Couch Potato

Working out can be addictive. I have literally experienced withdrawal symptoms from going too many days without exercising. I get tense, anxious and restless if I take a break longer than three days, and I'll seek out a gym with the same intensity and determination that humans seek food when they are starving.

Unfortunately, the opposite end of the spectrum can be addictive as well.  I once heard that it only takes three days for your body to lose it's conditioning. If this is true it may very well explain the feeling I get on day three of skipping my daily work out routine.  However, by day four, I'm officially over it and become quite comfortable with being a couch potato.  I'll swear to get back on track the following day, then something, usually a marathon of America's Next Top Model or Gangland keeps me off track. The whole process snowballs and I find the five or six pounds that I thought I lost in weeks prior.

This vicious cycle often begins with a four day weekend. These weekends are glorious to the average soldier. When your life revolves around planning to go to war, going to war, coming home from war, or supporting others while they are in war, time to relax and decompress is vital. The problem, though, is that I may find myself relaxing and decompressing just a little bit too much.

We recently had a four day weekend that snowballed just the way I described in the previous paragraph. A short work week, while nice in theory, is usually intense.  Everything you normally accomplish in five days must be done in four. By the time Thursday evening rolls around, soldiers are nearly delirious with the anticipation of the weekend.

Once I made it home on this particular Thursday night, my day still hadn't ended. I had to drive another hour to get to Goldsboro to visit my fiance, his parents and his daughters. Once my day was finally over, I was beyond exhausted.  I fell asleep with plans to hit the weights and treadmill the following day, after a birthday party in the next town.

During the party, tornadoes attacked a very large portion of North Carolina, including Goldsboro. Once we made it back from the party, the power was out. So much for the treadmill. There were no streetlights on, and the rain was coming down by the gallon, so running outside wasn't an option. There went my plans for Saturday's work out. On the bright side, being unable to cook makes it easy to cut calories.  Despite obstacles to exercising, I think I still lost about two pounds that weekend.

The power was still out on Sunday. The rain had died down slightly, but I had decided to designate Sunday as my day of rest and skip the workout all together. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon finding creative ways to keep three children entertained without a television. Arts and crafts can only occupy kids for so long.

When the power finally came back on, the kids immediately headed for the television, and I headed for the kitchen. Never once did it cross my mind to get on the treadmill or lift any weights.  When I got home later that night, I fell asleep once again with the best of intentions. The following Monday, I took  my son to school and went right back to sleep, completely missing my window of opportunity for the gym.

Back at work Tuesday, we didn't conduct unit physical training and I didn't stick to my normal routine of hitting the gym before unit training. I felt like I needed to ease myself back into working out. The rest of the week's training was mediocre, to say the least. I guess I had lost some of my exercise mojo.

Most of the second half of April hasn't been easy on my physical fitness needs. I've had several four day weekends, and skipped unit training for more pressing missions. 

It will be May when I go back to work Monday. I plan on training hard and making up for the past two weeks. I'll stick to my routine on weekends as well. I mean it this time.....