Barry's "Plan"

This week, I quit my gym.

It seems counterintuitive and counterproductive, but stick with me, I got a plan.

I don't have time anymore for silliness or excessive travel; with two jobs and school, I cannot even guess when I would be able to make the 25-minute bus ride just to get to my current gym, let alone hoping that I don't miss the bus back, leaving me stranded in Hyde Park for 45 minutes-1 hour waiting on the next one to come through. It is just not conducive. I have requested, and received, permission from Ronald McDonald to use the gym there even when I am not working. Ronald is three blocks from my main employer and an easy uphill walk.

Thus, I eliminate the first of many items on what I will deem my "excuse list;" that is, the reasons I use to excuse myself from exercise:

1. My gym is too far -- DONE
2. I'm too tired -- I honestly do not know how I plan to overcome this, except the belief that I will become more energetic as this project continues.
3. I don't have the time -- Yes, yes, I do. I get off work at 600am on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings; class does not begin until 8:30am. Guess what, Barry? After arriving at school (630am), you have almost two hours to use the school gym. You are just being lazy.
4. I worked out (yesterday/last week). -- I have to just suck it up, I suppose.
5. But I'm always on my feet -- between work and school, why do I have to work out! -- Barry, you're kidding yourself. You are currently gaining weight. You're just pouting.

Most of my reasons against working out boil down to simply psych'ing myself off my ass. For example, it is 7:30am here in Cincinnati, I am awake but am just sitting at home doing nothing. It's all about drive, for me, I think. I believe I have the ability -- I've done it before -- it's just a matter of getting into it.

And that is why I wanted to start this little project, the Charleston Losers, as a way of keeping myself accountable.

But I am adding two new items to my roster of tools:

1. A food diary -- Beginning tomorrow, I will write down everything that I eat (I almost wrote "everything I put in my mouth," but I didn't want to leave myself open to the jokes).
2. An exercise journal -- So's I can hold myself accountable to the amount of work I am doing.

I find that writing shit down helps more than anything else.

My current plan is to work out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. Possibly Friday afternoon, if I don't take over shifts that particular evening. If not, I'll add Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. Three to four days a week is a strong start, IMHO.

In consideration for my health: my heart condition is one that the actual medical advice is to sit on your couch and do very little lest I pass out and die. I contacted my doctor as the best way to handle myself. His answer? "First, surgery." (Um, no. Open heart surgery at 26? No thanks.) The next best option is to work out longer, not harder. Rather than strive for running, I am to extend gradually the time I spend on a treadmill or on another aerobic machine and keep my heart rate in the 120-140 range. Because HCM can be classified as a "tachydysrhythmia" (my heart beat goes out of sync when it speeds up), I will be able to run, eventually. I and my doctor would prefer I keep my heart rate as steady as possible and increase the intensity only after a long time.

I will not, then, set myself up to believe that I may one day run the Cooper River Bridge. Claire knows that, in my current health, even walking up the bridge is a problem. My goal is simply to make it over in less than, say, 3 hours.

I don't have a plan like Adam's. I want to get into it, first. I want to start feeling the work before delineating what I want to do. I will probably be on some sort of aerobic machine; I will probably pick up some sort of weights. In the past, I did a 15-7-30+ routine (15 minutes of aerobics, 7 resistance exercises, 30+ minutes of aerobics). It worked out well when I had 50+ machines and a plethora of free weights at my disposal. My standard work out, now, maybe 10-3-30+ or something similar. I want to get my hands on free weights... see what I can do without feeling silly.

So, I quit my gym this week. And I will start spending more time at Ronald in that gym. If I can get through those two goals, I will count this as a win for me.