About two months ago, I decided to challenge myself with changing a part of my life by adding the behaviour of doing Cardio exercise three times a week for thirty minutes. I said that with my knee condition, it would be best for me to go to the gym and do the elliptical, as it puts lets stress of my knee joints. Since the start date of initiating the action plan, I have done quite well with my behaviour change. Up until this week, I have been going to the gym each week three times a week, without much difficulty. When my weeks have been stressful, with not much time for exercise, I have managed to find alternate times to go to the gym. Even if I did not feel like going to the gym, due having to a slight cold or because I was tired, I still convinced myself to go, with the benefits of feeling more energized after exercising. This feeling of feeling energetic after exercising is one motivating factor for me. If after class, I feel tired, yet have a lot of work to do when I get home, I look forward to running on the elliptical, because it makes me feel so much better, and allows me to focus more on my work afterwards. 

This past week, I attended the gym two times, although it was very difficult to motivate myself to go, as I felt like I should dedicate all my time to studying for a midterm. Exercising this past week really helped me relieve stress, which is exactly what I needed. It allowed me to become more level headed during studying. On Friday (yesterday) instead of going on the elliptical for my exercise, I decided to do a thirty five minute run outside, as my knee was feeling quite good. I altered my behaviour change goal this week to not just going to the gym, but also to getting exercise outside as well. I am still implementing the cognitive behavioural strategies I have written about in the past, including: marking down when I exercise on my calendar, putting my gym clothes in my bag the night before, and increasing my time of exercise to 35 minutes.

 A cognitive behavour change goal that has helped to keep me motivated is the effect of doing physical activity on one as they age. In my KNPE 335 class, we are discussing how physical activity can promote health in older people. One of the themes in the class is endurance exercise and its impact on health. The accumulation of aerobic exercise over one's entire lifetime, as well as aerobic activity in general, has many benefits of healthy aging, such as the ability to keep blood pressure down (Hall, Physical Activity and the Cardiorespiratory System), reducing the risk of obtaining chronic or infectious diseases (Hall, Age-Related Changes in Immune System Function), maintain cognitive function (Hall, Aging and Cognitive Function), and the ability to be more functionally independent in older age. Although I do not have to worry about this for a long time, I am motivated to exercise, because I know that what I do now, in regards to exercise, will help me in my older age in one way or another.

Although I am a fairly healthy eater, I have also noticed that with doing my exercise each week, I am not as tempted for whatever reason, to eat unhealthy foods.  

In regards to this past week of class discussion, in relation to the Self- Motivation Theory, I feel as though I am at the stage if Identified Regulation, where I am engaging in my behaviour to achieve an outcome. The outcome being feeling more energized and better about myself. I am also starting to feel like going to the gym is not a chore, and that I am going because I want to go. 

References:

KNPE 335 Lecture Notes: 

Hall, Justin. KNPE 335. Aging and Cognitive Function13_Aging_and_Cognitive_Function-1.pdf

Hall, Justin. KNPE 335. Physical Activity and the Cardiorespiratory System10_Physical_Activity_and_Cardiorespiratory_System.pdf

Hall, Justin. KNPE 335. Age-Related Changes in Immune System Function 8_Age-Related_Changes_in_Immune_System_Function.pdf