Workout Wednesday: Toughest Part About Vacations

The toughest part for me about going on vacation (or going into the Hole) is getting thrown out of my routine and then trying to "get back in the groove" upon my return. I recently visited with some family friends in South Carolina to celebrate the 4th of July. The trip was an absolute blast that including a lot of fishing, boating, swimming and relaxing. Notice what was missing there? Exercise. We certainly didn't sit on our butts all day (quite the contrary), but I also wasn't getting to the gym and doing cardio daily like I'm used to. In that way, going on vacation is much like a stay in the Hole for me. I'm thrown off of my routine and knowing that the feeling of "fighting" to find my mojo back can sometimes be a little bit disheartening.

I really wanted to write about this because I know that it is a common occurrence in our community. We fight our butts off to exercise, do our treatments and take care of ourselves only to get a monkey wrench thrown into the motor to knock us off our feet. There's been plenty of times in my life that I have stopped working out because of a fast approaching hospital stay. Since I knew that I would have to stop going to the gym in two weeks, I figured "why push myself if I'm only going to be knocked off track?". It's funny, writing it down and reading it seems so silly, but it's a feeling that I'll feel often and I know that you feel it too.

It's the same thing with vacations. I have such a hard time getting back into the gym and back on a regular exercise schedule. Like I said before, we weren't completely inactive on this vacation, but it was still hard to get back into rhythm. For a real example - we got back on Friday and my first day back to the gym was on Tuesday. No bueno. If my number one priority in life is my health, which in turn allows me to focus and be there for my 1a priority, my family, I just need to suck it up and figure out a way to get back on track.

I wish I had a bunch of magical solutions for you all, but I really don't. I struggle with this just like you do. I was actually hoping that some of you would have some advice to offer. Other than repeating to myself often that my wife needs me around for a long time, and I'm convinced that exercise will play a big role in that, I got nothing. So what do you do? What do you do to find your grove again once you've been thrown off of your routine?

Thrown for a Loop

Sorry about the lack of postage guys. No, not stamps, but my inability to throw up some good blogs while I was on vacation. I of course had planned to write some sweet blogs to automatically post while we were gone, but that obviously didn't happen. FAIL. One BIG issue with being such a routine kind of a guy is that when my routine gets thrown off, everything else suffers as well. I hate that those who actually look forward to reading these things every day faithfully checked in only to find a big fat nada. To the four of you who actually come to this blog daily and enjoy reading the garble that I put on "paper" - I sincerely apologize and I promise to try and be better the next time my routine gets thrown for a loop.

I guess the best thing to do to get back on track is just to catch you guys up on what's been going on...

- Every single year my family goes to Rocky Point, Mexico for what I like to call the annual family reunion. Now, I'm not sure if you can call it a reunion since 90% of us see each other at least once a month, but saying "reunion" just makes it seem more official. The family has been going down there every year for the last 32 years. This year there were 42 of us, so when I say family, I mean BIG FAMILY. We actually had to rent two houses this year because we had a few additions due to my cousins wedding. Her and her now husband Matt have been dating for over 10 years and finally decided to "take the plunge" and tie the knot. It was nice having some of Matt's family there and also some cousins that usually can't make the trip were there because of the wedding. As always, it was a great time down in Mexico!

- Even though I was thrown from my routine, I still managed to get three treatments in every day I was there but one. The day that I only got two treatments in was the day we had a trip away from the house for a snorkeling adventure. Swimming around the ocean and breathing through that little tube actually proved to be a pretty good treatment based on the mucus I fed some fish with (eww, I know). Actually, it was pretty funny when Mandi first put on her snorkeling gear - she put on her mask and stuck the breathy thing in her mouth, took one breath and said, "Whoa, I feel like you". Hahaha, I love her.

- One thing we did manage to get on the blog was a poll about Peanut's sex. We still don't know whether we're having a boy or a girl, but we wanted to get your guy's take on it based on everything you've seen or just your gut feeling. We actually get the official results today, but it's not too late to vote. You can find the poll in the top left hand corner of this page. Go ahead and take a stab at it. As of the time I'm writing this, girl has the lead with 60% of the vote.

Well, just a little catch up blog for you guys. If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to ask and tune back in tomorrow to see what sex Peanut is. Thanks for bearing with me while I was out of the loop!!

The Honeymoon is over...

I absolutely love Monday Holidays. I totally get that having a Friday off is just as long as having a Monday off, but somehow having the day off added to the end of the weekend makes it feel so much longer. Am I alone in this? Truthfully, I'm not quite sure why I don't have to work today -the day AFTER a holiday - but I'll take it!

We very much enjoyed our 4th of July. We spent it with our brothers (Josh, Grant, Andrew), sister (Chrissy), cousin (Steven) and friends (Mike, Brittany, Brendan and Julie) in the pool; playing any game we could make up with a football. It was a good time, but man-oh-man, it was also a good reminder of how out of shape we've gotten. I mean, I just thought my new scale ran a bit heavy....but unfortunately I don't think that's the case ;-)

So hence the title - the honeymoon is over. Tomorrow is the day we get back into our normal workout routine. Between the wedding, honeymoon, new job, hot weather, family trip, settling into married life, etc etc etc, (insert more excuses here), we haven't quite settled back into a good workout routine. We rode our bikes daily and took short walks, but based on our performance in the pool today, it's not cutting it. SOOO it's back to morning walks, the gym, and runs daily. It's not going to be fun, or comfortable for that matter, but we're going to have to force ourselves to do it until it feels natural again.

We've decided that we're going to take a Day 1 photo of ourselves and hop on the scale to get our starting bodies well documented, and then take weekly photos of ourselves to chart the progress. We'll also keep track of what kinds of weights we're throwing up at the gym, as well as how far/long we're running each day. There's no better way to see progress than to actually SEE the progress.

Anyone want to join us?? It's not gonna be pretty, but it'll be worth it!

Finally Got Back Into the Gym!!

It's almost embarrassing to admit it, but I finally got back into the gym yesterday. I got out of the Hole on December 17th and it took me a full 12 days to get back into the land of dumbbells and bench presses. I really wish I had some great excuse to give you guys, but I really don't. Anything I could offer up would be just that, a poor excuse. Bottom line, I made the CHOICE not to go to the gym until yesterday and it's one that I hope I won't regret.

It's such a crazy feeling being back in that place. What's an even crazier feeling is actually lifting the weights. I fully expect to be incredibly sore tomorrow. We did some circuit training to get back into the groove and basically hopped from one machine to the next. The key now will be consistency. I'm usually pretty good about going once I get back into my routine, it's just a matter of actually getting back into my routine. Yesterday was surely a huge step towards that.

Today I hope to take another big step. I've been walking since I've gotten out of the Hole, but I have yet to get a run in. I thinking that today's the day to break out the old running shoes. I'm REALLY looking forward to it as I feel that nothing is better for me right now than running. I may only last 5 minutes, but that's certainly longer than I ran all of last week! As long as I'm making progress and moving forward I'm happy. It's those steps back that I try to avoid :)

Now the question is, in a very Jerry Maguire kind of a way, who's coming with me? Who will join me in my quest to get back into the gym and running regularly since leaving the hospital? Anybody???

My New Year's Resolution: Getting Back into the CF Routine

I have a new year's resolution...kind of...that I wanted to share with all of you. This year, my resolution is to be more supportive. Now, I feel that I am extremely supportive by most standards, but I have realized this holiday season that I'm not exactly doing my part to get Ronnie back on track with his treatments and exercise. As most of you know and experience, the holiday season has a way of throwing routines out of whack. For Ronnie and I, this is very much the case. We haven't gotten back into our work out routine since he got out, we've been running around and having to squeeze in shortened treatments and even skipping a few here and there. While this is understandable and even somewhat acceptable for a week, but it's inexcusable beyond that. (Although I must say that when I say he's been slacking on treatments, I mean some days only getting in 3 or 2 and a quick 3rd. He never missed a morning or night.)

Now comes into play my new year's resolution...I think I need to step up my support in order to get back on track, together. I have to admit, ever since my half marathon, I have NOT felt like running or even really working out. But I need to remember, it's not so much about what I do or don't feel like doing. I need to say, "we're going to the gym" regardless, to encourage Ronnie to get back into the workout groove, even if I don't so much feel like it. He did that for me A LOT these last 6 months, and I need to do the same for him. We are a team. So even when I don't feel like working out for ME; I need to feel like working out for HIM. In regards to his treatments, I should come clean. You see, this last week, I have been VERY selfish. I have wanted to run around all day, keep up with my parents agenda, done what I wanted to do. But I need to break that streak and make sure that I put Ronnie's treatments back on my priority list, and right at the top. Ronnie would have been a lot better about his treatments this week if I didn't demand he follow my agenda.

I know it's not quite the new year yet, but it will be before I post again, so I wanted to make sure I verbalized my new year's resolution so that you all would hold me accountable and ask us how we were doing on getting back into our routine. Have you all thought about your new year's resolutions? Any good ones you've thought of? Any you want to come clean with so we can hold you accountable? I want to hear them and PLEASE ask us how we're doing getting back into the workout and treatment grove after this holiday season.