Don’t change the goal/destination
Just find a different way/route to get there
Here’s a little story about my exercise equipment/weight loss journey
Approximately 2012 – Bought an air walker. Used it twice, then it just sat there on the front porch taking up space. It then went to a new home.
Approximately 2014 – Bought a little stepper machine. Used it twice, it then collected dust, it was re-homed too.
March 2020 – Bought a budget cross trainer/elliptical. Originally purchased as the weather was started to change as we headed into autumn/winter and I wanted to maintain daily exercise. Started using it for 10 minutes a day, then 20 and built on that. I would justify watching Dance Mom’s daily at 11am doing a combination of working out for 30 minutes and recovering on the couch afterwards for the other 30 minutes. I maintained this for a couple of months to the point I was doing the full hour on the elliptical. I decided this was working well for me so it was time for an upgrade.
May 2020 – Bought a bigger, fancier, more advanced cross trainer/elliptical. Re-homed the original budget cross trainer and maintained an hour a day routine. 11am started not to work though so I bought the DVD set of ‘Dance Moms’ which meant I could decide what time I wanted to work out. I moved my work outs to early afternoon and maintained that for about 9 months (6 – 7 days a week, every week). Over this time I would build up the level of intensity on the machine, starting at 5 Resistance and getting up to 12. I stopped when my weight loss stalled thanks to the increased resistance and subsequent muscle building (as muscle which weighs more than fat this was a deterrent even though it wasn’t a problem); So I tried bumping the resistance back down a bit but I had lost some mojo and just wasn’t ‘feeling it’ so decided I needed to change things up and do something less intense.
August 2020 – Bought a treadmill. With the idea to start a less intensive exercise routine. I used for a week or so but preferred being outside so I decided to walk more locally as the weather wasn’t too bad. It sat there collecting dust for a while… A few months later I decided I needed to do more than just walking outside so I started back on the treadmill watching Utube videos as well saving any/all Facebook videos I found throughout the day to watch in one go. I tried working out various times of the day, generally mid afternoon doing it 3 – 5 times a week; But I couldn’t really get motivated so after a few months of action and inaction it was time to move this baby on. I went back to the trusty cross trainer for intermittent workouts and started walking outside more as the weather improved.
December 2020 – Bought a compact exercise bike. This lived on the back deck getting love now and then (maybe once every couple or weeks or so) for it’s first 6 months.
June 2021 – Exercise bike moved inside. Eventually my logic caught up with my desire – Logic being that exercise assists in weight loss and the desire to get to the ‘end’ of my weight loss journey. So the bike came in. I’d really been enjoying my daily routine so the idea of adding workout time into that wasn’t very motivating, eventually though I decided that after dinner, the usual couch/TV/veg out time would serve as a good opportunity. I started by doing just 15 minutes, then 30, then 45 minutes. This seemed to be working well, so after a month or so it was time to troubleshoot the slight issue of the uncomfortable seat, meaning it was time for an upgrade. This bike got re-homed to a neighbour who mentioned he was looking to work on his cardio.
August 2021 – Bought an awesomely comfortable recumbent bike. I maintained the previous bike routine doing evening TV time workouts 7 days a week. 45 minutes seemed to be a good number; then one night after a ‘naughty’ dinner of delicious fish n chips, with the help of an awesome kids movie I did 100 minutes! This was a record for me on any piece of equipment and it felt great! I was absolutely stocked I could do that much. So from then I started mixing up how long I would work out with a minimum being 45 minutes; I also thought that maybe I allow myself ‘naughty’ days as an option, but only on the weekends, if I then do a 90 minute session. This kind of bribery works for me so throughout the week I would do somewhere between 45 and 75 minutes a day (75 being if I felt good and was watching something good) and then I would weigh up my weekend option of ice cream and increased workout or no ice cream and a shorter session. I’ve found that finding a good movie (animation in particular) works really well for doing the 90 minutes and it means I get to watch a whole movie while sitting and burning calories (plus I don’t feel like I’m wasting time watching TV/movies).
I now own 2 awesome pieces of exercise equipment, a cross trainer/elliptical and a recumbent bike. At the time the cross trainer has been sidelined but it is a machine I enjoy using and will come back to but for the moment the bike is working great to help me work off the last few kilograms to get me to my weight loss goal. The next challenge will be finding a good ‘maintenance’ routine. I think nights are the way to go for me, but who knows what I might be thinking in a few months from now. In case you are wondering what the weight is I have lost on my 2 year journey, it’s 47kg. At this time I have 3kg more to go to get to my 50kg loss goal…
So the moral of the story is that it’s important to do what works for you.
If something isn’t working as you had hoped don’t keep trying to force it! Try something else and make it work for you.
Life is all about trial and error. Success is just about perseverance and finding what works. This is true of so many things not just finding an exercise equipment routine…
Healing Journey with Estelle 