Exercise Motivation Tips

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Years ago in the New York Times a star track-and-field athlete wrote an article.

She talked about how doing a shorter exercise routine that was less intense gave her better results.

After altering the intensity of my own workouts I can tell you this athlete was right:

I have the bulging biceps to prove that changing the frequency and intensity of your exercise sessions can make all the difference.

I’ve changed to lifting weights for 35 to 40 minutes with a 5 minute warm-up and 5 minute cool-down. For a total of 40 to 45 minutes each session.

You might find better luck with a different exercise plan. However so far this has worked like a charm for me.

Changing the Frequency Intensity or Time of your workouts can help.

As well I remember that sometimes you have to do what’s called a “de-load”: take it easy in the first session of a new routine.

I’m 8 years older than when I first started lifting weights.

Adapting as you go along can help you maintain an exercise habit for the long-term.

 

How Much Exercise You Need

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A shrink told me that the current thinking corroborates that engaging in short periods of exercise throughout the week is definitely okay.

I’m 54–I’ve been lifting weights for over 8 years so far. I find that my older body cannot sustain my former madwoman intense 50 to 60 minute lifting sessions 2x per week anymore.

The health coach I employed vetted what I thought myself months ago: it’s time to exercise in more frequent sessions of shorter duration.

The spring issue of the NIH MedlinePlus magazine gives these exercise guidelines:

Adults and older adults: 2 to 5 hours per week.

Adults with chronic conditions or disabilities: 2 to 5 hours per week as able.

Pregnant women: 2 hours and 30 minutes per week as able.

Kids: 1 hour per day.

Young children: 3 hours per day.

I’m 8 years older than when I first started lifting weights.

I’ve learned firsthand that you need to adapt as you go along. To be flexible to changing when your needs change. To honor your limits in any given session and modify your approach for that day.

The benefits of exercise are numerous. To be blunt: You’ll feel better when you exercise.

My father died of Stage 3 colon cancer that spread to his liver.

He spent 3 hours a day watching FoxNews. Regardless of his choice of state news channel the fact is he was sitting around doing nothing all day when he was older.

Please–I urge you–step away from the TV and break a sweat.

It can be gardening, raking leaves, walking your dog, salsa dancing.

I will report back in 2 weeks the outcome in my life of exercising more frequently in shorter time sessions.

My goal is to give people hope that engaging in any form of moderate sustained physical activity is well worth the effort.

Getting Support for Your Goals

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The one small act of scrambling eggs and veggies for breakfast has whirled into action other goals in a snowball roll.

The health coach services end in two weeks. This 2-month health coach service was well worth the money.

This is why I tell readers to get the support you need to plan and prepare for the new goals you want to take on.

One of my ideas is to go back to school for a writing degree.

It can be scary to make changes even though the changes might be positive.

That’s why I say: create a support team of individuals you can talk with.

Lastly: to remember that with health you have everything you need.

What I write I would like to educate, empower, and entertain readers.

To give followers the idea that it’s not as hard as you think to make changes.

I’ve been scrambling culinary sunshine for 6 weeks so far.

I say Go for It: risk change.

You don’t know until you try what’s possible.

Egged On

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Succeeding at one fitness goal empowers you to make other changes.

I’ve been scrambling eggs for breakfast for 4 week in a row so far.

For two days this week wasn’t possible.

Remembering that setbacks are to be expected you can cut yourself a break when you fall down every so often in doing what you’re trying to do.

I egged myself on (pun intended) to embark on setting another goal.

I find that trying to achieving one goal at a time is the method for not giving up.

Having too many goals  you expect to get at the same time will backfire.

My goal is to use the Changeology book to execute the 90-day plan of having eggs for breakfast and salads for lunch.

I’ll end here by telling readers that the Changeology book website is flawed. I’d like to use their contact form to tell them to post a list of FAQs with answers for every reader.

In fact the team at the website will not respond to you individually even though they say they will.

I’ve had a number of questions: is it okay if it takes longer than 90 days to achieve your goal? If it takes longer does this mean your goal won’t stick for the long-term?

What if you want to change an aspect of your original goal so that it’s easier to achieve it?

These questions have not been answered.

In the next Fitness Fridays blog entry I will talk more about getting support–from an actual expert like a health coach, and from friends and family,  and peers and others.

It might cost a bundle to hire a health coach yet doing this can be a great use of any extra money you have.

Your health coach can empower to make these changes.

I found out that the simple act of changing what I ate for breakfast activated my desire to make other changes.

It starts by reaching out for support. And this doesn’t have to cost a dime all the time.

Checking a book out of the library on the topic or talking with a person who’s been down this road before: it’s all good–and it’s free.

Getting and Accepting Support

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My goal is to share the insight I’ve gained with blog readers and followers.

What’s true: success often hinges on collaboration and cooperation.

Before you can be successful at a job or any other endeavor it pays to have a support network in place.

In society for everyone regardless of our challenge type getting support isn’t easy.

For a lot of us accepting support turns out to be hard.

My thinking might be off base. Yet I think too many people are so wrapped up in living for their self-gain that they don’t care about taking time out to help others who could use a hand.

The myth of the rugged individual has persisted in America for too long.

You’re told your weak if you don’t buck up and handle your business on your own.

Only when you could use an assist hardly anyone is willing to come forth to aid you.

This dynamic is a far worse condition than any type of stigma in countering a person’s success in recovery.

My stance is this: I’ve been here on this Earth over 50 years so far.

My first corporate office job career was an attempt to make the big bucks.

After I crashed and burned working at these jobs that were an ill-fit, I went back to school to have the right-fit career.

What I’ve learned in my over 25 years of employment I gladly share.

The things I know to be true—like the fact that recovery is possible for a significant number of people—I’m willing to share in the blog too.

It’s a myth that “the vast majority” of people can’t recover.

Having support, utilizing self-care, working at some kind of job (even if it’s a dedicated hobby or volunteer work), and doing what you love are tools in the tool kit to use to have a successful recovery.

Recovery starts with getting and accepting support.

It’s time to give the hateful outdated rhetoric the boot.

For too long opposing sides have said and done things to inflame each other.

I’ll end here with this: recovery is easier to achieve with support from others like family, your treatment providers, friends, and lovers.

Having a job you love is easier to obtain using the support and resources that are available.

In coming blog entries I’ll talk about support that exists for employees at a company.

Eggs for Breakfast

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In the May issue of Elle magazine Dua Lipa was interviewed.

She’s the Albanian singer-songwriter who won a Grammy award for Best New Artist.

Dua is Albanian for love. The music star revealed she eats eggs as snacks all the time. She cooked and fed her interviewer eggs.

My health coach vetted that having 2 eggs ( or 3 if you’re hungrier) for breakfast is okay.

So far I’ve scrambled eggs and veggies for 3 weeks.

That’s 21 days of the 90-day action plan in Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.

Reading the Dua Lipa interview was so uplifting and inspiring.

The singer-songwriter seems real. Grounded. Like she’s grateful for her good fortune.

Just to know that there’s a famous singer-songwriter having eggs everyday can show us that Snap and Crackle Have Popped and outlived their usefulness.

I say: step away from the cereal box aisle. Your body will thank you.

 

 

Showing Up As Yourself

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In my life when I let the illness define me I thought that doing what “normal” people do would be the cure.

The world tells you what’s acceptable. You think you’re supposed to do these things.

Only you cannot repress your soul and expect to be well. Ill health is the result of being cut off from your true self.

The ultimate goal as I see it in recovery is to become who you are.

Show up as this person wherever you go.

Self-doubt and confidence go hand-in-hand. As I wrote in You Are Not Your Diagnosis:

My employment history shows that one of three things is possible:

  • You’re just starting out and haven’t yet figured out the ideal workplace.
  • You loved your job or career when you started it and today it no longer thrills you.
  • You thought that this particular job or career was the one you wanted. It doesn’t work out and you’re forced to change.

Knowing yourself and what you are suited to do and not do is the key to success.

If you have to act false to yourself on a job you’re rolling a wheel up a hill over and over like Sisyphus in the Greek myth.

I say: get a second job to supplant your primary income rather than continuing to show up as an imposter to a job you’re not happy doing.

If you’re not happy doing your job you won’t be motivated to excel so how can you be effective at it?

This is the definition of “spinning your wheels.”

In a coming blog entry I offer a remedy for dissatisfaction.

Rebelling the Role of “Mental Patient”

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It can seem like there’s a glass wall separating people with mental health conditions from others.

It’s like you can see what’s on the other side–“success” “a good life” “a career” “a home”–and the wall stands between you and getting these things.

What is this invisible barrier? Internalized self-stigma brought on by harboring outdated false beliefs about what a person’s life is destined to become after a psychiatric emergency.

Getting to this side involves breaking free of the shackles of guilt and shame.

What I’ve learned I’ll gladly share here. I want to quote from the Introduction to my career handbook so that you might be convinced of the truth: You Are Not Your Diagnosis:

As a young person, I was happy even though my life was less than ideal. Yes—I chose to be happy even when the circumstances of my life were dismal. You can like I did rebel the role of “mental patient.” You are not your diagnosis. You’re a human being with wants, needs, desires, goals, and dreams just like everyone living on earth. It’s a mistake to think your diagnosis limits you forever in what you can do.

Having a diagnosis is often part of the package you present to others yet it isn’t your identity. Defining yourself by your symptoms locks you into a no-win mental straitjacket. Your diagnosis is not a dead end and it doesn’t define you.

A women’s organization I’m a member of used to ask its members: Who are you?

I say: you have the right to choose your identity.

In a coming blog entry I’ll talk about this in more detail.

 

Blueberry Shake Recipe

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My health coach gave me this blueberry shake recipe:

1 scoop of Pea Protein**

1 handful frozen blueberries (can be organic frozen ones)

1 handful frozen spinach  (can buy pre-washed and put in reusable zipper bag in the freezer to have on hand)***

1 cup water

1 Tbs almond butter

a pinch of cinnamon

1/2 banana (optional)

Blend in a blender.

** I use Truvani–it has only five ingredients no stevia and no natural flavors

*** Scroll below totes for reusable zipper bags sold on Container Store website

Choosing a Job for Love or Money

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Choosing a Job for Love or Money shouldn’t be a toss-up.

Ideally, the job you love will pay a livable salary. When it doesn’t you can drum up a “side hustle.”

The book The Economy of You by Kimberly Palmer talks about how to create a second income stream or else create your own full-time business.

Again, using the book Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions can also help.

The Small Business Administration website can give you information too.

Going into business for yourself or working at an established company is possible.

Clearing hurdles will make it possible to do this.

One hurdle is overcoming resistance to getting any kind of job:

Either countering your own internal roadblocks or that of naysayers who claim it’s not in the cards for you to do what you want.

In the next blog entry I’m going to document a better way.

If any social workers are reading this I would like you to take note.