Gotta Practice What We Preach

Today I printed out my intervention material on encouraging graduate students to exercise more, and being a grad student myself I was motivated to go and workout at the gym today. It has been hard this week, again I've had a lot to do for school. I do find it interesting though after I spend most of the day preparing for an upcoming exam, I found myself to be exhausted, I just wanted to home home and go to bed. However, I thought exercising was something I should do, because A it's relevant to my assignments for this week, and B I think it might make me feel better. After my workout I do feel a whole lot better, that drained feeling is better, I feel energized, and not as stressed.

Due to midterms and Spring Break, this was my first time going back to the gym in awhile. It's been good having variety in my exercise schedule, but it felt really refreshing and motivating to head back to the gym environment. I am really excited about starting zumba lessons soon and joining a group of friends to go hiking Saturday morning! Stay tuned for pictures of the hike.

Change.....

I just flew back to California tonight. Despite being away from a gym I got in three workouts last week. Even though I don't always get in four workouts every week I have noticed changes in myself since the start of my intervention. I walk as much as I possibly can. Today I had a really long wait at an airport, and used some of my time to simply walk around the airport. I'm parking my car further away from buildings now, to get in a little bit more walking time in my daily routine.

My eating patterns have changed now. I'm adding soups and more fruits and vegetables to my meals. This leaves me feeling full, and makes it less likely for me to crave junk food snacks. I'm noticing more and more fast food chains that post up calorie counts on their menus, I'm opting out of high calorie food and snacks in exchange for healthier options. So point being even though I may not always work out four times a week I've noticed changes in myself that are here to stay for the long run, and yes sometimes these changes do temporarily go away like during midterms, but for the most part the changes have appeared to become the norm now.

Spring Break

I'm currently spending time with my family at the East Coast for Spring Break. Although I have been working on school work for much of this break, having some time off from classes and work has given me the opportunity to get my body back in the habit of exercising regularly. More so I want to use this time to undo the damage of the lack of exercise and extra junk food time I allocated for myself during the stress of midterms. As I've mentioned earlier in this blog joining 24 hour fitness has really motivated me to meet my goals, but since I'm away from the gym this week I've been looking at other ways to go about reaching my goals.

Specifically, I've realized that there are times in life when even though exercising may not seem relatively easy you can readjust your environment and exercise routines to still get in a solid workout. Here are some websites that I've come across that are helping me to figure out ways to get in exercise time in the absence of being super close to a gym:

http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html
This website from the CDC will tell you the recommended guidelines of how much you should be exercising based on your age and health status. Specifically, the website breaks down different categories of exercise such as moderate and vigorous and gives you examples of what types of exercise fall under each category. These tips will help you to balance out your workout. The tips will also give you ideas on how to workout without going to the gym.

http://www.fitwatch.com/exercise/10-ways-you-can-exercise-at-home-without-any-equipment-10.html
This website from Fit Watch gives you 10 easy ways to get in cardio exercise routines within the comfort of your own home. These exercises are relatively easy to do, and can be scheduled around busy times.

http://fittv.discovery.com/convergence/virtualvideotraining/cardio/cardio.html
This website will show you short clips from Fit TV experts demonstrating how to do cardio exercises. Many of these exercises such as marching in place can be done at home while even watching TV.

Midterms Week

I have not met my goal even once this week. Quite frankly it's been a pretty bad week to not get in that exercise. As I prep for finals, and prepare for an intense workload I find myself eating more and more junk food such as coffee and ice-cream to keep me going. I know changing my diet was not part of my goal, but it really has hit me that my health eating habits go out the window during times of stress. So not only have I been eating more and going off of very little sleep but I have not been exercising at all, to add insult to injury. However, this week will soon pass and I will get on track again with my exercise goals. Until then, wish me luck on my exam.

Meeting the Goal!

Things have been really looking up. Last week was the first time in awhile that I met my goal as I got in 4 days of exercise. Actually meeting the goal one week has really set the precedent for me to be motivated enough to follow through with future weeks, as I'm well on my way to meeting my goal again for this week. I have to admit that joining the gym has really helped me to meet my goal, as I know in the back of my head that I'm paying a membership fee and the gym is less that 5 minutes away from my house. On another note, I started going to yoga classes, some of the moves were kind of difficult and I was embarrassed with my inability to keep up but I have found that yoga really helps me to clear my mind.

I've really found that squeezing in the time to exercise has really helped me to relax, de-stress, and focus on my work more than before. I also feel exercise is helping me to normalize my sleep schedule a bit. When I exercise at night I usually feel really tired and end up going to bed earlier, as a result waking up earlier, making my time management skills a little better. I've truly had a wonderful opportunity the past couple of weeks to grasp all the benefits of regular exercise!