Yet so few of us exercise enough to be healthy.”

Who wants to feel like this?

Why is that?

Ask yourself:

When I hear the word “Exercise” what do I really think of?

Does it remind you of pain, guilt, not feeling good enough, being judged, struggling, and generally feeling terrible physically and emotionally?

Does it feel like a lot of work?

If exercise brings up any of those images, why would you do it? No one wants to feel that way.

Why is “Exercise” crammed into a tiny mental “box”?

It comes down to “Conditioning”

Everyone has experiences, and those experiences shape the way we see the world and train our behavior.

What has been your experience of exercise? Exercise doesn’t always feel good physically, especially if you haven’t been active in a while.

When you do something and it makes you feel nauseous or sore, that punishes you and makes you less likely to do it through a process called operant conditioning.

Combine that with past experiences that were painful emotionally, and you end up subconsciously programmed to avoid physical activity.

If you don’t enjoy exercising, you’re NOT going to do it.

So what can you do about it?

You need to make exercising enjoyable. Recently, I shared a way of adding a healthy reward to the end of your activity with hydrotherapy. Find something you can do that will make you want to be active.

What do you enjoy most in life? Use what already motivates you to move in the direction you want to go– Even the pain of knowing what will happen if you don’t take action.

Change the way you Think about Fitness.

If you had an unpleasant experience with exercise, don’t do whatever you were doing when you had it.

If you felt teased while running, don’t start with running. Find a new way of being active, like Pilates, hiking, going for walks with two or four legged friends, or a creative sport like ultimate frisbee.

Once you are feeling more fit and comfortable then conquer the old fears, for now you can bypass them.

You did your best back then, and now you’re going to do better, drop the guilt and move on.

The more you are physically active in an enjoyable way, the more you will see fitness as Fun.

Did you run around as a kid? Did you enjoy playing? When you were playing did you say, “This is a great way to prevent degenerative disease!”? No!

Take a child like view of being active, just do it for fun! No one wants to work for fitness, but everyone want to have fun.

As a kid, you probably had a lot more fun when you were playing with other kids. The same is true today, what ever you do will be easier, more fun and more effective if you do it with others.

If your fitness routine gets boring, do something else!

And if your issue is “I don’t have the time to be active.” The comic says it all. What do you make important?

Are you caught in, “I have to change everything, which is too hard, so I wont do anything”?

You don’t need to change everything overnight, just make consistent, incremental daily step towards optimal health.

“The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time!”

Studies have found that walking briskly for just 10 minutes 3 times a day is as effective as going for one 30 minute walk. Go for a 10 minute jog in the morning, then walk to and from lunch, and you’ve just got your exercise for the day!

Start small, and document your successes along the way. If you’re already following a program that works for you, journal about your progress, so that in those moments when you’re not sure if you should keep doing it you have something to motivate you to keep doing what works.

Have you seen “exercising” as a burden or obligation, or something you “should” do?

What would it take to see exercising as something joyful that you want to do at every opportunity?

Think about a time when you were being physically active that made you feel inspired, joyful, and completely alive…

Do more of that!

If you stop labeling exercise, it’s easy to get enough!