Willingness

Many folks, while losing weight, struggle with the advice we all hear to get more active. For many of us, exercise has ugly associations with being chosen last for teams on the playground, clumsy efforts to learn sports skills, and physical discomfort while doing various activities. Many of us are willing to make changes to manage our food intake, controlling which foods we choose and how much we eat, yet we're unwilling to get active. When we are willing to exercise, we think of it as some punishment we must endure for having committed the sin of getting fat. We imagine that as soon as we're slim, we can stop suffering through the misery of exercise sessions.

Yes, we've heard that sound scientific research indicates that those who exercise while losing weight, and who continue exercising thereafter, are most likely to have success with weight maintenance. But we secretly hope that when we've gotten to our maintenance weight, we will be "cured" of weight worries, and we'll be free to continue skipping exercise.

I tried that. Years ago, when I got to goal, I promptly stopped exercising. The fitness activities I'd used while losing weight weren't particularly enjoyable to me. They boringly repetitive aerobics VHS tape I used at home verged on the hideous calisthenics I endured in junior high PE classes. I put up with it, but was relieved to hit goal and put it on the back shelf where it began collecting dust as my old behaviors of eating and lethargy returned along with my lost pounds.

So quitting exercise was one mistake. But I think I made a bigger mistake before that. I was doing something I hated with a "finish line" in mind. I was willing to do that boring exercise for an hour a day until I hit goal, and not one more time thereafter.

This time around, I've been enjoying mixing up my fitness activities. I'm currently hooked on spin classes and yoga classes at my gym. I walk, do fun step aerobics videos at home, and I strength train with free weights. I swim occasionally, and use the Stairmaster at the gym, too. I don't always enjoy every minute of my fitness activity, but I enjoy it most of the time. If I find myself bored or dreading a workout, I know it's time to try something different. Novelty -- learning a new activty or taking a new class -- is incredibly stimulating.

My Leader always says "don't do anything (on your weight loss journey) that you're not willing to keep doing forever." So if working out for an hour a day, 6 days a week, isn't something you're willing to keep doing forever, don't do it. But if you're willing to work out for a half hour every day (or every other day), go for it. You may gradually become willing to do more, but even if you don't you're still doing more than you were.

Same thing with food. We can get completely maniacal, or at least I could, with the details and logistics of our program. We can make ourselves feel utterly inadequate when we don't achieve perfection (whatever that is in our minds). But do you really want to live that way? Maybe you're willing to give up sugar, or pizza, or fast food or whatever the trigger food. Or maybe you're not. If not, don't do it. Find a way to make it work, within reason, in a healthy and non-obsessive way.

We all struggle with willingness, and it takes many efforts (try this, try that, try yet another option) until we achieve balance. And balance is not a static thing. It requires constant little adjustments (I'm newly into yoga, so I'm learning this fact all over again).

Finding where our willingness and the program intersect is the key to finding our way a bit further down the path toward lifelong healthy weight management.