Hi, Cindy. I can actually identify with your desire to work out every day, though it may be for other reasons than you have. I have found many times in my life that if I go every day, then it's simple: I go every day. And then if I take a day off, for some reason I get discouraged (as though I was "bad" in some way) and it's hard to get back the next day.
In short, in times like that I'm exercising daily because to take a day off seems to threaten my whole program. It's sort of a negative reinforcement of the "a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest" law.
I have learned that taking a break is a learned skill. It's not something that comes naturally to me. I have to practice it. I have to do it deliberately, with thought and postive reinforcement: It's good for me. It's good for my muscles. It's good for my brain. And it's really good in helping to stop "all or nothing" thinking (which I fall into very easily).
Do you recognize yourself or your thinking here at all? Or are you making some sort of progress (with weight loss, for instance) that makes you feel you will lose momentum if you do less? Then try, deliberately and carefully, to skip just one day a week for starters. Perhaps you can still use that time in a healthful way -- meditation, for instance, or grocery shopping for healthy foods -- so that it still represents time you've set aside to take care of your body and mind. Your muscles will appreciate the break!
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Hi, Cindy. I can actually identify with your desire to work out every day, though it may be for other reasons than you have. I have found many times in my life that if I go every day, then it's simple: I go every day. And then if I take a day off, for some reason I get discouraged (as though I was "bad" in some way) and it's hard to get back the next day.
In short, in times like that I'm exercising daily because to take a day off seems to threaten my whole program. It's sort of a negative reinforcement of the "a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest" law.
I have learned that taking a break is a learned skill. It's not something that comes naturally to me. I have to practice it. I have to do it deliberately, with thought and postive reinforcement: It's good for me. It's good for my muscles. It's good for my brain. And it's really good in helping to stop "all or nothing" thinking (which I fall into very easily).
Do you recognize yourself or your thinking here at all? Or are you making some sort of progress (with weight loss, for instance) that makes you feel you will lose momentum if you do less? Then try, deliberately and carefully, to skip just one day a week for starters. Perhaps you can still use that time in a healthful way -- meditation, for instance, or grocery shopping for healthy foods -- so that it still represents time you've set aside to take care of your body and mind. Your muscles will appreciate the break!
October 28, 2008 - 8:20amThis Comment
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