Good evening health family! Today we are going to talk about exercising! This is something that many people absolutely love while others hate it with a passion. Why might this be? Are people just different? These are two great questions! And I, your Health Cop, am here to explain it all!

As you may have read in my last post, I started my exercising journey with YouTube cardio sessions. This was something that I truly did not enjoy. It was hard, boring, and failed to work for me. I was practically wasting my time! This was a problem because eventually I stopped exercising overall. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, I have experienced this with many people. Often, people stop exercising because the workouts are either too challenging or not enjoyable. I also knew proper nutrition could carry out my goals without doing any physical activity at all! This leaves me with three topics that I would love to discuss:

1.       Why should I exercise when I can simply watch my nutrition?  –

This is very true! We can live a great life by properly managing our nutrition. Simply carrying out normal everyday tasks burns calories! However, because most people want to achieve their goals as quickly as possible, this is how exercising benefits us! Think of it this way. People make meals with canned goods. We first have to remove the ingredients from the can. To start, I guess we could punch a hole in the top and let it slowly trickle out, but that will take forever! We could also smash the can around until the ingredients come flying out, but then we might lose or ruin the ingredients! Or how about instead, we use a can opener to completely open the top so that we can quickly and safely use the ingredients! Oddly enough, this is how you should view exercising. Exercising is simply a tool we can use to accomplish our goals as quickly as possible. I can take the comparison even further though. A can opener is great, but sometimes it can be annoying to crank the knob. Therefore, we have invented better ways to open it, such as an electric opener! Meaning, we might be able to find exercises that are more effective than others. Overall, exercise should be viewed as the ultimate tool to help us!

2.       My exercises are not enjoyable. What do I do? –

If exercises are not enjoyable, why would you want to do it!? I know the answer, you wouldn’t! I call this a health journey for a reason. Sometimes we try something for a while and realize that it is not working. Although, this does not mean we should stop altogether! There are always more options. For example, I stopped doing my YouTube cardio session. However, I quickly took up biking. This was something that really worked for me. It was much simpler than intense interval training. If I got too tired, I could simply coast or lower into an easier gear. Therefore, I strongly recommend you cater the exercises to what you like! It could be jogging, swimming, roller blading, walking, lifting, or more! It may take a while until you find something enjoyable. Trust me, something will eventually work!

3.       My exercises are too hard. I want to quit. –

Who likes doing anything when we cannot properly do it? No one! This is a simple problem to fix. But before we go any further, it is important to make sure you like what you are doing. Enjoyable exercises tend to be simpler to carry out in our mind. Although you may like the workouts, they may start off too challenging. Therefore, search the internet for beginner steps when doing different movements. For example, I had a friend that really wanted to get good at pushups. She knew she liked them, but struggled to do more than two at a time. I recommended for her to look online and see what others do to make the task a little simpler. She could use different approach until she has enough strength to do the pushups in a more advanced way. As many of you know, dropping your knees to the ground during pushups makes it a heck of a lot easier. This is what she did until she was able to do 30 or more. Once she could do many pushups in the “beginner stage”, she was then able to go back to regular pushups. We were both amazed when she could easily do 10 regular pushups! It is all about gradually getting better.

This makes things so much simpler! As you have read above, there are two steps to get into working out:

1 – find an exercise you like

2 – start at an easy level so you can slowly progress

 

Go! Find something enjoyable and post below! I want to know what you and your friends enjoy doing! Every exercise is unique. Who knows, someone else could tell you all about a new favorite exercise that you have never heard about!

 

Remember, exercising is the best tool we have that can aid in the journey of living a healthier life!

Yours truly,

Health Cop