Fitness Mentality - Fight!!

A couple weeks ago I posted on Facebook about my routine Alarm Clock Rage, and it seemed like I was not alone. And then last week I had a wonderful in-person experience at my gym that, again, demonstrated that I'm not alone in the fight! So, here I go again, because this is not just a battle - we're talking about eternal fitness antipathy, folks!

The problem is two-fold, as I see it, the need for sleep and the need to get up and exercise. I've always been a morning exercise person, and despite ACR, my exercising is happening in the morning or not at all. Those who exercise after their work day is done are probably battling the need for couch (or to make dinner and get on with your life!) and the need for exercise.

To recap ACR - so, despite the fact that I have been exercising regularly since I was, oh, 13 or 14 years old, I wrestle each workout morning with getting out of bed. If you're working out before work, guys, you're getting up early! And probably, you didn't get enough sleep. And you know this. You are acutely aware the sleeping did not happen enough. The alarm goes off, and whether it's beeping or a song or anything, it soon becomes the most awful, grating, torturous sound you've ever heard. Don't choose a favorite song for an alarm song, it'll be ruined forever! Even though it's probably been over a decade since I used the radio as my alarm clock, my eyes still pop and my heart tightens at the evil, fuzzy, popping sound of a radio turning on. ARGH!!!

A good deal of the time, I respond to my alarm clock with piratey expletives. It does sort of help, I think. Then I will move my alarm forward one more hour; that takes the edge off. Then I let myself relax and sort of pretend I'm going to sleep for another hour, while I mentally go on the attack. I berate myself, reminding myself that fitness only happens if you keep doing it over and over and that I'm going to be really annoyed with myself all day at work if I don't do it. Then I try a positive spin - you will feel really good with all those endorphins pumping through you, and then all day at work you'll be so glad you got your butt out of bed! My pirate talk oscillates with some whimpers and near-sobbing as I quickly progress through the phases of ACR.

Most of the time (not all, folks), I get past this mental trickery step, and turn off my alarm for good, and get out of bed. I don't get out to go to the gym, exactly, but to get on some comfy gym clothes. After I get on my comfy gym clothes, I am rewarded with a mocha from my Nespresso machine. By the time I'm dressed with my mocha, everything is basically downhill. At this point, NOT going to the gym, is just unthinkable. I just dragged my butt out of bed in the worst way; I'm no way going through that torture for nothing!

And at least for me, the actual spin class, weight lifting, or kick-boxing is relatively mentally easy for me to accomplish, and I feel great afterwards. But no matter how many times I accomplish this wonderful feeling, the ACR does NOT go away. So I'm here to say that you are not alone if you're experiencing something like this. There are those crazy people (my husband), who have no troubles whatsoever getting out of bed super super early to go to the gym (WHATEVER), but a lot of us will be like me and it will never go away, but that doesn't mean we can't conquer! And accepting that it is what it is (a mental fitness battle each day!), is the first step.

And this brings me to my awesome moment at spin last week. I went through my morning battle, and was walking into the gym at like 5:57, and class starts at 6am. A blonde girl jogs in the door right ahead of me and goes to the front desk, inquiring about the location of spin class; this is her first time. I tell her I'm going there too, and I'll show her the way. She excitedly tells me, as we walk up the stairs, that this is the very first time in her whole life (she seem my age, mid-30s) that she's gotten up to workout in the morning. So yeah, it's a big deal! She said that she somehow managed to screw-up her reading of the bus schedule on her app, and she missed the bus, and she was like, 'No way, not today. I'm not getting up this damn early and missing the flippin' class!' Or something like that. So she said she just took off running down Broadway! 'Not today!' Just inspiring, gotta say. :)

We get to the locker room, and I take forever (as usual - I get that from my dad) taking off an outside pants layer and changing into biking shoes. Then a brunette comes bustling in, 'You guys going to spin?' She's all rushing and stuff because it's 6am now. We say 'yes', and then the blonde says excitedly to the brunette, 'I'm so proud of myself! This is the first time I've ever gotten up to take a class before work!' The brunette immediately cheers, sincerely, 'Way to go! That's awesome!'. I say, ' Ya know, way to go to all of us. We're all here. We all got up!' Haha, I guess I wanted some cheering to go my way!

The brunette heads out and the blonde is ready and I thought they'd all left, but as I close my locker, I see the blonde is waiting for me. She jogs out the door, and she turns the wrong way (it really is confusing to find the spin room!). She gets directed into the right direction by me, as well as by the brunette who'd actually been waiting just outside the door around the corner for her! So all three of us delinquents rush into spin, late, but feeling mighty cheery and buoyed by fitness lady camaraderie.

And that's what I want to simulate here, that fitness fellowship (I just love me some alliteration). Whether you've worked-out regularly your whole life, do it in fits and starts, or are managing it for the first time - we can all share in that never-ending battle, the eternal antipathy that we conquer each time. Please share your story so we can see we're not alone!