Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The secret to living healthy and being fit is.....

I have discovered the secret to fitness and living healthy.  What is it you ask?  Is it a gym membership? A new bike? A personal trainer? Jen as a coach?..sadly it is none of the above. If it was I would be in Ironman shape already.  Unfortunately the answer is something I do not have but have tried to encompass my entire adult life.  The answer is...Organization.  Yes..the "O" word. 

Since the beginning of my 30 day experiment I have struggled on some days and on other days I have hit every goal both nutritionally and training wise.  After looking at my logs I can see one common denominator in both my failures and successes..the degree of organization.

I have hit my nutrition goals on the days I packed a lunch the night before as well as planning out dinner and having my blender set up for the morning smoothies.  On days I have not done this I have either skipped breakfast or had something which was not as nutritious.  If I didn't pack a lunch I tended to stray from the healthy foods to the convenient ones.

On days I have hit my training goals I have packed my gym bag the night before after checking that everything I need has been packed and stowed.  Obviously losing my shoe and underwear was one of the days that I did not have everything stowed away.  I also made it to the pool one day and realized that I had my suit and towel..but no goggles.

Since the secret to fitness is organization..I might as well quit now.  It is a battle I will never win.  I have bought book upon book telling me how to get organized..but I have not been able to find them in a while.  I have bought journals to keep track of things..but one is too big and another is too small..so I had two journals..then three and then four..each with a day here or there in them.  just tracking my workouts has been a nightmare..should I use the log on beginner triathlete? Sure..but training peaks has better heart rate information..I'll use that instead..wait garmin connect is an easy download and no ads..but the log on attackpoint has pretty graphs....just ask my coach..she has no idea where the hell my logs are.  Ok..they are actually on attackpoint because of the pretty graphs..although I do link to garmin connect. 

I spent 3 hours the other night just putting all of my finances in Quicken..promising myself I would keep every receipt...so far I have a couple of receipts crumpled up in my wallet and  nothing entered. The only reason I can function at work is I have one paralegal whose entire existence revolves around me staying organized. 

Don't even ask me about race days...When I raced Ironman Wisconsin I almost had a panic attack..I had to have my run bag..bike bag..run special needs bag..bike special needs bag..I was a freaking wreck.  I checked..then double checked then triple checked each bag.  In the end I just bought four of everything I could possibly need and put one in each bag.

You can ask my training partner Doreen about our rides and runs..I spend 15 minutes going through the mess in the back of my truck looking for shoes...helmets..gloves..whatever I actually need I cannot find. However I am able to find everything else.  For some reason I always find underwear.  I think I have a phobia about underwear..True story..when I was 20 I had been working out at the gym and went to get dressed and had forgotten clean underwear. Thus, I put on my pants without underwear.  I then was driving on the county highway and got into a head on crash at 55 mph.  Although I hit my knee and head I refused to go to the hospital because I wasn't wearing underwear..My mother always warned me to have on clean underwear in case I got in an accident..and the day I do...no freaking underwear..Ever since then there is underwear in every car I drive in case of emergency.   I just hope I never crash my bike.

Thus I will keep on moving forward..although I now know that the odds are stacked against me.  One side note..I ended up going to the doctor because the foot was giving me issues again.  Did xrays and an MRI. Found that I have some ligament issues but nothing that requires more than a little rest and alleve. I was very happy knowing there were no gout related issues or a stress fracture.  Unfortunately my wife had an MRI done the same day and has to have surgery for a meniscus tear. She will not be able to run for 6 weeks after surgery..the bright side is I may be able to catch up with her running wise by the end of January..woo hoo!!

Also please remember small business Saturday when buying presents this year.  If you need help getting me a gift may I suggest the Scott 29er

It even has my name on it


And to make it easy just talk to Ryan at Kompetitive Edge.  They are now carrying Scott bikes and he will make sure to hook you up with the size I need.

Take care everyone.

3 comments:

  1. Oh no! This is a very depressing post. I am an organizational nightmare and I don't have a paralegal to help me function. The only thing I actually have (semi) organized is the footage from the interviews for the film and even then I wake up in the middle of the night panicked about missing some of it. Like your race bags, I have copies of everything in 3 places.

    The second piece of bad news is Kristine's meniscus tear.

    I do like the bike though. :-)

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  2. It must be a thing from our parents generation....the underpants incase you're ever in a car wreck! I about spit out my lunch when I read that!!
    And...it takes you 11 minutes :)
    Although you do tend to run a bit late.....
    Hilarious post as always!

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  3. <---- needs big time help with organization and planning. You know what they say, you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

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