I give up!

People who take up new exercises always seem to give up eventually anyway. Why can’t I give up?

I’ve always hated running anyway. I’ve always been the worst runner you’ve ever seen. Even as a kid playing little league sports, I was the last little shuffler around the track when we ran laps.
But I’m not giving up on running. I’m giving up my excuses to NOT run.
I wasn’t running at all when I first started working out. After working out for a few weeks, I realized that working out with weights left me feeling constricted.  Sometimes I would get charly horse cramps in the middle of the night after working out. It was suggested to me that I should stretch out after my workouts.  But I instinctively knew the answer to this problem.  I had to face my old nemesis, running.  And I was right! Running after working out with weights felt absolutely fantastic.

A lot of my running is really walking. But I push myself to run as much as I can. I go twice around the mile track at our local park. I go as soon as I’m done with my weight routine.

As much as I don’t like running, whenever I did run I could always feel immediately that running was a great thing to do and has important results.

I’m also giving up on obsessing about doing the exercises correctly. Zig Ziglar used to say that anything worth doing was worth doing POORLY, until you can learn to do it well. Well, I’m going to do my exercises poorly, but consistently until I learn to do them well.

So if I’m letting my body sway too much, or bending my elbows too much or doing the reps too fast, that’s okay. I’ll work on it, and soon I’ll be performing these exercises correctly.  The trick is to keep trying, and to keep increasing the amount of weight I’m lifting.

If I’m going to give up on trying to do my exercises perfectly, I’m going to have to give up on avoiding information, because although I want some lea way in learning to do my exercises correctly, I also don’t want to hurt myself. I need to know when my poor form is dangerous to my body. 

Maybe the next thing I need to give up is my diet. I have horrible eating habits. I need to give up. I need to give up second helpings, and large pieces of birthday cake, and most of all I need to give up cola drinks.

How long will this take?

Ads for fitness programs and equipment on television give us the idea that sculpted abs and bulging biceps are just a few weeks away.

Possible? I don’t know. And I don’t care.

But I have been interested to learn the opinions of experts in the fields of exercise and fitness. These true opinions are hard to find. But my favorite experts all have shared thoughts about how much time it should take to develop that dream body.

Funny how right now the one thing everybody wants is a well-defined, tapered abdomen.  What about strong legs, or a powerful back? I don’t know, but I would think that over all fitness should be the goal.

I like two things that Mike Chang has said.

First: If you get your entire body in shape, your abs will follow. You don’t need to “focus” on your abs.

Second: When you see someone on television or on tv that is in peak physical condition, they haven’t achieved this in just a few weeks. They look good because of years of good habits, proper diet, and lots of exercise.

Mike’s sarcastic answer to “How long should this take?” is: You should look pretty good after ten years.

The message is this: Make fitness a lifelong habit. Don’t try to work yourself to death for a few weeks hoping to look like a sexy movie star. Is it possible? Mike says that yes, there is a fast track to a good body if you’re willing to work that hard. But I don’t believe that exercise schedules like that are maintainable. One day you’ll stop. One day you’ll quit.

Still, when you exercise, you expect results. How long did it take me to see results? I saw results immediately. I felt better after just a few days. One of the first things I noticed was my double chin disappearing. Then I noticed my biceps shaping up. I noticed my stamina increasing and my posture improving. I liked that, and it definitely motivated me to continue.

Other changes were more gradual. I noticed an overall sense of wellbeing. My appetite changed and my diet was affected. I didn’t crave soda and sweets like I did before. I stopped over eating. And there were more physical changes. My shoulders broadened and developed. My chest squared up.

But my belly is still big and it pokes out over my pants. Do I pay attention to exercises that work my core? Sure I do.  But I always remind myself that I am working out because it feels so good, and it’s fun, and I’m happy because I’m becoming more fit and healthy.  Give me some time and my belly will look better. In fact, I think I’m going to look better and better overall. I just have to keep believing.

Diets are for fit people!

If you’re following this blog,  you’ll see my progress as I go from tubby to fit. With this in mind you should know a little bit more about my diet and fitness goals.

When I started lifting weights, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t change a thing about my diet.  I’m a fat middle aged guy and I have very few joys in life to look forward to. Eating is very important to me.

But exercising and weight lifting have changed my diet in ways that have amazed me. I’m learning that some life changes are spontaneous when you start doing healthy things, like say, exercise.

But again, I didn’t start lifting to become healthier or to lose weight or to look more fit. Those are all things that are happening to me, but they aren’t reasons for the workout.  I work out with weights because it feels so good! I started lifting during a very stressful time in my life that blogged about earlier,  and the weight lifting made me feel  soo much better.

So with all that in mind, here are my new diet rules.

1.       If you’re a cow, I’m going to eat you. That’s just the way it is. I love steak and other cow meats, and I’m not giving them up, for nobody or for no one.

2.       If you’re a chicken you better be able to run faster than me at lunch time.

3.       If you’re a pig, give it up for the bacon and the ribs! And save me a ham sandwich.

4.       Mrs. Hostess is calling. Can you hear her? “Ding dong, ding dong”
5.       Cola drinks are from God. Nothing that tastes that great and makes you feel that good could possibly be bad for you.
6.       Chocolate is, holy cow, it's just that, you see, we've just got to, especially dark chocolate. You know that one place at the mall that makes chocolates? We've just got to eat chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

Apart from those rules, I’ve had a very interesting diet experience that is the direct result of my weight lifting.

My desire to drink sodas is gone. I’m drinking more water instead. No one told me to do this, it’s just what my body craves.

I’m fine with just one cookie when cookies are offered. I don’t have to sneak and eat ten or twelve, and then blame the kids.

I don’t need late night snacks.

I don’t need seconds.

I take home a box of left overs when I eat out at restaurants (instead of finishing everyone else’s meal)

Meals don’t have to have dessert.

I could go on and on.

The point is, I’m eating healthier, and it’s spontaneous. My healthy body craves healthy eating habits.

I want to follow this post up with a new post about education, and I’ll do that next.