People often express surprise at how much activity I fit into my life. “I get exhausted just looking at your Facebook posts,” friends say. But I do it because I love it, because physical activity is, for me, both recreation, fun in itself, and pretty necessary for getting through my life. Exercise helps me cope with stress. I feel instantly better and sleep better and everything runs a little bit more smoothly.
But I don’t always get what I want. Case in point? Last week.
What I wanted: a week of bike camp in South Carolina, warm and sunny, nothing to do but ride up and down mountains
What I got: a week frantically trying to meet end of term writing deadlines in not so sunny, in fact a bit cold and rainy, Ontario
(Not quite true..I did get some weekend bike adventures in. See here.)
I went six full days without running, biking, lifting, yoga or Aikido. ARGH!
But today I’m back at it with running in the morning and hot yoga at night. In the middle, I’m getting my cx bike ready for some weekday commuting. Next week, I’ve got running and Aikido on Monday, boxing on Tuesday, more riding on Thursday. and running and Aikido on Friday. Can’t wait!
I don’t know how you managed to not do exercise for a whole week. I like you am a exercise junkie. I hat cycling but I LOVE to dance 🙂
I’m glad you pointed this out – I think it will help people come to terms and accept that they’ve had a crap few days and that the only choice now is to move on! Great post x
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It’s all progress not perfection ;-). I had a week where there were two evenings I “should” have exercised — not because of some moral obligation but because I knew it would make me feel better and more human again after intense days of facilitation. In both cases I laid on the couch, ate not-great dinners and watched too much tv. This wasn’t actually restorative. But it actually made me appreciate the yoga, the gym and the running that I did do more.
Perfect timing of this post. Same problem with scheduling last week, so instead of going for the mountain hikes and bike rides, I just tried to get in an hour-long walk a day, in my neighborhood, no matter how late it was when I hit the door. Nice to know someone else juggles and we all get through it.
What amazes me Sam, is your schedule full of some structured exercise every wk. I just bike whenever I feel like…I don’t like being bound to set times for exercise. I start to feel abit suffocated that I have to attend xxx fitness class.
I’ve gotten only accidentally fit because I must bike to do other things, shopping, work, etc. Well, true I throw in a hill in middle of ride to make sure I get a few min. of more work–out. But otherwise it’s sunny, clear sailing on bike at my own speed.
Up until recently I had been depending on food changes in my life to propel me through weight loss. I did manage to lose 100 lbs doing very little exercise, but now I realize if I want to hit my goals I need to step it up. What I love are the options for physical exercise! I find myself getting actually EXCITED to move my body in new ways! 🙂