Readers’ Workouts — July 16

Welcome to Readers’ Workouts, the weekly event where we share workout stories, goals, successes, and challenges. Join us each Tuesday!

My social life got busy and both exercise and healthy eating took a big step backward. This is what the phrase “It’s not how many times you get knocked down; it’s how many times you get back up” was made for. Fortunately, my social life goes in fits and starts, with large gaps that I can fill with healthy meals and exercise.

I’m only a day or so behind schedule for meeting my goal to exercise 1500 minutes in July. There’s still a lot of month to catch up!

How are you doing with exercise this summer? Answer on your blog (feel free to grab the logo) and link to your post below or join us in the comments! Be sure to visit the other participants to see how we all did.

How are you doing with exercise this summer?, you ask?

I think it depends on what you mean by “how.” If you mean, I am exercising consistently, then I’m doing brilliantly. I set a challenge for myself and have been doing sun salutations every day. Today I’ll begin my yoga practice with 16! It’s amazing how sweaty one gets doing these things, especially so many. I do feel myself getting stronger and able to move through parts more easily. The muscles that support my knees also seem to be getting stronger.

So yes, I’m consistently exercising. Woohoo! Unfortunately, this weekend I had reached the 4 week before-and-after point in one of the exercise programs I’ve been doing and I was so disgusted by what I saw in the photos that I had to step back and weigh myself because I had to assume my mind or the camera was playing tricks on me. Nope. Only one pound lost.

Imagine my disappointment when I could visually see no difference and then weighed myself to see that there wasn’t much difference either. I know the “party line” is that muscle mass weighs more but I have not lost inches either and while I do feel stronger the end result is that I look no different whatsoever–just as fat and flabby as I did before.

And I exercise 3 hours a day. Definitely discouraging.

So if your “how” is asking about my intrinsic pleasure and appreciation of how I am doing my response is: not so well. Did that stop me from getting up yesterday and doing my yoga? No. Did it stop me from taking my dog for a walk? No. Did it stop me from doing my strength training? No. Did it stop me from using the bike? No. Did it stop me from adding pilates to my exercise routine? No. Did it stop me from walking 2 more miles so I would reach my step count goal for the day? No.

So if your “how” is asking me about my determination and tenacity then I’m back to being brilliant. Hopefully, four weeks from now when I take another set of “after” photos, I’ll see something, anything, that will assure me it’s all worth the effort. Because I’m really putting in a lot of effort here.

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Comments

Readers’ Workouts — July 16 — 4 Comments

Satia on July 16, 2013 at 4:21 am said:

How are you doing with exercise this summer?, you ask?

I think it depends on what you mean by “how.” If you mean, I am exercising consistently, then I’m doing brilliantly. I set a challenge for myself and have been doing sun salutations every day. Today I’ll begin my yoga practice with 16! It’s amazing how sweaty one gets doing these things, especially so many. I do feel myself getting stronger and able to move through parts more easily. The muscles that support my knees also seem to be getting stronger.

So yes, I’m consistently exercising. Woohoo! Unfortunately, this weekend I had reached the 4 week before-and-after point in one of the exercise programs I’ve been doing and I was so disgusted by what I saw in the photos that I had to step back and weigh myself because I had to assume my mind or the camera was playing tricks on me. Nope. Only one pound lost.

Imagine my disappointment when I could visually see no difference and then weighed myself to see that there wasn’t much difference either. I know the “party line” is that muscle mass weighs more but I have not lost inches either and while I do feel stronger the end result is that I look no different whatsoever–just as fat and flabby as I did before.

And I exercise 3 hours a day. Definitely discouraging.

So if your “how” is asking about my intrinsic pleasure and appreciation of how I am doing my response is: not so well. Did that stop me from getting up yesterday and doing my yoga? No. Did it stop me from taking my dog for a walk? No. Did it stop me from doing my strength training? No. Did it stop me from using the bike? No. Did it stop me from adding pilates to my exercise routine? No. Did it stop me from walking 2 more miles so I would reach my step count goal for the day? No.

So if your “how” is asking me about my determination and tenacity then I’m back to being brilliant. Hopefully, four weeks from now when I take another set of “after” photos, I’ll see something, anything, that will assure me it’s all worth the effort. Because I’m really putting in a lot of effort here.

Reply ↓
Man of la Book on July 16, 2013 at 6:59 am said:

My schedule has changed so I am not able to go to they gym in the mornings, but I started taking Tae Kwon Do in the evenings which has the added benefit of doing an fun activity with my kids.

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- Joy Weese Moll / @joyweesemoll on July 17, 2013 at 6:03 pm said:
  
  That’s great to get a family activity and exercise in at the same time — also a good role model for the kids.
  
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Mari Partyka on July 16, 2013 at 8:12 am said:

I have been feeling quite lazy this month. The heatwave has me not wanting to be outside until it cools (it’s a big change from the dry cool days in Africa, it’s winter there).

Loving your France posts!

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