Why ‘Fine’ Isn’t Good Enough for Me (and Why Working Out Rocks!)
Love Yo’Self Week may be over, but we couldn’t resist sharing this post from our new writer Karen Romeo on how she stays motivated year after year to work out. Talk about loving yourself!
I’ve been working out for more years now than I like to admit—before the invention of the internet, when cell phones were as big as small dogs and Pac Man was the video game of choice. In all that time, I have only taken a couple of breaks—a week off here and there while on vacation and one eight-week hiatus to recoup from a surgery. So how did I stay motivated all that time? How is it that I never fell into the relapse trap?
I contribute my success to one little bitty four-letter word: FINE. If there is one word I hate in the English language, that’s it. “Fine” is what your boyfriend says about your new haircut when you know it’s been butchered. Or it is eating a can of tuna for breakfast because you haven’t gone to the store in a month. Synonyms for this word include: okay, adequate, so-so, passable and tolerable. TOLERABLE! In my book fine is not all right—fine sucks, and I simply won’t settle for FINE.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to slog through life being just okay. I want to feel incredible, marvelous, extraordinary or amazing, and it sure as heck doesn’t hurt if I end up looking good in the process. I’ve got to admit that at 20-something I wasn’t overly concerned with health issues. Thankfully, I did not have any. My big concerns at the time were fitting into a pair of jeans or the onset of swimsuit season. I just wanted to look good.
But what started out as an egocentric quest for the perfect body morphed into a type of physical therapy for my psyche. If I were in a bad mood, exercise would lift my spirits. If I was lonely, I could find camaraderie at the gym. If my self esteem was low, what better way than to give myself a pat on the back for a job well done? There was just nothing like those good old endorphins swirling around in my brain to fix what ailed me.
By now you should know that nothing in life comes free, and if you want to feel good and maintain a modicum of health, you simply have to pay the piper. But, it’s not that big a deal—it’s not like he’s asking for your first-born or your eternal soul.
It really isn’t rocket science and it’s not that hard. To maintain cardiovascular conditioning a person has to fit in just three 30-minute sessions a week. That’s it! They use to say that a person had to exercise for 20 consecutive minutes before fat-burning set in. Recent research is now telling us that one long continuous exercise session is not a necessity and that it can be broken up into two 15-minute sessions or even three 10-minute sessions. Hell, that could be a quick jog around the block or a quick kettlebell session in your basement.
So I ask instead: Why on earth would I want to stop something that helps me in so many ways?
Are you okay with “fine?” What feeling do you aspire to when it comes to living a healthy life? —Karen