What I've Learned the Past 5 Years

Exercise is something we do to get our bodies healthy. When we're young, few people truly tell us how difficult it is to "get back on track" if we've let ourselves become too lackadaisical as an adult. Even if someone manages successfully to convey the importance of being active or not over-eating, most of us scoff and think, "yeah yeah, that'll never happen to me" or "so what, I'll just diet and exercise." I guess I say that because that's the way I was; young and naive. Once you traipse off to college - or wherever you go after high-school - and life doles out responsibilities for the first time, you think to yourself how awesomely busy you are compared to everyone else. You are one of the busiest people you know because you have a job, captain the soccer club team, and make good grades. Sure, these are ear-marks of success but hold up... If you're an 18 to 20 something-year-old, single college student then try to maintain perspective. It's not like you're running a Fortune 500 company. In short, life gets complicated. From what I hear, it usually gets even more complicated the older you get. As you tackle more and more responsibilities, get a job, take out a mortgage, have a kid, pay property tax, plan a budget, blah blah blah, you start to let seemingly less important things, shall we say slip. And suddenly you aren't eating right because it's so much easier to let the grocery list suffer while you trade-in lesser chores to make up for that sleep deficit you'll never truly crawl out of. And exercise? Forget it! But, as we're all well aware, poor diet and exercise comes with consequences. When we find ourself staring type-II diabetes in the face, we cry REFORM! So we buy that stationary bike we promise ourselves we'll ride three times a week. We'll fight this thing because we're tough, see. Only we don't and it just sits there collecting dust. Sure sure, we climb atop our trusty, uni-wheeled steed and give it the 'good ole college try' once in a while but that really isn't cutting it (and if you think it does you're delusional). What is called for is a lifestyle change. One that takes the formerly less important chores and brings them to the frontline. You willingly cash in the extra fifteen minutes of sleep in the morning to make oatmeal. And rather than cram it full of butter and sprinkle liberal amounts of sugar on the SOB, you hold off or get yourself a real teaspoon and start measuring what goes into your body. Maybe you trade in that stationary bike for something with 2-wheels and ride it to work. Will you sweat? Absolutely! But for most of us, that's ok most of the time. Hell, pack some extra deodorant and a change of clothes - you'll live. It's daunting. It's hard. And you're so busy with everything that you do that you couldn't possibly make the time... Chances are you can. Busier people do it every day. And if you're starting to think you are the busiest person in the world, please re-read the part about the college student and try to gain some perspective. Then (and maybe only then) will we realize that the first sentence of this post isn't entirely honest. Exercise isn't just something we do to get our bodies healthy. To achieve success, it must become a way of life.