Feel Good

Yesterday, when I came home from work, my partner Curry (yes, Sage and Curry – no lie) told me that he had done about 20 push-ups that day. He hasn’t done any intentional exercise like that in a while (nor have I), and many people would dismiss his inspired burst as generally inconsequential to his health.

But boy did he feel good about it when he was telling me!

We all know regular exercise is one of the sure-fire ways to feel good. But that doesn’t make it any easier to commit to. To fit into our already swamped daily schedule. Who has that kind of time, or energy? Am I right?

The thing is that too many of us assume that unless we do a half-hour or more of exercise, several times a week, then we’re not really getting any benefit. We’re wasting our time and it’s just not worth it.

But that’s just not true.

Try this more realistic approach to exercise:

Do what you can, when you can.

That’s all we can ever ask of ourselves anyway. It’s far more reasonable to expect ourselves to throw a little exercise into our day than it is to create and stick to a full-fledged fitness regimen, for example:

• 5 minutes of jumping jacks, for example
• or a few push-ups
• or a quick trot or bicycle ride around the block

So for goodness sakes, take the pressure off yourself!

Don’t sabotage yourself from the myriad feel good benefits of exercise just because you’ve got no discipline  (most of us are in the same boat). Or because you’ve got no space to workout, or money to go join a gym.

Just do what you can, when you can. It all helps. Every little bit.

Just a few minutes here, a few minutes there. When you think of it:

• on a coffee break
• while waiting for water to boil
• during a commercial break on TV

And when you don’t do it, DON’T  beat yourself up for it. That does you (or your likelihood of exercising in the future) no good at all.

Don’t kid yourself. And don’t unduly pressure yourself.

Every little bit of exercise you do really does make a difference.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS