Blog Post #3 is here. I’m relying on my resilience to get past procrastination as I transition to regular blog posting! (Read the previous two posts to understand the reference). I’ve had a lot of great feedback from people saying they enjoy my writing and look forward to my blog posts. I’m thankful for that and am really enjoying this casual approach to regular writing. August was a busy month visiting friends and family all while keeping up with my workout program. A lot of people asked me about my workouts and what I’ve been doing to lose weight and improve my fitness. When I say “a lot of people”, I mean two…two people. So with that, I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing and what’s been working for me. I’m currently down 15 lbs (7kg) since January which is not an easy feat considering my love of craft beer and cheeseburgers (another post for another time).

For exercise, I challenged myself to workout consistently for a period of time. I work out in the gym twice a week for 20-40 minutes each session. Hey, that’s not enough!! I thought that but realized that working out an hour or more four to five times a week for a couple months and then not going to the gym for six months wasn’t working. I’ve been able to stick with this routine (and it’s always the same two routines) for over eight months now. It’s two sets of basic upper body exercises (push ups, pull ups, dips, dumbbell curls, shoulder presses etc.). It goes by quick, never seems daunting, and is now habit.

Strength training has never been my favourite form of exercise but the benefits are unquestionable. Muscle and bone strength, increased metabolism, and stress relief are just a few of the many benefits of strength/resistance training. Someone recently said to me, “Well, strength training is not for everybody.” That’s true but it is for every person who is capable of doing it! The benefits of strength training are pretty clear and all the science behind it is as sound as the theory of gravity, human flight, and light sabres.

I wish I could tell you that two strength sessions a week was all I’ve been doing. Time for that can be found. However, there’s more. Two people I have never met guide two more workout sessions which again are short and sweet. I do one cardio session focused on leg strength and a 40 to 50 minute yoga session every week. Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese professor, created a high intensity interval workout now called Tabata training. What makes this workout so great is that it can be done anywhere and takes only four minutes! It consists of working as hard as you can at any given exercise for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest repeated 8 times. Repeat: That’s a four minute workout!….and it can be gruelling if you put the effort in. I push it a bit more and do two rounds of four minutes with a mix of jumping jacks, seal jacks, jogging on the spot, squat jumps, jumping lunges, double knee hops etc. During my rest between rounds, I do some basic body weight leg exercises like squats and lunges. My full leg workout is done in 15 minutes…and it burns! For yoga, I used to attend large hot yoga classes once a week. Now, I am taught by my friend and certified Iyengar Yoga instructor, Brandon. He comes over to my place once a week to both teach and practice yoga in a more personal environment where I receive expert one on one instruction and encouragement. Iyengar Yoga involves detail, precision, and alignment often making use of props (chairs, mats, blocks, straps, kitchen sinks etc.) to assist with proper form. It was created by Bellur Krishnamacher Sundaraja Iyengar. You begin your practice by saying his name quickly three times stretching the tongue to its furthest limits. B.K.S. Iyengar was born in India and died at age 95 in 2014 leaving his legacy as “the father of modern yoga”. Iyengar Yoga has been great for me, a relative novice looking to maintain and improve my posture and flexibility.

So that’s what’s working for me. I can’t stress enough how important it is to do something you’re going to do consistently….even if you don’t exactly enjoy all of it. If it feels daunting, requires a huge amount of discipline, or motivation constantly wavers, I would advise changing it up, making it shorter, or find something that you enjoy more. FYI… I hate doing my leg workout but I have 15 minutes, I like the results I see, and how I feel.

With the more informative and serious tone of this post, I’m pleased to say that I have come up with an original joke….not easy, nor good. It’s cheesy enough that I expect that someone has already come up with it. However, I couldn’t find it on Google and it’s not like my jokes are going to be worth any money. Enjoy.

What made you decide to start doing yoga?

One day I just realized that I needed to improve my posture and I’m not getting any Iyengar.