Where does exercise fit for you?

[Guest guest]

As I embrace IE each and everyday (VERY new to this), I'm trying to find where exercise has it's place. I come from a very different aspect regarding exercise. When I first started (13+ years ago) it was for fun. Did Jazzercise 2-3 times per week. But over the years, exercise, they gym, and physical movement in general has been used as a modern day torture device. If I exercise I can eat. If I move, I can eat. If I don't exercise, I'm a fat, lazy slob that is gaining weight by the minute. Exercise no longer became about fun, stress relief, my health, or anything good and positive. For me exercise has become about torturing my existance. I'm so burned out. So beat up. I've pretty much had it with exercise and my whole thought

process surrounding it. It's almost like my body/mind/soul are revolting against being tortured any longer. Somehow, I need to learn to change my thought pattern to a more positive way of thinking and I don't know how to.

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[Guest guest]

I’m what I consider a “regular” exerciser.

When I first started IE, I had a few months of rebel behavior where I just didn’t

work out because I was associating it mostly with weight loss. The next few

months, I went semi-regularly and didn’t do much that was high intensity,

with yoga classes thrown in. Lately, I’ve gotten back to what I consider

to be my “normal” type of exercise - doing things that give

me pride and a sense of accomplishment, elevate my mood, and make me feel more

confident. For me, exercise combats mild depression that comes and goes.

During these 5 or so months of rebelling, taking it easy,

and getting back into it, I’ve tried to distance the goal of weight loss

from exercise, though this is a difficult thing. As I get stronger and have

more endurance, I think less about weight loss and more about performance and

enjoying the workout, getting into the zone of it. I can say with the utmost

certainty that the “plans” that are touted in magazines, at the

gyms, and on tv are much like diets. It is not necessary to do x days of

cardio or x days of weight lifting. The point of exercise should simply be to

get our bodies moving and provoke some enjoyment in doing that, just as eating simply

fills a biological need and also addresses our desire pleasure (when we listen

and eat what we want). What works for one person may not work for another

and what one person enjoys, another doesn’t. It is very important to find

enjoyment in the exercise, whatever it is. There are parts of the world

where plain old daily living provides exercise-hauling water, pounding grain,

harvesting, planting.

I think we’ve come to think of exercise as drudgery

because it is so often equated with a weight loss plan. I do think

exercise/movement is an important aspect of our lives, but perhaps for us IE’ers,

it should be totally separate from the idea of weight loss (and that is something

I struggle with). I do not believe that doctors should give us the once over

and tell us to go exercise because we are overweight. Some type of movement

should be prescribed for everyone. I have been what those goofball health

insurance companies consider “overweight” for all of my adult life

after having children. But I was very healthy-low cholesterol, excellent blood

pressure, strong, with great cardiovascular endurance – and I felt great.

So that is where exercise fits for me. I’m not perfect, I don’t

make it to the gym the same number of days every week, and when I am tired, now

thanks to IE, I skip that day and let my body rest. I can honestly say that in

the last 3 weeks, I have never regretted a rest day. And I’ve also not

regretted a workout day.