It's already the end of spring term here at BYU this week. I have my final for the one class I'm taking on Thursday afternoon and I then get three more credits to add to my growing arsenal in addition to the whopping one credit I'll get for an "internship" I've done as well. It's gone by incredibly fast, even though the workload is theoretically the same as a normal semester. I realized tonight that spring semester is kind of like running at 6:30 in the morning (remember this story?). By the time you realize what the heck is going on, it's over. I hate early mornings and I am cognizant of next to nothing at 6:30 in the morning, so running is a little less painful since I barely know where I am.
Now that I'm up and awake, in a sense, I have nothing left to do but go to work from 8 - 5, read, and hang out with friends. Summer is pretty great. Would that I could take all my classes in 6-week chunks.
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Monday, June 17, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
An Exhausted Accounting
Remember that time back in December when I said I was going to start running again? Well, I technically did go running one night in the bitter cold of January. I didn't go too far, but it was far enough. I didn't pace myself at all so it was a horrible, freezing experience. I told myself that night that I'd start again when it got warmer because it is so much easier to go running when it's warm outside (of course, I couldn't go find a treadmill and run in the warm inside).
Well, it's been in the 60s for a few weeks now and my exercise nag started to act up again. Today while working on homework I started to feel myself slow down. I realized that it was the perfect solution to clear my head. I'd be able to get out and run around, come home, take a shower, and be ready to attack the homework again with renewed zeal. Almost impulsively, I put down my laptop, got on my running garb and headed out the door.
It's a beautiful day out there, truly. I realized while I was running that I didn't feel the weather around me. It wasn't cold, it wasn't hot and it was great to feel my body working hard and pushing itself again. I have a testimony of running, but I'm not converted to it enough to do it regularly. I can't argue with how good I feel right now, though. While I was running, I thought of how I could cut down on my sugar intake, because otherwise, I eat pretty healthy. I've been inspired by those around me who have taken measures to get in better shape and have seen great results from their hard work and I'd like to see some results myself.
So here's to a renewing of the goal I made in December. I'd really like to get into better shape than I was my senior year, the last time I consistently ran, in addition to other workout goals. I feel like I got run over by a horse right now, but hopefully by continually making an accounting to myself of how I'm doing on my goal, it'll eventually take a lot more to get me to feel that way.
Well, it's been in the 60s for a few weeks now and my exercise nag started to act up again. Today while working on homework I started to feel myself slow down. I realized that it was the perfect solution to clear my head. I'd be able to get out and run around, come home, take a shower, and be ready to attack the homework again with renewed zeal. Almost impulsively, I put down my laptop, got on my running garb and headed out the door.
It's a beautiful day out there, truly. I realized while I was running that I didn't feel the weather around me. It wasn't cold, it wasn't hot and it was great to feel my body working hard and pushing itself again. I have a testimony of running, but I'm not converted to it enough to do it regularly. I can't argue with how good I feel right now, though. While I was running, I thought of how I could cut down on my sugar intake, because otherwise, I eat pretty healthy. I've been inspired by those around me who have taken measures to get in better shape and have seen great results from their hard work and I'd like to see some results myself.
So here's to a renewing of the goal I made in December. I'd really like to get into better shape than I was my senior year, the last time I consistently ran, in addition to other workout goals. I feel like I got run over by a horse right now, but hopefully by continually making an accounting to myself of how I'm doing on my goal, it'll eventually take a lot more to get me to feel that way.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Pre-New Year's New Year's Resolution
I've been thinking about what to write about next. The last two or three posts were all about things that I reflected on throughout the day when I didn't really have anything else to think about. Finals week is about to start and that takes up a large part of my thinking time, whether it's organizing in which order I am going to take the unscheduled ones or double checking the days, times, and places of the scheduled ones and when I'm planning on studying what. And nobody wants to read about that!
So I've tried to come up with other things that I consciously or unconsciously think about during the day. It didn't take long before I realized one thing that I see nearly every day that triggers the same thought over and over, every time somebody runs past me in jogging shoes or I walk in between the two athletic buildings on campus and see sweaty people coming out of them:
I should start doing that.
Who can say aught against the benefits of working out? During the last three months of my mission, I became a convert to daily or at least regular exercise. My companion and I started running (at his insistence, I might add) two or three times a week in the morning at 6:30. It only took about fifteen minutes if that, but I was severely out of shape and am not the cheeriest of souls at such an hour of the day. After a few weeks we started running farther than just to the bridge and back and started doing laps around our block. One lap was about a mile and a half and we started running every day. I'll never know why I agreed to such a thing and while I never really looked forward to it per se (does anybody ever really look forward to working out at 6:30 in the morning?), I did begin to like how I felt after running. I also started to watch my eating habits and nearly eliminated Nutella from my diet (a far cry from one year before when two of us were downing one jar a week). In addition I started doing pushups in the evenings before bed and this is where I really started to see some improvement. My companion even convinced me to run two 5Ks or two laps around our block. I felt great!
Fast forward about two months to my first few weeks back home. One morning I woke up at 7:00 (it seems so much later than 6:30) determined to take up the same schedule. I put on my running shoes and shorts like an old pro and set out to run around my block two, maybe three times considering how much better I had become in those last three months. Perhaps I tried to go too fast too soon and overestimated my aerobic abilities and capacity, perhaps it was the change in elevation my companion warned me I'd see in returning to the mountains of Utah. Whatever it was, before I'd even gotten around the block one time, I was on the verge of cardiac arrest. Few things are more discouraging than feeling like you are about to give up the ghost after having run a quarter of a mile at age 21.
Ever since that day I have never gone running or done any intentional exercise of any sort. As a result, every time I see anybody running I get a little twinge of guilt that still hasn't stopped needling at me.
Now, I'm not a large person. I've stayed at the same weight for a couple of years now and I usually can eat whatever I want and nothing happens. I'm quite thin and I take a certain amount of pride in it.While I am infinitely grateful for this, there's one thing that's been nagging at me for a while (this takes place after I get that twinge of guilt upon seeing some proactive, in-shape soul), and that's the fact that I'm not getting any younger. I may be able to eat whatever I want now, but that surely won't be the case in ten or fifteen years. What am I going to do then?!
It usually takes me a long time and a lot of thinking before I make any sort of large personal change or decide to take on something that will require regular effort on my part (this blog for example), but I think I'm pretty close to deciding to take up running again. I figure that if I don't put my pride on the shelf now and work hard, I'll have to put it on the shelf in ten or fifteen years (maybe sooner, perish the the thought...) and work a lot harder then. I guess it's kind of my pre-New Year's New Year's Resolution. Since I've decided to make it a resolution, I should probably start running this week.....
Meh. I'll wait until after Christmas.
So I've tried to come up with other things that I consciously or unconsciously think about during the day. It didn't take long before I realized one thing that I see nearly every day that triggers the same thought over and over, every time somebody runs past me in jogging shoes or I walk in between the two athletic buildings on campus and see sweaty people coming out of them:
I should start doing that.
Who can say aught against the benefits of working out? During the last three months of my mission, I became a convert to daily or at least regular exercise. My companion and I started running (at his insistence, I might add) two or three times a week in the morning at 6:30. It only took about fifteen minutes if that, but I was severely out of shape and am not the cheeriest of souls at such an hour of the day. After a few weeks we started running farther than just to the bridge and back and started doing laps around our block. One lap was about a mile and a half and we started running every day. I'll never know why I agreed to such a thing and while I never really looked forward to it per se (does anybody ever really look forward to working out at 6:30 in the morning?), I did begin to like how I felt after running. I also started to watch my eating habits and nearly eliminated Nutella from my diet (a far cry from one year before when two of us were downing one jar a week). In addition I started doing pushups in the evenings before bed and this is where I really started to see some improvement. My companion even convinced me to run two 5Ks or two laps around our block. I felt great!
Fast forward about two months to my first few weeks back home. One morning I woke up at 7:00 (it seems so much later than 6:30) determined to take up the same schedule. I put on my running shoes and shorts like an old pro and set out to run around my block two, maybe three times considering how much better I had become in those last three months. Perhaps I tried to go too fast too soon and overestimated my aerobic abilities and capacity, perhaps it was the change in elevation my companion warned me I'd see in returning to the mountains of Utah. Whatever it was, before I'd even gotten around the block one time, I was on the verge of cardiac arrest. Few things are more discouraging than feeling like you are about to give up the ghost after having run a quarter of a mile at age 21.
Ever since that day I have never gone running or done any intentional exercise of any sort. As a result, every time I see anybody running I get a little twinge of guilt that still hasn't stopped needling at me.
Now, I'm not a large person. I've stayed at the same weight for a couple of years now and I usually can eat whatever I want and nothing happens. I'm quite thin and I take a certain amount of pride in it.While I am infinitely grateful for this, there's one thing that's been nagging at me for a while (this takes place after I get that twinge of guilt upon seeing some proactive, in-shape soul), and that's the fact that I'm not getting any younger. I may be able to eat whatever I want now, but that surely won't be the case in ten or fifteen years. What am I going to do then?!
It usually takes me a long time and a lot of thinking before I make any sort of large personal change or decide to take on something that will require regular effort on my part (this blog for example), but I think I'm pretty close to deciding to take up running again. I figure that if I don't put my pride on the shelf now and work hard, I'll have to put it on the shelf in ten or fifteen years (maybe sooner, perish the the thought...) and work a lot harder then. I guess it's kind of my pre-New Year's New Year's Resolution. Since I've decided to make it a resolution, I should probably start running this week.....
Meh. I'll wait until after Christmas.
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