countdowns

With only three more days at the Lincoln summer camp, four more days at the Omaha summer camp, 12 more days until vacation, 17 more days until orientation week, and 24 more days until school, my summer free time is dwindling quickly. I constantly find my mind returning to thoughts of things that I want to do before this free time runs out and I devote the rest of my 20s to medicine. 

I'm a very anxious person by nature, as perfectly described in this buzzfeed article, and so I struggle with staying calm about how I have no idea what I'm in for and how my life will change. It's spending weekends with family that have helped reassure me that everything will be just fine. 

One thing that I'm very proud to have done this summer is found a way to enjoy working out. I started this workout plan six weeks ago, finished it, and have kept visiting the gym regularly in hopes to lose fat and gain muscle mass. I've tried many cardio workouts in the past, and did decently well running/biking in college off and on, but my problem was always boredom and lack of results (besides cardiovascular health bonuses). 

I was reading this article on the "skinny fat" body type that describes people who have poor body composition but stay slim without much effort. *I realize I'm not the skinniest person in the world, but I've been able to keep a "healthy" weight without doing much and eating whatever I want. The article (and many others) discuss the health risks associated with being skinny fat. A different one even talked about how skinny fat people are twice as likely than obese people to die of diabetes. 

Since it was one of my goals to work on my health this summer, I hit the gym and am so proud of the inches that I've lost so far. I am proud to say that I haven't missed a workout, I find myself looking forward/craving gym time, and I feel great about myself no matter what the scale says. I haven't seen the results that I expected (I have barely seen results, and I expected that I would see noticeable differences even when others wouldn't at this point). My diet hasn't been awful, but this week I've literally been plugging everything into the "My Fitness Pal" app on my phone. I hadn't been eating enough calories the past weeks, and I'm now consciously getting enough protein and calories in to build muscle. I'm primarily an ectomorph and it's difficult for me to put on muscle mass, so this upcoming week I'm adjusting my workouts to best suit that body type also.