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. We are supposed to meet weekly for a while.
- Saturday: Visited a friend. From her house, we walked to a coffee shop to hang out, then returned. 36 minutes walking (plus more time chatting).
- Sunday: Afternoon walk in the neighborhood, 37 minutes.
- Monday: Walked around the hospital, and then part-way home, for a total of 36 minutes.
- Tuesday: No time for walking today, but I did manage to meet with the trainer today, as scheduled, for 30 minutes. I am pretty sure if I didn’t have a meeting arranged, I would have blown off exercise for today.
- Wednesday: There was a lot of walking today. I met an old friend for lunch, walking there and back (1/2 hour each way). Then walked part-way home from work for 19 minutes. Total: 79 minutes.
- Thursday: Walked part-way home, 20 minutes.
- Friday: Did a lot of walking in the hospital, only part of which was captured by my Fitbit. Per Fitbit: 9 minutes walking.
Total: 217 minutes walking, plus 30 minutes strength training. Verdict: Still doing well with the walking, and making progress on the strength training. I am very happy with this week’s results.