Love/Hate

I have a love/hate relationship with being super active. I think it's important to take stock of this, because it's important as a public healthy to be real with people about health behavior and how hard it can be to change it or even maintain it. If it weren't such a big deal to change a lifestyle from unhealthy to healthy, I wouldn't have been able to earn a degree in the theory and science behind this whole thing. But I digress.

One of the things I have heard about physical activity is the misnomer, "I want to be one of those people who loves (insert strenuous physical exercise here)." As someone with a love/hate relationship with exercise, and someone who needs to run several times a week, several miles a day now, let me speak my truth on this. I don't think anyone (but at the very least, not me!) can love to run.

It's my opinion that no one just loves to run. They might aspire to run often, or prefer it as their primary form of exercise, but let's face it - no matter how long you've been running, at times, be it because of injury, weather conditions, altitude, or even mood or what you just ate, it sucks. If it didn't suck at times, then you wouldn't be doing it right, because who wants to run long term and never get faster or gain more endurance?

Making progress, and making running count as an activity that will bring your fitness to the next level, almost always sucks. And bear in mind, this is coming from someone who's been running regularly for 12 years. It never gets that much easier. It's worth it, but it's not mushy and squishy and easy and lovable.

So other than making the commitment to do so until the half-marathon, why do I run? Lift weights? Do crunches until my tummy hurts? Because staying very active feels right. When I am active without going overboard, my body knows itself better. I can eat whatever I want, but I find myself craving healthier things, including lots more water and a balance of sugar and salts.

It's also great stress relief. I know you've heard this before, but it's true. I can have a horrible day and then get on the treadmill and not even realize that 30 minutes has gone by. I think running is so great for stress because it's a healthy way to be aggressive, it gives you uninterrupted time to think, and it releases pleasure chemicals into your body. Plus, you know you're doing something good for yourself when you run, so it's a bit of a confidence boost too. I don't know anything else that is such an effective, healthy quadruple threat to stress. Retail therapy might come close, ha ha, but it is not always healthy. And running is free.

I'm a huge advocate of finding activities that you enjoy for exercise. I think running comes close to this only for us near-masochistic folks, honestly. But I know in winter, snowboarding felt like no work at all (after the first three days) and at the same time, it actually improved my muscle tone quite drastically and kept me from gaining snowbunny weight even when it was the only exercise I'd get for a month or two.

So I don't doubt that you can love some activities - like organized sports or races if you're competitive or something like yoga for total body-mind-spirit health. I'm just saying that as someone staying active right now, the staying part will turn the love of the activity - any activity - into more of a like. And as you keep the activity up, it must be coupled with the necessary discipline to do it, even when your mood or motivation makes it feel like a loathe every once in a while.

And in that way, this love/hate thing keeps me runnin'.