That's not my picture, but I hope I look as snazzy as that lovely lady in the far, far distant future. Anyway, a fun thing happened to me while swimming today. I was swimming along and my brain started to think superhero thoughts as I went back and forth. I'd stop and rest a few seconds on the edge of the pool with my feet on the wall and think, "I'm Spiderman. I'm hanging out on the side of a building like Spiderman." Or, while skimming the surface of the (very deep) end I'd think, "I'm Superman, flying high in the sky." You might be wondering what I was smoking, but those thoughts led me to certain questions about exercise.
Usually when I'm exercising my mind is in SERIOUS countdown mode - "O.k. Annette, only 10 more reps, laps, minutes, lifts, etc." I have to pep talk myself almost the entire time. That's really boring. I thought about my kids and how they move, which is almost constantly. They need to be commanded to stop: don't run, come inside, stop playing, stop climbing, get out of the water. Their natural impulse is to move their bodies and somehow we lose that. Is it TV? Junk food? Team sports? Parents? I've talked about how serious adults can be while exercising. We have to distract ourselves with TV's mounted over the treadmill or get another adult to goad us into doing it. Personal training is big business because money is a great (but temporary) motivator: If I pay you to make me exercise I will do it. Because I don't know you it's o.k for me to loathe every minute of it.
In trying to figure out how to remain motivated I think I found something out: if the activity is fun, physically pleasurable and offers some other benefit (like letting my imagination run away) then maybe I'll continue to do it. Today, after 600 meters, the little voices told me to get out of the pool, I had done enough. But instead of needing the internal cheerleading squad to keep me going I just went back to Spidey and Superman, and easily swam the last 200. It was a good day.
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