Monthly Fitness Update (May 20)

Another month has gone by while the world continues to change and adapt to the situation that continues to evolve. I have continued to take precautions as I prefer to avoid being exposed as I can continue to do most of my tasks for my family, my career, and myself. While I have continued to prioritize my health and fitness, I have found that it has become increasingly difficult given the constraints being put in place for longer periods of times. The workload from my own home office has made it difficult to assign large amounts of time which has been ironic given that I barely leave an area of 1000 square feet these days!

A number of professionals have been on the media for the past month talking about mental health given the situation and it has been interesting to read the many perspectives out there and how much this crisis continues to broaden. I have always categorized myself as someone with a strong mental awareness and resilience as I have always excelled under pressure. However, even for someone who enjoys being home and somewhat unsocial, it has been difficult to see my family get out of their traditional routines of social interactions. Feeling that I cannot help them satisfy those needs has gotten to me. Therefore, I tried to mix up some of my workouts this month with some family workouts using mats.

While my treadmill continues to be the center of my fitness activities, I began leading my family with some different training on our yoga mats. From stretching to core, it was a great variable to include in my training this month. However, the new workout did highlight a concern I have been thinking about since staying at home these past months. My muscles became very sore after each session. In addition, I struggled with some motions and weights that I had previously dominated. My concern of not only muscle loss but also strength loss has begun to become larger.
These additional workouts or activities will help start my recovery to improved fitness but no before the struggle of getting started which is always the difficult part of any program. At least it has been fun sharing the process with the family as we go through the different workouts with each other. I am glad to get my daughter involved while she is young as it was something I never experienced when younger which is probably why remaining in shape has been so difficult for me as an adult. We are probably just weeks away for being able to get back to the gym although it will still be a consideration to consider for our health.

Another update from this month was @actifit finally integrating wearable technology on the device I am using! It was a slow start for me as I was seeing larger differences between continuing to carry the device and the activity from my wearable. In the past, I had always gotten more activity from the wearable than from the @actifit app but it had suddenly turned the other way. However, after a couple of days without needing to carry my device while working out, it was so much more comfortable that I decided to rely on the counts from my wearable instead. It particularly helped when working out with the family on mats and I also look forward to eventually relying on it for sports when they become a reality once again. Either way, progress continues with the great community and technology @actifit has put together!

While food and diet continues to be a struggle, I am focused more on the activity which is fundamental for my mental mindset. I feel that it will eventually lead to better dietary habits as long as I can remain fit and in shape. My yearly 5k race will be only a couple of months away at this point which make my next target be working on my pace and speed which will be a challenge given the time I missed in training thus far. However, motivation continues to be strong given my focus on overall health these days. Looking for to a Summer Season of fitness!