Lately, I've been pretty bad about exercising consistently. There are a bunch of reasons, but I'll readily admit that laziness is a part of it. It's easy to fall into bad habits, and there have been a few occasions where I simply didn't feel like pushing myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm still eating relatively well and trying to take care of myself, I just haven't been working out with my usual gusto. I'm a creature of habit, though, so I know I'll get back to the routine soon enough.
Part of the reason why I'm not overly concerned is that I have a lot of people around me who set good examples. No one in my immediate family has ever been the type to gorge themselves on deep fried donuts, so I've always known what a healthy diet looked like, almost unintentionally. Secondly, I have a bunch of friends who exercise regularly, and they do all sorts of fun-sounding activities. I have friends who compete in martial arts competitions, climb Kilimanjaro, go scuba diving with dolphins, and even compete in body building competitions. It's a lot easier to get caught up in exercising, in some form, when the people around you are all routinely running 5 miles or what not. That, and it doesn't hurt to be able to keep up at least a little bit when I'm wont to poke fun of these very same friends.
Still, all of this reminded me of a bout of inactivity that came up a couple of years ago. The gym at work was closed for remodeling for a couple of months, so it was much less convenient to get in a work out. I would still run on the weekends, but that wasn't enough. At one point, my friend insisted that we get free seven day passes to a nearby gym, just so that we didn't sit around and get fat (literally). We did just that, and I remember being glad that we did so.
However, that wasn't enough for this friend of mine. She was one of those aforementioned folks who keep me in line, so she was starting to feel antsy from the inactivity. What were we to do? Well, we could go use one of the empty, semi-abandoned areas on the other side of the building as a work out area. I'm not kidding, that was her first suggestion. I laughed it off, thinking she was kidding. Judging by her second suggestion that we could do sprints up and down the stairs, she was not. I balked at this idea as well, but I countered with what I thought was a reasonable objection: even if we got a good sweat out of that plan, there were no showers we could use. I forget the actual words she used, but she basically called me a pansy.
Months later, when the gym was open again and I was exercising regularly, I would lament to her that I was annoyed that I'd have to skip a work out because I'd forgotten to bring some sneakers. The idea of working out in business casual-type loafers seemed like a poor one, and I didn't particularly want to run several miles barefoot, either. Still, her response makes me laugh to this day, "dude, that's a chick's excuse." Yup, she called me out again.
Anyhow, to tie all of this back to the start of this post, I can't help but remember the pansy and chick excuse comments whenever I starting getting lazy. Trust me, it doesn't take very long for me to start thinking about how and when to work out regularly.
Part of the reason why I'm not overly concerned is that I have a lot of people around me who set good examples. No one in my immediate family has ever been the type to gorge themselves on deep fried donuts, so I've always known what a healthy diet looked like, almost unintentionally. Secondly, I have a bunch of friends who exercise regularly, and they do all sorts of fun-sounding activities. I have friends who compete in martial arts competitions, climb Kilimanjaro, go scuba diving with dolphins, and even compete in body building competitions. It's a lot easier to get caught up in exercising, in some form, when the people around you are all routinely running 5 miles or what not. That, and it doesn't hurt to be able to keep up at least a little bit when I'm wont to poke fun of these very same friends.
Still, all of this reminded me of a bout of inactivity that came up a couple of years ago. The gym at work was closed for remodeling for a couple of months, so it was much less convenient to get in a work out. I would still run on the weekends, but that wasn't enough. At one point, my friend insisted that we get free seven day passes to a nearby gym, just so that we didn't sit around and get fat (literally). We did just that, and I remember being glad that we did so.
However, that wasn't enough for this friend of mine. She was one of those aforementioned folks who keep me in line, so she was starting to feel antsy from the inactivity. What were we to do? Well, we could go use one of the empty, semi-abandoned areas on the other side of the building as a work out area. I'm not kidding, that was her first suggestion. I laughed it off, thinking she was kidding. Judging by her second suggestion that we could do sprints up and down the stairs, she was not. I balked at this idea as well, but I countered with what I thought was a reasonable objection: even if we got a good sweat out of that plan, there were no showers we could use. I forget the actual words she used, but she basically called me a pansy.
Months later, when the gym was open again and I was exercising regularly, I would lament to her that I was annoyed that I'd have to skip a work out because I'd forgotten to bring some sneakers. The idea of working out in business casual-type loafers seemed like a poor one, and I didn't particularly want to run several miles barefoot, either. Still, her response makes me laugh to this day, "dude, that's a chick's excuse." Yup, she called me out again.
Anyhow, to tie all of this back to the start of this post, I can't help but remember the pansy and chick excuse comments whenever I starting getting lazy. Trust me, it doesn't take very long for me to start thinking about how and when to work out regularly.
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