Schedule questions.

The more you encourage me to write about The Last Three Pounds (note:  new category), the easier it will be for me.  No kidding.  Those of you who are sick of reading about my diet, think of this as the pledge drive.  Keep me obsessed just a little longer, and then we'll go back to regularly scheduled programming!  (Except on the hour and half hour.)

MrsDarwin: "Can I ask about the time frame for all this? I'm embarking on a weight loss routine, so I'm curious to know how you structure your evenings at the gym."

Admit it, Mrs. D.  It's the bridesmaid dress, isn't it.

We belong to the local YMCA.  I live a mile from the closest branch.  In January , Mark and I resolved that I would swim twice a week.   I shoot for 40 minutes in the water, and if I really hurry in the locker room I can get in and out in one hour five minutes.  I began with the 400-yard workouts here and worked my way up to 1200 yards.  Three different 1200-yd workouts, plus a speed trial that I can complete in 20 minutes if I'm in a hurry, are written in a waterproof notebook that I take to the pool's edge.  Each time, I swim the one that feels right for the day, but once I've picked it, I follow the workout exactly.

I decided not to try to exercise more often, or any other way, until "I swim twice a week" had become a firm habit.  

I swim Mondays and Thursdays, usually in the evening.  

On Thursdays, I plan a light dinner that's done ahead of time.  The kids and I eat a substantial snack around four o'clock, and we try to have the table set and the cleanup done.  At 5:45 we meet Mark at the Y.  We drop the 2yo off at the child care room, and Mark takes the boys to their swim lessons while I head to the locker room.  Mark can do about 20-25 minutes of weightlifting while the boys are in swim lessons before he has to fetch them.  I'm usually done and showered and changed about the same time the boys are.  We go right home and are sitting down to dinner around 7:20.   

Mondays there's no swim lesson schedule to follow.  We decide each week (when I plan the meals) how we're going to make it work.  Often the schedule's similar to Thursday, but about an hour earlier, and with the boys joining the 2yo in child care (Oscar generally brings schoolwork to do).  Other times I go by myself after supper, Mark having exercised at work before coming home.  

(If Monday evening exercise is impossible for some reason, I will swim Sunday night, Monday very early morning, or Tuesday very early morning; or I will take the kids midday Monday, but I use the treadmill if Mark's not there because it's a pain to have the child care staff come get me out of the pool if the kids need me.)

Where does Mark's workout fit in?  Well, first of all, he's been running and biking to and from work; that takes care of a lot of cardio.  He also lifts weights, and can do it at the Y or in his workplace gym.  He's got enough options that he generally works around the rest of us.

We developed this routine over months.  My advice is to make one commitment at a time, and make each one a commitment that you really can stick to, and don't add on until the previous commitment is a thoroughly ingrained habit.  The first habit was a few years ago, literally because of doctor's orders:  "Mark works out three times a week."  Not too long after that came a once-a-week "Family Gym Night" including the swim lessons and incorporating one of Mark's workouts.  We added "Erin swims on Family Gym Night and on one other night each week" in January.  In the spring, Mark decided to start running and biking to work, which actually made the workout schedule a lot easier because we weren't trying to fit his cardio in.

Ten months later, I am starting to add a third, non-swimming exercise session to my week.  

Comments

[mrsdarwin]

Oh, it's absolutely the bridesmaid dress...

Thanks. That gives me a clearer idea of how to fit workouts into my routine, such as it is. Right now I walk/jog for about 30 min. in the morning three days a week, but with a nursing baby it's ridiculously hard to get up early. Maybe I'm lazy (likely) but the thought of waking up early to exercise is killing me.

[bearing]

Hmm....

(1) Ask your husband to make you get up?

(2) Sleep in your running clothes?

(3) Promise yourself a reward?

(4) Start with just ONCE a week?

I know if I was trying to establish a get-up-early-to-exercise habit, I'd think of some lovely thing I could only get if I got up early. Like ten minutes in a totally quiet house with a fresh cup of coffee and the newspaper. I'd do that first and then go exercise. Or, since it's me and I drive to the Y rather than run out my door, I'd tell myself I'd stop on the way home to pick up bagels for breakfast.