A couple of years ago while under a great deal of stress due to dealing with some fairly traumatic life situations I found a lot of solace in the simple act of walking. I’d grab my earbuds, turn on some meaningful music (I had a typical playlist I’d go through at the time) and walk part of the neighborhood. By the end of the walk I’d feel a bit clearer.
Life trudged on, the life situations sort of resolved and we found ourselves in a new city, a new neighborhood, with new circumstances. One of the practices I knew I needed to pay attention to was my health and a big part of that (but not the sole part) is working out.
I ended up joining Planet Fitness because it’s really reasonably priced, exists all over the country (so I can continue working out when traveling) and has the bonus benefit of the spa equipment (massage chairs and hydromassage beds).
I thought about one of the cults programs that people rave about like Crossfit or p90x or peloton or whatever but none of that was a great fit. One of the big reasons is because I’m an asthmatic and my primary triggers are allergies and exercise. Because of the latter I just can’t do everything programs require and I can’t necessarily go as intense as they’d want. So, I thought about what I really wanted which was to create healthy habits that would last.
So - I sat down, made a plan and mapped out what exactly I wanted to do. My top priority was (and still is) cardio. I wanted to get myself moving, get my lungs working and my heart rate up. I wanted to push myself, but not over the edge. Secondary to that I wanted to work weights and toning into the mix. I tried that as well but immediately pulled a myself and decided to focus on cardio and slowly add in weights (which I’ve now done).
I aim for 4 to 5 days and typically get at least that, to the point it actually is becoming habitual. I track everything using an app called Anylog. It’s not the prettiest app in the world but it lets me create custom trackers with custom variables and then visualize as data or charts; that all works great. Here is my setup:
And here are how some of my charts look (yeah I took out numbers, sorry):
It works for me. I’m feeling healthy. My clothes aren’t fitting again (in the good they-are-too-big way). And it seems to be working. If my family decides to join me I’ll probably give up the massage chairs at Planet Fitness in favor of the YMCA and their aquatic aerobics classes but for now this works for me.
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