The Importance of Exercise

I used to obsessively track my steps with my Fitbit. Remaining the weekly champ was all important and going for runs and walks with the dog were the best ways to get myself up there.

I slowly fell out of favor with carrying around my Fitbit. I had found a consistent rhythm, hitting the same count every day, and wasn’t seeing the same push from the device that I had before. I stopped using it and without seeing my scores, with that I slowly eroded the habit I built up. I learned my first lesson; It’s much easier to stay in old habits than create new ones. It’s much easier to stop working out than it is to start up again.

Over the last couple months, I’ve been making sure that I exercise. What’s been unbelievable to me is the change that I’ve seen so far has been more mental than physical. Exercising has had a huge improvement to my stress level, my energy level, my patience and my ability to think. It’s been a reminder to me about how much our mind and body are connected.

Many of the workouts that I’ve done so far, especially the ones when I first started, haven’t even been that difficult but the mere act of doing something has made a huge improvement. I need to remember that such a small change can make a big difference in my mental health as well as physical.