I don't work in an environment where there's a cake every week for birthdays, or things like that. However, I do work in an environment where the work I get done each day is variable. There are set times for lunch, but even those aren't guaranteed. That's the time I have available for photocopying, answering emails, researching, conferencing informally with clients, and prepping things for the remaining sessions in the day. It honestly feels like my day never stops. Add to that my day starts from quarter to eight and can carry on until 6pm, that's a long time to go without eating food properly.
Then by the time I pack and get out of there, I have no desire to exercise. We're heading to the time of year where it is dark by 6.30, so that limits how much exercise I can do outside.
In general my personal favourite ways to exercise are to go for a walk or ride my bike. At the moment I'm aiming for 45min walks three times a week. My natural walking speed is around 6km/h, which is a moderate to fast pace. I started off with 30 min walks, because I felt that any movement was better than none, but I'm happy to say I've found other routes to walk that take me longer. Then, if not walking, I ride my bike. I have no idea what speed I ride my bike at. The only downside to both walking and riding my bike, is how flat my town is. There's very little by way of hills in which to challenge myself. In fact, I think there is only 1 hill for the whole town.
I haven't a lot of room in my flat, so exercising indoors is tricky. My living room (the only room that isn't the kitchen or the combined bedroom/study) is only 3m x 3m. And in there I have crammed a two-seater sofa, an armchair, my TV and cabinet, two bookcases and side table. Not a lot of room to stretch out, or even do aerobics on the spot.
Now, I know I can go to a gym and exercise there, however, the only gym class I can keep up in is on Mondays. And it starts at 6pm with no late admittance. Alternatively I could just use the gym-gym, with all the equipment. In order to do that I have to get over the mental block of how much it bores me, no matter how much I mix it up. I also find it hard to push myself in the gym-gym because there isn't anyone there yelling at me (encouragement or ridicule, both work to motivate me). Our gym is too small to also have personal trainers for hire.
I also worry about the fact that I haven't eaten during the day, so I'll be lightheaded if I go and exercise. I've discovered in the past I need time between eating and exercise to properly digest my food or else I get reflux. To the point where I begin to retch. Ick.
Another worry of mine is the fact that the gym closes up by 7.30pm, 7pm on Fridays. So even if I am able to go straight from work, I only have 1 hour to properly utilise the gym. So really, to be effective, I have to go in all guns blazing to really work for the full hour. Not spend 10-15min warming up and cooling down, leaving me with 40min to workout. And as I mentioned above, I can't exactly cool-down at home.
And if you think I can make up for my lack of exercise during the week, by attending the gym on weekends? Unfortunately not. The gym isn’t even open on weekends, not even for team sports.
Maybe I need to spend some time thinking about this, and see if there is some way to build up the exercise I do at the gym. And stop making excuses? Is it really going to be that easy and say to myself "Right. I'll go to the gym three times a week" and just do it? I really think I can come up with a negative outcome for every suggestion put my way. When am I going to make dinner? If I spend an hour exercising, that gets me home even later, pushing dinner back even further. I can't imagine eating dinner as late as 8.30pm. And often I still have work to do at home after eating.
Am I coming up with too many excuses? Problems and reasons to avoid exercise? Do I just need to get over it and start doing exercise and get myself into the routine of doing movement? Any movement, no matter how small, right?
Feedback and suggestions on this well appreciated! :-) Leave a comment or email me.
-SunnyDuckling
No comments:
Post a Comment