29 Aug 2015 Fitness fever – do you have it?

by Karl Lenser

Adopting a healthy lifestyle can be a major challenge for many individuals. Getting on the fitness bandwagon (or treadmill, bike, elliptical, etc.) can be quite a challenge for some people. It takes time, effort, discipline and motivation to begin and maintain a lifestyle that encompasses physical activity and a healthy diet. To quote a line from an old Beatles tune, “You know it don’t come easy” could sum up the feelings of many when beginning to change to a healthier lifestyle.

For those of you who have been getting into fitness and enjoying its benefits, how do you REALLY know that you are hooked on fitness? What are some telltale signs that indicate that you are definitely a fitness convert? In case you are sitting on the “fitness fence” and are not quite certain, here are some examples that you may be able to relate to.

You know you are a fitness person if…

You rarely, if ever, complain about the lack of parking in your city. It is because you are fit and don’t mind the extra 5- or 10-minute walk to get to your destination. “It’s exercise!”

If you are a dog owner, you feel compelled to take it out for a walk. “If I exercise, then so should my dog.” You understand their need to move just like humans.

Cleaning the house doesn’t bother you; it’s another way to burn calories. Turn the negative into a positive.

During the warm months of the year, you choose to wash your car in your driveway and forego the automatic carwashes. It’s because you either see this as an exercise/calorie- burning opportunity or you are a cheapskate/penny-pincher/financially-frugal fitness person.

Along that same theme, you view waxing your vehicles as a great way to get a core/abdominal workout in addition to working your triceps, shoulders and upper back muscles.

You actually look forward to the warm weather months and swimsuit season because you have worked hard during the winter getting ready for summer. Cover-up season is over!

Unless you are carrying something extremely heavy, elevators are shunned. You seek stairwells!

Upon arriving at a Walmart or other stores with large parking lots, you don’t feel guilty or strange parking in the “Back 40” (the spaces that are a long way from a cart corral). You don’t mind to walk and move your body to burn calories.

You MAKE time to exercise.

You find yourself saying, “Something is better than nothing.” Translation: “I am not going to skip the workout even though my time is a bit compromised.”

You know you are a runner, triathlete or cyclist when you don’t mind paying a race entry fee to undergo pain and discomfort during the event that you know will be gone once you cross the finish line.

You know you are a runner when you get a new pair of shoes and relish their wonderful scent.

Same thing applies to being a cyclist — the smell of a bike shop is as unique as a used bookstore or library.

When on a vacation, you seek opportunities to exercise.

You pack your workout gear in the evening so you are ready to exercise the following day. “Failure to prepare is preparation for failure.”

If you have a fairly sedentary job, you find ways or excuses to get out of the chair and walk.

You see food in a slightly different way than most people: Two Oreo cookies represent 30 minutes of walking / A 20-ounce bottle of Dr Pepper is really a 2-mile run (250 calories). / A Hershey bar is 25 minutes of spinning/cycling.

When you ask a friend to join you for a workout and their initial response is “maybe” or “I don’t know” or “I will think about it,” you know that they really mean NO.

Outdoor exercisers become quasi-meteorologists and have several weather apps on their phone. They can easily name the meteorologists on the local TV stations. An early morning conversation amongst some runners or cyclists could possibly sound like this: “I think we can get our run in this morning. The surface high is blocking the upper trough that is coming in from the Plains. The cold front is still stalled out in the Ozarks, so we should be OK.”

Sitting for long periods of time is torture.

On long road trips, you are the rare breed of vacationers/road warriors that can be spotted jogging around the gas station after you refuel your vehicle.

A Conway resident, Karl Lenser is the director of wellness programs at Hendrix College. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. An accomplished runner, he can be reached at [email protected].