The true, wandering, improvised story of one man's quiet journey from unfit and unhealthy to something better. The chronically slothful author seeks to feed two birds with one seed, breaking out of his cycle of neither exercising nor publishing by s...
I'm definitely in a rut. Not a deep one, but enough of one that my willpower is scarce compared to where it was a hundred days ago. When I am feeling energetic and self-directed, I try to seize those moments and make the most of them, usually by catching up on household chores. Outside of those times, it's hard to do even the simplest things that are good for myself, like ten minutes of stretching, knocking out a few pull-ups, or going for a walk. My professional life is in good shape, and I think I'm doing a good job of helping my wife through her medical challenges. I've even been eating healthy, and my weight is down to a new low since I started tracking it back on Day 3. But my dedication to fitness has been seriously suffering.
Today, however, I managed to do a check-in. It's three days late, but I did it. Why today? I completely skipped my end-of-May check-in, and I've been putting off this one. How is it that I finally made it happen? The key, I think, is that I was up before my alarm. I had some unexpected bonus time in my day, and I had the serenity and privacy of being the only one awake. So I got up, did my morning cat-care chores, had a glass of water, and went straight into a check-in.
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As I mentioned, my weight is down. Interestingly, my needed hours of sleep also seems to be down -- which is something that happens to me early each summer. My push-up and sit-up numbers are down again. I managed to squeeze out an eleventh pull-up, just barely. And after just over a hundred jumping-jacks, I felt a slight twinge of pain in my knee that made it seem vulnerable, so I stopped.
I did it. I haven't slipped so far that I've completely stopped doing check-ins, and I think that's the key. In years past, I might have gone six months or longer without doing any exercise at all, and I wouldn't have even noticed. But I'm feeling some of the qualitative symptoms that this project was intended to address: knee issues; spinal instability due to lack of core strength; lethargy; and lack of willpower. I need to get back on track for this project to be a success.
When I was writing Upload, I found it hard to find time to work on it. The number one thing that helped me past this was the fact that our cat, Brother Man, who has since passed away, would wake me up hours before my alarm. He was relentless, and I loved him way too much to even think of locking him out of the bedroom. Maybe what I really need right now is another needy, angsty morning cat.
