Todd B. Freese » Physical Fitness

90 Days to Change

Todd — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:03:38 +0000

If you haven’t had a chance watch the video post I made yesterday, September 26, check it out. It talks about my frustrations and hopes for the next 90 days. I had originally planned on a 30 plan of success, but as I thought about it I realized that for change that may be life altering would require a little more than 30 days.

In addition, in 90 days you can totally change your body, your finances, your spiritual life and even create a business that will change not only your life, but the lives of others.

So here goes, 90 days for a new me, and maybe you if you follow along. Here are the steps I am undertaking:

Identify Areas of Need
Access those Areas
Make a Plan
Monitor Plan
Persevere

If you are interested in the details of my plan click here. Check back each day for a new post with a new idea, news or a link to an event or two. 90 days from now, around Christmas, I hope to look differently, feel differently, think differently and have a new outlook on my role in the world. 90 days of new habit, thoughts and ideas, join me on the journey.

Physical Activity

Todd — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:20:26 +0000

Gold's Gym in Midland, Texas

I have decided to get back into the gym again. I have been running, stretching and doing some basic push-ups and sit-ups, but there is something about getting back into the gym that does a body, and mind and SOUL good. I have come across many studies that show the mind-body benefit of exercise. Below are some of the reasons exercise:

(Base: Americans who participate in physical activities at least occasionally; % say primary reason for exercise)

For fun/enjoyment (49%)

To prevent health problems (36%)

To reduce stress/tension (31%)

To relax (30%)

To help with current medical problems (27

I exercise to for many of these reasons, but I exercise for how I FEEL afterwards. There is nothing quite like the feeling you experience after a great workout. If you feel out of sorts, tired, depressed, worried or just lethargic a workout is a quick elixir. Below are the top ten benefits of exercise:

1. You think better.

2. You are much less likely to develop memory & thinking problems.

3. You are more resilient because it takes more to make you feel stressed & you overcome it & recover faster.

3. You are much less likely to develop heart disease or have a heart attack.

4. Surprisingly, you are less likely to develop cancer.

5. Your chances of avoiding type II diabetes or reversing it go up dramatically.

6. Because you’ll be stronger & more physically fit aerobically, you’ll have more stamina & energy reserves if or when you need them in physically challenging emergencies. And even doing more normal things like grocery shopping will be far easier.

7. Particularly if you also work at improving your exercise program & your progress in it & eat right, you’ll be firmer or more muscular & you’ll be a lot less fat.

(Depending on how fat you are now & what you eat, you may well weigh a LOT less.)

So you’ll move better. You’ll look better. And, you’ll tend to be more attractive sexually.

8. You’ll live longer & be in good health a bigger percentage of your life. So your years in good health will be much longer.

9. You’ll be more proactive & effective — because exercising regularly teaches those skills & changes your self image in that direction as a result.

10. Your sex life will be better. And, as you get older, it will be MUCH better. This is true for both men and women.

More information on exercise, eating right, staying health, & living long is posted on the:

Focus on Health blog at http://www.iehealth.blogspot.com

Can’t think of a better way to spend an hour with such a return on your time. So go ahead and spend an hour or so and get in a workout, you will be glad you did.

Goals

Todd — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:42:49 +0000

What are goals? I once said that dreams are merely goals not written down. How true that is! If you have a dream but fail to put them on paper and give them legs and a time line, then your dream will most likely, go unfilled. But the power of putting it down on paper is astounding! You can reach your goals and even exceed them, but they need to have legs.

How do you give them legs? Write it down, break it down and give it a date to be completed. This is it, as easy as pie, well at least in theory. One of the most famous acronyms for goal setting is S.M.A.R.T. What do these stand for? Here goes:

Specific - Make your goal as specific as possible. For example, if you say I want to get in shape, that is too broad. A better goal may be, “I want to weight 165 pounds by the end of the summer” is specific.

Measurable – Using our example from above, if you weigh 190, you know you have to lose 25 lbs and can measure your progress with a scale.

Attainable – If you weigh 190 and want to lose 150 lbs, well this would be unattainable, not to mention unhealthy. Make it you can do in a healthy manner.

Realistic - Again, losing 25 lbs in two days is not realistic. As much as I love to play basketball, at 44 years of age and being 5’10″ tall and saying I want to play in the NBA is not realistic. There are limits to what we can do, but there is so much we CAN do!

Timely – Give your goal a time limit. In our above example, if you want to shed 25 lbs it might be attainable in 18 – 25 weeks. Set a goal and give it a time frame, this becomes your action plan.

So get busy and set some goals, need ideas? Check out the post below this one and see what I have planned for the summer. For a great resource on goal setting check out this link: Goal Setting

Good luck and please let me know how your goal setting goes!

I’m Going to do it!

Todd — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:07:53 +0000

Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where the day-to-day just isn’t cutting it? You know what I mean, you live your life, kids, job, spouse, church, that occasional trip and night out, but where is the challenge? Sure, you have some challenges in your job, but honestly, you could “mail it in” and people would be happy. Now I’m not advocating that way of life, but I think it is the reality of life in the United States. Most of us are fortunate to have what we need, if not what we want, and we seek challenge and meaning in different areas of our lives.

I have chosen to run a race close to home, The Crossroads Marathon in Odessa, Texas on October 3. The race is perfect for me, close to home, run in October so I can train during the summer months when I am not teaching and the track is flat, VERY flat!

So follow my training here, I’ll let you know the good, bad and ugly. If you want to join me in person on the web in virual training, let me know, I could use a training buddy! Need help on how to train? Go to www.halhigdon.com for great advice and training schedules.

That is certainly true for me, I have come to the point where I am looking for something that will truly test me in many different capacities. I need to be challenged as to my discipline, my physicality, my stamina and my mental toughness. I need to know if I do indeed measure up to my image of who I think I am. I can think of no better way to do that than to run the ultimate race (at least for most of us) the marathon. Twenty-six miles, 385 yards of nothing but sweat, pain and asphalt. I started training this week. The first week didn’t go as well as I had planned, a little heat exhaustion the first long run of six miles, but I won’t give up!