After 40 your metabolism winds down 5% every 10 years, which means you have to consume fewer calories and work out more just to maintain your normal weight. – Boost Your Metabolism After 40
Sometimes I don’t like the truth, but it doesn’t make it less true. As I wrote in the My Personal Quarterly Offsite post, one of the main three things that I’ll be focusing on for the rest of the year is my nutrition and exercise. I’ll admit that I’m a bit loose in the summer when I’m hanging out with my “guys”. I’m hopeful that the structure that the school year brings will be helpful in regards to helping me meet my fitness goals. Based on all of my research, there are 5 main components to physical fitness:
- Sleep
- Peace (According to some research, the increase in the hormone cortisol from stress, may contribute to weight gain.)
- Hydration
- Nutrition
- Exercise
I tend to be good at excelling at 3 out of the 5 at any given time, but I’m aiming for all 5! Sleep, peace and hydration are the ones that I have been naturally consistent with this summer so I need to grow in the areas of exercise and nutrition. I’m trying to really embrace the reality that at 42, it’s going to take consistent effort in all five areas. Le sigh…
Thankfully, exercise isn’t usually a challenge for me during the school year when I have a consistent daily routine. My main challenge with exercise is that I get bored very easily. The way that I learned to combat that last year was by learning a workout routine and then listening to a podcast while I exercised to the muted exercise DVD. My public relations friend Alyson sent me a media copy of Shaun T’s CIZE workout video yesterday though. It’s so much fun that I think it will keep my interest for the rest of the year (6 weeks for the beginner calendar and 12 weeks for 3 rounds of the 4 week advanced calendar).
This is my second day of doing the first “Crazy 8s” video. It’s a fun workout that builds to a short dance set to popular music.