Western Washington woman continues rigorous workout schedule
Dec 30, 2015, 8:34 AM
Tessa LaVergne hasn't missed a workout since Sept. 30, 2014. (Tessa LaVergne/Contributed)
(Tessa LaVergne/Contributed)
While most of us struggle to get to the gym any day of the week there are the lucky few who can carve out 30 minutes a couple days a week to pump out cardio on the elliptical. Then, there are people like Tessa LaVergne who hasn’t missed a workout since Sept. 30, 2014.
“I just went for a run randomly down at Chambers Bay and it felt so good and it had been something I was missing for a while and I just went home that day and I said ‘I want to make a goal — mind, body, spirit — and just work out every day for a month and see how I feel,” LaVergne said.
Her goal grew to something bigger. One month turned into two, then three, then four. After that she said “I’ll work out every day for a year.”
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Today? She’s on day 456. It sounds like a superhuman ability, but she’s just like one of us.
“I have a stressful job and I needed something that would take my mind off of it and relieve stress and make me happier,” LaVergne said.
Here’s the trick to being like LaVergne. To work out every day, she says, do anything.
“Boxing class. Go for a run. Go to the gym. Go kayaking. Go hiking,” LaVergne suggested.
Variety has been the key to her success. And consistency ensured that it would become a habit.
“I think it only took about a month,” she said. “I read something that it takes 22 days for something to become a habit and so at first I was like ‘OK make it to 22 days’ and then I started feeling it and I was like ‘I don’t know if this is a true fact or not but in my mind it is’ and now I am working out every day and I can’t stop.”
But, Tessa admitted, there were struggle days.
“Yeah, there were some struggle days,” she said. “I worked from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. and I had driven in rush hour to Seattle so I had woken up probably at 5:45 in the morning. And then I got off work at 6 at night and then I was moving to Seattle that night, too. So I met the car with all my stuff at the apartment immediately after work. I unloaded stuff into my apartment and then I still had to run 12 miles. It was two weeks before my half marathon. I had to run 12 miles that night.”
Oh. Did I mention she set a goal to run a half marathon? She did say variety was key. But most of all by making the commitment — making that commitment known to friends and family for some accountability — and finding variety in her exercise, LaVergne says little, if anything, will stop her workout streak.
“Maybe it’ll be when I get the flu, but I had the flu once last year and I made myself do push-ups and squats. I don’t know how I did it.”
If you want to follow along with LaVergne’s journey and join her in working out every day she keeps a blog called Life of Fitness.
