Friday, July 13, 2012

Exercise

Getting healthy and into shape when you aren't already is an interesting concept. One problem is that it's unpleasant in many aspects. Running and pushups are harder than sitting and watching TV, and water doesn't taste as good as Pepsi. Another of course is that problem is that it takes a long time, results aren't instant. We can't do anything about the first part. Exercise is work, by definition. But as to the seeming lack of progress, we can do something.

There are two aspects to this. First, you set small goals. You aren't going to lose 20lbs in a month. Not healthily anyway. You can though, see noticable results in what you can do, if not how you look. Over the past 2 months I've been really pushing myself. When I started, I could jog for maybe 30 seconds. Today I ran a 10 minute mile. At the beginning, I could do 15 situps. Now I can do 40. I could do barely 3 pushups. Now I can do over 15.

You look at things that improve faster and focus on them, so that you show yourself that yes, you Are getting something for all this work. But that's not enough. The best way is not just to show yourself, but show others. Post your progress on Facebook or Google+; get your friends interested. As terrible as it sounds, humans do enjoy praise, so any time someone congratulates you on your progress, you'll be that much more likely to continue.

Better yet get them to start exercising themselves. Do it together and you'll all help each other. Make a game out of it, race each other, play soccer or basketball, games in which there's a lot of movement.

Myself, I haven't yet gotten my friends onto the exercise train yet, but I am progressing. The most important thing is to keep trying. Even slowly walking for a few minutes is better than nothing.
 

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