Fitness and Valentine’s Day Are The Same

We’re about to get into the deepest, darkest secrets of long-term romance and fitness success.  They’re practically the same thing.  Yes, that’s right.  How you succeed on Valentine’s Day and how you succeed with your approach to fitness are the same. Let’s go in:

Let me start by breaking the romance and fitness imbalance.  What you do on one day should not be that drastically different from what you do the rest of the days.  This may not apply to you if you like to take things to extremes.

If you believe training for an hour 3 times per week gets you ready for a marathon, or if you think that a hot air balloon ride will offset the last three weeks of being a shitty significant other, this may not work for you.  See, it starts with consistency for the other 364 days of the year.

If Valentine’s Day, or your regularly scheduled eating or exercise, are that different from ‘normal’, then you’re going to have a bad time.  When it comes to fitness, we are the most successful when we prepare for what’s to come.  That often means doing the activity that’s scheduled, be it running, lifting, swimming, or practicing a mating ritual:

We will enjoy our lives of physical activity more if we invest more time on a regular basis being active.  We’ll also enjoy our romantic lives more if we spend more time being romantic, rather than cramming in some well-intentioned but rather unsatisfying acts in a single day.  I don’t believe we’ll live our best life, physically or romantically, by solely searching for grandiose novelty.

Having a favorite brunch place is much more my style:

It’s also more my style to have a consistent training schedule, or a template from which you work.  Interested in getting more out of life?  Train harder before throwing yourself into something new.  Interested in getting more out of wife?  (I couldn’t help it, it rhymed.) Take care of the little things before relying on something new.

It takes more consistent energy to practice it every day, rather than waiting for a single day to strive for momentary greatness.  You don’t magically get stronger over night, you don’t magically run further or faster over night, and you don’t magically become more more romantic by bringing flowers home.

However, cast-iron cookie and ice cream can totally help:

Having the best Valentine’s Day ever and having the best day of physical activity are not as much about the day themselves, but the planning that comes before, and the next round of planning that comes after. We can take our dreams for either, and live those dreams as every day goals. It will make your workouts better, and your (next) Valentine’s Day that much more enjoyable.