The habit of fitness

Maintaining my fitness habit

Man, I started this post a week ago and am only now getting back to it. Let's see.

One of my favorite things to go on about to Dan is how "it's easier to maintain a habit than it is to start one." As much as he probably gets tired of it, I say it all the time because I find it to be accurate and broadly applicable. Inertia, depending on the circumstance, can be my best friend or foe. If I have a positive habit started, it is easy for me to continue it. But if I'm stuck in a rut, it is impossible to break it (or rather, easier to continue the habit of being stuck in a rut).

It was only this  last weekend, in my post-10k laziness, that I realized this applied to fitness too. I had started to realize it on Saturday, after a week of not doing anything post-10k due to Hurricane Sandy/having a cold/being lazy. Oh shit, I thought, if it goes until tomorrow it'll have been a week since my 10k, since my last physical activity. And it wasn't until I read Leo Babauta's Zen Habits post that I realized why that freaked me out so much. I had actually formed a fitness habit, and I was terrified to lose it.

[Side note: I used to like Leo a lot more but have grown a little tired of him in the past year (but still read him, apparently), particularly how he keeps monetizing fairly simple ideas with these online courses. But I found this article pretty compelling!]

I realized that maintaining my "fitness habit" has become the key to actually sticking with my healthy habits this time, as opposed to letting them drop after a month of working out. Getting used to coming home after work and going right back out again to run, making quick dinners to refuel me after working out, going to bed at a reasonable hour on Friday so I can run Saturday AM...it's all part of my routine now. There's no question whether I'll do it--I just go on autopilot. The minute I give myself room to question is the minute I sit back on the couch.

So this past week, and ongoing through the holiday season, I'm focusing on maintaining my fitness habit. Even when things get crazy and even while I'm traveling--I just want to stick with it so that January 1 isn't an impetus to finally start losing weight, but instead is just another day to keep doing what I do.

Chore chart update
Ha! Hahahaha. I clearly was kidding myself when I thought that November would be the right time to start my chore habit. Between various travel to see our families and (the big one) trying to get my grad school apps done, this was not the best month to start that. The priorities this month are: grad school and fitness (with the always present priority of family + Dan!). For what it's worth, I still think the chore chart is a great idea and will be feasible to try once life calms down a bit. I'm still using it to check things off on the fridge, but I'm on more of a two week cycle (and still lumping the chores into longer sessions) than the weekly do-something-everyday cycle.

Weekly workout summary - November 5, 2012 - November 11, 2012
I haven't done one of these in a while since I hadn't been doing very much! But with my renewed commitment to sticking with it, I figured I'll post what I did this past week. In hopes of gaining some speed, I've started following a free plan from Runner's World Smart Coach to guide my Wednesday speed sessions. I'm not following the whole plan to the T, but it provides a good guide for what to do with "speed work" for an unsure newbie like me.

Monday: 2.5 miles on the treadmill + strength. I threw some speed intervals in there for good measure--mostly just to finish faster. I forgot how effing boring the treadmill is!

Tuesday: 75 minute vinyasa class. This felt soooo good. I hadn't been to yoga in a while, and it felt fantastic to finally get my sweaty stretch on again. I have a class pack with several left that expires around Christmas, so yoga will be a frequent fixture here over the next few weeks!

Wednesday: Rest!

Thursday: First attempt at one of the Smart Coach workouts was only partly successful. It was mile repeats, but I totally failed to check the actual speed I needed to go for the miles before my run. So stupid. So I kind of guessed that it was around 10:40, which was incorrect (10:31 was the goal).

Anyway, the workout was listed as such: "Speedwork Dist: 4 Mi, inc Warm; 2x1600 in 10:31 w/800 jogs; Cool." Let me break that down for you. Total distance = 4 miles, which includes the warm up and cool down. The mildly confusing thing about the Smart Coach workouts is that they don't tell you how much to warm up or cool down for, so you just do the math yourself. This one worked out to be: warm up for .5 miles, run 1 mile in 10:31 (10 minutes and 31 seconds), then jog for .5 miles, then run another mile in 10:31, then jog for .5 miles, then cool down for .5 miles.

I preprogrammed the workout into my RunKeeper app on my phone so that I would hear cues when the intervals were done. Another benefit was that it timed the splits for me. So my interval miles were 10:43 and 10:04. Oh well--I got it half correct anyway! This workout was definitely tough, even though the average pace was only 11 min/mile for the whole thing--I've kept that before on my shorter runs, no problem. Keeping that consistent and fast-for-me pace for the full mile was challenging.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 6.2 miles at 11:52 min/mile average pace. I learned an important lesson from this run: if you feel comfortable, temperature wise, when you go outside, you'll probably feel too warm in about ten minutes. But I made it.

Beautiful day to be on the trail

I don't have any intent to run a longer race until next spring (though I'm toying with the idea of a 5k in January), but I want to keep my weekly long runs in the mix so that I don't have to rebuild my mileage. And because Smart Coach told me to.

Sunday: 35 minutes on the elliptical + strength at the apartment gym. I pretty much had the gym all to myself, so that was an unexpected treat. I actually did lower body strength exercises (squats, hamstring curls, booty stuff, etc.) for the first time in a few weeks, which felt awesome. I have that fun sore but still able to walk feeling today, which I love.

Weekly mileage: 12.8 miles.

Pretty good week of exercise for me! It actually looks a lot like what my ideal exercise week would look like--minus using the treadmill, plus maybe another yoga session. That's what I'm aiming for this week!

Final programming note:
If you happened to stop over here from Shelby's blog re: a slightly inflammatory comment I left over there...hi! I'm not an immature asshole; I promise! I just look like one sometimes when I get riled up post-election. 

November goals

So about that HP

My Happiness Project goal for November had been to "live like an adult", which included resolutions such as wearing a small amount of makeup to work so as to look not like a hobo, get a better/consistent skin care routine down, deal with my mail when I walk in the house (as opposed to letting it pile for days)...etc. But if there is anything that my first month's experience taught me, it was that introducing many resolutions in a month was a little overwhelming. That, coupled with the fact that November is crunch time for my grad school apps (and I am not in as good of shape for them as I had planned!), I've decided to just focus on two, non-themed items for the month:

1. Get my mother effin' grad school apps in at all costs.
2. Use a weekly cleaning schedule to tackle one task a day.

One of my original resolutions for the "live like an adult" month was related to cleaning--I wanted to stop waiting until right before we had company over to go on a cleaning rampage and instead do it consistently. I feel SO much better about the apartment when it is decluttered and neat, and I always end up stressing myself out pre-company to get everything done. Plus, it is gross that I was only doing our bathrooms once a month. Yes, please, publicly shame me. I am narsty. 

Dan usually helps with some of the cleaning tasks--wiping down counters, vacuuming, changing the sheets, etc. But given his current status with a broken arm and the fact that I am doing this chore challenge for my peace of mind, I'm not expecting him to help with this. I really think that if I can stick to a schedule, it is feasible to clean our medium sized apartment (1 bedroom + office) in approximately 20 minutes a day. If I can demonstrate to myself that it is, then I probably have a better shot of sticking with it!

So! There are a gazillion of these online, but here's the one I came up with for our place:

[Click to enlarge. There are minor errors on there that are driving me batty, but you get the idea. Let me know if I missed something!]

I think this pretty much encompasses the basics of any smallish apartment. I included tasks that are easy to do daily and make a big impact (seriously, do you have a Swiffer vacuum? It is a cordless vac that works fantastically to get crumbs and stuff up. So easy to use and keeps the kitchen floors spotless). I tried to group like tasks so that I would use the same set of cleaning supplies each day (which is why it makes more sense to de-hair the bathroom floors/baseboards on dusting day, not bathroom day). It doesn't include all of those Martha Stewart-type tasks like cleaning your fridge shelves, cleaning windows, cleaning out vents, etc. That's just not happening on any sort of regular basis for me. Also, I like doing laundry on Friday nights if my schedule allows for it (something so nice about getting it out of the way for the weekend, and it can easily be done while relaxing!). That can easily be moved to Saturday or Sunday if I have something to do on Fridays since it is a relatively low maintenance activity. 

I'll tape the schedule to the fridge, to be started next Monday. The blank cells next to the items are intended to be checked off as I go. Again, I require public shaming to get this done. I hate having to clean the apartment, but I also hate feeling like a slob and feeling like I'm not following through with something. So I'll take a picture at the end of each week and post it for you all as incentive to stick with it. 

Action plan for the grad school apps is just basically Get Shit Done ASAP. One of my favorite mottos in stressed out times (almost always self-induced due to procrastination) is: "it will all get done because it has to get done." I have my master list of pretty much everything I need to do for them, and every time I look at it I feel all stressball-avoidant and panicky. But I need to really use my weekends to push through to get them done!

Workouts

My nose/tissue box is getting a serious workout with this cold. Other than that, nothing. Potentially will do some push ups/core work before I shower. Really hoping for the cold to dissipate by Saturday so I can run!

Eats

I feel gross right now..Dan and I ordered pizza for dinner. Mistake! And we used a deal so we each got our own pizza--a lot of leftovers. Not really a mistake, but a decision made out of laziness/sickness/not having frozen pizza on hand for pinch. Ah, well.

Healthy lunch at least:

Mixed greens with goat cheese, reheated kabocha squash, and edamame.
Piece of toast with hummus.

And now for more OJ!