I’ve spent the last few days feeling rubbish with a cold, and also feeling very disinclined to diet or exercise. Although my weight has continued to trend downwards, so yay for that… Still, I just can’t get up the enthusiasm to do P90. Yet this morning I ran to and from my son’s school. Not a massive distance (maybe 0.5km each way), but given that I’ve never been a runner, it’s a big deal for me.

Which has got me thinking. Why is some exercise totally off-putting, but other types of exercise are just fun? Why is it that I used to hate running but enjoy step aerobics, whereas today I can’t bring myself to put a DVD on but enjoy running along behind my son’s scooter?

I haven’t got an answer. But one thing I do know is that trying to make myself do exercise I hate isn’t going to get me exercising regularly. So: some running, straight from dropping my son off at school. And some swimming (I love swimming). And the DVDs are being put away for a while. Maybe I’ll want to do them another time, maybe not. But I’m going to stick to doing the stuff I enjoy.

On a related note, I’m celebrating a milestone imminently, and as a result of that, having a slight change of focus.

I’ve been very focused recently on losing weight, and getting fit has been secondary. I’ve spent two months losing weight, and I’ve lost over two stone (14.5kg). But I’m now within a week or two of my BMI being “normal”. That was me going from obese to normal in two months, and I’ve achieved it.

The next phase is a bit different. The next phase is about finding the size, shape, weight, activity level that I’m comfortable with. Now I need to find out how much fat and muscle I’m comfortable with, and what weight that turns out to be. How much exercise I can do weekly, and what sort of exercise I enjoy and will stick at – not for a few weeks, but for months and years. And that is a whole different game.

Also, what my diet should be long-term. Which bits of the Whole 30 should I stick with (low sugar, nightshades), which things can I reintroduce (eggs). And can I find a diet that keeps me healthy but is much lower meat, which I’d like to do for environmental reasons.

So, experimentation time. Possibly several starts and stops until I figure out what works. But hey – that’s how I learn. Onward and upward 🙂