Sunday 14 February 2010

A Change of Tack


I'm sure I'll be writing this post just for myself as my one or two loyal readers will have long gone by now, and in a way that's all I need to be doing.

Back in December son's team finally won a tennis grandfinal. We were having a celebratory BBQ at the club and your's truly went on to the tennis court for about 5 mins. At the end of that brief period my heart was pounding. To be expected - I'm not the fittest person on the face of the earth. What I did find surprising and a little scary was that 20 mins later, my heart was still pounding! This was a bit of a wake up call to do something about my lack of fitness. I've never been big into fitness. I'm not a sporty kinda guy and I have an aversion to gyms, so don't have an outlet for fitness. This hasn't been particularly concerning for me over the years, although I've always known myself to be unfit. I've been fortunate that I don't have a problem with my weight, so that's never been a trigger to do something about my fitness. My leanness is purely due to my genes, not due to my 'watching' it. I do however have cardiovascular issues in my genes, so this is another reason to attend to my fitness.

All this is a backdrop to saying that 2010 is this year of getting fit. I've decided to use this blog as a bit of a motivator. By putting it out there into cyberspace, even if it is not read by a single soul, I have committed myself to something and the hope is that that will provide some motivation for me.

If possible I want to do this without the use of a gym, so am planning on using a combination of cycling, walking and swimming.

Being a man who can now no longer say he is in his early 40's but has to admit to being in his mid 40s, I thought I should get a medical check, so I went to my local doctor last week. He took my BP which was 'perfect' and took blood for a cholesterol test. He has also sent me to have a stress exercise cardiogram test which I am having tomorrow.

To maintain motivation, I need to see improvement. Not having a weight goal to assist me, this is somewhat harder. I want something more objective than 'feeling' better. I'm not sure if this test tomorrow might give me some data as a benchmark. I may have to go to a gym and see if they will give me an assessment without having to join.

So if anyone does happen to stumble upon this blog once more, if you have any comments/ideas/stories, please share them and join me on my journey from fallow to fit!

2 comments:

Victor said...

I wish I was disciplined enough to embark on a program of execise and healthy eating. Unfortunately I tend to drop out far too easily.

Campbell said...

That would normally be me too Victor, which is part of the reason I'm blogging about. The blogosphere will hopefully shame me into it.