Finding the Right Carrot

It may or may not surprise you to know that I bought my treadmill wa-a-ay back in 1991, and if length of use were the sole measurement employed to determine its condition, it would still be practically brand new.

Over the years, I walked on it occasionally, and once I even walked on it pretty regularly, for about ten days or so. But something else always came up to distract me. The problem was, I wasn't determined to walk on the treadmill so...I almost never did. I did however, turn it into a fetching free-form Art Deco clothes hangar and box storage unit.

The clothes and boxes are gone now and I am on Day 25 of my 90 Day Fitness Walking Program. I am doing it. I am sticking with an exercise program because I finally found the right carrot. Telling myself I was going to get slender and beautiful never did the trick, but telling myself if I didn't get up off my doublewide and walk I was going to die sooner rather than later, well...that had a most efficacious effect on my motivation.

But just realize, this is my carrot, and my carrot may not work for you at all. You really do have to find your own.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I learned way back in March that I had dangerously high blood pressure. Now that's a health problem that responds rather quickly to a walking done as an exercise, a health problem that can sometimes be totally managed or even "cured" by regular walking. Yet, even knowing this, it still took me to October to get up on the treadmill. I walked a few times between then and now, but it was always a desultory sort of "catch as catch can" sort of thing. I knew my health was on the line, but I was still not motivated to make the changes I needed to make to improve my health.

I know. I'm probably a head case.

Then I figured out how to give myself a dandy carrot, a carrot that is working. It's a sort of unusual carrot to be sure, but a carrot nonetheless and as long as I don't cheat, as long as I play by the rules I have set for myself to be allowed to grab that carrot every day, my exercise program will continue unabated.

I'm sure you're all wondering what in the heck my carrot it. It's simple. It's TV.

What? What? TV? How can that be a carrot?

It can be a carrot if there's a show you really enjoy that you won't let yourself watch unless your hump is up on the treadmill working out. In my case, the carrot is Frazier. "What?" again? Yes, Frazier.

In the 11 years that show was on the air, I never saw it once. My kids were young then and every night there was homework, music lessons, soccer practice, quality family time - a dozen things way more important than a television show. But as I laid up in that hospital bed last March, scared half to death and worried about how my test results would turn out, I tuned in to the TV hanging from the ceiling and found...nothing.

Endless shopping channels, Spanish channels I couldn't understand, wrestling, hunting, fishing, kick boxing, TV preachers of the most odious "Send me your money and I'll build you a staircase to heaven just as soon as I get finished building my 12-million dollar mansion sort" ... and little else.

Desperate, I flipped backwards through the channels and found an episode of Frazier. I'd heard a lot about it; I knew Kelsey Grammer had owned the Emmys for a few years in his role as Dr. Frazier Crane, so I thought, "Why not?" There was nothing else on that was even remotely interesting to me.

Turned out to be just the thing. I was fortunate enough to catch the pilot episode, The Good Son, which explains how Frazier ends up living with his father, Martin, a policeman recovering from a bullet wound suffered during a robbery. Then I found out a local station was running the series in order late at night; that was five episodes of Frazier a week. I started watching them as soon as I got home. But the problem was, I was supposed to be getting a lot of sleep to help me get better faster, and watching Frazier kept me up too late, until past midnight.

The solution was to tape the shows and watch them the next morning. I did that for a while but finally realized I could use my growing affection for the show and its cast of characters to my benefit. If I made a rule stating that I couldn't watch my taped Frazier show unless I was walking on my treadmill, then that, coupled with my desire to get fit and healthy, would be a wonderful carrot. And it's working.

Every morning, I turn on my TV and DVR and press play, then hop on the treadmill to walk the specified number of minutes. It has now become a ritual and in this case, the ritual is a very good thing.

So what's going to happen when I finally run out of Frazier episodes? It's getting close. Niles and Dapne have already eloped and found out they're expecting a child.

I expect I will just find another classic half hour comedy to keep me going, because laughing and walking...well, that's a good combination.