Earlier this year, I decided to “get in shape,” whatever that means. I wasn’t ever in bad shape, but I wasn’t in very good shape either. I joined some friends for a hike up Half Dome in Yosemite over the summer. It was tiring, but I had a great time and I remembered how much I enjoyed adventuring in the mountains.

So I decided to get in shape, and really, it took two easy steps.

First, I became active.

Although I’ve certainly gone through phases of pure inactivity, I’ve been moderately active for the past couple years, working out two times a week with my trainer Nate, but after my hike I really stepped it up a notch, and actually did some cardio(!) between workouts. My focus with the cardio wasn’t really to burn calories, but to increase my heart and lung strength, and to become a better athlete.

Second, I ate better.

After being more active for a bit, I decided to take another major step: I stopped eating ice cream every night.

Seriously, I had been eating ice cream every night for two years. And I stopped. Of course, I also started eating a little healthier in general. After I improved my diet, I saw almost immediate results, which really spurred me on to be even better.

That’s all I did, and that’s all I think you can do. Nothing more works and nothing less works. The formula is simple and the tasks straightforward: work out, and eat right. How tough is that?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Blog, Training & Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.