to run group. If you want more one-on-one training, try a gym that offers a free orientation and personal training. Browse community center offerings for something that sounds like fun and give it a shot!

I stuck with it long enough to learn that my body was built just fine, and that I can take up any sport or hobby that interests me. I tried yoga, Zumba, kickboxing, hiking, a boot camp circuit, and I'm running my first half-marathon next month. I'd like to try aquafit and cycling and more serious weight training next. This active lifestyle stuff is addictive.

[kismet]

Pretty simple. I exercised fairly regularly throughout undergraduate and grad school (swimming in the first case, running in the second). But, I was always a little on the hefty side (say 170 or so at 5'7", not positively obese but definitely not small). Then, I got into a really depressing situation (got attached and then married to a guy who made me miserable) and my weight truly shot up over the course of a couple of years to about 227. I hated the way I looked, I was sad, I felt sick a lot of the time with a lot of crazy digestive symptoms (my TMI, let me show you it) and I knew the rest of my life would not be good if I stayed in that condition.

I got down to 167 that time, then a couple of years ago I realized that I had found almost 20 of those pounds again. And that coincided with the time that my dad was in the hospital with his spine pretty near falling apart. And so I am continuing to fight it down. I should probably really weigh in the 140s.

One thing I had to do before I could lose any of that weight was to stop rebelling against good advice. I had friends in my 20s who were all about fat acceptance, disdaining the beauty industry, etc. And by no means do I think that our culture has no issues about those issues. BUT. Some of the reaction to that can, I think, get in the way of young women of a liberal persuasion doing things that, like them or not, you just have to do to maintain health. Like actually minding your diet. Once I got past feeling like exercise and such was not something that was being pushed on me culturally, but that I actually wanted to do because it made me feel better, it became much easier to just go do it. Before, it was like your mom saying "clean your room". Whine whine whine do I HAVE to? Now I just want a clean room so I do it.

Also, re: just thinking I was bad at exercise, school gym classes are all about team ball sports and people who hate you pegging the ball at you as hard as they can to hurt you. Of course I was bad at that and hated it. If I'd known there was dancing or yoga when I was a kid, I'd have been much better off.

[badverb]

Once I got past feeling like exercise and such was not something that was being pushed on me culturally, but that I actually wanted to do because it made me feel better, it became much easier to just go do it. Before, it was like your mom saying "clean your room". Whine whine whine do I HAVE to? Now I just want a clean room so I do it.

That's my experience too. I feel so much better when I swim three times a week. I have more energy, I sleep better, and my appetite evens out. When I spend a lot of time being sedentary, it makes me tired and depressed.

I'd like to lose a couple more pants sizes (sometimes I do get hung up on that, but I actively avoid dwelling on it, and usually that works OK), but overall the big motivator is that I feel better, and it keeps me motivated in other areas of my life too, because I have more energy.

[Zamfir]

I did so good in November - Wii Fit for an hour 6 days a week. And not the games, the running and the biking. Then I caught a cold in early December, and Christmas and hey, now it's February.

So, I need to get back on it. Just not on days when I get home from work at 5 minutes to 9PM and still need to make dinner.

My motivation is just that I'm tired of looking like I do. I want to get fit and feel better about my self image. I figure, if I can start with something easy and non-threatening, like the Wii Fit, I can move on to harder fitness games, and then when it's warmer outside, maybe get a bike, or... gulp, run. All these folks doing couch to 5K really inspire me, cause if they can do it, so can I. I'll get there, one day.

Also, Hi! I've been reading and not posting and now I'm trying to stop that!

[gwendolen]

I was sedentary my whole life. I was the kid with her nose in a book, whether I was hiding in my room or up the mango tree. I have always been very flexible (I could cross my legs behind my neck. Seriously), but klutzy, and my asthma didn't help. I started exercising after I finished writing my PhD, and I had no excuses left. I knew it would be good for my health, and I have such bad self esteem issues with my appearance, I knew it would help. Now I do Pilates, which I love more and more each day. I'm like a kid, I love the feeling of "oh, I can DO THIS!" that I never had before. I mean, until last year, I couldn't even ride a bike. I'm clumsy and not athletic at all, and feeling that I can not be that klutz is awesome.

This year, I had to switch Pilates classes hours because of Law school, and now, I have a different instructor every Saturday, and the last one asked me if I'd been doing it for long, so I explained about how I'd been sedentary my whole life "oh, that's a pity, because you really can do this, and you're one of those people who are a natural at it; you could have been an athlete if you had started early enough." I don't know if it's true or not, but that will always be one of my favorite compliments ever.

[evk]

One thing I had to do before I could lose any of that weight was to stop rebelling against good advice. I had friends in my 20s who were all about fat acceptance, disdaining the beauty industry, etc. And by no means do I think that our culture has no issues about those issues. BUT. Some of the reaction to that can, I think, get in the way of young women of a liberal persuasion doing things that, like them or not, you just have to do to maintain health. Like actually minding your diet. Once I got past feeling like exercise and such was not something that was being pushed on me culturally, but that I actually wanted to do because it made me feel better, it became much easier to just go do it. Before, it was like your mom saying "clean your room". Whine whine whine do I HAVE to? Now I just want a clean room so I do it.

Also, re: just thinking I was bad at exercise, school gym classes are all about team ball sports and people who hate you pegging the ball at you as hard as they can to hurt you. Of course I was bad at that and hated it. If I'd known there was dancing or yoga when I was a kid, I'd have been much better off.

These two paragraphs really resonated with me. I grew up in a family that saw exercise as something dumb people did (yeah, I know, stupid in itself), so I didn't do anything, and thought I was hopelessly non-athletic and un-coordinated.
I did short-track speedskating in my early teens, but stopped for a number of stupid reasons.
Absolute and utter dissolute couch potato until I was thirty, then went a bit mental when I left my first husband, taking up classes in aerial circus skills (trapeze, tissu, ring), indoor rock-climbing, and a whole lot of cycling. I found out I was fairly coordinated, and very strong.
These days I do lots of skating, which I absolutely love.

To answer the actual question, after that load of waffle, finding something you really love to do is the key, I think. I'm not, and will never be a runner; I'm just not built for it. Skating, on the other hand - built for it, love it. The benefits I find are an ability to think more clearly, an improvement in my moods (I can actually stop taking anti-depressants if I do enough exercise, but it takes a lot of hours, and is too precarious to rely on), as well as the usual feeling better in yourself stuff.
As an added bonus, for me there's also been that pure joy from starting out rubbish at something and becoming at least decent at it.

[Niki]

I'd been an active kid: swimming, gymnastics, ballet and soccer. Once I hit highschool, I'd dropped soccer, the only sport I'd ever stuck with. In my early twenties, I gained about 40lbs for who knows what reason. Between issues with my back (this was before the car accident but related to my first back injury at 11) and cervical dysplasia, I decided to take charge of my health by adjusting what I ate and started moving. Having Hildy by this time helped tremendously. I walked, then started jogging, between 20-25miles a week. Then I got into the car accident.

My weight went up after the accident. I never really believed people when they said they gained weight after car accidents. I didn't think it made that much of a difference. I was wrong. At my heaviest, I was 222lbs. This came from a few different factors in my life. I ended up losing about 45lbs and I've been stuck because I'm still going back and forth on my diet and exercise.

Now I weigh around 190. I've regained 10lbs, my back is more buggered up than ever before and I'm tired of not having energy. I'm tired of not being able to run around without gasping for breathe in a few minutes. My motivation now is to get healthy. I don't expect to lose all the weight I need to this year. If I do, it's a bonus. I'm taking charge of my back since I'm tired of being told all I need is physical therapy. I want to be strong again. I want to be healthy again. There's even a part of me that wants to hear the boys call me a hottie. That's my motivation now.

ETA: rereading evk's post, I also want to stop taking antidepressants. I don't know if I ever will since I'm still on them 3yrs after Jake's birth. What I do know is that my mood does improve with regular exercise. mr. pixie's noted this a few times. I now look forward to these comments, where before, I'd get angry without realizing/accepting what exercise did to my mental health.

[planetmort]

Well, I like exercise. I'm weird that way. My biggest problem nowadays is finding the time. Pre-kid it wasn't a big deal to go to the gym after work and just come home later. Now it's just not acceptable to not get home until 7:30. Well, if I actually want to interact with my child it isn't! I really am not much of a morning workout person, but that's my only viable option these days for the most part.

So my motivator is signing up for triathlons. If I pay $100 to enter a race, I'm not likely to bail, and if I know I'm going to have to haul my ass through a race course on such and such a date, it motivates me.

[Jennifer]

Mostly I'm just hyper because all I do is sit still for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. Bleah.

[canine epigram]

As a kid, I was terrible at sport, uncoordinated and near-sighted.

I started running when I was in high school. I tried cross-country but didn't stick with it (in hindsight, I regret that) but kept running on my own. During a stint in grad school over a decade ago, a female friend taught me the basics of strength training, and we would spot each other.

I've been doing that ever since. I've run a half-marathon, dabbled in yoga, and started learning to rock climb (climbing the sea cliffs at Acadia? Made of awesome.) Grad school plus work has made it a lot harder to squeeze in the time, but I'm working on bringing it back.

Regular exercise keeps my stress level down, helps me sleep better, and focus better. I like how it makes me feel, what it enables me to do, and yes, what it does for me physically. As I joked to a friend after a BBQ game of kickball, "I had no idea all I had to do to become sporty was workout regularly and wait about ten years."

My thoughts for you, just starting out:
Soma has it - find what works for you. Try lots of different activities. Hiking, biking, climbing, walking, running, swimming, dancing, martial arts, yoga, the list is huge.

Start light - but don't stay there. Track what you do, slowly ramp it up over time, and always keep mixing it up.

Don't dismiss strength training in a gym because you're afraid people will be judging you (hint: they're all concerned with their own routines).

Consider a personal trainer (but don't just sign up with some schmoe at a gym, do some research or ask here for pointers on evaluating them.)

Exercise should be challenging, but it shouldn't be boring - if it's boring, either mix it up, or find something else to do. Find friends to do those activities with.

Stop thinking about exercise as a route to weight loss. Exercise, by itself, will do a lot for you, but if you focus on it as a tool for losing weight, you'll likely be disappointed. It takes changes to your eating habits and lifestyle in concert with exercise to make a sustainable difference.

Think of it as taking stewardship of your own body, making yourself stronger, healthier and smarter. There's plenty of evidence of the mental benefits of exercise - just take a spin through the New York Times health section. Picking up these habits now will serve you the rest of your life. Studies have shown that a lot of the deterioration we used to ascribe to "just getting old" was actually the decrepitude caused by a completely sedentary lifestyle.

As I like to say to my wife, whenever I see a white-haired person jogging on the shoulder of the road, "That's who I want to be when I'm his/her age, the grandpa jogging by the side of the road."