Geek Fitness: The April Initiative

Back in March I decided to make a concerted effort to get back on the geek fitness band wagon after trying (and mostly failing) in February. My goal was to shift to a morning work out and to get my weight down to 210 lbs.

It went much better than in February. I got to the gym 4 out of 5 work days each week, and most of those were in the morning. In the second half of the month I found my new routine under assault by the college ritual known as “spring break”, which caused the gym to open two hours later each morning.

Rather than give up, I decided to take advantage of the college’s quieter schedule and go into work early, then work out, then go back to work. I also mixed things up with a few lunch time workouts. The lunch workouts are a big deal; in the past, when I missed my regular workout time I’d shrug and try again the next day. This month I juggled my schedule instead.

I fought off a short-but-nasty little cold at the end of the month, and I’m happy to say it didn’t derail my exercise regime — I think I only missed one day of it.

In terms of stress relief, the warmer spring weather let me get in a game or two of catch in March. Throwing the baseball around doesn’t burn a huge number of calories, but it is a terrific way of relieving stress and loosening up after a long day at work. The feel of a good throw, the thrill of a great catch, and the sound ofthe baseball hitting leather all go a long way toward burning off the tension. Needless to say I’m looking forward to playing more catch in April.

So how about that weight goal? I’m down to 212 lbs. from 215 lbs, which isn’t the 210 I’d been shooting for, but I’ll take a gradual downward trend any day.

My fitness goals for April are straight-forward: keep up my exercise routine and diversify it to include jogging and swimming. I’d like to swim at least twice a week. The only barrier there is will power; swimming takes more effort than the gym; it’s a lot easier to simply change into my gym clothes and bike for 30 minutes than it is to go to the pool and swim for 30. But I’ve found swimming is a better all-around workout for me, so it’d be good to get it back in the mix.

Weight-wise, I’d like to break the 210 barrier; if I keep up my March trend, I should be able to get down to 209, but we’ll see.

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