I’ve been looking back at last week, and I think one thing deserves a mention, even if only to make sure that I don’t forget it (MMIRIM, remember?).
Our health insurance has a sidearm to encourage its members to get healthier and stay healthier. This benefits the members in that they… er… get healthier and stay healthier, and it benefits the health insurer in that they theoretically don’t pay out as much money due to ill health. And then that extra money can benefit the members again by enabling lower premiums.
Lolz. Just kidding. That extra money goes to their shareholders.
Anyway… The sidearm gives you various points for working out for more than 30 minutes at various percentages of your maximum heart rate (calculated as 220 – your age). You can get 100 points for a >60% workout, 200 for a >70% workout and 300 for a >80% workout. Reach your goal by the end of the week, and you get a reward in the form of “Miles” which you can use to pay for everything from coffee to cinema tickets, and even a pair of sunglasses.
My goal is always 900 points – the highest for a standard person (i.e. non-professional athlete). Usually, I get around 1,100 or 1,200. But last week, I decided to see if I could – even at my somewhat advanced age – get to the maximum number of points for the week: 7 x 300 = 2100. That’s a full-on workout each and every day.
And it turns out that I could. Just.
Day 6 was a push. (Day 6 also included 28,000 steps at the OMD concert, btw.) Day 7 was almost impossible. And Day 8 was fairly miserable because of Days 6 and 7.
But I did do it.
Have I learned anything? Well, yes. Sheer will power and determination should never be underestimated, because they will help you reach your goals, but also, setting those goals too high is a silly idea.
And so will I do it again? Sure, probably. But I might work my way up to it a little more gradually next time.
In the meantime, after a (somewhat enforced) rest day on Saturday, I’m back at it, and have almost reached this week’s goal already.
And I can still walk.
#blessed #winning