I can remember vividly the the day that my father gave me my first ice skates.  They were a cheap pair of strap-on  plastic skates with 2 blades on each skate.   Our family skated on a a frozen pond in a vacant field in Minnetonka.  This marked the starting point of my craze for fitness.  My father quickly followed up with a pair of real leather hockey skates that I could lace up.

When the ice skating season was over and it finally turned warm in Minnesota, my father gave me a used green bicycle with a fake crank up motor mounted on the handle bars that made a vrrrrooom noises when I pulled it.  I beat on this bicycle so hard that Dad bought me a Schwinn Sting Ray bicycle to withstand the punishment that I gave it.

I don’t think my father understood exactly what he was doing.  I was a kid and he was making sure that I was having fun.  As I got older, my addiction to being active increased.  I played baseball, hockey, football, track, broom ball, basketball, cross country, wrestling, and cross country skiing.  I was in excellent shape without ever having to “work out”.  Exercise seemed so boring and foreign to me.  I heard grown ups talking about it and I vowed to never  participate in it.

My point is that staying in shape should be fun.  I avoid painful activities at all cost.  If a person detests going to the gym, he will stop going even if he has paid a few thousand dollars for a membership.  I dare you to look at attendance rosters at your gym on January 1 and July 1.  I bet the attrition rate is greater than 50%.  The clubs bank on this and hope that you stop coming (as long as you keep on paying).

I have 3 fitness activities that I absolutely enjoy.  My first love is long distance bicycle riding, followed by in-line skating, and running.  I tend to run more than all the others combined because I can run just about any where.

Pick a fitness routine that you enjoy and you are guaranteed to stay in shape.  Additionally, it must be convenient and readily accessible.  This is your recipe for success to life time fitness.

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