I’m not a fan of workouts, but if I must do them, I prefer it in cooler weather. It’s batty to work your way up to a sweat when you already feel like you’re drowning in the humid air.
Right now, we’re right smack in the middle of a tropical summer. It’s so oppressive. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s compounded by my hot flashes or by global warming, but it’s also positively punishing and absolutely unhinging. I don’t remember summer being this miserable when I was young.
Any kind of conscious exercise, even walking, is not fun at the moment. Any physically-taxing movement is unwelcome at this time. Maybe it’s different for somebody who’s not a couch potato, but I just can’t with summer at this age.
Nonetheless, I need to get my blood circulating (although the intense heat can probably already do that with no aid from me), so I need to move my body no matter how much it doesn’t want to. Apparently, making exercise fun is the way to go.
The key to making exercise fun or at least tolerable for me is to:
- Disguise it into a game. It will wake up the currently-dormant victory-obsessed, competitive jerk in me. That much less chill version of myself will do anything, including strain my muscles and get sweaty, to win. Although, admittedly, I’m not really into relays and races. I prefer board games, which do not usually require much movement. You know what game I would like to play? Back in my childhood, there was a Nickelodeon show called Double Dare that had both trivia questions and physical challenges. But, since I (and my sister) are probably the only ones who can recall it, we’ll probably end up being game masters as usual.
- Offer an incentive, monetary if possible. Isn’t there anybody who’d reward me for exercising? Health and fitness are clearly not enough for me. On that note, we had a Biggest Loser of sorts the previous year. My sister offered reward money to whoever among my mom, my cousin, and myself would lose the most weight. At the deadline, the contestants had nothing more than even more pounds and whiny excuses about why we ended up eating so much more.
- Hide it behind a physical activity that I like. Gardening is at the top of the list. Birdwatching and wildcrafting come second. Rock or sea glass hounding would be third. Like I said in this post, I don’t mind long walks, but not between the hours of 9am and 4pm. I like taking a stroll in lovely, genteel places, and if it doubles as a gossip session, I could walk miles upon miles.
- Involve dance steps from my youth. I can’t help it. There’s a good chance I’ll throw my back, but nostalgia brings out the ol’ daredevil in me and makes me forget that my joints need lubing and my muscles, some hardcore warming. I could injure myself just watching somebody do the Running Man or the Roger Rabbit. That doesn’t stop me from getting up and twisting my ankle to (not) demonstrate the Scissors dance step to the young ‘uns.
This Small Life 