Fitness Goals

This semester, I want to improve my cardio and lose weight. Most of my life as a teenager, I avoided running as much as I could because I would struggle a lot with it. Indeed, running or any type of cardio would equal a punishment for me. I am guilty of telling myself that I would work on my cardio but I never really did. This changed when I noticed that I was eating very badly and that I was not being very active. Hence, I gained weight. This weight gain has affected my self esteem for years and I’ve finally decided to be more active and to improve my eating habits. This year, I decided to take the Ultimate Frisbee Fitness Course because it will allow me to work on my goals by doing the exercises that are required to practice the sport. Since I beginning of the semester, I’ve been able to jog 12 laps of the gym for 12 minutes without stopping. For me this is already an improvement since I usually stop during my runs. One of my fitness objectives would be to run 13 to 14 laps instead of jogging them. I want to do it in 12 minutes by the end of the semester. Due to my bad performance of the plank during the Fitness Appraisal, I want to be able to do the plank for more than 1 minute. This is another fitness goal of mine.

Week 1 – Plank

Here is the video of me doing the plank for 1 minute and 15 seconds

Measuring Improvements

To measure my improvements, I will monitor the pace in which I will be doing the 12 minute runs for the next Fitness Appraisal. Indeed, I will also count the number of laps that I will be able to run till the end of the semester. If I am able to surpass 12 laps, I would have accomplish my goal of 13-14 laps. As for the plank, I will be comparing my performance during the Fitness Appraisal with the performance during the video assignment and the final Fitness Appraisal at the end of the semester. During the Fitness Appraisal, I was able to hold the plank for no longer than around 45 seconds. By the end of the semester, I will determine that I improved if I am able to accomplish my goal of holding the plank for more than 1 minute.

Nutrition Goals

Since the end of the fall semester, I decided to watch what I was eating by monitoring the calories I ingested per day. Indeed, I’ve been using an app called My Fitness Pal by Under Armor. This app has been helping me to monitor what I eat by telling me how much carbohydrates, proteins and fats the meals contains. I also have a goal of 1500 calories per day that I can ingest. I first started with 1800 calories and slowly I ended up with the current 1500 calories. Morever, I have been lowering the servings of what I am eating. For example, I would eat 1 scoop of rice instead of 2. I do this to let my body process how much I’m eating, instead of making it go into shock. However, I could be eating better, since I eat what I want (even if it is in small quantities). I should go for foods that are full of proteins and vitamins that could be more balanced than what I am eating currently. I am guilty of consuming a lot of processed foods and I should prepared my own food. This would allow me to keep up with what I am eating. Indeed with processed food, I do not have the full knowlegde of what I am eating with accuracy. During this semester, I want to be able to improve my eating habits by diminishing the amount of processed foods that I eat by preparing my own meals and less eating outside. I also want to lose weight since I do not feel good in my own skin. When the semester started, I was weighting 132lbs and now I am currently weighting 125.2lbs. I have lost 6.8lbs in a month. I lost weight by increasing the level of physical activity I am doing, as well. My objective would be to weight at least 115-120lbs by the end of the semester. I want to lose fat in places such as my chin, my arms, my abdomen and my waist. I would measure my improvements by weighting myself at the end of every week and I will keep using my app to monitor my calorie ingestion. I will also compare the measurements of my waist and hips that were taken during the Fitness Appraisal with the measurement that will be taken at the end of the semester.

WEEK 2 – Workout at Vanier Gym

1. Here is the short video that my friend Stacey took of me while I was working out. I also posted the selfie of my two friends with whom I went to the Vanier gym with.

2. a. My workout consisted of the Chest Press, Seated Row, Push-Ups, and the Leg Press. I did the exercises 3×12 reps each. For the Chest Press I lifted 45 lbs and for the Leg Press I lifted 95 lbs.

1. Chest Press 3×12 – 45 lbs
2. Seated Row 3×12
3. Push-Ups 3×12
4. Leg Press 3×12 – 95lbs

b. The schedule of the Vanier Gym is:

• Mondays: From 7:00am-8:00am/11:55am-1:25pm/6:00pm-7:30pm Room: G-201
• Tuesdays: From 7:00am-8:00am/11:55am-1:25pm/6:00pm-7:30pm Room: G-201
• Wednesdays: From 7:00am-8:00am/11:55am-1:25pm/6:00pm-7:30pm Room: G-201
• Thursdays: From 7:00am-8:00am/11:55am-1:25pm/6:00pm-7:30pm Room: G-201
• Fridays: From 7:00am-8:00am/11:55am-3:55pm

Unfortunately, I did not have access to the schedul of the 2nd Gym

c. I attended the Fitness Palestre on Wednesday from 12:00pm – 1:00pm with Stacey and Juliana

d. Before starting the exercises, I felt already tired due to the amount of exercise I did in my PE class that day. During the exercise, I found it challenging to keep doing the reps because I felt sore already from the physical activity that was done in class. It was mentally challenging because my mind would want me to stop. I felt physically drained after finishing my last Leg Press (it was my last exercise). I can say that I was glad to be done.

e. What I learned from the experience is that during the exercises, the mind is powerful. Indeed, wanting to stop doing an exercise is all in the mental. What I liked of the experience is how easy it was to pick and choose what exercise to do from all the choices we had with the machines. We picked exercises that could exercise at least two types of muscles. What I disliked about doing the exercise is the pain Ifelt while doing them. The pain was not comfortable.

g. The machines I used to workout are:

1. Chest Press
2. Seated Row 3×12
3. Leg Press 3×12
4. I didn’t use any equipment, only the machines at the palestre.

h. I am glad that I went because it allowed me to workout on machines without having to pay a subscription to a gym. It made it easier to exercise because at home I do not have access to this equipment.

Questions:

a. List three specific examples of what would motivate you to participate in and stick to a regular exercise routine.

1. Having the goal of losing weight
2. Working out with a friend can be motivating
3. Seeing results week after week

b. List three specific barriers or excuses which would prevent you from doing so?

1. Leaving everything for tomorrow (procrastinating) such as saying that I will go to the gym tomorrow, for instance.
2. Stopping doing the workout when I start feeling pain during an exercise or when I run
3. Busy schedule of school and work

c. What type of workouts and physical activities do you like? I love zumba as a workout. I find it very effective in terms of improving my cardio. I also love basketball as a sport and I love to play it. For me, it is a good physical activity.

d. Do you prefer going to the gym or working out at home? Weights, yoga, biking or running; functional movements: HIIT workouts? I prefer going to the gym because I do not have enough space to workout at home. Even if I have to pay a subscription to be able to go to the gym, I find that it makes it easier to workout because I would have all the tools to do so. I prefer HIIT workouts because they allow me to exercise multiple parts of my body. Indeed, it is a good alternative to burn the fat faster and more effectively. It also allows me to train my cardio.

e. What could you see yourself doing through college and university to improve fitness, wellness, and health? I would try to make working out become part of my routine as much as possible. Working out will allow me to stay in shape while being a destressor at the same time. I want to keep doing my nutritional goals such as eating more fruits and vegetables instead of sweets for snacks, eating less processed foods. I also want to make sleep a priority (even if it is almost impossible to do that while being in University) Sleeping is key at recharging the body and allowing me to continue studying with great focus.

f. What could you see yourself doing as exercise for the remainer of your life? I would say zumba and/or running. I chose zumba because it would allow me to keep my cardiovascular health healthy. I also choose it because anyone can do it. From children to elders, everyone can take or go to zumba classes. I also chose running for the same reasons.

Week 3 – Workout assignment

Video 1

Video 2

2. Questions

1. On a scale of 1-10, what effort did you give the workouts this week? I gave a 8 out of 10 because there is always place for improvement. I could have done better on the push-ups for example. I could have tried to do them in the plank position instead of doing the knee-pushups. I think that I could have put more effort on the no push burpees. At one point, I started feeling the pain and I slowed down my pace.
2. What are the ACSM guidelines for effective cardiovascular training (cardio)?

• 3 basic components to exercise conditioning session :warm-up,
conditioning stimulus, & cool-down
• Warm-up & cool-down performed at approximately 50% of stimulus
intensity
• Warm-up & cool-down may take 5-15 minutes(depending on age & fitness
level)
• Accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity
on most days of the week
• Frequency: 3-5 days a week
• Intensity: 50-85% of heart rate maximum (220 – age x .50 to .85) or 60-
80% heart rate reserve (220 – age – resting heart rate x .60 to .80 + resting
heart rate)
• Time: 20-60 or more minutes per session, continuous or intermittent activity
• Type: Aerobic (run, brisk walk, swim, cross-country ski, dance, elliptical
trainer)
• Progression of both intensity and duration in a single session is not
recommended. Increase the duration first before increasing the intensity.
If you can complete an exercise session at the upper level of frequency and
duration for 2 weeks without signs of excessive fatigue, progress to the
next level
• Stay within your heart rate range. Monitor through a heart rate monitor
or manually (carotid artery on neck or radial artery on thumb side of wrist)

3. How long and how intense should a session be for health benefits?  For health, try moderately-intense cardio 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, or vigorously-intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week.

 4. Give an example of something that counts as cardio and something that counts as cardio and something that doesn’t (but some people might think i does)? An example of an cardiovascular exercise is swimming and something that doesn’t count as cardio is the bench press.

5. How many glasses of water should you drink each day?

children 14–18 years old	8–11 cups
men, 19 years and older	13 cups
women, 19 years and older	9 cups

6. What is your progressive overload and how does it work?The gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training. It was developed by Thomas Delorme, M.D. while he rehabilitated soldiers after World War II.The progressive overload principle basically states: In order for a muscle to grow, strength to be gained, performance to increase, or for any similar improvement to occur, the human body must be forced to adapt to a tension that is above and beyond what it has previously experienced.

7. Which component(s) of fitness were trained in the two workouts? Cardiovascular endurance, Muscular strength, Muscular endurance, Flexibility.

8. How was your nutrition over the course of this week? My nutrition this week was not the healthiest since I attended multiple birthday parties. Therefore, I ate a lot at restaurants. However, the rest of the week, I tried to monitor my calorie count and I ate home. I also brought left overs to school and work to prevent me from buying more fast food. What were some positive aspects and aspects that still require better choices? The positive aspect was that I was still able to have a control on what I ate on the days that I did not go out. I felt more in control and I hesitated much less when it came to choose whether I wanted to eat a chocolate bar for example. The aspects that require better choices are maybe what I choose to eat when I go out to birthdays for example. I still choose big plates of food,full of carbs. However, this is was inevitable this week since these birthdays were celebrated in restaurants that serve ‘unheathly’ food.

WEEK 4 – Workout

Video 1

Video 2

Questions

1.  How does your exercise program fit into your weekly schedule?  My exercises were hard to fit in my weekly schedule this week. I had multiple assignments due for different classes and I worked 4 days out of 7 days in the week. However, I still found a way to workout. Indeed, I did my exercises on Tuesday and Saturday evening.
2. Comment on how easy or hard it is to find the time to exercise. If you have a busy schedule, it is hard to find time to exercise. Therefore, finding the perfect time and/or day can be difficult. In contrast, everyone has 20 minutes to either stop doing homework or any other work to exercise for a little bit. In my opinion, doing home exercises such as lunges can spare a lot of time for people who do not have time to go to the gym.
3. What are your stress levels before and after exercise? Before the exercise, my stress levels were a bit high since I’ve been having a lot of homework and evaluations to do this past week. In addition, my shoulders were really tense. After the exercise, my stress levels had decreased since I felt more relaxed. Before exercising, I wasn’t able to finish a Humanities midterm homework I had been doing for the entire day. After exercising, my ideas were clearer and I was able to finish it.
4. What was your nutritional habit change that you chose to do for the week? Did you follow it consistently? I chose to stay away from restaurants since last week, I ate mostly in these places. This week, I prepared my own lunches. I lost 1lbs compared to my last week’s weight gain of 2 lbs.
5. Identify what will be your next nutritional goal to add, keeping your Week 1 nutritional change as well, to try to make it a habit. Keep my Week 1 nutritional change, I would add to drink more water. I usually do not drink enough water and I know that by increasing my water intake, I could loose weight effeciently. Therefore, instead of drinking 3-4 cups of water per day, I should increase my water intake to 1-2 additional cups of water every week till I drink at least 6-7 cups of water.

WEEK 5 – Workout assignment

1. Questions:
   1.  Do you feel different this week… more energy, better sleep, better mood, or increased self-confidence? This week, unfortunately, I was sick for half of the week.I was not able to exercise due to my lack of energy and how I was feeling. However, at the beginning of the week, I was feeling energized and slept better. I can say that during my gym class I was feeling very good.
   2. What effect is the activity plan having on you?  Overall, the activity plan is making me feel more energized, I am seeing result in terms of my weight loss. This week, however, I wasn’t able to do the workout.
   3. What have been some major barriers so far in your activity plan? How have you adapted your plan to overcome these barriers?  First, some barriers I’ve come across are deadlines and having to work. Indeed, this takes most of my time and leave me with 20 minutes here and there where I can do the workout plan. However, as mentioned before, this week the barrier was the fact that I am sick and having crazy stomach cramps. It has not allow me to feel well enough to exercise.
   4. What solutions have you found? How long should you rest after completing a muscular strength or endurance workout? Why? What happens if you don’t? The solutions that I have found to these barriers are to build a schedule to be able o plan my workout ”time” accordingly. I have been resting between 24 to 48 hours between sessions. I do this to prevent injury and overtraining my muscles.
   5. Comment on your two nutrition habits. How have you done over the course of the two weeks? This week, keep those nutritional goals. We are going to try to include more sleeping. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep. I know you are all busy, but rest is just as important for healthy and alert functioning. Keep track of your hours of sleep each night for the next 7 days and comment what’s keeping you from the required amount of sleep and find a solution for it. I have been drinking 6-7 glasses of water this week and I have been monitoring what I eat like I stated I would do on WEEK 1. I did not eat at a restaurant at all this week. On the other hand, I have been going to bed quite late due to midterms. I have been having at least 5 hours of sleep every day. I think it isn’t enough since I feel very tired in the morning. What I could do as a solution is to plan to do my assignments days before instead of procrastinating to be able to go to bed earlier.

WEEK 6 – Workout assignment

Workout Part 1

1. Questions: 
   1. Why did you choose what you did for workout 1? I chose it because I wanted to do the workout I missed last week. Also, I added some workouts that I have done in week 2 to 4 to work my body in general and not only one region.
   2. What was your effort in your workouts? I strongly believe that the effort that was given during these workouts was around a 9 out 10. I believe this because I still continued the exercises even if it started to hurt a lot. For the part B of the WEEK 6 workout, I decided to do the ‘normal’ push ups. It was painful but I stil continued.
   3. Do you need to revise your original goal(s)? Are/is your goal(s) still realistic? Why or why not? State your new goals if they’ve changed. I still look over my initial goals and I feel like they re still realistic. The reason to this is because I still want to lose weight and improve my cardio. Since Spring is around the corner, I could go out for a run to improve my cardio and I can still watch what I eat at home for weight loss. Indeed, my plank goal I have surpassed it on week 1. However, I would ant to do it more time than the objective time that I chose.
   4. What is working in your program? What do you need to change? Honestly, for now, everything seems to be working. I have been receving comments that I seem slimmer and that my arms loo slimmer. These comments are boosting my self-esteem. Instead of changing the workout, I think that I should work on my mindset. I can say that it is hard to keep a positive mind when the workout is hurting and the feeling of wanting to stop kicks in. This is what I want to change.
   5. How many servings of vegetables should you eat each day? Are you getting enough? If not, how could you ensure that you do? What are your three favorite vegetables? I should be eating at least 7 servings per day. I find that I eat my 7 servings by eating salads, cooked vegetables and in other meals.
   6. Your nutritional challenge for this week is to have vegetables at least with two of your meals, if not all of your meals. For portion size, aim for your vegetables to take up half of your plate, protein should take about ¼ of our plate and carbs/starches, the last ¼ of your plate. Comment how this challenge went, in your blog. Keep those other nutritional habits going! Post pictures of your supper meals for five consecutive days. In your blog, identify the positives and negatives of your choices in food and portion size: This challenge went pretty well since I already eat a lot of vegetables in my meals usually. I ate a lot of salads and cooked vegetable with chicken breasts. I have been watching out or my crabs. Whenever I craved for a snack, I ate a fruit or sliced carrots.

• I was able to do:
  • 20 knee-push ups
  • I did 67 curls ups in 1 minute, but I decided to do 100 in total (including the ones I did the ones I did in 1 minute)
  • I did 1 minute and 10 secs of wall squat
  • I did 1 and 15 secs of front plank

WEEK 7 – Workout assignment

Video 1

For the first workout, I did not have idea for a workout plan. Therefore, I decided to the option 2 for the workout 1. However, I added max reps of squats. So I did:

Option 2

2 rounds of: 

Max rep push-ups (unbroken) – I did reps of 10 push ups

1 minute curl-ups – 73 reps of curls ups

Max time wall squats 1:45 secs
Max time front plank – 1:30 secs

1 minute side hops – 90 reps of Side hops

Max reps of squats – 100 reps of squats

Questions:

1. What’s the point of doing a warm up? It prepares the body by gradually increasing the heart rate and circulation. Also, it will loosen the joints and increase blood flow to the muscles. The stretching the muscles prepares them for physical activity and prevents injuries.
2. What constitutes a successful warm up? A successful warm-up constitute of movements that increase your heart rate and breathing, and slightly increase the temperature of your muscles.
3. What’s the point of doing a cool down?  After a workout, it is important to do a cool down. Indeed, after working out the heart is still beating faster than normal, the body temperature is higher and your blood vessels are dilated. Therefore, a cool-down allows a gradual decrease at the end of the workout. This is done to avoid  any venous pooling of blood in the lower extremities, which may cause dizziness or possible fainting.
4. When is the best time to stretch and why? Why is stretching important? The best time to do your stretching is when the muscles are warm, because it reduces injury and maintains full range of motion of the joints during the workout. This is why strectching is important.
5. How much sleep should you be getting every night? Are you getting that much? If not, what could you do to ensure that you do get enough sleep?  I should be getting at least 7 hours of sleep. At the moment, I am getting between 7 to 9 hours of sleep since the quarantine started.
6. What are there serious health effects related to insufficient sleep?  Insufficient sleep or sleep deprivation can cause cardiovascular problemms (such as: heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure), stroke and diabetes.
7. Give two examples of healthy snacks that you can munch on while studying. What will motivate you to continue to be active in the future?  Healthy snacks: almonds and fruit salad. What will motivate me to be active in the future is wanting to be in best shape possible whether it is about feeling good in my skin but also being more energetic. The older we get, we become more at risk to develop health problems such as cardiovascular problems. Therefore, if I make sure that I turn exercising into a routine, it could benefit me for long term results.
8. How do you see yourself living an active lifestyle? What are three negative health aspects that will change if you are sedentary. I see myself living an active lifestyle by going for runs in my neighbourhood with a family member or a friend, I would go for hikes in the summer and I can exercise in the comfort of my home. I will adapt it to my schedule but I want to make sure that it is part of my lifestyle. Three negative health aspects of a sedentary lifestyle if I do not do anything to chang it can be increase risk of developing any type of cancer, coronary heart disease and depression
9. Give two examples of healthy fats. 2 example of healthy fats are avocados and whole eggs.

Video 2

For the workout 2, I did the TABATA workout

WEEK 8 – Workout assignment

Video 1 – Wednesday night

Video 2 – Friday night

Questions:

1. Describe the aspect of your goal(s) you were most successful in achieving to date and the benefits experienced throughout the program. What I have been successful in acheiving to date is how I control what I eat leading to a weight loss and I am weighting 119 lbs. The benefits experienced by feeling good in my skin now that I am able to see some results.
2. Describe the aspect of your goal(s) you were least successful to date in achieving and why you felt you were not successful. The least successful aspect of my goals is how much sleep I am having. I am either sleeping more than what I should be sleeping or I am sleeping less. This is due to being constanty at home during the quarantine. I do not have a routine anymore, therefore, I feel like I can be more lazy and stay in bed a bit more. Also, since I am not going anywhere early, I am going to bed later than usual.
3. Did your nutrition change during the course of your program? Why and how?  My nutrition has stayed the same. In terms of watching my calorie intake, I am still doing it. I am eating a better because everything is prepared at home. Therefore, I haven’t been eating out at restaurants or in fast food restaurants. I have drinking way more water as well.
4. What was the most important thing you learned about yourself? I have learned that I am stronger physically than what I thought. I used to do my push ups with my knees. Now, I am able to do them without my knees and I ahve been trying to keep a good posture while doing them. I have discovered that my arms have gone stronger during my program. I also have more endurance than I thought I had. I have gotten better at doing the plank since I am able to hold the position for at least 2minutes and 10 secondes. That is 1 min more than the past weeks.
5. Describe any physical and psychological changes that have happened over the course of these weeks of workouts. As I just mentioned on number 4, my arms have gotten stronger and legs feel harder to touch as well. Psychologically, I am feeling prettier because I am seeing results.
6. Describe the level of difficulty you had in adding a little more physical activity to your days? At first, it was difficult because I was busy with school. However, it has gotten easier because of the time I am spending at home .
7. During these unpredictable times, how has physical activity impacted your dimensions of health (physical, psychological, spiritual, environmental, intellectual, environmental). Physical activity has impacted me physically by increasing the level of strength that I feel whenever I am doing exercises such as push ups or the plank. I have been able to improve my physical looks compared to when I first started to take my Ultimate Frisbee class. It has also impacted my psychological dimension of health by becoming my stress reliever; my way to escape from situations that can be very heavy such as with school, work or the worldwide pandemic right now. Spiritually I have been able to discover different things about my own self. I have been able to ackowledge things that I am good at that I didn’t think I was before. I used to believe that I was not meant to do sports or any physical activity because it would be physically draining for me. However, I have proved my own self wrong since during the fitness appraisal, I was able to talk to my self and encourage and try to push to keep going. I used to stop any workout just by feeling the ” burn”. It would start to hurt and thatw as more than enough for me to stop. Now, I am able to talk to myself and tell remind me of how good I want and will look after the pain. Intellectually it has helped me by allowing me to focus while doing my homework and other projects. Whenever I would be studying, I would take a break and do one of the weekly workouts. Environmentally, I am not quite sure how to answer this one but I guess that it has helped me by pushing me to take more ecofriendly decisions whenever I needed to get somewhere. Before the quarantine, I started to take fewer car rides and more bus/metro/walk as a way to move around. By walking more, it made more active without even knowing or putting so much effort.

WEEK 9 – workout assignment

Video 1

For the first workout, I decided to do 10 sets of

• 10 sit-ups
• 10 lunges
• 5 burpees

The workout took me 12 minutes and 57 secs to complete

Pictures from Run My Map

First, I calculated my heart rate using the formula (4*15seconds) and the result was 76 bpm.

Saturday was a beautiful day and I decided that it was perfect for a jog. I decided to invite my mom to jog with me since she is not very active and has been trying to be active again. To be fair with her, I choose to do the Beginner Option 2 where we jogged and walked fr a total of 20 minutes. Jogged 1 minute and walk 30 seconds until 20 minutes is complete.

I believe that if I would have gone alone, maybe I would have gone further in terms of distance in less time. However, I am happy to have included my mom in my workout!

Saturday afternoon, I went out with mom to jog. Our run started on Cousineau street. We continued straight all the way down the street until we arrived to Boulevard Lévèsque East. While jogging, I noticed that all my neighbours were doing activities on their front lawns. They were either taking off their Tempos or they were playing outside with their kids. When my mom and I got to Boulevard Lévèsque East, we decided to turn left and continue going straight. I have to admit, my mom and I had never done this before. This was new to us; to go out for a jog. We had a lot of fun definitely. We were trying to avoid running on the same side walk with people near (trying to social distance ourselves from others). Indeed, we found that funny. After jogging for a while, my mom decided that we should turn on Boul Léger to continue. I had not been to this part of my neighbourhood since I finished my elementary school. It was a big throwback and nostalgic moment. My elementary school is on Boulevard Léger. At one point, there was a slope that kept going for about 2 blocks. I had to encourage my mom to keep going and she was encouraging me as well. I forgot to mention that we were stopping here and there because I did not want to over work my mom. Furthermore, we turned left on Meunier East Street. As we were going down this street, the timer rang and the 20 minutes were up! We ended up doing 2km in 20 minutes.

I decided to include two pictures from the Run My Map app; one in which has the route we took for the 20 minutes and the second has the complete route from my house to my house.

I forgot to take a selfie from the beginning of the run and one at mid point location and one at the end of my run. As soon as I noticed, I took a quick picture of the street of my house before going in and a picture of my lower body. I did this because my phone was about to run out of charge (I was at 1%) and I took the 2 pictures very quickly before it went off.

Video 2

For the workout number 3, I decided to do 4 sets of

• 12 push ups
• 60 chin ups
• 40sec-1minute plank
• 50 squats

The workout lasted 20 minutes.

Restating SMART:

• Cardiovascular fitness improvement

S	I would like to improve my cardiovascular from the result I had during the fitness appraisal to at above average or excellent during the 12 minute run.
M	I want to be able to do, at least, 15 laps for the run.
A	I will make jogging a habit. I want to go out, at least once a week to work on my cardio.I do not have a threadmill to train myself. However, going out jogging, I can still have some sort of training for it.
R	I can do 12-13 laps, at the moment.
T	In 5-6 weeks, I will be able to acheive my goal.

• Agility and balance improvement

S	I want improve my balance and agility in the plank from ”low” to at least ”average” or ”above average”
M	I will be able to do the plank for 2 minutes.
A	I will train by doing the plank more often and trying to stay in position for as long as I can.
R	I can do the plank for 1:45 seconds.
T	In 2 weeks, I will be able to do the plank for 2 minutes.

WEEK 10 – workout assignment

Video 1

I did 4 reps of each round

Video 2

Video 3

Questions

1. If social distancing will continue until July, what are some things you should START doing to ensure and/or improve physical and emotional stability? I believe that it is important to keep exercising. The quarantine has forced everyone to stay indoors and it can be challenging for our mental health to not do anything during these times. I have chosen to keep eating healthy just like I said when I stated my goals. I also want to improve how much sleep I am getting and the quality of sleep I should be getting. Indeed, I am going to sleep later and getting up later. However, even if I sleep the necessary 8 hours, I still feel very exhausted. So this is something I want to improve since it will ensure physical and emotional stability.
2. If social distancing will continue until July, what are some things that you must STOP doing to ensure physical and/or improve emotional stability? As I mentioned in number 1, I wish to stop going to bed very late despite being able to get up later. This is making me feel very mentally and physically tired.
3. If social distancing will continue until July, what are some things that you must CONTINUE doing to ensure and/or improve physical and emotional stability? As I mentioned in number 1, I have been eating healthier ever since I have been social distancing. I have been preparing my own meals and drinking a lot of water. I want to continue doing this.
4. What is the one thing that is most shocking to you in these times of the pandemic? What is shocking to me is the amount of damage that the virus is doing around the world. I never thought that I would through a time like the one we are living right now. This is a time in which everyone is locked down and unable to go out freely. It seems to be directed by a Hollywood movie director. It is unreal

WEEK 11 – workout assignment

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Questions/Reflection:

Write down the names of the 5 people you associate with most.  Then write down their greatest personality strength. After skimming through all 5, decide which of the 5 (if any) align with your greatest strengths and brainstorm habits you can form around that strength to make you even more unstoppable!! Jot down those habits.

5 names of the people I associate the most:

1. My mother
2. My dad
3. My maternal grand mother
4. My paternal grand mother
5. My boyfriend

1. My mother is a woman of different kinds of personality strengths. The one I chose to talk about is that no matter how difficult a situation can get, she will always care for others before taking care of herself. This is something that I admire from her because she is always ready to give to others and never expects anything in return.
2. My father is such a wise human being who has gotten through different kind of difficult situations. My dad’s greatest personality trait is his resilience. Indeed, life has thrown at him situations in which he was mentally strong and never cracked to the pressure.
3. I decided to talk about both of my grand mothers because both of their life stories inspire me everyday. My maternal grand mother’s greatest personality trait was her determination.
4. My paternal grand mother’s greatest personality trait was her ability to learn skills very quickly. This is something that made her very skillfull in everything she wanted to do and accomplish.
5. My boyfriend is a person who has a lot patience and is a highly optimistic human being. This personality trait inspires me everyday when I think negatively. He always sees the good side of things.

After looking into the 5 different personality traits of the people I admire the most, I select my dad’s, my maternal grand mother’s and my boyfriend’s. Indeed, my father’s resilience could make prepare me for upcoming difficult situations. For instance, it could be useful in my journey towards a healthier lifestyle. This is due to the fact that it could help me improve my mentality. This could aid me when I feel like I should take breaks in between my workouts. My maternal grand mother’s determination can lead me to continue working hard for what I want to achieve in life. This personality strength can be applied in every aspect of my life. This can be used for my journey as well. My boyfriend’s optimism is helpful since it is a reminder that I will be satisfied at the end my journey. At the beginning of any life journey, it might seem hard or impossible to acheive a goal while being in the struggle. Indeed, optimism can help me by keeping me focused on my objective by putting aside any negativity. This can be useful in any life situation. If I combine these three personality traits, I can be unstoppeable. These traits align with my own determination. I tend to be negative towards myself and my accomplishments. This is something that I have to work on if I want to make it as far as I wish to. This is a very bad habit that I have that is triggered by my anxiety. Whenever I feel anxious, I tend to be driven towards negativity instead of focusing on the positive side of a bad situation. I truly want to change this. The habits that I can form around optimism is positive self talk, focus on what is working for me in a situation instead of focusing on what is not working. I am already pretty determined in life but there is always place for improvement. What I could do is be less hard on myself. I can be my hardest critic at all times and this can be an obstacle. To improve my resilience, I could try to keep things in perspective and maintain a hopeful outlook.

WEEK 12 – FITNESS APPRAISAL

Workout 1

When I woke upon Monday, April 20th, I took my heart rate. The result was of 62 bpm. However, I took my heart rate before warming up and it was of 70bpm.

On April 20th, I went out to do my 12 minute run. I started walking and jogging a little bit to warm up. After this, my heart rate was of 96bpm. While I was running, there was a lot of cold wind. This made it difficult to breath in and out since it made my throat very sore. At one point, I wasn’t able to breath properly, so I had to stop. After this little break, I was not able to continue running at the pace I started with. However, I still continued to push through. After a few minutes, I found myself running on a slope. This made me feel extremely tired. Therefore, the 12 minute run did not go the way I planned. Indeed, instead of running the distance of 13-14 laps (2080m-2240m), I ran only 1399 m. I ran the distance of 8-9 laps. My heart rate after the run 180 bpm. After 3 minutes, it was of 122 bpm.

Workout 2

For this workout, I did:

• Push-ups: 30 reps/min
• Sit-ups: 33 reps/min
• Side Hops: 50 reps/min
• Balance: RIGHT SIDE: 50 SECS /LEFT SIDE: 42 secs
• Wall-squat: 1 minute and 18 secs
• Plank: 2 minutes and 30 secs

Here is the video:

Workout 3

This workout consisted of 50-40-30-20-10 alternating jump lunges, spider-man mountain climbers. I did 5 reps in 12 minutes. Here is the video.

Questions: What parts of “normal” are worth getting back to?

For this assignment, in particular, you will be marked on the quality of your responses. Give this some good thought before answering. 

1. What are things that you actually miss from your old normal? Give this some serious thought, then make a small list based on importance to you.
   Even better, go a little further and ask yourself what specifically you’re missing about each thing you write. What I have been missing during the time I’ve been quarantined is basically everything related to the routine I had. Indeed, I wasn’t as active as you may think, but I enjoyed going out and spending time with my friends whenever I had the opportunity. For instance, I miss:
   – Being able to travel from home to school was a way for me to have a little bit of time alone while being outside of my house. I enjoyed it since it took me around an hour to get to school, this time allowed me to think about different things such as life in general. I am aware that this is very simple, but this was part of my routine – As surprising as it is, I miss attending my classes this semester. I enjoyed attending my humanities class and my gym class since they made me work intellectually and physically. My Speaking Truth to Power class taught so many things and every time I had a class, I was excited to attend. The teacher taught in a very dynamic way which made it interesting. On the other hand, my gym class was a fun way to destress myself from my ”stressful” life. I had never played Ultimate Frisbee in my life, not even in High School. This experienced was so enjoyable that it made me happy to go class and actually like gym class. I really miss attending these two classes. – I really miss being able to spend time with the people I love , I am a huge people’s person and I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. I truly miss my friends; to go out with them, to do activities and have fun. I understand that any person would miss their friends, but I thought that it was of great importance to mention this. I went to Cuba, this winter, with them and I got used to seeing them almost every week. I also miss my boyfriend whom I haven’t seen since March. – I miss being able to go out freely without worrying to catch any virus. I wish I could go anywhere I used to such as shopping centers, restaurants, my friend’s house, school, etc… I enjoyed spending some time out having fun with the people I love. I miss going on dates with my boyfriend. Overall, I miss the freedom I had that allowed me to go to places with the people that matter the most in my life. Therefore, I miss the time I spent travelling to school from home, attending my humanities class and my gym class, I miss spending time with my friends and some family members and I miss being able to go to places with the people I love the most.
2. What parts of your old normal are you coming to realize that you don’t really miss, or only miss a little?
   Understanding the things you didn’t miss is at least as important as understanding the things you do miss.

One of the first things that I do not miss is waking up early to go somewhere. During any semester in College, I’ve had to stay up all night to finish some assignments or having to prepare for clinical (I am a nursing student). This was a lot of work and it was very demanding both mentally and physically. Therefore, I do not miss any of this at all. I also do not miss going to work after school. I would feel extremely exhausted after a long day like this one. I felt forced to smile to clients when I felt like I need a nap. Do not get me wrong, I love working in retail and helping clients. However, the combination between school and work completely ‘knocked’ me out. The last thing that I do not miss is my way back home at 5 pm from school. Indeed, I mentioned that I love going to school in the morning in number 1. However, I do not miss being stuck in traffic in the afternoon. This costs me two hours to get to my house and I hate it. I used the public transportation, such as the bus and metro. These are the things that I do not miss at all from my old normal life.

3. As things return to normal, how can you bring back the things you do miss with as little of the things you don’t miss as possible?
   The return to normal will be very hard, since we have been living differently than before. When life will go back to normal, I will have to work on my time management and trying to get detached from life at home. Indeed, during quarantine, we’ve all been working at our own pace, sleeping in. Before the pandemic, I used to work respecting a time frame. What would be usefull to do is to time manage and to plan around a schedule. In other words, I could plan a time in which I would wake up, a time in which a would eat breakfast and other activities at home to get the handle of a routine again. By establishing a routine, I will getting prepared for when I will eventually go back to work or go back to school in September. By managing my time, I will be able to plan ahead the activities that I will want to do once this quarantine will be over. For instance, if we ever get a summer, I would like to do as many activities as I wish. However, I wouldn’t want to do them all at once. Therefore, planning ahead and time management will allow me to organize these activities without overwhelming myself.

4. What can you do right now, in a practical sense, to make those changes into your new normal?
Let’s say things return to some form of “normal” in a few months. What can you do, right now, so that when things go back to normal, you bring back the things you miss and leave behind the things you don’t miss? In order to prevent feeling overwhelmed, I have been planning and being trying to practise my time management skills to get my assignments done. I’ve been doing this to make sure to have time to do each one before the deadlines. This has been a way to practise planning my activities once the quarantine is over. As I mentioned in number 3, I wish to be able to do as many activities as I will be able to. I am pretty sure that my friends will want to do some of these fun things with me. However, I will have to plan every event and with who I will attend each one of them. This includes some dates with my boyfriend. Therefore, planning will become an important aspect of my ‘new’ normal life. In a practical sense, this has been a way to practise and better my time management skills. This is going to be helpful to me to bring back the things I miss the most. To leave behind the things I do not miss, I will have to practise going to bed earlier than usually. I usually go to bed very late and wake up very late. However, I should start going to bed as soon as 11pm to make sure I have enough sleep to wake up early. This will prevent the shock that ‘waking up very early’ brought when I went to school or to work. This is also a way of time management since I will be setting an ideal time to go to sleep. However, I cannot do anything about the traffic after school or feeling exhausted at work after school.