This Time It’s Different?

Ok, in the event that it might be a fluke and I would be embarrassed to be such an exercise failure, I haven’t told you about the burgeoning exercise plan that I have tentatively created and shockingly become excited about. Last week I realized that I often have trouble sticking to an exercise plan because sometimes I’m just too tired during the weekday to keep it up. Take for instance this week. On Monday I was at school for classes and practicum for nine hours on top of having worked for five hours. On Tuesday I was at school for classes and practicum for eight hours after having worked for six. Wednesday and Thursday weren’t that much better. There really is just no room or desire to exercise with a schedule like that. Yet for some irrational reason I was thinking that exercise should be spaced out throughout the week (the old Monday, Wednesday, Friday plan). So by the time the weekend comes along I feel discouraged that I’ve already blown my exercise plan and I feel like I totally suck at this whole weight loss thing. I then spend the weekend lying around on my ass telling myself that I deserve down time to recover from the week, completing the cycle of being sloth-like and lazy. Then I had a revelation. I don’t do well with rigid plans because the minute that I get off track, I get this attitude of “well, I guess I’ve blown it now” and then I just really go off the deep end. Case in point is my eating. I’ve switched to focusing on portion size, healthy choices and trying to really know when my body is hungry and full. When I try to strictly count calories or carbs, I take any slip up and turn it into a three-day binge of eating anything that isn’t nailed down. So I applied this knowledge of myself to exercising. Instead of forcing myself to stick to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday timed program (I probably was trying to do that because I had read somewhere that it's recommended for muscles to heal, yada, yada, yada, and it worked for me the first time around when I lost weight but my life is very different from then so the exercise plan should be too, right? Right.) I instead decided to give myself some abstract exercise goals and decided to think of any movement as better than nothing. I decided that if I could do at least some kind of moving around on my days off, I would call myself a success. This totally works for me! Last Friday I did a thirty minute elliptical workout, some resistance band exercises and some crunches (I posted about it last weekend). Then Saturday my husband and I walked for a mile and then jogged 3/4 of the mile back home. Finally, on Sunday I did a quick thirty minutes on Steely Dan again. Success and a step in the right direction! I know that to some of you this may sound like almost no exercise, especially when some of you are up to running like eight miles, uphill both ways, carrying your groceries and dry cleaning, in high altitudes everyday rain or shine, sleet or snow, but for me this is actually pushing the level of shape that I’m in! I’m starting to have an emerging hope that this kind of attitude towards exercise might really work for me. I’m actually looking forward to my workout today (usually I’m putting it off and trying to think of ways to get out of it) and I’d like to do that same walk/jog with my husband tomorrow. Ok, so I’ve written about it and posted it all for you to see. I think this might stick but please don’t laugh if next week’s posts are all about how I sat on the couch doing nothing and that I’ve forgotten where I keep Steely Dan!