Friday, March 7, 2014

Tricks of the Trade

Over the years of being involved in fitness and health and my personal pursuit from being an unfit person to a fit person, I've learned some things along the way. I had an opportunity to ruminate on this during my run this morning.
 If you talk to real athletes about their practice, they use mental tricks and different ways of thinking to go to the next level. Once you get to a certain point in ...your health, a certain level of obtaining a fitness goal becomes a mental goal. If you change your perception about your physical activity, you may find that you will be more successful on your journey.

For example, I have found that I do a better job on my exercise (running is my nemesis that I battle with psychologically) when I exercise first thing in the morning when I am most fresh.

I have learned that if I break my route down into sections, it does not seem as daunting. If I have a six mile route, that I break down into 3, 2 miles sections, it does not seem to be as long.

Then, when I complete a section, I can say: I'm 1/3 done, or 2/3 or half done with my route.

I talk to myself. I remind myself to smile. I laugh at myself and I sing to myself. I have songs on my playlist like "Done" (All, I want to be is done. Done. UNH.) because it makes me laugh about how I feel about my run.

Instead of crying that I have another mile left to go, I turn it around and say in my mind, I've done 5 miles! Only 10 more minutes to go! Then 5 more minutes! Or one more lamp post.

These are psychological tricks that turn a difficult exercise into a positive goal. If you look at a chocolate cake and think you have to eat the whole thing at once (and then do), then you'll make yourself sick. If you have a little sliver, one bite at a time, every moment will be enjoyable and you will be finished before you know it.