DATING VERSUS EXERCISING

by M. McMahon, californiapsychics.com

If you've ever had a time of optimal health, you know what it feels like to be in love with exercise.  Maybe you were playing on a great team for your favorite sport or had a particularly long run on a New Year's resolution.  You know when your body is a motion machine, moving with you and your intention - the feeling is indescribable happiness.

The miracle of exercise is that it works a lot more than the body.  It elevates the mood, decreases appetite and sugar cravings and overall, just chills a person out!  It may be the most divine counter-intuitive solution to the weariness of everyday life ever.

Why is exercise so incredible at these things?  It's all about the relationship with the mind and the body.  When we exercise, our heart draws energy, our muscles draw energy, our breath draws energy.  And with every breath, each bead of sweat, push of a pedal, strike of the foot, change of a yoga pose all the negativity from living our lives is released.  It's energy - pure and alive - and it's the best feeling in the world.  It's sort of like that zing of falling in love. Actually, it's just like that.

So, how do you fall out of your head and in love with exercise?  It's just like dating, falling in love and living happily ever after.  Except, the good news is, you don't have to wait until you bump into your perfect partner, you've already met them because it's you!

Dress for success

You wouldn't go on a first date or a job interview in a ten year old T-shirt and see-through leggings would you?  Then why in the world would you show up to the gym like that?  You are embarking on the most important relationship you will ever have with anyone - the relationship you have with your own body.  It's lifelong and no matter where you are, the relationship can start again, start afresh and start today.  So suit up... and look fabulous!  This is the date where you are going to fall in love!

Focus on the movement

On a great date you can't imagine yourself being anywhere else.  Do the same thing when you're exercising.  When you are having the time of your life, you are not thinking about your inadequacies, your bank account, where you need to be or where you are not!  You are simply there - present in the present.  When you are exercising, there is nothing else to be doing or thinking.

If you struggle with body image issues - and most of us do - and these are being triggered at the gym, here's some advice ... The body you are exercising at the gym isn't actually the body you see in the mirror.  It's the strong functional beautiful body within your body.  And each time you exercise you make that perfect inner whole body stronger and more apparent to the world.  You stand up straighter.  You hold your head higher.  You transform the very body you are in into the most ideal perfect wrapping for the being that is you.  And in most instances, you're dropping weight, making the strength you have within more transparent to everyone and to you.

Cross train

You wouldn't take your date to the same place every time.  Then why would you take yourself to the same gym and use the same equipment, even the very same treadmill whenever you go to the gym?  No wonder people don't want to exercise after a few weeks or months.  Even the greatest candy bar on earth tastes like an old ham sandwich if you eat it everyday.  Exercise is movement with a single purpose - to move.  It is as zen as it gets.  And you can move anywhere in the world, in anyway you want to.  Most gyms have classes - so take them.  Try every single activity your gym offers.  And get out of the gym at least twice a week.  Walk, run, ride a bike, just go do something out in the world.

Reward yourself

Okay, so on a date with another person, you have a partner for some physical fun.  But how about committing yourself to 10 minutes in the steam room as an integral part of your work out.  It's amazing how many people don't relax the body after a work out.  Why would you skip the warmth of a steam room or Jacuzzi?  And that's not all, think about getting a massage after a month of steady workouts.  It's more release, more energy pulsing through, more healing, more love.

The recipe for sustaining a loving relationship with exercise and your body is simple.  By showing up, shaking it up and rewarding yourself, you are building a primary element of happiness into your life - harmony between your mind and body.  So, don't let another day go by, it's time to fall in love with exercise, by falling in love with you.

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Stuck in a moment

What a great week it has been.  My wife and I figured-out we have reached a combined weight-loss-to-date totaling 202 pounds.  We celebrated by running an easy 10-miles and then by me chasing Gloria around a big box store in search of the perfect shoes.  Before heading home, we stopped at a local baseball field where we sat and watched 10-year-olds play a few innings on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  It took me back to my t-ball days, boy there was a game I could play.  I could knock that ball so far off that tee -- I can still see the numbers on the outfielders backs as they chased down another monster shot.

We were always active kids, my friends and I, not just in organized sports, but on the street as well.  I can remember spending my Saturdays playing street hockey from sun-up to sun-down, stopping only long enough every few hours so our mothers could change the wool mittens that were comfortably frozen to our hands.  A warm, dry pair, and out we'd go again.

And it's not that we didn't have distractions that could have kept us indoors -- television, video games and computers were available, albeit not quite up to the level they are today, but it always seemed more realistic to pretend to be Darryl Sittler with a hockey stick, rather than a game controller, in my hand.

Since I started running, I've noticed one really sure thing.  If not for organized sports, today's children would have no way to engage in physical activity.  I've run through all sorts of neighbourhoods at all times of day, and I am always struck by the fact that there are hardly ever any kids out playing on front lawns or in backyards.  No games of hide n’ seek, no tag, no double-dutch skipping and certainly no street hockey.  Skipping ropes and hockey sticks have been replaced by the video screen, attached either to a television or a computer. 

But why the change over the years?  It could have something to do with those parents who send their kids out the door with a portable video game console and actually consider that playing outside.  Or maybe it’s the school cafeteria that now considers deep fried tasty-tasters a vegetable and then aggressively encourages its students to eat more "vegetables" -- kids can’t run around on deep fried tummies.  Or could it be one school board's good-intentioned move to replace vending machines full of sugary soft drinks with water and juices only to be told by the parents' association to reinstate the soda pop?  Kids need inspiration, not cop-outs.  With moves like these, life expectancy numbers are predicted to fall dramatically in the decades ahead, not because we're destroying our environment, but because we're destroying our children.  The future is indeed, bleak. 

There was a time, a few years ago as I was heading towards 400 pounds, I didn't see myself living beyond the stated life expectancy for North American males.  The way things are now, I may just pull this off. 

Seems like a hollow victory though, should it happen.

Run for your life.

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