Hi everyone and welcome to the show, a balanced life for you where you design the life of your dreams. I’m your host, Rhonda Cimorelli,  I’m an Accredited Transformational Coach and an NLP Practitioner. The purpose of the show is to give you tools and resources to help you love your life, not just live your life. On today’s show, we’re going to talk about exercise. When you think about exercise, does it make you sick to your stomach? For many of us, we know (I’m going to use a little air quotes), We know that exercise is good for us. We know that we’re “supposed” to do it because it keeps us in shape. It keeps us healthy. From the time that we were young and in school,  gym or PE is required (at least in most states) and many kids, myself included, did not enjoy going to gym class.

: For me personally one reason was that I just did not enjoy having a 42 minute  period where I had to go change out of my regular clothes into gym clothes, get all hot and sweaty, changed back into my school clothes, all in 42 minutes. It was just irritating. And particularly when I was in high school, they had swim as one of your semesters. It was really cold, and the Northeast and that just didn’t jive with me at either. And, if you can imagine, at that particular time, the girls were required to get your hair wet. What were they thinking?  Anyway, we won’t talk about high school anymore, but let’s get back to exercise today.

I was prompted to make this episode ater I posted a question in my Facebook page, A Balanced Life For You.

I asked, “What is one thing you wish you could do more consistently?” There was a plethora of answers. However, exercise was amongst the majority of the answers. My next question would be, “Have you ever exercised consistently?”  Because if you haven’t,  your steps are going to be a little bit different than if you have been consistent in the past an just feel off the wagon.

So, let’s talk for a minute. You have been consistent in the past, you did see results but maybe life happened like this crazy Covid-19 pandemic that we’ve been all living through. It has turned your life around, upside down and for many people, the pandemic has caused a lot of stress and angst you are now staying home versus going out to work.

You’re staying home instead of going to school. You are now confined with family members 24 seven which is something that you haven’t had to do in the past. I know some people are binge watching Netflix, binge eating, binge drinking or binge drugging. You name it, they’re binging because they’re bored, they don’t feel good, they’re depressed. Have I mentioned any that are applicable to you?

Alright, so your world got flipped upside down with the Covid- 19;  Now what? You might be saying; I used to exercise and I was doing it consistently. How did it make you feel?You probably felt great. You had more energy because  the body creates eendorphins.

: When you work out, your body makes endorphins and they make you feel good. So exercise really is very healthy for you physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. So how do you get yourself back on track?&  If you’ve never been on the exercise track, this really correlates with an episode I did a while ago, “Setting the right goals”. You want to set yourself up for success. So in the midst of this while you’re still staying at home, what can you do?   Well, let’s back up just a minute and ask a few important questions for clarification.

For what purpose do you want to exercise?  What does it mean to you?  Are you healthier, more fit, and have more energy?  Are you happier?   And if you’re not exercising, how is that making you feel?  If you continue to not exercise, what’s likely to happen? you continue to binge watch Netflex?  Will you be depressed?  Will you gain three clothes sizes?

I want you to really identify the things that are going to happen to you if you continue to not exercise.  There are so many different ways that we can exercise. We can do your typical, go to the gym, do cardio and do weights. But you know what, I don’t know about you, I never really enjoyed exercising. Yes, I know. I did say I was a fitness instructor, but there’s a funny story behind that. You see all my life, all my teenage years and as a young adult, I never exercised. I didn’t really like it bothered me. The fact that I was in a really bad car wreck, had three kids back to back, all within 5 years, probably did help me in terms of liking exercise.

You know, I was just kind of a train wreck. One day I went to a women’s gym and because I had been all kinds of medication I just was feeling really, really bad in my early twenties. The woman owner of the gym started me on the bicycle. And do you know, I was so winded, all I could do was like 10 minutes at a time. That 10 minutes built to15, and 15 built to 30 and before you knew it, I was getting bored with the bicycle. So she says, okay, we’ll alternate between the bicycle and the treadmill. Same thing with the treadmill. Well in the beginning it did not feel good. It was really hard. So I had to alternate and before you know it, I started getting a little bored and wanted to add something else because my bodywas hitting a plateau.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, I guarantee you’ve hit a plateau. So from there she says to me, you need to add aerobics. You know, do some low impact and high impact. I looked at her and said, “There ain’t no way. I do not like that. I do not want to do that. That is not me”. And she said to me, “If you want to move forward and you want to make progress, you need to add this in”. Well, I wanted to make progress, I wanted to get healthier and in better shape than what I currently was or had been, so I did. I started out in the back of the room. Next, I moved up to the middle of the room, then the next thing I know, I’m in the front of the room and all this took place in aproximately a year and a half.

Next thing I knew, my youngest child’s getting ready for kindergarten and they had a help wanted sign. So I thought to myself, Hmm, I wonder if I could do this, if I could teach aerobics, teach weights and get paid. So I thought this is a win – win for me. And sure enough, that was the greatest, or one of the greatest, things I ever did for myself. I became a fitness instructor and got certified and taught class for five years. But the funny thing is the first three months, I worked so hard at such a different level, I managed to stress fracture my femur bone. That’s a whole other story. The point is, you know, no matter where you’re at, starting something new is a process. It can be painful, it might not be fun, but you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? What will it cost me if i don’t do this? 

Well, for me, the answer was a lot.  I was on so much medication, my body was in such poor condition after the car wreck and then having three kids.  I was only in my twenties and I needed to get a better body. I did not want to go through my thirties forties and into my seventies and eighties still having so much pain, being out of shape and winded.

So, getting back to you, for what purpose do you want to exercise more consistently?   Here are a few things I have discovered about exercise and being consistent; consider how you perceive exercise.

Is it fun for you, Because if it’s fun, you’re more likely to do it, right?  If it’s not fun, you’re going to say things like, I don’t want to do it, I don’t have time, I ran out of time … You’re going to come up with every excuse in the book to not do it. So let’s look at different ways that you can exercise. For example, ladies,  maybe you’ve had several children or you had some C-sections like I did. You don’t have a lot of muscle tone, but you know the core muscles are very important, which they are. The abdominal muscles and the back muscles are key for being able to hold ourselves up. What if, what if you did something as simple as this: every morning, before your feet hit the ground, you do leg lifts. AS you are lying there in bed, if you have the strong muscles, do double leg lifts, if you have weak muscles, try one leg at a time.  This will work, the quads, the hamstrings, where at the abs.

And, what if you were to do this for 10-20 repetitions on Monday?  Pretty easy, right? Give yourself a win. This part is so important. Getting yourself back on track, especially if you’ve never done exercise or if you’re so far gone that you forgot how to exercise or perhaps you’ve put on the Covid- 19 (kind of like the freshman 15) so working one step at a time. Be careful. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Don’t say, all right, starting tomorrow, I’m going to work out 30 minutes, three times a week. Especially if you haven’t done it at all for the last three months, tomorrow would be a great idea to just get started and give yourself a win.

Then, the next day, Tuesday, you can do it again because you did it yesterday. Acknowledge yourself for the little baby steps that you do, and before you know it, you’ll be able to move five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Now, if you’ve been an avid exerciser and you’ve worked out five days a week for an hour and a half, you’re doing a triathlon, but you’ve just gotten a little off task. This will be so much easier for you Allow yourself to say, “you know what, the past is the past. I’m in control. I’m going to do what I want to do and need to do today. Today’s the first of the rest of my life”. So for all you athletes out there, just go do something, get into action, and then do it again tomorrow.

Your task is going to be so much easier than the ones who have never exercised or been consistent. So speaking of consistency, we talked about getting into action, giving yourself a reward. Now let’s talk about scheduling.

Scheduling is really, really important. Make sure you’re getting up, getting dressed, taking a shower, and having be on purpose for the day. Because if you’re not, one day will lead into the next, into the next and before you know it, someday never ever comes. So put it in the calendar.Figure out if you are you a morning person.  When do you normally have your most energy?  If you normally have energy at night, I would suggest do something at night because if you tell yourself you’re doing it in the morning and you’re not a morning person, you’re less likely to do it.

Work with your own natural body. Next thing now that you’ve got a schedule, you get into action, and you do it again and again. Did you know it takes approximately 21 to 28 days doing it consistently to form a habit?  So for every time that you quit or you stop and you say, I’ll do it later, you basically need to start on day zero again. So here’s a suggestion. As you’re creating a new strategic habits, do something every single day for 28 days. It doesn’t have to be a rigid routine. It doesn’t have to be major calisthenics. It doesn’t have to be high-impact aerobics. It doesn’t have to be a five mile run.

However, you do need to do some type of physical activity every single day. It could be working on your core muscle group like your arms or your legs. It could be taking a walk. It could be doing yard work. It could be doing housework. Because all of these things are energy. They burn calories and get your heart pumping. Turn the music on, get up and move and have some fun. It will burn energy. Right now during quarantine there are so many people offering free things online and on demand. Go find something, put your DVD , face-time with a friend and have a little competition. I mean, the opportunities are endless. So I hope that this has helpful for you. I know that I said, exercising was never my thing. I still can’t do it the way I used to, but I do make it a point to be aware if I’ve been too sedentary,I check in  to see how I’m feeling and being able to recognize that I don’t want to feel that way anymore.

So when you come to the point of recognizing how you’re feeling, you’ll be able to make a clear cut decision, “I no longer want to feel this way, I want to feel a better way”. Then, and only then, will you make those new choices, create those new habits and exercise consistently get into shape, so that you look great for the beach this year. You know, eventually the beaches are going to open up. I mentioned a couple of episodes earlier, so be sure to check out, Setting the right goal. Check out How to stay motivated and The emotional cycle because they really will help you understand how you’re feeling and how to move yourself through these difficult days.

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