My Love-Hate Relationship with Exercise & Embracing Discomfort

The days are getting shorter, it’s getting colder and darker. Holiday parties will be in full swing soon. In order to encourage y’all to not give up completely on health goals at this time of year, today I will share my sordid love-hate relationship with exercise and why I’m still hanging in there with keeping healthy habits like exercise going, even if it all gets a bit more loosey-goosey this time of year. PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION is always my motto!

I also need to mention that I firmly believe that DIET is about 90% of the equation for health and weight loss, so if you just aren’t feeling it with exercise for a little while, no worries. Healthier food options are even more important. Exercise has a ton of benefits for physical and mental health and I absolutely recommend it, but you can’t out-exercise a crappy diet for reaching and maintaining an ideal weight and overall health.

Sooooo, try not to let Halloween to New Year’s turn in to one giant holiday party buffet & drinks extravaganza, K? Your body thanks you.

Back to my Love-Hate relationship with exercise. Trust me, I will never be someone who tries to out-exercise anything. I am pretty sure I get my exercise phobia from my Mom who failed gym class because she was so uncoordinated she couldn’t even do a jumping jack. She still can’t. She is actually fairly trim & healthy at 74 because she focuses on a healthy mostly plant based diet. She occasionally does a little exercise, but only under duress when her doctor gets on her about protecting her bones and cardiovascular health.

So, I come by it honestly. Let’s blame genetics. Although my Dad raced flat track motorcycles, so I did inherit some coordination. I CAN exercise and I do quite often, there is just something in me that resists it. Maybe you can relate.

I mainly hate cardio and anything that raises my heart rate. Don’t even get me started on RUNNING and you marathon-types. I always say “I only run if being chased” I forced myself to do the Couch to 5K training app one year in Memphis. We were having family visit from the UK and my brother-in-law wanted us all to run the Great American River Run 5K ‘for fun’. (He is the type of guy who teaches 6am bootcamp training for fun.)

I did enough training to run my first and probably last 5K without stopping to walk or rest. I barely did it with my panting red face.

My wonderful husband Simon stayed with me through the whole thing and encouraged me, even though he could and I think did WALK at the same pace I was ‘running’. He does the same thing when I whine about having to hike up hills in Scotland or ride my bike up hills in Charlotte. Patiently sticks with the old lady . I am fine with flat and down hills, its all of that panting, breathing hard, and raising my heart rate on uphills that does me in.

I am hoping to inspire other exercise-haters to keep pushing yourself a little as I do. Because I DO know the benefits for my health, my cardiovascular system, my bones, and even my brain.

I share my current exercise routine below. I am actually exercising about 6 days per week. Moderate. Doable. Just moving my body a bit every day in different ways. Spurred on by the Oura Ring that I got for Christmas that sort of yells at me if I sit too much and don’t meet some basic daily activity goals.

This Week’s Shot of MINDSET

Embracing Discomfort is one of the areas of focus in the Radical Acceptance Journal that I recently completed and shared with y’all. It’s a small, easy to complete journal that made a big shift in my mindset and in my life overall. Embracing Discomfort is highly pertinent to my exercise and healthy eating sitch this time of year.

A quote from the journal that really hits home for me:

When we face discomfort, the intensity will be greater, but the duration will be shorter. When we avoid discomfort, the discomfort is forever.
-Dr. Don Schweitzer

COMFORT = leaning right on into making Halloween to New Year’s one giant holiday party buffet & drinks extravaganza.

EMBRACING DISCOMFORT = challenging myself to exercise just 20-30 minutes most days, getting outside for some fresh air & sunshine, fasting to let my digestive system rest & allow my body to repair itself, cooking healthy meals at home most days of the week that include plenty of fruits & veggies, and adjusting my relationship with alcohol. It sounds like a lot, but it is all about incorporating healthier habits over time.

Exercise is the discomfort I resist the most, yet here I am still nudging myself to do it and actually raise my heart rate once in a while. I want to be healthy and active as I edge toward my retirement years.

It’s going to require a bit of exercise when Simon & I take off on the first phase of our retirement in a few years – what we call our National Parks Tour. Actually living in an RV and traveling these here United States of America for maybe a year or more. And then possibly doing the same thing across the UK & Europe to be closer to his family for a while.

I am ready to embrace some discomfort to have beautiful adventures like this in my life.

This Week’s Shot of HEALTH

Here are my TOP 3 favorite exercises right now. Simple, doable, doesn’t take up too much time in my schedule, and keeps my Oura Ring off my back for meeting daily movement goals. I generally do some of each of these every week:

Pahla B workout videos on YouTube. Short ~20 minute free workouts that alternate between cardio, strength, ‘walking’, or some combo. Designed for women my age and just the right length. This woman has grown on me. She is super perky and not the typical personality I am drawn to – she talks non-stop and cracks herself up laughing (I admire this). She has the world’s sweetest elderly doggie Blossom who sits on a chair in the room through the workouts. There are occasional guest appearances by big fluffy cats She has been a personal trainer for years and really knows her stuff about the right exercise for different phases of life.
Yoga with Adriene. Free yoga on YouTube. I like to keep my life simple these days. No packing up to go to the gym or classes when free resources are right there on YouTube for me. Adriene has been offering her beautifully cued, kind, loving, gentle yoga classes for a decade or more. She has 12.9 MILLION subscribers who love what she offers and I am one of them. I generally go to Playlists, choose this month’s playlist, and find a video on the list that feels right for me. I prefer the shorter 15-30 minute, gentle classes. They are usually just what I need. She has every option for whatever you prefer. And she has the sweetest dog Benji in every video who relaxes and mostly sleeps through all of the yoga. Awww, Sweet Benji!
Walking outside in the fresh air and sunshine It’s not always sunny in Charlotte, but we do get plenty of it and those are the best days to drag my exercise-resistant rump outside. We live right in the city, but have a nature preserve right next to our home with 40+ acres of trails and ponds. I also enjoy just walking around the neighborhood, seeing the construction changes, saying Hi to kids, neighbors, dogs & cats. I think that’s my main motivator with exercise, being able to gush at cute pets!

I aim for workout videos Mon / Wed / Fri, gentle yoga Tues / Thurs to stretch, integrate, and allow a bit more rest, and then getting outside for a walk in the fresh air at least once on the weekend so I don’t become a total TV watching couch potato on my days off.

I don’t always get in 6 days of exercise. Progress Not Perfection. I do notice when I have been inactive for too long. Tracking my Oura Ring (10% off available with this link if you are interested) data actually inspires me to get up and move every hour. It sends me reminders to stretch my legs, which I sometimes see and heed, and sometimes see and ignore . It also gives me a daily movement goal based on how well I have slept and recovered. I can look at daily steps or active calories burned.

I have shocked myself lately when I check in and see I only need to burn maybe 50-75 more calories to meet my daily goal. I actually walk up & down the stairs in my house or walk around the kitchen during TV commercials. Or use my Pahla B cardio moves! Usually about 10-15 minutes of me movin’ & groovin’ and… Voila! I meet my activity goal and my Oura ring congratulates me. It takes so little sometimes.

Where are you at with exercise? Are you inspired to try any of these ideas this week? An extra 20 minutes of fresh air or a video could help on all levels – Body / Mind / Spirit – as we move through the holidays and the winter hibernation months.

If you are interested in using the power of the mind to uplevel your life, I share mindset expertise every week, along with fun & insightful stories from my own life path from 80s hair band superfan to chemical engineer to health & mindset coach (what a journey!).

You will also see plenty of health promoting tips and recipes because I am blown away by the power of intermittent fasting + a healthy diet to prevent & reverse just about any health concern Mindset plays a big part in health and healing too, the power of the Mind Body connection is pretty mind blowing.