Epiphany Time
Last night I was exercising at the hotel and felt pretty good. I did a little over 20 minutes on the treadmill and then about 300 yards in the pool. 300 doesn't sound like much, but if you are out of shape, it's a painfully long distance.
Tonight I figured on the same thing, or very similar amounts of time. While on the treadmill I sped it up about 0.5mph faster than last night after about 15 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, when I thought I'd be quitting, I decided I wanted to watch the duct taped car on Myth Busters, so I stayed on the treadmill for an extra 10 minutes. And didn't feel like I'd done too much, which is good.
So I changed into my swim suit and hit the pool. About lap 10 of 20 (to get to 300 yards) I started thinking about what my goals need to be in this new health kick. There is the obvious goal of not being back in ICU with a sandbag on my groin holding the sutures down. But that's too obvious. A healthier heart? That's pretty simple. What I needed was some concrete goals that are attainable, but not easily.
I need something to push me, something to make me push myself a little harder when I want to take a day off.
So the longer term goal I came up with, which is an 18 month (from my heart attack) goal is to be down to 185lbs and wearing a 32 waist pant again when I take the wife to Hawaii for our anniversary.
That's about a 55lb weight loss, and 5-6 inches off of my (currently fat) waist. I'm figuring that I should hit that goal earlier than that, so about 3 months should be seeing if I'm capable of sticking with it after I hit the goal.
Shorter term; by this anniversary; I'd like to be down to 210, which is attainable if I keep some diet and exercise discipline. It's about 3/4 of a pound per week of weight loss, which is not a bad target.
As I kept swimming; 15 more laps instead of 10; and while I walked 10 cool down trips around the pool I kept repeating the goals over and over. It wasn't a "convince myself I could do it talk", it was more of the coach drilling the team on how a certain set of plays should work. This is something I know I can do, I just have to drill me on it each day at rehab, or in a hotel gym, or taking a walk with the wife.
I know I want to do it because of that obvious goal up above. And because I really don't want to see "that look" on the wife's face again when I get put in the back of the meat wagon.
Tonight I figured on the same thing, or very similar amounts of time. While on the treadmill I sped it up about 0.5mph faster than last night after about 15 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, when I thought I'd be quitting, I decided I wanted to watch the duct taped car on Myth Busters, so I stayed on the treadmill for an extra 10 minutes. And didn't feel like I'd done too much, which is good.
So I changed into my swim suit and hit the pool. About lap 10 of 20 (to get to 300 yards) I started thinking about what my goals need to be in this new health kick. There is the obvious goal of not being back in ICU with a sandbag on my groin holding the sutures down. But that's too obvious. A healthier heart? That's pretty simple. What I needed was some concrete goals that are attainable, but not easily.
I need something to push me, something to make me push myself a little harder when I want to take a day off.
So the longer term goal I came up with, which is an 18 month (from my heart attack) goal is to be down to 185lbs and wearing a 32 waist pant again when I take the wife to Hawaii for our anniversary.
That's about a 55lb weight loss, and 5-6 inches off of my (currently fat) waist. I'm figuring that I should hit that goal earlier than that, so about 3 months should be seeing if I'm capable of sticking with it after I hit the goal.
Shorter term; by this anniversary; I'd like to be down to 210, which is attainable if I keep some diet and exercise discipline. It's about 3/4 of a pound per week of weight loss, which is not a bad target.
As I kept swimming; 15 more laps instead of 10; and while I walked 10 cool down trips around the pool I kept repeating the goals over and over. It wasn't a "convince myself I could do it talk", it was more of the coach drilling the team on how a certain set of plays should work. This is something I know I can do, I just have to drill me on it each day at rehab, or in a hotel gym, or taking a walk with the wife.
I know I want to do it because of that obvious goal up above. And because I really don't want to see "that look" on the wife's face again when I get put in the back of the meat wagon.
Labels: diet, exercise, Heart Attack, rehab
posted by Crazy Politico at 9:12 PM
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