Are You Having Fun Yet?

                  This was originally written on Thursday. It is testament to my amazing powers of organization that it took me this long to get it posted. Be impressed, readers.

                  I played another game of squash last night, and I really enjoyed it. In fact, I play four games with a friend of mine – thankfully, as I lost the first two dismally but managed a comeback taking the next two. While my friend was basically exhausted afterwards I’m pretty sure he must have enjoyed it to some extent. I’m pretty sure he agreed to go again as well. I didn’t burn as many calories as doing solid cardio for an equivalent time but I certainly got more satisfaction out of it.

                So what about this experience warrants a second blog post this week? It caused a bit of a revelation for me that I wanted to share. This was that I didn’t consider it a chore at all – not that it wasn’t tiring or required no effort, but I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through so while it wasn’t quite as effective for calorie burn I felt I had spent my time a lot more enjoyably even thorough I was still exercising. Some people might find this a fairly obvious realization – that sports were, you know, intended to be fun – but I had previously not found any which I personally enjoyed. This meant that I was happier doing the exercise and got a better feeling afterwards as well – and I really needed the exercise, having just discovered my successful dieting had brought my calorie limit down to 1290 if I still want to lose 2lbs a week.

                I’ll be honest; I’m not limiting my intake enough to lose 2lbs a week any more. Evidence of this was the sticky chocolate pudding I had yesterday, lightly bathed in custard (hence the emergency trip to the squash court). I need to fit in more physical activity if I’m going to hit my increased goal of being 13 stone when I turn 26, and this discovery about exercise possibly being fun as well as beneficial is going to go a long way to helping that. If I can seriously manage to go to the squash courts four times a week, jogging there and walking back, I’ll be burning about 500 calories in a hour of activity which I enjoy.

                Now, numerically that is far inferior an amount than if I run for an hour – which burns about 900. And if I was truly set on this whole exercise thing, getting in shape and becoming semi-Olympian in appearance in the near future I would do that. However, I’m not; the diet and the exercise are still, as they have always been, for me and at a level I can manage, sustain and enjoy. If one of those three factors is lacking, for anyone, in their exercise regime it becomes unmanageable, unsustainable or unenjoyable (see how well that works?) and any of those negative additions to an activity or task make it much, much harder to finish or go through with – and exercise is no different.

                So that is my new mission statement for exercise – less intense, more regularly, more enjoyable. There were more ‘more’s’ in that statement so it must be an improvement. I would recommend anyone trying to lose weight or get fit (or both) try the same. Obviously you’ll have guess this already if you’re more experienced in the wonderful world of exercise, and you will need a greater intensity to get the same kind of benefit and if you’re looking to build muscle you’ll have to be pretty picky about which sport you choose if you want to get the same benefit as just pumping iron. 

So this anecdotal advice is not for you – it’s for people who are looking to improve general fitness or lose a bit of weight without feeling like the elephant in the room when they walk in the gym. I know that’s how I felt for the first couple of months I went, and I’m not saying everyone feels that way either; I’m just letting people know I appreciate it can be scary. One of my friends at work has said the gym is boring and terrifying because everyone is staring at you. I know a lot of my other friends share her opinion and this can be a very intimidating feeling – I would like to point out it is wholly not true. I people watch a lot as a hobby (because I am clearly the coolest thing since refrigeration) and very few people at the gym watch other people there, let alone out right stare or glare. Sure, there’s a couple of not-quite-casual glances but it’s nothing like the playground bullying people expect or assume to happen. Even if it did, you’re there for you – the fact that others might make comments or jibes just demonstrates an insecurity in themselves.

Yeah, I know that’s not a wholly convincing statement, or even if you do believe it you can argue that it doesn’t stop people having their own insecurities which is the crux of that matter. Doing a sport with friends is another good way around that insecurity – safety in numbers and all that. It’s also fun and distracts you from other worries that, quite frankly, are less important. A good sense of competitive camaraderie is healthy in any group of friends and indulging and/or encouraging that in any is great for getting you to do things you wouldn’t normally. So get out there, try something new and find out if you can enjoy some form of exercise!