Worth It: Is It?

Really?

I’ve heard variations on this theme for many years. “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels” and all that.

Well, I call shenanigans.

You sit down to a plateful of your favorite food, made perfectly, when you’re hungry, and tell me it doesn’t taste absolutely wonderful.

So this whole concept of “it’s worth it!” always gave me pause. It seemed like some rah-rah Jillian Michaels slogan that sounds great when you’re all riled up in the midst of a great work out, but is a lot harder to buy into when you’re at home feeling cozy and snackish. It’s hard to believe then that it’s worth it to get your imperfect self out in imperfect weather to do a workout where you’ll perform imperfectly. That doesn’t always seem worth it.

I snuck into working out (at least 7 hours a week, nowadays about 11) because I found something I loved. I wasn’t driven by believing it was worth it… it was just fun.

The thing is, now it IS worth more than fun. It’s worth it to improve. To learn. To be with people I like. And yes, it actually does get to the point where it feels good to be sore, to know that you’ve used your body for something besides walking from one sitting place to the next.

So I think that some of fitness aphorisms are a little too chipper. You feel like if you don’t get them, this whole health thing isn’t for you. Don’t buy into that. Don’t measure your worth, or the worth of anything you want to try, by how well it measures up to one catchphrase.