Fitness Log #72

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.

The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning. 1897. Camille Pissarro. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Saturday:  Excited to walk today. Left work and was picked up at the usual spot. 28 minutes
  • Sunday:  Walked to get coffee in the afternoon, then part-way home from work, for a total of 34 minutes.
  • Monday:  I walked around the hospital complex in the afternoon, 10 minutes.
  • Tuesday:  I almost was able to leave in time to walk home. But then work picked up late in the afternoon, I didn’t have the heart to walk home in bad weather in the dark. My trainer had to cancel. No exercise today.
  • Wednesday: I was hopeful and wore my sneakers into work. Alas, work ran too long to walk home. I did get 9 minutes of walking around the hospital complex.
  • Thursday: Again, walked around the hospital complex for 10 minutes total of walking.
  • Friday: No exercise today. Lots of work, and it was worth giving up walking home to get everything done before I left. No need to check in over the weekend.

Total: 91 minutes walking and zero minutes weight training. Not a great showing, but definitely better than it could have been. Hopefully next week will be better.