If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I haven’t written about my 2008 resolutions for a few months. That’s because I have made minimal progress since my last update.
I haven’t decomposed into a shambling mess, of course. My health and fitness is about the same as in January. I’ve accomplished some things on the travel front. I took care of some of the home and finance related goals. I have done some good work on the personal/intellectual stuff.
Yet, none of it is what I would call it “significant” and I’m not sure what to do about that.
One Hour Each Day
The recent report that sustained weight loss required an hour of exercise pet day was what got me thinking about this. An hour per day is a commitment. If you wrap in the prep/clean-up time, you probably need 90 minutes at a minimum.
A few years ago, I worked out five days a week for almost an hour each day. It was easy because the gym was in my building. Today, there’s no gym along my normal lines-of-travel and as a result I don’t do anything near what I did then.
Could I? Sure. But I’d have to spend extra energy (attention) so that I expended energy exercizing.
Habits. Always about the habits…
I don’t want to turn my life into a continual question of whether I’m being “productive” or not. I do want to change some things — exercise, fitness, personal time — so that I am happier. When I balance exercise with excess, I’m happier than when I do something every night. Finding that balance and sustaining it is difficult.
I’m wondering if an informal retreat might be a good thing. It was more valuable to me than I expected, the last time I did this. I don’t think a repetition of what I did before - shutting off all Internet, TV, etc - is necessarily what I need. But I need something to reboot, to reset my schedule and habits and find a new balance that includes the things I aspire to accomplish.
If I embark on another one of these little life experiments, I’ll certainly write about it here…
4 Comments
My wife was a gym rat for years (she’s fallen off the wagon in 2008). She always urged me to start going, but I looked at it and thought: change clothes, pack a bag, drive to gym, work out, change and go home … no way. I know myself well enough to know I’ll never get over that barrier of inconvenience.
I solved it by getting exercise equipment at home. It started with a bike trainer (I used to bike regularly). Half an hour before showering every morning, a quicker breakfast, and I didn’t even have to get up earlier. Later I added a weight bench, and last Friday I bought a bike.
I feel 100% better physically. Seriously. At 6′ tall and 145 lbs, I was a pasty sunken-chested scientist, but now I hold my head a bit higher.
By the way, some time ago you linked to Art Of Manliness - thanks for that. Through them I got hooked into all this discussion that’s going on right now about what it means to be a man.
I went shopping for exercise equipment a few months ago. I just couldn’t justify the expense for two reasons.
1) If I exercise inside, I really want the ability to switch my activity. Bike one day, elliptical another, treadmill a third. No way I can justify, afford or even physically locate those for/in my home.
2) I like to roam around outside, when possible. I think that means “start running” but I’ve never been a fan of jogging. Friends of mine love it and tell me I would, too…but in the past, even when I’ve been at the top of my fitness curve, I’ve still been lukewarm on it.
I’ve got to do something, however….
Yeah, variety can be a killer. If you’ve had a broad fitness routine in the past, you might not be satisfied with what you can do at home. I’d never exercised before, so I had to start somewhere.
Jogging’s too high-impact for me, and I loved the sense of speed I got from biking. I used to be fast. Now I’m too afraid of being hit by a car to do it every day. I’ll stick to the trails and leave bicycle commuting to others. Biking might work for you, but again: expensive.
Biking is a good option for you! Buy a trainer and set it up in your exercise room.
Post a Comment