Help me learn to LOVE exercise

find stuff you like to do. i found that i love music and it motivates me during workouts so i bought an Ipod ..its only $50 and i downloaded Itunes I like listening to .. i use it to play basketball by myself , do runs or power walks , any cardios and even functional or weight training. it helps me escape the humdrum of exercise.. i love shooting hoops and during the warm weather I absolutely love doing laps in my pool. recently i set up a gym in one of my living rooms where the tv is ..now i can do my workouts and cardio machines while i watch something on tv.

I don't hate exercise, but I certainly don't love it either. But I *do* love stretching. I mean, I really really really love stretching. So, I always make sure that I work in enough time so I'll be able to have a 10 minute stretch session after I work out. That's my little 'carrot on the end of the stick'. I get myself dressed in my workout clothes (which is the hardest hurdle for me, lol) and then I say to myself "OK, I'm going to do this video that is 30 minutes. And then I get to STRETCH!! Yay!!!" It's like dessert at the end of a meal.

As with all things, try not to feed or reinforce the hate. I have learned to say, "I can do this". Not that I like doing it, but that I can. I am capable. I do a lot of things that I am not particularly fond of (paperwork, paying taxes, picking up dog poop, etc. etc.). If I tell myself how much I hate it and feed my resistance to it, it makes it harder on me, and those things still need to be done. I also think about how much money Nike has made from "Just do it." And how right they are.

Exercise has become a bit of a hobby for me. Maybe you can try taking some classes, I don't like, running, or cardio machines, or really in lifting. But I do those on occasion when I can't get to a class.
I am a social creature, so I like taking classes. Do you dance, try Zumba, or try kick boxing, or step or cardio bootcamp. Try a one month member ship to a gym that offers alot of choices and see if you can find something you do like. Yoga, swimming, not sense in torturing yourself with something you don't like...maybe boxing or karate?

I have a neighborhood gym with classes, so it's really easy for me. But that fact that I enjoy it and I am social with the ladies at my gym keeps me going back. Took me a good year to build a support group so to speak, but seeing them gets me there and keeps me going.

i know exactly how you feel!!! I watched myself gain and gain weight for years, and any time i exercised, i loathed it entirely. I felt great afterwards, but even knowing that's what lied ahead, it often wasn't enough to motivate me to go do it.

i tried every at-home workout system you can imagine.... and none of them worked for me. i hated it, and i had no accountability.

i tried going to the gym, and like you, i hated every cardio machine in there.... BOOORING!!! that and i felt like it wasn't helping.

then i tried zumba. i LOVED it at first, but after a while, even that got old, as it was the same songs and moves most every class.

FINALLY i found Crossfit!! It's fantastic!!! I go to the same class time 4 days a week (sometimes 5), and the same people are most always back there. i developed frienships, and in these friendships, i found out that it held me accountable. this kept me coming back!! and the program is FAR from boring!!!! it's a different workout every single day and involves free weights and lots of body work. now i LOVE going to the gym!!!!!!!!!

**edited to add**

i've found that after a couple months of crossfit .... i went from the mentality of "hating going to the gym to "legitimately hating when i can't make it to the gym"

I just read your comment about how you "actually got the opportunity" to go to the gym. Sounds to me like working out at home..which is what I do..might be a good option. I have limited time also and getting ready to go to the gym and driving there cuts into my time to exercise. I bought a stationary bike and a home gym and it really helps to just roll out of bed and get it done in the morning before the day starts. I also just bought a Heart Rate Monitor...and I absolutely love it. It really shows the calories you're burning in "real time" so you can challenge yourself if you see yourself slipping. Just a suggestion...I just know it works for me. I hated exercise too..but I'm having fun now. :happy:

As with all things, try not to feed or reinforce the hate. I have learned to say, "I can do this". Not that I like doing it, but that I can. I am capable. I do a lot of things that I am not particularly fond of (paperwork, paying taxes, picking up dog poop, etc. etc.). If I tell myself how much I hate it and feed my resistance to it, it makes it harder on me, and those things still need to be done. I also think about how much money Nike has made from "Just do it." And how right they are.

I like this a lot! Most obstacles in life are mental.

A year ago I *had* to exercise. Now I *want* to exercise. Generally that's the gym, but I was running heavily until my injury (Planar Faciatias) Now that its full tilt winter I'm hitting the gym most days, other days I have a kinnect fitness game I'll play and yesterday I shoveled snow for over an hour so that was my exercise.

Here's some motivation.. Because I am now physically fit, shovelling snow for an hour didn't kick my *kitten*. In the past the same amount of shovelling would have taken me more than two because I would have to keep taking breaks so as not to die in my driveway. I even went next door and shovelled out the nice old lady's car because I'm a giver and I wanted to burn extra calories so I could have hot-cocoa with butterscotch schnapps (Highly recommended)

I'm not a gym person - I started out my journey when my kids were young, so I couldn't get there between them and work. So I started getting up early and doing DVDs. You mentioned you have one. There are so many different workouts out there. Maybe you just haven't found your thing yet. Collage Video is great - you can return the DVDs if you don't like them and they have good descriptions of the workouts (collagevideo.com). More video may motivate you on gym days to get out and do something "different," too!

The other thing I found was that classes can be really fun. You make friends, have some healthy competition and someone else is pushing you for a change. (It gets tiring, pushing yourself!) Even once a week can motivate you to workout more.

Good luck!!

Find a show you really love and ONLY watch it while your on the elliptical, 30 minutes will go by and you wont know what happened. You'll look forward to working out if it's a show you need to see. You can read on the stationary bike or listened to loud, upbeat music while your running. I've found that the worst pop music is the best. When I have days where the last thing I want to do is cardio, I find something that makes me focused on anything but that. Oddly enough when I'm not focused on the time and pace, I sometimes end up going faster and over the time I wanted- which of course is not a bad thing

That might be part of the issue - because you can only get there twice a week, you're not seeing progress as quickly.
Is there anyway someone could help yu get there another day? Or have a look at something like bodyrock you can do at home in between.

Honestly, I'm not looking to see progress quickly. I have a relatively small amount of weight to lose (35 pounds will have me at 140 and i'm 5' 9", depending on how I look/feel I may stop trying to lose when I hit 150)
And I guess I left out that going to the gym isn't the only exercise I get. I walk on my lunch break sometimes, I have a workout DVD at home (that I hate more than the gym, lol)
I do try to do a little something every day even if its just doing a few squats at work every time I get up to go to the bathroom.

I do agree that attending a class might make working out more fun. I think I will look around and see what is available in my area.

My health is important. I am trying to make it a priority. My other priority is my son and most any time I am away exercising is time away from him (that's why I get up at 5:30 am to go before work)

I meant progress with fitness, not appearance. Enjoyment increases with fitness levels.

I know it's hard to juggle, I have a demanding job and a family. It can be tough to squeeze workouts in. Try fitting just one more significant workout in. You'd be surprised how big a difference x3 makes over x2. That said anything is better than nothing! :-)

I love the lion chasing idea too! So many great suggestions that I hate to follow with this one, but it's true for me that if I just stop thinking about it and get in the habit of exercise, it's much much easier. If I have to make a decision every single morning to go for a run, I'll hardly ever do it. I made a goal of being able to run 5k (was VERY inspired by my sister's success!) and made myself a refrigerator chart to track my progress. A little credit, a little habit-forming, and a lot less decision-making-time- that's my formula.

Not reading the other comments so this may have been said. However, I also find the traditional gymn workout painfully boring. But I love group fitness classes. So I usually just stick to those. Kickboxing, yoga, pilates, boot camp, spinning you name it.