This winter was rough on the workout front. It was the first time in my adult life that I didn't have access to a gym (I know, #firstworldproblems and all that.) The thing was that I just didn't really want to work out. In college I was all about the gym, and working out to burn off the excess meals I ate on the weekends. Which was necessary because you can't eat fourth meal 1+ times a week and not face the repercussions. I'm crediting the absence of fourth meal with why I didn't gain weight this winter, lack of exercise and all.
It was just so weird because after four years of really craving to work out, the last six months I really lost that drive. I had an epiphany about it the other day, and I realized that the reason I had stopped feeling a need to work out is because I had changed my thinking about the importance of working out. In my mind, I'd adopted the thought that what you put in your body really has more of an effect on your weight and how you look then exercise. That since exercise was maybe less of a catalyst for weight loss for me, that it didn't matter as much. (Just writing this makes me want to hit myself, because who cares??)
But like most things in life, it's not an either/or scenario. It's about finding balance between the two. Maybe I don't need to hit the gym 5 days a week like I did in college, but I'm not going to feel good if I limit all exercise to going on leisurely walks.
One of my goals this year was to run in a race. Brian and I (and my dad!) signed up for a 10k on Memorial Day weekend, so training is officially happening. Getting back into running has been challenging, but I already feel a lot better. Brian has been nice enough to go on the long runs with me so far, which has made a huge difference. We ran 4.5 miles on Monday, and I was totally wiped out. But I'm starting to look forward to my runs more and more, which is definitely progress. I really do like running. I just needed a reminder.
Have you ever gotten into an exercise rut? What did you do to get out of it?