My friend Athena and I have joked in the past about how we are those crazy people who actually love to workout. Very, very rarely do I ever dread going to the gym. In fact, 99.9% of the time I’m actually excited about it and look forward to it. I know- I sound like a crazy person, but before you get all eye-rolly on me, hear me out:

Working out shouldn’t be something you dread. It just shouldn’t. There are SO MANY different ways for you to “workout” that there’s bound to be something you don’t dread. I’m not saying you should love it like I do, but you shouldn’t dread it because that’s just bound to end up inhibiting your workouts and putting a big ol’ black cloud over anything that you categorize as a “workout”.

A workout also shouldn’t be a punishment. You shouldn’t go into the gym with the mentality of “Ugh. I drunk ate too many slices of pizza last night so I need to run an extra mile today” or “I need to take 2 classes tonight to burn off the birthday cake left in the office kitchen” or “I’m feeling really fat today so I’m going to go to the gym for 2 hours to sweat it out”. Why, you ask? Because that’s not fun. And more importantly, it’s not healthy. It’s viewing your body in a negative way and using exercise as a punishment, and who likes punishment? Not me. I’d rather look at the gym or a workout as something I’m lucky to be able to do. Something that is helping to make me healthier. Something that is making me stronger. Sounds more fun, right?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve had the negative/workout as punishment mentality in the past many, many times. I would feel guilty if I didn’t go. I would feel gross and sluggish if I didn’t go. I would beat myself up mentally if I didn’t go. That sucked. Making my workouts and going to the gym as something I feel liked I NEEDED to do was really just not fun. And what’s worse is there was rarely a time when I’d finish a workout and be proud of myself and what I accomplished… it was always “I need to do more next time”.

Luckily, over the past 3 or so years- really since I started teaching and learning more about fitness and incorporating more strength training into my program- my mentality has been constantly changing and I can now say I workout because I love my body, not because I hate it. I love the feeling of creating a workout and going to the gym to do it. I love the feeling when I’m able to increase my weights or my speed on the treadmill. I love that I can kick my butt in just a half hour, vs. hours.

So today, I’m sharing 5 (of the many!) reasons why I workout and why I love to do it. I hope that if you’re finding yourself in a rut or feeling discouraged about your workouts, this might make you take a step back and think about why you’re working out and to try and find the things you like about it.
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