“There’s a meme that floats around the fitness world to the effect of, “A good workout takes one hour. That’s 4% of your day. No excuses.” When I first read that, my cynical self actually did the math. Was that even right? Turns out it is, and pretty obviously so, but I had never thought about it in that way. I decided I deserved 4% of my day! I was worth it! And 4% was small! It didn’t sound selfish or luxurious or even hard to achieve! Let’s do it! Here I go! I vowed to run for an hour or enjoy that time sitting on my deck with a great book when Ohio weather allows. I vowed to do it every day.

The more I tried, the more I realized it was not as easy as that meme suggested. And that made me realize the full extent of my self-neglect.”