This is why

Folks have commented, in many places (especially on Fb), about the amount of exercise that I get in. Well, I have a specific reason for exercising and eating healthy. In a sense, it can be answered with two medical conditions that are related.

STROKE

A total of 3 persons on my maternal side have suffered the effects of stroke. Two of them were fatal at the onset and one lived (if you can call it that) for 6 years. Each of them didn’t follow through on what they were supposed to do to maintain their health. That is, take medication properly to combat high blood pressure.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Personally, I refuse to become a statistic. I refuse to be among the great number of persons in the black community taking high blood pressure medication to maintain my life.

I refuse.

Therefore, I exercise. I eat healthy. I am doing my part in maintaining a healthy lifestyle so that I don’t have to a drug each and every day.

I inform my Fb family of my daily exercise with the hopes of influencing one person to get active.

To move.

To get active.

To want to be healthy.

I have no desire to make someone feel bad about what they are not doing. Quite the contrary. My aim is to subliminally influence people to move. Make the effort. Bury the excuses. Think about your health. Think about your family. Think about your spouse/significant other, children, parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, etc.

It doesn’t have to be what I do. I didn’t start out going to the gym 5 days per week. I started by taking a pilates class twice a week. From there, it increased over time. It was not an overnight process. But the process has changed my life.

I feel better. Plain and simple.

The easiest, simplest thing one can do is go for a walk. So many people sleep on the benefits of walking. It is the one exercise that doesn’t’ require a gym membership. A good pair of tennis shoes, and be on your way. Start small. 5 min. 10 min. 15 min. Just move.

I can’t say that not leading a healthy lifestyle caused my family members to suffer a stroke. I do wonder, however, if they had led a healthy lifestyle could things have been different.

Workout time

I have been a morning workout person for the past 6 years. Basically the entire time that I have been an active person, I've worked out in the AM. I wondering if I need to make a change.

I used to be energized when I worked out in the AM. I would energy all day long. I was focused and ready to take on any task. Lately, not so much. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed my energy waning mid-day and it is hard to get it back. I just want to take a nap.

I wonder if I'm not getting enough sleep. Generally, I am in bed between 9 and 9:30 pm. I must be in bed no later than 9:30 pm if I am going to the gym the next morning. My clock alarms between 4:15 and 4:30 am, depending on what I want to do at the gym. That gives me, roughly, 7 hours of sleep. I generally get the full 7 hours as I am one of those persons that fall asleep immediately.

Today has been a struggle. Perhaps I should adjust my workout, a few days a week, to the afternoon. That's what I'm thinking about trying this week. If I go to bed tonight, like normal, and sleep in until 6 am, perhaps I'll feel better tomorrow. I can go to the gym in the afternoon or perhaps a long walk (if it is not raining).

I worry about that plan because I have an aversion to working out after work. I can come up with all sorts of excuses as to other things that should take precedence. When in actuality, there is nothing that needs to take precedence. I should take precedence. This is for my health and well-being.

Even as I write this I'm doubting I'll make the change this week. I think I should just go in the AM, like I'm used to going.

Good & Bad

Good
I made 7 dozen tea cakes between Saturday & Sunday. I only 1.

Bad
I didn't track my eating very well this weekend.

Good
I got in a 2.3 mile walk Saturday morning.

Bad
I didn't eat as healthy as I normally do on Saturday.

Good
I only ate when I was hungry.

Bad
I didn't drink a sufficient amount of water on Saturday.

Good
I ate healthy on Sunday.

Bad
I didn't drink a sufficient amount of water on Sunday.

Good
I chopped, washed, & cooked some healthy food for the week.

How about I end on a good note!

2.35

For 3 weeks straight now, I have done some sort of exercise 6 out of 7 days. Hooray!

I go to the gym for 5 days and walk for 1. Yesterday I didn't do as long of a walk as normal, but a walk is a walk!

Weight update & tracking

Since my last post about weight, when I didn't weigh in, I'm down a total of 4.6 pounds. Slowly but surely the pounds are shedding and I'm okay with that. The slower the better!

I'm not really tracking like I should, and I don't know why. Well, what happens is the weekend throws me off. I do really good on Wednesday, Thursday, and half-day on Friday. I'll update my tracker on Saturday morning and then I don't think about it again until Monday. See...it's the weekend.

Perhaps I should change my weigh-in day day. I think Saturday would be a good day except, once football season rolls around I travel on the weekends. So that's not good. Perhaps if I were to weigh-in on Monday, my points would reset on the 1st day of the week and I would do better. Then again, I like weighing-in during the middle of the week. I feel like I have time to redeem myself from the weekend, if I don't eat right.

Ohhhhhhh...such a conundrum! What to do? What to do?

What I need to do is track! No matter what.

I recently acquired an iPhone. I have booked marked the WW mobile site so that I can enter my food anytime/anywhere. I have no excuse. I am going to commit the next week to diligent tracking. I know that I need to for success, and I'm aiming for success.

2.06

2 walks today while at work. The 2nd walk was definitely needed as it gave me energy for the remainder of the afternoon.

3.06

I've been diligent with exercise over the past week. Beginning last Sunday, with a walk I did cardio each day of the week. Monday through Friday I made it to the gym each morning and did 45 minutes of cardio on the stairmaster. I decided I could take a break on Saturday & Sunday. Since I generally get up early Mon-Fri, it is difficult to get out of sleeping too far past my normal wake-up time the other 5 days of the week.

Saturday morning I awakened at 5 am, but I forced myself to stay in bed. I made it to 6 am and then got to doing stuff. After the tennis match, I commenced to cleaning out the storage closet. It was quite a mess.

See that --->over there...gracious, that took forever to detangle. The cord was wrapped around the lawnmower (and the wheel). I determined there were 2 cords and it took some time to sort it out, but I did eventually.

I then moved on to the rest of the closet and threw out a boatload of stuff. More images here. It took me about 3 hours to get through everything and I was a hot sweaty mess upon completion. I met with a friend later on that evening and that was my day.

Sooooooo...Sunday morning rolls around and I'm wide awake once again at 5 AM. I lay in bed until 5:30 and decide that this is futile. I may as well get up and go for a walk. So I did.



I stayed in the neighborhood and got in 3 miles.