A Different Satisfaction

It took a couple weeks to get that trainer up to the gym. It is a heavy, awkward piece of equipment. I disassembled all that I could of the frame and had a couple friends come over and haul it up there for us. Got it all back together and cleaned the gym and started fresh the next day. Made my way back to the gym a couple days a week, mostly focusing on the PT exercises I had been given and short little warm-ups on the incline trainer.

As with anything you kinda do, I easily found other things to distract me and I stopped going to the gym…in my house…what? So the weight went down and up…again.

So it’s been about six months since I’ve followed any kind of exercise routine. Mind you I do get some pretty active minutes when I work in the yard as we are on an acre of sloped property and do not own a riding mower. (Oh, and I rolled the crap out of my left ankle mowing the upper meadow, twice. So that’s fun.) But let’s face it, that’s once a week; can’t really start until the rain stops and you can’t continue once the fire season starts. The use of motorized equipment has a very small window of opportunity.

With even less activity, I’ve noticed that I am getting winded pretty easily and I have been having more joint pain, especially in my knees. And I started to notice that I when I see “those people” you know the ones who are sick and full of excuses and they could improve their situation if they would just try (I know this precept does not apply to all who ail) but they are unwilling to make the effort to do anything about it; I started seeing myself. And I felt humiliated…and old…and sad…and ashamed…and embarrassed. And I probably should feel all of those things because I know better.

I know that Exercise is Medicine (look it up if you don’t believe me). When I first started my fitness journey in 2008 I spent six solid years of my life dedicated to not only my own fitness improvement, but I went to school and worked with others to help improve their fitness.

Over the last couple weeks I made my way back to the basics. For a solid week I have tracked my nutrition diligently. I have done surprisingly well on the balance and overall calorie intake management without too much stress. I had a cheat meal on Friday night and instead of falling off the wagon as it is so easy to do, I felt super disappointed, and was right back on track Saturday morning. Plus, my insides felt out of balance for it.

After about 3-4 days of refocus I realized that one of the habits I had that previously contributed to my success was to manually track my fitness. Old-school. In a fitness journal. With a pencil. I love it. Tracking in a journal makes me feel so much more connected to this part of the journey. I love going back through the pages and seeing my progress. I do leave the HR, calories and minutes tracking/syncing to my Fit Bit but there is a different satisfaction that comes writing, erasing and reviewing on paper.

In the last couple days I have been thinking about the other big piece that contributed to my success before, and it is what leads me here now and that is blogging. I don’t know how much time I can really dedicate to it this go around, but I know it is vitally important to my success so I will attempt to blog weekly…for now. The feedback we get and give, and the camaraderie and support that comes with it is one of the big three: nutrition management, exercise and support. Here I go!