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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 7653229" data-attributes="member: 99">Last week I warned you folks that we would talk about exercise this week, and here we are.  I wanted to revisit a <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?587-Experience-Point-Become-a-Fit-Beard#comments" target="_blank">topic I wrote about way back in February</a>.  I had a pretty good summer, (lightly) training for the Warrior Dash and successfully running that race at the beginning of June.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]But since then I’ve let myself get distracted by other pursuits.  It is very easy to let myself feel like I’m busy with other things and don’t have time to work out in a given day.  Somebody very smart said, “If you’re too busy to exercise, you’re too busy.”  So I’m trying to refocus myself on Fitness. I am a little surprised my attitudes about it have changed considerably since February.  This is due to a variety of factors.First of all, my wife has been exercising like a champ.  She did a Couch to 5k training program about a  year ago.  She kept going into the new year and ran an 8k in the spring.  She did the Warrior Dash with me in the summer.  Now she’s doing a half marathon program and will be running that in November.I don’t want to gloss over that in one paragraph.  That is pretty amazing and inspirational!  In the space of one year, she went from a relatively small amount of working out to running a half marathon.  She has certainly lost a few pounds along the way, and now runs 5 miles on an “easy day.”  I think she’s awesome.The other thing that changed my feelings was your comments.  My “Become a Fit-Beard” column generated more comments than any other article I’ve ever written.  There was some very interesting stuff in there like this comment from Jhalen:“For this reason, I think, maybe Umbran's idea of listening to an audio book while exercising might work for me. It would allow me to do something 'productive' insteading of just wasting precious time.”In many ways that summarized how I felt about exercising.  Then there was this bit by kingreaper:“Of course, the health of the body actually has a massive impact on the functioning of the brain. So even if you only care about your mind, exercise is still very helpful.”I care about a lot more than just my mind, but my attitude about exercise was it was rather boring and I needed to find ways to distract myself from it so it wouldn’t be so objectionable.  What I’ve come to realize since is how valuable exercise time is precisely because it is “boring.”Exercise is the one time of the day I can get away from my computer screen, books, the TV, even my family.  I can set my body on a path and let my mind roam free.  And my mind is doing some amazing stuff with that time.  It is coming up with answers to questions or problems that have been bothering me.  It is coming up with new ideas for home projects, book chapters, ENWorld columns, and the games I run.This effect has been so powerful, it’s not just a happy side effect of exercise.  When I find I’m struggling with any question or problem, or I simply want some inspiration about a topic, I go out for a walk.  It clears my head, gets my blood pumping, and the ideas and answers just flow.  Every time.That is of course on top of the other benefits of exercise.  Feeling generally fit instead of bloated is always nice.  And the endorphin rush and sense of accomplishment after a workout is hard to beat as well.I know I’m stating the obvious, but I guess it feels like I’ve finally had that “ah ha!” moment, allowing me to actually enjoy my exercise time rather than simply endure it.  I want to thank all of you that posted comments which helped inspire me.  I hope I may repay that inspiration in some small measure each week.What kind of shape are you in?  What kind of exercise are you finding easy to keep up with?  Where are you drawing your inspiration?</blockquote>

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