Let me preface this by saying that I ain’t hatin’ on OT. If that’s your jam, you love going, and feel great doing it, do yo thang.
But for those of you who feel pressured (imagine that) to go, and you signed up because you thought you should, I want to let you know that it’s okay to call it quits. I sure as heck wouldn’t want to do that for an hour every day!
Because here’s what happens- you convince yourself that you should be pushing yourself harder and burning more calories, but after a long day the thought of doing this sounds down right awful.
So, you go home, feeling shitty about yourself as a result of skipping your workout once again, then sit on your couch and eat out of guilt (literally four people just shared this same scenario with me). You tell yourself, no more excuses, I’m going tomorrow.
Tomorrow comes, same routine.
How expectations work against you
People are often immobilized because of the belief that exercise needs to be some long, sweaty, high intensity workout all the time. NOPE!
I was meeting with a girl the other day who had bought a membership to Orange Theory a while back and said that everyday she feels pressure and guilt because she just doesn’t want to go.
She told me that canceling her membership felt like a failure so she has continued to pay every month, believing that she just needs more willpower.
You know what I told her to do? Cancel her membership. Want to know what happened? She felt a boat load of peace.
Exercise on your own terms
Does this mean I don’t encourage people to move their body? Heck no, but I just help them to do it on their terms; something they enjoy doing and that feels good.
That might mean a ten-minute walk with your dogs, yoga, a Zumba class, or a simple body weight circuit at home. Ask yourself how you enjoy moving and what feels good, instead of just defaulting to the activity that burns the most calories.
Know what happens when we take the pressure and expectations off? People start moving again!
Even if you can only commit to doing two minutes at a time, do it. Overtime, you may find that you can do 3 minutes, then 5, then 10, and so on.
And to all those who say, “But how can two minutes of movements do anything,” I encourage you to give it a try and watch what happens.
So, if you were waiting on a sign to cancel your membership, here it is.