Monday, October 11, 2010

Time to get back up in that saddle!

Recently, for the past 4 weeks, I have been so caught up in work and school that I haven’t given myself enough time set aside to workout.  I used to be an avid athlete and lifting and running is what makes me happy, calm and collective.  I just haven’t been myself lately and I’ve been losing sleep, been irritable, and just downright rude to people.  I know all I need to do is work on my time management skills in order to be able to have the time, energy and motivation to want to work out and be myself again. 
I have written up a six week workout plan and I fully intend on following it.  I have set it up so I am lifting four days a week, as well as some sort of cardio five days a week.  My main objective is to feel better about myself and get my body back to the way it was a few months ago. 
More specific goals to follow on my way to obtaining this objective are:
1.       Cut down on fats, high sugar foods, and alcohol.  One bad decision leads to another, and eating healthy is going to help maintain my confidence through this six week phase.
2.       My running sessions are going to take place in the morning prior to any school or work activity.  This will allow me to concentrate strictly on one task at a time as well as put me in a mood to be ready to start my day. 
3.       In previous plans, my lifting has leaded me to maximal outputs.  However, this time around I want to maintain rather than put on muscle.  I am not training for sports anymore, rather I am training to keep fit and feel good about myself. 
4.       Lifting sessions will take place at the end of my day, they will allow me to take out any aggression and let loose and get my mind from a long day of stress.    
This past month, there have been multiple tasks thrown at me that have resulted in me not following through with my workouts.  Whether it be because I am too tired when I get home, have other things either around the house or other work to do, or because it just doesn’t feel like there is enough hours in the day to get things done and working out has to suffer because of it. 
I have devised a plan that is going to put an end to all of the excuses.  I have written up workout plans for my roommates who are also interested in getting back into shape.  My three roommates and I are all going to hold each other accountable.  Though they are boys and have different intentions while working out (i.e.: get their beach bods on), we can still go together and follow some similar models.  The morning and night sessions work for all of us and we are going to force one another to stick together and get through this six week phase. 
If by chance someone misses a session, there surely needs to be consequences.  We have decided that if any one of us misses, we all have to increase our cardio for the week.  Whether it be adding some hill sprints, or adding more distance forcing us to add a sixth day to our plan for the week.  We are doing this together and need to stick together as a team.  If one person fails to follow our goals, we all fail. 
Not only is it motivating to want to be able to get back into my skinny jeans from a few months ago, but it is also motivating to be with my friends.  Instead of sitting on the couch playing video games, or going out to the bars and drinking beer together, we are all going to work out together and keep each other going.  I enjoy that I will be working out with these boys.  They are just as competitive, especially if a girl can lift more in the weight room, and they are my best friends and we are all going to give each other nonsense to keep us going and want to do better than one another. 
We have already begun to follow this phase.  So far so good, we had our cardio session this morning and will be meeting together to have our lifting session this evening, followed by a healthy meal for dinner together.  During these next six weeks, my roommates and I are going to become closer than ever and are going to be the fit people we once were.  I’m sure it is going to be hard and I am not going to feel motivated to do anything once in a while, but together we are going to be successful and meet our goals. 
Gill, D., & Williams, L. (2008). Psychological dynamics of sport and exercise. pp. 101-108. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
*Format of behavior plan (Gill & Williams, 2008).

1 comment:

  1. Chelsea:

    I enjoy that you mention you wrote out a work-out plan not only for yourself, but your room-mates as well. I am doing research for my thesis paper on social support and physical activity adherence. I know a lot of people find it easy to start exercising (once or twice) but then stop going shortly after. You describe all the school and stress you have going on, so I believe your room-mates will be great social support for you as you all get back into exercising. I actually have the same fitness goal of simply maintaining fitness and health, not worrying about building more muscle.

    It is great that you mention eating healthier as one of your goals. I have also struggled eating healthy, and I feel it is partially because I have never dealt with being overweight, so I sometimes feel like I can eat anything I want. However, I have began to eat healthier recently and realized that I am more energized, awake, and focused as a result. I feel much better after eating a healthy meal over eating fast food or at a restaurant. Keep up the good work!

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