Do you lllloooovvvveeee it?

Before I buy anything I ask myself...."Do you loooove it?" if the answer isn't a resounding "YES" then I don't buy it. Sadly this only works with clothing and accessories, I have yet to meet a brownie I didn't love. I was talking with a friend the other day who loves working out as much as I do and how our husbands don't get it.  If I had a day off and I could do anything I wanted, exercising would be at the top of my list. No I am not holding a crack pipe.

Can you learn to love exercise? From personal experience I say YES. When I was morbidly obese I hated exercise but started to break a sweat in order to lose weight. As the weight came off and I found activities I enjoyed I started to look forward to it.  As I got better at activities I enjoyed I became more competitive and started to push myself to try harder every time, and before I knew it I was madly in love with exercise. Believe me it was a slow burn that took a few years but I'm happy it did.

Most fitness experts talk about joining a gym and doing your 2-3 weight sessions a week and cardio 3-4 days a week, that sounds exciting (insert sarcasm font)! What if you hate the gym, you are uncomfortable working out in a crowd, don't know the equipment and are too shy to ask? Getting healthy isn't about signing up for a gym membership and slogging away the hours, hating every minute, if you want to be successful you need to enjoy what you are doing! I'm a personal trainer who does not have a gym membership, not because I don't need one but because even if I had one I wouldn't use it.  I have some basic equipment in my basement (treadmill, free weights, stability ball, TRX) where I can do hundreds of exercises, but what I really love doesn't happen in a gym. I love hot yoga, kickboxing, running and Crossfit.

I only use my treadmill for sprint intervals between weight training sets, the thought of running for even 15 minutes on a treadmill makes me want to pull my hair out. I have the attention span of a fruit fly and running in place on a machine is my idea of hell. Even if its -25C I'll run outside, its awesome.  Find something you enjoy doing, indoor rock climbing, badminton, swimming, skiing. You never know where it will lead. Did I think the first time I managed to run for 90 seconds that a few years later I'd have run five half-marathons and dozens of 5 and 10km races? No!

Go find something you looove!