There are basically two kinds of thoughts - those that disect the past and those that imagine the future.  I struggle to forget.  So, when I eat the wrong thing or fail to exercise, I get depressed, and when I get depressed, I simply eat more and excercise (even less)!  I’m trying to LEARN how to forget.  Does that make any sense?

Take yesterday, for example.  I ate like I a madman.  Why?  Well, if I were a psychologist - and I’m not - I’d make the obvious connection between my high level of stress (due to the fact that my daughter is in the hospital and I’m trying to care for my other kids) and my lack of time (to prepare proper meals and to exercise).  I’ve been on the road for the better part of three days, back-and-forth to the babysitter’s, doctors’ appointments, and the hospital.  So, I’ve been eating junk.

Well, today I woke up, and instead of thinking - Hey, NCN, here’s your chance to start over, with a clean slate and an empty stomach - I thought - Hey, NCN, you are an idiot, you always overeat, so why not start the day with a big bowl of ice cream?!?

Yes, that’s how my mind works.

But, I resisted the urge to eat everything in the house, and I had a sensible breakfast.  I then spent some time in prayer and I really focused on MY FUTURE.  I need (want!!!) to be healthy - and if I’m ever going to move forward, I have to stop looking in the rear-view mirror!  Sure, I want to learn life’s lessons and I want to remember ‘where I’ve come from’, but I don’t want to get stuck in the past.

So, even though it’s been a week since I hit the treadmill and my emotions tell me that all my hard-work will be for naught, I’m shutting out the negative stuff, and I’m going to go for a nice, brisk walk.  And, I’m going to drink my water.  And, I’m going to have fruit and vegetables and chicken for supper.  And, I’m not going to think about the bag of chips (okay, two bags of chips) that I ate yesterday.

I’m going to become a positive, forward thinking dude…

In fact, I’m not even going to reread this post.  If there are errors, so be it. 

To the treadmill… and beyond!!!

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For the past few weeks, I’ve been walking 45 minutes a day.  I find that all of my walks tend to follow the following pattern -

1.  I have to convince myself to actually pull out the treadmill and start walking.  On most days, I’m successful, but on a few, I’m not.

2.  Once I’ve plugged in the treadmill and grabbed a bottle of water, I start walking.  The first five minutes always feel - weird?  I set the speed very low and then every two minutes, I increase it.

3.  Minutes 5 through 25 always feel great.  I get into a rhythm and I start working up a sweat.  During these minutes, I’m always super-happy that I’m walking.

4.  Between 25 and 35 minutes, I hate walking.  I’ve been following this program for almost a month, and it never fails.  I hit the 25 minute mark and I want to quit.  And, I don’t mean quit the session - I mean quit walking all together.  Why?  I have no idea - other than the fact that MAYBE I’ve burned up all of the fuel in my stomach and the body is transitioning to fat burning?  Just a thought…

5.  Once I make it to 35 minutes, I’m golden.  In fact, as I move towards 45 minutes, I don’t really want to stop.  I just want to keep going and going.  And, from time to time, I do.  Today, I walked and extra 2 minutes.  A few days ago, I walked a total of 60.

6.  After I finish walking, I feel awesome.

There’s the breakdown.

Today, I walked 47 minutes, covered 2 miles, and burned 250 calories.  I don’t walk very fast and I don’t worry about distance.  I just set the treadmill, plugin my headphones, and get moving.  Over time, I’m sure that my speed will increase (as will the number of calories burned), but for now, I’m just proud of myself for actually getting on the treadmill!

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As always, I like to be brutally honest.  After watching this video from over at Get Fit Slowly, I’m convinced that I’ve been doing my pushups ‘wrong’.  So, I retested myself, and I’m not ready to move to ‘level 3′.  In fact, I’ve decided that I need to be doing ‘level 1′ training.  Why?  Because, I want to do 100, super-awesome, perfect push ups, not 100, kinda wobbly, sloppy, almost ups.

So, today, I did the level 1 workout for day 2, week 1.  Here’s the chart -

As you can see, I’ll be doing far fewer push ups during each training session, but I feel that I’ll be much better served - in the long run - if I learn to do them correctly.

(I also need to hit the treadmill just a bit more.)

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