workout – Sweat & Sparkle

Almost Human Again

I am feeling almost 100% human again today, a welcome change after the last few days!

Being that sick for a few days was a stark reminder that my health needs some attention. Food poisoning isn’t the same as catching a virus or a bug, but it still kicked my ass for nearly 3 days. I am on the upswing now, and if the icky last few days have any silver lining, it’s that the whole ordeal got me thinking about taking better care of myself.

I am being cautious today, eating slowly, wary of upsetting my stomach again. But I feel like 99% of this mess is behind me now, and good riddance!

After grocery shopping this evening, I want to carve out a small piece of time, even just 15 or 20 minutes, and do a light workout, maybe walking or a gentle spin on my stationary bike. I can’t help thinking that if I was in better shape and health, it wouldn’t have whipped my butt so thoroughly, and it wouldn’t have taken me this long to recover.

Don’t Wait

In case you haven’t noticed, I love quotes. I save them on my phone, on Pinterest, and in a folder with all my pictures on my computer. To get pumped up for my new start, I searched quotes about new beginnings and self-improvement. The one that smacked me right in the face was this one:

I am 51 years old. I have battled my weight for so long that I barely remember a time that I wasn’t unhappy with my weight. Every time I say I will start tomorrow, next week, on Monday, and then don’t do it, I am just depriving myself of time with a healthy, fit body, and making it harder and harder to get there at all. Time isn’t going to slow down for me to get my act together. I don’t want to waste any more time.

After I published yesterday’s blog post, I put on the sneakers that I keep at my desk and went for a walk. I tried to remember the last time I took a walk at work, and I couldn’t. How sad.

Walking alone is so boring, so I found a Shaun T podcast on YouTube to listen to while I walked. The man loves drama and the sound of his own voice, but I don’t care. I adore Shaun T:

I only intended to walk for about 15 minutes, but I ended up walking for 30 minutes because I wanted to hear the entire podcast. He said a few things that struck a nerve. I might expand on that in a future blog post, once I’m done pondering all of it.

So today is day #2, and so far I have logged all my food, actually ate some fruit, and drank tea and water instead of soda. My body will go into shock shortly, I am sure of it.

Last night, I tried a Pilates class online. I have done Pilates abs before but not a full Pilates class. I’m not quite sold on it yet. I didn’t hate it, and I will try another workout to give it a fair try. Right now, I am so out of shape that I will hate pretty much any workout, so I am trying to keep an open mind!

Shiny Car

Yesterday I did a 2-hour workout, but not in the gym: it was in our own driveway! I had read that you should wax a new car as soon as possible, so I stocked up on car care supplies and gave my car a spa day: wash, vacuum, hand-wax, and detailing. After all that buffing, my shoulders are reminding me today that I probably should have stretched.

I still miss my old car. I had it so long that it just felt like part of me while I was driving. My husband joked that the driver’s side was molded perfectly to my butt, and my butt only.

I’m still getting used to all the lights, buttons, and fancy gadgets in this one that my old one didn’t have. I’m not quite as terrified to drive this one now, slowly feeling more comfortable in it, but I still don’t know what everything does. The car came with four manuals that I am making my way through, learning new things every time I open one.

Driving to work this morning, I admired my detailing work, the shiny interior, clean touch-screen, everything sleek and new and beautiful. It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it.

When I got to work, I found myself turning in the parking lot to glance back at my car one more time, and I smiled. I will always miss my old car, but this one is certainly starting to grow on me, too.

Do It Again

Yesterday’s goal was simple: just move. Anything. Anywhere. For any length of time. I just wanted to set a goal, no matter how small, and actually stick to it. I felt like working out about as much as I felt like licking a toad, but I made myself change clothes, tie up my sneakers, and hop onto my stationary bike for a bit.

I wish I could say it was an exhilarating experience and made me fall deeply in love with working out again, but mostly I grumbled irritably under my breath and watched the clock and counted each agonizingly slow second until it was over. About halfway through, my husband wandered into the room, gave me a kiss, and told me, “Good job, baby”, so that helped a lot and got me through to the end.

This evening, I will do it again. And the day after that, I will do it once again. What other choice do I have? Gain more weight? Get even more out of shape? Let my health decline even further? I am at an age where this isn’t all about fitting into a favorite pair of jeans anymore. It’s much more about health and quality of life and setting the stage for rest of my life.

A friend of mine wrote yesterday about her self-care goals, and she takes it seriously enough that she is tracking it each day. It got me to thinking about how I treat myself, talk to myself, especially when I am not on track or doing well, by my own standards. I would like to set some self-care goals myself, but I need to think more about that, how to make it meaningful for me.

Whiner

Before I even left for work yesterday morning, I made plans to go to the gym after work. I was gung-ho, all for it, wahoo, let’s do this…until I was driving home yesterday evening. Until it was time to actually make the effort and put in the work.

It’s too hot! Once I get inside the air-conditioned house, I don’t want to go out again. And look, I think it’s going to rain! Who wants wet sneakers?

Yeah. I actually thought those things. “It’s hot, and it might rain” actually sounded like reasonable excuses to skip the gym.

Seriously? When did I become such a whiner? Ugh. I snapped out of it, whipped this hair into a braid, laced up, and headed out into the blazing heat to make my way to the gym.

It wasn’t the greatest workout in the world. I didn’t cherish every moment of it, and confetti didn’t rain down on me as the entire gym erupted into thunderous applause, tossing long-stemmed roses and monetary tokens of their admiration at my treadmill. (Wouldn’t that be nice?) But I went. I moved. I sweat.

Oh, and yes, it was raining when I left the gym. And I didn’t die 🙂