A Gym Odyssey – Choppy Waters
My fourth week weightlifting at Penn State was not ideal. Last week I explained how I wanted to not only prioritize working out, but also improve my eating and sleeping habits. Unfortunately, I took my first set of college exams this week, and each of the three aspects I wanted to focus on were suddenly pushed to the side to prioritize preparing for these midterms.
After my scheduled rest day on Saturday, I woke up Sunday realizing the monster of a week that stood before me. A speech on Tuesday, math exam Wednesday, and physics exam on Thursday immediately took precedence over any plans I had for working out. Therefore, instead of hitting the weightroom on Sunday, I hit the books. On Monday, I spent my time preparing for my speech the next day. On Tuesday, I spent my time preparing for my math exam the next day. And you guessed it … on Wednesday, I spent my time preparing for my physics exam the next day. The days passed in a blur, and by the time I finished my physics exam on Thursday night, I realized I didn’t make it to the gym once yet this week. Thankfully, I had some time to unwind today (Friday) and finally make it to the weightroom again. So, throughout the week, academics took priority over my weightlifting journey, but I look forward to getting back to my weightlifting routine next week.
As I explained, I don’t want to solely focus on weightlifting anymore. Instead, I want to take a holistic approach in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle in terms of working out, eating, and sleeping. So even though I wasn’t able to work out much this week, surely I was able to keep up healthy eating and sleeping habits? Right? Well … sometimes. On Monday and Tuesday, I stayed up a little too late in preparation for my schoolwork the next day, but other than that, I was able to maintain a healthy sleep schedule. In terms of eating, I still haven’t been waking up early enough in time for breakfast, but I like to think I am making up for it with my late-night Flips runs. And, taking the advice of one faithful commenter on this blog, I’ve been packing in calories with the delicious dining hall chocolate milk. So, while my weightlifting came to a screeching halt this week, I’m happy to say that my eating and sleeping habits weren’t as bad.
This being said, I look forward to improving in all three of these aspects in the exam-free near future. Overall, my first semester in college has been filled with adjustments, and this week was no different. My first wave of exams caused some choppy waters, but I weathered the storm, and hopefully next week provides some smoother sailing.
Richard Black
Richard,
Speaking from personal experience (all of my 2 full semesters at Penn State), exams tend to take precedence a lot of the time. There is nothing wrong with prioritizing school over the gym, we are all here to be students, not bodybuilders. If this is your first round of midterms, only losing a little bit of sleep 1-2 days is a huge accomplishment. In regard to your food intake, late-night Flips runs definitely make up for a lack of breakfast. Ultimately as long as you’re in a caloric surplus you’ll gain weight, it doesn’t matter when you get those calories in. The way that I always have thought about it is that calories don’t have a watch, they just have a basic function, so as long as you get your calories in, you’re doing great!
Best,
Nick H.