I turned 54 three days ago – another birthday without consistent daily fitness, so I thought I’d find out how far I’ve regressed by taking an indo board lunch break and videotaping it (below).
It had been a few months since I’d been on it. Pretty easy up. Then I needed to find out how long I could STAY up.
While reading. (Not kidding – if I look down, I lose my balance. And reading keeps me from getting bored. results posted below the video)
#GoodStewardofthisBody #fitnessaccountability
First Try:
7 minutes up – serious regression. try again.
4 minutes up – now I was ticked off. try again.
10 minutes up – drifted the board into furniture. try again.
16.25 minutes up – meh. try again LATER.
21 minutes up – acceptable. for now.
of course, then I had to find out:
my current forearm plank time (90 seconds) and
my current wall squat time (1 minute) #iIHATEWallSquats
Shoulder Devil: “It’s late. You did the HIIT training. Skip the rest.”
Shoulder Angel: “There’s still an hour and a half left in the day. Don’t listen to him. If it wasn’t for me, your body fat percentage would still be 51%”
Shoulder Devil:: “hhhhhh. okay, fine. then just do the plank. Skip the strength training. You’re tired. You can do strength training tomorrow.”
Shoulder Angel:: “He’s right.”
Shoulder Devil:: “I am?”
Shoulder Angel:: You should do strength training tomorrow. You should do tomorrow’s strength training tomorrow. Do today’s strength training today.”
Shoulder Devil:: “Don’t listen to him, he’s a fanatic. He’s talking about 10 Minutes. What’s the big deal about 10 lousy minutes?”
Shoulder Angel:: “EXACTLY my point.”
Shoulder Devil:: “NO! That’s not what I meant…”
Shoulder Angel:: “HEY! remember that FIRM 5 Day Ab workout from the 90s? Do that! Day one is only 6 minutes!”
And that’s how I ended up with this video in the DVD player tonight.
(and you’re welcome. this video clip is so blurry you can’t see that the shorts on the guys in this video are WAY too short. T. M. I. and ewww. and again. ewww. and who says “supine? My whole life I’ve never said the word “supine.”)
Two days ago, I asked if I was tenacious or just stubborn.
You decide.
I got my miles in yesterday.
Treadmill readout showed: 6.01 miles,
4% incline,
1023 calories burned in
115 minutes and 34 seconds.
In case you are new or catching up and are wondering why anyone in their right mind would do that when they’re not training for a marathon or running from a bear, I’ve decided it’s because I’m tenacious.
Six days before the month was over, I decided I wanted to average walking 1 mile for each day of the month. Just because I can’t set reasonable goals doesn’t mean I can’t do math. That meant walking 30 miles in 6 days.
You’d think that I would walk 5 miles a day. You’d think that I would realize what taking Saturday off would to do my brilliant plan.
nope.
I walked 5 miles the first day, 5 miles the second day and ZERO miles the third day. That left 20 miles for the last three days of the month.
Here’s how it went:
Sunday:7 Miles., 4% incline (didn’t keep track of the rest) Monday:7.02 miles, 4% incline, 1213 calories burned in a total of 131 minutes and 28 seconds. Tuesday: 6.01 miles, 4% incline, 1023 calories burned in 115 minutes and 34 seconds.
I won’t lie. It was hard. I didn’t want to do it. I put it off all day. All three days.
I intentionally put my goal out on the internet – on my blog and on my facebook page, because accountability makes me stronger. Not because my prideful nature wouldn’t let me fail in front of everybody who thought my goals were crazy unreasonable. I’m tenacious, not stubborn, remember?
And for those of you who know I tore my MCL and strained my ACL on December 2nd, the knee is feeling good. I walked over 20 miles in December, now over 30 in January.
February is a new month. I need a new goal.
How about 2 miles a day? 58 miles it is. That should take me less than 40 minutes a day. Reasonable. Sustainable. Easier to make up if I want to take a Sunday off.
I’m also going to continue increasing the time on my forearm plank. I’m up to 2 minutes, 10 seconds. And I need to add some Supermans. because my back hurts. That means it’s not strong enough.
I’m DETERMINED to be a good steward of the body God has blessed me with!
(If you’re new to Compendium, he’s my FirstHusband, my LastHusband, my OnlyHusband. It’s a joke. He gets it.)
If anyone is wondering whether I got my miles in today, that would be YES.
Treadmill readout showed:
7.02 miles,
4% incline,
1213 calories burned,
in a total of 131 minutes and 28 seconds.
The knee is feeling good. The calves however, were burnin. I took two 20 minute breaks to do some laundry and to tuck PinkGirl in bed and pray with her.
If I can log 6 miles tomorrow, I’ll meet my goal of walking 30 miles in the last 6 days of the month to “average” a mile a day for the month.
If you’re new or just catching up, you may be wondering why, if I wanted to average a mile a day for the month, didn’t I just actually walk a mile a day instead of cramming 30 miles into the last 6 days? I’d like to say it’s because I tore my MCL and strained my ACL on December 2nd and my knee hasn’t been ready . . .
I’d like to say that. But it would be a lie. I walked over 20 miles in December. And I think I did actually walk some in the beginning of January, but it was inconsistent and since I didn’t record any of it on my fitness log, I would have been making stuff up. So I gave myself one mile and, with 6 days left in the month of January, decided to walk the remaining 30.
I needed a kick-start anyway. I was getting too comfortable. And my clothes were getting a little UNcomfortable.
I’m DETERMINED to be a good steward of the body God has blessed me with!
I wonder what kind of goals I’m going to set for myself for February.
Monday was the mother of all starting lines. THE day to begin.
again.
Everybody knows it’s better to start a new fitness plan on a Monday.
Even experts agree:
“We think of Monday as the January of the week. It’s a call to action built into every calendar, giving you 52 chances for success.” says Sid Lerner, founder and chairman of The Monday Campaigns, a nonprofit initiative in association with Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse Universities.
I know what I always told myself on Friday nights:
“It was a long, hard week and I deserve to take the night (and day, and night again) off.”
“It’s too hard to start on a weekend, too many other (presumably fun) things to do.”
“We’re going out and it’s too hard to eat right when we eat out.”
“I deserve this glass (or three) of wine.”
“I deserve this plate of nachos.”
“I deserve to chill out at watch TV.”
“I deserve to …
What a load of hooey. Yes, I said “hooey.”
I did NOT deserve to weigh 210 pounds. I did NOT deserve to get winded trying to play with my kids. Well. Actually, the way I was eating and taking care of my body, I did deserve it.
Because those are the lousy excuses and rationalizations I used when I had the mentality that says fitness is a goal to be achieved. Something I did for a period of time until I got to a certain weight or size. When I was finished, I could go back to my “normal” life of thoughtless eating and neglecting my body.
But if I’m striving to be a good steward of the body God has blessed me with, THERE IS NO FINISH LINE.
I’ve gone through different stages since I began incorporating fitness into daily life. Sometimes I focus on strength training – I’ve gone to a gym, I’ve gone to local fitness trails and now I work out at home. For a few years I worked with a personal trainer two to three times per week. Before I tore my MCL and strained my ACL in December, I was doing yoga and I loved it so much I know I’m going back. But my constant -through injury and weather and lapses in motivation – has always been walking, sometimes outside, sometimes on a treadmill with an incline.
How do YOU incorporate fitness into your everyday life? If you currently don’t, here’s the thing. You don’t need to buy a gym membership. You don’t have to buy the PX90 or Shred DVDs and spend every minute “hating it” as I read on another blog last week. You don’t need to buy a BowFlex or turn your extra bedroom or garage into a home gym.
Before you spend a lot of money on the accoutrements needed to accommodate your latest exercise plan, I’ll give you the same advice I gave my sister: “Find out if you are ready for the commitment. Tests have shown it takes 21 days to make a habit. Do 10 pushups a day for 21 days. You don’t have to do them all in a row, break them up if you can’t get through the full 10. Do modified pushups on your knees if you’re a beginner. IF, after three weeks, you’ve discovered that you made it, THEN think about throwing money at this problem.
In the meantime, consider this: The SINGLE BEST thing we can do for our health only requires one thing: a good pair of shoes. I’m amazed at the measured significant improvement seen in SO many areas of our health!! Check out the statistics in this video! Short, but PACKED with info!
Here’s the deal. I don’t have to exercise every day for the rest of my life. I need to do it TODAY.
And tomorrow, I’m going to tell myself the same thing.
In my continuing quest to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with, I’ve set my August fitness goals.
How did I do in July? shhhhhh. Let’s not talk about it. July was pitiful.
pit. i. ful.
no excuses. wasn’t sick, not overwhelmingly busy, just easily found other things to do.
But I MISS sweating, believe it or not. And I miss the sore muscles that come with the knowledge and satisfaction of working them to failure. The way I see it, strength training that doesn’t fail the muscle is a waste of time – and if I’m going to take the time to do strength training, I want the time to be well spent.
But I digress.
It’s the fourth day of August and I’m back on track with my fitness goals. Here’s what I’m shooting for this month:
In addition to averaging two 6.5 incline miles & one 2 minute forearm plank EVERY day,
I’m trying a three day rotation this month:
1st Day – Work Upper Body
(20 BOSU push-ups, 20 shrugs (holding a 12 lb dumbbell in each hand), 30 tricep dips, 3 sets of “21s”)
I’m going to post my fitness updates on my facebook PAGE. It’s a page, not a personal profile, so you don’t have to “friend” me and I won’t see your wall posts, you can just comment your progress for accountability and prayer support! If you click “Like” at the top of the page, the posts will appear in your news feed so you’ll be reminded to post your progress.
Why am I doing this? For a two-way street of accountability and encouragement. I want to be a good steward of this body God has given me. I used to be hampered by physical limitations and pain, but slowly, both are becoming less and less of an obstacle in my life.
I posted my March fitness goals yesterday and I haven’t fallen behind yet! (I know it’s only been two days, but with my propensity for distraction and procrastination, it’s very easy for me to fall behind).
After I put my goals out on the internet for maximum accountability, I realized that they might be discouraging for beginners to read about. Let me explain – I’ve been building up to this for years. I started slow!
In the beginning, I could only to a 10 second plank – and I really struggled to do it!
In the beginning, I could only do a few push ups before I lost my form – and they were “girl” push ups, on my knees. (In the long run, it’s more beneficial to do fewer push ups correctly than lots of push ups incorrectly.)
In the beginning, I couldn’t walk more than just a few minutes without getting winded.
But today, years later, I’m doing better because I slowly and consistently incorporated small changes over time and didn’t give up. YOU CAN DO IT!
If you’re lurking around, thinking about the possibility of making small changes in your day to get healthier, I want to encourage you to set a reasonable, sustainable fitness goal for yourself for the month of March and (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone!
If you currently have an inactive lifestyle, consider exercising 1 minute a day.
ONE minute. And (here’s the key) make yourself accountable to someone who will support and encourage you!
ONE minute. (I’ll tell you why only one minute later – probably in April)
If you do it, let me know how it’s going and I’ll pray for you!
