Small Steps to Health

Game Plan for Distractions

January 10th, 2008 by asithi · No Comments

The cold bug is circulating around the office. I felt its nip last week, but the symptoms did not start appearing until this week. Like most beginners, I am afraid that I might loose the momentum of working out if I rest for a few days. It is so easy to just sit in front of the TV or play some mindless computer game. A year ago, this would not even be an issue for me. I would take any excuse not to exercise. But that was me a year ago because I was not ready to take the responsibility to improve my health and loose the love handles.

I did a 20 minute yoga dvd. I cannot say that I felt great physically afterwards, but I it boosted my confidence in my resolve to loose weight. The whole point was not to actually get much physical improvement by doing this short low intensity workout, but to “just keep swimming.” If I have sat in front of the TV, who knows when I would I want to get up again.

There will always be situations beyond my control to derail my motivation and resolve to loose weight. What I need to do is have a game plan for all the situations that might come up. For example:

Situation 1: Illness
I will modify my workout with something low intensity — yoga, or walking.

Situation 2: Distress call from my sister who always seems to be on crisis mode
Walk at a low intensity on the elliptical machine while I take her call with my Bluetooth headset. Or I can try pacing while I am talking.

Situation 3: Movie night during a weekday
Dinner, exercise, and some reading takes up most of the limited time I have during the workday. If my husband wants a movie night, that pretty much replace my exercise time. In this situation, I would put my mini-pedal bike in front of the sofa and pedal on it for most of the movie, but not enough to really break a sweat. Hey, any movement is better than no movement!

Situation 4: Work Late
When I know that I have to work late, I usually take a brisk walk during my lunch break. On average I already spend 50% of my daily hours at work or activities related to work, 80% if you only count the waking hours. When I have to put in extra time, everything else gets put on the backburner. That is usually the case with everyone, so it is a good idea to have a backup plan.

Situation 5: Travel
When possible, I get take-out back to my hotel room (sometimes it is not possible when your co-workers want an evening dining out and sightseeing). I always travel with one of my Leslie Sansone’s walking dvds, so I can do that for 30 minutes in the evening with my laptop. A while back I brought a tubing / bands kit for strength work while on travel, but I find that I just do not have the mental energy to follow the chart included with the kit after a long day of meetings or conferences.

At times when I need to use my game plan, I just follow the principle that any movement is better than no movement. Quality does count when you are trying to improve your health and loose weight, but sometimes you “just need to keep swimming” in order to maintain your momentum.

Tagged Fitness