Reasonably Fit

Or, buzzword bingo: 'sustainability'. (But not in a Social Studies teacher way) Fitness and health are not short-term things. When you start to build back to that level where you were before, or where you imagine you could be, or start at all, you want to see results. You want things to happen. And so, many of us are tempted to hit that latest 12-week-plan or celebrity diet that we see in facebook or wherever, we spend up large on gym memberships, and we hope that this time it will be different. What I have found, through  lots  of trial and error, is that this just doesn't work. When I get to the end of the 12 (or however many) weeks, I just go back to doing what I did before, because that plan or diet or programme was just too hard to do all the time. And as the saying goes, "if you always do what you've always done ..." But, if I just make one or two small changes at a time, then I am far more likely to keep going with them, and to see effec...

Or: Motivation for people with excuses. It's not been a great week, exercise-wise. Having told you last week about setting those times to do things, and then sticking to them, this week just sortof slowly turned to custard. CBA is short for Can't Be Arsed; if you get to CBF, it's all over. When I miss one bit of exercise in a plan, it seems so easy just to go, oh well, it's not working, I'll give up now. And that's when CBA kicks in, because it's much easier to not put yourself out than it is to make an effort to sort things. On Tuesday I was sick, which was a legit reason for missing my fitness class. No matter, I'll get that run in later in the week and I'll be fine, I thought. But on Thursday the blue small person had an extra football game and on Friday (yesterday) I was too shattered to try and fit a run in between finishing work and going out to dinner with The Wine Ladies. Not so legit, but excuses. Which left me two out of three do...

Getting back into things is hard. I often tend to look back at where I was when I was running half-marathons and looking hot (well, I felt that way, which is more important) at my sister-in-law's wedding, and thinking, that's what I should be aiming for. Actually, it isn't. It took me a long time and a lot of steps to get to that point, and it's going to take me a long time and a lot of steps if I am to get back to that point again. But looking out that far is more daunting than inspiring. It's good to have a big picture - it works like a roadmap with your destination across on the other page - but like any good roadmap, there need to be landmarks and signposts along the way. This is what I mean by small goals .  At the moment I am starting again from the beginning. I don't even have that residual or maintenance fitness that you can keep by doing just enough. It is all gone. So I am working out what is realistic and achievable for me. I started out...