Gifts!

Here we are, approaching several major gift-giving holidays.  Of course, we are all such organized humans that we have already dealt with all the things we need to get and wrap for the other humans and critters we love, right?  Here is a yearly reminder:  never give anyone else any exercise-related gifts that were not specifically requested—it’s not helpful or kind or useful.  However, if any of us want to give ourselves a fitness gift, here are some ideas:

• Time.  The number one reason people cite for why they don’t work out is that they don’t have time.  For some of us, this may be true.  I’m not suggesting that anyone steal workout time from an already limited pool of sleep time, but I’m guessing that if we tried really hard we could figure out that we waste at least fifteen minutes somewhere in the course of the day that we could put to fitness use.  Anyway, the gift part:  let’s give ourselves enough time to work out at least a few times during the week.  We’ll feel better, really.

• A break.  Not the resting kind, although that’s fine, too, since rest is important to our fitness.  I mean the kind where we stop beating ourselves up.  If being mean to ourselves actually worked for fitness or weight loss, we’d all be Olympic caliber.  Tell the critical voice to go yell at somebody else—we’re busy loving ourselves with sweat over here.  We can cheer ourselves on instead.

• Joy.  Hate the treadmill?  Stop doing it!  Go dance instead, or swim, or roller-skate.  If you have time, go ski.  Play that music that makes you laugh or sing along.  Wear the crazy workout pants if that helps.

• Fuel.  We need to feed our bodies what they need and what tastes good.  We need to give ourselves the right amount so that we feel energized and not stuffed.

Best news:  none of this stuff costs extra.  We can use the resources we already have to make things better!