Exercise is Fun?

Daily writing prompt
What’s the most fun way to exercise?

Wait a tick here… you put the word “fun” into the same sentence as “exercise”? That does not compute. Exercise is fun in the same way that breaking bones is fun. In the same way that surgery without anesthetic is fun. Am I being over dramatic? Yes, of course I am. Does that make my prior statements false? Absolutely not.

I do 45 minutes of exercise each day at a minimum. I jog (pronounced “yog”*) in place for what my Apple Watch tells me is about 10 kilometers worth of trotting steps and then I stop. As the day goes on I will do a little more jogging (yogging) in place to try to get my daily calorie count higher and higher. Sometimes I’ll walk in place while doing other things. I just picked up one of those stair stepper things too in the hopes that I’ll use that for at least a few minutes each day. I have an exercise bike and I look at it every day, but I haven’t been able to make it part of the daily routine. I want to move it next to my work from home desk in the hopes that I will be inspired to jump onto it for a few minutes a day. We’ll see.

Is any of that fun? No. Not even a little bit.

I guess there are some things that are fun to do that also just happen to be exercise. Walks in the woods. Visits to theme parks. Stuff like that. Want to know one super fun thing that shouldn’t really be thought of as exercise but always gets my heart rate up nice and high and works up a sweat and leaves me worn out like I’d had a major workout? Band practices. Yes, you read that right. I’m not the jumping around rock and roller type, but it does work as an aerobic workout somehow.

I guess what I am trying to say is that exercise in and of itself is never fun for me, but some things that are fun sort of double as exercise? Yeah, that’s the ticket.


*I make the “pronounced yogging” joke on this page all the time. I stole that from a movie. If you aren’t familiar with it, go watch Anchorman with Will Ferrell (and about 100 other A-list comedy celebrities). It’s one tiny throw away line that bares no significance for the rest of the movie, but it’s a funny movie so it’s worth a watch.

Fun Things

Bloganuary writing prompt
List five things you do for fun.

Five things I do for fun… I can do that, I think…

  • Spend time with my family. Jen, Bellana, and Harry. My wife and my two step kids. Anything any of us do together is more fun than I know how to describe. Even if we are just sitting around doing nothing, I love every second of it. I don’t think this needs any more detail. I love them and I love being with them.
  • Music. Playing it, listening to it, writing it, recording it, sharing it with other people, going to concerts, performing in concert. All of it. I love it. I always have. Guitar, saxophone, once for a year or so trumpet. It has more or less defined me since I was about 10 years old. Maybe even younger. 
  • Photography. I don’t call myself a photographer. I call myself an amateur hack who takes lots of pictures. Digital, film, iPhone, you name it. Even video, sometimes. I like going out and taking pictures. I like being home taking pictures. I like taking pictures.
  • Travel. Road trips, longer plane trips. Anything and anywhere. Going to different places and seeing new things is so much fun. Me, Jen, the kids if they are available. Let’s just hop in the car and go somewhere. 
  • One more… You can do this, Robert… Lately it’s been binge watching TV. We can throw watching movies into this too. Lately I have been diving head first into science fiction TV. What’s the deal, AppleTV? They just keep dropping excellent sci-fi on us and I am here for it. We can include watching sports here too. Hockey and baseball are the games for me. Harry and I went to a hockey game in person a few weeks ago and it’s reminded me how much I enjoy being in the room where a game happens. I used to have season tickets for minor league hockey and baseball teams and I used to go to NHL and MLB games multiple times a year. I forgot how much I missed it. 

Okay, there you go. Five things that I do for fun. Sweet.

TV Trouble

I think I did something wrong tonight. An entertainment mistake, if you will.

We had a watch party with Harry tonight watching episode three of Hawkeye. It was pretty good.

Afterward I was just sitting in the living room staring at the Apple TV Home Screen and I figured I’d pick something new. I tried HBO Max.

I found Tacoma FD. A show made by and staring two members of Broken Lizard? The geniuses behind Super Troopers and Beerfest?

I’m two episodes in. It’s really silly and dumb. It’s really just Super Troopers with a fire department instead of state troopers….

…but I’m sitting here laughing my big dumb ass off.

Uh oh!