I’ve tried every possible way to make at home exercise more pleasant, or rather less painful, but to no avail. I still haven’t exercised despite trying to get myself to do it the entire week. DVD, online videos, Fitness Marshall series, book reading while throwing limbs back and forth, making an exercise plan, imagining good food as rewards–I’ve attempted them all but with little results. My butt is glued to the chair, my eyes to the laptop screen, my mind on things other than the repetitive movements of muscles–as if I have muscles to talk about.
I wonder which is the better way, to trick the mind into thinking that moving is fun and exercising is exhilarating with energizing Latin or Hip Hop music, or to distract the mind from noticing that you are actually exercising by listening to some difficult passages that one wants to understand but haven’t been able to. I don’t know what’s the relationship between the brain and the limbs, except that I heard that there’s an observation that a human cannot concentrate on meditating something difficult when his body is moving. It sounds like the mind cannot engage in the mental task and the physical task at the same time. Well, we do, and we have to, but probably not when both tasks are intensive. Or there has to be a certain combination…
It’s so hard to be interested in exercising, in losing weight, in doing something just for its benefit.
Haoyan Do 
I run hot and cold with exercise. When I’m in the spirit, I can exercise every day for months, including weekends. Then something will disrupt my routine and I won’t do anything for a long time. (Right now my mood is “chilly”. The treadmill right next to my writing desk has a layer of dust on it.)
I think the “routine” was the key. Before I retired and I was still working at Verizon, I would go to the gym every day on my lunch hour. (Added incentive? The gym was in the same building as mine, just one floor down. That helped.) I love retirement and all the “free time”, but there is very little structure. After six years of wandering focus, it might be time to change that…
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Yes, that gives you the precious time to work on those Bonnywood characters, whom I am now a little addicted to. I wish my exercise can become as routine as my reading of your posts, but …
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I didn’t have time this morning to write more, but now I have time. My work is consulting, like translation, editing, etc., and I face the computer screen all day long. It is important that I exercise every day. In a little more than ten years, I’ll be retiring. Now I think about how to retire regularly. I am thinking of going back, but I want to make the going back journey as nice and smoothly as possible. I hope I can find a job doing the same thing (translation, editing, writing) in a place in Asia that is not very expensive and have free internet.
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Maybe you don’t want suggestions… But i find myself in similar situation. I found just having a small routine of stretches and now yoga is immensely helping… Am i shedding the pounds? No. Do i feel good about doing something and feel relaxed and stress relief? Yes! I’m thinking of it like a stepping stone to the cardio/dance i used to do.
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Thank you for the suggestion. I’ve never done yoga but I dreamed having a yoga body now and then–in a dream, one can have that without going through the exercise and the sweat. Hahaha. I just bought 2 wall mirrors and 3M stickers. I hope the mirrors can inspire me. I love external stimulation when I don’t have any internal drive for exercise.
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