Staying healthy during this quarantine is definitely hard and for me the hardest thing is to stay motivated. After reading this chapter I think what I found interesting was their obstacles solutions. When you have lack of motivation setting times and goals is an easier and best way to focus on our motivation. For me this definitely worked with my new workouts. Before reading this chapter I decided that if I worked out at home and set an amount of reps and just tried to do it four times a week I would stay healthy, however that didn’t work out for me. Working out in my living room and trying to do 200 squads and jumping jacks seemed to be a lot and every day I was quitting sooner and sooner especially since I didn’t have any equipment. After reading this chapter I decided that If I: Set a time on what time I should run every day, and set a mile goal as well as the time that should take me to run helped me stay focus. I think having a goal on how long it should take me to do 3.5-4 miles a day and the time range helped me to stay focus and motivated to keep trying everyday and so far is definitely working much more than working out at home.
The second interesting factor of this chapter was setting a SMART goal. I think this was mentioned on a previous chapter but it was a good reminder to set a goal. I think the most important aspect of the smart goal for me was to stay realistic. At the beginning of my run I set a goal to run 2 miles in 20 minutes. However, since I haven’t run in months and I only do weights when I work out at the gym, so at the end of my first run, I came to the conclusion that this goal was not realistic at all. So I decided to set a more realistic goal of a one mile in 10 minutes followed by a half a mile walk and then another mile in 10 min. Being realistic for me is really crucial because if I set goals that are impossible to reach I get mad at myself and sometimes I lose motivation. I am hoping that by the end of this week I can do 1 1/2 miles in 15 minutes.
The last topic that really caught my eye was the FITT principle. I think it brings really good ideas and steps to accomplish our goals. I think the most important part of a good workout for me and especially to gain muscle (which is my goal for the semester) is to focus on all this bullet points. Frequency because to gain muscle, I need to stay consistent with my workouts and how often I do them so I can see a progress. Intensity is probably my most important one because sometimes you go to the gym and not workout as hard as you should, therefore we can not assume that we will get the same results. There are some days that my workouts are better than others, which is normal. However, staying consistent with the intensity is crucial for me. Time is something that we often like to cheat on, especially on the repetitions which I have noticed made a huge difference because the more you repeat a set of workouts the more your body will react to it. Before I used to focus a lot on the weight and not on the reps but then I noticed that we need to control our weight first and then try to push for more. It is better to do 12 reps of 15 pounds than 5 of 20. If you stay consistent with the 15 pounds eventually your body will get used to it and it will be easier to jump to 20 pounds with more reps and this is when type of workout comes in as well.
This week was a better week because I decided to start running and using my run to lose some stress of being in this quarantine. Sunday was Easter and it was the first time I was actually alone for a holiday. Like I have mentioned before I moved down to South Carolina almost a year ago with my boyfriend when he bought a house and just two months ago we broke up so I had to move out to my own apartment. However, even though I was sad and lonely, I decided to get up and go for my run and it definitely helped me mentally and emotionally. I think working out during this quarantine is key for me if I want to stay happy and positive.
Here is a picture of me after my 4 mile run/walk!.
Environmental Health 