It’s the last day of the month! July is done! Tomorrow you get a fresh start and you get to see your grades on your resolutions chart. Your tentative grades. These grades aren’t final. Unless you did well. Then the grades are official.
You’re going to do a resolutions chart with me in August, right? Let’s do a fitness challenge together. Why? Because fitness is my theme for next month. Why not?
I crave working out these days. But it took a sustained effort that I’m still sustaining to figure out what works for me and how to make fitness an easy constant added to the day.
I think of this craving as the workout muse. I can’t summon her — she’s much too independent for that — but if I work out enough, I’ll occasionally see her. She’s captivating. When we hang out, I feel capable and strong. It’s always a delightful moment when she appears.
So let’s concentrate on befriending the muse in August. The good news is there are so many ways to measure fitness that I’ve lost count. And, not to brag, but I can count pretty high.
Here are my fitness resolutions for August 2019. I may be overextending myself.
1. Record workout time/activity.
This is always on my chart and will always be on my chart, I suspect.
2. Monitor heart rate.
Get up to 80-95% of maximum heart rate at least once per day.
You manage what you measure and I wasn’t measuring fitness in any meaningful way. I counted my total workout time, but that didn’t tell me anything about the intensity.
I read the book Younger Next Year a while ago and the authors suggest using a heart rate monitor to make sure you’re working hard enough in your routine. That’s where I got the 80-95% number. Getting your heart rate up that high teaches your heart to deal with the stress of life and makes your blood flow, which I think is a good thing.
The formula is: 220 – (your age) = maximum heart rate
My max heart rate: 184 beats per minute, so I will aim to get to 138-156 beats per minute.
3. Take measurements.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (the main character and name of a television show) measures herself every single day. Insane! But she’s in insane shape, so I imagine it works. I’m going to try it for a month.
July 30, 2019 measurements
Bicep measurements: 25 cm
Chest: 74 cm
Waist: 69 cm
Neck: 30 cm
Thigh: 55 cm
Calf: 30 cm
Hips: 86 cm
It’s more accurate when someone else does it for you, but I don’t have someone else.
An awesome reader sent me an awesome spreadsheet for fitness that I’m using. Spreadsheets are happiness. On that spreadsheet, I’m tracking my measurements and my heart rate.
I also took a couple of pictures of myself in a bikini for comparison sake.
4. Put on lotion.
I don’t put on lotion enough when it’s not on my chart.
5. Don’t eat sugar.
There is no upside to sugar. I try to think of it as something toxic. Or at least, not something I want to put in my mouth.
6. Don’t eat any obvious white grains.
I struggle with this resolution, but I think it’s key to the six pack. We’ll see.
7. Eat a dark leafy green vegetable or two or three or twelve.
I find this resolution to be highly satisfying and easy to keep. I’ll tell you about it in detail in another post. Maybe too much detail.
8. Practice intermittent fasting (eat from only 12-8).
Avoid the late night food choices that never end with a happy stomach.
My other resolutions for August
- Meditate with legs crossed the other direction (for meditation life goal)
- Record writing time (for writing life goal)
- Send a letter (for social life goal)
- Say something on social media (for business life goal)
- Plan trip.
Tomorrow, we begin again. Another chance to live the life you want to live. Huzzah! I write that word a lot, but never say it in real life.
Don’t worry, I’ll check in with you. That’s the point. I’ll hold your hand. I don’t have cooties.
Good list!
“Meditate with legs crossed the other direction” Now that is a hard goal!
Intermittent Fasting has been an effective habit for me 🙂
One of my workout videos told me to sit with my legs crossed and then uncross them and cross your other leg first. Mind blowing! Subtle, very noticeable difference. I’m not balanced.
Dang! You’re on it! Kick some booty this month. I don’t think I could keep up with the detailed measurements myself, but maybe I should give it a whirl.
It sounds like measuring things (in multiple areas) is helpful for you. I’m trying to incorporate some more of that, but I don’t want to bite off more than I can handle.
I’ve got 73 days before a 1/2 marathon and these summer weekend BBQs make sticking with fitness routines tough! August will be better!
I will join you this month. I am contending with a healing knee injury, so exercise is limited to swimming/gym every second day, until my consultant says so. I usually make lists and forget about them. This month will be better.
I think so too!
I did start a chart in July with you. I listed 8 categories, but found I could only really concentrate on about half of them. One I knocked out of the ballpark (daily planks)! I got to 100 seconds by the end of the month. I’m also an introvert so added social events, such as inviting someone to lunch. I plan to mix up the categories and try again for August. And yes, I’ll add more of your fitness suggestions. Thank you for the encouragement.
You’re very welcome. I’m happy you’re joining me!
I know! Social activities are the worst for sticking to your diet.
You manage what you measure!
My resolution is to have no resolutions.
that’s a good one, too. Some months you just need that.
For people who want to learn more about optimizing benefits from training by tuning effort based on heart rate zones, here’s a link with an overview by Stephen Seiler, the guru of endurance:
https://lecturecapture.brookes.ac.uk/Mediasite/Play/3b951db65dd44082a876060aab67f5c51d
The short version is that anyone from recreational to serious athletes can build significant endurance by doing long workouts (e.g. 50 min or more) at an effort equivalent to 60-82% of HR max. And, use high intensity intervals of 5-8 min of work to 3 min rest (repeated 3-10 times) at 88 to 95% of HR max to build power and additional anaerobic and aerobic capacity. Minutes spent doing high intensity interval training (HIIT) should make up from 5% to 20% of total training time.
A couple of additional notes. Getting significant time every day above 82% of HR max can make you really flat. Vary your workouts, e.g frequent long steady distance workouts and weekly HIIT. Time spent at 82 to 88% of HR max (aka tempo work or Anaerobic Threshold) is low bang for the effort buck, so isn’t an ideal training zone. Lastly, people over 40 don’t usually get accurate HR maxes from the 220-age formula, especially if fit. Some more accurate and up-to-date formulae are in this article on HR:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate
But, the ideal way to discover your max heart rate is to estimate it, get fit with endurance and high intensity work, then test for it in a workout,.
Thanks for the resources!!
I’m in!
Yay!
My July resolutions chart did not turn out any different from un-charted June. Did according to expectations on top priorities and neglected the rest. Probably the choice of resolutions as I struggled to fill in 5 meaningful ones.
As for measuring, how much do these kind of measurements change between a good and bad day?
I’ve never used a measuring tape on myself… on those body parts… but my weight and the weight I lift can vary enough that I have to measure often to not get the soul crushing equivalent of a biceps-cm migrating to the belly due to random chance.
“Huzzah! I write that word a lot, but never say it in real life.” Sept resolutions chart?
LMAO to measuring a certain body part.
I like that you’ve posted your August chart so we can follow your progress. Thanks for being open! I did okay in July—one A, one B, one C and two Fs. Ha, if I were in school that would be terrible, not “okay”. I used almost the same goals for this month.
I’m glad you’re not giving up! It gets easier.
Bicep measurements: 37 cm
Chest: 114cm
Waist: 96 cm
Neck: 46 cm
Thigh: 56 cm
Calf: 41 cm
Hips: 98 cm
Point taken. Those measurements mean nothing to me.
I think you may safely infer that I out-weigh you. If I post another set it may be possible to infer that I am entering or receding from one of my jock phases. I find it interesting that to maintain 200 lbs I need to be actively lifting. If I am not, I dwindle – at this point, down 16 lbs.