Learning to love rest days

I never thought that I would loathe the days that I can't exercise. I absolutely despise them now. Prior to the start of my journey, much of my day was spent on the couch or in a chair...sitting, always sitting. Exercise was the furthest thing from my mind. I guess that's what happens when you lead a sedentary life for so long. In the summer (and winter) I would profusely sweat whenever I would walk short distances and the elevator was my best friend...stairs were my enemy. In all fairness, I was recovering from a knee injury resulting from a car accident so mobility was an issue.

Exercise days and rest days have a completely different feel to me now. I LOVE exercise days regardless of what I am doing. Some days I find myself spending hours at the gym only to come home and go out for a run with my husband. Yes, I sweat, but now I embrace sweating because I know that I worked hard. I no longer sweat walking short distances or taking the four flights of stairs to get to my office. I rarely take the elevator unless my hands are full or I'm in heels. Even activities with my husband have changed. We used to spend our evenings on the couch or out eating fatty and unhealthy meals at restaurants. Now, we spend our evenings and weekends at the gym, running, or doing some other outdoor activity.

Rest days are very difficult for me now. I HATE them with a passion. I need to be active at some point in the day and I have to force myself to take a day off. I know that my body needs rest days and recovery is important for future activity days. But I find that I am more tired on rest days and sometimes bored. Today is a rest day. Yesterday, I did some strength training and taught my Zumba class. I have been having massages every two weeks for the last month and a half to help with my running. My runs have been inconsistent for the last two months due to back pain when running on pavement. I read that massages really help runners, so I've combined massages with some focuses strength training back exercises recommended by my trainer and working on improving my posture in order to get me back on track with my training. So far, the massages seem to be helping and I have been able to run on the treadmill and completed a 5K run on the treadmill. The real test is if I am able to do a 5K on the pavement. I had another massage last night so today became a rest day.

Part of my problem with rest days is that I feel guilty and lazy...wow, never thought I would say that. I feel like I'm not being productive if I am not working out. I am slowly realizing that I am being productive and I'm not being lazy because my body needs the break in order perform the next time out. While I am resting, my body is busy repairing itself from all the "torture" I did to it the previous day. So while my brain thinks I'm being lazy, my body is doing lots of work...maybe I need to tell my brain to "shut up"! So I guess while I may not love rest days, I think I am learning to appreciate them.