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 have been trying to incorporate strength training, with many set backs. At the start of 2020, I started working (again) with a trainer, which has so far been quite successful at getting me to the gym. My ultimate goal is to spend 60 minutes a week on this, though starting at 30 minutes a week is perfectly fine.
- Saturday: I walked a bit, feeling better than yesterday. 43 minutes.
- Sunday: Walked part-way home from work, 24 minutes.
- Monday: No exercise today.
- Tuesday: A long and busy day today. It was very clear that if I did not have a trainer to meet with, there would have been no trip to the gym. Weight training for 30 minutes.
- Wednesday: I was all set to walk part-way home today, but then had to deal with several late admissions. No exercise today.
- Thursday: Work was running late, no exercise today either.
- Friday: Finally, finally, I could get out of the hospital early enough to walk part-way home. It felt great to be outside, moving. 27 minutes overall.
Total: 94 minutes walking and 30 minutes weight training. I think I can see a good part of the reason I get cranky while working long hours. Officially this week is a miss, with less than 150 minutes of exercise, but I would say the getting set up with a trainer, for me, was shown to be a win this week.