How I’m brainwashing myself to like exercise using Jon Stewart.

I’m just gonna say it, I hate exercise, and I hate dieting, almost as much as I hate cleaning.  I have never been an active person, no team sports or anything like that.  I have always been more of a reader/brain type person.  I also LOVE eating and food, sweet, salty, spicy, you name it.  Needless to say, this is a recipe for disaster when it comes to weight gain/loss.

I have tried many diets/types of exercise, I even had a free membership for a while because I worked at a gym, I have never been able to stick to anything for more than a week.  Then…this year, I hit my psychological breaking point.  I’m 5’2’’, and when I saw 200 on the scale, I cried.  I had gained 70 pounds over 9 years.  I have many reasons/excuses as to how this happened, medication, etc. But this was it, I had to lose weight and get fitter.  Last year was the first time I had trouble finding pants in a regular store, even in the XL.

Just before the New Year, I started a program (it’s an app) that focuses on improvement.  No huge unattainable goals, no failure, just to do better every day.  Every morning my phone gives me my goals for the day, usually meals to log, a step count, along with an article and a task.  For example, today I need to log 3 meals, take 2000 steps, read a healthy recipe, and eat 5 different colours of produce.  The goals adjust based on yesterday’s performance.

In addition to that, I decided I wanted to start doing some activity every day, not a lot, just 15 minutes to try and get into the habit.  But how was I going to motivate myself to do something I hate every day?  Then I saw some article with a lady talking about how you can try to curb sweets cravings by snapping an elastic on your wrist every time you think of sweets.  I had hear the same idea for people who are quitting smoking, it’s supposed to make you associate the thing you want to stop with pain in your subconscious.

That’s where I got the idea.  I would do the opposite, I would try to associate exercise with happy.  I tried to think of something that I don’t just enjoy, but that was sure to make me laugh out loud.  That night when I got home I put my exercise bike in front of my computer, and did my exercise while watching The Daily show online.  I pedaled, I laughed, and the 15 minutes flew by.

We are now 14 days into the experiment, and for the past 3 mornings, I have gotten up early to do my 15 minutes, which if you know me and how much I am not a morning person in the first place, is pretty impressive for me.

It’s only 15 minutes, plus a few more changes in food, but so far I’m down 10 lbs.  Who knows, maybe Jon Stewart will be the secret to my weight loss, I may even brainwash myself into adding the Colbert Report to my workout, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.