Saturday 25 July 2015

Habit

I mentioned fitness blender in the last post. This is what I need to do to get blending:

1. Close blinds
2. Drop projector screen
3. Turn on projector
4. Move meeting table
5. Pull out exercise mat (hidden behind filing cabinets)
6. Fill water bottle
7. Get changed
8. Find video
9. Start airparrot
10. Mirror screen
11. DO ROUTINE
12. Stop airparrot
13. Put away exercise mat
14. Move meeting table back
15. Turn off projector
16. Lift projector screen
17. Open blinds
18. Shower

It's a wonder I ever get it done :) Actually after a few goes it has become quite efficient. On a few occasions I left some of the tidying until the next day but I found this was really a bad idea and moving some furniture can be part of the warm down. I sort of imagine I have gone to a lesson and am asked to help put things away at the end,it gets done, it's brainless and easy.

I read that to form habits requires a trigger and a reward. My trigger is time, I want to get my exercise done and still leave time for other evening activities and a relatively early bed time (partly so I can read a bit). My reward is the feeling of accomplishment, the knowledge that what I am doing is moving me towards my goal and a general feeling of being alive. I also imagine telling friends about my continued success, keeping something up like this is often a surprise to people.

As you do something more and more, the list gets embedded in your mind and you don't forget the elements and you don't find yourself going up and down the stairs multiple times because you forgot the water bottle...

Everything's a reboot

Well hello imaginary readers. I'm back, I've not died yet, I'm still trying.

Since my last post I have been doing quite a bit of exercise, sometimes more than others. A lot of mountain biking at one point and lunchtime walks at another point. I got my weight back down to the level it was after the last decent run at this but after some changes in life circumstances earlier in the year and then a lot of work stress I put some back on again. I started doing mountain bike rides quite often and that had a good impact on my fitness but my weight has stayed the same, I'm not getting the food part right.

A couple of weeks ago I started an 8-weight weight loss fitness plan from Fitness blender. They have a website and Youtube channel and all of their content is free, you can also populate your own calendar on the website with the content. If you pay a few quid and get a program that basically auto populates the calendar with a selection of workouts which is what I did. It is mainly high impact cardio you can do in your own home (or office as I do) plus some weight training to build lean muscle. With 5 sessions a week I can feel the benefits already. My weight however has not shifted, it is possible that I have increased muscle mass a little while reducing fat but I suspect that my lack of calorie monitoring means I have had a few too many calories.

My plan is:

1. Carry on with the fitness blender
2. Set reminder alarms for myfitness pal
3. Set a reminder alarm to put out the scales on a Sunday night
4. Try and carry on with the mountain biking as the fresh air and sunshine also has benefit
5. Oh and of course, use this blog for monitoring and thinking about what I am doing.

The latter will hopefully be more down to earth rather than preachy stuff. When I started the blog I was very positive, I assumed the posts were from a guy who did get fit but looking back it is kind of ridiculous although I think there may be the odd gem in there so I am reading back through.