Sunday, October 4, 2009

What Commitment to Exercise Really Means

So often I hear people say, "I just don't have time to work out." The translation is likely, "I'm not interested in fitness (right now)." That's fine, but let's call a spade a spade. The truth is, most of us DO have time but choose NOT to.

But if/when a person chooses to adopt a healthier lifestyle and incorporate regular exercise, the time to work out CAN almost always be found. No one was more surprised to discover that than me.

By way of background, I'm married with two sons (7 & 9 years), working full-time at Virginia Tech juggling two faculty roles in addition to participating in several community projects and organizations. My husband works long days with an hour-long commute at each end, and the kids are each involved in a number of extracurricular activities. Needless to say, there's not a lot of surplus time in the schedule for anything extra.

How in the world (and why) would I squeeze workouts into an already crazy schedule??

Looking back on the past 18 months since I began working with my trainer and made the decision to adopt a fitness lifestyle I've seen through his example and for myself that it takes motivation, goals, discipline, perseverance, time management, streamlining, and accountability. It's a daily choice to continue along this path and obviously the payoff turns out to be pretty good or it wouldn't be sustainable.

Motivation: When I began, my motivation was to lose weight, get fit, and feel better. My motivation now? Well, it's that I really DO feel better and I start to go a little stir crazy after a day without exercise. (I'd heard that from other people, but I never believed it.) I just feel healthier, more energetic, and like I am able to squeeze more out of life. The important thing is to identify, deep down, and in all honesty, your individual motivations, no matter how silly they might seem. Here are some of my quirky motivators. I am motivated to run in the dark hours of the early morning, when hardly anyone is out because it makes me feel strong and powerful and a little unique to know that few people would do that. I like knowing I can swim a mile, and seeing that my biceps pop out just a bit. I don't want to lose all I have worked so hard for, so heck yes, I'll keep investing.

Goals: Early on my trainer encouraged me to identify and work toward a goal. It began, reluctantly at the time, with a half-marathon goal (I thought he was crazy initially) and continued on with additional objectives: more races, lifting goals, a triathlon, and an upcoming marathon. These bring focus and purpose to my efforts. Each and every workout, for better or worse, is an important investment in a long-term effort. It's like a financial investment - regular, modest deposits are the way to go. Races and competitions at once excite and terrify me, but as I complete each one, my confidence grows sending me headlong into the next challenge.

Goals give my trainer and I a common focus, and he does a great job of coming up with interesting and sometimes unique (!) ways to prepare for them. He makes sure that things never get boring, that's for sure.

Discipline: I have been challenged to become more disciplined in every aspect of my life. My trainer gave me an excerpt from the Competitive Runner's Handbook (Glover and Florence-Glover, 1999) entitled "Warrior" that reminds me that being an athlete is a 24-hour a day commitment, reflected in all the small daily choices I make. As a Warrior I must be disciplined to balance family/work/fitness, perform efficiently at my job, eat for performance, sleep and rest as needed, complete scheduled workouts, and tend to injuries. Am I perfect at this? No, I still eat chocolate here and there and stay up too long, get behind on my work, arrive late to pick up the kids from school, etc. but it gives me something to strive for, a direction to head. However, my life is still far more organized than it would be otherwise.

I don't miss a workout unless I am really sick (fever), injured in a way that precludes a particular workout, or at a point of overtraining. Even while I recovered from a leg fracture, I still enjoyed working upper body at the gym with my trainer several times a week and made great gains. Go with what you can do!

I bring myself fully to each and every workout, striving to be rested and well fueled. Again, not every workout turns out to be stellar, but with a long-range perspective, each is still a good investment and learning experience.

Oddly enough, one of my bigger issues right now is having the discipline to NOT work out and truly rest on days off and not adding unscheduled workouts into the mix. Discipline is as much about knowing how to push and persevere as knowing when to back off and rest. I'm still working on that one.

Perseverance: This is the one area where I have probably been challenged the most and grown the most. I envisioned a nice smooth upward path to improved fitness, not knowing that physical issues can and will pop up, especially in that first year when connective tissues are adapting to increased demands. Perseverance and faith are critical!

My first scheduled race ever was a 10K, and about six weeks out I had sudden iliotibial band issues. The IT is a thick band that runs from the hip down through the outer knee and can cause acute pain when inflamed. It severely curtailed my running at time when things were just taking off for me as a newbie runner. I couldn't believe what an emotional wreck I became, but my trainer got me through it physically and mentally and I recovered enough to run a strong race. At that point I started to understand the importance of stretching, icing, and attending to pain.

Fast forward nine months, and an awkward lateral step on a routine run left me with shooting pains up my right leg. I was a month away from running in my first marathon and had been training diligently and strongly. It was a very rocky, emotional, and frustrating two weeks before I got a final diagnosis of a fractured fibula. Weeks of a cast, crutches, and a boot put my marathon dreams on hold. Once again, my trainer helped me through by getting me to focus on complete healing, short-term goals (upper body strength-training), and long-term goals (summer triathlon, upcoming marathonz0. Looking back now, I see the silver lining to the whole experience. I learned that I can get through setbacks; was encouraged me to branch out with my cross training; completed a triathlon that I would not have otherwise done; made gains in upper body strength; and returned to running stronger than before. Keep a long-term perspective when setbacks occur and work around them creatively.

Time Management: With work and family obligations, I have needed to be creative to fit in workouts. I've also relied on the help of my family. Most of my running is completed before 7:30 am so I can be home in time to finish getting the kids ready and drive them to school. This means some mornings I am running as early as 5:45 am. I choose routes that have streetlights and enjoy the peaceful solitude on the roads. Resistance training is done 3x a week after work. I am fortunate to have the support of my mother-in-law who takes care of the children during this time. Swimming happens either at 6 am or at 11 am. I am fortunate that the VT pool is halfway between my office and my 12:30 T/H class. I got a locker and towel service so I can easily swing by for a swim on my way to class. I try to plan and be efficient with my time.

Am I totally excited every time I need to get up early for a run or to hit the pool? Most of the time, yes, but there are days that I have to talk myself into workouts or drag myself out of bed, but I never regret it and sometimes those turn out to be my best workouts!

I look for ways to save time. I rarely go out to lunch, keep work and books in the car to take advantage of spare moments, and keep social engagements to a minimum.

Streamlining: I originally called this section "sacrifice" except that the things I've given up I really don't miss and really don't need. Some things that have been jettisoned, either completely or mostly, include: TV (I hardly watch any anymore), alcoholic beverages (they interfere with sleep and workouts), and shopping (I do what I have to online). I sleep a little less now too, but with energy levels higher, I seem to need less anyway

Accountability: Ultimately I'm accountable to myself, but having a trainer makes a big, big difference! Knowing the time and effort that has gone into tailoring, crafting, and balancing workouts and schedules, I am very hesitant to omit a workout (and it rarely RARELY happens). I risk throwing the whole thing out of balance and robbing myself of an opportunity. It's like a contract. I demonstrate my commitment to the training plan and in return I know my trainer is fully invested and there for the ups and downs. And there are downs, usually when pressures and stresses of life threaten to bury me and he finds ways to keep me going.

So after a year and a half, I'm pretty certain that these are habits for a lifetime. I feel really blessed to have discovered the real joy of hard work, a soaking sweat, labored breathing, and discovering I can challenge and push myself harder than I thought I could. My kids are seeing first-hand how to work hard to reach goals. I see the impact it has on them as my 9 year old is about to run his second 5K and my 7 year old demonstrates great focus and perseverance in Karate.

I don't expect that my approach will work for everyone (or maybe not anyone), nor do I claim that I have this perfectly figured out. It's a daily and weekly commitment and juggling act but one that I am humbly privileged to be able to do. It is with the support of my family and my trainer that it works, but it was me who had to make the commitment and the changes. If I can do it, anyone can do it. It just takes desire and willingness to adapt. But the payoffs are tremendous and far-reaching to self and family. I promise!