[Disclaimer: In case you didn’t already know, I’m a huge fitness nerd. Yes, I am. You’ll pick up on this as you read this post.]

On Saturday, I worked out for the last time in 2018. This morning, I worked out for the first time in 2019.

Soreness from Saturday’s workout carried over into the new year, so as far as my body is concerned, there’s no new year. My body doesn’t recognize that one year ended and another began.

Regular fitness as a lifestyle habit makes working out a continuous cycle, week into week, month into month, year into year. There’s no “stop” and “re-set” when the old calendar gets tossed and the new one goes up. Resolving to start a fitness routine and then keeping up with it throughout the year means that another resolution to start working out doesn’t need to be made.

Self-evaluation is a different story, though! It has to be done every once in a while, and year-end is as good a time as any. Today I thumbed back through my fitness notebook to assess my performance over the last 52 weeks, and what did I find? That I missed roughly 30% of my workouts. I’ve earned myself a workout grade of C- for 2018, and just barely. Those are terrible metrics. There’s no excuse for missing so many days. The medical off-days couldn’t be helped, but the holidays/out-of-towns/instructor absences/the like? I could’ve made up for those in order to complete my workout week. I did in some cases, but in most, I did not.

I noticed that I did my home workouts on Monday, Friday, or Sunday mornings. I rarely (if ever) make up a missed evening class with a home workout in the evening; the fact of the matter is that evening workouts don’t fit nicely into the rhythm of my work-at-home life. I’ve known this, but I could really see it as I flipped through my notebook.

My last workout of 2018, then, was awesome. Saturday’s Body Pump instructor ground us through release #108 for the second time. It turned out to be an ass-kicking. I’d noted before that #108 is weight-increase friendly (for me, anyway); I increased a lot of my weights and did the workout with my usual approach, which is to listen to the instructor, do what he says, and be in the music. I liked the pain that followed in the next two days. I got what I went there for.

My first workout of 2019 was wonderful, too. I found myself sweating more than usual this morning, so my efforts must’ve been on point! I actually felt it when my heart-rate went up during the back track. I left the class feeling accomplished.

It was a great workout farewell to 2018 and a great workout welcome to 2019, and those classes are still the best mental escape ever. Everything else gets blocked out in that one hour.

In lieu of a pic relevant to this post, have one of Nenette meeting the Buddha for the first time:

Close encounters.

Happy New Year, everyone, and good luck with your 2019 fitness records!