Principle 9: Excercise Feel the Difference

According to Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole, Chapter 13.

Forget militant excercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of excercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in the moment of time.

Most people start excercising when they start a diet. It is very likely their energy (calorie) intake was too low. When you don't have enough energy, excercise is not invigorating, let alone fun. Especially if carbohydrates are too low which is often the case in chronic dieters. I know this from personal experience. I have been in Zumba class feeling sluggish. Praying I could make it through the rest of the class. It is not a fun feeling!

Focus on how it feels:
1. Stress level - Are you able to handle stress better?
2. Energy level - Do you feel more alert?
3. General sense of well-being - Do you have an improved outlook on life?
4. Sense of empowerment - Do you feel more in control?
5. Sleep - Do you sleep more soundly and wake up more refreshed?

Disassociate excercise from weight loss. Excercise only plays a small part in weight loss. If you use excercise for weight loss and do not see results quick enough you will quit. So focus on how excercise makes you feel and as a way to take care of you.
Here are some benefits:
* Increased bone strength
*Increased stress tolerance
*Decreased blood pressure
*Reduced risk of chronic diseases
*Increased level of good cholestrol, decreased bad cholestrol level
*Increased heart and lung strength
*Increased metabolism

Do not get caught in the excercise mind games. These are the games I play with myself.

1. It's not worth it trap. If I can not get in at least an hour of excercise it is not worth it. Studies show that even 10 minutes is worth it! You know those commercials, JUST MOVE IT. That is what they are saying. Any chance you get no matter how long is worth it!
2. Couch Potato Denial. We are all busy. We run (in the car) all day long. We work (at a desk) all day long. Even though we are mentally exhausted when we get home does not mean that we can sit and relax. We still need to get our physical activity for the day in. Lots of people walk on break at work. Or talk to your husband with a nice walk after dinner.
3. The no time to spare trap. Most people will say they do not have time to excercise. I was one of those people. Now I write it on my calendar and I work other appointments around that time. It works for me. I made it a priority in my day. It is ME time!
4. If I don't sweat, it doesn't count. You do not have to run for an hour to get in a good workout. You can clean the house, rake leaves, garden or play an outdoor game with the kids. You can even divide these activities up throughout the day. As long as they add up to 30 minutes a day - you just cut your chance of heart disease in half! WOW - YOU GO GIRL!

There are two more points I want to point out. Please remember your strength training when excercising. You need to rebuild muscle wear and tear from dieting. You lose 6.6 pounds of muscle every decade of your life. So if you are dieting, you are losing muscle from dieting and aging. UGH! Muscle keeps your metabolism revved up.
Do strength training at least twice a week.
Do one set of 8 to 12 reps of 8 to 10 excercises for conditioning of each of the major muscles groups. I heard kettle balls are awesome. Has anyone tried them?
Second, remember to rest. Sometimes chosing not to excercise to take care of yourself is what your body needs. If I get to bed late, I do not kill myself to get up after 5 hours of sleep to make my excercise class. I sleep for 7 hours and then I walk the dog. Missing my class but getting rest my body needs and excercising a different way for that day.

I have a lady in my gym that severely abuses excercise. It is really sad to see. She is there for 8 hours a day. She does several classes and then walks the treadmill between them. I feel sorry for her. That has to be a terrible feeling to feel like you need that much gym time.
Here are signs of excercise abuse:
1. Inability to stop, even when sick or injured.
2. Feeling guilty if you miss a single day.
3. Inability to sleep at night - a sign of overtraining.
4. Paying excercise penance for eating too much, such as running an extra three miles because you ate a piece of cake.
5. Being afraid that you will suddenly get fat if you stop for a single day.

Make a new promise to your body. A promise to JUST MOVE IT!

Live healthy at thinchic.com!