The Do’s and Do NOTS of Exercise

My earliest memories of exercise involve tapping my hand-me-down ballet shoes to the beat in a Mommy and me dance class. I also have lot’s of home videos of me somersaulting in a zebra printed leotard at a gymnastic meet, complete with undies hanging out the side and blonde curls bouncing as I go. My school memories of exercise involve trying not to get struck in the mouth by one of those jump ropes with the plastic ball on the end. Also, lifting up the parachute and trying to sit on the fabric just in time and who can forget hanging on the bar at the pull up station, while my gym teacher who shall remain nameless, yells “can’t you do anything but play with your hair”. Isn’t motivation great?

Now that I am nearing 35, I treat exercise as an outlet , as a time for myself. I schedule it, but not like a dentist appointment, it’s not a chore. I schedule it like time for myself. I exercise all 365 days of the year, except for Christmas and a few others that Santa also permitted. You would think I look fit as a fiddle after me writing that wouldn’t you? It does sound very snobby looking back. I will have to insert a picture of myself looking like a harbor seal doing a plank to level it out, but no I don’t look like the vision of Women’s Magazine. I do okay. I hover around 145 in the month of July when you will find me in a bathing suit and 152 in the month of January when I am hibernating like a squirrel. Mind you, I am only 5 foot 3 and when you are short , you really get the shaft on this one. Short people, especially short women really have to exercise to the extreme just to combat gravity. I find taller, larger chested women, can rock an outfit just because the weight is distributed evenly and the girls are distracting. My only saving grace is that I have crazy, sexy legs (no really I do, just look past the bad skin to find them) and in order to achieve these, I do split squats and planks like you read about.

My advice for you if you love exercise or even if you don’t goes something like this:

-Work out in the morning. Doing a HIIT workout is all the rage and nobody is doing all that jumpin, with a belly full of corn flakes.

-Only work out with your own goals in mind. Exercising because someone else is telling you too will never help you reach your goal, because it is not in fact YOUR goal.

-Don’t work out with your kids. I know this sounds mean and I don’t really care that it does. I have seen videos of moms doing crunches while holding their six month baby. First of all no. Didn’t you carry that baby in your belly for nine months? Carve this time out for you and have your partner watch little Johnny while you work out for an hour and do something that is solely for you and your health.

-If you work out twice in one day, that doesn’t mean you eat twice as much. This is one I am still struggling with on the daily.

What are your visions on working out? Is it a chore or a reward? A punishment or a hobby?

Sound off below!