Five Tips to Sabotage ANY Exercise Plan

Please be nice to me when I say that I am a runner who loves to run. I know—if you aren’t there–it’s a hard concept to grasp.  I know because it wasn’t always this way.  Before I found my inner-fitness fan, I struggled with failed workout attempts and exercise plans that were destined to crash and burn from the beginning.  Periodically, amidst the Jane Fonda VHS tapes and the aerobics classes, I would try running.  It seemed convenient and low maintenance and like something I “should” do (falling for the “should” was my first mistake). I hated it.

Here are five things I did to make sure I hated running.  Feel free to apply these tips to sabotage your fitness plan:

Mistake 1: I was hungry
My early urges to run usually coincided with an urge to lose weight.  I’d start some ridiculous diet and then decide that I needed to up my results with exercise.  This meant that I was huffing and puffing and I was hungry.  Starting a workout with no fuel in your tank is a guaranteed way to feel exhausted, unfit, unhappy, and uninspired (by the way, the diets didn’t work either).

Mistake 2: I went too fast
I was going to start to exercise and I was going to RUN darn it.  So I’d fly off my front porch and my lungs would be burning before I’d gone any appreciable distance at all.  I had no plan for how far I was going to go or any thoughts about pacing myself to go the distance.  I just ran.  Not very far.  And then I felt discouraged. The first time I ever thought that maybe, just maybe I might like this running stuff was when I tried jogging/running/and walking to slower music.  I grabbed a cassette tape (remember those?) of music that made me happy but didn’t have a fast driving beat, and I decided to just keep moving until it was over.  I ran slow, I walked when I got tired, and I was happy at the end of my workout. Mixing joy with exercise? What a concept!

Mistake 3: I chose the wrong environment
I still have horrible memories of trying to become a runner on a hot humid sunny afternoon in the Midwest.  I was literally running around a corn field.  It was a big flat square with absolutely no change in scenery.  That didn’t work for this aesthetically-oriented person.  Now this is especially significant, because, at the time, I lived only a mile from Lake Michigan.  I was really good at sabotaging my fitness plans because it never even occurred to me to adjust the timing of my workout to take advantage of a cooler morning or to drive to the more beautiful, slightly cooler location and try running there. That running stint didn’t last long.

Now I know that beauty is one of the things that fuels my desire to be active.  One of my favorite things about running is the opportunity to get outdoors and into nature. If you aren’t into sabotaging your workout plans, know what environment works for you and plan accordingly. 

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