Friday, February 12, 2010

The Beginning

The Beginning

Before these challenges even began, I started working out. It was fairly slow going at first, but I was able to start weights within a couple weeks. I was in a nice routine when disaster struck - I got a nasty cold. I was out, sleeping 18 hours a day and being exhausted when I was awake. I managed to do my classes at school and then go home. It was like that for three full days, and then on the fourth it started to get better. I was completely bummed. It seemed like every time I had a good rythm with my workouts something came in to sabotage me. But I wouldn’t give up this time. I told myself, it’s not just about the work outs. Its about being healthy. It’s about the whole package. I could deny I was sick, and I’d just go on with everything and slowly get sicker and sicker and sicker until I wouldn’t be able to work or do anything. And if I did that, I wouldn’t be well enough to work out for weeks. So I didn’t wait - I stopped everything and took care of myself for a week. Then I was well enough to do some low intensity workouts.
I still have my ups and downs, but it’s about continuing. It is about losing weight, but it’s more about being healthy in all ways - physically, spiritually, and emotionally. If one is out of wack it throws the rest off too.

The weeks of Chocolate

Now, I’m not going to mess with you. This was two weeks of no chocolate - not two weeks of dieting or watching my calories. It was simply a test to see life without choclate for two weeks. I didn’t do this as a way to lose weight. I didn’t do it as a way to break an ‘addiction’. I just wanted to try and see how it was. I was shocked to realize how often I eat chocolate and how when I’m hungry or just bored I reach for choclate and I don’t want another kind of snack.
As the days passed I found myself more and more turning to peanut butter as a poor subsitute. It didn’t satisfy though. And so I was stuck sticking it out. I did find at the end of the challenge that my body felt a lot better. It didn’t like all that chocolate. It liked the tomatoes I’d started eating after school. And this led to my second challenge.

The week of 1500 Calories

In retrospect, this week was probably a mistake. 1500 calories is not much at all. And at the time, I was working out on a regular basis. It wasn’t too intense yet, but it was more than my body was used to. I made it the first three days - barely. And then the weekend came. Along with my gaming friends.
We set up shop in my tatami room, and started the fun. I did an admirable job of limiting the snacks I ate, but then we ordered pizza. Uh-oh. I even did okay with that. But what I found is 1500 calories is tough to stretch much past pizza and snacks, even if you’re careful. After the pizza, I wanted to give up and just eat. But I didn’t. I’d eaten what I’d eaten, but I wouldn’t just say, ‘Okay, I didn’t really expect you to manage it anyway, so go ahead and gorge yourself.’ Instead I continued with my plan, even though the little voice in my head was screaming I wouldn’t meet my goal the next day either.
I just refused to give up. I refused to blame myself for what I’d eaten, and simply go on. The challenge wasn’t over. And it wasn’t about ‘winning’ the challenge or ‘losing’. It was about continuing and completing. Even once I found out that the calories per day was a bit low, I wanted to complete it.
In the end, those first three days were the only ones that I was successful. But I started looking at calories. I started watching what I eat. I started looking for veggies and fruit and my food pyramid stopped being top heavy. I also realized I could eat chocolate in small amounts and work it into my eating schedule.


The week of the Work Out

And that brings us to the week of the workout. I have had the most fun this week. It hasn’t been easy. Two weeks ago, I was feeling really low. I was feeling really sad. And I’d spent all day Saturday hanging out, barely moving. I talked to Dad on skype.
He said, ‘Why do you have to feel good in order to work out? Just do it anyway.’ For those of you with landmark experience, I’d fallen into the do-have-be routine. If I work out, I’ll have the good feeling and then eventually I’ll be healthy.
Since that was two weeks ago, I’d pretty much gotten out of that rut. Originally, when I started the week, I made the challenge 30 minutes of cardio a day. I also wanted some of the cardio to be in the morning and some in the evenings. My right knee never completely came back after the surgery two years ago. Stretching was always fine, but I never kept up with the strengthing trainning, and it was still weak after 30 minutes on the bike. So doing one workout in the morning and one in the evening made sense.
As the week came, my knee started to adjust to the new schedule. I started to do more. Now my dail goal is to have 600 calories of cardio each day. That’s about 20 minutes in the morning and 30 in the evening. But even that is being leveled up to 30 - 30. I’m also going to add in weights starting today.

And so that brings us to present day. It’s Feb 10th and I’ve been working out steadily since Jan 3rd. I’ve had my ups and downs. I’ve learned you just can’t focus on one thing. To make this work, I’ve made time for my personal life, my spiritual life, and myself. I’ve made a time and a space for everything.
The best part has really been playing around with my life and my time. I always used to get upset, or mad at myself and others if I didn’t have time to do the things I want to do. During the last few months, I’ve realized that I want to do almost EVERYTHING! At any given time, I want to do so many things. I’m so happy about this! Before, everything was wrapped up in guilt and ‘I should’s and frustration that I couldn’t do all that I wanted. Now I’m excited that I want to everything. I know that no matter what I do I’ll be happy; I’ll be doing something I want to. Since I’ve also been focusing on balance, I make time for things. There’s no ‘I can’t do that I have to work out’. It’s just a choice, and sometimes I don’t do the work out. When I had my gaming friends over I got up on Sunday and went in to church before they were awake.

Next is the week of Sleeping. My challenge is to get eight hours of sleep every night.

1 comment:

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