Why I Can't Stick To An Exercise Plan

When I first started blogging I made a promise to myself that I would be honest about my successes and my failures.

No Matter How Humiliating.

I was kind of referring to my parenting skills or lack thereof but, you know, life happens. Sooooo…….remember when I wrote about how changing my attitude can change everything?

This is where I now tell you I totally fell off the band wagon.

*Insert humiliation here* Ooooo….look at me….I can’t keep my commitments and still have a bum that belongs on a teddy bear hamster.

I mean, I didn’t fall off completely. I still wholeheartedly believe changing my attitude will help me change my life and I do celebrate the small successes. Just yesterday I high-fived myself for driving to downtown Toronto and finding parking By Myself! Which if you know me, is a big deal.

When it comes to my kids, husband, friends and family, I have no problem keeping my commitments. I’ve also never ever missed a work deadline. I eat healthy (yes, including lunch every day which does sometimes includes Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers), don’t skip meals (people who say they forget to eat really annoy me) and always get enough sleep (I’m lazy). Yet I seem to have a genetic flaw which prevents me from committing to exercise on a regular basis. I start all gung-ho and then just stop. No rhyme or reason for it, one day I’m running and feel great, the next I just quit.

And that’s exactly what happened in between my last Healthy Choice blog and now. I started off great – I fit in exercise throughout the day and even started a Couch to 5k running program.

Then it died out and being the Queen of excuses, I never restarted.

So Healthy Choice wanted to help me out and generously pointed me in the direction of Bruno LoGreco who is a life coach. I was kind of rolling my eyes at the thought of speaking to him because I’m a do-it-myself kind of gal and didn’t put much heed in life coaching (sorry Bruno, you had your work cut out for you).

Prior to speaking, Bruno had me fill out a form with 155 questions pertaining to my life and I had to answer them on a scale of one to five. One being “No” and Five being “Very Likely”. It turns out, even though I’m a shade of grey person in real life, I answered the questions very black and white, using ones and fives frequently. This apparently set off alarm bells with Bruno.

Thankfully after we talked for a few minutes he began to see I wasn’t crazy, I just didn’t understand some of the questions. Bruno and I talked for close to an hour. He went through the questionnaire with me confirming some of my answers and asking me more in-depth questions.

What it boiled down to is this.

I’m an adventure seeker, which wasn't a surprise to me at all. There's a reason I took trapeze classes, went zorbing, took on my fear of heights at an adventure course and am signing up for speed skating. I love to try new things.

What surprised me is my adventurous nature also needs to be applied to my exercise habits.

Huh?

Ya…my thoughts exactly.

Six years ago, in an attempt to lose the baby weight from Son No. 2, I signed up to run a half marathon. I had never run before and I trained by myself for 4 ½ months. When someone asked why I did it, my response was always the same “I felt if I focussed on a goal, it would take my mind off the weight”.

Race day came, I ran, I finished and I never had the inclination to run another race again.

Turns out it wasn’t about the goal, it was about the adventure of trying something new. Once I had done it, my interest was gone.

It was a light bulb moment for me. Essentially I make excuses to not run on a treadmill because it bores me to tears. The same holds true with any other sort of repetitious exercises.

That being said, realistically I *will* have to incorporate boring exercise into my life but the core of my exercise needs to come from trying new things that will offer me excitement and fill up my need for adventure - like speed skating.

I never would have discovered this without the help of Bruno. And I’d like to thank Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers for giving me the opportunity to discover why I wasn’t making healthy choices for myself.

I’ll see you on the speed skating rink.