Daily Diary: May 18, 2013

"... it’s not bad to have performance goals! But what his conclusion made me realize is that I need to keep my main goal for exercising - my health – firmly in my mind so that I don’t let over-exercising creep up on me again. I’m not running Boston. I’m not competing for anything. The only thing I’m running for is to stay in my kids’ lives (and their kids’ lives) as long and as happily as possible. And to do that, that may mean not doing a lot of other things. Priorities." I read this on TheGreatFitnessExperiment.com today, and it really inspired me.

I think too often I get caught up in thinking that I need to "one up" myself with my exercise - especially my cardio. If I'm not at 30 minutes/day, I'm wasting my time... it's not enough and I'm not reaping any of the benefits of exercise if I'm not completing 30+ minutes of cardio 5x a week.

I think this was an excellent reminder that exercise is for my health. I shouldn't be exercising just to lose weight - I should be doing it for my health. I should be exercising to get healthier - for my immune system to work better, for my skin to look better, for my joints not to ache, for my muscles to be stronger, for my mind to be sharper, etc. Weight loss should be a result, if not a bonus, from exercising (especially of the cardio variety).

I should want to push myself - to excel, to set goals for myself - but it shouldn't be a competition against myself to outdo my previous times or caloric burns.

I should exercise to feel good. I should progress myself when I feel like I can/want to. I don't need to go 20+ minutes if I don't feel like it, but I should be exercising for the health benefits. I should want to be healthy and feel healthy... and the only way to do that is through consistent exercise. But outdo-ing myself shouldn't be the ultimate goal. It's not a competition against myself...

I really need to remember that.