Strategy #4: Try stuff.
If you do want to move more—and ideally, find something you like, if not love—there’s no getting around it:
You’ll have to give some things a try.
That maybe means doing some stuff you might not like. Fortunately, there are ways to make the experimentation process more fun (or at least, not awful).
Here are some ideas.
Apply the 10 minute rule.
Give yourself permission to try just 10 minutes of something. If you don’t like it, you can stop. This low-pressure approach makes it easier to try new things: Get in the pool with your kids for just 10 minutes and see how it goes. Try 10 minutes of an online Zumba class or a yoga video on YouTube.
Return to things you used to like.
Make a list of all the ways you loved to play and be active when you were a kid. Did you jump rope? Play soccer? Explore the forest? Chase the ice cream truck down the street? Pick something from your list and try it. Yes, it might be harder as an adult. (Where do kids get the energy to jump rope for hours?) But it might also rekindle your playfulness. And don’t forget, you can always quit after 10 minutes.
Create your “bingo card” of new activities.
Even if you think you hate ALL exercise, there are probably things you haven’t tried. To experiment, create a “bingo card” of new activities. On each square, put an activity you’d like to try: maybe yoga goes on one square, zumba, hiking, boxing, and so on. Then, for the next 30 or 60 days, aim to fill the bingo card by trying each activity. In the end, maybe you’ll still hate everything you tried. But even if you don’t like the activities themselves, the process of experimenting can be weirdly fun.”
Stay tune for Part 5.
Team Maneki Fit
