The Writing and Photography Blog of Kevin J Sabo

Getting back into a normal routine after the holidays has been challenging for me.

With my ‘regular’ work functions on hiatus for another week and not much happening around town, it’s still been pretty quiet. That said, the downtime has been a blessing as it’s helped me get back into my weight routine and get some studying done.

This morning was spent in the office working on my next assignment, a research paper. I have around 7 weeks left to get my next two assignments done and write my final exam. I think I’m in good shape, for the moment anyways.

The writing is starting to get easier, and now that I’m putting some of the skills into practise they are definitely coming together better. I’m aiming to keep my average going with this next paper, but time will tell. The only thing I really worry about is that I will spend too much time trying to polish it, detracting from it in the process. I know that is something I have a tendency to do.

This afternoon, I broke away from my studying for a bit, heading down into my fitness studio to do a workout.

I don’t have a lot of equipment in my studio, however I have enough to get the job done. I usually start my workout with 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by a variety of weights. I have a couple of exercises I do on the weight machine, but most of my weight work is with free-weights win the bench. I usually wind down by doing 10 to 15 minutes worth of stretches.

I’ve been finding that the exercise has been helping me both mentally and physically. My moods have felt like they’ve been more stable, and my concentration has definitely been improved as far as my coursework, and regular work, goes.

As for my physical health, my goal is to get back down into the 245-250lbs territory by the beginning of February. I feel like if I can maintain the consistency of my workouts and watch my diet I think that seems like a reasonable goal. I know that by dropping the weight again it will help both my blood pressure and blood sugar levels, both of which have been giving me grief since I picked up some excess weight again.

I am working on short and longer term goals for the upcoming year. I know that as long as I make them simple, reasonable, and attainable I should be successful with them. If I start off with a goal of getting under 200lbs, with no plan as how to reach it, I’m setting myself up for failure before I start.

I’m setting goals for 2020 instead making resolutions, because goals may take work, but they have more teeth. Most resolutions fall by the wayside within a matter of weeks of the new year beginning. Goals, they don’t fall by the wayside. They stick with you, nagging at you, pushing you to reach them.

It’s easy to set a goal of going to the gym everyday. Then life happens. This excuse pops up, that excuse pops up, and before you know it, you’ve stopped going. By setting a goal, you are painting a target to be reached. I find that by making the target realistic and achievable, with a reasonable set of time to complete it, that the goals are more motivating.

What’s your goal for 2020?

Kevin