Okay, I’m a couch potato. A slug. I HATE pointless exertion (like, oh, picking up a weight only to put it back down in the same place. And doing it over and over and over…) and I’ve never found a sport that interests me.
As you’d expect, I’m far from being in great physical shape. Not greatly fat, but I’m pretty steadily about ten pounds over ‘ideal’ weight and I’m soft. Weak, okay?
Anyway, we want to sell our current house in a year or so, so we’ve started doing repairs and minor renovations to increase its value. Three weeks ago I decided to tackle a horrible blotch on our grounds. Our yard has a funny shape, and this part is beyond a stone fence and a line of trees. Definitely out of sight and thus out of our minds. There are about half a dozen HUGE pine trees, all of which have that ‘all the lower branches have died’ thing. Mixed amongs them are literally scores of ‘volunteer’ maple trees, some of which have shot up to thirty feet and more, though they’re weedy and thin at the base. Also some wild thorny bushes and thick clumps of forsythia that have turned into ugly mounds of mostly dead centers… Basically, the place is a mess.
So for these three weeks I’ve been getting up earlier than normal, and putting in a solid hour of doing battle with this crap before heading off to work. I’ve sawed off dead branches, sawed down trees, pruned bushes, raked and hauled everything to our ‘brush heap,’ a good 70 yards away from this area.
Now, I admit this isn’t a formal exercise program, but it’s genuinely hard physical labor – at least, by my couch potato standards. I’m working hard enough that I sometimes have to pause to catch my breathe, and I’m absolutely drenched with sweat by the end of the hour. (And if anyone is looking for a good triceps exercise, I’ll put my vote in for sawing – Man, did my arms ache after each session the first few days.)
So…as I said, I’ve done this for three weeks. And I’m seeing results. Expected – that part of our yard is looking pretty good, although I’ve still got a bit of tweaking to do. Unexpected – my pants have been seeming loose, so I got on the scales today – eight pounds vanished! Woo! I’m within spitting distance of my ideal weight!
But what I don’t seem to get is that ‘good feeling’ I thought I’m supposed to feel after exercise. You know, ‘glowing,’ ‘healthy,’ ‘energized,’ 'extra alive"? Instead, when my timer goes off I feel tired and hot and sweaty and, most of all, soooo relieved to be done for the day. I drag myself to the shower right away, because I know if I let myself sit down I’ll never get back up in time for work.
So, tell me the truth: Is that ‘exercise makes you feel good’ thing just another benign conspiracy, like adults playing at Santa for the sake of children? Only this one is done by the physically fit to try to encourage the non-fit to join them?
Or, if it really exists, why don’t I feel it? Is it that an hour isn’t long enough? Too long? Or does it take more than three weeks to start happening? What?