So I’m again trying to refocus on my health and fitness journey. I do well for a while, and then I slid off course (both in terms of nutrition and fitness). Since we just got back from a mini vacation in southeastern New Mexico (Carlsbad Caverns, the White Sands, & Roswell), I’ve decided that its time again to try to focus on getting back into shape.

I’m not trying to get back into shape to impress people, or to get to a certain size—I’m doing it for myself (to hopefully negate some potential health difficulties, and to be able to check a few things off my bucket list). There are several different hikes that I would like to do, and I know that to be able to do them (and not be totally out of breath the entire time) I need to get into shape and lose some weight.

I’d like to hike at the Grand Canyon, visit the Incan ruins in Peru, and go on several other hikes that probably haven’t made it onto my bucket list but probably will be getting added within the next few weeks.

So how am I getting my fitness routine back on track? I’m currently doing Insanity Max:30 as my main workout program. As the name implies it’s an insanity workout, but each workout is only 30 minutes long, plus there is a modifier you can follow (which they don’t have in the original insanity workouts). While this is my main workout program, I may be subbing in other workouts for some of them until I feel like I can do the workout without quitting 8 minutes into. Last night I was attempting to do Sweat Intervals and realized that this was the workout that had me quitting the program the last time I attempted it, so instead of totally stopping a workout, I exchanged it for Country Heat: Giddy Up (and while I only made it through about half of that—combined they were about 20 minutes of working out). I’m going to try Sweat Intervals again this weekend, and just try to figure out the best modifications for some of the moves (right now there is no way I can do squats to lunges without falling on my face; so I may just do squats the first time and then lunges the second round). So while I may not be totally making it through the full 30 minutes (daily goals are a minimum of 20-25 minutes; depending on what the last round or so of exercise are), I am doing it daily. The other programs that are probably also going to be used are Country Heat, and then for some more resistance training: Les Mills Pump.

One other things that I’m going to do is watch the entire workout (even if I don’t do it) so that I have an idea of the exercises that are going to be used during that specific workout.

Nutrition wise: I’m removing the word “can’t” from my vocabulary and exchanging it with the word “don’t” to where my mental talks with myself I’m telling myself that “I don’t want something” instead of saying “I can’t have something). This way I still allow myself treats (and chocolate) and hopefully will now not have that many episodes where I’m bingeing on foods that in small moderations aren’t that bad—but when binged upon can add up in the calories.

I’m hopefully going to start eating more fruits (and maybe some more veggies), and try to cut down on the amount of processed foods that I’m eating (namely cutting back on the processed meats and some of the cheeses, and pasta, and a few other things). But again—replacing the word “can’t” with the word “don’t” and telling myself that I can find something else that will also satisfy me, but be better on the nutritional scale than some of the things I’ve been eating.

So things that I’ve come to realize this week:

Trying to work out daily: 1) I don’t have the space to do side-to-side burpees (going to have to do front-to-back burpees); 2) I still can’t do a push-up to save my life (something to continue working on); and 3) I have zero upper body/arm strength to try to do tricep dips on the floor (going to have to modify and use a chair or something for those).

Therefore, while I have a “goal” weight listed in various fitness/health apps—I’m going to judge my progress by other markers as well: 1) measure monthly (how many inches have been lost); 2) can I start lifting more weight in different programs (so I may switch up the resistance training with different workouts from different programs and keep track of the weights and see after “x” weeks between the programs if I’m lifting heavier or doing more reps with the current weights); 3) can I go from a “modified” form of a workout to the “non-modified” form (i.e. push-ups on the knees (or leaning against the wall) to actually doing an push-up on my toes); 4) buying clothes in a smaller size.