So I clearly did not make it to 100 days…. I blame it entirely on myself not having the willpower to work out for even 20 minutes per day during work.
To be fair, I’m not entirely disappointed in myself. I started a new job in January, which is my first full-time job after graduating college. This job is in public accounting, which has “busy seasons” twice a year – meaning 70+ hours of work every week for 6 weeks in the fall and 10-12 weeks in the spring leading up to the September 15 and April 15 filing deadlines. This past spring was a particularly busy busy season, so I was working 7 days a week for an average of 12 hours per day, every. Single. Day. for about 11 weeks.
I also had appendicitis mid-February, which did not help the exercise motivation, since I was ordered by a doctor to avoid exercise for 3 weeks after my surgery.
But again, I’m not trying to make excuses. Looking back at the past seven months, though, I understand why it was difficult for me to maintain a fitness habit, and I’ve learned a lot about what I need to do to get back on the “workout wagon.”
I moved to a new neighborhood in Chicago recently, and I just purchased a gym membership at a gym roughly 1.37 blocks from my apartment building. This is a fancy-schmancy gym with a spa in it, and I got 3 free sessions with a personal trainer when I signed up.
I haven’t been going to the gym every day at this point (I’ve had the membership for 2 weeks now), but I’ve been 6 times since signing up, and I’m working on getting in the habit of going for at least 30 minutes 4 times a week so I can try (again) to make exercising a habit. I want to be one of those people who just doesn’t feel her best unless she works out or does something active that day. Because that positive feeling is what I believe will get me to be a fitness-as-a-habit person.
So, starting today (or two weeks ago, I guess), I’m making it a goal to get to the gym four times a week or more. And for some extra motivation, if I swipe in to the gym 36 times in the first 90 days of being a member, I earn my enrollment fee back. That’s $180 just for meeting my goal! And it gets paid back to me in the form of gym credits, so I’ll just have to use it on spa treatments, personal training sessions, or workout clothes…. what a bummer!
As part of my 4-times-per-week goal, I’m aiming to work out every Monday to set the “workout mood” for the week, and likely once on the weekends, since I have more time to myself and not at work on the weekend days (it’s busy season again — hooray!).
Other than Mondays/weekends, I’m aiming to make it to the gym on Wednesdays or Tuesday/Thursdays, depending on the week. I like to give myself Fridays off from non-work responsibilities, to be able to take some time in the mornings to relax, and know that when I go home in the evenings, I’m done for the week (until I go into the office the next morning… but I just pretend I’m not).
Tomorrow’s post will be “day one” again — we’ll see how it goes this time! My goal is to make it up to 100 again, but not in 100 days. This time I’m setting a more realistic goal for myself, given my time constraints and history of not working out very consistently. So it will likely take me around 175 days (25 weeks) to get to 100 days of working out 4x/week.
Let’s do this!
lissa100daystofit 