I recently started doing Bullet Journaling. It is a way to keep my life on track while also snagging little moments of creativity while planning my days.
I also recently have been steadily putting on weight. A problem I've had my whole life, but a cycle I had broken in my 30s. Those were the days, for me. Healthy, in shape, cared about how I felt.
But when you fall into a bad space and all that disappears, well...for me, I stopped caring about how I actually felt about myself.
Let's just fast-forward to now, though...
...well, last July, actually.
Bullet journaling had helped me get my life back in order with scheduling and planning and caring about what was going on in my daily life. It also re-ignited my creativity and sparked that joy of life I had lost.
So next step was to get back into that habit of being good to my body, so that it could reflect the joy I had reclaimed in my mind.
I started with 10 minutes a day. Anyone can do 10 minutes of extra movement a day!!
(Please keep in mind that I had a fairly physical job...I was not just sitting around for hours a day. But once work was done ...my 5am-1pm job... then I sat around!)
September 2021 goal: 10 minutes a day
I belong to a craft membership website and they were starting a fitness section!
A fitnesswebsite with all sorts of free workout calendars and videos! Okay..I'll try that for free, sure!
They lured me in with this 10 minute/day calendar.
I began to remember why I loved working out. That feeling of accomplishment. Making time for myself, and only myself. That self-care moment of 'you're worth it!'
October was approaching and I wasn't sure how to move forward. I could do one of two things: add time to each workout or continue with 10 minutes but just switch up the type of workouts. At this point I was coming to grips with the fact that my metabolism was ...well, not working at its peak.
I found the Metabolic Reboot calendar and it looked good. I was a little worried that 'rest days' might get me back into the habit of skipping workouts. So I was careful as this one allowed for more rest days each week. I did my best to follow and when I did miss a day, I tried to make it up. And I added yoga to most rest days, too. Each workout in August was 20 minutes. Twice what I was doing in September. I wasn't losing weight but I was feeling so much better. And my clothes were fitting differently, for sure.
November.
I found another 20 minute a day calendar. HIIT workouts are good for a person like me who likes to feel like a badass but doesn't want to spend all day to get to that point.
Well, it looks like I had a hell of a month and it maybe didn't go so well (I'll spare any details as to why). It occurred to me that maybe I need to slow down....I wasn't ready for the intensity.
Everybody says how great walking is...I am borderline agoraphobic (self-diagnosed, of course), so I like working out at home. Another plus for this website!
December goal: stick to the workouts but find something more soothing.
Well look at that! A walk at home style workout.
Think 'old school aerobics' plus some good old fashioned curls and crunches thrown in to keep working on that fat-burning muscle mass!
Some workouts were up to 30 minutes now and I will admit those were the days I was most likely to decide not to work out. You'll notice (maybe) that my rest day always fell on a Thursday though. I did this by design as it was always clear that Thursdays took the most out of me at work, so I tried setting myself up for success by simply not expecting a workout that day. It's an amazing feeling when you learn patterns and adjust to fit them into your life rather than get upset over and over by the same (adjustable) problem!
January goal: finally kick it up a knotch.
BARRE! I have stron legs but over and over, squats/lunges or anything where I have to keep my legs 'loaded'...they make me want to do just about anything else but that.
I challenged myself and I saw improvement over the month. And if I missed a workout, I made it up. At this stage, I had quit my job. As of January I had no other commitments so I did the workout as it was laid out.
But I also now didn't have that early morning workout of breaking down pallets of groceries! My pants were getting tight again!
So here we are in February and I am really pushing myself. I am focusing on my diet again, now that my workouts are falling into place.
And I'm getting back to the HIIT scene.
My journal page is not as fun as they have been but I am doing a lot more creative things in my daily life so I kinda crapped out this month!
But having this visual reminder, and something that I took the time to make pretty and obviously important, has worked wonders to get me back into working out DAILY.
I am proud of my progress but also looking forward to where I go from here, adjusting my diet and learning about how a 50 year old woman with a history of obesity can go into her old age as a fit human who enjoys life!
