Fitness Freedom: how to break the obession with exercise

I talk about Food Freedom so much that it’s probably engrained in your heads at this point. Something I don’t talk about a ton, though, is Fitness Freedom. I was chatting with Sydney about it the other day and she suggested I discuss it more, as it’s something that many of you might struggle with.

(For an idea of my old cardio obsession what my fitness routine/mantra looks like now, you can read this post)

I shared this post on Instagram a few months ago as my “coming out” of not loving exercise all that much. It was really quite freeing to admit that to myself. I see girls all around me working out 5+ days a week, going to boutique fitness classes on the reg, etc. I myself used to be one of those girls. Of course there’s nothing wrong with being passionate about fitness. It’s a great thing to be passionate about, in fact. I’m just…not. The caption from that post sums a lot up, so I’ll just share it here too:

Confession: I don’t really enjoy working out.

I love the benefits of working out – how it makes me look and feel – but the actual process? Eh. And even though I’m into *~wellness~* I don’t really care that I don’t love it. I’m sure I’d enjoy it more if I had disposable income and could go to certain classes all the time, but lately I’ve realized I’d much rather put my time and money toward things I’m more passionate about.

Fitness will always be a part of my life, but more as an add-on to allow me to live to the fullest: eating, traveling, writing, dancing, laughing, learning, growing. That’s why I love my strength training workouts that get the job done in the shortest amount of time + don’t cost me a dime.

For a long time I felt like I *should* love fitness more than I do, but one of the beautiful things about growing up is learning more about what you love, but also what just isn’t your cup of tea. You don’t have to like something just because everyone else does.

How I embraced Fitness Freedom

Firstly, having ^that^ realization about myself was the biggest step toward adopting Fitness Freedom and just owning it about myself
Taking extended periods of time off from exercising and realizing that nothing bad happened (didn’t lose all my muscle overnight, didn’t gain weight)
Being stubborn about only exercising when I felt it would bring me joy – not doing it out of guilt or obligation
Realizing the value of just moving and being active, specifically how underrated good old WALKING is. Exercise doesn’t always have to be in the form of a dedicated 60-minutes in the gym/a class
Making strength training the pillar of my fitness routine. It helped me to embrace the minimum effective dose, which in itself was very freeing