change your exercise attitude

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I'm going to share with you, the same information that I shared with my weight loss group today...it's all about attitude.


You have probably read about the long-term benefits of exercise: increased energy, disease reduction, longevity, weight management, improved quality of life etc. Most of us are well aware that regular exercise is a vital and critical part of looking, feeling and staying younger and healthier over the course of our lifetime.

If you want to improve your life in every way, the best place to start is with exercise.

Our bodies need regular exercise; it's our natural state to be energetic and lively.

When we don't include it in our lives, we cannot function properly and we cannot feel as good as we should. Regular vigorous exercise will make us saner, happier and healthier.

How is your exercise attitude?
A lot of us wonder exactly how we can motivate ourselves to exercise, just what is this special thing that is needed to get yourself out of bed or out the door and straight to your workouts? The reason that no one can answer this question is because it is different for all of us. But one thing that is known is that part of what determines whether you get to your exercise session or not is your attitude. How you look at your planned workout has a major influence on the importance and priority of it.

Making exercise enjoyable begins in your mind - If you have a positive attitude and can find ways to make your exercise program enjoyable, you will be much more likely to stick with it. It is easy to find motivation to do something you enjoy rather than making excuses why you shouldn't do it. Exercise will never seem like a chore if you are passionate about it. If you have a bad attitude about this are you willing to change it?

Let exercise help you to meet your other needs - an exercise program can help satisfy your desire for social interaction, self discipline, relaxation, self-discovery, or just give you a break from the stresses of the day. Think about your non physical needs that are important in your life, and try to figure out how activity can help you to achieve them. This can make your exercise program a much more powerful experience and keep you going back for more.

Exercise, your strength and fitness, needs to be in the "first things first" category, because everything else in your life rests upon your good health. Time for fitness is always available when you put first things first in your life.

Exercise is not just something that you do - it is something that you become. Whether you like to exercise or not isn't really an option, it is a choice - a choice that is dependent on you. Nobody can do this for you - no exercise program or trainer, no pill or supplement. It comes from deep within you - it is in all of us - just reach in and find it. If there is a secret to an endless supply of motivation - there it is right there.

If you have you forgotten how good it is for your sense of well-being or have never stuck with an exercise program long enough to experience it, you will soon have more energy, a better attitude and a gentler disposition. It's easier to be the kind of person you have always wanted to be. Your strength and fitness are essential to your good health, like eating right, sleeping enough; loving your family and friends and working. Exercise needs to be at the top of your list of priorities and be put first when you understand and accept just how it important it is.

It is so much easier when you don't have to force yourself to exercise, you actually want to do it. Over a period of time, little by little, health and fitness can become a passion. Make it yours.

Replies

  • balfonso
    balfonso Posts: 370 Member
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    Amen to that!
  • hamiltonba
    hamiltonba Posts: 474 Member
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    You make a great point. I started exercising several years ago and was able to get off of my depression medicine! I believe that I need exercise as much for my mental health as for my physical health. Thank you for the post - Love reading your views/ideas!
  • cami78
    cami78 Posts: 42 Member
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    Ima fair play to you for being so fit thinking that you are raising 6 kids on your own. People like you deserves a medal if not more.
    Thank you for sharing your ideas with us! Wish you all the best!
  • FabiolaEnvy♥
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    hehe :D gotta love what you gotta say :D sooo right on that :D
  • imagymrat
    imagymrat Posts: 862 Member
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    Ima fair play to you for being so fit thinking that you are raising 6 kids on your own. People like you deserves a medal if not more.
    Thank you for sharing your ideas with us! Wish you all the best!


    :blushing: :blushing: I'm doing the best I can with what I have! Thank you for the kind words, I love my kids dearly, and when mu hubby left me, I though I would die and that my family would be changed forever....and both thiings did happen, I did die, and in her place, emerged a stronger, more determined, more loving and responsible person. My children have become different people, they are happier, they are closer to me, we are a unit and we work together as one! The best favour he did me, was to leave me.
  • borisda
    borisda Posts: 122 Member
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    I realy enjoy my workouts and I find doing diferent things makes it interesting. My usual workout involves cycling, weights, skipping, boxing, spin and an abs class at the end before I cycle home again. With that much it's difficult to get bored or unmotivated. Nice thread : ))
  • imagymrat
    imagymrat Posts: 862 Member
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    I realy enjoy my workouts and I find doing diferent things makes it interesting. My usual workout involves cycling, weights, skipping, boxing, spin and an abs class at the end before I cycle home again. With that much it's difficult to get bored or unmotivated. Nice thread : ))

    I find that people like yourself, who keep the variety changing constantly, never seem to get bored. I'm the same way, always finding new things, or changing the old, you prevent boredom and may even find something new you just absolutely love doing! That's how I discovered rock climbing, never thought i'd like it, heck I use to be afraid of heights! what a fantastic workout, and because I don't have the opportunity to do it often, I really look forward to it!
  • Rhaeven
    Rhaeven Posts: 123 Member
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    Bump, so I can read it later :)
  • KeriD
    KeriD Posts: 324
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    It is such a gift to have you here on MFP!!! You have sooo much fantastic knowledge and you are willing to share it with all of us!!!! I can feel the positive energy coming from you! You are a huge inspiration!!!!! xo :flowerforyou:
  • cami78
    cami78 Posts: 42 Member
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    Ima fair play to you for being so fit thinking that you are raising 6 kids on your own. People like you deserves a medal if not more.
    Thank you for sharing your ideas with us! Wish you all the best!


    :blushing: :blushing: I'm doing the best I can with what I have! Thank you for the kind words, I love my kids dearly, and when mu hubby left me, I though I would die and that my family would be changed forever....and both thiings did happen, I did die, and in her place, emerged a stronger, more determined, more loving and responsible person. My children have become different people, they are happier, they are closer to me, we are a unit and we work together as one! The best favour he did me, was to leave me.


    Things happens for a reason... I am happy for you and your family! Keep up the good work!

    And now talking about about exercising...I need to exercise everyday it keeps me going. I enjoy trying new ways of working out but in the same time I love having a routine.
  • david1956
    david1956 Posts: 190 Member
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    imagymrat says "Making exercise enjoyable begins in your mind"

    Sometimes a switch flicks, a paradigm shift if you like, that changes our attitude from "I go to the gym" to kinda "this is my life, it is who I am and it always will be." I doubt if it's the same for everyone how that happens, but I think it's the big turning point.

    I remember around Easter 2009 I reached a point of being terrified how I was feeling. Junk food and lack of exercise had left me depressed, without energy, and feeling really ill. My kids had gone to uni, I was alone, and I knew I had to get motivated and do some serious change,

    Anyway, after getting "gym fit" and changing my diet, eliminating the bad stuff, my turning point was a few months back when I got it in my head to do boxing training. After 3 minutes with my new trainer I was kneeling, sucking in air, gulping at water and something said to me.. "I want to get fit. Really fit." My trainer's a cool guy, only 20. One day I said to him "At 53 I want to see if I can get the best physique and fittest I've ever been in my life. Is that a crazy goal given how unfit I've been?" He looked at me and said, "Don't look at other 50 year olds, look at the fit 20 year olds, look at say myself, and use that as your motivation." He doesn't let me off the hook, he trains me as hard as anyone thirty years younger. Now those conversations I used to have with friends, "Oh dear, isn't it funny how you slow down at 50 and get these aches and pains" seem kind of weird.

    Anyway, somewhere amongst all that is I think a key that works for most people. When we transcend the "I can't" to "Maybe I can, and I am going to go for it!" the motivation becomes enormous. We might never be Olympians, but we can all be to some degree "athletic". Suddenly, the harder training becomes, the more "God this exercise is horrible" moments we sometimes have, the more we are thinking inside, "God I love this!" It's a shift internally to having a vision of something beyond our norm, challenging the "I can't".

    Sorry for the waffle Imagymrat, but regarding your statement about the mind, often it is stepping outside the excuses everyone else (and ourselves) make and making that switch to a vision that is beyond that negativity. In some way shape or form I hope I can keep setting new goals for myself to the day I die. Eventually the goal might to be the fastest on a Zimmer frame in the entire retirement home, but I'll make sure I'm enjoying it to the best of my ability. We're all a work in progress. It all turns me on something wicked.