Posts tagged as:

exericse

Day 126 - It’s a Lifestyle, Not a Sentence!

by Bill Wallace on August 10, 2008

Photo courtesy of Zsuzsanna Kilián
Photo courtesy of Zsuzsanna Kilián

Exercise Summary: 9.4km; 57:57mins; 745 cal; heart 146

It’s been around 4 months since I started getting serious about my health. There were a lot of signals over the years that caused me to get here. I’ll post about these later on because I think it is important we know why we are doing what we do.

One discussion I have with a colleague at work is the difference between living a healthy lifestyle and keeping to a “regime”.

Both of us want to enjoy food, good times and the occasional beer fest - or whatever takes our fancy.

So while we are both trying to lose weight to get to our goal, we’re not going to become monks or hermits (no offense to either monks or hermits).

So how do you do it?

The main thing, in my humblest of opinions, is to prepare…

  • Prepare a shopping list of what you plan to eat - this is fun because you can buy the pasta, the meat, the sauces etc to make really scrumptious meals and then look forward to making them.
  • Prepare your meals for the week - this is the best bit. If you know what you are going to eat and it doesn’t always have to be 100% healthy*, then you can plan your exercise to accommodate.
  • Prepare an exercise program - write down your goals for the week
  • Prepare your tools for the exercise - set them out the night before, for example

Now the UNPREPARED part: don’t think too much harder than this. Just do it. Eat the meals but also do the exercise.

At the end of the week you’ll have eaten relatively healthy, you’ll have exercised the required amount and you’ll find you’ve lost a little bit of weight.

And you’ll find you’re just a teensy bit motivated to do it again!

What I am looking for is a lifestyle, not a sentence. I don’t want to be held to some overly strict regime that I begin to resent eating great tasting food. Occasionally I want a second helping, I want that extra beer of glass of wine.

I realise with this I will need to exert myself, regularly. But if that exercise means I can have that rump steak occasionally and the rich food once in a while then bring it on! :)

* = I’m neither a doctor or health expert so when I say meals don’t have to be 100% healthy, common sense still applies. :)

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Day 79 - 100 Push Ups

by Bill Wallace on June 25, 2008


Exercise Summary: 4km run - 24 minutes; 100 Push Up Challenge: 16, 13, 11, 11, 16

Wow! Day 2 of Week 2 and it was certainly a challenge.

Technically I was meant to complete this set yesterday but completing Jacob’s Ladder on Monday did things to my legs and didn’t feel I’d be giving myself a fair go.

Interestingly, the pain from Jacob’s Ladder set in today so I’m not sure I was doing myself any favours.

Add to that, when I got home I got the togs on and did a quick 24 minute 4km run. Pretty crisp in Perth at the moment but the run warmed me up.

The Push Up Challenge was more of a mental challenge tonight. I didn’t think much about it. I just got stuck into it, remembering to keep a good posture and push from the chest, breathing in on the way down and out on the way up.

I also find that it helps if I close my eyes when in gets harder. No idea why, just does.

The first set of 16 started well but ended up a struggle by the time I hit the 13th push up.

I resolved to just get through the next 3 sets of 13, 11 and 11 as a start and deal with the final set when I got there. Remember that the last time I set a goal for the last set before I started. So I wasn’t overly confident at how I was approaching this set.

Getting to the final set (min of 15) I decided that the 15 would be enough. If I completed the full set that would do. Well, on 14 I got the same feeling of “I’m not gonna get back up” as I started the upward push. But, eyes closed, resolved to finish I got there and did the 15.

Then, I just had to do one more. Just one. But more than the minimum. I decided to get it over with and the final push up as fast as I could. Not think about the pain, the shaking arms or the fact that I might be flat on my face.

Done … 16!

On to Day 3.

What Am I Learning?

The biggest thing I have learnt with all of my training is it really is a case of “mind over matter.”

If I set my mind to it, with no choice of backing out, I am able to achieve a realistic goal. Note that I say “realistic”. I could have said the last set would have been 25. But in my heart and in my mind I would have known from the beginning that I wasn’t going to make it.

So…

  • set a realistic goal,
  • commit to it and;
  • determine that, no matter, what you’re going to achieve it and, voila! it will be amazing how “easily” the goal is achieved.

Bill

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