RAC Member Bob Bernards Personal Weight Loss Story - Part 4 Photo: Bob at finish line at the 5K Gobble Wobble Thanksgiving 2014 Bob and Rachelle August 2014 Step 3: Do the Work The first two steps in my fitness plan are mental. They deal with attitude and mental outlook. The third step is a physical step. It’s where the “rubber meets the road”. The third step is taking your willingness to embrace difficulty and the knowledge that you have obtained in order to do the work of achieving your goals. What I love about my plan is that because I understand how calories work in regards to food and exercise, I can tailor my plan to accommodate my life. In other words, I can add variety to my workouts and diet and still achieve results. Every Sunday night, I prepare myself for the week ahead. I know that I have six-workouts in front of me for the week. I pre-determine what those workouts will be ahead of time. When I started my journey, my workouts were pretty vanilla – a walk around the track and 30 minutes on a cardio machine. But over time, I started to see the RAC for what it was – an undiscovered exercise frontier! Was that over the top? Maybe a bit… I’m human like you. Boredom is the enemy. We give up on our fitness goals many times because we can’t stand the monotony of doing the same thing every single day. I couldn’t achieve my goals without doing the work – 6 workouts a week @ 75 minutes per workout. So I decided to learn about the calorie burning effects of doing various workouts and exercises and then to branch out and give them a try. For instance, I discovered that I could burn 600-800 calories by playing tennis for an hour. So, I started going to a Tuesday night drill and play session at the RAC. I learned about the cardio and strength training benefits of swimming. So, I started with a few laps a day and progressed all the way up to 1500 yards at a time. During the winter, I started playing mental games with myself on the indoor track. I would look at the counter on my iPod to see how long a song was. Then I would set a goal to complete so many laps by the time the song had ended. I now know that I can run 6 laps in the time it takes to play Foo Fighters’ The Pretender – it takes longer if I’m running and playing air guitar at the same time. How’s that for a mental image? You’re welcome… There is no getting around it; you have to do the work in life. A mentor once told me, “Bob, find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I take this same approach to the RAC with me. Six sessions a week is work, but it has also become a love. Eventually my journey took me from elliptical machines to free weights, circuit training, the pool, basketball and tennis courts, spin bikes and finally out the front door of the RAC to various road running routes. It has been work, but it has never been boring. Find the work that you love when it comes to exercise and use it on your journey. If I have a mundane workout on a Monday, I know that it’ll change on Tuesday. This has kept me coming back in frigid temperatures, on holidays and on those early mornings when the snooze button has been so tempting. If you can approach the work in this way, you’re going to see results. We’re human after all – we do what we love to do; even if it’s work. To learn more about Bob and his story visit makeyourcomeback.org.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:00:00 +0000
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