I am not athletic. I’ve never been athletic. The only sport I’ve ever played was tennis for one year in high school. I spent more time with my best friends that lived next door, or holed up in my room with a book, or working a part-time job after school. I was never interested in playing sports, nor have I ever cared too much about being “healthy”.
I’m self-aware enough to say that being healthy wasn’t something I cared much about because I’ve always been what most people would label as skinny. In fact, I was so small that when most of my closest friends were naturally developing in junior high I was painfully, obviously not. I say obviously because most of the kids I attended school with liked to remind me of this on an almost daily basis. I’m old enough now to not care, but let me tell you 7th grade is not the best memory of my youth. I was closer to 18 before any true “development” started showing up. This came about in a completely unhealthy way by not caring what I ate, working in fast food, eating ridiculously late into the evening, and quite literally not moving my body in any way beyond just carrying it around.
My journey with my unhealthy eating and lifestyle as a whole, especially into early adulthood, is a story for another day. Needless to say, I in no way have ever done well with healthy living. However, in January of 2019 I decided to change that narrative. I began working out 4-6x a week and I spent time planning out and meal prepping most of my food. Up until the end of April I was doing well. I fell off the wagon for all of May due to family stuff, but then got back on it in June. I continued through with hiccups sprinkled here and there until October, and then due to more family stuff I spent more time off the wagon than on it for the remainder of the year. This is definitely not how I saw the year going. With that said, because I spent more time than not working towards a goal of healthy living, I was absolutely in the best health of my life in 2019.
With that in mind and trying to maintain a positive outlook, I started mid-January in getting back into my original goals from 2019. Since starting back up 5 weeks ago, I’ve spent most of that time exercising 6x/week. My workout split mostly looks like this:
Monday: Lower Body ST
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Upper Body ST
Thursday: Run
Friday: Glutes ST
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Long Run and Abs ST
My rest day jumps from Saturday to Sunday depending on the week. There’s been a few instances where it worked out to be Thursday, and then I just shifted the remaining plan into the weekend.
As you can see I’m running 3x/week right now. I’ve never been a runner. I hate running. HATE. IT. However… I’m convinced that I can BECOME a runner. It’s all in my head, right? Well, this will be the third consecutive year that I plan on running the Bolder Boulder 10k and I would like to do so without feeling like my legs are going to fall off and I’m going to throw up my lungs. And you know what that means? Training. I’m currently running/jogging 3 miles with .20/mile walking in the beginning and .30/mile at the end for a total of 3.5 miles. If all goes as planned, I’ll be more than ready for BB in May, and well on my way to other races beyond that.
With all of this exercise comes the need for proper nutrition. Without going into great detail, I’m following a 90/10 rule in regard to clean, whole foods. When eating at home (which is the 90) I follow a plant-based diet centered around whole food recipes with some processed snacks (i.e. vegan jerky). When eating out or the occasional snacking around the office, I follow a vegetarian diet. I try to stay mindful and choose healthier options, but I’m also not going to feel bad for indulging. Also, sprinkle in a couple glasses of wine on the weekend and DRINK ALL OF THE WATER (that’s more of a reminder to myself than anything). My focus rests heavily on fueling my body for my workouts with a few days a week eating in a surplus to help my muscle growth.
I know everyone jumps on the bandwagon of losing weight and eating healthy when a new year rolls around, but it’s about this time when we start to taper off. That’s why I wanted to write this post now. Life is about living it to its fullest, and how are we supposed to do that when we don’t fuel our bodies to do so? Living life to the fullest is more than just getting to the end of it without regret over going on some grand adventure; it’s also about taking care of ourselves so that we’re capable of actually doing said adventure. No one will ever regret running that extra half mile, choosing real food, or having the energy to jump on the trampoline with your kid.
What do your health goals look like for 2020 and beyond?
Until next time…
