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. This is on hold currently, for medical reasons. I am hoping to be released soon.
- Saturday: I was tired and cold, which of course meant I took an extremely long walk. I walked for 70 minutes. And then spent the rest of the day on the couch.
- Sunday: This was a better day. I took a long walk, but was warmer and more rested. My 62 minute walk was more invigorating than exhausting.
- Monday: A work day. I had to stop on the way home, and my Fitbit captured just 15 minutes of walking.
- Tuesday: No walking today.
- Wednesday: Nor today either.
- Thursday: After work today, I went for a walk with my husband after dark, along our usual summer route. We were surprised to see a movie being filmed in the neighborhood. The walk was 17 minutes long.
- Friday: Saw the doctor today, who still doesn’t want me lifting heavy weights (how heavy is heavy? seems like a dangerous question). Walked part-way home from work, 20 minutes.
Total: 184 minutes walking. Verdict: Doing well with the walking. I will have to keep this up, as I don’t think I will be doing strength training or yoga until next year (cue sad noises).