When Does It All Change?

Thank you for your encouraging comments on my last couple of posts. It is nice to know that some people are still reading my blog. I do love comments, but it doesn't matter if it just a few because those few people are making a difference for me! I love you guys!

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I was responsible for our monthly pack meeting for our local cub scout pack. I also mentioned that I was a little nervous about the activity we had planned for the boys last night. Okay, I wasn't really nervous...I was just wondering how the boys would react to our physical fitness relay race. Boy was I wrong!

When I told them at the first cone they would have to do 5 push-ups they all looked offended that I thought they could only do 5 push-ups and they told me as much. Some boys wanted to do 20! We settled on 10. They also did 15 jumping jacks, 10 sit-ups, some hula hooping and a lot of running as the relay was spread out over a fairly large field. They loved it! When the race was over most of them wanted to do it again, so they did! Even after that some of them wanted to go again but our time was limited so we didn't.

I was very impressed by their eagerness to participate. I think there was only one boy out of 20+ that didn't want to participate. We also had younger siblings, leaders and parents participate. I probably should have, but I was overseeing the race. Thank heavens, nobody called me on that one. :)

The den responsible for providing the snacks for the evening just earned their nutrition belt loop so they opted to bring healthy snacks. All fruits and vegetables. There was some grumbling by the kids when they saw it wasn't the usual cookies for snack, but by the end of the evening all the healthy stuff had been eaten! I think it has been proven that when given healthy choices, kids will eat it.

The whole experience got me wondering. When does it all change? When does exercise not become fun? When do we stop wanting to exercise and challenge ourselves? Most kids seem to enjoy exercising (think sports, dance, etc). And there are some people who never grow out of it, but it seems like a lot of us do.

However, I don't ever remember enjoying exercise and did not participate in sports much so that was probably my problem. And I think had last nights activity been with 8-10 year old girls, the reaction would have been different. Do you agree?

I do think as we get older, we stop making exercise fun. It becomes another chore to add to our list of never ending "things to do" and when we have to let something slide, exercise may be the obvious thing to let go. Before we know it, we are obese and that makes exercise that much harder.

Do you think the scouts enjoyed last night because it was fun and competitive or do they genuinely like that kind of stuff? I'm sure it would depend on the boy.

So how do you all make exercise fun and competitive? For me, exercising with other people has made a huge difference. It definitely makes it more fun. I am also somewhat competitive so I definitely don't want to be the first one to stop a certain exercise or to put my weights down. I know I push myself harder when I'm with others than when I'm doing an exercise video alone at home.

Also, blogging makes a difference for me. I know we aren't all in competition with each other, but seeing what others are doing for exercise motivates me to do more. I mean, if so and so can do it I should be able to do it, too. Not to mention, I report it for you all to see.

Those are my thoughts for the day. I feel like I'm back in the blog groove. Three posts in three days! I don't think I'll blog again until Monday. This weekend will be full of soccer games, yard work and a church social.

The social is sponsored by the men's group so the men are the ones that signed (their wives) up to bring food. My sweet hubby signed us (me) up for a dessert. That would be fine and dandy, but there is some added pressure. Someone signed up for a dessert and put next to it "something awesome" so my husband signed up and put "something more awesome". Now I have to think of something "more awesome" to bring. At least I'm not the wife of the third guy who put "something so awesome it will make your face melt off"!

I'm off to figure out a more awesome dessert that won't be so awesome I will want to eat more than my share of it! Have a great weekend everybody!