Exercising!

It's been almost two weeks of my self-motivated exercise program and I must say that it's going quite well. I think that the last year and half of exercising most Monday-Wednesday-Fridays has conditioned me to expect to exercise at least three times a week. The fact that the weather has been nice the last two weeks has also helped so I can get outside more on the bike or just walking.

To motivate myself, I wrote up a exercise plan much like I had at the physio room at the hospital and have learned how to use most of the weight machines at the gym. I have to always remove all the weights after the ridiculously-large chested men have used them but I find I have a bit more control than the dumbbells for muscles I haven't worked in a long time. The other downside with the dumbbells is that the gym only has one set of 5lb, 8lb, and 10lb, as they always seem to be in use. Side note: Is a 80lb dumbbell really necessary at a condo gym? If you're that intense, you need to be at a gym that serves protein shakes and steroids.

Apart from last week when I accidentally crippled myself by doing too many weights without enough stretching, everything continues to progress at a slow but steady rate. After barely being able to walk on Thursday due to my thighs being on fire, I'm sticking to the 'increase no more than 10% at a time' mantra that they used at physiotherapy. I guess I was being a little too ambitious last Wednesday. Oops!

This week has gone much smoother. Tuesday was a big walking day with the zoo, Thursday I went on a big bike ride out to a park that turned out to be closed on weekdays (so random), and today Isaiah convinced me to walk home from the market. I've managed to reach my 150 minutes of aerobic exercise and weights three times both weeks which is excellent.

I still have yet to figure out a behavioral reinforcement system for myself. As cheesy as it sounds, I'm just so excited that I can do all this stuff again that being able to bike 10km without much struggle is rewarding on its own. I get up in the morning and I want to go to the gym or out for a walk simply because I can and I love the feeling of how much stronger my body is getting. I also love that my jeans are no longer falling off me as my legs strengthen. I'm sure eventually I'll hit a wall and won't see as much progress which will probably become discouraging but I'll enjoy the self-motivation while I have it.

A water break stop along my bike ride yesterday, I was really tempted to stay and read my book instead of continuing.