This is INSANE

I started the workout program “Insanity” yesterday. It is literally insane. After day 2 (today), my back is hurting, and every muscle, bone, artery, and vein is in pain. Yes, “Insanity” is a challenge. But in actuality, I kinda love it. I feel like I did when I played basketball in high-school, where, before basketball season would start, we would do extreme training just to prepare us to get on the court. That is exactly what this workout program feels like….a high intensity workout for sports preparation.

I’m really not a high-intensity exerciser. For 5 years, I have trained for and run in a half-marathon every year. I am slow as a snail, but I have the needed endurance. However, my body is used to this moderate intensity running/walking. It needed a change. So for 60 days, I’m going to do this “Insanity” program and then go back to training for the next half-marathon.

On another note, I’m actually a little ashamed to be doing “Insanity.” Why? Because after all these years of creating my own workout plans, and creating my own nutrition plans for myself and others, along with getting great results, this time, I had to resort to someone else’s program. What I figured out is that I get tired of programs (self-created, and others) quickly. So does my body. My body gets used to it, and stops showing results. So I have to do what I have to do.

In retrospect: why do we put our bodies through all this stress of exercise? Yeah, I know there are recommendations for it for health reasons, but for a lot of us, it has nothing to do with our health, but more about fitting into certain clothes or an “ideal” shape. That is not necessarily a bad thing, I guess. Just kind of shows where our priorities might be. Nevertheless, I am a huge fan of exercising, but believe the greatest results come when you change your eating habits. I constantly hear people talk to me about how they exercise and still are not seeing results. My question to them is, “what do you eat?” Their face always turns sour when I ask that question.  In reality, I am going to step out on a limb and say this:

You can go through life without ever doing any moderate or extreme exercise, and still get results… If you change what you eat.

I believe our weight problems are 90% what we eat, while only 10% is a result of physical inactivity (I might change that number after going through “Insanity”).  I know people who never exercise, but eat low calories and do not gain weight.  I also know people who eat a lot of calories and do extreme exercise, but still gain (or maintain) weight. It doesn’t seem fair, eh? My theory though, is that if you do them both, you will most definitely get better results…but especially, if you get the eating down packed. 

As I said in the first blog, most of our weight-related, or eating problems derive from mental and emotional issues. We can put ourselves on every diet we see, but until we deal with the internal, we will never see sustaining results in the external. So what are the steps to overcome? How do we continue to see results? I believe I have said enough for today…

Stay tuned for answers, along with more talk in my daily blog….until tomorrow…