Tag Archives: fitness

Starting A New Morning Workout Routine: Day 5

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Walking back from the gym.

First week of my new routine is in the books! Today I woke up at 4:30am. I didn’t mean to wake up that early, I just did. Drank water. Used the restroom and tried to go back to sleep. No luck. So I decided to meditate, which I find is almost as restful as sleeping. So by 5:10am I decided to get up. My alarm was set for 5:15am. It didn’t even have the chance to go off. I guess I should be proud, I beat my alarm.

Then I ran through my usual ritual. Drank water. Boiled water. Put coffee in the filter. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, when I say coffee… it’s actually decaf. Ever since getting covid I’ve been trying to drink less caffeine. Washed my face. Put on my workout clothes. Did a couple sets of sit ups. Grabbed my keys, phone, and badge. Walked to the gym. Got to the gym by 5:55am.

Today was a weight day. But I decided to start by doing some light cardio. Elliptical for 15 minutes at level 9. Then treadmill for 15 minutes. Ran 1.13 miles. Nice and slow pace. But I’m getting the steps in. And I’m feeling stronger, faster, and definitely getting lighter.

So a quick note about my motivation to start this new routine. First, I’ve been an athlete my whole life. I always feel better when I’m in great shape or making progress toward getting into good shape. It helps with mental health and definitely relieves stress. Absolutely recommend it for anyone dealing with either of those two things.

Second, the last few years that hasn’t been the case though because of Covid and so I started getting all these pains and aches in my body. My wrist. My shoulder. My hip and low back all started acting up. So working out first started by rehabbing each of those injuries. Had to start super slow. Very light weight and not pushing myself too much. Just focused on getting a tiny bit better everyday. Then it became maintenance. Make sure that the injuries and pains were really gone. Now I’m in the process of improvement. Building strength and getting leaner. Pain free. Just sore a lot, lol.

Third, I made a goal to lose weight. I love the way it looks when I can see my abs. Well technically to change my body composition. Reduce fat and increase muscle. Weight is just a proxy for being lean and healthy. I gained about 30-40 pounds during covid. So I wasn’t feeling very good. Low energy. At my heaviest I was up to 230lbs. This week that I started my new routine I’m already down to about 210 lbs. But my goal is to get back to about 170 lbs. At that weight I’ll be very lean and ready to run a half or full marathon, which I would really like to do.

Lastly, the dark side of my motivation. As you’ll see above most of the motivation is positive. But some of it is a way of channelling all the negativity that is thrown at me into something positive. All the haters, all the envy, all the people that wish me ill, and all the people that talk shit, don’t believe in me, want to see me fail, or believe all kinds of evil shit about me. I take that hate and turn it into fuel for my success. So when I’m tired or in pain from running or lifting, I remember the haters and I use that as my fuel to get stronger, keep going, and accomplish more.

Anyway, back to the routine. Finished lifting (shoulders, chest, arms, squats, and calf raises). Weighed myself. Without shoes I weighed 206. Not bad 4 pounds down in 1 week. But I bet a bunch of that is water weight. Walked back home. Did my 3 sets of sit ups. Drank water. Talked to my honey. Talked to my daughter. Shaved. Showered. Got dressed. Wrote this. Now just got to grab my things and I’m off to work.

Ready for a great day! If you’re reading this I hope you have a great and blessed day too.

Starting A New Morning Workout Routine: Day 4

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Photo by Dom Gould on Pexels.com

Best day so far in the new routine. My new healthy habits are starting to stick. Got up at 5:25am. I’ve been setting my alarm earlier and earlier each day. Not by much, only 5 or 10 minutes earlier each day. I’m going to try to keep getting up earlier. Let’s see how early I can push it.

Today, it wasn’t easy to wake up. I woke up from an intense dream last night. Thinking of loved ones who have passed. It was a cool dream. Just intense. Got up. Drank water. Used the restroom and went back to sleep. Luckily, I was able to get back to sleep easily. But still I was pretty sleepy when I woke up at 5:25am.

I REALLY wanted to go back to sleep!! But I told myself I would after I went through my morning ritual. That shut that nagging little voice of weakness up. Ran through my routine. Drank cold water. Today I added a teaspoon of vinegar. I heard that it’s good for you. Put the hot water kettle on. Put coffee in the filter. Went to use the restroom. Washed my face. Got my workout clothes on. [Oh, side note. I heard that if you put your workout clothes out the night before, it makes it easier to put them on first thing in the morning. And that gives you one less excuse for not working out. I started doing that this week and it has made a big difference.]

Then something strange happened. Once I had my workout clothes, I wanted to workout. So after pouring the hot water over my coffee, I pulled out my mat and did a set of 30 sit ups. That’s been one of the hardest things for me to do in my new routine. I hate doing sit ups. But it felt easy today. I could’ve kept going but I decided to keep it easy and stopped. Hopefully, my mind-body will remember that tomorrow and it’ll keep getting easier!

Finally, I took a sip of coffee. Now I had run through my morning ritual and laid back down. But instead of doing that to go to sleep, I did a three minute meditation. Got up mentally refreshed and ready to go. Grabbed my keys, badge, and phone. Out the door.

I jogged a good portion of the way to the gym. Not fast. Super slow. But it was the first time I did that. Even more importantly, today was the first day that I got to the gym before 6am!!! The security guards have been rooting for me for weeks and gave me props for finally getting it done. I guess my new morning routine is actually working. Now I got to do the same thing for my afternoon/evening routine! But that’s a different story.

Today was cardio day. Only a little bit of weights and resistance training for rehab and strength. Then 20 minutes on the elliptical machine at level 9. Then 20 minutes on the treadmill. Ran 1.65 miles. Mostly ran at about 4.5 mph to about 5.1 mph. Getting better!

Walked back home. Talked to my honey. Did 4 more sets of sit ups. Drank coffee. Lunch is already made. Took care of that last night. Shaved. Showered. Got dressed. Now writing.

Alright, I’m off to work. Have a great day!