Fit Journal – February 2019

I’m taking an online class to help me be accountable w/r/t fitness: physical and emotional. This is my monthly journal entry.

Pencils down, January is OVAH! I made a lot of mini goals for January. Time to see how it all shook all out.

What worked, and why:

Food: Water drinking. By the end of the month, I began to notice if I was behind because I was thirsty. I am eating lunch from home at least 4 out of my 5 workdays a week. Sometimes I eat my own stuff all 5 days, but knowing I can let myself off the hook for a burger across the street or whathaveyou is nice. I lasted with Dry January until 1/29 and that’s a-ok with me. Truth be told I do Dry January to make sure I can go without alcohol for a month. I can.

Spirit: I am leaving my desk for a lunch for at least 30 minutes every day. It’s not the full hour, but that break out of the office (I’m bringing my lunch downstairs to the building’s cafeteria) helps. During that time I either read or write Postcards for Voters. I blogged 10 times in 31 days of January, which isn’t 3 days a week, but was darn close.

Beauty: Nails are 90% unchewed, the face is being washed/moisturized, the teeth are still flossed. These are the easiest goals because they’re visible to others.

Work: I’m taking some free online data visualization classes which are a lot of fun. (Hi, I’m a nerd.) That goes toward my private work goals. I am also being collaborative without being a doormat, which should be everyone’s work goal.

Weight: I’m down 2 lbs. I didn’t plan on losing weight this month so hey!

What did not work:
Fitness: For the first time in 4 years, I abandoned the 30 Days of Yoga practice. I didn’t close all of my rings every day.

Spirit: My fingers REALLY started to hurt, so I laid off of the guitar for a week, and then became ashamed that I was not practicing. I’m going to stick with a 4x/week schedule instead of 5x/week. I became more annoyed by the Apple Breathe App then I was gaining from it. I’m not exactly sure what it says about me, but I’m dropping it to 1x/day for 2 minutes instead of 2x/day for 1 minute each.

What is getting in your way for doing what is needed? Just facts, no judgments.

Time. I wake up at 5:45 am and am out of bed by 6 am every workday. There is no downtime in there – all of that is “GET READY FOR WORK” time.

If I leave work exactly on time, I get home between 5:30 pm and 5:45 pm. I’m usually in bed by 10 pm. This gives me around 4 hours at night to have dinner, do a chore or two, exercise, practice guitar, get things ready for the next day, do the hygiene thing, and spend time with WM and the dogs. On paper, this doesn’t seem like a difficult task, but in reality, I’m having a hard time making it work.

But I see people who don’t have a full-time job and they’re taking exercise classes 2/3x a week in the middle of the day, and people whose natural fitness is so high they’re starting at 15K steps a day and are aiming for 20K and I think, “well hell, if I had all of that time I’d have my rings closed too!” I’m sure people see me as a person without kids and think I have it made (although my house still requires cleaning) so I have to just settle with the fact that this is hard for everyone.

But waking up earlier to exercise is non-negotiable for me and getting out of work earlier is non-negotiable as well. I have to create more efficiencies with those 4 hours I get at night. Even if it’s Friday and I’m tired.

Boredom is GOING to become a challenge, in fitness and food. Part of the reason I failed with YwA this month is that many of the videos started with us on our backs for 5 minutes. Which SHOULD be what I adore in videos but I kept looking at my watch. And once I fell behind too many days I gave up trying to keep up.

In February I’m going to switch up my fitness with a mix of yoga videos, Total Gym, and cardio dance videos. I do not have the endurance to dance for 30 minutes straight, (stamina has always been my weakest attribute, even running in elementary school PE class would leave me winded and shaky) but it will work to close that exercise ring on days that I walk more and only need 10 minutes of SOMETHING.

I’ve been bringing mason jar salads to work each day and trying to keep that exciting by mixing in a different dressing each week. But I don’t think the novelty is going to last much longer. I need a weekly meal-prep solution that won’t leave me doing a lot of work in the mornings, but will give me the FLAVOR I crave.

Shame. If I fail at something, even my own goals that I, myself, make and that have very few if any real-life consequences oh my goodness it kills me and then I just hide from the goal for a while. Or a month. I need to get into the mindset that each day is new.

In addition to the adjusted goals for February, I have a weight loss goal of 3 lbs. Let’s do this, February.

Previous Fit Posts
January 2019: Where have I been? What do I want?