[FJ: I’m ALL about change. Changing your god damn life around for the better. I don’t mean little shit like swapping lanes on the highway. No, I’m talking about complete U-Truns baby. Which is why when Donna approached me with this little post of how she just turned her whole life around, it made my day. So of course, I’ll be posting it here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy…]

Charles De Gaulle, former president of France, once said, “I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” And what I’m saying is this—exercising is way too important a matter to be left to the gym jerks [FJ: Heh, I’ll take that as a compliment]. If you’re having a hard time motivating yourself to go to the gym, then you were probably much like me a few years ago. You’re probably lazy.

But don’t get me wrong; I’m not judging. As an inherently lazy person myself, I know where you’re coming from. There’s so much to exercising that makes it an unappealing process for those of us with naturally-inclined couch-potato tendencies.  It takes discipline – whereas my discipline before exercising consisted solely in making sure I kept up with my television schedule. It takes focus—a word I only understood in the context of a camera lens. And most of all, it takes self-awareness. And I was the least self-aware person in the world before I regularly went to the gym.

So why, you may ask, as one of the laziest people in existence, did I begin exercising regularly in the first place? And why should you?

Here’s my story:  Before becoming a gym enthusiast, I lead a lifestyle that was, needless to say, extremely relaxed, but extremely unhealthy. I smoked roughly two packs every single day, my diet consisted largely of kids’ cereal, pizza, beer, and coffee, and the only sports I would engage in were bowling, golf occasionally, and every once in a while, billiards and poker. But, for all this disgustingly sedate lifestyle, I was still thin. I had absolutely no muscle mass to speak of, but I could wear a bikini and not feel embarrassed. And so I thought that exercise didn’t matter. But looking back now, I wasn’t thin, I was frail. I was weak.

I know what you’re probably expecting. You’re probably thinking that I made a turn around because my doctor told me I had to, or else I would die in a year, or something like that. But it wasn’t anything like that. It started while I was lying on my couch, and oddly enough, watching TV. I was watching the Discovery Channel, one of those wildlife adventure shows. I was completely engrossed. I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be fun? To just hike in the wilderness looking for crazy animals? Or white water rafting down the rapids of a pristine river? What I was entranced by was not so much in the details of the show, but I was looking at something that had become completely alien to me—physical action.

And then, it hit me like a brick. In the current state I was in at the time, I thought, I could never be like them. I could never go on adventures, scale mountains, bike across exotic terrain. And it was not that I had a huge, serious interest in doing so anyway. But what most affected me in that one moment was this—there was a whole set of activities and experiences that were completely shut off to me. And the only reason for that was completely self-inflicted. I couldn’t participate in any sort of significant physical activity because of MY lifestyle choices.

And I don’t know about you, but I hate being told I can’t do something. So, I started with a plan. Not a strict plan—those kinds of plans are reserved for all those non-lazy people out there. It was a simple plan. I started with jogging, just around my apartment complex. I did that for a few days. Then I increased my jogging radius to include a few blocks beyond my humble abode. I didn’t have a schedule to meet—no wedding dress to fit in to, no number of pounds to shed. I just ran. After those first few weeks of my small-scale attempts at physical activity, my life changed.

You’ll probably think I’m being overly dramatic when I say my life changed. But it did; no joke. I had heard all this talk about the endorphins that are released when you exercise, the chemicals that make you feel like you’re on top of the world. I had tried for awhile producing the same chemical effect with alcohol and cigarettes, but those methods were a Catch-22. Sure, I’d feel good at the time, but then the after-effects would soon come creeping in, and before you know it, you’ve got aches—chest, head, whatever—all of the time, and you’re constantly fatigued. And the real zinger is you don’t even notice your unhealthy exhaustion. Until you start exercising. Trust me.

So once you’ve started on the path to becoming an active human being, you’ll soon discover that your body can withstand more and more. As of now, I go to the gym every day, except for weekends. With the help of a trainer, I do both cardio and weight training. And I play sports, like actual sports, including soccer, basketball, tennis, and swimming. Just for fun. I quit smoking almost automatically; after being more active, I had no desire to smoke. It even made me feel sick when I tried. And you know what? It isn’t just a significant increase in physical energy that has changed in my life. It’s everything. I feel more confident, more able to get things done, more effective at work, and I’m closer to my family. Heck, it even improved my sex life [FJ: Fuck yeah! Err… no pun intended]. Because in the end, the things I talked about earlier—discipline, focus, and self-awareness—people aren’t always born with those things. Exercising and working out builds these qualities; it actually creates them.

So if you think you’re a hopeless couch potato, then think again. I was one, too, back in the day, and I turned things around, not because I had to, not because I desired a “hot bod,” but because I realized that being active is part of what it means to be human [FJ: Wanting a hot bod is not a bad reason either tho ]. So go out there and become a human, too. You’ll never look back.

Author Bio: This guest post is contributed by Donna Moore, who writes on the topics of massage therapy training.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: donnamoore20@gmail.com

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