Poll: Why do YOU exercise?

There are lots of good reasons why people exercise. We all know that it’s something we should do because it’s good for our health, helps us stay active and enjoy life longer, and burns extra calories for weight loss or weight maintenance.

But most people who are successful at sticking to an exercise program over time also have more individual reasons for exercising. Often, it’s these more personal reasons that actually get people up and moving on those days when just knowing they should do it doesn’t get the job done.

My personal reasons for exercising have gone through some changes over the past few years.


I started out exercising because it didn’t seem like I had much choice. Even walking was difficult for me, at almost 400 pounds, so it definitely wasn’t because I enjoyed it. I felt like the only alternative was to let myself continue morphing into an enormous lump of flesh that couldn’t move even if I wanted to.

But as I started making progress on weight loss and getting more mobile, and graduated from shuffling along the sidewalk to stationary bike riding and even the elliptical machine, I got interested in seeing just how far I could go. I started playing little “games” with myself during my exercise sessions, to see if I could go faster or further than the last time, lift more weight, or burn more calories. This, plus the fact that I started actually feeling better both physically and emotionally, kept me going for over a year—and watching those burned calories add up and the weight come off was pretty cool, too.

Then I hit a pretty long and frustrating plateau in my weight loss, and began to lose interest in going to the gym every day to do more or less the same old things. I tried some different exercises, like swimming and group classes, but the spark was definitely gone. Then, luckily, a friend introduced me to the mountain in the picture above (Camelback Mountain in Phoenix), and I suddenly had a new passion in life: getting myself to the top of that beast without having to stop for a rest. That took me about 4 months of climbing 3-4 times per week, and also turned me into a hiking junky. Since then, I’ve been hiking regularly 2-3 times per week, and I’m always on the lookout for new trails to try out. I’ve also taken up outdoor biking, to give my feet a rest from hiking several times per week. Biking is also my main mode of transportation these days, as I don’t have a car and hope to avoid needing to have one for a while longer, at least.

I think part of the appeal of hiking for me was that it is just so different from anything I had done before, and also so different from anything I really expected to enjoy or want to do. It still amazes me to look at some fairly big hill or mountain and know that I’ve hiked to the top of it—and to remember that a few years ago, I couldn’t walk up two flights of stairs.

These days, my main regret is that I waited until I was over 50 to do something about my weight, my health, and my fitness. I’m having some problems like neuropathy in my feet and arthritis that are starting to limit what I can do now, and these problems are directly related to the smoking, drinking, and sitting around I did for way too many years. So, if you need a good object lesson in why you shouldn’t make your healthy lifestyle a lower priority than a lot of other things that require your attention, here I am.

Anyway, I guess I have several reasons for continuing to keep up a regular exercise routine. In order of importance, they are:

the pleasure of being outdoors in inspiring settings; it's a big part of my spiritual life.

the satisfaction of doing things I never expected or thought I could do.

the satisfaction of pushing myself to do something physically and emotionally challenging when it would be easy not to.

the reward of burning lots of calories so I can eat what I want without panicking about regaining weight.

So, what’s your story? What challenges do you have to overcome to stay more physically active, and how do you handle them? What keeps you motivated to exercise or be active when life makes it harder to do that? What do you like to do the most?



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