Knight's "Loving Movement"
The "loving movement" phrase comes from the FLYlady. I like it because it suggests that whatever form of exercise that I choose to do, it is movement that is loving to my body.
My body has taken a lot from me, poor thing. I have been overweight for the majority of my life, starting at the age of 8. The words "gym" and "exercise" have bad memories associated with them. Some include being made fun of, unable to do what others could do, and feeling embarrassed and ashamed because of my weight. For the above reasons, I avoided exercise. In fact, I avoided and still avoid movement. It's weird.
On the flip side, when I have chosen to participate in things, I really enjoy it. A few things I did included Tang Soo Do, Tai Chi, horseback riding lessons, and ballroom dance. But, for one reason or another I stopped-sometimes for monetary reasons. I still love to dance, and am thinking of finding a way to re-incorporate it into my life.
Regardless, my goal is to include movement into my life. I've read some people don't include things like gardening as exercise, but for me, any movement I choose to do, I'm going to include in my log, as just the choice to do it is a success for me.
I do need to write that I am a queen of excuses for avoiding exercise. And I'm going to list the ones that come up for me right now:
It's too late. It's too early. I'm tired. In a minute. I just ate. I'm hungry. I have work to do. I want to watch my show. My (insert whatever) hurts. It's dark out. I don't want to do it alone. I don't have the right shoes. I don't want to change my clothes. I'm waiting for a phone call......
There are times when these are appropriate, but most often, it's a distraction, an avoidance. I think a lot of it has to do with anxiety.
So, here I am today, working on making a big change in my life and for my health.
I just took a walk. (I was going to put myself down for not walking enough, but I caught myself and I'm not going to do that.) I walked 23 minutes.
|