monday morning oaths

I wonder how many of you, like me, have made the Monday morning oath. "i will start my diet today", "l will lose weight this time", "this time l know it will work". Come on everyone has done some Monday morning oath of one kind or another. What l now ask all of you is why do you need to take an oath? I like an oath, don't get me wrong, however most of my oaths just never stick.

Oath's have not worked for me in the past so why should they work for me now. It's almost like as soon as l make one l feel compelled to break it. I am a person who hates having restrictions placed upon me, many of us do, and as soon as l feel like something is forbidden it becomes even more desirable. So l have decided to change my style of oath, rather than restrictive to being a positive oath.

I was thinking the other day about incidental exercises. Remember before we had remote controls and you had to get up off the couch and change the channel, when you had to go to the post office, bank and numerous other places to pay your bills rather than press a few numbers into your phone or computer. My son asked me the other day what l use to do after school when l got home. I use to spend hours outside, regardless of the weather, playing, practising, exploring and moving. The only interesting program on the TV at night time for children was neighbours or home and away. So l would stay outside until it was time to eat, then watch neighbours, have a shower and read a book. Very different from our children's lives who find it hard to separate themselves from the devices that hold so much entertainment. It was hard work for my parents to get me inside to sit still, yet l have the opposite now of trying to get myself and my children outside and moving.

Today l decided to take the children and l on an adventure. Yes, l could of joined my husband to go into the tan (a running hunt in Melbourne) and do a lap but l worked out the km's for the cranbourne botanical gardens and found a walk l could do with the boys which was longer and would be fun for all of us. Some people are not aware that there is minimal calorie difference between walking a km and running a km. The only difference is how long it takes. So never feel guilty if you are only walking, just make sure you do your km's and you'll be fine. So off we went and it was a great day out, not a work out, not how many calories l burned. Instead is was like being that child again who use to run outside the minute l got home not because l had too but because l wanted to. The children and l jumped in muddy puddles, found a kola bear, (l pretended) the kids believed that we discovered dinosaur foot prints, climbed up trees and frames, and talked about different plants. My children learnt so much and it was a free, fun and easy event. It's days like this l know my children will remember, not sitting in the lounge playing plants vs zombies.  

So regardless of the weather, regardless of your pressures, think of finding ways that you can engage in exercise not because you have to but because you want to and try to remember that time when you where a child and you run as fast as you could because you liked feeling the wind. Most importantly let your children create those memories for themselves that they can hold dear like l do.

My Monday morning oath, to be more like a kid again in more ways than one, l think that is one that l can truly live up to.