Monday, February 23, 2009

Staying motivated

Photo by Don Ricker photography

Sunday morning I was tired. Seems pretty normal right. It happens to all of us every once in a while. Just rest and you'll bounce back, right?

The problem was that like every Sunday morning, I planned to get on my bike. On Sunday mornings, if I'm able to ride outside I do, but for the last 3 months it's been indoors on a stationary bike trainer. Why do I do it? Simply put, life usually just makes more sense when I'm on a bike. It may be the monotony of riding indoors, but lately I'm finding it more and more difficult to pedal on Sunday mornings. I'd much rather just lay on the couch for a while or even sleep in. Given the number of people who eventually fail at maintaining any type of regular exercise regimen, it seems like what I am going through is to be expected. As humans, we have a hard time getting and staying fit. Consistency is the key. It doesn't need to be a 3 hour workout every day, just 20 minutes 6 days a week is often enough yet many people have a very hard time of making this a habit.

Managing Type 1 Diabetes is not much different. It requires a little work consistently throughout every single day (365 days a year). We spend 1 to 2 hours performing physical tasks required to manage Adele's Diabetes. That's between 7 and 14 hours per week. We cannot cram all this work into 1 day and then take the rest of the week off. Staying motivated is key...

So, if we look at the number of people actually able to stick to an exercise routine (or a healthy diet for that matter), it isn't surprising that so many people living with Type 1 loose motivation at times causing them to have sub-optimal control and eventually run the risk of developing long term complications. Is it possible to stay focused at all times while playing a game that has no time outs and never ends?

So after all this thinking, I got off the couch, got on my bike and started pedaling...

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