- Faithful Fitness: God, Weight Loss, and Exercise
- Garlic Sweet Potato Mash
- Why My eBook Hasn’t Been Popular
- One Weird Thing that Helps Me Enjoy Exercise More
- How Does Guilt Fit into Weirdly Faithful Fitness?
- Are there Good Foods and Bad Foods?
- The Freedom of Constraint
- Call Me Weird, But…I LOVE the Paleo Lifestyle!
- Do This When You Feel Ridiculously Underqualified
- Laughter is the best…Fitness?
- Motivations for The Coming Week
- Ask the Experts for Fitness Advice: YOU!
- I Am a Person Who
- How my Son’s Life-Threatening Condition Gave Me Freedom
- Do You Need Exercise Accountability?
- How Losing the Guilt Breaks the Cycle
- My Family Hates Exercise
- Grace for the Now
- How Workouts Can Lead to Fat Gain
- Your Expert Advice: Fitness
- Don’t Forget de’ FEET!
- Four Steps to Tell Your Support Peeps What You Need
- A Day in the Life of Maintaining a 100 lb Weight Loss
- Three Girls and a Dog
- The Red Zone: How to Enjoy the Holidays and Stay Fit
- How to Avoid Burn Out and Find Fitness Success
Finding exercise I enjoy has been a problem for me. I’ve always been more the curl-up-with-a-good-book type of person. Unless I was attempting yet another weight loss program or it was required for gym class (the horrible memories!), I could go days, weeks, or sad to say months, without getting any real physical activity beyond taking care of my kids or perhaps a walk around Walmart.
One Weird Thing That Helps Me Enjoy Exercise More
So here’s the one weird thing I learned when I lost weight this final time:
I have to make exercise tougher in order to enjoy it.
Ironic, I know, especially considering I hated exercise.
What I’m discovering though is that going to the gym and just barely putting in effort is really not worth the time and energy. When I wasn’t putting in the effort, it felt like a waste of time. I didn’t get a good endorphin feeling from it. It was something, and something is always better than nothing, but working out harder gave me a better feeling of accomplishment, a goal achieved, a better calorie burn, and was the ticket to enjoyment — not every time, but much more often.
Do you enjoy exercise? If you do, what has helped you enjoy it?
If you don’t enjoy exercise, pray about it. What is God telling you? It might feel silly at first, but remember if it matters to you it matters to God. Be weird — let go of guilt and preconceived ideas and listen for God’s voice. What is God telling you about exercise?
- Faithful Fitness: God, Weight Loss, and Exercise
- Why My eBook Hasn’t Been Popular
- One Weird Thing that Helps Me Enjoy Exercise More
- How Does Guilt Fit into Weirdly Faithful Fitness?
- Are there Good Foods and Bad Foods?
- The Freedom of Constraint
- Call Me Weird, But…I LOVE the Paleo Lifestyle!
- Do This When You Feel Ridiculously Underqualified
- Laughter is the best…Fitness?
- Motivations for The Coming Week
- Ask the Experts for Fitness Advice: YOU!
- I Am a Person Who
- How my Son’s Life-Threatening Condition Gave Me Freedom
- Do You Need Exercise Accountability?
- How Losing the Guilt Breaks the Cycle
- My Family Hates Exercise
- Garlic Sweet Potato Mash
- Grace for the Now
- How Workouts Can Lead to Fat Gain
- Your Expert Advice: Fitness
- Don’t Forget de’ FEET!
- Four Steps to Tell Your Support Peeps What You Need
- A Day in the Life of Maintaining a 100 lb Weight Loss
- Three Girls and a Dog
- The Red Zone: How to Enjoy the Holidays and Stay Fit
- How to Avoid Burn Out and Find Fitness Success
New to our Weirdly Faithful Fitness series? Click here to view post #1.
Hi, Sara, I’m late to reading all of the blog but this post has really hit me. I’ve never given a second’s thought to what God might be telling me in regards to exercise. I know that I’ve used food as an idol, turning to it for comfort before turning to God, but never a moment’s thought about exercise in relation to Him. You’ve just given me something to think about.
Thank you for reading and joining in the journey!
Exercising hard does make you feel like you’ve accomplished something good. I found in my own life that accepting the fact that exercise was going to be a regular part of my life has helped me to make time for it. I won’t say that I always enjoy it, because, like you, I’m more book worm than athlete, but I always feel good afterwards. Thank you for sharing this!
Exactly — I have had to develop a mindset that it’s a part of my life. I don’t always like brushing my teeth either, but I do it every day. 🙂 The good feeling when I’m done makes it worth it.
This is great! So true about the endorphins! I can’t ever get to that same happy place if it’s not a hard workout. Congrats on the weight loss. 🙂
Thanks, Erica. I am working on it day by day. What type of exercise do you like to do?
I run and do power yoga.