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. That was working great, until I developed a medical issue and was asked to abstain from lifting weights until things settle down.
- Saturday: I had left over work to do, and spent all day indoors. Zero minutes exercising.
- Sunday: Today was a very lazy day. I spent time doing internet shopping, and tidying my desk (first pass). Later, a friend came over to visit and we had many snacks. I never got outside to exercise.
- Monday: Walked part-way home, 28 minutes.
- Tuesday: It was dark and cold when I finished work, no exercise today.
- Wednesday: No clinical work today meant that I stayed home. It was too cozy to go outside. No exercise.
- Thursday: Again, it was cold and dark when I finished work. No exercise.
- Friday: The day before the winter solstice = a short day and early night. Exercise wasn’t happening today either.
Total: 28 minutes walking. Clearly, once I got into a mood of staying indoors, nothing happened as far as exercise. Getting exercise over the weekend to start the week right is key. Also, I can’t wait until I can be cleared to return to weight training (which happens indoors).