Is it 2007 yet?

Time seems to be a pretty rare commodity these days. Work, gym, sleep, repeat. I’m fine with the first three but the repeat part is hard to do every day.

Things have not been good on the exercise front. Too much sitting and eating has really killed me. I’m getting about 5 days a week at the gym for an hour of cardio but not budging a bit in weight (in fact its going up!). I would normally argue the muscle-replacing-fat-more-dense argument here to make myself feel better, but in fact the waistline measurement says no change. I think I might have shrunk a 1/4 inch but it could from changing how I position my abs during the measurement. Short-term encouragement. We’ll see in a few weeks if it was real or not.

For 2007 I need some goals, but they need to be small and short. Long term stuff like “improve my 5K time” is not going to cut it because I am going to get discouraged because 1) I have to wait till the end of the year to determine if I made it, and 2) I can barely run 3 miles without being wiped out the next day. No kidding there. I ran 3 at 9:30 pace and felt like I had run the hardest 5K of my life the next day. I had to walk down stairs backwards.

Goals for 2007:

1. 1 hour of cardio 5 days a week - If I can get in there on weekends, this will be a good easy goal to do. It worked 6 years ago for losing weight, it will work this time too.

2. Walk 15 minutes at “lunch-time” - Lunch time is an odd concept where I work, but basically at midday I will be walking 15 minutes through the office complex. A very short walk but I need it to get blood moving since I sit in a chair all day long now.

3. Every hour, get up and walk down the stairs and back up - We are on the third floor so it is just a small bit of movement to stretch and get blood back to my feet. If I sit at the desk for 2 hour without moving, I think it makes my whole brain slow down. It just takes 3 minutes or so to walk the stairs so it isn’t a major distraction. There is a room for adjustment here anyway. If I miss an hour, I’m not going to cry about it, this is just a small goal.

4. Chocolate only on odd days - Now normally this would sound really really bad as a goal. But we have chocolate readily available via candy bowls every single day. Its too much. 800 extra calories a day is not helping. Weekends will likely be chocolate free since I can’t afford to be buying so much these days.

5. Run once a week - Running has ground to a halt. Like I said, I’m lucky to make 3 miles. That’s very discouraging. I need to get back on that, so I will go running on the weekend for something short. I may allow myself to cut a gym day and substitute running instead.

6. Strength training once a week - This is another thing that I miss about the gym. Moving metal is good. I actually would like to get this in twice a week but I think I will have overloaded the schedule. If I could run and do weights on the same day that would be excellent. Drive to the gym, run 3 miles on the trail (behind the gym!), them come in and do weights. Or maybe in reverse so I don’t plop my sweaty butt down on all the machines.

7. One week at a time - The goals are set for the week really, not the year. If I can make it through this week, then I met my goals for this week. I can’t wait till the end of the year to see if I did it, and if I miss a week, then I’ll feel like a failure if the goal is set for the entire year. Week-to-week, I can miss one week, and still be good the following week. Does that make sense? I does early in the morning anyway.

This week:

Sun - 1 hour cardio (yea!)

Mon - 1 hour cardio (yea!)

Tues - 40 min. cardio (boo!) - I got to the gym late and couldn’t finish the hour before they closed.

Wed. - 1 hr cardio, no choc. - TBD

Thurs - 1 hr cardio, choc., -TBD

Fri - 1 hr cardio, no choc., - TBD

Sat - 3 miles, weights, choc. - TBD

There it is, my 2007 goal list for this week. Welcome to hump day, we’re halfway there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 8:39 am and is filed under Goals for 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.