Let's call this the "off season". Since the HyVee Triathlon on June 22 of this year, I've been on a bit of a hiatus from training. I did a pretty intense month of weight training in August but didn't really have a goal other than "stay active". I did the swim leg of a Sprint tri late in September but those 10 minutes felt more like the 30 I did in my Olympic distance effort in June (3x the distance). Food has been a free for all which is nice but now does get old after a while.
So I've dialed in the following truths that I believe will help me maintain even more the rest of my life.
- At this point in life with a busy family schedule, kids activities, and business...I must have a longer term goal to focus on to maintain traction. Without something to shoot for down the road, I just can't keep the intensity required to "keep training and eating right" because when things get stressful or work load gets intense...exercise and diet are the FIRST things that I can find excuses for.
- Scheduling workouts and leveraging a personal trainer close to my home is essential for me. Without the scheduled accountability and ability to consistently review/tweak/discuss my progress...I get a little bored.
- I do need to follow more strict food guidelines, i.e. meal plans, to take the thought out of what my daily intake will be. The "hummm what shall I make for lunch now" approach works when the fridge is fully loaded with the right stuff. But that inattention to having the right stuff in abundance leads to "substitutes" and larger portions for me.
The New Journey
I've embarked on a 6 month journey with my personal trainer and nutritional guidance counselor Ryan Irwin with Nutrisport - Full Potential Training. Our goal is a total and well documented transformation. I'm going to take a picture every week for 24 weeks with the same lighting, clothing, and camera angle. I'll also be documenting the entire process on this blog (There's just no time to mess with another separate one so if you aren't interested, ignore posts in the fitness category for now) using video from my iChat camera and my new Flip camera. I'm doing this high exposure approach because this analysis will help me focus on this as a "project" that I'd like to become a FULL lifestyle adjustment. I've made huge strides and accomplished more physically than I could ever have imagined for myself...but I know there's more for me out there.
After 6 months, I'm going to make a video that uses footage and images from the whole process. We'll wrap up 6 months into a piece of art. Sound fun? It does to me because it takes the "task" out of the process and makes it a fun project.
So if you're interested in this kind of thing, I'll be maintaining exercise logs and sharing my progress right here so subscribe today. Today I'm going shopping for my fuel and mentally gearing up for what lies ahead.
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