I think that one of the things that cause us to give up exercises and start to eat unhealthily again is, apart from laziness, monotony! When we learn all the exercises by heart, we know their length, we know the order of exercises, we stop feeling excitement and, consequently, interest in the entire training. If one of the first set of exercises is not your favorite, you don’t even want to start.
That’s why diversity is the key! Fortunately, we live in times when we have unlimited access to training materials on the web. Online stores are full of items with ready-made sets of exercises, and the coaches themselves are becoming more willingly available on their websites, fanpages or YouTube channels to provide new programs. Our beloved Ewa Chodakowska, Tomasz Choiński, Anna Lewandowska, Gillian Michaels (I love her!), Mel B, they all have channels full of videos with exercises. Meanwhile, many women buy one CD and stick to it only until they can’t stand it!
I started with creating my own playlist with various sets. There were very intense cadrios, interval trainings, pilates, yoga, workouts with dumbbells, on the stepper, and ball training sessions. I gathered a whole lot of them. I never really have a training plan for the whole week, I choose spontaneously every day, depending on my mood. I know them all, so I know very well what I want in a particular moment. I don’t always have time for an hour of training, so sometimes I choose those 20-minute, and in really busy days, even 10-minute training must sometimes be enough for me. I try, however, never to let go (days without any training also happen, though very rarely). I’m a real crazy person when it comes to exercises, I can exercise at midnight to feel better, although I have already written that this is not the best idea, because it results in a sleepless night, haha.
Saturdays and Sundays are running days, the only ones in a week when I have time before noon, and this is the best time for me to run. My constant distance is 6 kilometers. If there is an extremely favorable air, and I don’t have to hurry, I run 10K, although I know that long distances are not good for my knee joints (again – I listen to my body!), So I rarely do such long distances and always after a long distance I do at least one day off from training, so that the body can regenerate. The best thing about running is that I literally feel that my body is still working long after the run, so it’s a lot more than just a few tens of minutes of training!
Spring has already begun, so the motivation to exercise is a lot bigger! I love exercising on the terrace. My dogs are basking in the sun on the grass then and they are just waiting for me to come to the “cool down” exercise, or relax after training. This is the moment when I don’t get nervous when someone runs around me and let them cuddle up. Training in the yard also allows me to keep an eye on the kids, if they are running around the garden, so I literally don’t “waste time”.
The basic thing – you must reject any EXCUSES! Ewka is a living proof that even a breastfed baby doesn’t have to stop you from being active! Of course, it is much easier when you have the support of someone who will take care of children from time to time if you want to run. Don’t break down, however, and don’t give up, if such a person is not around – running can be replaced by a different form of training, a long conscious walk is also a great form of activity!
If you ask me to find excuses, I will give you the whole bunch of them: lack of time, menstruation, bad weather, work to do in the garden, the need to watch the show, headache, lack of desire, lack of space, lack of exercise clothes, no mat, lack of appropriate shoes, etc. I know it’s much easier to find reasons NOT TO… When I started my daily exercises, I didn’t have either a mat or proper outfit, appropriate shoes, and time was always lacking. I bought the first exercise mat after 2 months of training, earlier I did exercises on a carpet. I started running only six months after the first training, because running shoes must be suitable. The shoes were my first major expense. “Santa” brought me a stepper for Christmas, and a few perfect fitness outfits, a year later he added a decent mat. But even without this, I would still be active!
There are definitely more reasons to invest in yourself – great well-being, much more energy, better mood, better silhouette, smaller size of clothes, more power to play with kids, proving to myself that I can do a lot more than I thought before, HEALTH!
Spring is already here, it’s a great moment to change 🙂
See my other entries in this section, there’s a little more about running, healthy eating and fitness motivation!
