Exercise Words of Wisdom
I just saw this in my Prevention newsletter & thought that it was very appropriate for our situations, so I thought I would copy & paste it. Kinda lengthy, but a good read! It pertains to our views on exercise (the other 4 letter word!! 
)
The reason to engage in the activity formerly known as exercise is not because it's good for your heart or lowers your cholesterol, or because your thighs are dimpled and your arms are droopy. (Most of us already know about the physical and mental benefits of exercise, but this doesn't seem to be enough to tear us away from the television.) The reason is not because you're not good enough the way you are. If you exercise for any of these reasons, your desire will last for a week, a month, maybe even a year. And then you will rebel. No one can tolerate being told they're not good enough for very long.
"Sometimes it is necessary / to reteach a thing its loveliness," writes the poet Galway Kinnell. The reason to move is to reteach our bodies their loveliness. We live most of our lives in our minds, but the fact is that we are spirits clothed in flesh and blood and bones. By not moving our bodies, we are depriving ourselves of connecting to that long-ago child who loved running, dancing, and jumping in the sun and air. We've replaced the singular, personal joy of moving outdoors with grin-and-bear-it machine workouts. Yuck.
So, what to do?
Approach the "E" word with softness, humor, and care.
Stop battering, threatening, and torturing yourself.
Stop whipping yourself into shape.
Understand that taking the misery (and therefore the rebellion) out of exercise is a Major Big Deal because it involves unlearning self-hatred and, as Kinnell suggests, relearning your own loveliness.
Now, take a breath and do the following experiment:
Say to yourself, Okay, little missy--it's time to whip that butt into shape! Feel the tension in your body when you say those words.
Then, notice the difference--how your heart opens and your muscles relax--when you say, Listen, I know you've been trying really hard to have a perfect body. Either that, or you've been beating yourself up for not trying hard enough. How about an alternative to all that crashing and burning? How about starting to appreciate the body you already have?
Let the Kid Out
Buried under all your skewed beliefs about the "E" word is a little kid who has been cooped up for years and is dying to tear out of the house. She may not be the best athlete or the fastest runner or the first picked for the soccer team, but she can still enjoy feeling the power of her body. In fact, she hungers for it.
Imagine you are this kid (because you are). What would you do when your mother finally let you out of the house? Would you walk? Dance? Run? What is it that your body wants to do? This is not necessarily the same as what you would excel at doing.
My colleague Francie White, a dietitian whose practice focuses on resolving the causes of emotional eating and exercise resistance, tells people who loathe exercise to stop doing it. When they are truly ready to play, when it doesn't feel like torture or misery to move their bodies, she asks them to commit to the activities (e.g., walking outside, putting on music when no one is home and dancing around the room, inline skating, bicycle riding, trampoline jumping, swimming) they find most pleasurable 5 days a week.
For the rest of their lives.
I ask my students to do the same.
Even after you've rediscovered the joy and power of moving your body, you'll still have to endure a whole lifetime of belief, perpetuated by many in the fitness industry, that pushes you in the direction of exercise-as-suffering, exercise-for-results. So make a firm commitment to dance, skate, or "trampoline" every day. Otherwise, you'll think you're not working hard enough, and you'll believe that true happiness can only come from a culturally perfect body, and because you probably don't have one, you'll doubt your experience.
The truth is, moving your body isn't about any goal other than physically connecting with the fundamental pleasure of and gratitude for being alive. The rest is just gravy.
Yall know we ALL love Gravy!!!!! 
hugz, Gina L
)
The reason to engage in the activity formerly known as exercise is not because it's good for your heart or lowers your cholesterol, or because your thighs are dimpled and your arms are droopy. (Most of us already know about the physical and mental benefits of exercise, but this doesn't seem to be enough to tear us away from the television.) The reason is not because you're not good enough the way you are. If you exercise for any of these reasons, your desire will last for a week, a month, maybe even a year. And then you will rebel. No one can tolerate being told they're not good enough for very long.
"Sometimes it is necessary / to reteach a thing its loveliness," writes the poet Galway Kinnell. The reason to move is to reteach our bodies their loveliness. We live most of our lives in our minds, but the fact is that we are spirits clothed in flesh and blood and bones. By not moving our bodies, we are depriving ourselves of connecting to that long-ago child who loved running, dancing, and jumping in the sun and air. We've replaced the singular, personal joy of moving outdoors with grin-and-bear-it machine workouts. Yuck.
So, what to do?
Approach the "E" word with softness, humor, and care.
Stop battering, threatening, and torturing yourself.
Stop whipping yourself into shape.
Understand that taking the misery (and therefore the rebellion) out of exercise is a Major Big Deal because it involves unlearning self-hatred and, as Kinnell suggests, relearning your own loveliness.
Now, take a breath and do the following experiment:
Say to yourself, Okay, little missy--it's time to whip that butt into shape! Feel the tension in your body when you say those words.
Then, notice the difference--how your heart opens and your muscles relax--when you say, Listen, I know you've been trying really hard to have a perfect body. Either that, or you've been beating yourself up for not trying hard enough. How about an alternative to all that crashing and burning? How about starting to appreciate the body you already have?
Let the Kid Out
Buried under all your skewed beliefs about the "E" word is a little kid who has been cooped up for years and is dying to tear out of the house. She may not be the best athlete or the fastest runner or the first picked for the soccer team, but she can still enjoy feeling the power of her body. In fact, she hungers for it.
Imagine you are this kid (because you are). What would you do when your mother finally let you out of the house? Would you walk? Dance? Run? What is it that your body wants to do? This is not necessarily the same as what you would excel at doing.
My colleague Francie White, a dietitian whose practice focuses on resolving the causes of emotional eating and exercise resistance, tells people who loathe exercise to stop doing it. When they are truly ready to play, when it doesn't feel like torture or misery to move their bodies, she asks them to commit to the activities (e.g., walking outside, putting on music when no one is home and dancing around the room, inline skating, bicycle riding, trampoline jumping, swimming) they find most pleasurable 5 days a week.
For the rest of their lives.
I ask my students to do the same.
Even after you've rediscovered the joy and power of moving your body, you'll still have to endure a whole lifetime of belief, perpetuated by many in the fitness industry, that pushes you in the direction of exercise-as-suffering, exercise-for-results. So make a firm commitment to dance, skate, or "trampoline" every day. Otherwise, you'll think you're not working hard enough, and you'll believe that true happiness can only come from a culturally perfect body, and because you probably don't have one, you'll doubt your experience.
The truth is, moving your body isn't about any goal other than physically connecting with the fundamental pleasure of and gratitude for being alive. The rest is just gravy.
Yall know we ALL love Gravy!!!!!
hugz, Gina L Most Active
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