Life Fitness Journal #1

 Life Fitness Journal #1

1. What are your current strengths and challenges related to your physical health and fitness?

• What changes are you motivated and ready to make in this area of your life
• Why do you want to make these changes?

    When it comes to physical health and fitness, I feel like I was dealt a better hand than most. I grew up in a pretty active family. My brother started hockey when he was five years old and continued until he aged out of the junior's league when he was nineteen. My sister started figure skating when she was six and quit when she was sixteen. I personally did both of those sports when I was extremely young, but found out quickly that they were not for me. I then became a gymnast with my friend when we were about six years old, and I have been active since then. Growing up as a competitive gymnast meant that I was practicing anywhere from 18-22 hours a week. Being active for me, came naturally and I did not have to work or do anything on my own to stay physically active. However, this will prove as a challenge to me as well. Now that we are in quarantine and I do not have a set schedule for me to work out, I have struggled to get myself to do it on my own. I am so used to physical fitness being engraved into my schedule that it is hard for me to do it on my own. Right now, if I were to have one change that I am motivated to make is in regards to my cardiovascular fitness. For lab, we were required to run a timed mile and a half. I was disappointed with how I performed. I feel that if I were to increase my cardiovascular fitness, it would also help increase my performance in my sport.

2. What are your current strengths and challenges related to your spiritual health and fitness?

• What changes are you motivated and ready to make in this area of your life?
• Why do you want to make these changes?

    When I think about my spiritual health and fitness, a couple strengths and challenges come to my mind. One strength that I have is being surrounded by Christians. I grew up in a Christian family and am now going to a Christian school. I went to summer camps as a kid, and even led at some of them when I was older. One challenge however, is that I never really made the choice on my own. I was always living the Christian life because I was told that that was what I was supposed to do. I said things to people, only because that is what I know they wanted to hear from me. I want to spend more time in the Bible on my own, so that I do not have to answer questions the way others expect me to, but rather how I truly feel. I want to make this change to truly figure out my path and how Christianity fits in with my life.

3. What are your specific goals for your physical health and fitness this semester?

    Following the SMART goal outline, my specific goal is to get into the “good” fitness category of maximal aerobic power with the 1.5 mile test. It is measurable because I used the given equation to estimate VO2Max and solved for the time I would need to get to be in the “good” category. I found that I would need to be able to run 1.5 miles in about 12.42 minutes, or about 12 minutes and 25 seconds. It is achievable because that is paced out to about an 8 minute mile time. Back when I was more in shape, I was able to complete a mile in about 7.5 minutes. It is relevant, since I will be needing better endurance for my competition season. It is time-bound because I am attempting to reach my goal by the end of my season, which is the beginning of May.

4. What are your specific goals for your spiritual health and fitness this semester

      The goal I have for myself in terms of spiritual health would be to take time to do a quiet time on my own, so that I can really develop a relationship with God that is more personal. To make this a more specific goal, I plan on adding time in my week to complete a devotional. I recently bought a devotional book off amazon and I want to be able to read through one section, twice a week. The reason I plan on only doing twice a week right now is to make it more achievable. I believe that if I try and do a daily devotional right off the bat, I will burn out quickly. The days that I plan on doing them are Mondays and Thursdays, which seem to be my least busy days. This is measurable because I will be filling out the book as I go, so I can look back and see what I have finished. It is relevant because the book I bought is geared towards college students and for those who have little time. They are supposed to be relatively short devotions. I found that the book is split into 52 sections (it is supposed to be a year-long book for a group that meets once a week.). By calculating it out, I will finish this in 26 weeks when doing it twice a week. That will have me finishing the whole book in late July. So to make this goal time-bound, I would like to finish the book before August, which sadly falls after this semester ends.

5. Make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Use the resources and tools on goal setting, which are posted in the assignment folder on Sakai, to help you provide the details needed for your journal.

• Include a plan for the support systems (people, environments, tools, etc.) you will put in place to help you achieve your goals.

    For my physical goal, the person that will be my support, will be my brother. I have asked him to keep me accountable and told him that I plan to run a minimum of twice a week. I know I can count on him to call me out when I slack off. I will also for the time-being use the treadmill that my family owns. For my spiritual goal, the main tool will be the book, as well as the Bible. And the people that are my support system are my friends in the college group that I attend. I told them about my goal and they seemed interested in the book I bought, so I will be giving discussing with them what I have learned from the section, and they also agreed to join me on some of the days so we can go through it together.