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=I Decided to Workout Everyday, but I Ended up Exercising Not So Much=

**Abstract** : I decided to work out for at least 30 minutes everyday to see if I can change my habit and life style. Compared to last year, I have hardly exercised this year and I wanted to find out why I wasn't exercising as much as I did in last year. I didn't narrow down my exercise into specific types of work out, but any thing I preferred on that day. The exercise ranged from jogging or jump-roping to running or hiking. Through this experiment, I hoped to not only be active, but also stay healthy and have some fun.

**Introduction** : The challenge I took for my research project was to work out everyday for at least half an hour. I chose this task due to following reasons. First of all, with so many things due in my senior year, such as college applications, scholarship, and a lot of assignments from 4 AP classes, I wasn't able to regularly exercise. I noticed I barely exercised this year, and I wanted to change my life style that lacked some good work out. So, in this project, I decided to try exercising and see if I can change myself from inactive to active.

**Implementation** : To track down my work out, all I needed was a pen and a calender to record whether I exercised, and if so how long and what type of exercise I did that day. I also wrote on my school agenda to remind myself about the goals of this project to motivate myself to keep exercising.

**Results** : The first few days, I was motivated to work out. Then after the fourth day since the beginning of my experiment, I started to slack off. Whenever I had to choose between my social life (hanging out with my friends) and exercise, I forwent my exercise plan. The work out was always the least priority, when I had a lot of projects and homework. Senioritis led me to put off my assignment until the last minutes, and I was more willing to finish my assignments than to exercise. Thus, due to a couple of reasons, I worked out approximately once or twice a week, which is far less than what I previously planned. ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 30 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 || ||> 0 ||
 * < ** Date ** ||< **Work out** || ** Time (minutes) ** ||
 * < 5/12/11  ||<  Jump roping & Jogging  ||> 30 ||
 * < 5/13/11  ||<  Running  ||> 20 ||
 * < 5/14/11  ||<  Biking  ||> 60 ||
 * < 5/15/11  ||<  Biking  ||> 45 ||
 * < 5/16/11  ||<  NA  ||> 0 ||
 * < 5/17/11  ||<  NA  ||> 0 ||
 * < 5/18/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/18/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/19/11  ||<  NA  ||> 0 ||
 * < 5/20/11  ||<  Running  ||> 30 ||
 * < 5/21/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/22/11  ||<  Biking  ||> 35 ||
 * < 5/23/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/24/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/25/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/26/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/27/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/28/11  ||<  NA
 * < 5/29/11  ||<  Running
 * < 5/30/11  ||<  Hiking  ||> 180 ||
 * < 5/31/11  ||<  NA
 * < 6/1/11  ||<  NA
 * < 6/2/11  ||<  NA
 * < 6/3/11  ||<  Running  ||> 30 ||
 * < 6/4/11  ||<  NA
 * < 6/5/11  ||<  NA

**Conclusions** : I drew a conclusion that I need someone else with me who will motivate me to exercise. From previous experiences, I'm more willing to work out, when someone (usually my brother or friends) is there with me than just by myself. Exercising with my brother made the work out itself more fun, enjoyable, and exciting. I stayed far more time at the gym, when I had someone to talk to and exercise together.

**General Comments** : There are two things I learnt from this experiment. First, I realized how weak my determination/ will power is. The small number of work out I did reflects my laziness rather than forgetfulness. I reached to a conclusion that I need a personal work out trainer to push me to actually go work out. Second of all, I found out that exercise was at the bottom of my priority list. I had many opportunities throughout the day to go exercise, but I chose to stay at home either doing my homework or hanging out with my friends. Overall, I'm glad I did this experiment to reflect myself and find out the reasons behind my lack of exercise.