For this self-study I am going to see what the effects are of exercise on my day-to-day life. I would not consider myself a regular fitness person, I do not regularly workout, or do cardio. Although I do occasionally play pick up games of many sports i.e. basketball, football, and soccer. That does keep me in a relatively decent physical shape. Although I want to see what the effects of actually intensely physically exercising has on my day-to-today life. By intensely I mean working out i.e. lifting weights that are actually challenging along with doing a cardio workout totaling at least an hour and a half for every day. In order to this I will take two weeks and try and follow the same exact schedule, except for one week I will incorporate working out everyday while the other week I do not. At the end of both weeks I will write and reflection of how I felt doing my daily tasks like studying and such and as well as how I just felt in general, how much energy I had and my attitude. Then after this is done I will compare the two of how exercising effected me.

The Planned Week:

Journal After No Workout: I went threw my week as I planned out in my schedule following it as best I could. It was not the easiest thing to do by any means. Day one went rather smoothly and I got all my work done that I had planned to; I ate right and on time. My attitude was very bright and cheerful and I was extremely fine with being around as many people as space allowed. Although by day three I started to slack off and the schedule got a lot harder to follow, I was losing motivation and I wasn’t taking full advantage of my time allotted to studying, I wasn’t finishing my assignments in a timely manner at all. I also was not eating in the right pattern, as in my meals were very spread out and at not normal times. I also had a change in attitude I was not starting my days in a good mood at all, by the mid day however I was in a typical mood but it faded again once night time rolled around. I was very irritable at points and didn’t really want to be around people at times. By the last day I was hardly following the schedule and had no motivation at all do the schoolwork I was required to do. Getting up was absolutely terrible the only time I was in a good mood was when I was with my friends but even then at points in the day I was in a terrible mood.

The Workout Plan:

Journal After Workout: I went threw the exact same week as before but this time I incorporated working out. It was surprising how much of I change I saw. The first day was the same because I hadn’t worked out the night before. By day three I was still following the schedule almost perfectly, my eating times were regular and meals were actually larger. My attitude was still in very good shape I was extremely social and a easy going, I was happy and the motivation to do everything was still very strong. By the last day I was backing off the schedule some but my motivation was not lacking and I was still extremely productive. My attitude was still extremely good I felt fresh and ready to go, which didn’t make me irritable or standoffish. I was happy to be around people and didn’t care if I was doing schoolwork or not. Throughout the whole week I stayed pretty consistent with how I acted. I would say that the only reason anything did falter some was because it was the end of the week.

Comparison: In comparing the two it is pretty obvious which one I benefited from more than the other. When incorporated working out into my schedule there I was a massive change in the positive since. I stayed at the same level of motivation and productivity. My attitude didn’t falter much at all and really the only reason anything did falter was because it was the last day before the weekend and Friday is like the weekend for me because I don’t have class. Working out also helped me remain structured, which is extremely beneficial.