A much needed return

As I haven't posted for 10 months or so I'm guessing this is more of a reflective journal for myself but regardless here goes! A quick recap of the past 10 months; I managed to get in some pretty decent shape by the beginning of summer, got pretty strong, flexible and cardio was awesome. Rode the Tour of Victoria and survived cramps and all. Then it started to fall apart a bit! Injuries, beer and BBQ, a busy fall term and now in December the clothes are tight again and I need to get moving. Running has fallen off and the injuries mounted leading to drastically reduced exercise and slowly devolving eating. So back to evolving both diet and eating. I plan to ride enough this year to feel comfortable calling myself a cyclist (more on that as we move forward) and really commit to an eating plan that will be strongly based on the Paleo Diet but refined for the modern man (details will follow)! One often reads the weight loss stories or fitness "miracles" but as is often the case there really is no finish line just continued effort. In the next few days I'll post the downside of not keeping up with it and then onto more progressive and positive posts. So back to it!

Back to the cave!

Been a while but all is good. Weight is back to before holiday hell numbers and the current focus is on strength training. Wow my body loves the weights. Eating wise I'm doing a kind of paleo thing lots of veggies and lean meat, reduced fruit and dairy/grains are all but gone. We will see! I have a 121 days left of the "45th year" really interested to see how far I can take getting lean and getting fit. The rest of the month and the first weeks of March will focus on dropping another 15 lbs and continuing to get stronger. Cardio will focus on intervals and speed and the occasional longer ride. The spring will return my focus to running and biking. As it currently stands looking to focus on getting faster at the 5 km time rather than to move on to marathon. The longer stuff will be on the bike with a couple of Gran Fondos on the horizon and a few tennis events here and there. Will post regularly on the paleo experiment, may use cave drawings if need be. Love to hear from anyone who has or is doing the Paleo type eating plan.

Failing to learn...again

We all know it is no fun to accomplish something unless there is some challenge. It is over coming those hurdles we have created that makes the goals we set worthwhile, but sometimes not achieving a goal, not pushing through may just be the smartest thing to do. As you likely have guessed by now I didn't quite succeed in my first goal this year. My goal was to workout for 45 straight days to start 2011(45 being the number of years I've been around). For the record I completed 20 straight days of working out (defined as sweating, breathing heavy for 30 minutes or more). Injury started to creep in - knee locking up, back hurting/spasming, I was feeling much more than 45 and a long way from the fittest I've ever been. So lesson learned, recovery is key, no two hard days in a row and I need to careful to stay active even when taking time off. I really lost a lot of fitness over the holidays and it will take some time to come back. So we are back still a little sore but on the bike today and looking forward to a rest day at least once a week. Lesson learned!

Guess what I'm doing?

I'm not telling!

It is that time when we wake up to renewed energy, big hairy audacious goals and then proceed to often flounder in a matter of a few short days. This year no resolutions, but I do have some goals - some pretty big ones, but for a change I'm not sharing.

WHAT? isn't telling people your goals, writing them down, having them be SMART (Google it if SMART goals are new to you!). Yes and no. I do have goals but this year only a few. Having too many goals, as many of us do at this time of year, does not lead to focus, and focus is key. I do write them down, but only for me. And I have no more than seven goals as I want to be able to remember them off the top of my head. They need to drive my behaviour, not be in a book somewhere where I find them as a reminder in November 2011 (I actually did that this year!).

No this year I have a few big outcome goals and a couple of critical process goals that will keep me on track. Come on we all know achieving our goals is simple - (eat less, exercise more and you will lose weight and improve your fitness level) but it is not EASY! Doing these key things is what leads to success, and you can't have 100 key things. 

BUT... I'm not sharing, well not yet anyway.  There is some very interesting research on telling people about your goals. What happens when you tell people about a great big goal? Well, you get support, pats on the back, lots of "you are amazing" and, well, those rewards are for just saying you will do something - not actually doing it, and many of us are never actually following through. This changes our social reality, and there is lots of good social science research in this area (almost a hundred years worth!).  For a simple but very well done piece on this see Derek Silver's TED talk on goals (short version here -well worth the 3 minutes!) 

So yes I do have goals and yes I will report back, but only after I've succeeded or failed.  So stay tuned! Happy new year, go set some big goals, a few that you really care about, commit and then shut up and get to work. And then let me know about your success!