How to be More Consistent with Exercise

 Exercise is enjoyable. I love to exercise. I enjoy how I have to breathe deeper and how my stomach muscles quiver from the stretching. I like the discomfort because it means I have worked hard. Moreover, hard work means benefits. What’s magical about exercise is that if you consistently exercise you will reap benefits. If you work hard at exercising you will receive many benefits. The work you put in produces results. How many jobs can you say that about, if you work hard, you’ll get something in return? Not many. Hard work doesn’t always guarantee rewards. However, exercise is a tangible action that you have total control over. If you put in the work, you exercise, you will see results. Also, depending on how much effort you put in, you’ll see more results as in muscle gain, and improvement of mobility depending on the exercise, the intensity, and the targeted area. One reason helps me to walk daily. So in my head, I know these things about exercise. I find it difficult to put this into practice on a daily basis. One thing I consistently do is walk. I don’t mean the kind of walk where you’re spending more time looking at what’s on the side of you instead of what’s in front of you. You see if you’re not looking straight ahead that means you are walking much too slow and don’t need to pay attention to what the road is like. That kind of slow walking has its place, but it doesn’t increase the heart rate. The walking I do is the kind where I need to pay attention to what’s in front of me. I walk fast, and if I can, I walk uphill, anything to get my heart rate up. I do this every day without fail. The main reason for this is because of a rambunctious dog, for which I’m thankful. I would not walk every day despite enjoying it because when the weather is terrible, I talk myself out of it. However, Daisy, my dog, doesn’t listen to my reasons for not going out. I have to walk.

I am not consistent with exercise even though it helps me with the various problems I have, i.e., bad back, bad shoulder, and a bad neck. When I consistently exercise I don’t have pain. That is a fact for me. The times I don’t exercise are the times when my back goes out or my neck. Despite knowing this, I can go by without exercise, (except for the walking, that I do) I haven’t done exercises for my back in over a week. The excuses are plentiful; my kids were here, we traveled, school started, had to shop, etc. I don’t want to end there with not doing anything. To form a habit I need to take a small step. My exercise habit. My first step to consistent exercise is to state I will. I intend to walk and exercise daily. By exercise, I mean specific stretches that strengthen my back and core muscles. And to encourage that behavior I will exercise tomorrow in the morning before breakfast. I’ll let you know how I do. How about you? What keeps you from exercise and what are you going to do about it? Tell me about it in my  Facebook group. You can join here.