Fishercising…

Ask anybody who knows or has met me, I ain’t dainty. While I was once the model of fitness and athletic ability in my youth, the pounds that I have acquired over the past years exceeds what most would deem within the norm for a middle-aged adult male. I blame most of it on my wife’s good cooking, but I can’t deny that spending hours on my arse in front of a computer screen during grad school and now, as a college professor, is largely to blame.

I’ve tried many techniques and fads over the years to do something about my condition with limited amounts of success. I won’t recant them here.

However, I have noticed that when I participate in one of my passions that many readers here are well-acquainted with, kayak fishing, I find the pounds come off. Now, I just need to do more of it!  This decision is not without its “social” roadblocks however…

Reasons in the past why I haven’t done more kayak fishing are many and include the standard excuses – I have to work, there’s not enough time in the day, wife won’t let me, need to spend some time with the kids, I’m too lazy… the list goes on. If you, like me, are carrying around a bit too much adipose tissue and have been hounded by loved ones to do something about it, these excuses probably sound familiar. I have come to realize that these are the exact same excuses that I give for not working out.

The problem is, everybody around me, work, family, friends are always trying to get me to exercise, while whenever I say that I am going fishing, I’m deemed to be lazy and avoiding things that need to be done. Why is this?  Kayak fishing is an outstanding form of excercise that can be done in a reasonable amount of time so long as you have access to some nearby fishable waters.

Therefore, I have decided to creatively rework the use of language surrounding kayak fishing.  When I am around those who might otherwise view my angling activities as useless time-wasting, I shall simply refer to my kayak angling activities as “fishercising” and include the usual accompanying words and phrases to describe other healthful activities such as “workout”, as in “I had a great workout today”, which actually means that “Man!  You should of seen how many bass I caught today!”).

It seems that I am not alone in conceptualizing fishing as exercise.  I found at least 111 hits on Google for “fishercise”.  Well…  it’s worth a shot anyway.  I’m going to give it a go.

-Paul