Nemesis! I Don't Feel Like It!

Blah! After a long day at work the last thing I want to do is more work. My head hurts. All the other drivers are behaving like morons and costing me precious minutes on the road that I could be using to sip a tea and unwind with my cats. Someone darts out in front of me and then proceeds to slow down, 10 k under the speed limit. Is it their mission to keep me on the road or am I just imagining things?

I. Hate. Everybody. Especially red lights and stop signs.

The biggest thing that prevents me from doing my workout is simply not feeling like it. I want to go home. I want to relax. I want the world to leave me alone until I have to get up and do it all over again. I have come to accept that visiting the gym directly post-work is not only a bad idea but more likely to prevent the visit from happening.

Why?

1. I need to want to go to the gym. Trying to make the gym right after work when I hate everyone and everything just makes me resent it. "Screw you weight machine. Suck it, exercise bike." Blah. I need time to unwind. Often I make the decision to go home. Screw the gym, only to find myself there, contentedly peddling and lifting, three hours later. Giving myself permission to go home and do absolutely nothing for a few hours is not slacking off and does not lead to gym avoidance, it helps me go there and to keep a healthy perspective. Working out is good for you. Resenting it is not.

2. I need my me time. For some people me-time is the gym. Not for me. I am a solitary person who enjoys rest. My me-time is really just hanging with my cats and doing nothing for an hour or two. Recognizing my needs rather than trying to adopt the habits of others, is important. It's not just  knowing what my needs are by accepting them and making time for them. For me, the gym is work. Work I can enjoy, but still work. If I put that work above my, often psychological, needs then I am doing myself a dis-service. I want to want to go to the gym. So I wait until I do, and it comes with surprising regularity around 7:00 pm. A mere 2-3 hours after I finally arrive home. Who knew?

3. Where, what, when. I have managed to pick-up some weights from local thrift shops. This means that I can do the things I enjoy at the gym and lift at home while watching Hannibal make meals of rude people. I have come to accept that a certain amount of anxiety will always be there, especially when trying new things around new people. But it can still make things a bit of a struggle and have me yearning for the comfort of home half way through a work out. I have met it half way with home weights. There are certain things I do at the gym but a lot of the lifting I can now do at home. The gyms gives me the bike and the pool. Which makes it totally worth it, especially in the winter when a bike ride means battling cold and ice!

Conquering my workout Nemesis is a work in progress but so far it seems to be working. I can't avoid the end of day Blahs but I can use them to my advantage and look forward to a bit of me time before venturing back out into the world.

Hannibal picture courtesy of:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Madsmikkelsen.jpg