A Look Back At January

Today was uneventful so I’m writing about my workout. Tomorrow is a scheduled off day for exercise so I doubled up this morning. I did and hour on the treadmill and an hour on the elliptical after my pushups and whatnot. I cruised through all of it. Today was a really good day at the gym, and after I was done stretching I reflected on the improvements I’ve made this month. I’ve lost eight pounds. I’m running a mile an hour faster. I did twelve more pull-ups today than I did on January 4th. I did forty-five more pushups. And I did twenty-five more sit-ups. All of which is great, but what I’m most impressed with is how much I’ve improved my flexibility. I don’t know how to best describe the improvements. I’m still much closer to “stiff as a board” than I am to a contortionist, but I’m a long way from where I was. My head is getting closer to my knee when I stretch my hammys. My knees are getting closer to the floor when I stretch my hips. The only goals I didn’t hit were my swimming goals, but January was way too frackin’ cold for that – way too frackin’ cold. So I’m using a Florida Boy Mulligan on my swimming, and if I’m going to be honest, if February is freezing like January was, I’m not getting in the pool and I will use another Mulligan. I’m very happy with my progress. I just have to remember where I started and not make February 1st a hard floor for my exercise goals. I can’t beat myself up and get discouraged if I don’t improve in February as much as I did in January. A constant rate of improvement is impossible. I just have to remain constant in my effort – especially with my eating – and learn to be happy with that, which is a lot more difficult for me than it should be.