2007-06-14
exercise spam and goals
|I believe I have adequately documented my love of FitLinxx. But I must say there is one feature I am not too keen on. There's a section where your trainer can leave you a message and, conversely, you can leave a message back. For the last year or two random trainers have left me messages saying I am not meeting my cardio goals of four hours of cardio per week. Some have suggested I revise my goals. Nothing doing.
I have a couple of issues with this.
I don't really have a trainer, per se. I have the guy who actually set things up on FitLinxx for me and then he moved to Chicago. (I didn't take it personally.) In his absence, I have worked with a nice guy named Don. If forced at gunpoint to name someone as my trainer I would sputter out "D-Don, it's D-D-Don" (because I imagine I would stutter out of nervousness if ever confronted with the barrel of a gun.) But it's not like we workout together. I see him working in the gym, we say hello and every six to eight months I ask him about adding a new exercise machine to my routine. Does that make us trainer and trainee? I think not.
But back to the point. If anyone calling himself my trainer is going to send me a message on FitLinxx it better be Don and Don alone. Instead, what I find are trainers who work at the Y surfing through the database looking for inconsistencies. I get it. You're bored. You have a computer program to play with and you're not allowed to hop on a treadmill to pass the time. So you start digging around the database to find out who is reaching goals and who is not.
Back in the day when I was buff and all that, (roughly early 2004 til the fall of 2005 when I became pregnant with my third baby) I was in the Zone. I had a system going that was running nice and smooth. My oldest was in all-day Kindergarten and my youngest was two. My youngest enjoyed the Child Watch at the Y, so I spent two hours each day working out (two hours is the maximum amount of babysitting time the Y will provide each day with the exception of Sunday).
So four days a week I did roughly 90 minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine and three days a week I lifted weights and did 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill. This is when Don realized I was exceeding my cardio goals each week and upped me to four to five hours of cardio per week. No problem.
Enter the pregnancy.
I did workout until the end of March (the baby was born in early July) but then I was having round ligament pain whenever I walked on the treadmill and minor dilation issues, so I had to stop exercising. In addition, this third child is quite discerning when it comes to spending time with people -- she only wants to be with me. She pretty regularly turns her nose up at her father, even. That can be frustrating. So while I have tried to put her in the Child Watch, she complains loudly and the woman watching her ends up coming to get me.
Now that summer is here and she is going to be two in a few weeks I figure it's time to play hard ball with her. She needs to get used to seeing other people and her two sisters are with her in the Child Watch. My hope is that she will get used to this new routine and it will be easier for her because two familiar faces are there with her.
So I feel like I have extenuating circumstances when it comes to reaching my exercise goals. I have half a mind to tell these trainers who send me e-mails to back off, I have three kids now and the baby is extremely clingy and putting her in the Child Watch isn't going very well.
I also have a unique motivational system in place. I realize this does not usually work for most people, but for me it has been successful. I like to set the bar high. I have motivational pants -- pants that are a size eight that I used to be able to wear back in the day (between child 2 and child 3). I also have the goal of four to five hours of cardio per week. I did live that lifestyle once before, I know I can do it again. To revamp my goals (take the cardio down to two or three hours per week) feels like throwing in the towel. To say maybe I am a size 10 or 12 now feels the same way. It feels like failure.
Now I realize you can look at this in one of two ways. You could say you are setting yourself up for failure (like my husband says). Your goals are too lofty. Or you could say (like I do) you've done this before, you can and will do this again. Each day you get stronger and have more endurance. Each day is an opportunity to surpass yesterday's achievements.
So this is where I am: struggling to meet my cardio goals and to fit into my pants. Oh yeah, and deleting e-mails from phantom trainers.
2007-06-14 at 6:38 a.m.
