Went to the gym and did 5 minutes on one of the step machines . . . man those are hard! After that, I went onto an elliptical for 55 minutes, keeping myself around the target heart rate for my age (148 bpm). Because I bought a step machine for home, and because I find myself unable to use it for more than a few minutes at a time, I’m going to try to use the step machines at the gym every time I go so that I can build up my legs to the point where I can use mine for a solid cardio workout.

While I was working out I found myself thinking about some ideas for stories and for music and was reminded that all my creative energy works best when I’m not feeling sluggish. All in all, I’m feeling good. It doesn’t hurt that today is a bright and warm spring day. Really one of the nicest days so far. I’m actually looking forward to going back to the gym tomorrow and plan on doing an hour of aerobic and follow that up by some strength training.

I am the heaviest I’ve ever been. I feel bulky and thick and my body gets way too little exercise. Hell, it gets way to little movement of any kind. I don’t like my body. So starting tomorrow, I’m going to work out every day for thirty days. Most of those workouts will be at the YMCA, using their ellipticals and, every other day or so, the strength training machines. But, if I am feeling sick or tired or something prevents me, then I’ll just have to do at least 30 minutes of some cardiovascular exercise (jogging, jumping jacks, etc). The point is not to force me to the gym every single day for 30 days but to make me move, to make me exercise, to acclimatize myself to using my body for more than sitting in front of a computer and walking the 2 blocks from home to subway, 1 block subway to work, 1 block work to subway, and 2 blocks subway to home.

It just ain’t enough!

Now, I know that I am feeding into my tendency to go all out at something, to be all intense and “all or nothing” instead of simply starting to balance out my activities in a more gradual and moderate manner. But, right now, I feel like that is another battle that I need to fight another time. Right not I just need to get myself off my ass and moving. This lack of movement isn’t good for my mental and creative abilities, my sleep patterns, my weight, or my heart. So starting tomorrow that changes.

One of the ways I’ll help myself is using the tip I found on Lifehacker about having a calendar that you post and for each day that you accomplish the task you have set yourself, you mark it off with a big red “X” – thereby creating a visual chain. Breaking that chain becomes so obvious and so disappointing to the human brain, that you can use the desire to keep the chain going as a motivation to do what it is you set out to do. Sure, it’s not perfect, but when, a while ago, I was trying to get myself to the gym regularly, I did find that it helped motivate me on some of the tough “oh-god-I-really-don’t-want-to-go-to-the-gym” days. So I’ll be printing a calendar out tonight and putting it next to my desk. Tomorrow will start the first red X and from there, 30 days of unbroken Xs!

I wish I had the programming chops to make a calendar like this for the Mac. Something simple that could go full screen and when I clicked a day, a big red X appeared that filled the whole square. If anyone comes across a calendar that can do the red X trick, please let me know.