Exercuse

I've been routinely exercising for about two weeks now, and I'm looking for a reason to stop.

Every day for the last two weeks, I've done between 15 minutes (at the beginning) and 30 minutes (for the last week) on the elliptical machine; 20 minutes on the treadmill, and, on alternate days, some work with weights. I work up a sweat. Not like those folks you see there who are wearing T Shirts where the back is just dark with perspiration, but enough so that I feel it on my neck. I'm tired when I'm done. Moderately pleased to have done it One More Time, but not nearly so pleased that when another day rolls around, I feel glad for the chance to Do It Again. I don't want to exercise. I don't like it. I don't want to exercise; I want an excuse not to.

I've almost got one, in that today is Sunday; Day of Rest, right? And plus we just had brunch; can't go huffing through stuff having just eaten? And its a nice day out, so we might go see the Labor Day festivities down in the city - and wow, where did the day go? I'll exercise tomorrow.

It's not as if I don't think there's benefit to exercise. There is, I'm sure. I may actually have dropped one or two pounds in the last week, as a result. But it doesn't get easier. I don't step onto the elliptical and think Ah, this is nothing, I can do this on my head. If I look at the timer and it says less than 5 minutes have gone by -- it's going to be tough to get to 30. Hell, it's going to be tough to get to 20. Doing the weights isn't too bad, but still: Not Fun. Not getting any pleasure out of it. Want to just knock it off.

I tell my wife that if I miss a day, then it's much more likely that at another point, I'll miss two. And if I miss two, then at some point it'll be three, or four. And once that happens, I've effectively stopped exercising. Stopped getting (somewhat) better in shape. Stopped (somewhat) losing weight. So I know I should continue. I just don't want to. I'm not one of those folks who gets energised by it. Quite the contrary. I hate it.

I need an exercuse.