I believe that you should be moving because it makes you feel good.

Yeah, I’m all into fitness and I know all the physical, mental and emotional benefits, and I push myself in my own workouts and I set goals and I strive for certain things…

But really, my philosophy is, you shouldn’t exercise because you feel like you have to. Movement shouldn’t feel like a chore. And it shouldn’t be something that you force yourself to do.

And, you shouldn’t even exercise because you mentally know how good it is for you.

You should move because it feels good.

Even with all my goals and pushing myself, and challenging myself to go farther, it’s really the feeling that I’m after.

It’s because when I’m not moving, I feel awful. I actually start hating on myself. And that’s just icky on so many levels.

It’s really not about weight loss, or getting stronger…

Though, those are two really great side effects.

A very dear friend of mine called me a few weeks ago after she got back from vacation. She was so disappointed because she put on 3 pounds while she was away. And, this is someone that has struggled with her weight for a long time.

She said she was completely discouraged because she had actually walked at least 2 miles per day – and STILL she put weight on.

Striving for weight loss makes moving frustrating and discouraging.

I wish my friend would have not worried about wieght loss on her vacation. Couple things I reminded her of:

1. She ate out A LOT on vacation. You can never trust what’s on your plate when you eat out. And no – I’m not against eating out – at all. What I mean is, unless you ask and give explicit instructions to the chef, you have absolutely NO IDEA how they preparped your meal.

You may choose something healthy like salmon and veggies… but chances are good, it was cooked in A LOT of butter.

2. The walking she did wasn’t cardiovascularly challenging. Yes, she did walk 2 miles and that’s better than being sendantary, but to get aerobic benefit, she needed to be elevating her heart rate and challenging herself.

But see – this is why fitness can be so darn stressful.

We live in a society that makes us feel like we should look a certain way, or be a certain way.

And when we don’t live up to these impossible standards, we beat ourselves up brutally.

Move because it makes you feel good.

The easiest way to stop feeling so darn bad about not living up to a certain standard is to live for yourself.

Move because of the way it makes you feel.

Experiment. Try different types of moving for different time durations. Pay attention to your body and see how you feel before you move, while you’re moving and after you’ve moved.

Pay attention to how you feel after you eat certain foods.

YOU are the best gauge regarding how much you should be moving, what you should be eating and what you should look like. Don’t let standards or anyone else make you feel any different than what you know is right for you.