I
do, because I’m from the First World and as such have grown up looking
for the flaws and imperfections that make my brilliant life
‘incomplete’. What am I complaining about? Myself – some might
call that unusual but it is the purpose of this blog, really. What did I
do? I cut my gym session last night by forty five whole minutes. I was
still there for an hour and a half, and I did only cut it short because
between finishing work at six, eating and
getting to sleep at a decent (ish) time squashing in a gym visit of
longer than an hour is difficult. The other issue was I had fallen so
far behind in calorie count I had to make up by eating that I was
concerned I wouldn’t be able to if I carried on through
with my work out plan. I wasn’t exhausted when I left but I was tired,
and had travelled fifteen km over three machines so it was by no means a
wasted trip. I just feel I let myself down by not staying longer, and
I’m also going to eat slightly less afterwards
as I felt rotten after what was actually quite a healthy dinner of
pasta, bacon and kale (cooked) – it was just an awful lot to eat at
once.
Today my legs only ache a little and my upper body is fine, so I clearly
didn’t do enough work. How to remedy this? Easy; I have created a
contingency plan to compensate for this perceived failure
and/or increase in ability. Now, being one of my plans, it is obviously
considered, well thought through and suitably measured as a response.
It certainly does not suffer from an abundance of ambition or an absence
of appropriate expectation.
This
week is DROGO WEEK! I’ll be running to and using the gym every day
until Friday, and most likely being increasingly tired verging on
exhausted every day until Friday too. I definitely didn’t
decide on this while under the influence of testosterone – which a
friend has convinced me is a mind-altering drug. Regardless, that is my
resolution and I will remain resolved to rectify my restrained exercise
regime: If I can push myself harder, I should
push myself harder.
Now,
just to prove I have given some thought to this titanic (ish) tactic I
will point out that I will not be doing the same thing every day at the
gym – for instance, having done thirty five minutes
on the treadmill (5km) and the same time on the cross trainer (7.25km)
yesterday, I will not be using them today. I’m looking at 30 minutes
rowing and 35 minutes cycling. I did do ten minutes rowing yesterday for
2.3km but pushed myself too far considering
I haven’t done it in about a month. I’m pretty sure if I pace myself I
can manage half an hour. My brother’s comment on my rowing yesterday was
pretty positive; “You looked pretty good but sounded like a Viking.”
This
is a review I will amenably accept – my music play was too loud for me
to hear myself over but I have recently updated my work out playlist so
rather than just being everything on my phone
it is an actual playlist. It is formed of what I would consider manly,
motivational tracks, so mainly metal or things like the Skyrim theme. I
have crafted it after a conversation with a friend about the effects of
testosterone after which I came to two conclusions;
firstly I would use the sauna after every work out to calm down and
secondly testosterone is the perfect biological fuel for the fires of my
fitness rebirth. Ergo, the new playlist is full of tracks that were
written and played after the writer/performer had
injected themselves with about 250cc or equal parts testosterone and
adrenaline. Currently it’s about thirty minutes in length but I’m
planning to build on it. As a bonus I have substantially increased my
collection of Scandinavian metal, so it has had non-exercise
benefits too. It has certainly kept me motivated and pushing my limits
to breaking point.
The
message this week is one of rediscovery. Don’t let your workout – or
your diet – become stale or stagnant. It won’t keep you interested or
enjoying it, and will make it a chore rather than
a challenge, arduous rather than an adventure and embittering rather
than empowering. Entropy is the only constant, the only real law of
nature and therefore real rebels resist it rather than being
rambunctious hipsters. Do not give in to laziness – it leads
to inertia and to entropy, which leads to something much less exciting
than the Dark Side. You should live your life, not just survive it and
so I encourage you to vary your routine – boldly go where you haven’t
been before, eat what you haven’t eaten before
and do what you haven’t done before. Rediscover the enjoyment you can
have from exercise or the satisfaction you find in dieting, or discover
something new about those things. Hopefully you’ll even like it.
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