Stumbling Into an Exercise Habit

The first 6 weeks of 2015 were, on the face on it, very ordinary ones in my life. But underneath it all, it has been a time of profound transformation for me. Of small changes that led to big realizations. One of the biggies was the start of an exercise habit.

I hardly need to repeat the benefits of being active- there are too many to list and we are all aware of them- but it is one of those things that is definitely easier said than done. I've been trying to embrace an exercise habit for so many years, and I've failed repeatedly. By last year, I wasn't even really trying any more.

Then one thing led to another. It started last April, when our neighbors across the street came over for a meal. Neighbor lady said, hey, how about we start going for walks around the neighborhood after dinner? It sounded like a good idea- low key, low commitment. And it was. Since then, we've been walking a few times a week, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on our schedules and the weather. Our neighborhood is hilly, so there is some exertion involved. But the important thing is that I felt like I was doing something active. Of course, going on long walks is also therapeutic as you get to have a heart to heart chat with a friend.

When May rolled around, this neighbor told me about an outdoor pool in town that is only open during the summer months. I loved to swim as a child, but hadn't been in a pool for almost 2 decades. She urged me to go check it out. I already owned a swimsuit that I'd bought years ago for a beach vacation. So I gathered up some courage and went to the pool. And saw men and women of all different ages and all different body types and body sizes swimming gracefully. I swam several times a week last summer. A cool dip in the pool in the hot Georgia summer, with blue skies overhead, surrounded by shady trees- my lunch-time swim was the highlight of my days. At the end of the swim, I often felt a wave of exhilaration- the exercise "high" that I've heard about. On swimming days, my sleep was deep and sound.

I can swim laps easily and stay afloat indefinitely but my swimming technique is not great. Basically, I keep my head above water- and if you've seen good swimmers doing the freestyle stroke, you know how they submerge their faces and come up for air every few seconds. My poor technique was straining my neck and slowing me down. By the end of summer, I made a promise to myself to take some swimming lessons so that by the time summer 2015 rolled around, I would know how to swim "properly" once and for all.

After summer came our trip to India and there was very little time or opportunity while we were there to get any real exercise. Back home, I knew I wanted to get moving again. The pool was closed and it was getting too cold and dark for regular post-dinner walks (although we still go a couple of times a week). I found this post with some free home workout ideas and tried some of them. I was doing one of the routines (a YouTube video) every other day for a couple of months and it was OK but I wasn't too excited about it.

Meanwhile, a friend gave me the phone number of her occasional babysitter, a young nursing student who also works as a swim instructor. In Jan, I texted the instructor and set up a 30 minute swim lesson at a community gym with an indoor pool. She turned out to be a wonderful instructor- she knew how to teach the right technique of breathing during freestyle swimming plus she was very sweet and reassuring. The first time I dipped my face in the water, I started spluttering and choking. It feels very unnatural for a land-dwelling mammal to put their head underwater. But I was told that the whole inhale-outside-exhale-underwater cycle comes with practice.

I might not love to exercise but I LOVE to learn. I feel alive and happiest when I am learning something new. And as an "obliger", I want to please my teacher so I work hard for the praise. Granted, most times, I'm learning something that requires mental skills (knitting a lace pattern, using a new computer program), but still, I embraced this physical challenge of learning to breathe correctly while swimming. I needed access to the pool to practice, so I got a 30 day membership (it was super cheap, since it happened to be January, the month of enticing gym discounts). I went to the pool 2-3 times a week and did my best to practice what the instructor taught. It was hard but in a matter of weeks, I'm about 75% of the way there. It turned out that wearing swim goggles made a huge difference in being comfortable with putting my face underwater. And it is exciting to feel like I will soon be a "real proper swimmer" zipping through the water quite effortlessly.

When I got the gym membership for the pool access, the person at the front desk told me that all classes come free with the membership. Well, if I'd sort of already paid for the classes, why not drop in and see what they are like? The first couple of classes weren't ideal- the first one was too crowded with about 25 people jammed into the room, and in the second class, the teacher kept chatting about sports and politics during the class, which I did not enjoy. Then I found a twice-weekly class that is quite perfect- at a good time (in the morning after I drop off Lila), with a half hour of stretching and a half hour of strength training. It has all the ingredients of being perfect for a beginner- an enthusiastic and welcoming instructor, 5-7 people in the class, upbeat music, workouts that are not too easy and too not hard for my out-of-shape self. Again, this taps into my true nature. I am not inclined to exercise on my own at home, but I am very good at showing up on time for a class and obediently doing whatever the instructor says to do.

For the last month, I've been swimming twice a week, and doing these classes twice a week. And to my utter disbelief, this is all a lot of fun and I look forward to it. It is a small and basic community gym, with friendly and mostly older patrons, so I don't feel out of place and intimidated like I might in a swanky gym surrounded by picture perfect bodies. I've paid for another 3 months of gym membership.

And then a couple of weeks ago I went down two floors to see a colleague about something, and she was standing at her desk. She gave me a spiel about how sitting long hours is terrible for our health. For a lark, I found some boxes and thick books to put under my monitors and keyboard and rigged up a standing desk for myself. And then I loved it/got too lazy to remove the boxes and so I've been standing (more like fidgeting around on my feet) the whole time during my working hours. I only work 3 days a week, but still, it feels great to not be trapped in a chair. The office manager did order an anti-fatigue mat for me to stand on which makes it much more comfortable.

Walking, swimming, exercise classes, standing at my desk. That's a whole lot of changes in a short time. None were planned but I am so grateful that things started to fall in place. Only time will tell if I continue to stay this excited about exercising, but I definitely have a good feeling that this time it is different and maybe the habit is clicking for real. There's a sense of relief that maybe I'm not the hopeless couch potato that I thought I was. "The best exercise is the one you do", it is said, and I am glad that friends have encouraged me to start doing something and not keep waiting for the perfect moment and the perfect workout.

If you have any tips for an exercise newbie, send them my way! I'd love to hear about how you're fitting exercise into your life, or if you're struggling to fit it in.