Exercising

Theres an old joke that goes ‘I love work – I could watch it for hours’. That’s how I feel about exercise. And there’s even a bit of the same love-hate thing in there, too. Though I like working more than I like exercising, still both can give you results that you love, results that make you think that the effort is worth it.

I was thinking about this the other day while reading one of the blogs that I came across back when I had time to read blogs – when I was actually looking for ways to fill my day at work. The blog is called Mamamusings, subtitled elizabeth lane lawley's thoughts on technology, academia, family, and tangential topics, which puts the content pretty well, though it conveys nothing of the woman’s intelligence and breadth of insight – reading what she’s written frequently feels to me like inhaling cool air after time in a smoky room. It’s a delight.

The content that got me thinking was from a posting titled ‘fitness update: the tale of the tape’, about her decision to switch exercise regimens to one that is more structured and more arduous. Here’s part of what she said:

Two weeks ago, I decided to shift from the more flexible approach to getting fit outlined in Pam Peeke’s Body for Life for Women book to the more prescriptive approach in Bill Phillips’ original Body for Life book. I did this after seeing how well the latter program was already starting to work for my husband.

At this two-week mark, I’m pretty amazed by the results. The scale shows a drop of only 3 pounds—from 136.5 to 133.5. But the tale of the tape (as they say in boxing) is more striking. I’ve lost nearly 2” from my waist, and 1” each from my bust, hips, and thighs. My arms have stayed the same, but I suspect that’s because of the muscle being added. I can totally feel the difference in how my clothes fit. Beyond that, I also feel more energetic, more balanced.

I don’t exercise much, for the usual reasons, and more than once (like so many other people) I’ve thought that I wish I could. I know, that’s a cop out, because no one has more time than anyone else, people who are way busier than I still manage to find the time, blah blah blah. Nevertheless, its true. I don’t act on this awareness, but I do think about it, and one of the things that I think is that people don’t exercise not because they don’t want to but because they don’t see any way to do it in any meaningful method, and still do the other things they need to do to keep their lives going. Unless you have focus and determination, most people (for which read: me) can’t get up every morning at 5AM to exercise for an hour, and if they don’t do that, then they see no point to doing it at all. Certainly, the health related articles don’t help much. It seems that about every 6 - 8 months, an article will come out that says ‘you know those things we said you should be doing? Well, a new study shows that actually that list wasn’t strenuous enough. So in addition to that, you should....’ I can’t tell you what comes after that, because that’s where I stop reading.

But I wish I could. I wish I did.