Ok, confession time…

My good friend Tara Burner confessed on her blog this morning, so I will too ;)

I didn’t get my fanny up and exercise today. I totally skipped my workout. And I did it consciously – it’s not like the alarm didn’t go off, or I’m sick or too sore… nope – I just blatantly skipped it.

And now, I’m going to blog about how not to skip your workout even when you really want to. I confessed because I thought full disclosure was important…

Let’s face it, we don’t always WANT to exercise…

There are a million reasons to procrastinate. And you know as well as I do, all it takes is one semi-justified argument from your ego to give it up completely some days.

I was talking to my mom last night (I’m going to confess for her too… don’t tell her…). She’s been getting better and better about moving. She’s coming to my yoga class and she and a friend are going to the pool and doing Pilates on alternate nights.

So I asked her yesterday “How was your time at the pool last night?”

Her answer: “Oh, we ended up not going…”

Me: “Why?”

Mom: “Well, it looked like it might rain, it was getting really cloudy and we just thought maybe we shouldn’t…”

Me: “Was it actually raining?”

Mom: “No, and it ended up not raining…”

See – that’s what I’m talking about… one semi-justified argument and your exercise time gets obliterated. I mean, really, I don’t think mom should have gone out there in a deluge, or risked her life if it was lightening outside… but, do you see – they didn’t even try to go. They let the “possible rain” get in their way.

And no – I’m not knocking my mother – how can I? I laid in bed this morning.

I will say this though – I feel off this morning. I have this nagging in my head that’s telling me I really should have exercised. And my body is feeling off… it wishes it would have moved too.

Mom? Nah – she’s totally cool with skipping it – and that’s totally fine. This post is not at all meant to guilt you into moving.

I’m just saying I feel off… And, if you feel off when you skip it, here are a few tips to help you get moving:

1. Remember the 10 minute blocks of moving I keep talking about? Use them. If you missed your normal workout time, why not find three 10 minute blocks that you can carve out.

2. Any movement counts – have a room that needs vacuumed? How about sweeping the garage or the front walk? Time yourself and make sure you’re getting that heart rate up.

3. The day isn’t over so I’m going to do something later this afternoon. I’ll schedule in a run on the treadmill and maybe some yoga.

4. Think about way you feel like when you DO skip a workout. Is that feeling worth giving it up?

5. Just do it. Yeah I know – it’s cliche. But, what I find is, when I don’t feel like exercising, if I just get to it, 2 minutes in I’m loving it and I’m so glad I didn’t skip it.