Designing Your Own Diet and Exercise Routine

On Valentine’s Day I made a contract with myself based on the Premack principle. This principle states that a low-frequency habit that you want to do more frequently should be paired with a high frequency habit. In my case:

a) Once I exercise for 10 minutes, I can watch TV for 30 minutes.
b) Once I drink 2 bottles of water, I can have a meal.
c) Once I eat a healthy meal, I can study for 4 hours.

Another principle I took from cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is the dead man rule; never ask a live person to do something a dead person can do. For example, “don’t eat chocolate” would be better stated as “eat fruits and vegetables” or “increase your protein intake.”

For the first time in my life I feel I can go to the gym for the rest of my life and enjoy it. I see the machines as toys I can play with. I see the opportunity to learn more about nutrients. I see it as a way to improve my self-esteem without going to a psychologist and without taking medication that makes me fat.

Another important change is that I don’t plan further away than tomorrow. OK. For example: Today I went to the gym and challenged myself. Tomorrow I’ll go and challenge myself (or not); I’m going to go until I feel proud of myself. If I told myself I have to do 3 sets of 12 reps of my upper body muscles, I wouldn’t do it. I need to just see what the machine feels like without weights and then just do a few repetitions until my muscles hurt.

Anyway, the good thing about CBT is that what’s happened in the past doesn’t matter. All that matters is the present and the antecedents and consequences that have been maintaining my habit of not exercising. Just how you need training wheels on a bike before you can ride it, you need to go through a phase of familiarizing yourself with your body.

In teaching, there’s a presentation phase, a practice phase, and a production phase. Going to the gym and doing a circuit of exercises to me is part of the last phase, the production phase, where the student performs what is expected without crutches. I’m going to need crutches for a while.

Self-esteem has 4 bases: spiritual, physical, social, and intellectual caring for oneself. My physical base has been extremely ignored until now.

My ultimate goal is to run on the treadmill like that Vietnamese girl did at the university. She could run fast for like an hour.

Researching on health topics that interest me, journaling, and imagining being a personal trainer are going to help me lead a healthier lifestyle.

I also want to become a vegan, but I’ll take baby steps for that, too.

I cancelled cable today. That’s how I’m paying for the gym. It’s coming out of my entertainment budget. So I better have fun doing it.

I bought a calendar and some stickers to show when I’m proud of what I’ve done physically.

Doctors are consultants to your health. You are the one that has to determine what is best for you. Only you have your own best interest at heart. What I mean to say is don’t depend on them alone for your well-being.

It’s a vicious cycle (weight concerns cause eating disorders, due to self-esteem issues, which cause weight concerns), so why not tackle what you can control? Your weight.

The trainer at LA Fitness gave me a schedule:

M) Chest and abs
T) Back
W) Legs and abs
R) Triceps
F) Biceps and abs
S) Shoulders

And cardio for 30’ afterwards.