Exercise: My first and last word on it

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OK I am the first one to say, exercise does not come easily to me.  There you are, I have said it, it is out there, big and bold.

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 I am an Endomorph (or maybe a Mesomorph - I can't decide and it probably doesn't matter) according to Dr Sheldon (ie look at a cake and put on weight because I accidentally ate the whole thing and am to sluggish to be bothered exercising) and my 6 foot 2  husband is an Ecomorph (ie skinny as a bean pole with the metabolism of a rocket)

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So, obviously my husband and the offspring that have taken on his traits do not see the need to get out there and exercise (characteristics of an ectomorph are: fast metabolism, naturally thin or wiry, find it hard to gain weight, naturally lower in strength levels, often higher in energy levels and tend to be over-active - Fitness Friday: Knowing Your Body Type).

I also, with my body type have a tendency not jump up and "get out there" (naturally overweight, gain fat easily, find it difficult to lose the fat, larger around the waist, possibly sensitive to the carbohydrates - particularly processed and refined carbs, slow metabolism, body shape is more rounded or pear shaped, often has reasonable strength levels - Fitness Friday: Knowing Your Body Type).  Wow! If only I had known all of that when I was so much younger, I would have understood myself as a teenager!

What do they say? Opposites attract? We are the opposites and neither of us have ever, I repeat, ever done exercise as a regular thing.  I have had a dawning, a moment, a realisation now that I am, ahem, a little over the other side of young that I no longer have a choice.  My body is SCREAMING at me to exercise.  It needs my attention.  I can kid myself no longer that a little bit here and there will be enough.  I do know that when we travelled for 9 months putting a tent up and down every other day and moving boxes in and out of a trailer and onto the roof of the truck, I was the fittest I had EVER been two years ago.  My body thanked me then.  

My greatest difficult with exercise is always myself.  I stop myself.  I think I am too tired to go.  I come up with the excuses and reasons before I have even started.  This year I had made a goal that I would exercise 3 times a week and thought that this would help.  It is now March and for the first 2 months nothing really happened.

I spoke with a friend about it and she told me that I really had to make a regular time to exercise (apparently this is what people do - who knew). So I looked at all of the classes that looked really good and highlighted them.  I would be going out every night.  Already I had set it up to fail.  I didn't get to anything.  On a Monday morning a friend dragged me along to a yoga class.  It was great to stretch out my poor old twisted up muscles.  I booked in for the term, that was a good regular thing.  Two weeks in I didn't feel like it was enough.

On Sunday afternoon, my listless moment of the week, I grabbed my swimmers, goggles and towel and walked out the door with no takers.  Thirty laps later I felt great.  That is what exercise does.  It makes you feel great.  I promised myself there and then that those 3 times a week were a must (not to include the yoga as that wasn't cardio).  So now I have committed Tuesday and Thursday mornings to cardio exercise and accomplished my first week and promised myself not to allow anything to get in the way of it from here.  I have even "booked" it into my diary.

I swam, I rode and I walked really fast.  I did my mini triathlon. Yippee!

I pushed those arthritic joints to their maximum and I didn't die, I didn't even get a migraine (double yipee), I might even live a little longer.

Bonuses were that I had endorphins buzzing around me, I wasn't nearly as tired at night as I thought I would be, I smiled more, I saw more of the world because I was riding and walking in it, I had time to think, and I felt the sun on me. I am sure there are even more than that, but even with those, that is enough for me to keep it up!