Workout Motivation

     After dropping my oldest off at school today I came back to the apartment to start my daily routine. I did the morning dishes, got my youngest the first of what would no doubt be many snacks, swept, picked up, etc. I no doubt mumbled something to myself about squeezing in the morning "exercises". That's what my girls call basically any workout so we roll with it.

     I'm like most people and I have a hard time finding motivation to do my workouts. I know I need to, I mean fat doesn't burn itself! Inevitably though I can always find something else to do. Often that something else is just as critical as a daily workout, so skipping it is easily justified. There are never enough hours in the day. I don't need to tell you that.

     So as I came into the living room after cleaning up in the kitchen I was taken aback to see my youngest on the floor with one of my Pilates mats. "Buggy, what are you doing", I asked. To which she replied, "Nut (nothing) just doing my extersize".

 

     Her form left a little to be desired, but her enthusiasm could not be beat. Alright! I don't need to be hit over the head with a 2 x 4 to see the sign here.

     I had been feeling down on myself because my current workout was no longer achieving what I wanted it to achieve. Lo and behold...a simplicity lesson. My workouts had achieved something else. They had instilled in my daughter a fondness for the activity, at the very least not a dying hatred for it like so many of us have. It was nothing to be scheduled around, it was fun. It even required the use of it's own mat! Simplicity and happiness all in one.

    Beyond even that I had, inadvertently, planted a fitness seed I didn't even intend to plant. One that makes physical activity part of a daily structure. One that also happens to be fun. Ok, so now I had a new goal.

     Now my goal is to hit each of my workouts with just as much enthusiasm as she had and continue to propagate that seed. By jingo, I will not only make this a lifestyle component in my life, but just maybe in the lives of my daughters as well. Maybe I can teach them to be healthy and have fun, to demonstrate the importance of physical fitness as opposed to constantly monitoring weight and arbitrary numbers. Heck, apparently I already have.

 

     Of course, when she had finished this tiresome workout a whole 3 minutes later, she flopped her legs down and said, "Mommy, my belly hurt good". "That means you're doing it right. Good job!", I said. Then she smile and did another set, and I rolled out my mat, with nothing else to possibly complain about, and did my extersizes too!

To fitness and hidden lessons...for all of us!

Simple City Sam