1 Hour a Day for 1 Year

For one whole year, 366 days (leap year), I have spent at least one hour a day on my physical fitness. On New Year’s Eve last year I started a mission to complete the popular workout program P90X. This is a 90-day program to increase strength, flexibility, and for many, to lose weight. By the time I was done with the 90 days, I knew I had to keep going. So I spent at least one hour every day for the entire year working on my fitness. This included two complete rounds of P90X, training three months for a triathlon, and finally the 60-day workout program Insanity.

December 2011

December 2012

One day a week I devoted one hour to stretching. The other six days were endurance sports, endurance training, resistance training, or doing the designed workout for the current program I was on. One workout started at 2am after a 36-hour turn around trip to help my brother build a garage in 107 degree heat in Arizona. The wind blew the garage down a few months later.  I did one workout at midnight after a 12 hour day a Disneyland. I took a lot of a razzing after I excused myself from a bachelor party two days in a row to workout in the bedroom by myself while bachelor party antics went on without me. My most recent challenge was provided by the stomach flu. Over a two and a half hour period I managed to get in one hour of stretching with several breaks to crawl to the bathroom to vomit, recover, and start stretching again. The next day I managed to walk three miles. I know walking isn’t an intense workout, but I could barely stand without getting sick so I count it! Over the course of the year I completed workouts at 5am, 11pm, during Reagan’s naps, after my family went to bed, on a lunch break between classes, on a two week road trip to Oregon, at a bachelor party, when I was sick, and when the last thing in the world I wanted to do was workout.

In the first 6 months I lost over 50 pounds to get below the weight on my driver’s license from my 16^th birthday. Even more impressive than losing 50 in the first six months of the year, I still weigh the same six months later. I can honestly say that at 32 years old I am in the best shape of my life.

I’m very proud of myself for completing this goal but I did not do it alone. I owe a great deal of thanks to my mother and daughter who inspired me to make my overall health a top priority. I owe even greater thanks to my wife Susan. Susan was extremely supportive and helpful throughout this year and I couldn’t have done it without her. She helped my get started by doing the first round of P90X with me and never stopped encouraging me along the way. She is the best partner I could ask for.

What now? I can’t stop, so how about another year.