Just Do It

Face it folks, how many of us really look forward to working out every day?

This seemingly simple question isn't quite as superficial as it seems. Most active people, myself included, look forward to the IDEA of working out every day. We may look at a calendar and plan out our cardio and strength training days. Maybe you sign up for a yoga or pilates class as well.

Then, inevitably, the day of the workout gets here and it just seems like the last thing on Earth any of us would like to do.

So what do you do? Gut out a workout that you really have no desire to complete? Ideally, maybe. But maybe not. Doing the whole workout, when you have no desire to be there, can leave you with an awfully bad taste in your mouth. The kind of taste that might prevent you from hitting the gym or the pool or whatever you had planned the next time.

So should you just skip the workout entirely? Absolutely not.

Instead, you need to alter the workout but still do something. Maybe today you were supposed to do a P90x workout but you are just dragging. Well instead of ploy-x just do cardio x instead. Or instead of running take the dog and the kids for a longer walk than normal. If you're going to the gym, only do one or two sets of one or two exercises instead of your normal 4 sets of 6 exercises.

The key is to do something and listen to your body. Sometimes once you get started, your attitude will switch and you'll knock out the whole workout anyway. And sometimes your body is begging for a break of routine, but will respond positively to some light activity.

The trick to maintaining a healthy active lifestyle is to understand that to err and miss a workout is human. But to use one bad day or week as an excuse to quit working out is just that--quitting. You are literally giving up on yourself. And you deserve better from yourself than that.

So do a little something everyday, no matter how little that something is.