Fitness Goals and Strategies 2011--and Wrapping up 2010

Things did not go as planned in November and December of 2010, to say the least. I managed to attend 13 Jazzercise classes in November, but when December arrived, chaos arrived with it, and I managed to attend only 3 classes in the first 17 days of the month before giving up entirely. (To give you an idea: One day my sister came to watch the kids so that I could work out, and I fell asleep sitting up on a chair rather than going to class!)

Total Classes Attended in 2010: 136

My total was 14 short of my goal--so close, yet so far away! If I hadn't given up, and I had gone twice a day in the last week of the month, etc., I would have made it... I probably would have collapsed as well.

It was hard to let go of my goal, but I think I made the right decision to prioritize some other things (including rest!) 2011 is a new year with plenty of time and opportunity to strive for new goals.

I am going to aim (yet again) for 150 classes. Seeing as November and December are such crazy months, I am going to aim to finish 140 of the 150 classes by the end of October. This works out to 14 classes per month for 10 months, or 3.5 classes per week. It's doable so long as I never get sick/injured, leave town, or lack childcare (aka Spouse late getting home from work...)

I've come up with new strategies to help me get to class more consistently:

• Write it on the calendar. Each week I will write down on the calendar when I plan to go to class, as well as other types of workouts (DVD, walking, bike riding. etc.).
• Go in the morning. I am not a morning person, but it has come to my attention that when I drag myself out of bed in the pitch darkness to get to a 7 AM class, it sets my day off to a great start. Sad but true! I want to do this at least once a week, ideally on Wednesdays. The Reward: I get to drink coffee on these days.
• Go on the weekend and on holidays whenever possible. Holidays and husband's days off are great times to fit in an extra workout.
• Do a double class once a month. I want to try to attend 2 classes back-to-back at least once a month. This will be challenging to schedule, but I think it will be worth it. I am very curious to see how many calories I can burn at a double class!
• Count calories. I plan to use my heart monitor watch to count how many calories I burn at each workout and add up the total calories burned each month. (Way more fun and much less time consuming than counting food calories, which I did only for a few months last year before burning out.)

I'm not including weight loss in my goals, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't stand to lose some weight. I learned over Christmas that 2 weeks of no workouts + copious amounts of Christmas Cookies, Chocolate, Standing Rib Roast, Yorkshire Pudding, Ham, snacks, pizza, potato chips, and more than a couple glasses of wine = About 4 Pounds.

I don't do well with dieting or weigh-ins, or other such strategies. I either overdo it and don't eat enough, or get frustrated when attempting to track changes. My strategy is to boost my mood and energy with consistent exercise and eat what I like, moderately, while not paying too much attention to a scale.

I'm hopeful that this plan will hold together for 2011! I'll post montly updates.

Fitness Goals Update: October

I skipped my goals update last month, but I have been keeping up with working out pretty well. I'm trying to work out 5 or 6 days a week rather than the paltry 2 or 3 I had been managing. This doesn't mean that I work out at Jazzercise each day (necessarily) but that I'm doing something fitness related most days.

One thing that has made working out a little more intruiging is my recent purchase of a heart rate monitor watch. (I found mine new on Ebay.) The watch communicates with a sensor I wear around my ribcage and records my heartbeats per minute. Combined with data I've entered about my age/weight, it calculates how many calories I burn while working out. It also give me an idea of how much time I was working out in the Fitness Zone (higher than 70% of max BPM) versus the Fat Burn Zone (approx. 50-70% of max BPM).

I learned pretty quickly that I don't burn much fat at Jazzercise--it's an intense workout where I spend the vast majority of time in the fitness zone. If I'm not late for class (argh!) I tend to burn 450-500 calories per session.

As a result of these findings, I've been trying to add more fat-burning activities into the mix (walking and low-impact dance workouts on streaming Netflix.) I've thought about wearing the monitor while doing intense housework, just to find out what I'm burning, but I haven't actually hooked up the monitor to find out yet.

Anyway. I'm still working towards my fitness goal for the year, and there is a chance I will make it, although I'll have to focus and work hard.

Total for 2010 as of October 31: 120 classes

This means that I have two months to attend 30 classes, which breaks down to 15 classes per month. This is doable, but I'd hoped to be more ahead by this point, as there are exactly 15 days in November when I expect to have time to attend class. I see some early morning workouts in my future!

Fitness Goals Update: July

Despite being out of town for a total of 9 days in July, I managed to drag myself to aerobics class a total of 11 times, which works out to about every other day. It was 5 less that my goal to attend 16 classes and 'win' the flip-flop bag set. Supplies are still available, so maybe I will be able to win them just a bit late if I can go enough times this week. (Need to go 3 more times...)

Total Attended in July: 11 classes

Total for 2010 as of July 31st: 84 classes

I would really like to get ahead with my class count in August so that I have a bit more breathing room when things get really busy this fall. Things working in my favor:

• August is a long month with 5 weekends if you count this past weekend.
• We are NOT going out of town this month. (Whew! That's what hurts my totals the worst, I think)
• I might make it to some morning classes as I have been waking up earlier and feeling restless. (Attending 7 AM aerobics class is a rare and amazing event for me.)

I have hopes that this will be a great fitness month for me, not only for the reasons above, but also because I have started Counting Calories for the first time in my life. Ever. I won't go so far as to call it a 'diet', more an Increased Awareness of portions. I'm currently using Daily Plate, which seems to be working well thus far (for the past 3 days). I'm hoping that this food record will help me to pinpoint what I need to eat in order to keep my energy levels consistently high, since that has been a problem for me occasionally.

Fitness Goals Update for June

I'm feeling overwhelmed, but I'm still trying to stick with my fitness regimen!

Total attended in June: 14!

Total classes for 2010 as of 6/30: 73

I've already attended 6 more times in July, which takes me past 75 classes, which is half my goal for the year, so I earned the peppermint patties pictured above only a few days 'late'.

Right now I am trying to attend 16 classes total for July so that I earn a free tote and pair of flip-flops. I put this on my 'Wish List' when I cleaned out my brain,. I don't even like flip-flops, but nothing motivates me like a deadline with a reward!

Fitness Goal Update for May

I should first confess that I skipped reporting on my personal fitness challenge for April. I fell behind, and I kept meaning to write about it, then May happened, and it fell by the wayside.

But I persisted! Despite the fact that both teenage neighbors who were available to watch my kids so I could work out mid-afternoon and be home for dinner... weren't available anymore. (One plays sports, and one's parent decided she couldn't do any babysitting until school lets out. Argh!) Then I had the bright idea to hold a yard sale and send items to a consignment sale at the same time. Then we went out of town two weekends in a row for a total of 8 days. Lastly, my son was having a minor problem at school and I felt like I needed to pay extra attention to him to try to figure out what was bothering him. (Issue Resolved, thank goodness.)

All this added up to my attending my class only 8 times in April, bringing my total in April for the year to 47; 3 shy of the 50 that I needed to be on track to meet my 150 class goal for the year. It took everything in me to keep going in May to try to make up at least a little of my slacking off:

Total Attended in May: 12

Current 2010 Total: 59 (Not including the class I attended yesterday so that I could look up how many times I attended in May so that I could make this report!)

The next challenge is an attendance game for the months of June and July. I am supposed to attend at least 30 classes total during this time. This works out fine to 15 classes per month, but the catch is that I will be out of town in July, a potential total of 9 days, possibly more. 31 days minus 9 days equals 22 days in which to attend 15 classes. If I wasn't breaking down these numbers into months and weeks, it would be much harder to figure out what I need to do to stay on track for the year. Plan for June: Go! Every day!

Fitness Goals Update for March

Goal for the Year: more than 150

Classes Attended in March: 14

Current 2010 Total as of March 31st: 39!

I'm technically on track to meet my goal, thinks look ominous when I look at the calendar and see our upcoming schedule--I need to get ahead sooner rather than later. I'm going to try to attend class 4 times a week this month to see if I can get a little ahead.

Fitness Goals Update: for February

Just checking in here to report that I barely squeaked in at the last minute today with my 25th aerobics class so far this year. My goal is to go more than 150 times before the end of the year, so I am barely on track. When I think about the multiple times I am going to be out of town and not working out this year, I am a little behind!

What on Earth do fitness classes have to do with 'Navigating Domesticity'??? This is one of the ways I keep my energy and serotonin levels high so that I have more brain and muscle power to devote to keeping the household afloat.

Fitness Goals Update

I'm working little by little each week to my fitness goal for the year. In January I made it to aerobics class 14 times, which is a little ahead considering my goal is to go 150 times this year! (I need to go 12-13 times each month.)

Unfortunately February hasn't been going so well. Between bad weather and sick children, I haven't made it to class this month except for one time. I have three weeks left to get back on track. If I can go 3 or 4 times each week, I will be okay. Wish me luck and I'll check in again in early March!

Fitness Goals

I'm happy to report that I met my 2009 Fitness Goal to attend 150 aerobics classes in the year! This was done with a little help from my Jazzercise location. Every 25 classes you attend, the instructor recognizes during class by giving you a few Hershey Kisses, and when you reach 150, you receive a workout top (see above!) AND you are invited to The Fit Club party, where you are fed large quantities of high calorie foods. The consumption of the chocolate and party foods means that you must continue to attend class to burn off all those calories. (What a clever business plan!)

The beautiful silver cosmetic bag you see above is the prize for joining with a partner to attend 46 classes in November and December. This was a handy bonus because as of November 1st I had only 116 of the 150 classes I needed for the year.

I was doing really well until August when I strained my back and only attended 3 classes the entire month. I struggled in September and October to get back up to speed, but I was still lagging behind. I got motivated when I realized that my goal was doable, but in jeopardy. I started attending every chance I got, which sometimes involved getting up at 6:45 AM to go to an early morning class. I also did a double class about 3 times in December. (Hey, I needed to burn off all those Christmas Cookies anyway!)

For 2010, I am going to try to repeat my 2009 goal, with one simple adjustment: instead of sliding in to number 150 on the last day of the year after manic attendance for 2 months, I want to coast in. This is entirely doable; all I need to do is attend at least 13 classes per month, which works out to 3 times per week. Stay tuned; I plan to update as I reach each 25-class milestone.

Feel free to share your fitness goals and what keeps you motivated to work out througout the year!