Making Exercise Work for You

Written by an Eat Well Be Fit Committee Member

Submitted by the Needham Health Department

What does a "typical" day or week look like for most Bostonians?  If your life is like most, it might be difficult to say given everything folks must now manage between work-life, caring for a home, and finding time for family and friends.  Interestingly, most of us not only manage to balance all these priorities, but we often excel at doing so, thanks to effective planning and more than a bit of creativity.

How is it then that people manage to succeed at work and find time for family, but adding enough regular exercise into our weekly schedule remains such a struggle for the majority of America?

Without question, there seems to be a real contrast between how people approach managing their lives and their approach to regular exercise.  People who are thinking about or engaged in exercise tend to understand that flexibility and creativity are a necessity in managing their hectic lives and schedules.  When it comes to starting and staying on an exercise program, people tend to throw that resourcefulness out the window and take a 'nose to the grindstone' approach.

In fact, if many of us would only take a moment and apply some of the same creative planning we use to manage our work-life schedules, we would also succeed at including regular exercise into their weekly routine.  We tend to be quite rigid in our approach to fitness, feeling we must adhere to a set routine, making exercise a 'grind' and less rewarding.  However, as we all know, life throws us curveballs requiring us to be resourceful in balancing priorities in our daily lives.  

The list of great tips and ideas fitness experts offer those of us interested in adding fitness to our regular routine has grown long, yet, time and again, the majority of Americans continue to struggle with fitness.

Many of the tried-and-true strategies that fitness enthusiasts have held to for years work for some people, but not for all.  Finding a friend to exercise with, setting concrete goals like participating in a 5K walk, or hiring a personal trainer, all make sense and all have value, but, in reality, even die-hard fitness enthusiasts will occasionally struggle to stick with their own exercise routines. Unfortunately, we see too many people adopt an 'all or nothing' attitude towards exercise, dooming themselves to struggle when our hectic daily lives inevitably interrupt our normal schedules.

People need to identify what their specific barriers to exercise are.  If they can determine what the barriers are, they are more likely to create a solution that works.  Asking the following questions can help:

• What don't I like about exercise?
• Does my busy schedule make it hard to find the time?
• Do I find it boring?
• Does it hurt?
• Does it seem to not make a difference physically?
• Do I get too tired?
• Do I have trouble taking care of myself?

For every person the barriers and solutions are different.  What works for one person may not work for another person.  If people approach exercise resourcefully and creatively, they are much more likely to be successful for the long term.

This article was written by a member of the Eat Well Be Fit Needham Committee, a committee dedicated to improving the health and well being of Needham residents.  This town-wide committee is composed of concerned professionals consisting of the Needham Health Department, Needham Public Schools, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Needham, Nutritionists, Physicians, Needham Park and Recreation Commission, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and local residents and businesses.  For more information about this committee, or to see past articles, contact the Needham Health Department at 781-455-7523 or visit the website at http://www.needhamma.gov/EWBF.