How I Came to Love the E-Word

For much of my life, I hated exercise.

The more I hated it, the more I ate. And the more I ate, the larger I became. The larger I became, the harder it was to move. And the more difficult it was for me to move, the more I hated even attempting exercise. Of course, I knew physical activity was good for me. I knew that regular exercise would reduce my risk of diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, cancer, etc. Knowing what to do was not the problem. The problem was that I simply didn’t like doing it!

I also knew that creating a healthy relationship with my body was important. In fact, I felt it to be one of the most profound lessons of my life.

I wanted to get in the best possible shape I could, and paying attention to what I put in my mouth was not the only thing I was going to have to do. It was time time to bite the bullet, and do what I hated to do--exercise.

But I also knew that I had to make it fun if I was going to stick with it. I had to find a way infuse exercise with pleasure and joy.

Because we experience pleasure through our five senses, I began to make my exercise time a sensory experience. I started walking very slowly, 15 minutes in one direction, and 15 minutes back. But on those walks, I intentionally engaged all of my senses. On those walks, I really began to look at my environment--the squirrels playing, the dogs yelping, the ducks in the creek, and the camels behind the fence at the children’s zoo. I started paying attention to smells, whether it was the barnyard smell of the ponies, or fresh cut grass. And I began to listen for sounds that I normally ignored, like cicadas and crickets or the chatter of squirrels.

Each walk became a sensory experience.

A funny thing happened: I started to enjoy my walks. Then I started look forward to them and take pleasure in them. And the more pleasure I found in them, the more fun they became, and the more fun they became, the easier they were to do!

And before I knew it, walking morphed into running! And now running is one of the great pleasures of my life.

But it started with the decision to infuse pleasure into exercise.

How can you infuse pleasure into your New Year’s Resolution to be more active?

What can you do today to make exercise fun?

Up next: “Drop 17 Pounds Without Trying”