Why Does It Have To Be So Hard?

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There are a constant stream of messages from the media and health industry that being fit and eating right are hard, except when being simple makes a better story.
There are endless InfoCommercials that claim their product makes it easy, proven by this person who once looked just like you shown demonstrating the machine that quickly provided an almost effortless transformation to his or her now perfect body. It's actually fun; the catch is it comes with a restrictive diet you could have found and gone on for free, which is what you were hoping to avoid in the first place.
Routines that promise results in an easy 15 minutes three days a week are worse than a waste of time; by extolling their brevity they discourage the idea that exercise makes you feel good; by not working they decrease the chances of trying again with a different approach.
Even success stories can be unintentionally discouraging. I have nothing but praise for the accomplishments of the woman in this story, but there's that statement, "But she stayed on track by reminding herself that weight loss was going to be hard work and there was no easy way out".
Dieting is always hardest at the start because you're the most desperately hungry; at this point the only adjustment your body has made is to start making you even more hungry than usual. So of course it's outrageously hard at the start. And hard as you go along if you don't get your mind right.
Exercising is always hardest at the start because you're not used to it. Pull-ups, push-ups, you name it; they all feel unnatural and wrong, like they're harming your body. Once you get past that point the "distress" is not as bad, but there's still the drudgery of anticipation. I can vouch for both of those concepts from my two weeks in army basic training reception center (they don't know where to put you), eight weeks of army basic training (they have no pity on you), plus a week or so as hold-overs (they don't know where to put you) when you still have PT, but they don't have to follow the rules they did for maggots/trainees (they are out to get you). Sob - my life was so hard.
I don't know if you've ever noticed, but an exercise session nearly always goes faster than you expect it to when you first start the session. And like the rooms on a level of some video game when you first go through it, the individual exercises in a routine seem to go on forever. As it turns out, repetition in both cases make both go by faster than you imagine. But imagined drudgery is very real dread and the daily anticipation, accurate or not, leads to the angst that eventually defeats ambition.
For the average individual not afforded access to enjoyable activities that can provide adequate exercise, a pronouncement calling for an hour a day of brisk activity is like a sentence of life at hard labor. Psychologically it's a hard trade-off. Misery now for future hypothetical benefits. It can seem better to let the chips settle where they may and just chillax.
The perceived future that drags down your spirit is daily misery to provide more days of daily misery - forever, or until you die, whichever comes first. The law of diminishing returns has to come into play there somehow, but I'm not sure how. Whatever, it seems like you'd be glad to die after awhile, so it still seems better to just chillax (love that word), even after you think it out.
The thought of facing some routine I didn't like every day and knowing I had an hour in front of me makes my blood run cold. I'm pretty nostalgic about the past; I can put a rose-colored glow on times when I thought I was miserable, but that part is in bleak, muddy, but somehow stark color no matter what. Kinda like the army.
It's possible through Energy Focused Exercise principles to learn to tolerate an exercise you don't particulary enjoy in exchange for several hours of enhanced energy and mood every day.
An ideal candidate is a semi-recumbent exercise bike, which now, apparently, is just called recumbent. Comfortable and accesible 24/7. The link is to an unavailable bike on Amazon so you can see one that looks almost identical to the Schwinn I bought probably 12 years ago because it was the right price; it has performed flawlessly, smoothly as well because it has a belt drive. Two tips, use towels to keep sweat from the seat adjustment handle and the opening where the seat support beam enters the opening in the pedal mechanism. Also don't try to assemble yourself unless you're handy.
It's better of course, to find an exercise or activity that you enjoy and actually look forward to. For me that's JumpRock. For anyone healthy enough to jump rope, this seems to me to be the ideal exercise if they like music, like to dance or wish they could dance. Or, if you like, and I do, it's the ideal excuse to dance by yourself.
If you start gradually and persist I don't see how you could not come to love it. Did I happen to mention anyplace at all that I'll be 61 in two months - I'm sure I didn't, so I'll be sure to say it here. (Ah ha, you do hear your thoughts. Otherwise how come I hear myself thinking in an Irish brogue?) Probably you're younger than me, almost everyone is (I'm sure I've never used that joke before) so think what you could accomplish. Who will be first to JumpRock in the Olympics?
You may choose to get enough exercise to do the job and be sedentary the rest of the time like me, or have a more active lifestyle. But either way, once you get the juices flowing and the toxins cleaned out every day, day after day, and you don't have to feel the dread that usually goes with exercise, there's no telling what capabilities you may find within yourself. Hell, maybe I'll just jump in the Olympics. I never thought I had this website in me or the cojones to try and start a whole new career at my age. Did I happen to mention...

Any advice given reflects the experiences of myself and acquaintances over the last 30 years to the best of my recollection and under no circumstances constitutes medical or professional advice. There is no guarantee of accuracy, completeness, or the approriateness of any information or advice on this site or any site linked to.