Joyful movement is one of my favorite Health At Every Size (HAES) principles! It acknowledges that, yes, moving your body is good for your health AND it should be fun. The purpose of moving your body is not results- driven or punishment-focused. Such a breath of fresh air!
I very much embrace the concept of joyful movement! I like to do a variety of workouts. High intensity, low-intensity, grounded, cardio, you name it, I'm probably into it. One of the things my workouts have in common, however, is that they are in group format. I love the different people I meet, interacting with different instructors, listening to new music, and it feels good to plan ahead to take an hour for myself.
Naturally, I follow some of my workout gurus on The Gram, because I'm a millennial with a smartphone living in real life, and it's 2020.
It's fun to connect with the instructors and get sneak peeks of some behind the scenes stuff. However, all I'm seeing now is promotions for Live-Stream workouts on this day, and that day, at this time only. Immediately, a sense of pressure arises, as I feel I must "take advantage"
since it's 1) free 2) only live for 24 hours and 3) I wouldn't otherwise have access to the workout.
But here's the thing: I just don't really want to. I don't feel like putting yoga pants on, the cats run all over my mat as soon as I lay it out, and the experience just isn't the same for me: I find myself aching for the energy in the room during a workout class. I don't feel inspired.
I'm not trying to listen to a two-dimensional-thimble-sized instructor yell at me to hit a plank.
Yet, here I am being bombarded with the opportunity. I'm getting emails to promote new "on demand libraries." I see demos of people following along, and they all look like this:
The reality is: to protect your relationship with something you love, you have to set honest boundaries with it.
If I immediately rearrange my schedule for every livestream workout, I'll either end up 1) resenting it or 2) feel guilty if I miss one. I have set boundaries that work for me (weekends only, minimal equipment needed, etc.)-- but most importantly, this includes giving myself permission to not be in the mood to do anything at all.
Like I said: Out of 400+ live-stream workouts this weekend, I did Zero. And that's O.K.
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