As the week draws to a close, I can’t help but feel happy that in terms of both diet and exercise, this has probably been the best week I’ve had since I started. The wife and I decided to stay home last weekend instead of going out (something we usually do at least once a weekend). We had some good meals including some delicious homemade spaghetti. Also over the weekend I managed to get my workout plan complete and finalized.
Monday started with hitting the home gym first thing in the morning. Since then I’ve been pretty sore most of the week as my body adapts to lifting weights again. I did all my workouts, including the cardio workouts on Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve also been feeling hungrier all week. Again, I think my body is adjusting to more activity and I have tried to eat a little more but do it smartly.
On Wednesday I got an email from an old friend in Vermont. He’s always been a healthy sort of person so he was glad to hear that I’m taking the steps to become a healthier person. He suggested training for a road race as something that might help keep me motivated. I have to admit, I’d love to be able to do something like that but at the same time It seems a bit overwhelming to me. I am giving it some serious thought though it might have to be something I look forward to next year.
His email also got me thinking a lot about my past and how I’ve overcome other problems in my life. When I was in college I actually had 2 distinct college careers. In the first career my days and nights were spent drinking, partying, and essentially wasting my time at school. At one point I was nearly kicked out of college. My second college career involved working hard, studying, and finishing college with some really good grades and job offers from everyone I interviewed with. People often assume that my wife was the catalyst from college career 1 to college career 2, but the reality is she just happened to show up about that time. The real reason why I changed is that I realized I had to change my mindset. It wasn’t as easy as saying “I’m going to do better”, I had to take a long hard look at all my habits and address them. Part of the problem was that I didn’t know how to be a good student. I had to learn this by hanging out with other good students (such as my good friend from VT). This meant less time for my drinking buddies which led to my other problem I had to work through. I had to recognize that I couldn’t change my friends as well. Because of that I actually had to give up most of them. To this day the only person who I keep in touch with from college career 1 is my old roommate.
I look at this new journey I’m on and I can see a lot of parallels to my college days. I’m beginning to see that I really don’t know what it means to live a healthy life and the people I hang out with are generally like me. I’m not suggesting I need to give up all my friends for healthy friends, but I definitely need to expand my horizons a little and start looking at people who find enjoyment out of being healthy. My good friend in VT is one of those people, but I also need to focus more on getting involved in more healthy activities where I live (like road races, volunteering to coach sports, etc) so I can meet and learn from healthy people. When that happens I may get some resistance from my current circle of friends, but I also need to recognize that I can’t change them and that some of them may not remain good friends after a while. When you decide to make a change like this it definitely is not just a small change, it impacts every aspect of your life.
Anyway, this journal entry definitely went off on a pretty big tangent, but I think it’s important to get this stuff out when I realize it. Someday I may want to go back and read these entries to remind myself and reinforce the change.
I’m hoping for a great weigh-in tomorrow, but at the same time I am being optimistically cautious. Knowing that my body has been out of balance all week adjusting to working out, I would not be surprised if I don’t lose as much as I think I should. I have seen similar results in the past; we’ll see tomorrow. Wish me luck!
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