To think that you're really lucky if you enjoy exercise?!

[bumblebee1987]

I will preface this by saying that I'm really fed up because I've been dieting and exercising since March and lost a very minimal amount of weight despite really trying, and have now plateaued for weeks, so this is probably more of a vent 😆

I hate exercise. I always have, every since school, I am rubbish at it, am not remotely competitive, and I just don't enjoy it. I have tried many many different types of exercise, it's all the same, I don't enjoy any of it. I don't enjoy watching sport, hearing about sport or being involved in sport in any way.

I go to the gym 3 times a week because I feel like I have to, because I am overweight and I need to sort myself out, but I hate it. I know I need to do it, but I don't enjoy it, and I think this is really unfortunate. My DH on the other hand, LOVES sport, his entire career is based in sport, he loves nothing more than going for a 5 hour bike ride or spending an hour or two in the gym, it's his happy place. Which is great because obviously it's really good for him!

I keep seeing fitness influencers saying how important it is that you find the sport that you love so that you will keep it up, but I really don't think there is one for me?! So I think I am basically stuck with forcing myself to do something I hate a few times a week, despite hating every second of it.

So am I being unreasonable to suggest that it's actually really lucky if you enjoy sport and exercise?! I am not talking about being good at it, I appreciate that being good at it takes a huge amount of dedication and not luck etc, but if you really enjoy it regardless of whether you're good at it or not, then that's really fortunate, right?!

I appreciate that this is very much a first world problem and is meant in a light-hearted way!

My family were massively into Motorsport, and I didn't and still don't get that either 🤣 So I hear you! My DH is baffled by my view of sport in general, his entire career is in sport, so I'm grateful for it in that respect as it pays the bills, but I just don't want to hear about it 🤣

I found many of the girls I knew when young were so worried about getting sweaty and not looking good it put them off sport overall.

I have found not giving a shit about what anyone thinks of what I look like especially men has stood me in good stead all my life.

I think it’s your mindset holding you back, plus the aching will happen till your body gets used to exercise of using muscles you don’t do much with usually.

I cycled 18 miles today, it was flat and I struggled to keep up with DH who when young used to cycle and row for his college and was better at sport than me. You know what though I was dammed if he was getting the better of me.

I am almost 36, so I really need to get over it and stop caring what other people think, it is bloody ridiculous!

Yes, more than likely my mindset! I just don't know how to change that?

Haha, if I could ride a bike, I'd be damned if I'd let my husband get the better of me too 🤣

I love watching sport, any sport, but I hate any sort of exercise. I’m hypermobile and I’ve not found anything that doesn’t hurt, either during or afterwards. Swimming is the one that’s always recommended but no, still leaves me knackered and aching. Walking any distance means I suffer for a week. So I really empathise, I’d love to be able to enjoy physical activity but there’s just nothing enjoyable about it.

How anyone can say sport is boring is beyond me.

I do tennis, badminton, football, cricket, I disco dance and walk.

My life would be incomplete without sport.
your body needs exercise plus its a way of meeting people too

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I don't like exercise but I have a very physical job and do a lot of gardening. If there is a purpose and I am achieving something as well I am far more interested in doing it!

But this is what I am saying, I wish that I could feel like you clearly do about it, but I don't! It's great for you that you love it so much, that is a huge motivator, but for me, there is nothing appealing about it!

I would say with mindset it’s about knowing you have one life and that’s it. I have survived two really serious illnesses. As a very small child aged 6 and then in my late forties. Every day is a bonus, you sound quite upbeat which is good. Maybe try and find a walking or exercise buddy and look on it as a social outing. I go for a walk with a friend every Wednesday and we chew the fat and laugh and occasionally in quiet fields sing songs when no one’s about.

I never used to enjoy any type of exercise, and I do enjoy some types now, not every minute or every time, but I can always find something to like about it.

it might sound cheesy but I started liking it after watching my Mom die young through a degenerative illness, losing one faculty or ability at a time. I would literally cry with a kind of wonder and happiness just walking along a street at that time, just feeling my legs moving under me. I started to feel incredibly grateful every time I felt my body respond to what I asked of it. And I became aware that next time I ask it to do that, it might not. You can accuse me of sentiment if you like, I would understand, but I felt deeply that I needed to stretch and move and live after watching her lose all of that. And I like now that exercise makes me feel alive, and confirms that my body is still under my control, and I can push it forward and get it to do things. I value that and exercise became part of my life.

Up your cals! At least 1600 a day, 100g protein a day. Lift weights & walk 10k steps a day. I didn't think I'd like lifting but a few months in and I was hooked. Love challenging myself and upping the weights progressively. It's great when I'm tired as it's not draining like cardio but I get a great mood boost. Brilliant for the body as we age

I can guarantee you're not eating 1200 calories a day for a start. Food labels lie all the time. Are you tracking things like the oil you cook with? Sounds really stupid but are you weighing out pasta/rice before or after its cooked?

If I'm totally honest, I didn't like exercise when I was overweight. It was uncomfortable, hot, just unpleasant with soreness all the time.

I lost 6 stone via dieting alone, only once I was slim did I start exercising - and I love it. I run three times a week, and go to the gym 5 times a week. I do a mix of cardio, yoga and weights; the sense of achievement is huge! I'll never have a good body or look toned because of my loose skin but I feel strong.

I've got just over half a stone to lose after gaining a few lbs but that's another story!!

I broke my leg at the start of this year (thankfully not both!) and I have been trying to have exactly this attitude towards my rehab and returning to exercise. The body is incredible in what it can do, in healing itself and in regaining strength. I’ve been finding joy in being able to do things for the first time again and in seeing my capacity for movement, not just exercise, grow with time. I hope I can keep this attitude going forward: appreciating what I can do & that exercise is honouring the body by keeping it strong and healthy. After this experience I definitely don’t want a repeat (love to the PP who has osteoporosis!).

I think before I approached exercise as something I did so I could eat what I liked, and did sometimes view exercise as something I had to do, both to ‘make up’ for what I ate and because I ‘should’. Effectively a kind of punishment. I think some of that is also in the OP’s description. Even before my accident though, while my overall reasons perhaps weren’t the best, I would say I often enjoyed exercising once I was doing it: I like pushing myself, I am quite competitive (mostly with myself) so I liked seeing improvements, getting faster or stronger etc. and the sense of achievement at the end. I mean, the sweatiness and pain, not so much, but overall I’d say I like exercise.

I voted YABU. I couldn’t drag myself to a gym three times a week but that’s because that isn’t my kinda thing. There are tonnes of different ways to exercise. I do aerial - I don’t feel like I’m exercising during class but can’t raise my arms after it. Other folks have suggested wild swimming, ballet, trampolining. What about fencing or climbing? You just need to find a couple of things you don’t mind doing but do it for fun not to lose weight. Hopefully that will be a nice side-effect.

I hated exercise too until I took up horse riding.

Now I absolutely love going to my lessons and I have a two hour ride down the beach at 10am - cantering and galloping through the waves. It's the best feeling ever.

My legs will be on fire tomorrow but it'll be 100% worth it.

Try to forget about weight etc and as a previous poster said, see it as a way of keeping you mobile and strong through life.
Any exercise is better than not doing it at all. Our dog is also elderly and we walk him slowly then drop him home and do a speed walk.

'd second some youtube videos, get up in the morning and do them first thing . Get some weights and a skipping rope. There are so many good videos, you'll find someone you like.

I'm with you OP. I found it boring at school, and boring today. Although I was always good at athletics and ball games, I was never interested enough to want to win.

The only thing I've ever liked was orienteering as that appeals to brain more than legs but it's something that needs a lot of organisation (by others), so you can't just go out and do it frequently.

I think I'd rather just sit with a book or go round a museum. I just hate getting sweaty and out of breath but know I need to - 'mens sana' and all that.

Hi OP,

I feel the same as you a lot of the time and mostly I have to repeat the mantra “to be endured not enjoyed” when I exercise and it kind of doesn’t matter what it is because I don’t enjoy any of it more than not doing it 😂

That said I have found I am enjoying it
more listening to Tabata tracks at the gym. They are remixed popular songs to go with Hiit or weights workouts so you get timed doing an exercise and get little breaks in between.

I also find it helps at the gym if you make a little plan of what you are going to do when you get there rather than slog away on one or two cardio machines. I recommend looking up some YouTube videos for weights and hiit type exercises and making a list of everything you are going to do when you are there. It just mixes it up and you can also see yourself getting through it if you tick stuff off which seems to make the time go faster.

The other thing I was going to suggest was if your DH likes sport would be book a squash, tennis or badminton court and play with you once a week? At my gym you can book them just for yourself so no one else would need to be there apart from you two 😊

@Carpy88999

I can 100% guarantee that I am.

I do not cook with any sort of oil or use any additional fat, so no need to measure them because they don't exist in my diet.

I don't eat carbs in the form of pasta/rice/potatoes etc, so no need to weigh those either.

A typical day for me looks like this.

Breakfast- 2 boiled eggs and a banana - 300 calories.

Lunch- An Itzu noodle pot - 200 calories

Dinner- Lettuce, cucumber, 30g reduced fat cheese (weighed, not estimated) half a tin of tuna or a chicken breast (cooked in the air fryer with no oil or sauce or anything). - Approximately 400 calories.

Snacks- If I snack, which I often don't because I don't get time at work, then I will eat 10 grapes/a pear/carrot and a little pot of reduced fat hummus/fat free yoghurt. - None of those are over 100 calories each, and I would typically only have one a day.

After dinner I sometimes have a mini lolly for something sweet- Maximum 80 calories.

If it goes in my mouth then it is logged on MFP. I eat food dry, I don't use condiments or sauces other than salt. The only foods I don't weigh are salad and veg (and I don't mean things like avocado, I mean typically very low cal salad and veg, like lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, cabbage etc, because overeating those is not the difference between me losing weight and not)

So if all of that if genuinely adding up to more than 1200 calories then I am clearly wrong, but I would be very surprised if it is.

I was like you OP, I LOATHED sport at school, was utterly useless and binned my trainers the day I left. I did literally nothing until I was mid forties, but was getting to the point I didn't feel great. I couldn't afford a gym so I started running. It was hilarious, I could run about 40 paces before I turned purple. 😀

C25K was beyond me, so I did gateposts. Every time I went for a run, I tried to get to the next gateway before I stopped. It took me a year to be able to run 1k. Also like you, I didn't want others around, I wanted to do it alone.

That's 10 years ago and I can now run 10k fairly easily. I run parkrun and a mid-week 5k. I do a karate class as well to maintain flexibility. I don't exactly enjoy it but I like getting rid of the stress and I feel brilliant afterwards. Full of energy and much more positive and cheerful.

I'm not sure I'll ever have that 'joy of running' that others get but the feeling afterwards makes it worthwhile.

I think you have to try harder when it comes to your fitness level.

You'll eventually start releasing endorphins and become fitter, the buzz is addictive once you get into a routine, a healthier buzz than too little food and no results.

Convince yourself that your body needs it, assuming you're 34 by your username?

Ask yourself in ten years would you want to be fitter or fatter.

1200 calories isn't enough to maintain for a 135lb 5ft woman with a sedentary lifestyle so you're either lying, miscalculating or you have an undiagnosed medical condition.

You must stop that diet. You'll collapse and your blood sugar levels will be impacted.

I feel the same and am very jealous when I see PTs, etc who pretty much get paid to keep fit…

Do slimming world where pasta is free.
You could have breakfast of poached eggs, bacon medallions, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes cooked frylite spray.