There are two things in life that when not properly maintained seem to affect everything else in my life. First a clean house, I thrive when my house is the cleanest. I open the blinds, I love being home, it's easier to get up in the morning, and I am just more comfortable when the house is clean. For the last month or so the house has been in absolute disarray. We have two rooms currently under construction in the house. The hallway guest bathroom and the nursery. Other than a fresh coat of ceiling paint and some nursery room furniture assembly, these rooms are just about complete. At least we are rapidly approaching the time where we wake up in a clean, non-construction site house everyday, so this part of my life will soon come back to some sense of normalcy.
Secondly is working out. It's my stress reliever, it's my calm after a storm, it's my natural sleep aid. It's everything to me. As mentioned before I have been slightly frustrated. After my second doctor's visit I have been instructed to get an X-ray and a MRI. I am off to get the X-ray today. I was thinking that things were starting to get better the past few days, so today I have decided to hold off, for a long as I can, on taking any medication. Already regretting that decision. Yesterday I felt like a complete blob of crap by the end of the day. Muscle relaxers plus pain medication plus frustration plus no workout equals a Bobbycrapcake. I hate the feeling of staying medicated, it is beyond mind numbing. I realize it's a necessary evil but at this point it is only masking the pain, not actually helping me get better. I am hoping after these tests we can figure out what the H-E-double hockey stick is going on with my back.
Back to the whole workout thing. Much like how a clean house helps me keep my life in order, not working out has an equal opposite effect. When I workout consistently, I am much more aware of what I am eating and I am more aware of writing down. I have found that since I am not working out I am just naturally letting other things in my life slip as well. I have not yet read the Abs Diet book, (not that I could do any of the abs part anyway, but still) I have not actively been writing down all my food intake, I have been less motivated at work, (might have something to do with the meds as well). I am slipping and it's only mid-January, not even really mid yet. Not good. It's not that I have been eating badly because I have not, I just have not been consistent with making sure I am eating within my point allowance. I am sure that I have gone over. If I don't track I go over, it's not one of those things where maybe I eat less, I mean let's be real, I am an eater through and through. I wish I only ate to live but the reality is that I live to eat. I just need to make sure I live within the realm of normal people and that is not the case when I don't write down.
I need to figure out that happy medium between not being able to workout and maintaining the rest of the aspects of my life. That is hard to do, I am struggling to find that peace of mind during this time of injury. Maybe I should just go home and clean.
I am S.T.ruggling with this back issue. Going on three weeks and still not getting any better. I am off to the doctor again today at noon and maybe the Chiropractor as well. Muscle relaxers don't help so that is telling me it's not just a muscle spasm. This cannot continue like this, sometimes I am in so much pain that I find myself lashing out at someone (even my wife, sorry love), and also finding it hard to work at times. Last night the pain was shooting down my left leg, something is definitely misfiring in the old spine. I am overly frustrated with this whole issue and am extremely anxious to get this fixed.
I wanted to walk the other day, or swim, but never made it out to either. Before I can commit to doing even the easiest of exercises I need to fix this. Fingers crossed for some good news at noon. I need it.
Frustration is consuming me. Yesterday I snapped at someone on a call for work, yes he was kind of being an A-hole but I am usually pretty good at keeping my cool. Yesterday not so much. From the moment I got up until the moment I went to bed I was just plain angry. At the time I thought it was for no apparent reason, now I know it was stress related. Stress can and does turn you into a mad man, a raving lunatic sometimes, if it is not managed somehow. Snapping at friends, family, co-workers, getting frustrated over the smallest of issues. Stress can be an ugly beast if you don't find ways to relieve it. For me, going on three years or so it has been leaving work and driving straight to boot camp. I could be having the worst day ever, work consuming my thoughts, pissing me off all day, until my workout is over. Once complete, calm as a hindu cow. I have found that after a workout the thoughts of work do not even enter my mind, I get home, relax, sleep like a baby and get up and do it all over again.
This not working out is starting to catch up to me. I am letting the stress, take over. Actually I am not letting it, it is just happening. I need to get out and do something. Go for a walk, break a sweat, something. One more day rest and tomorrow my plan is to do something. I am not sure if I am up for going to class just yet, but maybe an incline walk on the treadmill at the gym. This is what I would do when I needed to workout after my shoulder surgery. I found a few incline walking workouts and just did it, sling and all. Definitely got a few strange looks from people, but hey it worked for me, so I worked it. This was also much harder than I anticipated. #12 incline at 4 MPH is not easy.
I am to the point now where some kind of activity is a must and tomorrow is the day. They finally opened the pool at my gym, maybe I will check that out as well.
First full work week in what seems like forever. First time weighing in in weeks. First full week of counting points for a full seven days. First full week of the new year and still no working out. A lot of firsts after the first of the year. I plan on re-reading the Abs Diet book again, which I wanted to do already but have not had a chance just yet. I did speak with the wife and we have already started to incorporate some of the super foods (I will get more into that in another post later this week) into our meals. This week, same as always, Hila has been steady hooking me up with crazy healthy meals. I am so lucky.
Chicken sausage with roasted broccoli, rice and a side salad. (12 points)
Over medium eggs with Canadian bacon on an English muffin with a hash brown, black berries and tomato. (11 points)
Chicken meatloaf with Brussels sprouts, rice and a side salad. (13 points)
This is how I eat all the time. All day everyday. She makes it easy for me to eat well.
The hard part comes with a co-worker bring in a ginormous plate of cookies, brownies and cookie/brownie combo thingys. (3-4 points a piece, about 160 points on that plate)
Yes I want to eat one but I want to loose weight and stick to the plan even more. Since I know I can't workout and am burning something like 400 some calories less a day I need to be even more aware of what it is that I am or am not eating. #WYCWYC.
I am not sure if/when I will be able to go back to class but in a few days maybe I will be well enough to go and only push it to about 50%. Light jogging, stretching, NO BURPEES!!! Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. Two weeks of not working out is killing me. Cannot wait to get back to it!
Two to four weeks. Ouch. That is my estimated recovery time. I have a severe muscle spasm in my lower back. Right here.
At this point there is nothing I can do but wait and try to stretch it out. The doctor said the muscle was so tight it felt like there was a rock in there. She hit me with a shot in the butt for pain and gave me some muscle relaxers for the nighttime. Needless to say slept like a baby last night. Unfortunately I woke up with the same pain as yesterday but as the doc said, it will take some time. Two to four weeks...
Because I cannot workout I need to make sure I focus on what I can do. Food. Maintaining my food points for the next few weeks is paramount. Obstacles are placed in front of us all day everyday, doing What You Can, When You Can will allow you so be less hindered and still achieve your goals. Unfortunately the obstacles never stop and always find ways to creep in. Right now I cannot workout because of my back, in less than three months we will have a baby, there will be bad weather, there will be social functions, there is always something that will be in your way no matter where it is you are going. So the key is to do what you can when you can, #WYCWYC. I am writing this down on a little piece of paper and putting it in my pocket as a constant reminder to keep focused. Just because I cannot workout does not mean that I should just forget about everything else as well.
If you cannot control your food, like with us in Florida, then do what you can when you can. We focused on working out everyday and spent more time on portion control. WYCWYC. I had not heard this expression until yesterday. Hila the brain genius, once again to the rescue. I love it. If you can't make it to boot camp class or the gym, go out and run If class is cancelled do to weather, do your own workout in the basement. If you can't use your upper body (like me for 3 months with my shoulder issues) go out for a walk or go to a spin class. Do something, anything. Don't let one issue bring you down completely. There is always something the can be done.
As for today I am set with meals and snacks. Hila once again sent me off with a delicious egg wrap, with Canadian bacon and a tomato. I have clementines, strawberries, yogurt, and a low fat cheese stick for snacks. All very healthy and all deliciously delectable.
Even with the snow today find something to do that's active. Take a walk, head up the gym, if you can't do any of these then try a 5-4-3-2-1 workout in the living room while watching Breaking Bad reruns, or if you are wobbling around like me just focus on eating well. What you can when you can! Do it.
7th day in a row of the same lower back pain means this old man is taking a trip to the good old doctor. Just when you think something may be getting better, the pain wakes you up in the morning. I am not a scientist or a brain surgeon or anything but I am pretty sure that is not good. We will see what the heck is going on today at 11:40. Wish me luck.
First things first. My back is still causing me issues. I was able to get in Four for Four in Florida and have not been able to workout since. Sucks, sucks big time. I am thinking that I am putting in too many hours in the nursery and bathroom remodel, but it has to get done is getting closer to being finished. A couple more weekends and we will be set. I will try and rest my back as much as I can and maybe take it a bit easy this weekend.
On to my goals and New Year's Resolutions for 2014. We are now at the very last day of the year and what a year it has been. This has been one of the most trying years for my family with the loss of my father in law, Giora, as a matter of fact today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Giora, we miss you. On a brighter note, we found out that we are bringing a new life into this world, and that has brought us more joy than we thought possible. I am beyond excited for the life changes that are about to come as we prepare ourselves to be parents.
As far as heath and fitness is concerned I feel like I have been very successful in 2013. I ran my eighth 10 mile race, The Army 10 miler, I competed in my first ever mountain bike race series, recovered from major shoulder surgery, and participated in boot camp class almost 4 days a week for several months. I have lost more than 10 pounds and am still working on losing more. I have had several injuries to contend with and it seems that this aspect has not gotten much better. I have to remember in 2014 that I don't always have to be the hero and that I cannot do everything. I need to take it slow and keep my body healthy.
As for my New Year's resolutions for 2014. Some of these resolutions have absolutely nothing to do with fitness or weight loss but I want to write them here to help me maintain my goals. The only way to keep myself accountable is to make myself accountable. In no particular order here we go.
1. The Abs Diet - This is a book written by David Zinczenko, the editor of Men's Health magazine. I HIGHLY recommend that every man read this book. As Editor-in-Chief, David has taken all he has learned from years and years of working with men's health issues and incorporated these ideas into a diet/fitness plan that focuses specifically on active men. This book reteaches us how to eat. How to eat like a man. What it is that our bodies physically require and what we don't. It explains the science behind why white flour is terrible for us, why "super foods" are good for us, and specifically how to flatten our stomachs (where men carry most of our weight). I read this book before my shoulder surgery and was only able to somewhat include these ideas into my life as I was extremely limited in what I was able to do physically. My only issue with this plan is portion control. I am an eater, and most times an over eater. Even though this books focuses on a six-week plan, I want to integrate the ideas in this book and the portion control provided by Weight Watchers to focus on weight loss while increasing my abdominal strength throughout the year. What man does not want 6-pack abs??? I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is not one man out there that does not. Not one.
2. Fitness - I can explain this one with exactly two words: Boot Camp. What I mean is that this fitness program provides everything necessary to get physically fit. Everything. All you need to do is show up. And by show up I mean everyday. Nothing gets better by doing something once a week, it needs to become a habit. Baring any injuries I will make to class everyday, Monday through Thursday. With that in mind my goal for 2014 is to workout five days a week. That means I just need to get in a Saturday morning class or some kind of weekend workout every week. Very doable! Check out a commercial about a "typical" day at CFC. You may even notice a couple of star actors in this video, watch out Hollywood.
3. Racing - I want to run some kind of race that I have never run before. Not just a running race but something more interesting like a triathlon or something like the EX2 VentureQuest, which is a mix of mountain biking, running, boating, trekking, and navigating. Maybe another Tough Mudder or mud style race, but I have run a couple of these already and am looking for something outside the box. Something new. I find more success if I am training for something specific. It gives me something to focus on, keeps my eye on the prize. I will keep my eyes open and see what is out there but at this point I am not sure which direction this will go. I will let you know.
4. Writing - Who knew that I would enjoy writing so much. I know I sure didn't, not until I started writing anyway. Already I have entered three different writing contests each for a different short story. I did not necessarily submit to win but just having a reason to write pushed me to do so. My first step is to take a creative writing class in January, which I have already signed up for. If this is beneficial for me and helps me improve then I will sign up for the second part of the class which is later in the year. I have not been to school in over 14 years so this should be interesting to say the least. Now if I could just find my Trapper Keeper...
I am not saying that I will write the Great American Novel in 2014. All I want to do is work on improving my skills, learn to write more creative stories, and put my imagination into words. Then maybe one day retire to a house in Maine and bust out two or three novels a year.
5. Blogging - I want to continue to write my daily posts. Writing daily is much more difficult that is seems. Some days not only do I find it hard to find the time I also find it hard to figure out something meaningful to write about. This year I plan to do some additional research about health and fitness issues/concerns, maybe read a few books on the subject. I can always write about personal meaningless dribble, but with my newly improved writing skills I now want to improve on these topics and touch on some of the more pressing issues we all face daily. If anyone has something they would like me to look into please feel free to respond below or shoot me an email to delongbobby@gmail.com.
6. Reading - With another hour of available time today (which I don't think I will get) I would finish my 54th book of the year (all 53 covers to the right), my goal was 52, that's a book week and I beat it. My goal again is 52 books. It will be harder this year with the baby but that's the plan. I also write a blog about books, not sure if you have ever seen it but there is a link on the right of this page. Mostly I write it to send to friends and family when someone needs a book suggestion. I just started in August so at this point I have only reviewed 24 books. I write a small synopsis (I never include any spoilers) and a review, then rate the book accordingly. Need a book suggestion, check it out here at One Novel Concept. Catchy name right?
Reading is another passion I didn't know I had until I started. One day on vacation a few years ago I picked up Stephenie Meyer's The Host. Literally could not put it down. In my youth I was forced to read a bunch of books people stopped caring about a hundred years ago and never found the connection until I read The Host. This one book changed my life forever. While the book is absolutely fantastic, it was not necessarily the content or the story line, it was more that it opened my mind to the possibilities found in books. It made me realize I was missing out on endless joy, endless entertainment, endless stories, endless adventures. One quote that pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to reading is by R. R. Martin, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives only once."
Never in my life have I so publicly shared my resolutions, nor have I spent as much time thinking about them. I truly believe that by putting these out through the interwebs I will find more success in keeping up with them. Most resolutions don't last past mid-January, my hope is that I can keep true to each of these the whole year and continue to grow as a man, husband, brother, son, and friend. Happy New Year to you all, and I wish you the best 2014 possible. One thing about the future is that so much of it is in your hands. It is possible.
We make time for the things we want. I have not had any time. None. Zilch-O. Back to work yesterday, still busy as hell today. But I started thinking that I had not posted since I was in Florida. I needed to make time for the things I want, the things that are important to me. I want to keep up with my writing, so far the only way I have figured out how to do that is to write. So here I am making time to write. Making time to express myself with words. I have many thoughts running through my head all the time. What I have found by writing this blog is that I now have an avenue to express these thoughts. Not everyone has this luxury. Not everyone can vent or express their thoughts to a group of people who are actually willing to listen to what you have to say.
So as this year comes to an end I want to say thank you to all my readers out there. Many of you have come to me and said how one particular post has affected you or pushed you to try something new or do something you had been putting off for too long. Words cannot express how that makes me feel. I started writing this blog for myself but in a very short time it has become so much more than that. I never would have thought that my words would help someone else. I still write this for myself, to keep me honest, to make sure that I do what I say I am going to do but it is because of your support that I have been even more successful than I could have imagined. So again, thank you all very much. We will continue to work together and find success no matter how big or small that success may be.
I have many new goals to focus on in the coming year, I will share them with you all in another couple of days. The New Year is just around the corner and 2014 should be an exciting one to say the least. I have a baby coming just around the bend, and a wife that loves me. Who could ask for anything more?
As my weekend is booking up with plans for Home Depot, Ikea, scheduling bathroom remodeling with my brother, putting the finishing touches on the nursery, I need to remind myself to continue to make time for the things I want. Yes, I want all the things I just wrote about but I also want to maintain my health and fitness. I will find time, I will make time, in between these things, to fit in a run, get in a workout, something, anything to keep up. The past week was tough as far as eating is concerned but we have been on track since the day we got home. Now it's time to get back to normal, focus on the goals I have made and remember that Christmas is one day, no need to extend Christmas into New Years and have an even more difficult time losing weight and getting back on track. Usually for me the party starts on Halloween and goes right through to New Years. Those times have come and gone my friend. If we all start now we will be one week closer to achieving our goals for 2014. Sounds like a good idea to me!
Christmas Eve and our last day in beautiful sunny Florida. We fly home tomorrow to celebrate the holidays with my mom and brother. I love coming down here for the holidays each year but am truly excited to spend tomorrow with my mom. Because we come to Florida every Christmas I honestly cannot remember the last time I spent Christmas day with her. I am thinking it has been at least six or seven years, that is too long. But all of that will change tomorrow. See you soon mom.
So I made a goal to workout every day while I was in Florida. As of 30 minutes ago, I have one more gold star on my workout chart for the week. Four days, four workouts. It was not easy and we fit in the workouts whenever we could, like tonight. We ate dinner, waited two hours and worked out in the driveway at 7 PM. Gotta give props to the wife tonight because I was not feeling it. We hung out with the family this morning, went to another family members house for a BBQ and by the time we got here I was just not wanting to workout. Luckily the beautiful woman who sleeps next to me loves me dearly and helped push me to achieve my goal. You know what they say, behind every man is a strong woman. She was my strength tonight when I wanted to be weak and I am grateful, thank you Hila.
Tonight we made up our own workout from previous workouts we have done while away from home. I will call this one The 1,000. Five exercises with 200 of each, squats, bicep curls, jumping jacks, crunches and burpees. I started with burpees and just did 20 of each until I hit ten sets. We have done previous exercises like this, see The 1400 and 5-4-3-2-1, but with Hila being pregnant we modified some of them accordingly. I think it worked out quite well.
Yesterday I woke up with a sore back (getting old sucks doesn't it?) so I had to modify the fitness trail workout we had planned. Hila crushed out a leg day boot camp class while I did speed training on the trail. The trail itself was two connected 1/4 mile laps, what I did was start with a warm up mile, then for the speed work I ran two 1/4 mile laps as fast as I could, then a 1/4 mile slow jog/walking lap, and repeated this for 4 rounds. This was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Hila did this while training for the marathon and I always just kind of assumed it would be easy since after every two laps you had a break for a bit. Ha, I could not have been more wrong. My plan was to sprint two then jog one but I was so exhausted after the two fast laps I was forced to walk. Needless to say after this workout I was spent, and completely soaked. It was pushing 88 degrees as well, so that is what I am going to use as my excuse as to why this was so hard, yeah that sounds good!
To recap here are my workouts for the week:
Day 1 - 4 mile run
Day 2 - Homemade workout class on the trail
Day 3 - Speed training on 1/4 mile track
Day 4 - The 1,000
I promised some pictures of the trail and here they are. One of Hila and me working out and the other of just the trail itself. Hila hooked me up with these Diptic pics, so once again thank you very much my love.
Posting from my phone for the first time so let's see how this goes.
So things have been going well so far. We are staying with my aunt who literally moved in the day before we got here. We have furniture, a TV, basic kitchen utensils and that is just about it. Ate dinner out last night and had sandwiches for lunch. Lacking vegetable intake immensely. Time to improvise. This morning after our 70 degree outside homemade boot camp class, I'll get more into that later, we made canned vegetable scrambled eggs with sausage and toast. Never made eggs with canned vegetables before but a lost can in the pantry equals our successfully healthy breakfast. As healthy as we could make it with what we have on hand that is. We will be making a trip to the store today and stocking up on some essentials for the next couple of day. Fruit, vegetables and wine...
Not going to lie we seriously considered pilfering some of the oranges and grapefruit from the neighborhood fruit trees. If the tree was not sitting square in someones front yard, in broad daylight... Oh man the possibilities. Ever had a fresh Florida orange right off the tree? Yeah its magical.
So boot camp. Yesterday I grabbed the watch and took off for a run. No clue where I was going or how far. Just off to where ever my legs would take me. Ended up running a loop around two golf courses with ponds and beautiful palm trees. Every other time I have I been so close to the edge of a golf course I have been looking for my ball... While on the run I saw a sign with two words that sang to me from the heavens "Fitness Trail." As I ran by I said to myself "Bobby (I refer to myself by name in thought) that looks like a perfect place to try a boot camp class tomorrow." So it goes.
Today Hila and I woke up and went right out on the trail. I am guessing it's a half mile loop with about ten workout stations. Of course these stations are geared towards senior citizens, I mean it's a retirement community right? So instead of doing the workout listed at each station we did our own. One station had a pole that was supposed to be used for stretching, we decided on chest press and pull downs. One station had a long bench, we did dips and bicep curls. We only had 45 minutes today before the rest of the family was coming over so we did our 45 minute class and came home. Tomorrow I will get some pictures and show you how cool this little trail was. Oh I almost forgot, we saw something like ten people out there walking or running. Someone even came up to us and said "Now that's how you start the morning!" Yeay, go us!!
I loved this little workout, today we did arms tomorrow we will do legs. Had I been lazy and not run yesterday I never would have found this little gold mine of delight. I not only feel better because I got up and worked out I also feel like I made the best of a situation that was kind of out of my control. We got out there and did it. Two days in and two workouts under the belt. And at this point I am only two cookies in! That is a success in and of itself.
We are doing our Christmas dinner tonight since it's the last night with every family member here. Looking forward to sitting down with everyone for a nice meal and then opening gifts. I hope I finally get my official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!
We are now approaching that interesting time when we have presented to us an abundance of high calorie food and drink at pretty much all times of the day. Right this minute, there are two Christmas tins of cookies in the office. A supplier brought lunch yesterday. We fly to Florida this afternoon where I am expecting no less than six different types of cookies sitting on the counter, calling my name, awaiting my consumption. For the first time in many years, I feel okay about this. I always worry that I am going to gain weight on our annual Florida Christmas trip, and I worry because every year it happens. I have no control over the food I will be eating for the next five days. Again I am okay with this. I will enjoy SOME cookies, I will enjoy my meals with my family. I mean I only get so many opportunities to enjoy Grandma's home cooking. I am okay with all this because I now know that this is life. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. All I can do is focus on what I can control. What I can control is portion size and working out.
I will work out everyday in Florida. I have a weeks worth of boot camp classes written down, I have resistance bands. I also have two appendages on the southern half of my body called legs and they can take me many places I have never been. I will run. I love just going out and running with a GPS watch, you can literally go anywhere you want, see the world (well parts of central Florida anyway), it's glorious. I will workout with my pregnant wife. I will find a way to incorporate the holidays and my workout routine. I am not saying it will be easy, I am lazy at heart, remember. But I will make it happen. Plus is will be close to 80 degrees everyday, umm yeahh, that's not going to suck.
I will focus on portion control and mindless eating. I don't need six cookies in one sitting, but it's okay to enjoy one occasionally, they are delicious. I can put away some food, I have, I do and I will. I am just going to make sure I don't over do it. I will make sure I have fresh vegetables at dinners, a side salad, something, anything than just gorging myself on unhealthy food. I will beat the angry overeating monster most days, and I am sure he will get the better of me at least once. All I can do is give it my best.
Enjoy the holidays, enjoy the time with family and friends, eat, drink and be merry, enjoy a cookie (not 10), eat a nice meal, drink wine but at some point get out there and go for a run, a walk, a bike ride, it's supposed to be nice for the next couple of days here, enjoy it (although not in the 80's where I will be, but they can't all be winners, am I right?).
I used to think that most people did not want to workout simply because of fear. Fear of pain. Fear of others seeing your weaknesses. Fear of pushing yourself beyond what you think are your limits. While all of these are normal fears, some of which I still deal with today, each of them are able to be overcome. I now think that the biggest reason (excuse) for not working out is laziness. Lazy is not a fear but still infinitely more difficult to overcome. Lazy is not just in your head it's also in your body. It takes time, effort, pain to overcome laziness. It takes winning, it even takes losing to overcome laziness. Fear is something that once confronted is much easier to face the next time. Laziness, not so much. It's always lingering there, tapping you on the shoulder saying, "screw this, go home, do nothing." It never, ever, ever goes away.
I want to be lazy everyday. Every single moment of everyday. All the time. Right now. It is always a battle. To do or not to do. Always always a battle. And a battle that is often lost. Saturday morning, it's raining but there are a million and one things I could do around the house. None of which I want to do, I want to sit on the couch and read, next to my wife with Chow snoring in the corner. That is what I want to do every morning. But that is not a reality, things need to get done, runs need to be run, the garage needs organizing, food needs purchasing, nursery needs painting, the list is endless endless endless. Sometimes laziness wins, sometimes it doesn't.
It takes weeks and weeks before working out becomes a habit, to even start and overcome the laziness. It won't be easy, it's still not easy but it's worth it. There are benefits. Endless benefits. We work because we need money, no money and eventually we are sleeping in a ditch off the interstate. We don't workout because we are lazy, no working out and we are sleeping in a more permanent ditch sooner than we should. If only we saw immediate results from working out. No, that is not the right wording. If only we saw our long term results immediately we all may be more inclined to workout. Yes, that's what I wanted to say. We don't see our longer, healthier life right now. We live it for years to come. We make small changes that lead to big results. The results are there, they just take a while show themselves. Make the change now to workout more and one day you will thank me, but more importantly your children will thank YOU.
Each week I try to think of one aspect of fitness or weight loss to focus on specifically that week. Counting all my points no matter what, adding time to my workouts, getting more runs in, whatever it may be that I feel I need to focus on at the moment. This week is going to be a bit different.
We have started getting the nursery put together. That involves several things, getting the room ready, painting, buying and assembling furniture, just to name a few. Until last weekend this has seemed like an overwhelming task. This "to do" list is an ongoing saga of items that seem endless. Until now. We started with one item, and just started crossing off a line at a time. Really all we needed to do was start. Just starting has put these events in motion and now with only two weekends of work behind us we have made substantial progress.
The same applies to fitness and weight loss, it's never going to get better on its own, all you have to do is start. Put the workout ball in motion and watch it gain speed. It's a beautiful thing. We all put things off for too long. "I will workout tomorrow" or "I will start my diet after the weekend." Believe me these two comments were a staple in my vocabulary for many years. Until I finally started. I tried the gym, I tried running, I tried taking classes. Until I found boot camp I was a lost soul. From the first day I started, I knew this was for me. It just worked. I found what I was finally looking for. I no longer felt the need to make excuses not to workout, I wanted to workout. Yes, partly due to the fact the eight girls were kicking my butt on a daily basis but that is part of the program. Using others to push you even harder. How easy is it to stop running on the treadmill at the gym, how easy is it to go and lift and give up after 30 minutes because you are tired or you just want to go home? Very easy, it's too easy. No one is holding you accountable for your actions. With boot camp, there are others there that may ask, "where were you yesterday," not to be mean but over time you start to develop friendships with other classmates and they honestly care about your well being. You have a trainer that cares about you and wants you to show up. This can happen at the gym as well, but I doubt you spend an hour a day next to the same people at the gym as you would in class each night. It's much easier to give up on something when you are by yourself than it is if someone is watching you, don't believe me, try it. I have made some great friends in class and its conversing with these friends that has pushed me to get to class when I may not have wanted to go, I am sure I have pushed some of them to get to class as well. All of these things I realized once I stopped making excuses and finally decided to start.
So back to my focus this week. We are flying to Florida on Friday and have about a million and one things to accomplish before then. So my focus this week is to make it to class everyday and take any extra time I have a put it into the nursery. While I would love to add another 30 minutes to class each day, this week I just have to much going on. I am not going to take away from my workout routine, I just feel that this week I need to focus "extra" time on other important things (AKA baby D!).
Even though it's Friday I am calling it hump day because I finally feel like I am over the hump of being sick. I feel substantially better now than I did this time yesterday. Sleeping for just about 14 hours straight may have helped a bit also. Plus the lovely lady that sleeps next to me brought home a rather fantastic bowl of Phofor dinner. Hit the spot, thank you Hila.
Only got in two workouts this week, and I still feel a bit weak from being sick and from sleeping for so long that I am thinking I will give myself one more day rest and make sure I get in a solid workout on Sunday. A good long run should do the trick. That will get me back on track for boot camp next week as well. Maybe I will even add another 30 minutes to each workout again, that seemed to work out really well. Have a great weekend.
So Monday at class I felt a little bit off. Just slow and sluggish, not my best day but and at the time I could not figure out why. I felt hydrated, I felt good, I just could not push myself very hard. Same story on Tuesday night at class. Now I know why. Head cold. I woke up yesterday knowing I had a full on cold. Today is bad. I probably should not be at work today. If I feel any worse at noon, I am out of here. Not only do I need the rest but I fear that I may give someone else this cold and two weeks before the Christmas holiday is definitely not the best time to get sick. The only exercise for me today will be exercising the mind when I read myself to sleep.
I learned a long time ago the importance of setting goals. Small, large, short term and long term goals. They all are crucial to success. Goals give you something to focus on, they pinpoint your destination. Without a goal we are just aiming ourselves towards an objective with the hopes of coming close to hitting it. A goal makes the route much more direct. If our goal is getting from point A to point B, the closest distance between these two points is a straight line. A goal is what keeps this line straight. Without the goal we end up making a lot of unnecessary turns to get where we are going. Yes we can still get there but it may take longer and on a longer journey it's easier to loose hope and turnaround and go home.
I started this journey with two main long term goals, all round improvement in fitness and weight loss. Throughout this journey I have made many short terms goals as well, focus on food, run more often, stick to my daily point allowance, add additional time to my daily workout, show up to class everyday, just to name a few. It is because of each of these two different types of goals that I have found and continue to find success. What I have tried to focus on is keeping my eye on the prize of my long term goal, overall fitness. But it is these short terms goals that keep me in check. Yes I want to get in better shape, but how do I get there? Without the short term goals the end is too far away, it's overwhelmingly far away. Starting this journey several months ago, I could not even see the finish line, in fact it was so far away I was not sure it existed. I wanted it to exist but fear of the unknown and fear of hard work made it seem very far away. As I thought of the finish line, I tried to think about what ways would help me get there. Baby steps, one baby step at a time. Daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, all of these baby steps compounded equal large steps closer to the ultimate goal. It's a process and take time, a lot of time. Sometimes it's hard to stay focused on the long term goals because we are so slowly coming up on the finish line. The key is to start with smaller goals first. When I was in boot camp for the Marines I so clearly remember them telling us to not think any farther in the future then your next meal, or the next Sunday. "Chow to chow, Sunday to Sunday". 13 weeks of boot camp is painfully long and tedious. The first week there thinking about how hard the remaining weeks were going to be was too much to deal with. There were too many open possibilities ahead where life was just going to be awful. After breakfast, don't think about anything else except lunch. That is only 4-5 hours to try and process not 13 weeks. I can deal with 4-5 hours of something, it's the much larger picture that is overwhelming. The exact same applies to goals. If little Johnny makes a goal of losing 20 pounds, and after six weeks he has only lost three pounds there is a chance that he might get discouraged and lose hope, possibly give up. Yes, its great that Johnny make a goal to lose weight, but equally important to this long term goal are his short term goals. With the 20 pound weight loss in mind, also make a goal to lose 1/2 pound in a week, or two pounds in a month. These are much more achievable goals with immediate results, and it is because of the minor successes that you may feel even more focused as the weeks go by.
We are a people who thrive off immediate satisfaction. Because of this we stop caring or get bored very easily if we do not find this kind of satisfaction as quickly as we feel we should. I find that because of short term goals, we still get this satisfaction that we are craving, and because of this short term satisfaction we are able to find ways to keep focus on our long term goals. Make a goal, write it down, make it happen, repeat over and over and over again.
I was recently reminded of the saying that "actions speak louder than words." I used to think that statement was a bit untrue or overused. Call it naivety, or ignorance but in the past I would think that if I or someone else said something then it was true and had meaning behind it. Not something stupid like the sky is green but something on a more personal level. Like in a relationship where someone says something or says they will do something but they end up not actually doing what they said they would do. This applies to so many things in life, actually it may apply to just about everything in life. I often write on here what I plan to do and then end up not doing it for whatever reason. It's a pattern, and it seems to be happening in more ways than just in my fitness or weight loss goals. I want my words to mean something, no matter how trivial or significant those words may be. I realize throughout my life that there have been many words said with not as many actions to back them up, not only on my part but by others as well. As I have gotten older I see that words mean almost nothing. They may make you or whoever you have said these words to feel better in the moment but in reality if they are not backed up by actions then they are meaningless, they are simply just words.
I said this week that I my goal was to add 30 minutes to my workouts everyday this week. After only two days into trying to achieve my goal I had already begun to mentally retract those words and shy away from accomplishing said goal. I did not want to stay and workout more last night. Last night's class was hard, very hard. I wanted nothing more than to go home and spend time with my beautiful wife. We only have so many nights left when it will be just us, how precious another 30 minutes home would be. As I was packing up my things to head home, I realized that yet again, my actions were speaking louder than my words. I said I would do something and yet it was so easy to not want do it. The reason that this statement is true is because saying is easy, doing is hard. I can say anything I want, believe me it comes out quite easily. It's the doing that I have struggled with my entire life. All of this was going through my head in the few moments from class ending and the next one starting. Luckily I listened to the little white angel this time and stayed for my additional 30 minutes. It was not easy but the reward came to me this morning when I woke up and realized I did what I set off to do, even though it was as trivial as another 30 minutes of class. Now the time has come to continue acting on my words, whether they apply to life, to food, to working out or to my family. There is peace in actually doing what you said you would do, even when it's hard or don't want to do it. The guilt or resentment that follows words unaccompanied by actions is much harder.
2 PM. 2 PM is the magical hour when the soreness settles in. Today I can feel it coming on strong. Sprints on Monday, legs and shoulders last night = SORE Wednesday. Both days, 1.5 classes. Again tonight and Thursday as well. I'm sure I will be a stumbling mess on my hot date Friday night if I am able to get these jello legs to work properly. I walked (using this term loosely here, more of a staggered shuffle) across the office and after seeing my less than stunning gait my receptionist asked me if everything was okay, I said yes, Tom just got a hold of me...
Last night my beautiful wife decided to make a delicious dinner, as she always does. Shrimp Curry. Delish. So pregnant brain starts with sauteing the butternut squash and broccoli. Issue # 1 - No broccoli. Solution # 1 - Substitute asparagus instead. Next add the shrimp to the saute pan. Issue # 2 - Not enough shrimp for a full meal. Solution # 2 - Make this amount of shrimp work by cutting them into smaller pieces. Next, to get a jump on things, she decides to steam the rice. Issue # 3 - No rice. Solution # 3 - Quinoa instead. Now to top off any curry dish the last important ingredient is none other than coconut milk. Issue # 4 - No coconut milk. Solution # 4 - Half and half. Needless to say we are calling this "the meal where anything that could go wrong did". Well anything except for the flavor. Holy hell this dinner was awesome and only 8 points including the quinoa. Somehow pregnant brain turned this around to straight magical brain genius and now I am calling this "the meal where everything went wrong but came out oh so right!" It was fantastic, my only hope is she saved enough so there are leftovers for tonight!
Goal met for day 1. I stayed for 30 minutes of the second class last night and I am feeling it already. We ran wind sprints for 10 sets. Essentially 100 yards (give or take) as fast as you can, jog back, repeat X 10, no that is not a typo I actually meant ten. Of course we did this in the beginning of class, so lucky me, I got to do this twice. Holy hell, my hammies are hurting today. Last night was a really fun class. Not overly hard, well let me clarify. By not overly hard I mean that the class did not focus on shoulders or legs or something that by the end you can barely find the strength to drive home safely (kind of like the monstrous leg day on Thanksgiving morning, thanks Tom!!) Class was mainly a focus on cardio. Running, stairs, with some strength/stability exercises thrown in just for fun. Or as Kristina puts it..."active recovery". What a fantastic term! I don't find much recovery in holding plank position after running stairs as fast as I can but hey at least it's recovery, active or not.
I may take a little break from the cold tonight and venture back to the old stomping grounds at the Sussudio... It's been awhile since we have been there and seems as good a time as ever to head back. Going to try for 1.5 classes again and honestly I am a little scared. Tom has a way of beating you to a point beyond where you think you are capable of being. Should not take too much inner convincing though, really it's just mind over matter. Bring it on Tom...(I am going to regret that comment). So much of working out is mind over matter, getting there is half the battle. Once you are there you will workout, so get there and do it. That is my plan anyway.
I wish I could sit here and tell you that this weekend I made a plan and stuck to it but frankly that is just not the case. Yes I ate under my allowed points and yes I probably lost weight but not due to my constant vigilance. Somehow on Saturday I got some sort of stomach bug and have only eaten 2.5 meals in the last 56 hours. I feel a bit better today but this did cause me to miss my scheduled workout yesterday. I really wanted to get in a long run but that did not happen. One perk, I slept for over 12 hours on Saturday night, which was glorious. I definitely needed it.
So now to this week at hand. My goals.
What I would like to do is add 30 minutes a day to each of my workouts, schedule permitting. Maybe stay for part of the second class or get a quick 3 miler in before or after class each day. I just want to do something to boost up the intensity for this week. Obviously my other goal is to continue to focus on food. One mistake people make is that they think just because they are working out more they can be more lax when it comes to eating. Believe me, I still do that. After a solid week of working out come Friday night I actually think to myself, "hey you have killed it this week working out, you deserve this extra slice of pizza, or three." Unfortunately that is not the case. I would say that there is about (on average) 300-400 calories to a piece of pizza. Working out for one hour, intensely, you are lucky if you burn double that, real lucky. So to reward yourself with food you may actually be causing yourself more damage when trying to lose weight, as you have just eaten all the calories you have just burned, if not more. Someone once told me don't reward yourself with food, you are not a dog. While this is a very blunt expression, I find it quite fitting. We reward a dog with food for doing what he is told and he then knows that if he does what he is told again there may be a treat involved. We humans, respond the same way. The issue is that our reward is a healthier lifestyle and weight loss, not extra pizza on a Friday night. Now, if we could only convince ourselves of that truth come the actual Friday night we may have a chance. Thinking is the easy part, doing is what is hard.
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