11/14/08

Hamster on a Wheel

The other day I was sitting watching my little sister’s hamster. Being that they are nocturnal she sleeps all day and gets up around 8pm. The first thing she does when she wakes up is get in her little wheel and run her little heart out for a while. She will take a break to eat and drink but then it is back to the wheel. She is running about half the time she is awake. I thought it is amazing that she just knows she needs to run, she just has to be active.

You see this with children as well. I see many frazzled parents taking there kids to the playground to get all the excess energy out. It seems they never stop moving and are doing it happily so. If we were born with this drive to move, this drive to be active, where did I lose it? Why do I have to make myself exercise? Why to I have to trick myself into being more active. Shouldn’t I be craving the movement and activity like that child or little hamster. No one has to tell them to get up off the couch and go for a walk.

Where did I lose this drive? Did I drown it in junk food and chemicals? Is it physiological? Is it the desk job I have had for 6 years now? Is it because I would just rather be entertained? After all, we now live in a world of so much technology and toys to distract us. I am sure it is probably a combination of all of them.

As I force myself to exercise every morning and evening, I hope that maybe as I lose weight and continue to eat right maybe, just maybe that drive to be active will return. Then I can say “I get to exercise yay!”

4 comments:

  1. I was thinking about this a lot this week. There was a time I wanted to take a walk just to walk... to ride a bike just to do it. Now I look out the window and don't want to walk across the street to the convenience store.

    There are things I'd love to do, places I'd love to hike, but I feel to lonely, scared, or just plain tired. I wonder if all that joy in movement will come back as it gets easier to move.

    The one thing I really want, and that I think would motivate me to move a lot, would be to get Dance Dance Revolution. I can absolutely see myself spending the day trying to get the highest score on that!

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  2. OOOO, yes DDR is so fun. I have only played it a couple times but can see how it would be addictive. My little sis has a wii and might get it for christmas, I hope!!!

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  3. I think about that so much, too. Especially now that I have my little baby girl, I really do just want to get this drive to move back - I want to be active with my daughter, want her to enjoy physical activity. I will continue to work on this, for my sake as well as for hers.

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  4. I love this post. What a great analogy. I'm going to link it from my blog. well, if I can fgure out how.

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