Can't "just do it"

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  • palwithme
    palwithme Posts: 860 Member
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    I love going to the gym, but some days are difficult. Like today. Friday. On those days I just don't push it too hard. I do what I can. But I go each day, no matter what. If I pushed myself each and every day I would probably quit. At least I get something done.
  • Verdenal
    Verdenal Posts: 625 Member
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    bmitd67 wrote: »
    Urrggghhh! Its cold and I cannot get myself to move. My therapist says its an inertia thing and I need a parallel goal. I live a block from the gym but I just cannot get there. I'm a 5'8" 234, hypertensive, 47 stay-at-home dad.

    As someone else said, I would kill to live a block from the gym, too, but the cold and responsibilities can get you down. Could you load up a playlist and dance or do calisthenics to music? Set an alarm for 10 minutes, 5 if 10 is too much. Move. If you're up for more, set that alarm for another 10. If you're not into it, stop.

    If you have weights at home, do 1 set for the key exercises you usually do.

    Sometimes goals don't work because there's nothing worthwhile that is reasonably quickly attainable. Maybe your goal should be trying to be in the moment for 10 minutes.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,668 Member
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    bmitd67 wrote: »
    Urrggghhh! Its cold and I cannot get myself to move. My therapist says its an inertia thing and I need a parallel goal. I live a block from the gym but I just cannot get there. I'm a 5'8" 234, hypertensive, 47 stay-at-home dad.
    There is no such thing as "can't" in this resolve. You either will not or refuse to go. And no amount of inspiration, encouragement, urging, etc. will matter until YOU WANT TO. That's something you have to find in yourself.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • Train4Foodz
    Train4Foodz Posts: 4,298 Member
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    bmitd67 wrote: »
    Urrggghhh! Its cold and I cannot get myself to move. My therapist says its an inertia thing and I need a parallel goal. I live a block from the gym but I just cannot get there. I'm a 5'8" 234, hypertensive, 47 stay-at-home dad.
    There is no such thing as "can't" in this resolve. You either will not or refuse to go. And no amount of inspiration, encouragement, urging, etc. will matter until YOU WANT TO. That's something you have to find in yourself.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    +1
    You have to truly WANT this! If you get that nailed.. You will get the healthy lifestyle nailed too!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I've spent years in inertia-land. I relate. It's true though that it's not "I can't." You're cranking the old model-T and you aren't turning over. Almost there.

    hand-crank.jpg

    How about building an in-between keystone habit?

    http://alifeofproductivity.com/3-ways-identify-keystone-habits-habits-set-chain-reaction-change-everything/

    What could you do every single day fitness wise, for the next seven days? Might it be doing the stairs for five minutes before the kids come home from school/wake up from their nap? Or perhaps walk the block around the fitness center for seven days. The idea is to get you moving and proving to your inner hedonist that the new habit won't kill you. In fact, it may very well be stimulating and fun.
  • bmitd67
    bmitd67 Posts: 3 Member
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    Cobourg wrote: »
    I would say that you don't have a choice. Consider it an appointment. If you had to go to the doctor's you wouldn't say that you can't get there. So don't over think it just go. That is what I do and believe it is not my favourite place to be.

    This is what my therapist says. He uses an admittedly bad analogy of sitting through traffic to go to work. You get up, knowingly sit through traffic to get to a job you might not like but you have to do it and ultimately you just do it.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Put it on your calendar and get it done. I'm currently sitting in my office slightly damp and uncomfortable from a lunchtime walk in the rain. Suck it up buttercup and get out there! :)
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    The hardest part is getting your backside in the gym. If you cant be bothered to go one block then you arent commited and you dont want to lose weight enough.

    You could try a diet without exercise or alternatively exercise at home, but then would you find an alternative reason why you couldnt do that?

    Finding soemthing you like doing or can fit into daily life is a good alternative to the gym.
  • streamgirl
    streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
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    I tell myself I only have to go for 15 minutes. I think I've only ever left after 15 minutes once or twice, if I really wasn't in to it.
  • bmitd67
    bmitd67 Posts: 3 Member
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    elleloch wrote: »
    What are you doing instead?
    On the days with no kids I run errands. On the days I have a kid I end up cleaning the house and goofing around with her.
  • andympanda
    andympanda Posts: 763 Member
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    Need to quote Yoda, "do or not do, their is no try"
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    Stop saying "can't". You obviously can. People on bedrest or who are paralyzed can't. You just won't. Learn the distinction and find a way around it. Sorry for the tough love, but you have no excuses other than the ones you set up for yourself.
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
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    No one can give you the motivation to go to them gym. In fact, there will always, and forever more be days that you have no motivation to workout. I've become a pretty dedicated gym rat, and there are still days that I just don't wanna. But I suck it up and go anyway. What you need to find is discipline not motivation.

    Decide now that you are going to the gym x times a week. Decide now what days you are going, and at what time. Decide now the workouts you will be doing on each of those days. Leave yourself no decisions on the day, and there can be no excuses. Too late, decision made.

    Then do what you decided you would. Do you consider yourself reliable? If you told your partner, parents, children you were going to do something, do you follow through? Then it should be no different with the things you tell yourself you'll do.
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
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    Also, you'll find that progress is a hell of a drug. So whatever program you opt for, make sure there is some way to measure your progress. Before long you'll find the time between gym sessions drags on, and you're champing at the bit to get in there and set a new personal record.
  • farmboyphotography
    farmboyphotography Posts: 181 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Frankly, excuses are not going to get you anywhere. You have hypertension now. Sounds like you need some tough love.

    Have you considered what other health-related maladies you are likely to get in the future? These diseases/problems tend to go hand-in-hand. I WAS a good example of that until very recently. Got hypertension and are overweight? How about a little heart disease to go with that? Maybe a stroke or fatty liver disease or insulin resistance, which frequently results in diabetes and all its symptoms, some of which are irreversible. Neuropathy is a bugger - I know it and I got off my butt early when I started having those symptoms and started to consider that I was probably not going to be alive to walk my daughter down the aisle.

    Healthy choices and physical fitness, for most people are choices we make... or we don't make. I WAS becoming a cautionary tale about a guy who sat around and let myself go to hell and started having all kinds of health problems that I caused by my inactivity - my own damn fault. It was not the fault of the junk food or the slick food advertising or my desk job, etc. It was entirely my own fault. Now, its your choice, its your life, but please consider throwing your excuses away and getting fit -- for your kids if not for yourself! Good luck to you, sir!
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
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    stumblinthrulife wrote: »
    No one can give you the motivation to go to them gym. In fact, there will always, and forever more be days that you have no motivation to workout. I've become a pretty dedicated gym rat, and there are still days that I just don't wanna. But I suck it up and go anyway. What you need to find is discipline not motivation.

    Decide now that you are going to the gym x times a week. Decide now what days you are going, and at what time. Decide now the workouts you will be doing on each of those days. Leave yourself no decisions on the day, and there can be no excuses. Too late, decision made.

    Then do what you decided you would. Do you consider yourself reliable? If you told your partner, parents, children you were going to do something, do you follow through? Then it should be no different with the things you tell yourself you'll do.

    TRUTH.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Saying you can't isn't digging deep enough. You won't for some reason.

    There are legitimate reasons for avoiding the gym. Like worrying about being the heaviest person there. Or it could be inertia as you said. Easier to keep doing what you are doing and dang the future.

    There's a fella in my therapy group who is very focused on changing his life and losing weight. He lives and breathes for his daughter. He knows the best gift he can give her is reassurance that her father will be there to see her get married, have babies....children want their parents to be healthy and long-lived. We are never supposed to die.

    There are dozens of ways you could incorporate exercise in to the time you have with your children at home. You know you love tooling around with them. Add exercise.

    Mom and tot workout

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdSZORFwlDI

    Chihuahua yoga

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn3mMmy_ghY
  • farmboyphotography
    farmboyphotography Posts: 181 Member
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    jgnatca wrote: »
    There are legitimate reasons for avoiding the gym. Like worrying about being the heaviest person there. Or it could be inertia as you said.

    I respectfully disagree with the legitimacy of that reasoning. Why? Because its an excuse, a crutch. It's a poor excuse. You may worry about being the heaviest person at the gym today, but so what? Will you always be the heaviest person at the gym? Only if you choose to be that guy. You are not in competition with the other people at your gym. You are ONLY in competition with yourself.

    Trust me, I still look like a dork on the ab coaster or doing tricep curls using an exercise ball. But I am doing it -- a lifestyle change that will never end while I am still kicking -- BUT I am NEVER going to be the fat guy again. Ever.

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