Just Ignore This One

At work over the past couple of years I've been tasked with creating a monthly ‘health newsletter’. Yeah, it’s as exciting as it sounds.

But one thing I’ve realized as I work on the articles that are in these newsletters is that more often than not, articles about exercise and nutrition piss me off.

When some ‘expert’ writes about overtraining and suggests that ‘after particularly hard day, give yourself a break that next day. Go on a gentle hike or take a yoga class.’

I just want to puke.

First of all, who the hell has time to ‘go on a gentle hike’? I know I don’t. I don’t leave anywhere near a place to hike, so I’d have to DRIVE somewhere to do it.

I work 40+ hours a week. Then I go home and do a minimum of 20 minutes of homework with Olivia each night. After that, I make dinner and clean up after dinner. THEN I pack lunches. If I’m lucky and it’s not Olivia’s bath/shower night, I’m done around 7:30. Who want to go on a hike at that point?

Not me, that’s for sure. And a yoga class? I don’t live anywhere near a place where I could take a yoga class in person so it would have to be done in my living room with an audience. No thank you.

I read the blog of a woman (why do I read this blog when it irritates me so much? That’s a question for another day.) who claims to go for 4+ mile walks or do some sort of Facebook workout each day before the kids she babysits for show up. This woman had six kids of her own and babysits in her home. Supposedly, if one of her teenagers is home, she’ll just trot out for an hour in the middle of the day and go for a ‘run.’

**This reminds me of way back when there were ‘discussion boards’. I often visited one at iVillage and there was women (who turned out to be a troll) who’d post on a board for step-parents. The line I remember most is when she once wrote, “I insist on a hot breakfast.” I read that with a snotty little smirk, like people who serve their kids Lucky Charms with extra marshmallows should be forced to relinquish custody. This troll would often talk about how he and her husband would go for walks in the evenings after the kids (I think she claimed there were six of them) were in bed. Sure. Sure they did.**

Can you hear my eyes rolling from here? Give me a break.

I know there are people who make exercise a priority. Bully for them.

I read an article recently (again for the work newsletter) that talked about not making exercise about losing weight. It suggested that people instead make exercise about being healthy.

Duh. Like we don’t all know that.

It also nagged about how a person shouldn’t make themselves do workouts they don’t enjoy. That sort of thing isn’t sustainable. You think?

I think my bad attitude comes from the fact that I KNOW what I SHOULD be doing. I KNOW! But I don’t know how to make what I should be doing a priority. Instead, I have to prioritize homework, and making a living so we can pay our bills and keep a roof over our head. I have to make dinner and clean up. I have to pack lunches and at some point, I just have to be done doing and doing and doing.

So the thought of going out at 8pm (because I am NOT getting up before 5:45 to exercise) and exercising is not attractive to me. Even if I could find an exercise that I might actually enjoy (hahahhaha) actually doing that exercise at the end of a day that started at 5:45am and is still going at 8pm is probably out of the question.

Just ignore this post. I felt the need to whine and bitch and sometimes. Getting it out of my head makes me less likely to be bitchy about it, even if I don’t vocalize it, when I get home.