My workouts

I have had many people ask me what I'm doing to loss weight over the last couple of weeks. Half the time I don't really know what to tell them because I just do it. I don't stop and think about it, I just do it.

So I stopped and thought about it.

I set goals, small goals! I have found that trying to obtain a large goal without small goals only sets me up for failure (this pertains to almost everything I do with my life). However, that doesn't mean I don't have larger goals, I just need to know the stepping stones to get to them.

As many of you know I've been sick for quite some time, but when I'm feeling better here is my general workout routine.

I usually swim 3-5 days a week between 1-6 miles. When swimming I focus in on every aspect of my body, I don't stick with one stroke, I do laps of just legs, just arms, with resistance, with speed goals, etc. All to mix it up and make the workout different and exciting.

The days I'm not swimming (2-4 days a week) I'm usually found biking between 7-10 miles and running 1-2 miles. These days are also my weight lifting days.

My philosophy is the same with my running and biking as it is with my swimming. I never try to do the same thing within a week. So one day I can be climbing hills while the next day its a speed race.

You may wonder why my running isn't as good compared to the distances I have with swimming and biking. This is because of knee injury that took over a year to heal with surgery and more months then I care to think about in physical therapy. But that doesn't mean I won't get up to doing a 5K or even a marathon, it just means I'm taking it slow because of how damaged my knee was, all a part of listening to your own body.

My weight lifting routine changes, all the time as well. Last year I set goals of lifting my own body weight. Within six months I was already there. So I started focusing in on each body area. My biggest fear where free weights. I just never knew exactly what to do with them. So I bought some and worked out in my room, facing the mirror with the help of the internet to figure out what I was doing right and wrong.

Once I became more comfortable with this I started picking them up at the gym and even found many of the guys watching as I did movements they never thought about. Guess I started a trend because the regulars I saw in there never worked their shoulders, as a swimmer this is very important and within a week many of the guys where doing the same maneuvers as I was.

I spend two days focusing in on my whole body when it comes to weights. This means from head to toe I am lifting weights, then I spend the other two focusing in on just upper body or lower body. These days all depend on how I'm feeling, what I already worked out and my schedule.

My number one dependency is my own body. It tells me when I can and can't do something. For instance, if I'm running and my knee starts to give out, it doesn't mean I stop my workout it means I stop running. I slow the treadmill down and finish the workout at a walk. I'm not a failure because the person next to me just ran ten miles, I'm still moving, I'm still finishing and that is a win all together.

The only way I'm a failure is if I decide to give up and never step foot in the gym again and never care about myself again.

I've been sick now for two + months. Barely having the energy to do anything, but I couldn't give up so every now and then I picked up those old free weights I had shoved under my bed and did a small workout. I wasn't giving up. This past weekend I needed to get out, to try something, so I headed for the gym. It was a saving grace, because I felt the worst I had in months and truly felt like giving up. The moment I hit the mile run marker I felt better, at least mentally.

This battle with food and weight is not just the physical. It's also mental and that's something many people don't understand. Your mind will race, you will have many moments of wanting to give up because it's hard and painful. But at the end of the day I know I tried and I know I can at least count on myself to get me to tomorrow.

Never rely on someone else to get you somewhere, you never know when they will give up on you, but when your focusing in on yourself you know that you will always have one person supporting you and that's yourself.