3 weeks in and I feel better. Hit a major milestone last week; crushed a sandbag workout! I’m also doing things with the heavy sandbag that were impossible this past August. By any measure I’m seeing improvement.
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting; why am I so concerned with fitness, weight, and racing? It’s really pretty simple: eating right and exercising make everything you do better. I love how I feel the day after a good workout and when I’ve been fueling my body right. I also know how lousy I feel when I skip a workout and treat my body like a frat house.
I do this because it feels good to bend and crawl on the floor with the kids. I do this because taking the stairs 2 at a time can be fun (remember when it was cool to be able to do it as a kid???) I do this because I know a better version of myself is on the other side of the next workout.
I’m currently studying for the NSCA-CPT exam. Kinda’ something I’ve always been interested in, and…I’ll leave my motivations for a later post. Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot about the science of how our muscles and body react to exercise and it’s pretty fascinating. We’re a very complex machine that needs to be appropriately and adequately fueled and equipped.
So think about your body like a machine or device you use daily. Exercise helps you upgrade your hardware. Makes your bones stronger, muscles bigger and stronger, tendons, joints, etc all see improvement (usually.) Diet lets you control the type of fuel that runs the machine! Every start a lawnmower with last years gas? Ever spray some ether into the carburetor? See where I’m going with this? The geek in me is loving hacking my exercise and diet to get more out of my body!
I know that everyone has their own diet and exercise preferences. I’m not here to suggest you change them. I am going to suggest you spend a week or two tracking your diet and exercise and mood, alertness and how tired you are. Some things I’ve seeing: More than 2 beers or glasses of wine and I’m sluggish the next day. No veggies, or only one meal with veggies, and I’m just not right. Too many sweets and I’m irritable…like my skin is crawling. When I work up a real good sweat with a workout, my mood is improved substantially for the rest of the day. 2 or 3 days without a workout and I’m miserable.
So why am I doing this? Because I’ve had a taste of how good fit feels and I want that back. And I have 2 little girls who love doing it with me.
