Enjoy the Benefits of Exercise

I’ve been an Oprah fan since she hit the national airwaves, and I’ve read almost everything she’s ever written about her weight struggles. She gets it, and I find reading about her lessons so inspiring. Ten to 15 years ago, she and her trainer Bob Greene wrote a book entitled Make the Connection. A lot of it is about the importance of regular exercise to weight loss or weight control. I’ve always believed that and often have used exercise to try to lose weight.

The problem with that is weight control has never been a strong enough reason for me to continue working out regularly. It falls too easily into the “have to” category then, and that doesn’t help me drag my butt to the gym on the days I really would rather stay seated on my coach reading or watching tv. I do my best with exercising regularly when I'm doing it for the value it brings itself - and not necessarily because I hope it will make me look better or lose weight. If I focus on the benefits - it makes me feel so good, it improves my mood and reduces stress, I have more energy, I sleep better, it keeps me "younger" – and even the fun or joy it brings, I’m much likelier to keep it up. It’s not a chore then but rather something I want to do.

The key to this approach is finding the kinds of exercise that you will really enjoy. This is a very individual choice. A few years ago, I discussed with two friends of mine, Laura Graham Booth and Carol Elise Hayes, what form of exercise we liked the best. My favorite was step aerobics; Carol preferred running, and Laura enjoyed yoga. Each of us was intimidated by the others’ favorite. Jeanne Adams shared on Friday how martial arts does it for her. Trish likes hiking, and Tawny walks while listening to podcasts. One or two friends prefer playing tennis regularly while others train for 10Ks, marathons or triathalons.

It’s worth exploring lots of options to discover what you will enjoy the most. Sometimes, I feel like I tried it all. Growing up, I had a lot of jock friends. They got so excited before every sport season, and their enthusiasm would convince me to join the team once again. Within a week or two, I’d remember all that I hated about sports, but I was stuck because I had made a commitment. I played soccer for ten years and softball for five. I was always one of the worst players on the field, and I can only remember brief stretches of time when I enjoyed it. I just never cared if we won. Playing sports wasn’t for me and could never be my main form of exercise.

With the rise of Jane Fonda as the exercise queen, I dabbled with aerobics. I’ve always liked to walk and have tried speed walking. In college, I was introduced to step, and I still think it rocks. I always preferred it to low-impact or dance aerobics. I also did some regular weight lifting on nautilus machines, but it always bored me. I've dabbled with skiing (very fun), tennis, and golf. I even tried a little regular jogging, but I got killer shin splints.

When I first started making money after grad school, I joined a lovely, welcoming, supportive women’s gym in Austin, Texas. Once again, step aerobics welcomed me back with open arms. I really enjoyed the pool classes. I never could understand why folks were so excited about kickboxing. It never felt like it raised my heart rate enough, and I'm not into hitting or kicking. Weight lifting still bored me. I got better acquainted with the treadmill and the elliptical, and I liked the latter.

After I moved to the DC area, I joined another women’s gym and had a pretty similar experience to Austin though there was no pool. When this gym closed because the owner embezzled from it, I did what was once unthinkable and joined a co-ed gym. There, the biggest appeal was still the classes and the elliptical machine.

Even though I have belonged to gyms for the past 10 years, I can’t say that I always went regularly. There were vast stretches when my monthly dues were more like donations to the owners’ bottom line as opposed to payments for services rendered. But, when I was going, it was because I was trying to lose weight. I never did lose more than 15 pounds in any stretch. I hadn’t realized that not only did I have to change my relationship to food, but I also had to change my view of and approach to exercise.

I did first go back to the gym this year in May because I was trying to do “something more” in my journey to becoming healthy. I was wary of burn out and started slowly. I went two times a week and then three instead of my usual pattern of going whole hog from the very beginning. I slowly built up to my current average of four times a week. During busier weeks, I go three times, and other times, I’m able to manage five times, but overall, I'm maintaining my average of four times a week.

Around the same time I returned to Gold’s Gym (which is not dominated by unfriendly boxers and serious body builders as I always feared), I read David Kessler’s The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. It had a profound effect on me. He argued that the only healthy feeling of reward close to the one you get from overeating comes from exercise, and you can literally rewire your brain to want the healthy version and not the unhealthy version. When I first started going to the gym regularly, I'd sometimes tell myself I'm rewiring my brain. Somewhat to my surprise, it is working. Every time my body longs for exercise for its own reward - for stress relief - to feel good - etc. - I act on it.
 The books I’ve read on emotional eating also stress the importance and benefits of exercise.

I focus on doing exercise I enjoy. I started back with step classes and the elliptical. One day, I accidentally showed up an hour early for a step class. It was for a body pump weight lifting class. It had always intimidated me, but I took it as a sign that I should give it a try. To my great surprise, I loved it. I now attend this class two to three times a week. I can't overstate the difference it has made to how my body looks and how quickly that happened. It really firms up and sculpts your body. My positive experience with the weight lifting class convinced me to try some of the many other classes. Zumba, a Latin and international dance aerobics class, is a new favorite. We all grin our way through it.

I plan to continue sampling classes – especially if I start getting bored with my current fitness routine. The hip hop aerobics class, body jam, is not nearly as good or enjoyable of a workout as Zumba, so I never returned after the first time I went. I plan to return to some of the yoga, pilates or body flow classes. One of these days I’m going to try a spin class and perhaps body attack. I’ve also played with the idea of starting running following a couch to 5K plan. Really, exercise and thinking about new ways I can mix it up have become fun for me. I’m going to work to keep it that way.

Do you exercise? If so, what are your favorite things to do? If you don’t, what’s keeping you from trying it?