fitmuse

Okay, so I’m not THAT much of a morning person. I’d decided a few days ago that I was going to start getting up 15-20 minutes earlier than normal to get in a short workout before I begin my day. I did it once, but then after a couple of late nights working, I just didn’t have the strength to do it. But I had followed this plan before with great success. I was doing two workouts a day–a cardio workout in the early morning, and a weight-training workout in the evenings. How did I do it? I wondered. Oh, yeah, that’s right–I had some real motivation, and I’d set a goal for myself.

You see, back when I was putting in two workouts a day, we’d planned a trip to the beach, so I had a strong incentive for getting myself into shape. The previous time we’d gone to the beach I was, frankly, a little embarrassed by the pictures I saw of myself afterwards. I’d always thought of myself as someone who was fit and in pretty good shape, but I sure didn’t look it from those photos. So the next time we planned to make that trip, I’d made up my mind to get myself into beach shape. My goal was simply to lower my body fat percentage and get stronger, and I had a target date to reach.

With a goal in mind, however vague, and a date by which to achieve it, I had all the motivation I needed to get up early in the morning and to follow-up with an evening session. This was all it really took to light a fire under me and get me moving. I dieted smartly in the months leading up to our trip. I say smartly because, in general, I don’t do the whole dieting thing of counting my calories or my carbs and adding things up to make sure I’m staying within specified limits. I believe in the idea of just eating good food, avoiding the processed stuff, and getting some exercise to keep the body strong and fit.

So when I say I ate smartly, what I mean is, I consumed a diet dense in nutrients and devoid of simple sugars. That’s right–I ate absolutely no sugar for about five months. I don’t eat much sugar as a general rule anyway, but in this case I made the conscious decision to avoid it altogether. I ate six meals a day consisting of a lean protein and some vegetables–eggs (mostly whites) in the morning with a slice of whole wheat toast, chicken breasts and tossed salads or mixed vegetables during the day, with occasional snacks on nuts and fruits. Yes, my diet was low in fat and relatively low in carbs, but I don’t count the grams of any of that because my goal isn’t necessarily to restrict any one nutrient to a specific level; it’s simply to eat foods that provide my body with the nutrients it needs. The only nutrient I was even conscious of was protein intake because that is, after all, the primary fuel your muscles need. The last thing I wanted was for my body to start cannibalizing muscle because I was burning a lot of calories.

With each morning workout I incrementally increased either the intensity or duration. I started out just walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes. I upped it to 20 minutes, and then I increased the speed. Then I started doing 10 minutes on the stair climber first and then 10 minutes on the treadmill. In this way, I gradually ramped up the closer I got to the target date. In my weight training workouts, I adjusted from doing three heavy workouts a week to doing shorter, more intense workouts five days per week. I did supersets, compound sets and giant sets. I focused on a different body part each day so that I worked my whole body once per week. Each week I would increase either the weight I lifted, the number of sets I performed or the number of reps per set. Again, the intensity gradually got higher as I neared the target date.

The end result was that at forty-something I was literally in the best shape of my life. Now at a time when getting back that drive is foremost in my mind, I realize that I don’t really have the same incentives in place or targets to achieve. Don’t get me wrong–I’m still in pretty good shape. I work out at least three days a week, and I consciously take steps during the day to keep myself active. The two challenges I face are that my work often eats into what used to be prime workout time and keeps me up late at night, making it difficult to get up early, and I lack a driving reason to make an extra effort and to set a specific target.

Once I’ve got those two puzzles figured out, I’ll be able to get back into the condition I achieved a few years ago.

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