Make It Fun

One of the most important things to remember about exercise is that it’s got to be fun, otherwise the chances of you continuing to exercise decreases dramatically. My philosophy on exercise is that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth it. It is not always necessary to go to the gym and run on the treadmill for an hour or to go to the track and run 10 laps; there are many other ways to get exercise.

Over the past couple of years, my husband has gained quite a bit of weight (not a ton, but enough for people who haven’t seen him in a year or two to mention it). This past year I have tried my best to get him to exercise. I’ve tried everything from bribes to threats yet nothing has seemed to work. However the case, I believe these past few months I have hit on something that has made some improvements.

First, instead of asking him to go exercise with me, I offer to do something that will definitely get us some exercise, but is something that is also fun and entertaining. Second, I have tried to take out the urgency in exercising and make it more about spending time with me and making it more about just enjoying what we like to do. Both of these things have definitely worked and it has made fitting physical activity into our schedules a lot easier and a lot less painful to think about.

Lately we have enjoyed walks, biking, rollerblading, playing frisbee, and playing tennis. Not only has the physical activity frequency increased, but the duration of the activity has increased as well. I have found that when the exercise is fun, it is a lot easier to be active for 45 minutes or more which is important to maintaining and/or losing weight, depending on the intensity of the activity.

The main point is to make getting your physical activity fun. For example, are you a mother who spends a lot of time with your children? Make sure you play with them. Get down on the floor with them and pretend you’re a puppy with your children or instead of watching your children play on the playground, play with them; play tag with them or even take them to the mall and make sure you walk around a lot. You can make spending time with your kids enjoyable as well as get in some exercise.

So just remember, if it’s not fun, it’s not worth it. The most important thing to remember is to find something that you like to do, and then do it a lot. Make that your exercise for the day and don’t worry so much about the need to work out for 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week. Whether it’s going out for a run with your dog, playing active games or sports with your friends, or just moving around like a child – it’s definitely worth it.