Physical Exercise - how to motivate...

[spike99]

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In a different thread, I was asked how I motivate myself for Physicial Exercise. Since this message board is about sharing info and secrets, here's a few of my secrets in this area:

A - Know my likes and dislikes. No, about about eating (LOL!). Likes and dislikes about where to perform physical exercise. For me, I do NOT like doing physical exercise indoors. Not too sure why but when I'm inside a building (even within a gym), I like to eat, sleep, rest or be on my computer. My wife has 3 exercise "devices" in our basement and I walk by them 99.9% of the time. For me, I like exercising out-doors. Thus, I do lots of walks, peddle bike rides, scooter rides and even general yard work. Especially during the Spring, Summer and Fall months.

B - Have situations that force one to perform physicial exercise. We have a small backyard that needs its grass raked, needs its grass cut, needs its small stones picked up and put back around our above ground swimming pool and of course, the side of our house and our our vehicles always need to be hand washed. If you can, pick "every other day" to perform yard maintenance, car washing or some other task - that needs physicial movement. If you are an indoor person (like my wife), then do laundry, sweep floors, vacuum, etc. etc. every other day. Many say that vacuuming a floor is actually more work then sweeping it. Especially if vacuuming stairs.

C - Have someone make you have fun with them. This could be your spouse demanding nightly fun (if you know what I mean), it could be your kids demanding you go for a peddle bike ride or long walk with them, and depending on your age, you could have your grand kids wanting to physically play with you. Your involvement in even playing 10 minutes of basket ball hoops, driveway street hockey or even throwing some backyard lawn darts is great physical exercise. Where possible, I try to "play with my kids" every other day. And when the weather is great and I don't, my wife kicks my tail to "go have outdoor fun with our kids". For example: 69.72.148.138/ubb/Forum24/HTML/000233.html


D - Set "do-able" goals for youself. For me, I'm not into push ups or sit ups or long distance running. These things were never my passion in life. But swimming in lakes (especially along the shore line in a rubber tire tube), peddle biking or walking long distances is a great goal to set. For me, I set goals for something I like to do and something I can achieve. For example: 69.72.148.138/ubb/Forum24/HTML/000231.html


E - Revisit a few of your previous passions in life. When I was much younger, I loved roller skating. Would roller skate / roller blade around and around - inside a cement arena. I know, good old disco light, much better music and non-violence physical fun days. Today, I have a pair of roller blades for myself. Every other week, I slide my roller blades on. Sometimes I zip around the block or go to the local park with my kids and other times, I roller blade by myself. At times, I must look like a fool (being age 45 looking with 40 lbs over weight pot belly) but hey, it's fun for me. And, I get physical exercise at the same time. Re-visiting your previous passsions that involve physicial exercise is a great motivation driver as well....

Hope this helps inspire others...

BTW: If there's something "motivates you", please share your secret as well. Sharing secrets does help others.... Especially when it comes to improving their lives as well...

thanks.

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[spike99]

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In above item D, I mentioned "swimming in lakes - especially along the shore line in a rubber tire tube". Unfortunately, we don't have much income in my family. With only 1 income for a family of 5 (and one of our kids is disabled), we can't afford to buy motor boats, canoes or other expensive water toys.

This summer, our goal is to get our inner tubes out (again). They are old tire tubes, blown up with a hand air pump and their valve stem is tapped back - using duct tape. Each of our family members have a tube, we put on an old T-Shirt, old track pants and old running shoes. Then, we paddle along the shore line of local lakes and within slow moving rivers. As we move along, we look into the shallow water for fish and other critters. And when we want to have fast fun, we paddle out to a deep part and have tubing "tip over" fun. For our little ones, we ensure they wear their life jacket for this deep water fun. We did this tubing in few local lakes last year, and plan to do it more often this year. A goal we have sitting in our July calender - when local waters are warm.

What family "fun times" with physical exercise do you plan with your kids or grand kids this summer? Just wondering.....

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[cheryl]

Spike,

All great suggestions, but I'd have to set my standards much lower on the physical side of things.

Walking seems to be my main exercise. I keep reading the phrase, "the more you do, the more you can do" or along those lines. I hope this will apply to me when I finally get moving along.

I wish the weather would warm up - I'd rather do outside walking than treadmill walking.