March 18, 2009

Jogging On to Fitness Through Laziness


This next guest post is written by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly contributes to a website on pharmacy technician certification.


I’m pretty proud of myself for being a health nut – I try and exercise as regularly as I can (everyday if possible), I get a good workout at the racquetball court five days a week, and I tend to eat healthy while avoiding snacks and junk food most of the time. Believe me, it’s pretty hard sticking to this schedule when you’re up to your neck in work and also have a home and family to take care of. But I manage, because it’s important that I do, by waking up at 5 am and going to bed by 10 pm (I try to, but it stretches to 11 most of the time).


But every now and then a crisis comes along and my routine goes awry.

Sometimes I’m suddenly called away on overnight or all-day trips for work that absolutely requires my attention, and when I get back home, if it’s too late in the night or early in the morning, I tend to skip going to the gym. And when this happens continuously so that I miss gym four or five days in a row, it’s hard to summon up the energy to get out of bed at the crack of dawn when the weekend comes around.

I know myself pretty well, which is why I realize the danger in goofing off even for a day or two. It took a lot of effort on my part to establish a routine that not only made me fitter, but also gave me more then enough energy to get me through the day. And though I enjoyed my lie-ins, I feel a lethargy creeping over me on the days I don’t stop by the gym. So it’s important to me that I start my day with a few warm-up routines, a jog on the treadmill and a spell on the cycle.

The next thing to do would be to ensure that I do get up with the birds everyday, and to help me do this, I enlisted the help of a friend, someone who’s more of a fitness freak than I am. Now the two of us are gym buddies, and I hardly ever make any excuses not to go, because I’m responsible for his fitness too these days. I’m the one who has to pick him up on the way to the gym and drop him back after we’re done, so my conscience prods me to jump out of bed and jumpstart my day with a cup of coffee.

So remember this, the next time you’re too lazy to exercise, set a routine that makes someone else dependent on you and your willpower. When you are responsible for another person’s fitness, there’s no way you’re going to neglect your own.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, this is why I always try to have at least ONE really early morning personal training session a day, followed by block of time for me to work out. Doesn't always work that way, but it's so nice when it does.

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  2. I thought the dog would make a great exercise partner. Now that she's old and gray, she likes to encourage me to take naps more and lie around in the sunshine :(

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  3. Being the hermit that I am, exercising with someone is far more unpleasant than exercising alone, so that would backfire for me. I would spend all my time looking for excuses to wriggle out of it.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

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