Saving it for Later

Who else needs to do some exercise?

Christmas food isn't my season weak spot - it is all the chocolate and candy that gets liberally left around the house in pretty dishes. I end up eating about my considerable weight in sugar, and the effects are amplified because I am simultaneously skipping the gym in the pre- and post- Christmas days.

And there is still new year's eve to come.

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We will be at home with the puppy.

But it also a time to reflect and think about what has happened in the last year or so, and maybe plan what is to come for the next year. Most people make some kinds of resolutions that ultimately fail, but at least it can be a time to really think about what we want in our life, and what we need to do to get it. Most of the resolutions fail because they are too abstract and aren't backed by concrete steps that can be turned into processed habits.

My resolutions, if I have any, centre around my own health, because I have so many challenges with it. Weight is not the issue as much as general fitness level, though they can be intrinsically related. I have trimmed a couple kilos off in the last month or so, but it is hard to judge it by weight alone, because I have also added a bit of muscle, which offsets the weightloss.

I have always found it interesting when people say they don't like exercising, because I am yet to meet a single person who feels worse after doing some exercise. I am not saying that people have to run a marathon, but the act of doing something in service to care for one's own body, will always bring value. Too many though think caring for the body is protecting it from discomfort, which ultimately leads to the body breaking down even faster, making normal daily activities, uncomfortable.

Why is it so hard to do the right thing for ourselves?

It is a question I have always struggled to answer, other than that we seek convenience, which means we end up making the decisions that are the easiest to apply. We can get a sense of looking after our body by sitting on the couch, even if that is not what our body needs. But sitting on the couch might be what our body needs, if we are ill or have been pushing our body in other ways. But, how many people really push hard enough to justify the amount of sitting they do? I do not.

A well-earned rest.

With the amount of leisure and passive activity we expect in our lives, we could assume that the rest of the time we are hyper-active, doing so much activity, so much work, that we would need to recover from it. But most of us do so little, that we end up being tired, so our body says "you need to recover because you are tired" without considering why the body is tired. We have evolved to rest when tired, but we haven't evolved to get tired by doing nothing. But it is doing nothing that is making many of us tired.

We aren't earning our tiredness. Rather, we are getting tired from disuse. Our lethargy is from atrophy. And what is interesting when we are tired is, our willpower is also tired, so we are more likely to give-in to temptations, like all those candies sitting on the tables around the house. When tired, it is harder to say no to convenience and feel-good comfort, even though it is going to make us more tired.

One of the reasons that active people are better able to maintain their diets, is because their body is more awake and has more willpower onboard. And then there is the awareness aspect of cost of breaking the diet, and knowing what it takes to make up for the loss. People who exercise regularly hard enough, will generally eat better because not doing so is going to make their exercise loss effective.

The gym is closed today, but it will be open for a few hours tomorrow (Boxing Day), so I will head over to do some kind of workout. Some stretching, some weights, and a little cardio. It will not burn off all the chocolate consumed, but it will start to get my head back in the game, by increasing my energy levels again.

Rest is important, but only when it is a reaction to effort. Rest alone is a cost to our wellbeing.

I feel I rest for too much. But I also wonder how other people feel about their own rest cycles, because it seems that many people are always resting, always recovering, always saving their energy.

Saving it for what.

Later?

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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