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 was doing well enough that I added a second goal of 60 minutes of strength training a week; but then I backslid like crazy.
This week I make a comeback, with a huge improvement in my time spent exercising. I think the longer days have a lot to do with this, and also my embarrassment as I kept documenting weeks with less and less time spent exercising.
- Saturday: Thank goodness, the weather was good and I ran some errands on foot. 63 minutes walking.
- Sunday: Took an afternoon walk, 44 minutes. I feel pretty out of shape, but getting outside was great.
- Monday: Walked part way home and ran an errand on the way. 31 minutes walking.
- Tuesday: Walked part way home, 28 minutes. My tentative plan was to work with my weights as well, but that didn’t happen (too tired).
- Wednesday: 23 minute walk. And the weights came out, for 18 minutes of additional exercise.
- Thursday: Walked part way home, 25 minutes.
- Friday: Walked part way home, 26 minutes. For various reasons, the weights did not get used today.
Total: 240 minutes walking, and 18 minutes of strength training, more than double the time spent exercising last week. Hopefully with Spring coming, I can continue to meet my aerobic exercise goal, and improve my time spent on strength training.