Elise Skidmore

Exercise: love it, hate it, or ignore it as much as possible. We all know we should exercise. I’m told there are people out there who really love it. I’m not one of them.

Since the beginning of 2016 I’ve been making an effort drink more water (as opposed to the diet colas that are to me, what coffee is to others) and to move more. In the last month, I’ve increased those efforts, largely because I’m tired of hearing the doctor talk about various numbers being up and how diet and exercise can help lower them.

It hasn’t been easy, but I’m seeing results, and I find that gives me the impetus to continue. But loving to exercise? Not in this lifetime.

 

Exercise Love– I Just Don’t Understand It

She says she loves to exercise;

it’s almost an addiction.

I just don’t understand it.

 

It feels righteous to say

I have exercised,

to know that I have pushed myself

to do something I know I should do.

But loving? Addiction? No,

I just don’t understand it.

 

On a summer afternoon

when the sun is high and hot above,

dressed in black from head to foot,

I see her run down the road,

jogging in place as she waits for traffic.

I just don’t understand it.

 

Just watching this madness

leaves me feeling faint.

I drive home in my air conditioned car,

and head into my air conditioned house.

I grab a bottle of water from the fridge

before I pop in the DVD that will urge me

to walk three miles and burn up calories.

 

I listen to the beat and march along,

pushing myself through each mile,

telling myself to keep going,

it’s not much further now,

and I can do this.

 

I’m too much of a couch potato

to ever come to love exercise;

I just don’t understand that at all.

 

I love when it’s done.

I love when the effort shows results.

That I can understand.

 

~Elise Skidmore ©2016

Note: If you’re interested in which DVDs I’m talking about in this poem, I’d recommend you check out Leslie Sansone at Amazon. I’ve found them to be very doable, for all shapes, sizes and ages. My most recent acquisition includes a new mom and an 80 year old woman walking their way to fitness. You can’t do it wrong, as long as you’re moving.