My Journey With Health And Fitness – Being Realistic

Wow did we get rain yesterday. It was one of those kind of storms where it rains so hard the droplets bounce off the water in the pool. When we went out for a walk later in the day one of the roads had a foot deep pond on it! Oh well, at least it was still pretty warm and I’m sure by time we come back for our next trip everyone here will be begging for it to rain like that.

We’re into the new year and I recognize that I need to be realistic in my goals especially this month while I am at the condo. I’m also working on my husband to do more walking so the 2 of us had to be realistic about what we can do while we are here. I came up with a suggestion, let’s have fun the 1st week and then start working on our goals. And we did exactly that. While we are trying to eat mainly home cooked meals we ate out 3 times last week (and found an awesome taco restaurant). However, when we do eat at home we try to make it as healthy and fresh as possible. As for working out, I still managed to do something most days last week (Jan 1st was an exception) while by the end of the week my husband had started to do some walking.

Now it is time to be realistic about what we will be doing going forward. It can be a bit challenging as this week we have 2 birthdays to celebrate (one being my own) as well as taking neighbours out for lunch to thank them for all the help they give us. I realized I can still manage this by being very conscious of what I am eating especially in terms of carbs. We’re going a step further as well by committing to at least 4 days per week without alcohol. Ok, this one will be the most difficult because we have to pick the days carefully. Having said that, I actually look forward to successfully doing this since that means coming down here does not have to involve tequila every day.

Finally, exercising. Last week I tried walking for at least an hour in the morning and then doing an online exercise class and was somewhat successful. This week I decided that Monday to Friday it would be at least 2 hours of walking (I’m doing 1.5 hours first thing then a 1/2 hour walk with my husband later in the day) and online classes. Saturday I’ll get in at least 2 hours of walking (online classes don’t start until 11:30am Playa time and that is too late in the day for me) with Sunday being my rest day. Not sure what my rest day will look like as normally while I am here I take the day off completely but I want to change that narrative a bit so maybe an hour walk first thing.

I think these are all pretty realistic things to have as my goals while I am here. I will be challenged next week and the following week as we have friends coming down each week to stay with us. In order to keep myself on track in terms of exercising, I have paired up with a couple accountability buddies. We each are posting what our exercise was for the day and I’ll be damned if I have to post that I did nothing.

So be realistic. I will be ecstatic if when I leave here I have accomplished the goals I set out for this trip. And, I know if I stay on track I will feel better both physically and mentally.