How does exercise fit in with the OO approach?
The mere word “exercise” usually has some negative connotations to most of us because we’ve forced ourselves to exercise so many times in the past – usually as another means of trying to lose weight. Exercise can be just as bad as dieting as far as causing us to rebel and getting back into diet mentality. What we’ve found helpful, is to let go of “exercise” just like we let go of dieting. We sometimes find that thinking more in terms of “movement” or “play” is much better! We do not “force” any kind of movement – we listen to our bodies, just like we do with food, and do whatever makes OUR bodies feel good and only when we WANT to! Some of us enjoy going to a gym – not with the goal of weight loss, but rather for the way our bodies feel afterwards. Some of us change the word “workout” (which sounds very negative!) to “playtime”. Some of us choose more playful activities – swimming, biking, dancing, sports – whatever feels GOOD to us and doesn’t trigger a “have-to” way of thinking! As s
