image by Llima

Over the last four months I have been part of a fitness challenge group spurred by Uli, a friend through this site. In February, Megan and I joined her and Brad in their $50/week exercise commitment challenge. Since then, my friend Siobhan has joined us. As Uli wrote about the structure of the group, the group holds us accountable to our goals, and we’ve all experienced a lot of growth through the process.

Not too long ago, Megan wrote about the tremendous positive physical and non-physical changes she has seen in her body and beyond. I have seen changes in my physical body, too, and that’s been so refreshing and a big encouragement for me to continue. But the biggest shift I have made through this challenge of fitness is that I am now starting to understand the importance of consistency. The importance I now place on making time for regular physical activity is what has been most transformative for me.

I was thinking about how to express this—how can I describe a new realization of my body’s potential, what word would I pick to express the new found sense of energy that I feel moving in my day and more so, the hope I see about other areas of my life that I can transform? Reverence is the word that I’d choose for the profound respect I have for my physical body in all its amazing capacity to develop and become more than I can imagine. According to Webster’s online dictionary, one of the meanings of reverence is:  “profound, adoring, awed respect.” This accurately conveys what I feel about the surprise and joy that comes from seeing my body get stronger, leaner, and straighter from regular workouts. I also have gratitude for all the different types of exercise I can engage in. This past week I tried out two at home Pilates videos, and I have increased my speed and duration in running. 

Before joining this fitness challenge group, I used to think that I could only exercise when I had extra time or on the weekends. As a result, I exercised sporadically and I had 3 different clothing sizes in my closet; big clothes for when I got chubby and thin clothes for my life with exercise. But as I’ve gotten older, I find that I really like to exercise, and it helps me relax and stay focused mentally. The big challenge was making time for it. Our commitment group has helped me to block out times to workout and to mimic the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.” I found that I tend to spend more time worrying about it or wondering about fitting it into my schedule. I still worry, and kvetch, but now push it aside more and more so I can get going, get out and workout.

Since committing to exercise for four hours per week, I now value exercise as an integral part of my life, just as important as work, school, and socializing. Making the choice to exercise is a choice to put positive action ahead of negative complaining or doubt in the unknown. It’s a truly great step in the right direction.

Exercise grounds all parts of my being together: physical, mental, emotional, and moral. I have found that it is the most efficient action I can take—at least right now it is—to catapult me out of a stinkin’ thinkin’ perspective. It shows me a different perspective very quickly. When I workout and I’m sweaty and really trying as best I can, I break the cyclical limiting thoughts momentarily. They do come back, they always come back, but I’m learning more and more that they’re not the truth, there’s always another perspective, to keep an open mind and to just chill out rather than jump to an interpretation that makes a problem out of someone or something.

Through this commitment I’ve made to myself and four other people the wall of busyness and excuses I have made for not pursuing greatness in my life are being worn down through exercise and checking in about it weekly with them. In the last couple of months, I’ve started to notice friends and acquaintances of mine who already do make exercise part of their normal life. It’s not only when they “have time” or “feel like it.” It really is all the time, as important as everything else, with some slowing down when it’s appropriate—like during sickness or some huge project at work, or moving.

I have had slips. I fell short on my hours twice and had to pay the penalty, 50 bucks. But it’s helped me value the practice of workouts, and scheduling time to take care of my physical health in an ongoing way, not just for a brief period of time but as part of daily life. The biggest former obstacle that I overcame was fitting in exercise during busy times. I managed to workout during my spring semester finals. One week I did fall short and had to pay because I was sick and didn’t tell anyone. Out of this came a conversation that it’s fine to decrease hours for sickness if I communicate this to another member during the week, not after. 

I started running last July and have kept it up for nearly a year. Now, I’ve become faster and I think it’s time to change my running routine from track running to street running. Exercise greatly benefits my mental focus and keeps my body relaxed, when I tend to get anxious. Last week I had a breakthrough during an Abs workout.  I really worked through each movement and afterwards my back was much stronger and I was easily able to stand up straight. That’s the day I made the connection with the foods I eat, and saw that the foods I choose affect my workouts. Fruits and veggies support greater physical activity. A bonus of exercising is that the more fit I become, the more easily I find it to cut out the sweets, the sugar, and overeating because they don’t support my body. Either I feel tired and heavy or I get a stomach ache and this inhibits my exercise and the enjoyment and energy that come from it. Splurging is okay, I’ve found, if done infrequently, when appropriate like when I’m out to dinner or when the dessert is top notch and is satisfying on multiple levels—taste, quality, atmosphere and shared conversation.

Another thing I am learning is how to accept that my flexibility and energy level will change due to various factors like sleep or time of the month and not to make a sweeping negative self-judgment about it. Rather, I am learning to follow-through, stay focused on specific movements of my workout, and let go of the results.

Another cool thing is my perspective on being pushed and pushing others is changing. Two weeks ago, I got up to go running, kind of groggy and stiff and not wanting to go. On the walk over, the streets were quiet and sleepy, the sun refracting off the dew on the grass and trees. I finally arrived at the high school track where I usually run and there was this whole entire group of people that I had forgotten about—the physically fit runners, walkers and chatty soccer moms, yelling coaches and chirping children all exercising or supporting young athletes. I thought, yeah this is the culture I want to be part of, the people who value working out. At one point, I saw a soccer coach yell at his players, “Move it, Move it, Leeett’sss Goooo!!” A short while back,  I would have thought that he was being unnecessarily harsh,  but I started laughing, thinking about how I often push myself to get moving,  knowing well that most times, unless we don’t do this for ourselves and others,  we won’t develop in a real, measurable, and completely inspiring way.