But I Can’t Do It!!

Don’t be surprised when that devious little excuse-maker inside your head spouts out those dreaded words when starting a new exercise program.  When it happens, politely thank that little demon for his opinion, and then figure out how you can do it.

Perhaps you’re starting a new kettlebell routine, which is a great way to cross-train indoors while waiting for better Trikking weather.  Perhaps you’ve had a long day at work followed by an arduous commute home.  Perhaps you’re still shaking the tail end of a head cold, and would really, really, REALLY like to just crawl in bed for the night.

But then you remember your New Year’s resolution to exercise, and you just heard the weather report for the weekend ahead.  It’s going to be in the high-50’s to low-60’s, and it sure would be nice to give your muscles some warming up before setting out on your first Trikke ride of the year.  You decide to do your kettlebell workout, knowing that it’ll be tough, but remembering that if you do it regularly it’ll get easier each time.

So you change into your workout clothes, and mull over some ways that you can get through the 25 minute workout video . . .

Lighten Your Load:

Newcomers to kettlebells often over-estimate the weight they should select.  A 10 or 20 pound kettlebell may be no sweat to pick up off the store shelf, but you’ll gain a whole new respect for it after your first dozen squats and swings.  If the weight you’ve selected has your muscles quivering after a few reps, step it down to a lighter weight.  I briefly upgraded to a 10 pound weight after completing the full 6-week program last summer, but after my hiatus from the workouts, I’ve realized there’s no shame in backing down to the 5 pounder for a while.

Doing something is better than doing nothing:

Perhaps you can’t do 20 reps in 40 seconds like the instructor in the video.  Perhaps you can’t do a full pushup yet.  Perhaps you can’t speed up your pace for the last few reps.  It’s okay.  Go at your own pace, and get in as many reps as you can in the allotted time.  Doing 10 reps is better than deciding that working out is “too hard” and doing 0 reps.  Perhaps today you can only do 10, but next time you can do 12.  In a few weeks you’re delighted to find you’re now keeping pace with the instructor.

You can also modify an exercise you can’t do into something that you can.  For example, I can’t do full pushups, so I drop to my knees and do modified pushups instead.  A common exercise in the Kettleworx videos is the “baseball catcher heel raise.”  You squat like a baseball catcher with the kettlebell held in front of you.  You then raise and lower yourself on and off your heels.  I couldn’t do the raise part of the exercise for my first month.  So I simply held the squat position for the duration of the exercise until my muscles developed enough to allow me to rise up and down.

Everyone is going to have unique difficulties, so be creative and figure out what you can do instead of just giving up on a particular exercise.

Give yourself a break:

The Kettleworx videos flow quickly from one exercise to another.  You’re not at a gym and you’re not holding up the class, so it’s perfectly okay to hit the pause button to catch your breath.  Shake out any tense muscles and drink your water until you’re ready to resume the workout.  It may stretch a 25 minute workout into a 35 minute one, but it sure beats not doing it at all.

Retire early:

The format for all Kettleworx videos is the same: a short warm-up followed by two sets of exercises for the Cardio and Resistance videos.  The Core videos feature three sets.  Then you have a rewarding short cool-down.  If you are really struggling, why not call it a day after just one set?  Doing half of the main workout is certainly better than lounging around on your couch making excuses.  If you take this option, just fast-forward to the cool-down session and call it an early day.

I have frequently considered this option, but can honestly say I’ve never taken it.  What I have found is that despite being tired, the second set is often easier than the first because my muscles are more warmed up by that point.  But I did want to throw the idea out there in case you find it useful.

It’s not always easy to motivate ourselves to workout, especially when we’re tired and real life is wearing us down.  But it’s worth talking yourself into doing something, even if you have to modify what you do just to make it possible.  So cast off that demon that tries to tell you it’s okay to wait until you’re “ready” for the harder workouts, because the only way to be “ready” is to start slow and do what you can at first.  I can tell you from experience that if you stick with it, and commit to the recommended three workouts a week, you will quickly find that you are capable of a lot more than you ever imagined.

Related Articles:

Happy New Year!

Calling Out Sick

My Winter Workout Land

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post.  I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Maiden Monday Mashup

Welcome to my first “Monday Mashup.”  This is the start of a weekly series that will point you in the direction of the latest in Trikke and fitness news, as well as update you my own progress towards my wellness goals.

I wish I was starting this you by telling you that I Trikked a zillion miles and pumped a hundreds of pounds of iron, but the reality is I’m still at the tail end of fighting off a head cold.  While I’m getting better each day, I’ve decided to hold off resuming my exercise program until I can breathe a little easier again.  There’s no point in stressing a body that is still in resting and recovery mode.  The one fortunate side effect of this cold has been a diminished appetite, which has allowed me to beat my weekly budget by 941 calories without any feelings of deprivation.

Since the winter weather persists in the Lehigh Valley, I plan to return to my indoor kettlebell workouts in the next few days.  For those of you unfamiliar with this very effective exercise program, here are 7 Reasons You Need to Try Kettlebells Now.

The New Year promises to bring new trails to explore when the weather improves.  I have driven past Penn Pump Park in Palmer Township several times recently, and have been eyeing up a new ribbon of asphalt pathway being laid south of Walter Avenue.  I’m presuming this will connect the existing Palmer Bikeway with the Wilson Bike Path which starts at Edgewater Road and later merges with the Palmer Bethlehem Rail Trail.  The path is still roped off, but once it opens I intend to go exploring.

There is also a new multi-use trail in Montgomery County paralleling the newly opened route 202 bypass.  This one is a little farther from home, but will be worth investigating as well.  A preliminary report from a colleague who lives in the area tells me that the trail is hilly, but wide.  I will have to visit it firsthand to determine how Trikke-able those hills are, but I am always excited to hear about a trail with enough carving width to share comfortably with our two-wheeled and two-legged friends.

If you and your Trikke are cooped up indoors as well, now is a good time to catch up on TrikkeWorld's Top 50 Stories from 2012. There are enough useful tips and interesting personal stories in there to pass the time while waiting for spring.

Hopefully I will be well enough to have more progress to share here next Monday.  In the meantime, I wish you a lot of success with your New Year’s resolutions.  This is the time of year that our motivation is highest, so be sure to use that newfound drive to make 2013 your healthiest and happiest year yet.

Related Articles:

Happy New Year!

Calling Out Sick

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season.  The time has come for my obligatory New Year’s Resolution post.  I have to confess that I normally don’t set resolutions, but if I’m seeking to inspire others with my writing, then I feel it’s the right thing to do.  I also feel that after a wildly successful 2012, I owe it to myself to stay on track with my health and fitness goals.

I had a quiet evening at home last night, still recovering from my head cold.  I spent some time reflecting upon 2012 and journaling about my successes.  Once that was done, my thoughts inevitably turned towards 2013.  That’s when the stat-junkie and project manager in my head began to run amok, crafting all kinds of lofty goals for me to achieve.  “How many miles would I Trikke?  Bike?  How many Kettlebell workouts would I do?  How often would I walk?  How far?  How fast?”

“ENOUGH!!” shouted the voice of reason.  “You’ve got to keep it simple or you’ll be overwhelmed and discouraged.”

So I back-pedaled, dug to the core of my ambitions, and came up with just three simple resolutions:

1. Exercise a minimum of three times a week
2. Count calories and stick with my high-protein diet
3. Have fun and be Kid-Like

Why these three?  Because if I do these specific things, I will achieve my more elusive goals of losing weight, having more energy, and being happier.  For the sake of clarity, here is how I will achieve each of these goals.

Each exercise session will be one of the following:

• Trikke 1 hour minimum (approximately 7 miles)
• Bike 1 hour minimum (approximately 11 miles)
• Walk 1 hour minimum (approximately 3.5)
• Kettlebell workout (25 minutes including warm-up and cool-down)

The stat-junkie in me will track and report my progress as always, but allowing myself this flexibility can better accommodate the unpredictability of the weather and my otherwise jam-packed schedule.  It also allows me the freedom to do what excites me most on that day.

I had previously used the free Lose-It! app (http://www.loseit.com/) for counting calories with great success.  A few months ago, I simply got lazy and stopped inputting my data.  It was little coincidence that my weight loss plateaued around the same time, and I’ve gradually let junk food creep back into my diet.  So today I’m going to recommit to using this app.  I’m going to set it to guide me towards losing one pound a week.  That is a very achievable goal, and if I lose 52 pounds this year, I will be very close to my ideal weight.  For reference, I lost about 40 pounds last year, but didn’t start working on that until late February.

My final resolution of having fun and being kid-like is aimed at restoring some happiness and balance to my life.  I may have achieved a lot in 2012, but it came at the cost of becoming a borderline workaholic who feels guilty about doing anything that doesn’t have the word “work” in it . . . work, school work, house work, yard work, workout . . . can you see the problem here?!  Over the holidays, I rediscovered the joy of my sedentary hobbies.  For better or worse, they have always brought me joy and helped me to relax.  Yet in 2012, I struggled with the guilt of knowing they had led me to become an overweight and out of shape sloth.  So I avoided them completely, despite the emptiness that left in my heart.  For 2013, I am giving myself permission to enjoy these things in moderation, maintaining a balanced approach to the other aspects of my life.

To tie up one final loose end, last week I had set a goal of doing a 6-week kettlebell workout program.  My plan was derailed after just one workout due to catching a bad cold.  I had said I would publish my new schedule for it, but in light of my new resolutions I’m not going to.  Why?  To allow myself the flexibility to pick an outdoor exercise should mother-nature gift the Lehigh Valley with some pleasant winter weather.  Odds are that most of my upcoming exercise sessions will have to be indoors, thus meeting the original kettlebell goal anyway, but I’d rather stay flexible should a Trikke-able day present itself.

I intend to hold myself accountable to my resolutions by posting about them weekly.  I think most of us have grown cynical of resolutions, because the vast majority of them are abandoned within weeks.  So every Monday evening, I will share my progress here.  Why Monday evening?  Simply because my “weekend” is Saturday through Monday, and that’s when I have the most time to exercise and write.  Just knowing I have to keep this public should keep me on course.  More so, I hope by sticking with my resolutions I can prove that it can be done, and can inspire you to stick with yours too.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?  And how do you plan to stick with them?  We’re all in this together, so let us all know your plans so we can encourage each other.  And by all means, please hold my feet to the fire should I fail to do what I’ve said I would.

Here’s to wishing you a safe, successful, and prosperous 2013, no matter what your resolutions are!!

Related Articles:

A Year of Progress

My Winter Workout Land

Calling Out Sick

Have Fun and be Kid-Like

Calling Out Sick

Sooner or later, this happens to us all.  We get ourselves hyped up about exercising, we put together a plan, we start doing our workouts, then WHAM!!!  Out of the blue, we get hit with a cold or other seasonal malady.  We don’t want to crawl out of bed, let alone pump iron or carve along a trail.

You can probably guess why I’m writing this.  Last week, I renewed my commitment to a winter kettlebell exercise program, only to wake up Friday morning with the sore throat, aches, and alternating fever and chills that are a sure sign a head cold is coming for its winter visit.  I’m on my fourth day of fighting this now, as I struggle to breathe through the congestion and endure the accompanying migraine.

My natural instinct is to steer far clear of anything resembling exercise.  But this sounded like an excuse, so I wanted to see what the experts had to say about exercising while sick.

A fairly common view is that if the illness affects only affects you from the neck up, it is probably okay to workout:

Corporate Fitness: Should I Exercise When I'm Sick?

But others caution that working out intensely can aggravate your illness, setting back your full recovery.  They advise you to rest, get well, and then ease back into an exercise routine:

I'm Sick, Can I Exercise?

Most of my symptoms are indeed above the neck, but as of last night I’m getting a rough cough that is rattling deep in my chest, and I still have a touch of the fever and aches.  I’m going to go with my gut feeling here, and put my 6-week kettlebell routine on hold until the worst of this passes.  I’ll republish my schedule for it along with my New Year’s Resolutions tomorrow.

In the meantime, I took heart at the following article, which asserts that a regular workout routine can help prevent illness in the first place:

How Keeping Physically Fit Can Prevent You From Catching a Cold

Although I can’t be certain that my recent inactivity had anything to do with me getting sick in the first place, keeping this in mind might encourage me to prevent future lapses in my exercise routine.

I hope you are feeling well, and dodging the myriad of bugs that are assaulting our immune systems this winter.  Take care of yourself, and remember to consider carefully whether it’s okay to exercise should you succumb to illness this winter.

Related Articles:

My Winter Workout Land

Have Fun and be Kid-Like

Waiting for better weather to ride my pride and joy so . . .

Many of us have fallen into lives of all work and no play.  Between a full-time job, part-time classes, a long commute, and a home to care for, I know I’m guilty as charged.  It’s part of why I love my Trikke so much.  It gives me my “must do” workouts, while being fun and feeling like a kid a heart.

But admit it, don’t you sometimes feel guilty for letting yourself feeling like a kid?  You enjoy playing, but there’s something deep inside you that says that it’s time to “grow up” and “be responsible.”  I’ve come to loathe that inner voice, and while I know that it’s healthy to kick back and have fun, I’ve often had difficulty banishing those disparaging thoughts.  That demon inside tells me I don’t have time for fun; I must work harder if I want to be successful.

At our company Christmas party last month, our soon-to-be-retiring CEO gave an inspiring speech, part of which included qualities he felt we should all have.  In amongst the usual bits about working hard and being a part of a team, were two qualities that more of us should embrace:

• “Have fun.”
• “Be kid-like.”

As the words came out of his mouth, they struck right at the heart of my inner demon and laid him to rest.  Here was the ultra-successful CEO of a company that has achieved double-digit growth through the Great Recession and become an iconic mid-Atlantic chain, telling us that it was not only okay, but actually essential to enjoy ourselves and let our inner child see the light of day.  If he can be successful with that philosophy, then heck, so can I!!

I’m one of the lucky few who work for a company that embraces such values, and I really took his words to heart.  We all talk about work-life balance, but few of us actually achieve it.  I’m terrible at letting myself become overloaded in the work department, but I intend to keep his words close to my heart as I learn to feel less guilt for letting myself indulge in my childish pleasures more often.  This will be on my list of resolutions for 2013 for sure.

I need to make that mental shift because as I’ve embraced becoming fit in 2012, I’ve unfortunately started to feel guilt towards my sedentary hobbies which were responsible for getting me so out of shape in the first place.  I’ve sort of come to feel that riding my Trikke is the only fun that I’m “allowed to have now.”

I got out early from work yesterday, and I’m off for the Christmas holiday today.  As much as the house needed cleaning, I decided that I deserved to have a break and a happy holiday too.  I won’t stray too far down the path of talking about how tough Christmas can be for us single-folks, but let’s just say this year I’m really determined to beat the blues that usually accompany my holidays.  So I let myself be kid-like for a few hours, and pulled out some toys I bought a while back.

As a kid, I was always enthralled with the “lots of assembly required" types of gifts, and this is something I have never outgrown.  The happiest sound on Christmas morning for me was the distinctive rattle of a box of Legos.  Last night, I lost myself for a blissful few hours assembling a Lego replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water.

Then this morning I put together a small photo-etched replica of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I am a fan of architecture and construction, so I really enjoyed these projects and felt like I’d come close to replicating the joys of past Christmases.  More importantly, I’m making progress towards realizing it’s still okay to enjoy my sedentary hobbies.  After all, it’s these hobbies that bring most of the happiness into my life.

Like everything, it’s all about balance and moderation.  So go ahead, and let yourself be a kid again this Christmas.  Play with some toys, draw a picture, play a game, ride your Trikke, or do whatever makes you feel joyful and alive again!!

I’d like to take this time to wish all my readers a safe and happy holiday season.  You have enriched my life by being part of it, and I look forward to more of the same in 2013!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post.  I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Winter Workout Land

Between December’s bad weather and fighting a head cold this past week, it’s no wonder I have not ridden my Trikke since November 22.  No, that’s not a typo.  I’m ashamed to admit it, but just over a month has elapsed since I have done anything resembling exercise.

This has not been good for my body or my spirit.  Even before I got sick, I was starting to feel the lethargy brought on by inactivity as well as the shorter days.  I’ve fallen back into the doldrums, fearing that all my progress on a healthy lifestyle was circling the drain.  Luckily I have not gained back any of the weight I lost, but I haven’t made any progress losing the additional 50 pounds I should either.

I’ve finally come to grips with the notion that the northeast is experiencing what most would call a “normal winter”, and waiting for those “nice days” to return so I can bike and Trikke is just not a realistic fitness plan.  So I was feeling well enough today to pull out of my tailspin, and recommit to an indoor exercise program for the winter.  I decided to return to the kettlebell workout program that served me so well in the summer.

For those of you unfamiliar with kettlebell workouts, they are weight lifting moves that combine strength training, core fitness, and cardio all into one workout.  Unlike conventional free weights, which target a single muscle group, kettlebell moves are more complex and target multiple muscle groups at a time.  This allows you to get a more complete workout in a shorter time, and also mimics the real world motions you would go through in other sports and activities.  Remember that your Trikke is a full-body exercise machine, so why not adopt a similar full-body exercise program?

The kettlebell system I chose is called Kettleworx, and I have the 6 DVD set with the 5 pound kettlebell.  The premise of this system is you do three 20-minute workouts a week.  Each workout focuses on one of the following: resistance training, core fitness, cardio, although all of those elements are present to some degree in each workout.

When you include the warm-up and cool-down, each workout is about 25 minutes long.  For most of us, it would take this long just to drive to the gym and back, so a short workout like this can help eliminate the excuses that come with our time-starved lives.  Furthermore, the Introduction DVD recommends you take a day off in between each workout to give your muscles a chance to rebuild.  Doesn’t the commitment of 25 minutes a day, 3 days a week sound like something anyone can handle?

So with this choice of exercise program made, I’ll write my commitment to doing it on this blog to hold me accountable.  I just completed the Week 1 Resistance Training workout, and although I’m hurting, it feels great to have taken my first steps back towards fitness.  I’m going to set the due date for each week’s workouts to Monday, since my typical weekend is Saturday thru Monday.  This will give me the greatest chance of actually getting it done.  My plan looks like this:

• Week 1 due 12/31/12
• Week 2 due 1/7/13
• Week 3 due 1/14/13
• Week 4 due 1/21/13
• Week 5 due 1/28/13
• Week 6 due 2/4/13

Tonight’s workout was difficult, and a literal painful reminder of what happens when you let your fitness plans slip.  I recall the first time I did that workout in the summer though, as it was much more difficult than tonight.  After I completed the six week plan, it was actually becoming fairly easy, and I was looking to move up to a 10 pound kettlebell.  One of the joys of this program is that you’ll make rapid progress.

There’s a lot of good news from tonight’s workout.  First of all, I realize I am still in better shape than I was 5 months ago.  Secondly, tonight is the worst I’m going to let it get.  Each workout from here will get easier and more enjoyable.  Finally, I can already feel a boost to my mood from the exercise.  These endorphins do wonders, and it literally feels like someone flipped a switch in my head making me happier and more vibrant again.

I hope all of you are holding up well this winter, and finding a way to keep fit indoors if you’re among the majority of us who live in cold climates.  I’d love to hear what your winter plans are, and how you’re doing with them.  As for me, I’ll make an update here every Monday to share my progress with you.

Related Articles:

Don’t be Sad

Rainy Day Fun

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post.  I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A Year of Progress

As the official start of winter approaches here in the northeast, the weather has conspired to keep me indoors and off my Trikke.  The past two weekends were completely rained out, and when we got one mild, sunny day yesterday, it coincided with the start of a head cold which kept me inside and in bed.  Because it’s so easy to get down about the weather and fall out of the habit of exercising as a result, I thought this would be a good time to take a step back and reflect on the past year to remind myself just how far I’ve come.

A year ago, I had a total disdain for exercise.  I work at a desk job, and my favorite hobbies (reading, video games, model making) are all equally sedentary.  I should also mention that I’m a part-time undergrad student, which keeps me seated at my computer long after the work week has ended.  Is it any wonder that I had packed on close to 100 excessive pounds and found simple things like climbing my stairs to be exhausting?

But something changed last year around this time.  I don’t know whether it was the beautiful, mild winter we were blessed with?  Or whether approaching the age of 40 set off some warning bells in my head?  Or that the more I sat still and lay around, the more my body began to ache?  What matters is that something changed, and it changed rather spontaneously.

The walk that started it all . . .

It was a mild late-November day, and I had just gotten the grade for the final project and presentation for my first semester back after a 17-year absence from school.  Much to my relief, I earned an “A” and wanted to reward myself by taking the day off from housework.  So I went to my workshop in the garage and plunked myself down at the workbench to work on a model car.  Despite the cool, fresh air blowing in through the open garage door, I found myself getting restless and antsy.  All I had done was trade one desk for another.

So I went for a walk!  It was completely spontaneous, but a walk along the beautiful D&L Trail alongside the Lehigh River seemed the perfect way to enjoy the mild autumn day, and to reflect upon the successful completion of my first semester back in school.  I enjoyed my walk, except for one small problem.  After just a half-hour of walking, I was exhausted, winded, light-headed, and nauseous.  Is it any wonder I had such a disdain for exercise when it made me feel so rotten?

As tempting as it was to retreat into my sedentary world, something shifted in my mind telling me that if I didn’t do something soon to change my health, it might be too late.  I was sick of feeling entombed in a sack of flesh that just seemed to bog me down in misery.  So I kept walking.  I made a commitment to walk three times a week, gradually increasing my pace and distance as I felt able to.

I walked through the winter, even on the coldest days, and I saw others out there riding their bicycles.  I yearned to ride mine again, and decided that I didn’t need to wait for that “perfect spring day” to do it.  So on February 5, I rode 6.5 miles on the Slate Heritage Trail on a sunny, but 41 degree day.  It was torture; not because of the cold, but because every crank of the pedals was difficult and agonizing.  I must have stopped every half mile to rest, but the important thing was I made it to the end of the trail and back.  Bicycling had seemed so spirited and effortless in my youth, yet here I was crawling along at snail’s pace, gasping for air every inch of the way.  I was even passed by an older gentleman riding a rusting bike that had to be as old as I was.

Determined to conquer the limitations my neglected body imposed on me, I set a goal of biking 1000 miles in 2012.  Of course I wanted to lose weight, but instead of saying “I want to lose 100 pounds,” I opted to set a more concrete goal, that if followed, would ultimately result in me losing weight.  I credit this back-door approach with the success I have enjoyed since.

Some of the Lehigh Valley's best sights can only be reached by bike

I continued to walk and bike regularly, feeling stronger as the spring months approached.  My biggest problem now was the literal “pain in the butt” that resulted from my bike rides, which started topping 10 miles.  I had been eyeing Trikke’s carving vehicles for years, and decided the time was right to buy one.  This would give me something to do the day after a long bike ride, instead of resorting to the “my butt hurts” excuse to avoid exercise.

My first ride on Lean Green, my secondhand T78 Deluxe, took place on March 10 in 37 degree weather.  I was like an excited kid with a new toy, and wasn’t going to let anything as petty as the cold weather stop me from riding it.  I had practiced the basics of riding in my driveway, but my trip to Bicentennial Park was my first time on a “real trail.”  I managed to do 2.1 miles, which left me gasping for air and sweating out of every pore, yet also left a huge grin plastered on my face.  They say you need to find something you love to commit to an exercise program, and I knew that day that I finally had.

Combining my three forms of exercise with a newly adopted high-protein/low-calorie diet left me feeling like a new woman by the end of March.  I no longer felt sick and exhausted after exercise, and was instead beginning to feel invigorated by it.  I racked up the miles on the bike and the Trikke, and when the heat wave hit in July and August, I bought a kettlebell and training DVD’s to take my exercise indoors.  I had come so far already that I didn’t want to regress to the state I was in just a few months earlier.

My new passion for living!!

During this time, the Trikke stood out as not only my favorite exercise, but a newfound passion in my life.  I joined the Trikke Riders of Pennsylvania, and attended June’s Riding Clinikk in Philadelphia, making new Trikking friends along the way.  I eagerly returned to the trails as soon as the heat wave broke, and continually rode faster and further than ever before.

With Rokk-It Red, my new T8 Sport, I conquered the steep hill at Rodale Park on October 20, and completed an epic 21.2 mile ride with my friends in Stroudsburg on November 11.  Although every muscle in my body ached after these rides, it felt so good, and had reignited an internal energy that had been missing for close to fifteen years.

Although I did not meet my literal goal of biking 1,000 miles this year, I still consider that goal met in the sense that I have adopted a healthy and active lifestyle as a result of it.  Although the year is not quite over, I have achieved the following:

• Biked 305 miles
• Trikked 227 miles
• Lost 40 pounds
• Dropped 6 pant-sizes
• Regained the energy I had in my mid-20’s
• Discovered the benefits of cross-training
• Made over a dozen new friends
• Started this blog

A variety of circumstances beyond my control have prevented me from exercising for the past three weeks.  While I cringe as I feel myself starting to slide back into that familiar lazy abyss, I realize that I’m writing this post to inspire myself as much as to inspire you.  The winter weather and this head cold are just a minor detour on a long journey.  If I can revive myself after two decades of unhealthy living, and go from being sick after walking 30 minutes to feeling energized after Trikking three hours, then I can certainly pick myself up and dust myself off after the setbacks December has thrown at me.

The coming new year will be an opportunity for me to set new goals and to share them with you.  I have become a big believer in the idea that we are more likely to achieve our goals when others hold us accountable for them, so I will put mine here for the world to see.

If you’re just beginning your journey towards health, what’s the first step you will take?  If you’re already on that path, what can you do in 2013 to up your game?  I’ll be posting my official goals closer to New Year’s Day, and I’ll look forward to hearing what yours are too.  Let’s work together in 2013 to inspire each other to new heights!