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.
Last week I proposed intensifying my workouts. The current guidelines advise working your muscles twice a week–my new goal is to add 60 minutes a week of strength training, in addition to my 150 minutes of moderate exercise.
As soon as I listed that goal, the polar vortex hit, and I did nearly no exercise at all. Mostly I went to work, and then huddled under blankets at home.
I was kind of embarrassed at how little exercise I did last week. I think that encouraged me to get more this week.
- Saturday: it took a while to get out of the house, but I did make it to the gym. I’m still pretty out of shape with swimming, as evidenced by some unmeasured time at one end catching my breath, but I think it would be fair to say that I was swimming for 25 minutes. I’m not sure if this counts as moderate or vigorous exercise.
- Sunday: Yoga class today, 75 minutes.
- Monday: Walked a bit, including partway home, 46 minutes walking. I had been thinking of starting lifting some weights, but still have to clear out the area. Postponed to tomorrow.
- Tuesday: A long day at work, and my hamstrings were sore after yoga. I dumped exercise in favor of a movie rental. Maybe I’ll start lifting weights tomorrow. Really.
- Wednesday: After more procrastination than a toddler putting off bedtime, I actually started with my weights routine. My stopwatch says I worked out for 28 minutes, but I was definitely taking some time to review the exercises. It is probably more like 20 or 22 minutes.
- Thursday: Lots of work, no time for exercise today.
- Friday: I did lots of pacing, several miles’ worth according to my Fitbit, but only 9 minutes of fast enough walking to qualify as “walking.” Weights got postponed, since I was still pretty sore at the end of the day after Wednesday’s work out.
I did quite a hodgepodge of exercise: 55 minutes walking, 75 minutes of yoga, 25 minutes of swimming for a total of 155 minutes of activity. Plus 20 minutes of working with weights. Not quite at my new goal, but making progress. I’ll call this week a win.