Marenann's Exercise Partner

Marenann's Exercise Partner

Once my friend Marenann told me about how she motivated herself to exercise. Marenann had bad knees that ached whenever she walked. Her doctor told her she needed to exercise, but it hurt so much he suggested she try walking in a swimming pool. So Marenann had a play pool installed in her backyard, the kind that was the same depth all the way around, so she could walk in it.

The problem was, Marenann didn’t have a swimming suit that she could wear, so she would get up before daylight every morning and go out to her pool, take off her robe, and walk around the pool in her underwear. She had a fence around the pool so she didn’t worry about the neighbors watching, but even in the desert it gets cool when the sun isn’t shining, and during the winter even though the pool itself was heated it was still really cold getting in and out of the water.

Marenann knew she had to find a way to motivate herself to do her exercising even when she didn’t want to. She realized if she had an exercise partner who came over every morning it would be easier, but she knew she couldn’t actually ask someone to get up that early to exercise with her. Then she got the idea that she could just imagine someone walking with her, so she thought about all the people she knew.  In the end she decided on her friend Nola.  Nola was very enthusiastic and determined, and she would make Marenann keep going. So Nola became her imaginary exercise partner.

In the morning when the alarm would go off and Marenann wanted to stay in bed she would tell herself, "If Nola was coming you would get out of bed right now so you would be ready when she got here." Then Marenann would get up. When she would think about how cold it was outside she would remind herself that if Nola was here she would go outside anyway. And when she was tired and aching and wanted to stop early she would remember that Nola would encourage her to keep going a little bit longer.

One day Marenann was reading in the scriptures about how we are to pray constantly and always remember the Savior.  She was pondering on how it would be possible for someone to keep the Savior with them at all times when it occurred to her that it was a lot like having an imaginary exercise partner.   She realized she could walk through her day with the Savior beside her the same way that she took Nola with her when she went outside to exercise in her pool.