Write down more!

This clipboard is a tool familiar to my clients.  This is where I keep track of workouts.  For clients, it gives me a place to write down record-breaking lifts or thoughts for the next workout or exercises that would be good to add to the repertoire.

When I use the clipboard on myself, I use it a little differently because I make myself work out with myself more than once or twice a week.  This is where I write down my goals for the week and where I track what actually happened.  The point is, I keep a record.  I know that Thursdays are the hardest days to work out.  I know I tend to shirk the mat exercises when I do Pilates (so you notice that all the exercises on my Pilates list for the week are mat exercises this time out; I am sneaky like that.).

Set some goals.  Track what happens.  Learn stuff.  Do it again.

Write it down...

Like everyone else, I would like to eat better, exercise more, weigh less, and look cuter.  Most of all, I want to feel good.  Because I am lazy, I love finding ways to accomplish lots of things at once, so this post makes me happy.

The picture is a notebook and pens.  They may be my best weapon for accomplishing my goals around eating.  Numerous studies suggest that writing down what we eat significantly impacts what we put in our mouths.  For one thing, we don’t really want to write down that we ate an entire carton of ice cream, so we might stop at a bite or two, or skip it entirely.  For another, it makes us conscious of the fact that we ate more bread or fewer vegetables than we thought.  It forces mindfulness.

Beyond that, keeping track of what we eat, how much, when, and how we feel supplies us with useful data.  If it turns out that we feel terrible every time we eat eggs and we had not yet made the connection, we can then adjust our intake.  Or we might learn that the days we skip our afternoon snack are the days we Must Have Chocolate in the middle of the night.  We can see the patterns.

As much as I like notebooks and pens and writing, I really really hate writing down what I eat.  It is a challenge not to write down “annoyed” for how I feel every time.  That is why I have added this post.  I have now told anyone reading this that I am going to do it, so it’s out there, in the world.  Ask me to show you!  Hold me accountable!  It is another way to make the practice more effective.  (And, of course, I am happy to hold you accountable, too.)

Let’s do this.

Monday Workout: That Looks Familiar...

Normally I make a new workout for each week.  It helps with boredom, both of the body and the mind.  Last week, I spent the whole week sick, so I didn’t get to try this one out.  If anyone else did, great!  You already know what to do!  If not, here’s our chance!

1 min cardio
back lunge with foot on bench	20
suitcase swing	20
pushups	10
plyojacks or crunch jacks	20
side plank with arm raise	10/side
pretty princesses	10

Monday Workout: with a new exercise in it!

Back to reality!  I have a cold, so I am not actually testing this one today.  I’m sure it will be fun by tomorrow or Wednesday.  (Which reminds me:  resting is allowed when we are sick.  Do only as much as creates energy and health, not more.  No one is helped when we hack and cough and suffer and drip all over everything.)  Anyway, by now you can guess that there are four rounds since there are six exercises. 

The new exercise in the bunch is the suitcase swing.  Stand tall with a pair of dumbbells at your sides.  Squat as usual, but instead of letting the dumbbells hang, keep them in line with your torso (like a backswing).  As you come out of the squat, swing your arms overhead.  Make sure to maintain lovely posture and engaged abdominals throughout.

1 min cardio
back lunge with foot on bench	10/side
suitcase swing	20
pushups	10
plyojacks or crunch jacks	20
side plank with arm raise	10/side
pretty princesses	10

This is a tiki for no reason

I didn’t blog yesterday because vacation and because I spent the day snorkeling at Molokini crater.  Just because I am on vacation doesn’t mean I am not thinking about fitness, however.

Snorkeling, as demonstrated by one of the lovely crew members of the snorkeling boat yesterday, is not a labor-intensive sport.  Pretty much we lie face down in the water staring at fish and flapping our arms and legs a bit when we want to move from place to place to see other fish.  The fitness component comes at a different point in the experience.

The particular boat we took was a catamaran that pulled up to the beach.  No easy walk down the gangplank.  Getting on and off required wading through waves.  While the crew helped out, a certain basic stability was required. 

We may not need to be strong to do the things we really want to do.  But we may very much need to be strong to get to the point where we can even try to do those things.  I saw beautiful fish and floated in clear water and tasted salt and got a little sunburned yesterday because I could get on and off the boat.  I know people who can’t do that.  Let’s stay strong so we can be amazed by life.

Why?

Perhaps I write the same things over and over.  Maybe it is because I need reminding and maybe I am not the only one.

Fitness is not an end in itself.  Fitness is for doing things.  While the hours we spend in the gym can be fun in themselves, the point is to enable fun in other contexts.  All those elliptical workouts translate into victory on the hill hike.  The work on the agility ladder turns into good foot placement between roots and stones on the path.  The view can take our breath away instead of the journey to get to the view.

Work out and enjoy it, sure, but let’s figure out why we want to be fit.

Monday Workout: Even on vacation

On vacation, you say?  Workout, you say?  Of course!  But all body weight exercises because who packs weights on vacation?  It is vacation, so only 3 rounds.  And we’ll try to get some cardio swimming or hiking or something.

squats	20
1 leg squat	10
lunges	20
pushups	10
plank
side plank with rotation	10