One of the people on my Google group discussion list,
http://groups.google.com/group/health-scape, asked about ways to get
motivated to exercise. She said that she experiences depression and
that it's really hard to make herself get on the treadmill and stay
there long enough for a good workout. While I don't experience
clinical depression, I have certainly gone through bouts of being very
low and have experienced the apathy it causes in most everything
including exercising. This was most intense for me when perimenopause
set in about five years ago, also about the same time I decided to get
serious about fitness. Part of what follows comes from my own
experience and part is taken from information I found with a little
searching from the web site sited below.
When I decided to do something about fitness, I spent a lot of time
making myself exercise before it became something I really wanted to
do. I think this is fairly typical. And, if in addition, you cope
with depression, too, then that increases the challenge. Still, if
you exercise to the point of a really good work out, one that leaves
you a little sweaty, breathing hard and feeling tired and sore, then
you can begin to shift that apathy a bit. Your body releases
chemicals when you exercise that give you a natural boost. It's just
hard to make yourself work out to that point if you have the mind set
that you really don't want to exercise.
For more information about how exercise can lessen depression, or keep
it at bay when you're feeling good, check out this article,
"Depression and Anxiety: Exercise Eases Symptoms," from the Mayo
Clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression-and-exercise/mh00043
This article is full of excellent information such as: "Doing 30
minutes or more of exercise a day, for three to five days a week can
significantly improve depression symptoms. But smaller amounts of
activity — as little as 10 to 15 minutes at a time — can make a
difference." and "Don't think of exercise as a chore. If exercise is
just another "should" in your life that you don't think you're living
up to, you'll associate it with failure. Rather, look at your exercise
schedule the same way you look at your therapy sessions or medication
— as one of the tools to help you get better."
Note that it is a two-page article and you need to click "next page"
to see all of it.
When doing cardio, something I find particularly boring, I read. If
it's a good book, then the time definitely goes faster. I also find
it motivating to workout in a fitness center with other people. While
this has its own set of challenges, once I get comfortable with the
center, I draw encouragement from those around me. It's a silent
encouragement as we mostly don't talk, but there's just something
reinforcing about other people choosing to do the same things I'm
doing.
The sticking point for most folks is that you have to push yourself
regardless of how you're feeling in order to get this all started.
And then you have to allow yourself to fail and quit and start back
again. Eventually, when you start to really feel and notice the
benefits, you begin to want to do it and it's not such a struggle.
It's an easy thing to say from this side of the battle. I can
remember listening to friends tell me similar things when I was trying
to get started and not believing them or wishing they'd just shut up
and admit that working out was a miserable activity. And it was
miserable for me initially. It was so foreign to my usual routine of
inactivity. I'd spent years being inactive and it wasn't easy to
force a change.
Keep at it and you can turn the corner too. I was telling someone
just the other day that it's finally starting to feel like a real life
change for me, something that could really become permanent. This has
been several years in the making and I'm not ready to call it a life
change yet, but forward progress is definitely being made!
Just remember that it's worth it because it's your fitness and
well-being that is at stake. You are so worth the effort!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
My Personal Journal: The Recent Years
Late in 2006 I hired a personal trainer, Steve Roy.
http://www.royfitness.com/
He asked me in the initial interview what I wanted to accomplish. I
stated rather vaguely that I wanted to improve my muscle tone and lose
some of the softness, said while patting my stomach. Steve's response
was that he could help me exercise to improve muscle tone, but that
the softness would only go away if I reduced my daily caloric intake.
Fortunately, he was able to help me learn how to do this wisely.
Following the direction Steve showed me to achieve a better balance of
fat, carbs and protein while cutting the over-all number of calories
consumed within a day, I began to really read and study the
nutritional content of all the things I ate, and since this was more
startling than I'd ever considered, I also started evaluating things I
didn't typically eat in order to find worthwhile substitutions. Other
posts to this blog will address specifics about diet and nutrition,
but the key point with regard to my personal journey to fitness is
that this is the point at which nutrition became a significant focus
in changing my life-style toward one that would support my fitness
goals.
It was not all clear sailing by any means. Learning what is best and
implementing it into my daily routine are two entirely different
things. The former is driven by intellect and the latter by habit.
Habit is by far the stronger force.
During 2007 Steve moved a little farther away and was no longer
training in my area and I lost my focus, slipped back into old
patterns and put back on all the weight I had previously lost. I made
a few false starts during 2008, but at the beginning of 2009 I was
back to nearly 200 pounds and without any regular exercise routine or
control over my diet. This is the point at which I decided that the
only way to make the change permanent was to turn what I knew
intellectually into habit. I had to not only squelch the old patterns
of behavior that were detrimental to fitness, but replace them with
new patterns of behavior to support fitness. Again, there's a huge
difference between deciding to do this and making it happen, but I was
pretty determined and Steve started training in my area again which
gave me extra support.
I lost down to 174 pounds by the end of 2009 and had a pretty good
handle on what I was eating and how I was exercising. The results
might have been more dramatic, but I broke my foot in June of 2009 and
had to restrict certain aspects of my exercise routine while it
healed. I was also by myself in the apartment, not going into the
office for some of this time which tended to lead me back into old
patterns of munching and not regulating my meals. Still, I was pretty
pleased with the loss of 26 pounds.
But as I started 2010, I soon learned that old patterns don't just go
away because I know they are bad. I put back on about six pounds and
fought to maintain a regular workout routine. I then read the book
"The Body Fat Solution" by Tom Venuto, and was immediately
reenergized. Everything he wrote reinforced what I had been trying to
accomplish. When I added to my efforts his personal trainer version
of the power of positive thinking, it all really began to feel like a
life-change.
To date I have just broken that barrier of 170 pounds – a struggle
that took me several weeks to accomplish, and have clear goals for
moving forward. For the first time, exercising and eating smart feel
very right and I'm not forcing myself to do either. I actually want
to do both! I am not, however, confusing this with any form of
victory. It is simply progress along my path to fitness.
I host a Google group on health and fitness at
http://groups.google.com/group/health-scape
and I provide regular check-ins every Sunday. The updates I will make
on my blog via the personal journal category will be less frequent and
will offer a summary of progress to date. As of today, my check-in
looks like this:
The facts:
I made smart choices about what I ate this past week, staying at or
under 1600 calories a day.
I exercised five times – 2 weights/strengthening and 3 cardio.
I feel good and weigh 168.5 pounds.
My goals:
I make smart choices about what I eat and stay at or under 1600 calories a day.
I exercise 5 times a week.
I achieve my goals at a rate of one pound a week on average.
I feel good, am making progress toward fitness and weigh 153 pounds by 10/08/10.
I am fit, toned and feeling good, and weigh 140 pounds by 01/08/11.
I maintain my fitness through making smart choices about what I eat
and regular exercise, and perhaps set new goals, 2011-2015.
I still workout with Steve on most Saturdays and have a routine for
workouts throughout the week. I've recently been focused on how to
maintain an exercise routine and smart eating choices while traveling
as I have been traveling three weeks in a row for work with more to
come. For those three weeks I managed to maintain my weight, and
though I didn't lose any, I still consider this progress as I
typically gain weight when traveling. I have two more weeks of travel
during July and hope to improve my record. However, one of those
weeks is a vacation, and I will be realistic about what I will achieve
while on vacation! Still, smart choices are good any time, right?
http://www.royfitness.com/
He asked me in the initial interview what I wanted to accomplish. I
stated rather vaguely that I wanted to improve my muscle tone and lose
some of the softness, said while patting my stomach. Steve's response
was that he could help me exercise to improve muscle tone, but that
the softness would only go away if I reduced my daily caloric intake.
Fortunately, he was able to help me learn how to do this wisely.
Following the direction Steve showed me to achieve a better balance of
fat, carbs and protein while cutting the over-all number of calories
consumed within a day, I began to really read and study the
nutritional content of all the things I ate, and since this was more
startling than I'd ever considered, I also started evaluating things I
didn't typically eat in order to find worthwhile substitutions. Other
posts to this blog will address specifics about diet and nutrition,
but the key point with regard to my personal journey to fitness is
that this is the point at which nutrition became a significant focus
in changing my life-style toward one that would support my fitness
goals.
It was not all clear sailing by any means. Learning what is best and
implementing it into my daily routine are two entirely different
things. The former is driven by intellect and the latter by habit.
Habit is by far the stronger force.
During 2007 Steve moved a little farther away and was no longer
training in my area and I lost my focus, slipped back into old
patterns and put back on all the weight I had previously lost. I made
a few false starts during 2008, but at the beginning of 2009 I was
back to nearly 200 pounds and without any regular exercise routine or
control over my diet. This is the point at which I decided that the
only way to make the change permanent was to turn what I knew
intellectually into habit. I had to not only squelch the old patterns
of behavior that were detrimental to fitness, but replace them with
new patterns of behavior to support fitness. Again, there's a huge
difference between deciding to do this and making it happen, but I was
pretty determined and Steve started training in my area again which
gave me extra support.
I lost down to 174 pounds by the end of 2009 and had a pretty good
handle on what I was eating and how I was exercising. The results
might have been more dramatic, but I broke my foot in June of 2009 and
had to restrict certain aspects of my exercise routine while it
healed. I was also by myself in the apartment, not going into the
office for some of this time which tended to lead me back into old
patterns of munching and not regulating my meals. Still, I was pretty
pleased with the loss of 26 pounds.
But as I started 2010, I soon learned that old patterns don't just go
away because I know they are bad. I put back on about six pounds and
fought to maintain a regular workout routine. I then read the book
"The Body Fat Solution" by Tom Venuto, and was immediately
reenergized. Everything he wrote reinforced what I had been trying to
accomplish. When I added to my efforts his personal trainer version
of the power of positive thinking, it all really began to feel like a
life-change.
To date I have just broken that barrier of 170 pounds – a struggle
that took me several weeks to accomplish, and have clear goals for
moving forward. For the first time, exercising and eating smart feel
very right and I'm not forcing myself to do either. I actually want
to do both! I am not, however, confusing this with any form of
victory. It is simply progress along my path to fitness.
I host a Google group on health and fitness at
http://groups.google.com/group/health-scape
and I provide regular check-ins every Sunday. The updates I will make
on my blog via the personal journal category will be less frequent and
will offer a summary of progress to date. As of today, my check-in
looks like this:
The facts:
I made smart choices about what I ate this past week, staying at or
under 1600 calories a day.
I exercised five times – 2 weights/strengthening and 3 cardio.
I feel good and weigh 168.5 pounds.
My goals:
I make smart choices about what I eat and stay at or under 1600 calories a day.
I exercise 5 times a week.
I achieve my goals at a rate of one pound a week on average.
I feel good, am making progress toward fitness and weigh 153 pounds by 10/08/10.
I am fit, toned and feeling good, and weigh 140 pounds by 01/08/11.
I maintain my fitness through making smart choices about what I eat
and regular exercise, and perhaps set new goals, 2011-2015.
I still workout with Steve on most Saturdays and have a routine for
workouts throughout the week. I've recently been focused on how to
maintain an exercise routine and smart eating choices while traveling
as I have been traveling three weeks in a row for work with more to
come. For those three weeks I managed to maintain my weight, and
though I didn't lose any, I still consider this progress as I
typically gain weight when traveling. I have two more weeks of travel
during July and hope to improve my record. However, one of those
weeks is a vacation, and I will be realistic about what I will achieve
while on vacation! Still, smart choices are good any time, right?
My Personal Journal: The History
I've kept a running record of my fitness and nutrition journey in
various places over the years, but decided this week that I should add
this information to the Train Your Brain for Fitness blog. Since I'm
51, this could take a while!
The short story is that with only periodic exceptions, I did not spend
much time thinking about fitness and nutrition until about five years
ago. I say "periodic" because I have always been aware of the
importance of these things, and would occasionally do something to
improve the way I ate or to increase physical exercise, but for the
most part I just flowed along with the masses around me, eating fast
food, heavy Southern cooking, lots of high calorie sweets, drinking
soda, sweet tea, beer, etc. And mostly I didn't exercise. I bought
various pieces of exercise equipment such as a stationary bike and
some kind of universal contraption, and then proceeded to not use
either on a regular basis. I would occasionally increase exercise
through walking, but nothing that was consistent or focused on what I
really needed.
As a result, I went from being a skinny high school girl to a plumper
and plumper woman who seemed to add about ten or fifteen pounds per
decade until I found myself in my forties shopping in the plus size
racks.
My maximum size was about 200 pounds and a size 18 in clothes. I'm
five feet six inches tall and my body shape is a good one, so I
carried this weight pretty well and knew how to dress to maximum
advantage, but I was still aware that I was overweight and more to the
point, not fit and healthy. I had bad eating habits born of not
wanting to devote the energy needed to preparing good foods,
gratification from the sweet-and-salty munching pattern, and poor
judgment about what was "good," (e.g., high calorie carbs, high fat
content foods, things I thought tasted good.) I no longer even
pretended to exercise. Interestingly, my annual physicals showed me
to be in good health, with the only negative being my actual weight.
I think this is because my annual physical focused on things like
heart rate, lung function, blood tests and urinalysis, and paid
absolutely no attention to muscle tone, strength, endurance, etc.
Around 2005, I started paying more attention to fitness. (Note I did
not say nutrition.) This is probably linked to the fact that I had
changed jobs, taking one with a national-scope program which put me in
front of audiences around the country, and a change of location which
moved me from the south to the east coast. More people around me were
focusing on health than previously. I also had a friend who was
staying with me for a while who started making use of the gym in my
apartment complex and she pushed me into working out with her. I was
also starting a new relationship with a guy and was thinking more
about my appearance.
I came to like the exercise (mostly treadmill and elliptical
workouts), and I liked the results. I lost weight and felt better. I
wasn't weighing myself at this time, so I don't know my actual weight,
but I was able to fit into size twelve pants. This lasted about a
year until I, for whatever reason, didn't manage to maintain the
exercise.
The good news for me during this period is that I had really started
thinking about my over-all fitness and health. It was no longer a
surface consideration about how clothes fit me, but a real concern for
my health. I was tired of the size roller coaster and decided to put
some real consideration into how I could take control.
Late in 2006, when I no longer fit comfortably into my size twelve
pants and was purchasing fourteens and even sixteens again, I hired a
personal trainer. This was an admission that whatever it was going to
take to give me control of my fitness, I didn't know how to do it
myself. I needed guidance, information and someone to hold me
accountable. I was also pretty sure that if I was going to spend the
kind of money it takes to hire a personal trainer that I'd give the
whole thing the attention it really deserved.
Even this did not miraculously resolve all of my issues, but I did
start learning about fitness and nutrition. The introduction of
really focusing on nutrition in addition to exercise was a key factor
which set in motion the life-change needed to get real and permanent
results. Knowledge about what to eat and how to exercise was not all
that was needed, but it certainly gave me a base from which to work,
and to which I could return when the roller coaster took me up again.
This then, was the real beginning of my journey to better health,
fitness and nutrition. While better late than never is a true
summation, there is nothing particularly smart about waiting till I
was nearly 48 to do this. My sincere hope is that people will start
learning and implementing well-known facts about how to be healthy and
fit at a much younger age than did I. It's not exactly rocket
science, but it's definitely not built into our current culture.
Though my poor condition manifested in excess weight, there are many
thin people who are not fit either. Though fitness is often measured
in body size, it is not really about size. It's about strength,
endurance, balance, flexibility, strong bones, good skin, good
cardiovascular function, etc. While the resiliency of youth can hide
a lot of the damage our life-styles can have on fitness, it begins to
show up as we age and then we're in the position of having to do the
best we can with what's left. It would be much smarter to set all
this in motion while we are at optimal potential for good health and
fitness. Nevertheless, I'm dedicated to seeing how far I can get with
better late than never!
various places over the years, but decided this week that I should add
this information to the Train Your Brain for Fitness blog. Since I'm
51, this could take a while!
The short story is that with only periodic exceptions, I did not spend
much time thinking about fitness and nutrition until about five years
ago. I say "periodic" because I have always been aware of the
importance of these things, and would occasionally do something to
improve the way I ate or to increase physical exercise, but for the
most part I just flowed along with the masses around me, eating fast
food, heavy Southern cooking, lots of high calorie sweets, drinking
soda, sweet tea, beer, etc. And mostly I didn't exercise. I bought
various pieces of exercise equipment such as a stationary bike and
some kind of universal contraption, and then proceeded to not use
either on a regular basis. I would occasionally increase exercise
through walking, but nothing that was consistent or focused on what I
really needed.
As a result, I went from being a skinny high school girl to a plumper
and plumper woman who seemed to add about ten or fifteen pounds per
decade until I found myself in my forties shopping in the plus size
racks.
My maximum size was about 200 pounds and a size 18 in clothes. I'm
five feet six inches tall and my body shape is a good one, so I
carried this weight pretty well and knew how to dress to maximum
advantage, but I was still aware that I was overweight and more to the
point, not fit and healthy. I had bad eating habits born of not
wanting to devote the energy needed to preparing good foods,
gratification from the sweet-and-salty munching pattern, and poor
judgment about what was "good," (e.g., high calorie carbs, high fat
content foods, things I thought tasted good.) I no longer even
pretended to exercise. Interestingly, my annual physicals showed me
to be in good health, with the only negative being my actual weight.
I think this is because my annual physical focused on things like
heart rate, lung function, blood tests and urinalysis, and paid
absolutely no attention to muscle tone, strength, endurance, etc.
Around 2005, I started paying more attention to fitness. (Note I did
not say nutrition.) This is probably linked to the fact that I had
changed jobs, taking one with a national-scope program which put me in
front of audiences around the country, and a change of location which
moved me from the south to the east coast. More people around me were
focusing on health than previously. I also had a friend who was
staying with me for a while who started making use of the gym in my
apartment complex and she pushed me into working out with her. I was
also starting a new relationship with a guy and was thinking more
about my appearance.
I came to like the exercise (mostly treadmill and elliptical
workouts), and I liked the results. I lost weight and felt better. I
wasn't weighing myself at this time, so I don't know my actual weight,
but I was able to fit into size twelve pants. This lasted about a
year until I, for whatever reason, didn't manage to maintain the
exercise.
The good news for me during this period is that I had really started
thinking about my over-all fitness and health. It was no longer a
surface consideration about how clothes fit me, but a real concern for
my health. I was tired of the size roller coaster and decided to put
some real consideration into how I could take control.
Late in 2006, when I no longer fit comfortably into my size twelve
pants and was purchasing fourteens and even sixteens again, I hired a
personal trainer. This was an admission that whatever it was going to
take to give me control of my fitness, I didn't know how to do it
myself. I needed guidance, information and someone to hold me
accountable. I was also pretty sure that if I was going to spend the
kind of money it takes to hire a personal trainer that I'd give the
whole thing the attention it really deserved.
Even this did not miraculously resolve all of my issues, but I did
start learning about fitness and nutrition. The introduction of
really focusing on nutrition in addition to exercise was a key factor
which set in motion the life-change needed to get real and permanent
results. Knowledge about what to eat and how to exercise was not all
that was needed, but it certainly gave me a base from which to work,
and to which I could return when the roller coaster took me up again.
This then, was the real beginning of my journey to better health,
fitness and nutrition. While better late than never is a true
summation, there is nothing particularly smart about waiting till I
was nearly 48 to do this. My sincere hope is that people will start
learning and implementing well-known facts about how to be healthy and
fit at a much younger age than did I. It's not exactly rocket
science, but it's definitely not built into our current culture.
Though my poor condition manifested in excess weight, there are many
thin people who are not fit either. Though fitness is often measured
in body size, it is not really about size. It's about strength,
endurance, balance, flexibility, strong bones, good skin, good
cardiovascular function, etc. While the resiliency of youth can hide
a lot of the damage our life-styles can have on fitness, it begins to
show up as we age and then we're in the position of having to do the
best we can with what's left. It would be much smarter to set all
this in motion while we are at optimal potential for good health and
fitness. Nevertheless, I'm dedicated to seeing how far I can get with
better late than never!
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