Thursday, November 03, 2011

The magic of 15 minutes

Quote du jour:It always seems impossible until it's done.
- Nelson Mandela

Thanks to the amazing MessyMimi, I now know that today is National Cliché day. And it is a cliché that you can do more than you think you can.


When I absolutely positively cannot in any way Get Up And Exercise... for some reason, I can almost always still manage to get on the elliptical for 15 minutes. Can't manage half an hour, 20 minutes is still too long. But just 15 minutes, well, the bar is set low enough that the weary brain can grasp the concept and see it as doable. As often as not, I find that once I'm going, I can go a little further.

Exercise du jour: Yes, another 4 miles walking, 15 minutes ellipticalling. (Merry, when are you going to change the routine? A - when it becomes easy.)
Done! I'm claiming the star even though I did 30 minutes ellipticalling and no minutes walking. I figure I deserve it on humanitarian grounds, for even though I had a rotten day and really wanted nothing more than to crawl into my home/cave at the end of the day, I got on the elliptical machine. Of course, I wouldn't have done it if you -- yes, you right there, don't look away -- hadn't had faith that I could do it. The guilt of letting you down, well, I was ready to get up there and go through the motions to placate that guilt. Then, once I was going through the motions, it was easy enough to put a good tune on the headphones and get some real exercise.
I think the formula is Friends + Guilt + iTunes = Workout.

6 comments:

Shelley said...

Thanks for this post - I needed an exercise reminder this morning. :)

Anne H said...

Sometimes, I can't get out for a full work-out... Even 5 minutes... several times a day... is a good thing!
Awesome!

messymimi said...

Another cliche that is true; you can do anything for 15 minutes.

You can't do everything in 15 minutes, mind you, but you can work on or tolerate anything for 15 minutes.

Keep working toward that 15 + 4. Your schedule has been all over the charts the last two months because of the job changes, so it may take a bit to settle down. It will happen -- 15 minutes at a time.

azusmom said...

So true! 15 minutes may be all it takes to get those endorphins going.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Hooray for getting on the elliptical when you totally didn't feel like it! You get quadruple credit and totally earned that gold star.

Anonymous said...

Some, always better than none.
Julie