Just because I am a doctor, and encourage patients every day to exercise, doesn’t mean that I don’t have my own issues with getting sufficient exercise. Long hours, tiring days, family obligations, illness: they are all stumbling blocks, no matter what your occupation.
I have been recording my exercise weekly, mostly to keep myself accountable for reaching my goal (sometimes this works, sometimes I miss). If anyone reads this, I hope they will take this as encouragement to keep going, acknowledgement that it isn’t always easy.
As a reminder, my goal 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 had wanted to work on strength training, but that fell by the wayside after several attempts to do this on my own. In September, I made arrangements to work with a trainer, as my last ditch attempt to incorporate this into my fitness regimen.
- Saturday: Lazed around most of the day, then took a walk with my spouse in the evening. 40 minutes.
- Sunday: Got up to cheer on runners in a road race. I’m not sure if clapping really counts as exercise. Apparently I walked 8 minutes today.
- Monday: Walked in the early evening, 42 minutes.
- Tuesday: Walked after dinner, very slowly. 48 minutes.
- Wednesday: Woke up early, decided to walk before breakfast. 34 minutes of walking, followed by coffee. I love coffee. Later in the day, I had an appointment with my new trainer. 30 minutes of weight training, then a 30 minute walk home. Whew!
- Thursday: I was so tired and sore today, I barely made it home. No exercise today, I’m calling it a rest day.
- Friday: Walked part-way home, 23 minutes.
Total: 225 minutes walking and 30 minutes with weights. Verdict: Blasting through the walking goal, and making good progress with the weights. Hurray!