Burnout

Goal Post #3

In August I burnt out and stopped everything but walking. Bike rides dwindled to once a week or less, and yoga only happened twice that month. The damage wasn't limited to the month of August- burnout effects extended into November. Why did this happen? The answers are broken into two categories: calories and exercise.  

Counting calories

One of the main reasons counting calories didn’t work for me summer 2017 is simple. It's a total drag. It interrupts enjoyment of a meal, leaves any companion alone for however long it takes you to complete the process, and is mind-numbingly boring. Who loves searching for a detailed caloric description of the thing you're about to eat? No one. No one loves that.

The app I use isn’t great by the way. It has all kinds of tics that make no sense. One of these is reminding people to eat more when they’re 200 calories down or exercise if 200 calories up. At 11am on a Tuesday most people are going to eat in an hour or two so shouldn’t we need to be a little under? Conversely, I'm not going to eat all evening until midnight. Doesn't it make sense to be a bit over around 8-9pm? The app completely ignores even the smallest possibility our lives don’t revolve around calories.

On that note, calorie-counting is also connected to vanity and selfishness. It’s associated with people who have nothing better to do than obsess over their waistline and pour cereal into a measuring cup. In a world where “saying goodbye to counting calories” is everywhere, I'm not alone in feeling there has to be a better way.

On the plus side, I did start noticing how many calories were in some of my favorite "healthy" things. Any kind of naked, raw, or veggie smoothie in a bottle was revealed to be what it is - expensive juice lacking the nutrients to justify the sugar content. Just eat the piece of fruit.

Sometime in September, we made the decision to start eating more meals at home. Nic is a fantastic cook so if I went on a bike ride, he'd make dinner then walk our elderly dachshund mix George while I went on another ride with Mac. Eating at home had an immediate positive impact on our bank accounts. Even without any other benefits, that was plenty motivation to keep going.

Exercise

The thing about exercise is it’s difficult and time-consuming. Not many people have lots of time on their hands so why spend what little we have on something difficult? As for what kind of exercise to do, the options are endless. For the sake of simplicity, I'm limiting exercises in these posts to what I lost in the burnout and what has worked for me in the long run.

First. Burpees. Burpees are confusing. The concept is simple but google “how to do a burpee” and there are lots of results for a reason. Every exercise program has their own twist on the standard burpee so figuring out which burpee to use for the “burpee fitness test” is nearly impossible. Recently (Nov 2018) I found an answer but want to share it early in these posts because had I known basic rules for burpees it might have been one of the things that stuck instead of getting lost in the burnout.

For each burpee style I will include my current personal burpee test results (# completed in 30 seconds)

Burpee #1  This burpee starts standing with hands to your sides, lowers to a squat, places hands on the floor and jumps legs out to plank position. From there legs jump to front and you stand back up. Notice what’s missing? The push-up and the vertical jump.

My score: 11

Burpee #2 This burpee also skips the push-up but requires your chest to hit the ground. You get back to plank position by bowing your chest (easier, but still time-consuming). They also add a jump at the end of each burpee, which I have to admit I enjoy.

My score: 8.5

Burpee #3 This burpee starts in squat position, ends in a jump, and requires a full push-up in the middle. Not for beginners and definitely not for a beginner fitness test.  My score: 6

Those are massive differences in the results of a burpee test. Guess which kind I started with last June? That's right, #3. My score was 2 because I couldn’t do more than two push-ups. After removing push-ups, I could do 9 burpees with jumps in 60 seconds. If I had known I could have started with a 30 second test and no push-ups, continuing with weekly burpee tests might have been feasible.

  

Second, bike rides. It got super hot in August and Mac couldn’t run anymore. He went from trotting happily the whole way to miserable, panting, and stopping constantly. His discomfort meant it was time for a break. Without the dog as my extra motivational nudge, I started slipping.

Third, yoga. Yoga is great. It's adaptable to any skill and fitness level while growing with you as your practice improves. The reasons yoga fizzled out are space and time. It is possible to complete a fulfilling yoga session in less than 10 mins but I didn't know that yet.

Carving out 20-40mins for myself inside the house was more difficult than time for bike rides because of space. We had small bedrooms and a cramped living area. To illustrate, I had to drag the coffee table under the window to make a place for one average-height adult to practice yoga. It's one thing to ask your partner to modify their routine so you can take a bike ride or go to the gym, but asking them to watch TV through your downward dog is a bit much. 

Finally, daily planks. This might be the hardest simple thing to do. It literally takes a minute or less and requires zero equipment. Grab a timer, find a non-slick surface (carpet, large towel, or $5 yoga mat), and you’re set. You can start with 30-60 seconds; or with a modified plank keeping your knees on the ground while you build up stamina. This is the one exercise from that summer I think got lost in the burnout because of the burnout. When things are on fire, everything goes.

Conclusion

Making a bunch of changes all at once is too many. Even good things require slow accumulation to stick.