Using your inner dialog

[divedragon]

As we all are striving to loose weight and get fitter, our biggest challenge is often ourselves.  I have been striving to get myself back into a shape that is, age adjusted of course, close to when I left the army so many years ago.  Along with this comes the need to loose the pounds of lard that has accumulated throughout my body.  It's been a long, slow process, but progress has and continues to be made.  In another post, I also talked about as we loose weight, we must up the intensity of our workouts to compensate for the loss of fat, so this need to work harder has been on my mind as well.

Last week I was able to jog continuously for 40 minutes on Monday, but unable to repeat that performance the rest of the week.  This week, after doing another 40+ minutes on Monday, I was determined to repeat that performance a few more times.  I am happy to report I've now completed 3 workouts that exceeded 40 minutes of continuous jogging (I'm not setting any land speed records here, just keeping the motion going and the heart rate up).  But as I'm doing this I have an inner dialog going that I thought by sharing might help some others.

My legs are heavy and I can feel a slight burn in my thighs.  If I stopped for a moment and stretched, it might help.  I've done well this week, just a few minutes of walking will help.  No, you preach increased intensity and walking is not increasing intensity.  You fancy yourself tough, but when it actually gets tough you want to give up.  Yea it hurts, but its supposed to hurt.  Your body can give you more than you think it can.  OK, let me make my stride longer.  Breathing is getting heavier...you're getting tired, you need to slow down.  You're breathing is supposed to be heavier - that's the point.  This isn't really that bad.  Try a little high intensity, stretch it out, get that heart rate higher.  That's good, yea you thought you were breathing hard before, this is intense.   OK you can slow it down and get your breath again, but don't stop jogging.  Just get your breath back and go again.

This is the inner dialog going on in my head.  It sounds like an argument with myself.  I have a similar discussion when the alarm goes off in the morning.  We all have them.  Last week I let the weaker ego win and this week, my stronger one has won out for 2 days.  We all have to do this if we expect to make progress.  We have to push ourselves and we have to realize that EVERYONE who goes through this process and is successful has a similar dialog going on in their heads.  Make sure you workout with your strongest partner and leave the weaker one at home.  Slowly, the weaker one will be out of your life.

[awood08]

I have the same type of conversation myself during my workouts and my runs. I found that if I focus on my breathing, my strides, anything else other than the time it's taking me I can always push myself alot further. I think this is incredibly helpful, thank you for sharing!

And of course congrats on battling your weaker ego and hitting your marks. Hope your success continues to increase! 🙂  

[MustangMark]

I have the same thoughs in my head as I transition from either machine to machine or free weights to free weights.  In the past year and a half the determination has really paid off though

[NewDawn]

@divedragon @MustangMark @awood08 inner dialog is priceless... however not everyone is able to proceed the same... some people do need to slow down... important factor is to do our personal best and it will always pays off... listening to our bodies is important.. thank you for sharing... kudos for positive inner dialog... we can do anything in time...

[divedragon]

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@NewDawn wrote:

... some people do need to slow down... important factor is to do our personal best and it will always pays off... listening to our bodies is important.. thank you for sharing... kudos for positive inner dialog... we can do anything in time...

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Absolutely correct and my intent was not to tell people not to slow down.  My intent was at several levels, 1) do push yourself and know your body offers more than your mind lets it. 2) Everybody struggles, you're not alone and 3) surpress you nay sayer and embrace the positive id.

But yea, don't ignore you body and remember, there are two kinds of pain.  The pain of struggle and the pain of injury.  If you're injured, don't ignore it!  It is with the pain of struggle you must endure past your mindset.  It's mind over matter - if you don't mind, then it don't matter!!

[divedragon]

An update:  As of this morning, continuous jogging for 52 minutes and the best of the week in terms of intensity.  My average heart rate was 147 vs previous best of 136.  My inner dialog was more around 'feeling' my running technique and trying to improve it and make it smoother.  Also trying to lengthen my stride.  The only negative voice was when running up a long, albeit not too steep, incline.  I'm in Kansas during the week, but will be back in TN this weekend and the hills there are a lot steeper.  Tomorrow, my negative id may rejoin me on those hills.

It was also 33 degrees this morning.  Winter is on its way.  Not looking forward to that, but I've come so far I don't want to loose any over the cold, dark months.  Time to visit the sporting goods store for some warm but flexible running clothes.

[HelenaFitbit]

I have an inner voice telling me to walk a bit further, to hold on to the workout 5 more minutes and to say no to that croissant! 

The best motivation is inside you, let's keep stepping! 

[I-train-hard]

Whatever it is I am talking to….tells me to remember that tomorrow is another day and I need to reasonable with everything I do 

Once you start pushing yourself to the limit, keeping your body on strict calorie limit…. something has to give. Thant’s when usually people stop exercising.