"I'm Just Not An Exercise Person"

“I’m just not an exercise person.” “I don’t really like to work out.” “I’m not into the whole gym thing.” I hear these things all the time from people who are out of shape and just can’t get motivated to start a fitness program. Most of these people have a strong desire to lose weight, to look better, to FEEL better and to be healthy. Who doesn’t want to look better, feel better and be healthier? Don’t you? Do you use excuses like these? Don’t allow excuses like these to hold you back from achieving your goals.

These negative thoughts can keep you from ever starting on the fitness program that can literally change your life because you have already decided that you “don’t like it.”

Many people think that the “fit people” love to exercise and that they pop out of bed every morning anxious to go lift weights or run or whatever they do to achieve their fit and healthy physiques. I’m here to tell you that it’s just not true. While it may be true in some cases, most of us “fit” people would rather be getting an extra hour of sleep, watching some TV or doing just about anything but exercising.

Exercise is work! Sometimes it is hard work, sometimes it is not such hard work, but it is work either way, and work is not something that most of us are looking to do more of!

​The difference is that the fit people focus on the payoff, the trophy, the prize. We know that a great feeling of accomplishment and pride awaits us. We focus on the feel-good flow of endorphins that comes towards the end of a great workout. We focus on the goal of feeling proud at the beach rather than embarrassed. We focus on hearing the doctor give us a great bill of health rather than a concerned look and a prescription. We focus on how good it feels when your significant gives you “that look” again.

Don’t wait until you “like” exercise or become an “exercise person.” You become an exercise person by starting and doing it because you know that the payoff of a healthy fit body that looks good and feels even better is waiting for you. You will eventually look forward to your workouts, not because you love to squat or do crunches, but because you love the way that your backside looks after a few months of squats and how great it feels to have a firm, flat stomach.

​That is something worth suffering a little bit for! Even better than the way you will look is the way that you will FEEL. Nothing feels better than looking good.

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