March 9th, 2012: Back down one, but I need three more for a net loss, so I’m playing catch-up with myself. 303 today. Those damn pickles yesterday screwed this up.
I felt like a big bucket of water on the treadmill last night, sloshing everywhere and spilling over the sides. Dire Straits and the live version of “Walk of Life” got me going last night at that threshold from the warm-up section to actually moving out on the program I was working on.
The other benefits of exercise are not spoken of enough. I’m starting to wonder if weight loss may actually not be the most important one. I was actually so pissed off about my job when I jumped on the treadmill last night that I was nearly gritting my teeth. Halfway through the workout, I no longer cared about work – I was further down Maslow’s hierarchy, like, breathing was much more important, and by the time I was finished I was in a way better mood. Also, how about the value of how it totally makes you sleep better?
Back in my firefighting days our hangovers never lasted long because we sweated the poison out during PT the next day.
My Dad used to use exercise on us boys to calm our asses down. He’d say stuff like, “I bet you can’t chop that whole woodpile.” Hell yes we can! Then when we were finished we’d realize we just did all his work for him, and he’d pulled a fast one on us. But I assure you, we were calmed down.
How about how you don’t feel much like eating a lot before or right after a work out?
How about if you use your imagination, you can pretend you are a pro athlete in training?
How about how you can usually see at least a little bit of concrete progress on your workouts every time?
How about how you can listen to your favorite music while you do it, blasting it in your headphones if you want?
How about how it can make you feel like kid again sometimes?
There’s a lot more about exercise than I used to realize. I do believe that enjoying it is the most important part of it. There’s plenty of fun exercise out there.
March 9th, 2020: Exercise every day? Exercise when you’re sick? Take rest days? Cardio or weights or both?
Yes. No. Depends.
I learned that exercise is very personal. I don’t think there’s any plan out there for weight loss that’s any better than the others. With the exception of realizing that cardio is essential for me to feel like I’m getting anywhere, the rest of the program, if you’re using the program to lose weight and keep it off, leaves much of that up to basically two things: 1) get your ass to the gym all 7 days of the week if you possibly can, and 2) do the type of exercise that you like and/or makes you feel good.
There are countless exercise plans out there. Everybody knows the best way to do it. All of that is great, and so many people know so much more about it than I do. However, none of the science behind any of those countless programs matters if I don’t like the program and stop doing it. Also, there’s the obvious point that if I want to be a faster runner, I’d practice that more often. Same thing if I wanted to be a powerlifter. You gotta go specific there.
Maybe I dream of being either of those from time to time, but really I need to focus on being the best physical version of me that I possibly can, and that means I have to like what I’m doing at the gym and do it often. I don’t plan for rest days because they just happen. I had like 4 weeks of rest days last June after I had my left hip replaced. You get the idea.
