Saturday, January 29, 2011

Lessons from this Week

Another week down.  It's been about four since I've been back at it.  I've lost five pounds, toned up a little and am building stamina in the gym.  I quickly realized that stamina is what suffered the most for me during my "leave of absence" as I like to call it.  I can still put up some weight (not a ton, but some), but I struggled with the stamina to do long workouts.  Workouts seem to be getting longer, and my energy and strength lasts much longer than it did prior.

There's a couple lessons I learned this week:
1. If I compartmentalize health, it doesn't work - Health is about lifestyle, not about actions and time.  If I'm only "healthy" during the hour I'm at the gym and the time I'm eating, I'm compartmentalizing my health and cheating myself.

2. Protein Shakes save me.  I think that I mentioned this before, but seriously, if I don't get a good protein shake in me after a workout, I will crash pretty soon after.

3. Working out with friends and others motivates me in the short term much more than remembering the long term health benefits.  Not that those long term benefits aren't important, however it's tough for me to be motivated by them in the short term.  Finding short term motivators keeps you on pace for the long term.

4. I admire my wife's dedication.  She got back in the gym (we invested in a personal trainer for her) a few months ago, and since then she's lost about 20 lbs and remains active despite feeling sick due to pregnancy.

5. Portion control comes with time and patience.  Wow is this a hard lesson for me to learn.

We're celebrating my son's 2nd birthday this weekend, so not much time for the gym today...we are going to a jumping gym however, so that should be fun.

I'm looking forward to starting week five on Monday.

No comments:

Post a Comment