Day 3 Question To Ponder: When was the last time you exercised?

Question To Ponder: When was the last time you exercised or did another physical activity? What was this activity? How did it make you feel physically and emotionally? If it is has been a while since you last exercised, why?

I've been using a treadmill for exercise, which I was happy to give a rest when my back pain flared up a week and a half ago. I climbed onto it a couple of days ago, after reading about needing to continue physical activity, and such. I took it slow and only went for about half my usual time, and while my pain did slowly increase as I walked, I told myself it was my own expectation and conditioning causing it, and it never reached a level that was more than irritating. So I decided I should probably get back to doing it going forward.

But here's the thing: I don't like using the treadmill. I much prefer walking in the neighborhood with my wife, which isn't an option in the colder months. But both the neighborhood walks and the treadmill over the past year have helped me lose extra weight I was carrying, and I definitely feel better, physically, when I'm walking regularly.

But all this list writing and thinking about pressures I put on myself, has me thinking about the fact that while I love the benefits of walking, I don't actually like exercising. In fact, it's more of a self pressure/self critical thing, where I'm telling myself "you really need to get that extra weight off" and "you need to treat your body better", etc. I'm doing a good thing that I don't want to do and stressing out over having to do it, or stressing out because I'm not doing it, or should be doing it more, and so on.

So now I'm wondering what to do with that. I've always been an exercise hater and have forced myself to do it at various times in my life, but I've always seen it as a "have to" and it's the Not Enough (as in "you are not enough") voice in my head that's always telling me I need to do it. I'm rambling. I guess I'm curious as to how I can change the way I see exercise so that doing something so good for me can also be enjoyable, with the desire to do it coming from inside me, instead of from the Not Enough voice. Meh.

I would really like to enjoy exercising more, and I think maybe that has more to do with how I feel about me than it does with me not liking to exercise. If that makes sense. And I'd like to explore and get to know the me that cherishes himself enough to really want and enjoy taking care of himself.

 

This evening 8:30-9;00 pm, thirty minute run in the pool using a flotation belt while listening to music on a waterproof FM radio. Concentrated on good form and full range of motion for all body parts involved. Made me feel great! I could walk again afterwards.

This morning 11:30 am- 1:00 pm serving practice, and rally practice with some guy who came out of nowhere and wanted to hit. Felt great ingraining muscle memory on the six elements of the serve I was working on peRFecting--I'll see how much of what I practiced sticks tomorrow during club/rec competitive match play.