One of the favorite things I have heard from a patient is: you’re a doctor, you don’t have to worry about blood pressure. Implying, of course, that doctor’s don’t struggle with their health.
I most certainly do struggle with fitness and health, like many other Americans with sedentary jobs and a proclivity to eat treats. One of my goals is to make sure that I get my 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise, which probably won’t happen). I will see for how long I am willing to document my progress Saturday to Friday.
This week, I think it is time to increase my exercise goals. I haven’t been truly working on building strength, and I am starting to feel it. The current guidelines advise working your muscles twice a week–I’d like to have a goal of 60 minutes a week, in addition to my 150 minutes of moderate exercise. It may take me a few weeks to reach that goal, but I’m hoping that by spring I’ll be hitting it most weeks.
I am struggling a bit on how to count strength building exercise. Obviously, lifting weights will count. I’m not sure about yoga; holding a pose for a long time is more strength-building than aerobic, so maybe I’ll count that. I’ve started swimming, and clearly pulling myself through the water is challenging; I’m still thinking about whether to count this as aerobic or strength training.
- Saturday: Despite my lofty new goals, I didn’t do any exercise at all. To be fair, I spent a good amount of time clearing the floor of the room where I plan to work with my weights.
- Sunday: Still not feeling very motivated. However, I did some walking in the afternoon going to a concert. 22 minutes walking.
- Monday: Off to swim, I went for about 20 minutes. My form is clearly worse than it was 10 years ago, when I last swam laps. About an hour later, I was so tired I could barely go up the stairs.
- Tuesday: No exercise today, the polar vortex hit before the work day ended.
- Wednesday: The polar vortex kept me home. I considered finding an exercise video on the internet, but lost motivation. The heating system for the house wasn’t really up to the cold temperatures.
- Thursday: Between the polar vortex and work, there was no exercise going on today.
- Friday: I did a little walking indoors, about 10 minutes.
Total: 32 minutes walking, and 20 minutes swimming. Whether I count the swimming as strength training or aerobic exercise, I still fell quite short on my goals this week. I wonder if I was worried about adding the new goals, or if it was just the bad weather that got in the way.