Small Steps Health: Week 3: The Dreaded Treadmill

When I was younger, I loved to play sports. I loved gymnastics when I was small. I took a few classes, but was mostly self-taught. I did flips and tricks on the bars at the school playground that no doubt would turn my hair gray(er) if I saw my kids doing the same things. I started playing little league baseball when I was in second grade and stuck with that until about 6th grade when I switched to softball and became my team's starting short stop. I played a little basketball, but by the time I was a freshman and I realized 5'4 was as good as it was going to get, and that I had a lot of stamina, but not much speed, I decided not to continue. I went canoeing, skiing, ice skating, hiking, camping and swimming for fun with friends and I loved pretty much any activity (except vollyball. For some reason, I always loathed that sport).

But now? The very thought of getting on the dang treadmill makes me want to do ANYTHING but strap on the walking shoes and get moving. I just don't wanna. I know the experts say to find something you like to do and do that for exercise, but realistically, the treadmill is right in my basement and doesn't require another person, equipment or travel. It's convenient.

But it still sucks.

I know it's something I need to do to meet my health goals. Exercise will burn calories, help my heart, help my stress level, and could even help me on the creative front.

But it still sucks.

Week #3's small step goal was 15 minutes on the treadmill three times during the week.  I decided to multi-task and use the handy-dandy tread desk Hubby built for me and get some pages in while I suffered. The goal wasn't to bun calories so much as to just get in the habit of using the dang thing.

I had mixed success. By saying I was going to do it three times, it was easy to push it off. By Thursday, I hadn't gotten in even one session. So I dragged my butt on board and ended up walking quite a bit while working on my WIP. Friday I walked, too, but Saturday I didn't. Feeling guilty, I got up Sunday morning before the rest of the house was awake and got some time in, deciding to count it as my third time for the week.

OK, so I worked out three times. But the goal was to get in the habit of doing it, not rushing it all right before the weekly deadline. Consistency is my problem in a lot of areas in my life and clearly this is just one more of those areas (sigh).

In order to try to increase consistency, I'm going to make Week #4's goal 15 minutes 5 days a week. That way I know it's something I need to do pretty much every day and it will be harder, theoretically, to procrastinate, since I really only have 1 or 2 opportunities to make up my skipped day and still make goal.

The experts say it takes 21 days of doing a task to make it a habit, so I'm hoping that after a few weeks, it won't be so bad. And once this dratted Tennessee summer is over, I might be able to walk outside or do some hiking. That wouldn't be bad, either.

I want to be active. I want to like to be active. Maybe once I shed a few pounds and it gets easier to be active I'll enjoy it more. But until then I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and try to get through it.