I’m like a lot of people. My inner voice can be my loudest critic. Let me explain what I hear throughout the day: You had dessert. Bad move. You should not have done that. You are not going to lose weight like that. I constantly remind myself where I fell short, what I could have done better. Such is life. Win some, lose some. Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down. Sometimes you slip, sometimes you fall…ok, well that doesn’t work but you get my point. At least I hope you do. Anyway, one area where I don’t usually have to beat myself up is keeping my commitment to exercise. While I screw up a lot and will never be a marathon runner (I still get winded when the treadmill gets over 4.0!) , I show up to exercise faithfully. I really don't allow myself any excuses when it comes to exercising. When I travel, my gym clothes and shoes (and books) take up most of my luggage space.
I mentioned in one of our podcasts that I keep an exercise journal. I track the dates I work out and what I did during that workout. I started this years ago. Teresa encouraged me to take information to my annual exam, so I could share with my physician any changes I had seen or issues I had previously experienced that maybe weren’t present at the time of my last annual. She said this information would give the doctor a better picture of my overall health throughout the preceding year. I have hypertension and routinely take my blood pressure reading at home. I note the time of day the reading was taken. I keep a log of the readings and take the log with me when I go for my annual exam. Upon seeing my bp log for the first time my physician acted like I had given her a gift. I think it showed her my commitment to my health. (Had I been this committed before being diagnosed that would have been even better.) Once I started keeping my blood pressure log, I took it a step further and added my exercise log to the information I share during my annual exam. My exercise log notes the date I exercised, how long and the type of exercise. I write down the specific type of class, whether I walked (including the number of steps), did yoga, some type of cardio (elliptical or treadmill) or weights.
The other day I reviewed my exercise calendar from 2019. The exercise recommendations touted by health professionals can vary for the number of times per week adults should exercise. I try to follow the one which recommends that I exercise at least three times per week. Three times per week equals 156 times per year. My log shows that I worked out a total of 215 times in 2019. While I didn’t reach my weight loss goal, with that kind of consistent effort I did manage to shut down those negative thoughts. At least until I reward myself with my favorite ice cream sundae! Oh well…
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