Do “exercise” and “Monday” belong in the same sentence? Well – for the past six months exercise hasn’t seemed to fit into any particular day of my week. Am I looking forward to this? No. No way. Bleh. Why me? Tomorrow would work better. Morning works better for me than afternoon. I have too much to do today. I am too tired to work out today.

I think I have pretty run through my usual gamut of excuses. From this point they would start to repeat and get a little whiner and a little more shrill.

I have a fantasy in which I love to exercise. Then there is the past-tense fantasy where I love-d to exercise. Whereas I certainly do enjoy certain types of exercise much more than others (Salsa dancing, bicycle riding around the coast in Newport, R.I.) I am basically a lazy person. Give me a couch and a good book and a bowl of ice cream and I am in heaven. My fondest memories from my childhood involve stacks of books, a comfortable perch and snacks. Oreos and milk anyone?

Anyway today is not about me giving in to my loveable lazy self. It is about a New Year,a happy and energy boosting New Year. And, it is about me doing more of what is good for me vs. what feels good to me!

The inspiration behind this “Exercise on Mondays – Always” resolution is a book I want to recommend to one and all:
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

The author is Gretchen Rubin, a woman after my own heart. Without this resolution she’d be on the couch next to me (and you?!) Her year of happiness begins with boosting her own energy in the month of January. Two ways she does this is by launching this exercise practice and committing to going to sleep earlier.

Could going to sleep earlier – like now – be a good excuse to postpone the inevitable? No – I’ll go. Soon, after I’ve done it often enough I may actually start to look forward to it and to Mondays.

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