Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
I recently gave myself a big fitness goal, and then the March Break hit. Week one I stuck with things, week two I took a lazy dive. I’ve been on that lazy dive for a second week and today was supposed to be the day I broke it and started again. It wasn’t.
My motivation seems to be at an all-time low right now. But I know what I need to do. I need to ‘let go’ of the goal, and just get my butt into my gym. I need to allow myself to go through the motions and feel low… but still get in the gym and do something. I didn’t get back to things today. I will get myself back on the treadmill and lifting weights, or doing chin ups, tomorrow morning. Sometimes it’s ok just to go through the motions, but it’s not good to let myself avoid workouts. When I do this, it becomes an unhealthy loop.
So tomorrow morning, I won’t push myself on the treadmill. I’ll do some low weight with high repetition exercises. I’ll add a sticker to my chart, and at least 4 more in the weeks to come, so that I’m back to 5 workouts a week. Hopefully some time this week or next, I’ll feel more motivated and get back to my goal… but for now the goal is to just show up.
About 4 years ago I was the heaviest I’ve ever been. I did 3 months of the Ketogenic diet and lost 15lbs. I loved how I felt but I hated how antisocial the diet was. It is a lifestyle that’s hard to keep. I also started intermittent fasting and that did wonders for my mood. I used to get ‘hangry’, angry when I was hungry, but intermittent fasting seemed to change that and evened out my sugar levels and my mood.
I’ve been on a fantastic healthy living journey since I started my sticker chart at the start of 2019, (here’s a post and video after a year on this journey), and I’ve kept this up. But at the start of the school year I dropped a bit too much weight and actually ended up lighter than my university weight, despite working out 5-6 times a week. So I started drinking a protein shake in the morning and worrying less about fasting.
Now, 6 months later, I’ve gained about 5-6 healthy pounds back, but considering how hard I’ve been pushing myself, I should have gained more muscle mass by now. So I’m going to change a few things.
My plan:
1. Eat more and more often.
2. Two protein shakes a day.
3. Add creatine monohydrate and BCAA supplements.
4. Train with a focus on strength and pushing my muscles to fatigue… but also giving different muscle groups more rest between workouts
5. Stretch more and make sure I maintain (and hopefully improve) flexibility.
6. Drink more water.
My goal: Gain 7-10 pounds in the next 6-8 weeks, then reduce my food intake and go back to lighter weights with higher reps, and probably lose 2-4 pounds. I hope plan to end up at least 5 pounds heavier than I am now.
That might seem like a lot of work for 5 pounds, but it will be 5 pounds that I want and that I know that I can keep on. I was the same body weight, give or take just a couple pounds from about age 26 to my mid 40’s, if I got fit or unfit, the weight just shifted but didn’t change. It was only when I approached 50 that the unhealthy weight gain started.
I should mention that I’m also going back to the challenge I had with my brother-in-law. The goal was 60 push-ups and 30 pull-ups. I got to 60 push-ups (barely and not prettily) but I had to stop the pull-ups for a while. I have started back and last night I did 21. I want to hit 30 in the next 6 weeks as well.
So now I have set goals. I’ve made them public, and I’ve started on my path. I’m putting a reminder in my calendar for every Sunday to weigh myself, and a reality check reminder with a link to this post on May 18th. I believe that I’ll achieve my goals as long as I remember my age, and be smart about not pushing my body (and especially my back) too hard. On with the plan!
There are different kinds of soreness that your body can experience, and one of those is the soreness that comes after a hard workout. It’s an ache in your muscles that says to you, ‘these muscles were pushed hard’! And, it is felt even more the second day after you worked the muscles than it is felt just one day after.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of archery recently and so I hadn’t been doing a lot of hard workouts, because it’s hard to pull a 50 pound bow and aim it well when your arms are fatigued even before you get started. But this past week I knew I was going to shoot less and so after a couple months of taking it easy with my workouts, I pushed myself. Right now my triceps, my lats, and my quads are workout sore. Yesterday my chest was too, but that has subsided.
While it’s a feeling that lets me know that I’ve done a good job increasing my strength, it can also be a bit much when I’m feeling it in too many places at once. That’s a reminder that I don’t have to go into ‘all or nothing’ mode. That becomes a challenge as I get older. I cruise for a while, working out but not pushing myself too hard, then I go speed boat and full throttle for a bit, before going back to cruise mode. Overall, I’d have to say that I’ve been good at balancing this off, or evening it out, over the past few years. I think this is a lapse rather than a pattern.
So this morning I’ll focus on stretching, and moving my muscles with lighter weights to help the lactic acid move out of my sore muscles. And I’ll remember that while a little muscle soreness can be good, there really can be too much of a good thing.
I’ve been on a fitness kick since the start of 2019, and I feel younger than I did in 2018. I know I won’t win the battle against old age, and that my abilities will decrease. But, I also know that I can live more vibrantly in my old age if I keep this up… and quite frankly the alternatives suck.
There are so many take-aways in this short video. Watch it again. Think about how Charles’ attitude could benefit you, no matter how old you are.
I’ve always had a slow pulse. When I was in my last year of high school I was in a pool training for water polo 10 to 12 times a week. When I took my pulse in the morning, it was usually between 32 and 35 beats per second. Now when I take my pulse, usually after my morning meditation, it tends to sit between 49 and 43 beats per minute.
It’s healthy to have a nice slow resting heart rate, but sometimes it can hinder me too. Sometimes, when I’m not active, I can feel tired and lazy. Especially after I eat a big meal. I think it’s because while my body focuses on digestion, my slow pulse doesn’t feed the rest of me enough to keep me going when I’m sedentary. So, I tend to move around a lot after lunch, because I’m not too productive sitting at my desk just after a meal.
I’ve recently been tracking my heart rate with my phone. As I mentioned, the first time is resting, after my meditation, the second time during my workout. The App works by putting my finger over the camera, with the light on. The problem is that I just had to switch phones and this new phone uses a camera that’s farther away from the light than my previous phone, and my measurement during or usually just after activity tends to fail and force a retry. This can happen several times and my heart rate is slowing while I do this.
I shouldn’t let this bug me. I can calculate my pulse without the App, but I like having it track my progress and it bugs me that I can’t get it to work easily. I’m going to have to try a new app, one that works for me, rather than fight me. I like tools to track my progress, that’s why my sticker chart works so well. So I need to find a new tracker, and surrender the fact that I paid for this App… which, while a nominal fee, wasn’t enough to keep my feeling frustrated on a regular basis. Our tools need to work for us, not against us.
On January 19th my brother-in-law and I bet that we would be able to do a couple fitness challenges by February 19th. The first one is 60 push-ups, and the second one is 30 pull-ups.
I began at a point where I was regularly doing 25-30 push-ups and 10-12 pull-ups, and felt that 60 consecutive push-ups was easy to get to, but the pull-ups would be a challenge. I was right, and while a week ago I was able to do 60 push-ups (the last 15 very slowly and more vocal than I would have liked), I was only at 18 pull-ups and knew I would struggle to hit my goal by the 19th.
Then my upper back started to tighten up. I have always had to take special care of my back, dealing with issues since I grew 7.5 inches in a year as a teenager. I have mild scoliosis, and deal with discomfort daily, and pain when I’m not caring for myself, or when I do something silly or accidental. This upper back pain wasn’t an injury feeling, just an overall tightness that wouldn’t go away.
So, last week Wednesday I had a very deep massage that was one of the more uncomfortable ones I’ve had in ages, and came home had a hot tub after dinner. In the hot tub, finally feeling normal, I decided I needed to give my shoulders a break and I paused my push-up and pull-up regimen. I’ve kept up my cardio, I took Saturday off, I took it easy yesterday, and will do so again today when I head down to my home gym after writing this.
The reality is that I’m stubborn and I plan on meeting the pull-up challenge eventually. I’m fitter than I’ve been in a couple decades. I’m lighter than I’ve been in a couple decades. And half a life ago I used to do 3 sets of 28 chin-ups with a 25lb weight hanging off of me. I know 30 pull-ups is something I’ll be able to ‘pull off’. The challenge is that I can’t live my life trying to meet unrealistic fitness goals, and feeling like my back is in a constant state of flexing too hard. I can’t sacrifice my wellness for a fitness goal.
I’ve been on a 2-year healthy living path. My back has been better than it has been in years, but I would still be lying to myself if I said my back didn’t give me issues. Stretching and very deep massage help a lot. Staying fit helps a lot. But over-exertion and pushing myself doesn’t help. I can progress and improve slowly, but I can’t race.
At 53, I don’t plan on slowing down and taking it easy. I plan on reaching new fitness goals… but I need to be the tortoise and not the hare. Slow and steady progress is what will benefit me, while pretending I’m youthful and invincible will cause avoidable injury. This will hurt both my overall wellness and my ability to not just improve but also maintain my fitness. I won’t be doing 30 pull-ups any time soon, but I will work to get there, and I believe it’s achievable… without sacrificing the well-being of my back.
Dwight decided on January 18, 2020 that he would do a workout every day for the next year, and he has now followed through on that commitment! In his post, Dwight says,
“I listened to a TEDx Talk calledWinning the Mental Battle of Physical Fitness and Obesityby Dr. Ogie Shaw, and it changed my perspective on working out. One statement he made that resonated with me is,“It’s easier to work out every day than it is three days a week. Three days a week gives you too many decisions… If you are negotiating about which days to work out, it’s over.”That made sense to me. So, it was at the point that I promised myself that I was going to work out every day.”
I’ll be listening to Dr. Shaw’s TedTalk this morning on my exercise bike. Dwight goes on to share some tips that remind me a bit of ‘My healthy living goals year-end reflection, with 5 key tips‘. Those tips have allowed me to maintain my healthy living goals for another year, and I’m on track again this year.
Still, while I’ve blogged every day, and did 288 workouts last year, Dwight worked out every single day for a year. That’s impressive! Reading his post has inspired me. I realize that I’ve been slacking a bit. I’ve been waking up at inconsistent times, sometimes having to push my workout or daily meditation into the evening because the morning is too rushed. I’ve been less disciplined with my schedule.
While my goal is at least 288 workouts again this year, I’m realizing that I can do better by recommitting to my daily routine. I’m not changing my goal to daily, I already commit to daily meditation and blogging, but I’m committing to keeping my routine ‘tight’. I’m also going to stretch on my non workout days.
It’s absolutely inspiring to watch others meet their healthy living goals. I feel that Dwight has provided me with a boost at a time when, although I haven’t slacked off physically, I was beginning to slack off mentally. He has reminded me that a dedicated daily routine is what got me to meet my healthy living goals. This morning I woke up early, and I’m about to start my meditation at the time when I have been just starting to blog. Today I’ve rekindled the excitement about my routine. Thank you Dwight!
I used to hate the idea of new year’s resolutions. So much hype built into large and often unrealistic goals. But my healthy living goals have changed that. Today, I hit all my targets (literally with my archery goal as well as figuratively). And so I added my stickers to my chart, and am heading into my hot tub after writing this.
What matters though, as I have learned, is that I maintain my weekly goals when I’m busy at work. It’s easy to take a step in the right direction on the first day of the year, while on holiday. But this doesn’t prepare me for the year ahead like the first week back at school.
That doesn’t take anything away from my day, from the first day of 2021… it does remind me that habits are made when it’s hard to maintain habits, rather than when it’s easy. It reminds me that every step in the right direction is a good step to take.
I’ve made some great strides in meeting my healthy living goals in the past two years, and I believe I’ll do the same this year. It’s easier when I create goals that are actually attainable, and that make me feel better about myself. It’s also easier because I’ve created the time and space in my home schedule to meet my targets. The challenge isn’t doing what needs to be done, the challenge is consistently making time, and getting started. Consistently.
Last year: 63%(57% would have been an average of 4-days a week. I only did less than 4 days a week 3 times during the year.)
This year: 78.7% (288/366days or an average of 5.5 days a week. I only did less the 4 days twice and one of those was the week after I broke my patella.)
I barely missed mediation or a day of reading/writing. A difference of note to last year, I listened to 33 books in 2020. That’s up from 26 last year and included a lot more fiction than in previous years.
I was also consistent with intermittent fasting until I stopped doing this in October. I was dropping weight that I didn’t want to lose at that point. While at some point I might return to this form of time restricted eating, I think I’ve ingrained the habit of not snacking after dinner, but my early morning workouts leave me too hungry to do this when my last meal is usually done by 6:30pm. I’m over 25lbs lighter than I was 3 years ago and actually want to add some muscle mass this year.
Overall, I have to say that this has been a healthy year. Besides my accident, breaking my knee, I had a shoulder injury that was slow to recover, and my (chronic) back issues flared up only once for about a week. Besides that, I’d easily say that I’m the fittest I’ve been in 25+ years.
So where to now? Here’s my plan with my calendar and stickers for 2021:
Red: Exercise (continued) I know the visual of gaps in workouts pushes me. I will try to match this year’s average.
Blue: Meditation (continued +) I plan to continue to give myself a sticker for doing a guided meditation in the morning. But I also plan to give myself a second sticker if I can do a minimum of 10 minutes of unguided meditation sometime later in the day. I think for me to progress in my meditation I have to dedicate more time to staying focussed on my breath and commit to putting more hours into this.
Yellow: Writing. I don’t need to track reading anymore. I read (listen) during cardio and squeeze in more reading whenever I am doing menial tasks or driving alone. But I want to continue to advance my writing. So, one sticker for my Daily Ink blog post, and a second sticker when I do any writing beyond that. Let’s see if my sticker chart can inspire me to do more than just a daily post. At least to start, much of what I write beyond these posts may not be immediately public – so tracking with a 2nd sticker will keep me honest about how much of this I actually do).
Green: Archery. Goodbye intermittent fasting, hello hobby! After a year-and-a-half hiatus, I started shooting again and I’m loving it. It helps that I have a (socially distanced) friend coaching me a bit, and I’m seeing great results. To me this is a form of meditation. It’s also something that I started then watched get pushed asides due to being busy and not prioritizing. If I can get 100 days of shooting in next year, that would be amazing!
So while there are many reasons to throw 2020 the middle finger, I think that my healthy living sticker chart is not one of them. I know that without keeping myself honest with this system, 2020 could have been an abysmal year for my physical and mental well-being… but this charting and commitment to myself was a shining light in what was otherwise a very dark year. I hope to see equal success in 2021!
I’ve been reevaluating my healthy living goals over this holiday break. I’ve realized that I don’t need to track a few things that I was tracking on my healthy living chart.
The yellow sticker was originally for 20 minutes minimum reading (listening to books, not podcasts), and/or writing, which I didn’t do much of until the middle of 2019, when I started writing here daily. I don’t think I’ve missed a day of writing since, and I listed to 33 books this year. So, mission accomplished… and such a regular part of my day now that I really don’t need a sticker to track this behaviour.
Also, I started tracking intermittent fasting in 2019, and continued this year. I needed at least a 14 hour gap to earn a sticker. My original goal was 5 days a week with breaks on Friday and Saturday nights when I might have snacks or drinks after dinner. I think this is really healthy but I’ve been pushing myself on my morning workouts and actually struggling to keep weight on, after years of having too much weight on me. I am now my university weight and fitter than I’ve been in about 25 years. But I struggled once we hit September to go 14 hours on most days, and while I’d get close, tracking it seems moot, because I often felt self care was not the objective of holding off on getting some food in me and feeling strong.
My other stickers are exercise and meditation. I usually worked out 5 days a week, and I know that many weeks this year, when I missed 2 workouts early on, the lack of stickers that week really motivated me to exercise daily and keep going. So this sticker reward and tracking is really working for me.
For meditation, I have been doing 10 min. guided daily, and almost have a perfect record. There are some days when I would take too long writing and do a rushed workout and forget to meditate later, having skipped my morning routine. On this break, where I’m not getting up between 5 and 5:30am, I’ve remembered to meditate after 11pm on 3 different days. I think next year I’m going to try to meditate twice daily, once guided in the morning and once silently later in the day (at least 4 days a week). Then I’ll give myself a sticker for each, so I can contrast the amount of times I meditated twice, while also tracking if I skip both on a given day.
So where am I right now with my 2021 healthy living motivation chart?
Red: Workouts (continued)
Blue: Meditation (1 or 2 stickers)
Yellow: A writing goal that I haven’t figured out yet?
Green: I don’t know yet?
Starting this chart 2 years ago has been significant in me being able to create a healthy lifestyle that I’ve been able to monitor and maintain. It’s not a light choice to make, it’s a year of dedication with significant rewards to my personal health and mental well-being. So, over the next few days, I’ll have to solidify my last two targets… and there you have it, writing this has given me something new to track… archery. Now I just need to make my writing and archery goals specific and I’ll be all set for the new year!
