Fake It 'Til You Make it... To Work.

1.02.2013

Today was like opposite day, or maybe just "radically different" day.  I woke up early instead of my usual "sleep in till the last minute and rush like mad" bit, I walked to the train instead of drove (yes, I live 5 blocks from the train but always drove because of my chronic lateness/lameness), I took the train that runs along the east side of the neighborhood rather than my usual west-line train, and I got off at 30th Street Station rather than my usual Suburban Station!  How zany am I?!

You see, this is my New Years workout fake-out resolution, where I trick myself into getting more exercise in very sneaky and almost unnoticeable ways.  Here's the thing: I hate to "work out".  I've done the gym thing more times than I'd like to admit.  By "the gym thing", I mean I've joined a gym, been a hardcore gym fanatic for 3 weeks (everyone should join a gym, this is amazing!), and then I just stop going, as if going to the gym stopped being an option.  Which makes sense because going to the gym is just not an option, for me.

I've also done my fair share of group classes and at-home videos, but it just always feels like something else on my to-do list rather than something I enjoy.  I mean, I love and really enjoy a good corpse pose, but unfortunately there are no classes or DVDs devoted solely to this one ancient "exercise".

So without forcing myself to do something I dread, while also recognizing that I need to move my body more, I decided to pad my commute with a few more steps.  I figured that commuting to and from work is something I'm used to doing and involves a bit of walking, so why not walk a bit further while I'm at it?  This way it's not the dreaded E word, it's just commuting.  See?  Sneaky.

I used to walk .8 mile per day during my commute, but by changing up my train and station, I now walk 3.5 miles each day.  Suck it, gym!  And... to up the sneak factor and to keep the commute vibe alive, I use that time to listen to educational podcasts and TED talks.  No one will ever be the wiser, well, except me.  It's like I'm gaining more brain while... just commuting.  Ahem.  The best part is that my new exercise regime commute only adds 30 minutes to my day, 15 minutes each way, so it really is kinda unnoticeable in the grand scheme of things.

So that's how my new year is beginning: Finding a new path to health by traversing a new path to work.  Sometimes you just have to fake it until you forget the point in the first place.  Sometimes end goals take away from the joy of the journey.  So for now, I'm just gonna walk to work and forget about the rest.  See?  Sneaky!

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