I worked out every day this week. What my commitment is to, because I will DO it, is to swim a half an hour every morning.
Now ever summer, my gym runs a fifty mile challenge. This means if you swim fifty miles over four months, you've done the challenge.
To give you an idea of what that would take, you'd have to swim about 3/4 of a mile every weekday. (Conversions: Distance in swimming is about a quarter of land distance. Swimming a mile is about like running four.)
Right now, I'm pretty unfit. It takes me a half an hour to swim 900 yards (that's approximately a half a mile in swimmer distance).
I got to thinking about training for starting the fifty mile challenge in May and how I could work really hard and I probably could get to the point where I could swim 3/4 of a mile in half and hour and....
I stopped. No. I'm notorious for going hammer and tongs at a workout program, then burning out and stopping.
So...
My exercise is to swim for half an hour every N day. If I absolutely CAN'T get to a pool in the morning, which is rare, a half hour walk is an okay substitute, but that's practically at S-day levels of rarity. I am not allowed to push hard to go faster and get up to speed to do that fifty mile challenge. In fact, this summer, I am not allowed to do that fifty mile challenge. I am to swim a half an hour every day. Period. If I get faster, cool. And I will, to be honest. You DO get more fit as you work out, and as a technical sport, you get more efficient and faster the more you practice. But I am NOT to push for it. I'm to swim laps for half an hour. I'm not to go over time just because I'm feeling macho, either.
I am LOUSY at letting the minimum be the maximum. I am garbage at moderation. I constantly want to tweak and improve until I've "improved" so much I'm sick of something. Dandy, but as Glass Ceiling has proved, being very strict about moderation HAS worked for me and solved a problem. In fact, so has No-S. No, I'm not thin. But I'm not overeating or fooling myself about what I eat. So, exercise. This is going to be the hardest, I think, as I used to do a lot of martial arts competitions as a youngester.
I've failed at this before. I'm even having to be stern with myself about not tweaking No-S to set myself up for failure.
So, here's to Extreme Moderation. I like phrase because I can channel my desire for INTENSITY into the being intense about being moderate. LOL.
Let the Minimum be the Maximum
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NoelFigart
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Let the Minimum be the Maximum
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My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.
My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.
I think this is very wise, Noel.
I have the same problem you do with throwing myself over-enthusiastically into something, then burning out. It took me a LONG time to realize it, and it's a trap I still fall into.
Limits help me a lot. Not just setting a minimum, but a maximum. Some examples...
I never could keep a journal until I found the recommendation to write ONLY three pages. No more. I used to start journals, write reams for a few days, then give up. Every few years, lather, rinse, repeat. Now I've kept one for years. Three pages (ok, occasionally 2 or 4) is about right - long enough for stuff to bubble up, short enough to not burn out.(My journal is handwritten, about 8"x5" pages.)
Somewhere I got this recommendation for perfectionism (which, btw, is what started me knitting):
- Find something that you'd like to learn, preferably where success is not critical to your life or work. Good candidates include languages, musical instruments, or other skills.
- Do it for 15 minutes a day. You are NOT ALLOWED to go longer. But do it every day, or as close as you can manage.
The goal is to do it regularly, but not for so long that it's onerous. And to learn that practice over time builds skill, that you can survive the fumbling beginning stage, and it's all okay. I found it VERY helpful - I was almost paralyzed by perfectionism at that point. Seriously.
And then, there's the energy cycle connection. There are days I'm superwoman, and get amazing amounts done. But that's only some days. Other days, I barely manage the minimum. Like, if "normal" was 100%, I'd swing between 120% and 80%. The problem was that I'd set all my goals based on my 120% days, then totally beat myself up for not living up to them on my 80% days!! I got a lot more successful when I started trying to set goals for the "low" days.
Obviously, your "let the minimum be the minimum" hit a nerve for me. It's a lesson I'm always re-learning (though I think I'm better at it than I used to be), so I appreciate the reminder.
I have the same problem you do with throwing myself over-enthusiastically into something, then burning out. It took me a LONG time to realize it, and it's a trap I still fall into.
Limits help me a lot. Not just setting a minimum, but a maximum. Some examples...
I never could keep a journal until I found the recommendation to write ONLY three pages. No more. I used to start journals, write reams for a few days, then give up. Every few years, lather, rinse, repeat. Now I've kept one for years. Three pages (ok, occasionally 2 or 4) is about right - long enough for stuff to bubble up, short enough to not burn out.(My journal is handwritten, about 8"x5" pages.)
Somewhere I got this recommendation for perfectionism (which, btw, is what started me knitting):
- Find something that you'd like to learn, preferably where success is not critical to your life or work. Good candidates include languages, musical instruments, or other skills.
- Do it for 15 minutes a day. You are NOT ALLOWED to go longer. But do it every day, or as close as you can manage.
The goal is to do it regularly, but not for so long that it's onerous. And to learn that practice over time builds skill, that you can survive the fumbling beginning stage, and it's all okay. I found it VERY helpful - I was almost paralyzed by perfectionism at that point. Seriously.
And then, there's the energy cycle connection. There are days I'm superwoman, and get amazing amounts done. But that's only some days. Other days, I barely manage the minimum. Like, if "normal" was 100%, I'd swing between 120% and 80%. The problem was that I'd set all my goals based on my 120% days, then totally beat myself up for not living up to them on my 80% days!! I got a lot more successful when I started trying to set goals for the "low" days.
Obviously, your "let the minimum be the minimum" hit a nerve for me. It's a lesson I'm always re-learning (though I think I'm better at it than I used to be), so I appreciate the reminder.
One thing that Reinhard's "Fourteen minutes of anything" approach has taught me is to not worry about progress, about getting better or faster at whatever the exercise is. A while back I tried the popular Couch-to-5K running programme, which was great, but it did suck me into the mindset of "must chip 30 seconds off my time". That was OK while my enthusiasm held up, but eventually it became more of a chore. I would start to dread my 30-minute run, because I had to do a better time than the last run, right?
Inevitably, I fell off the wagon and stopped running at all. But these days, I'm doing a strict 14-minutes a (week)day of "anything", and I absolutely do not care if my performance at whatever-it-is is worse than the day before. I no longer see it as progressing to some ultimate fitness goal - I have already arrived at the goal, which is to keep reasonably fit by doing some modest amount of exercise most days. It's liberating, not having to worry about getting better at it.
Inevitably, I fell off the wagon and stopped running at all. But these days, I'm doing a strict 14-minutes a (week)day of "anything", and I absolutely do not care if my performance at whatever-it-is is worse than the day before. I no longer see it as progressing to some ultimate fitness goal - I have already arrived at the goal, which is to keep reasonably fit by doing some modest amount of exercise most days. It's liberating, not having to worry about getting better at it.
I like it.
One thing I'm experimenting with is to just do the exercise, and not push too much.
That could be running or cycling, but just do half an hour run or 1 to 2 hours cycling as often as possible - but no more. No fartleks, no intervals, just do it.
The aim is to 'train' by doing the exercise, rather than the perverse idea of training all winter just to be able to do the task.
No matter what point you start from you will get better if you do a little and often at your own pace. Eventually you will become as efficient as you can be for the task without having to start upping the pace, devoting more and more time until you crash & burn and give it up (as it starts to take over your life).
This is good advice:
http://runninginjuryfree.org/2008/08/blog-post.html
[/url]
One thing I'm experimenting with is to just do the exercise, and not push too much.
That could be running or cycling, but just do half an hour run or 1 to 2 hours cycling as often as possible - but no more. No fartleks, no intervals, just do it.
The aim is to 'train' by doing the exercise, rather than the perverse idea of training all winter just to be able to do the task.
No matter what point you start from you will get better if you do a little and often at your own pace. Eventually you will become as efficient as you can be for the task without having to start upping the pace, devoting more and more time until you crash & burn and give it up (as it starts to take over your life).
This is good advice:
http://runninginjuryfree.org/2008/08/blog-post.html
[/url]
I think swimming is hard so 14 minutes of swimming would do me in. So kudos on doing any amount of swimming!
My minimum is 30 minutes of anything so I rarely miss a day. However, I definitely try to gradually increase my effort. I time myself and push myself...I just do not make that the measure of my success. Success is 30 minutes of any type of exercise, and it does not have to be all at once. I also allow myself one exempt day a week even though I rarely use it any more.
So I guess my minimum is definitely not my maximum. I am a perfectionist about a lot of things which is what made me fail at diet and exercise in the past. Perhaps it is age, but I am learning to be easier on myself.
My minimum is 30 minutes of anything so I rarely miss a day. However, I definitely try to gradually increase my effort. I time myself and push myself...I just do not make that the measure of my success. Success is 30 minutes of any type of exercise, and it does not have to be all at once. I also allow myself one exempt day a week even though I rarely use it any more.
So I guess my minimum is definitely not my maximum. I am a perfectionist about a lot of things which is what made me fail at diet and exercise in the past. Perhaps it is age, but I am learning to be easier on myself.
The journey is the reward.
Maintenance is progress.
Maintenance is progress.