Today is the last day of the first quarter of 2019. How are you doing on your fitness goals for the year? Are you still making progress toward those goals? Do you need to get back on the program? Now’s a great time to take a look at our wins and the things that we can do to still improve.
Wins
I didn’t start with a goal of losing “X” pounds. My goal at the beginning of the year was just to get back into good shape that I can feel proud of. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting closer to that goal.
I’ve either run on a treadmill, run outside, or rode my bike trainer for 80% of the days in the first quarter of the year. That’s roughly 70 more days than I spent exercising in the first quarter of last year and 100% more days than I spent exercising in the last quarter of last year. Not coincidentally, almost every pair of jeans that I own fits me again. The ones that don’t fit are from the days when I was really thin and riding my bike 250-300 miles per week.
The Ed Tech Fitness Challenges that I share every Monday have helped me build some strength and flexibility elements into my exercise routine that I would have otherwise ignored. Burpees, anyone?
Areas to Improve
My diet is garbage. I’ve had some good weeks, but the majority of the weeks have not been good. This is largely due to my stress-snacking habit and my habit of accepting free beer or red wine when its offered on my flights (I’ve taken 25 flights so far this year).
The good weeks with my diet have been when I use the My Fitness Pal app. I need to use that every week. Just writing those sentences reminds me that I now have the metabolism of a 40 year old and not a 30 year old let alone the metabolism I had 20 years ago when I could eat two Burger King Whoppers and not gain an ounce. Just writing “eat two Burger King Whoppers” probably added an inch to my waist.
Second Quarter Goals
For the second quarter of the year I have three fitness goals. The first is to complete a 62 mile solo bike ride in April. The second is to complete a 100 mile solo bike ride in May. The third is to use My Fitness Pal every week to track my diet.
What’s Happening in the Second Quarter
275 of you have joined the Ed Tech Fitness weekly email newsletter in which I send out a challenge for the week. I plan to continue to send those in the second quarter.
I’m thinking of hosting a Strava-like fitness challenge in the second quarter. I’m still working on the details for that (largely legal details related to hosting fitness contests).
Finally, in April I’ll be recording the first episodes of the Ed Tech Fitness podcast. For one of the episodes I’ll be joined by an old friend who happens to have won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games.