Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Gave myself a present: Daily Exercise

I gave myself a Christmas (OK, Hanukah) present this year: I'm going to exercise everyday.  OK, it's also a little like a challenge but the idea is that I'll make it a priority ahead of racing into work at 8am  and of going with the flow.  I'll do it since I want it.

 It's now a little more than two weeks and I feel great.  I haven't missed yet and it's carried a few benefits with it.


  1. Continuity allows me to focus on improvement. So I've upped my game all around:
    1. The gym.  I use to go to  warm up with 5 minutes of rowing, do the weights, and done. I've decided to add cardio to each visit so I'm up to 10 minutes of rowing at the start, weights, then 10 of stair climber and 10 of elliptical. I'm both increasing the intensity of them and would like to make it to 30 minutes of cardio at the end.
    2. Biking. I'm up from my 13 mile ride to a solid 20.  
      john edelson
    3. Swimming. The biggest change. I was doing batches of two or four lengths and working towards getting 20 done in a work out. I pushed hard and am now working with batches mostly of 10, sometimes 5, and have done several 30 length workouts.  I'm also timing this so I started when the pool opens at 8 so I'm done by 8:30 and in the office around 9:15.
    4. Nicole and Focus Studio. I see her 2x a week working on building the stuff (intrinsics, posture, certain stretches) which will help with my managing my back problems. I was showing up at the hour and not being that intense. I've stepped this up to showing up early so I can do the warm up before the hour begins.
    5. Nutrition. I'm indulging my focus on the scale. I step on it a lot. I like to see how my weight varies during a day and a week. I can move up or down by five pounds in a day.  I've decided, starting Jan 1, to drop sugar and alcohol from my diet (almost entirely) until I see less than 200 pounds consistently on the scale. I did have one drink with DJ to celebrate him being alive and out and about adn tonight, going out, I might try one too but mostly, I've been nutty good about eating this year. I have big size sugar-free yogurt which I mix with nuts (no salt!) and blue berries as my go-to snack and light dinner.
To lay it out there, here's the goal. Get below 200 in January and stay there all year. I'd like to range between 194 and 199 for Feb through December. Actually, I'd love to average 190 and it was only a few years ago that I was there but without the 4-5x thrill of a martial arts workout and people to live with who are also actively health conscious, this takes more discipline and sacrifice than I'm likely to make.

PS.    I'm also trying to get in shape to ski with my son in early February.  Vail.
PPS.  My doctor retired and I need a new GP.

Working on Something at Nicoles
Psture? Intrinsics?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love this, John! I'm sure you'll stick with this and reach your goals (and feel great doing so!). I have one fitness goal this year (to run my first full marathon), but you've inspired me to set an exercise goal for myself. Happy New Year! :)