How to Fall in Love With Exercising

“We learn the way on the way.” —Shannon Kaiser

Beginning your health journey is an easy decision. Let’s be real. Maintaining it is not. I mean, I’m just being honest with you.

Earlier this month, I talked about my current health struggles.

And as I was reflecting on my progress this week, one topic kept popping up: working out. I thought about every aspect of it: Not everyone loves to work out.

Most people just see it as a part of their routine. For some, health and staying active is all they know because they grew up with it.

People like me see it as current struggle.

For those who love to exercise, how on earth did they get to that point?!

Before I dive in deeper, here’s a little background about my health: I grew up stick skinny and could never gain weight no matter how much I ate. I tried to “be normal” like other kids so I forced myself to eat a lot, but could never gain anything.

In high school, I danced between five to six days a week depending on the season our drill team was in and finally started gaining muscle. 2003-2005 was when I was in the best shape of my life. I was a size 0-2 at an almost solid 110 pounds. I stayed active for the next two years while I was in college, but with mounds of school work piling on me, I put my health on the backburner.

I gained a lot of weight in 2010 as a result of neglecting my health and ended up at 130 pounds. Between 2013-2014, I lost quite a bit of it and went back down to a size 2. Last November, I was in a car accident and had to pause my health journey. The result, I jumped from size 4/6 to an 8/10 in clothes.

Needless to say, it’s been a struggle for me to work out on a consistent basis again after being away from any kind of exercise for so long.

Since I firmly believe that health is wealth, I wanted to talk about ways to get yourself to fall in love with exercise.

BE REALISTIC.

When I say be realistic, I mean to understand and know in your mind that the beginning of any health journey is going to suck. Anything workout-related whether you’re just starting or starting over is going to suck even more. It’s going to suck SO bad. Don’t trust me? Tell me how you feel after your first workout. I’m pretty sure you’ll refer it to death or something similar, haha! Anyway, once you get over that feeling that it’s going to be terrible, you’ll be making progress without even realizing it.

BUY YOURSELF A NICE SET OF WORKOUT CLOTHES.

I have no clue what it is, but when I’m able to buy new work out gear, I just want to head to the gym! Maybe it’s a confidence thing or something, but I feel like I can conquer the world when I feel amazing in what I’m wearing. My best bet in world domination? Wearing a great fitkit, my hair in a ponytail and strapping boxing gloves on.

EAT BETTER NOT LESS.

Who works out to eat? Me! And so do a lot of other people, ha! Instead of eating cereal for breakfast, try something different like broccoli with olive oil and lemon juice. It may be weird, but take notice of how much energy you have in the early afternoon when you do it.

If you haven’t looked into it, research how to eat in terms of the glycemic index. Keep your blood sugar levels even and you’ll have energy all day!

QUALITY SLEEP IS IMPORTANT.

I’m not going to lie. Getting quality sleep is one area that I struggle with so much because I’m working on my time management. If you find yourself plateauing (love that word) with your health, look at your sleeping patterns. If you’re not getting enough sleep or quality sleep, that’s probably why you’re not making progress, even if you’re eating clean.

Big thanks to my bestie, Sarah, for pointing this out to me! I’ve found that my magic number is seven. If I get six hours of sleep, I’m functioning. If I want to be happy as a clam, a minimum of seven hours is it for me.

WORK ON YOUR MINDSET.

This one I left for last because it’s tied at #1 with sleeping more. I’ve always known that mindset is important which is why it’s a topic I can talk about forever. If you take a look at a lot of your problems, it all comes back to your mindset.

Think about it. Instead of saying, “I hate working out,” tell yourself, “I love working out because I love the way I feel afterwards.” Your body hears everything you say (going Think and Grow Rich on you here) and responds to the words you think and say out loud. It sounds ridiculous, but eventually your body will follow suit. Trust me.

This is something I’ll be working on improving, especially with my health.

Whether you took a long gym break because you had to or wanted to, taking care of the only place you have to live is important. You can fall in love with exercising.