Okay, I admit it. I'm a lazy bum.

Or maybe, I have a lazy bum sitting on top of two lazy legs right below a lazy tummy.

*sigh* I've been paying for a gym membership since JANUARY (gosh!) and have been a whopping five times.

And its a Curves-style place too, a no-brainer- I just have to actually get up earlier than my husband and kids, suit up, get over there, sweat, come home and shower, change, then face an angry couple of kids who wanted breakfast like, yesterday, and have been ignored by Dad and are still in PJ's and dirty diapers, unfed, stuck in front of a kiddie video and climbing all over me as I waddle in, shaky-legged and exhausted from even a baby workout and have to start my too busy day not at a run now but at a breakneck sprint. Irritable, now starving, and harassed, I embark on cooking them breakfast, and then my breakfast, and I swear to myself that tomorrow it will be easier, and won't take up my whole morning, maybe if I could just get up earlier... or something...

And somehow, after finally getting the kids to GO TO SLEEP at midnight the next night, and myself finally drifting off nearing 1am, when the alarm goes off at 7am the next morning, the LAST thing I want to do is start that all over again!

I need to find a new angle here. This is a ridiculous emotional mess as it is.

Anyone have any encouraging, I-know-where-you're-coming-from-here's-how-I-face-it kinda stories???

Maybe?

I feel your pain, honestly! I have a 4-year-old and an almost 2-year-old. There's no way I'm getting my butt out of bed early to work out and I refuse to pay gym memberships anyhow, because I know I'm too lazy to get in the car and go. Especially with gas prices where I live ($2.39 right now, I think). My solution was to get an inexpensive piece of equipment for home. I got a Gazelle. There's several different models and they run somewhere around $200, I think, depending on the model. I love it. It's quiet, since there's no motor, I'm the motor, I guess. It's easy to use and is a smooth ride without impact. I keep it tucked in a corner, in view of a spare tv. After supper, I put in a video for the kids to watch in the other room, and I get to work out. Some nights it's a struggle to drag my butt over to put on my shoes and get on the Gazelle, but I've been using it since November and only one time did I finish the workout as exhausted as I was when I started. Every other time, I feel no energy for about 5 minutes or less, then I start getting more energy to the point that when I'm done on the Gazelle I do some 10 lb weights and a few Pilates exercises. I don't know if this even appeals to you at all, but it has really helped me. Not that you want to know this, but my husband constantly complements me on how firm my butt has gotten from the Gazelle. That alone makes me want to keep up the exercise! Good luck!

i went out and bought a cheapo elliptical trainer last year, plus a cheapo recumbant bike, late last year. they are out there, in my very tiny living room (my house is about 750 sq ft) buried under a pile of pre-hung doors waiting to be installed.

you have inspired me to break them out.

its nice to hear that someone else thinks working out at night might be okay, even a better idea. all i've ever heard on the matter is that working out at night is stoopid, because you burn calories all day if you work out in the morning, and it gives you so much energy, and blah blah blah. i keep waiting for the energy part to come. i feel the adrenaline rush for about twenty minutes, but after that i'm actually just tired! my kids are 4 and 3, and the younger of them is PDD-NOS (fancy talk meaning he's a handful, sort of like mild autism, in a very brief nutshell) and the last thing is need is to spend my day with any more reason to be irritable... :grin: if i do it at night, i can go to sleep after- what a concept...

i want to start doing the evening thing too! thanks for the inspiration!!!

Just wanted to let you know you are not alone on this. I try but find ways to talk myself out of moving my butt. I'm a firm believer that some is better than none. So do what you can when you can.
Hope you have a great week.

thanks skippie! i know i'm a friggin' perfectionist. i can't just try to eat right- i feel that its futile- i always have to: start eating right, start exercising, stop smoking, keep my house clean everyday, and be a patient mom all at the same time. i set myself up for defeat, i guess.

isn't that what the definition of insanity is?
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

tee hee hee... well, i still haven't run out of ideas, although i often dramatically throw in the towel and pretend i have. perhaps i live off the drama (aren't stress hormones closely related to sugar highs which are similar to heroin??? :laugh: ).

my mantra for the week:

some is better than none. none is bad, except when it comes to sugar.

~g

I like that! That's my motto right now when it comes to exercise. I'm getting something, done, so it's gotta be better than nothing. I refused to listen to one doctor who kind of frowned when I told him I was walking 5 times a week for exercise. "well, you really should do some cardio..." was what he was starting to say before I tuned him out. My body wasn't ready for cardio. Heck, just a few months before that, I could barely walk around the block. By the time I saw him, I was walking about 2 miles 5 days a week. I've decided to listen to my body, not what others say. They can offer advice, but I have to do what's good for me.

I also like to exercise at night. I still can't do much, but it's enough to get my heart pumping for a little while. I'm sure my body is just grateful that I'm moving it at all... I don't think it minds to much when I do it, just as long as I DO it!

I work out night, day, afternoon...whenever I can fit it in. When I workout at night, I have no problem going to sleep because I've usually had an exhausting day. For my early morning workouts, it usually helps when I have my gym bag sitting next to my front door ready to go. I get everything ready the night before. Have my gym clothes & shoes right by my bedside, so I can do a quick change if I have to get up super early. By the time I'm done with my morning workout I'm so energized I can deal with DH and kids. I also set the table for breakfast the night before so it's one less thing to worry about.

This is my take...
Now, if you tell yourself that it is a hassle to go...and that you hate it, you wont go!
Just try telling yourself that you want to do it, and believe that you do...You will soon get the hang of things, and get it done, with a smile on your face.

FINALLY!! someone who admits to thinking working out is a big fat chore!!!
Alelujah!!! Well done for admitting it, I HATE excersise with avengence and I was begining to think I was the only one.
I am sorry this post isn't productive, I'm not giving you any inspiration now am i? but the fact is, I get sick of people who love excersise. I want to wake up tomorrow thin and not having had to move a single muscle!!
LOL

I guess that's the big joke, eh? Isn't lying to ourselves what got us into the overweight category in the first place? How is telling yourself "I don't care that eating this will make me fat- it tastes really good right now" or "Just this once I'll eat it" (except saying that with every meal and snack) or "It's not SO bad being a little pudgy- at least not bad enough to say no to eating X" or "Just a handful- just one more- just a slice- just a little bowlful" any different than trying to convince yourself that Oreos (or whatever is your kryptonite) taste yucky?

Isn't that the same thing as trying to tell yourself that exercising is more fun than anything else you could be doing at the moment? C'mon. How do you get yourself to get off your lazy bum and clean the house/scrub the toilet/etc? Because it's so darn FUN? More fun than having chocolate? NO! Because it just needs to be done. So you grit your teeth and hold your nose and just get it over with. Because NOT doing it is worse than doing it!

Sure, those of us who can compete with ourselves, make little games out of it to pass the time, or who just for some weird reason actually ENJOY doing it, have an easier time of it. And after doing it for long enough, you get to the point where you don't really mind (or don't really think about it either way) and it becomes a good habit. Like my Grandma: always getting up right away after emptying her plate at dinner, and not only taking it to the sink, but scraping and rinsing it too. Whereas I usually end up feeling lazy or getting distracted after dinner, and don't clear the table till I need to use it again, or am out of clean dishes! So even just taking the stuff to the sink takes a conscious effort.

Hopefully by the time I'm my grandmother's age, I'll have the zen. But for now, I have to be honest with myself as a first step. Maybe I'll be able to make a game of it, maybe I'll find a way to make it fun, but the alternative is just kidding myself, and then I feel the guilt, then I feel like the whole effort is a sham, and there I am standing in front of the open freezer with a spoon and the ice cream container again....

OK!! Time for honesty from me too....I hate exercise!! I keep joining the gym and then don't go...I can't even get to the door!! Its not fun and its never going to be fun for me and...I've still got alot of shame about my body so that keeps me from going too.

BUT...my work keeps me moving...... 5 hours a day I walk dogs. I do this 5 days a week, every week, rain or shine!! I think that this one factor has been a icec of my weight loss to this point. I'm struggloing now and I know that I've got to get my metabolism moving a bit if I want to lose the rest of my weight.

I'm going to take one of my dogs a do a little jog..just to get my heart rate up...more fun than the gym and my dog will benefit too!!