Working on Wellness: Planning, Anticipation, and Accountability

Plan for the next nine months of my life.

Ok, some of you may think I'm nuts for doing this. But, here I am: 8 months pregnant figuring out how to get back in shape after baby, and maybe even thinking about my next half marathon.

I love creating long term workout plans!  Here's why - it helps my mental bowling ball stay in balance between the following two proverbial bumpers:

• It helps me to get motivated! GO GO GO! Get that body back!  Feel energetic again!  Be healthy!  Run the half again!
• It helps me to be realistic.  If I use the above calendar as an example, I won't be able to run 10 miles in September of this year.  That's OK - I'll be within the process.  It takes (a lot of) time reach lofty fitness goals especially when you are essentially starting from zero (I can barely walk around the block without getting winded right now.)

Now, as much fun as it is to sit down with highlighters and multi-colored pens to create the workout plan... I have a little bit more trouble sticking with it.  This go-round, I'm planning to have two pieces of ammunition in my arsenal:

1. Now my workout plan calendar is out on The Interwebs for the world (or at least my facebook friends) to see.  I think that means I'm going to have to check in with ya'll on my progress, too.
2. I'm going to keep a log of my daily workout activities.  When I was training for the Houston marathon hoping to qualify for Boston, I had the most successful marathon training of my life (out of the 7 fulls I have run.)  That's because I actually had the log next to my bed, and wrote down every day what I had done.  Nobody else looked at it, but just knowing that I was going to write it down made me more accountable.  I'm going to use that tactic again, since in retrospect I see how successful it was (I did qualify for Boston that year.)

My running crown jewel



Obviously, I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch.  If any complications arise with the birth and healing process, or if things are going better or worse than I'm assuming right now, then by all means I will adjust my calendar along with my expectations.  I'm just looking forward to the process of figuring out the balance between my own wellness, the baby's wellness, the family's wellness...and anticipating the fun we'll have as a family of four (HOLY CRAP.)

What planning and/or motivational tools work for you?
xoxo Phae

P.S. I just noticed that I didn't mention weight anywhere in this post.  Sweet!  That means my own philosophies are quite ingrained in my mind.  I don't think "losing weight" should ever be the goal - I think that living a healthful, active, disease-free lifestyle should be the goal such that you can enjoy this life as much as possible while you have it.  Sure, losing weight is often a side effect of eating healthfully and being active - but the focus should primarily be on balance & happiness.