18. Your Treadmill Isn’t Boring, Your Why Is: How to Find the Joy in Movement Again

What if exercise stopped feeling like penance and started feeling like care? We explore why so many smart, motivated people lose their spark for movement and how to rebuild a joyful, sustainable practice that supports real life.
If our take resonates, subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs a gentler path back to exercise, and leave a quick review - your support helps more people rediscover joyful movement.

I am happy we can share this journey of levelling up, together. See you next week!

- Alita <3

https://vitawithalita.buzzsprout.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening & Word Of The Week
• 0:41 Naming The Problem: Insipid Fitness
• 1:51 How Joy Got Drained From Movement
• 3:16 Reclaiming Your Why For Exercise
• 5:15 Permission To Dislike Workouts
• 6:04 Intuitive Movement Menu Exercise
• 7:31 Follow The Spark, Skip The Shoulds
• 8:11 Five Gentle Ways To Restart
• 11:24 Move With Your Energy, Not Against It
• 12:11 The Power Of Play In Movement
• 13:20 Protect Your Joy Online
• 15:12 Try Playful Micro-Moments This Week

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

One, two, three, four.

SPEAKER_00: 0:24

Well, hello there. What's up? Welcome back to Vita with Alita. The space where we explore wellness, mindset, self-connection, and little choices that bring more vitality into your life. As always, before we get into today's topic, it's time for our word of the week. And this week, this week our word is insipid. Insipid means lacking flavor, excitement, or interest. It's flat, it's dull, and it's lifeless. And honestly, for so many people, that's exactly how fitness has started to feel. Insipid, no spark, no joy, no connection, just kind of going through the emotions or even just avoiding the emotions altogether. So with that in mind, today's episode is all about bringing flavor back into movement, bringing your spark back and transforming exercise from something insipid to something inspiring, supportive, and even pleasurable again. So if movement has felt dull or draining or like a straight-up punishment recently, just breathe, take a deep breath, you're in the right place. So let's dive in. Most of us didn't start out disliking movement. We probably learned it. We picked it up from diet culture or gym class shame, the burn off your calorie messaging, comparison, competitive environments, or even fitness trends that probably prioritized aesthetics over well-being. Eventually, your movement probably stopped being something that we experienced and it became something to perform, something that you had to do, something measured, it was evaluated, it was insipid. It drained you of joy rather than bringing you that joy. But honestly, like think back to childhood or when you see children play. Like movement used to be fun, it used to be pure expression. Things like running, jumping, skipping, spinning, dancing for no reason, just kids move with zero self-consciousness because like the joy of movement is their why, or the game, or the the motivation is outside of the things that I have just mentioned above. And I feel like somewhere along the way, when you start incorporating diet culture, or like when you start putting this pressure on yourself, we lose that fun, we lose that spark. But here's the good news the joy isn't gone, hopefully. It's just buried deep down under rules, pressure, and probably judgment. So today we're starting the process of uncovering all of that joy again. So when someone tells me they're avoiding movement, and this includes myself, I know that I can vividly remember there were times, and sometimes there still are, I'm still in this process of going to the gym, and I just don't want to be there. So when I ask, like, why are you avoid why why are you moving right now? Like what's driving you? And I I would ask this to myself. Sometimes if the why, so ask this to yourself. So again, ask yourself, why are you moving right now? What's driving you? If your why are things like guilt or pressure, fear, comparison, punishment, this is this is literally why it feels insipid or boring or dull or flavorless. So let's ask a better question. If movement had nothing to do with changing your body, would you move? So direct this to yourself. So Ta ask yourself if if movement had nothing to do with changing my body, the way it looks, would I move? And you're probably thinking, like, why else, why else would I move? Well, okay, these are potential answers that maybe can come to mind. To feel grounded, to reduce stress, to sleep better, to feel connected, to feel strong, to experience pleasure in your body. This why is important because this why is the flame, it's the fuel, it's the thing that brings flavor and the purpose back into movement. So here, I'm gonna just I'm gonna be straight up. You're allowed to hate certain workouts. You're allowed, I'm not saying every single workout you do is going to be the most amazing thing and your body's gonna feel connected and strong and all of the above. Go to my VO2 Max episode and you see how hard you have to work to improve your VO2 Max, you're probably gonna hate half your workouts or they're just gonna feel so difficult. So I'm not saying you have to go into movement loving every single workout you do. Because honestly, if you if you are just there and loving every single workout, maybe you're not pushing yourself hard enough. But also, I want to also implore that some movement may not always fit your personality, your energy, or even your season of life, and that's okay. Maybe that's why you're not enjoying it. The problem is that we try sometimes to force ourselves into workouts that feel boring because we think they count more or we think they're what we ought to do, what we have to do to look a certain way. But what actually matters is what what lights you up, what makes you feel good in your body. So let's do a quick intuitive exercise. I'm going to read different types of movements, and I just want you to notice which ones your body reacts to with interest or curiosity. So no judgment here. We're just gonna I'm reading out very basic stuff and just see which one your body goes, oh, that would be kind of cool. And also notice which one your body kind of rejects, like right away you're like, oh no, that's not happening. So Pilates, Yoga, strength training, dancing, walking, hiking, swimming, boxing, cycling, mobility, stretching, group classes, low impact flows, jump rope, roller skating, rock climbing, somewhere in that list, hopefully something sparked or something didn't. This is not this is not the end all be all list. There's obviously movements that I did not or sports that I did not even mention, but if something sparked, follow that spark. If something made you feel, I don't know if disgusted is the right word, but you know, turned you off, you don't need to go towards that. And that's how you shift movement from insipid to inspiring. Google different types of movement, YouTube it. If there's something maybe you didn't even know existed, take a take a salsa class. Maybe that's your movement. All I'm saying is go towards what makes you feel excited. Because when movement feels like punishment, being gentle is the way you solve that. Gentleness will be the medicine and the remedy here. So here are small ways to start that and to start fresh so that we can exit this cycle of hating movement and this like punishment-driven activity. So, one, as usual, we're just gonna start with five minutes. Five minutes is enough to reconnect, and five minutes feels doable. And I'm talking about five minutes of that of that activity that maybe you want to explore. And don't give up just after the five minutes. The the whole point of the five minutes is at least you start and then your hope at least you start and you can maybe pick up the habit of doing this activity. But obviously, if it's something new, it may be a bit difficult. But still, within that difficulty, are you having fun? So if you are, that's probably a good, that's that's definitely a good sign. Secondly, replace one workout a week with something playful, something that maybe you wouldn't have labeled as exercise or working out. Dancing, swimming, stretching, exploring, like these things maybe you wouldn't label as working out because it's not in a gym, let's say it's not your cookie-cutter definition of working out, but try to replace it with something playful and see how you feel. Remember, play, being playful, this is the opposite of punishment, and this is what we want, right? Thirdly, we're going to try to set feel-good goals, not performance goals. For example, I want to feel open, I want to feel calmer after, I want to feel strong, I want to I know strong is technically performance, but feeling strong versus like measuring your strength are different things. I want to feel good in my body. I want to feel grounded. These are good goals to have. And if you cater the movement you're doing to these goals, maybe you'll you'll fall in love with that movement again. Alright, for we want to move with your energy, not against it. So this means you're obviously honoring your lower energy days with slower movement, and you're probably honoring your higher energy days with something that feels expansive rather than forcing yourself into this rigid routine where you may end up hurting yourself instead. You are moving with your energy. Now, little not disclaimer, but this is not an excuse to skip movement because you just don't feel like it. Your bed is much cozier. We all know that. There obviously has to be a little bit of discipline here, but you know, those days where even just walking feels like such a chore, you are probably tired if you're low on sleep. Don't sacrifice sleep just to move. This is what I'm talking about here. You're still going to be disciplined and have some sort of plan that you would like to follow through with, but if let's say you had a plan to do this, that, and the other, and then you didn't sleep an ounce last night, or I should say an hour last night, maybe you choose sleeping because that's also good for your body versus just the movement and pushing yourself past your limit. And lastly, protect your joy online. Unfollow people who make fitness feel like pressure. And joy is a skill. You can rebuild it piece by piece, and the things that you see online, you have to try to control as much as possible because these are things feeding your mind, feeding your energy, and feeding how you feel. So do yourself a favor and protect your joy online. So now I would like to get into like the power of play and why I keep using this word play. Because play is the antidote to this dull, flavorless, insipid movement. Play will restore your curiosity, it'll bring back your spark, it'll reconnect to the to the child inside you who moved without without the self-consciousness. So this week I want you to try one playful moment of movement. And this goes back to that list of five things, like the the five minutes of starting something new or whatever it was, but even something like dancing to one fun song. Skip for 10 seconds. Yes, like skip rope. You can skip. I know you can. Try a childhood sport, go on a wonder walk with zero destination. And when you go on this walk, don't have your phone. Just listen, look outside, see what's happening. Maybe have your phone for safety, but I mean more like you know, like don't be on your phone when you're on this walk. Be curious, see what's happening around you. Get on a swing, explore a new class with zero expectations. I don't know where you are, but here in Canada, it is snowing. There's a giant snowstorm literally happening right now as we're speaking to each other. So put on snow pants and go outside and just jump in the snow. All I'm saying is be a little playful with the movement. And I'm not saying this is going to be your exercise and this is what you're going to do and say, okay, call it a day. This is my workout. But it's just about instead of forcing yourself to walk 10k steps, like, oh my god, I have to get to my 10k steps, like this is a performative thing. Instead, do these other little things that are still maybe considered movement, but they're more playful and fun. Movement is not meant to be perfect. It's it's supposed to be fun and lived. Another cool thing that you can do is maybe try a new class at your gym with no expectations. I don't know about you, but when I go to the gym and then there's like that class going on and I hear the music and the instructor, and sometimes I look and I'm like, look, it looks like they're having so much fun and the community that you see of people. Maybe give it a shot. If you have access to it, try to see what happens if you were to try it out and if you enjoy it or not. Right? If you go in with zero expectations, trust me, you cannot be disappointed. And I want us to shift our way of thinking about movement. Movement is a relationship, it's a way that we are showing our body love. It's not a chore. And let's remind ourselves: relationships need patience, they need consistency, compassion, curiosity, honesty, and flexibility. Think of any successful relationship you probably have in your life right now. This is what I want you to think about when it comes to movement. Movement is this type, you're going to have this type of relationship with movement for you for yourself. Your movement will evolve with you. Some months you're gonna want strengths, maybe some months you want softness, some months you're gonna need rest. Nothing is wrong with that at all. You're just simply maybe a seasonal person. There's also nothing wrong with if you've been just bodybuilding for I don't know, X amount of years and you love it and it's your thing, and you're so good at it, that's fine as long as you love it and it's playful, it's not dull, and you're enjoying it. That's all I'm getting at here. I just want us to move our bodies because movement is the key to everything in this life: to vitality, to strength, to confidence. And I just want everyone to experience that in whatever feels right for them. So here's your little reflection for the week. Something I want you to ask yourself. What would movement look like if it felt like kindness rather than punishment? And let that question guide you. Let it soften you, let it shift your perspective because you deserve movement that nourishes you. Anyway, thank you for spending this time with me today. I hope this episode reminded you that movement doesn't have to be harsh or or insipid, a higher wonderful word, or punishing. It can be joyful, playful, and most importantly, it can be yours. If this episode spoke to you in any way, share it with someone who might need the reminder. And if you're loving Vita with Alita, leave a quick reading or review, or even send us a message. It really helps the show grow and helps others reconnect with their bodies from a place of love. And I would honestly really appreciate it. I would love to get to know who's listening and taking the time to have these conversations every week. Until next time, move gently, move joyfully, and move with kindness. See you all next week. Bye-bye.