Tag: fitness

Lost and crying (in a good way) in cycling class
cycling · fitness · fitness classes · health · holiday fitness · motivation

Lost and crying (in a good way) in cycling class

elan.paulson

One of my favourite fit feminist humans recently suggested I try the two-week trial membership for Lost Cycle, a Toronto-based woman-owned fitness company that expanded to my city in 2019. She thought I would like it because, as she said, it was “cycling in the dark to really loud rap music.”

I am already a fan of doing stuff to music in the dark, as I did with (Remote) Dark Dancing during the COVID pandemic. Also, the timing seemed good to counter any winter break inactivity. So, in spite of reduced holiday hours and some poor weather outside, I made it to four classes, two at each location.

My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled morning.
My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled winter break morning.

The Lost Cycle studio ambiance is what might be described as “boutique warehouse,” with minimal windows and the company logo spraypainted on walls but also gratis cold towels and individual shower rooms with complimentary products. The fitness areas have quality equipment: ON the bike classes include clip-in shoes and earplugs, while OFF the bike rooms have infrared heat panels and Lululemon yoga mats. The class leaders were all chatty and friendly on their mics, many showing plenty of body tattoos.

The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light.
The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light during class.

And, as mentioned, the classes are held in the dark, with just enough artificial and real candle light to see the mirrors and other people.

Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photos don’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music, pop with heavy beats, and occasional throwbacks.
Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photo doesn’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music and occasional throwbacks.

In class I tried my best to keep up, but made modifications when my knees ached a little. The low lighting and loud music worked to lessen my self-consciousness (being new and only an occasional group fitnesser), though I needed to place myself close to the front to be able to follow instructions. On the mic, leaders were genuinely supportive, reflecting the vibe of the post-it notes on the studio walls: you are enough, you showed up today, you can do this. Other people I have discussed spin with describe being called out during classes. Here, there was none of that.

Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.
Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.

Near the end of both ON and OFF the bike classes, there is time to really get “lost”: the lights go off and the music goes up and you just have about 3 to 4 minutes to yourself.

And, during the “lost” times while cycling away or lying on my mat, I found myself in tears or near tears. Now, I am in a particularly vulnerable place right now, due to my recent job loss. While I didn’t check if other participants had felt the same thing, in every class I experienced in the dark a kind of emotional release I didn’t know I needed.

Lost Cycle has tapped into different elements of cycle studio / gym ambiance that makes it feel like fun, luxury, and intensity, all the ingredients for something slightly cultish. Though I was on my way to becoming an initiate, I’m not in a $$ position to keep the membership. At least I am taking the lesson home from Lost Cycle: turn off the lights, pump my mid-life music, and make time for both strength and vulnerability.

Lost Cycle London est 2019 sweater
Lost Cycle London est 2019 sweater
ADHD · cycling · fitness · goals

Christine Rides Again! (Really Slowly)

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Let me start by saying that the adage, “It’s just like riding a bike.” is a lie – I have not been on my bike in a while and riding was NOT a straightforward or automatic process.

So, over the past couple of summers – despite my best-laid plans – I haven’t spent a lot of time on my bike. Actually, phrasing it like that makes it sound like there was a time in my past when I did a lot of cycling but that’s not true.

I have had one bicycle or another ever since I was a kid but I haven’t done any regular riding since I was maybe 12 or so. I occasionally used my bike for transportation when I was in my late teens/early twenties and I did a little bit of riding with my kids when they were younger but neither of them were particularly into cycling AND I found it very difficult to pay attention to their safety and my own.

I know there have been a couple of times here on the blog when I have mentioned my intentions to cycle more and I did put in some effort around those times but sooner or later some combination of lack of skill*, poor weather, general busyness, or good old ADHD time/task challenges would waylay my plans.

As you can probably tell, cycling keeps getting put into the “I’d like to but…” category for me so I was quite surprised to wake up last Thursday with the thought “I’m going to go for a short bike ride this morning.”

So, around 10:30, after I drove my eldest to work, I lathered on some sunscreen, excavated my bike from the shed, put on my helmet and took off.

Truth be told, I wobbled off but I was on my bike so I’m calling it a victory.

As I got to the end of my street, I discovered that the easy path to the parking lot I was going to practice in was blocked off by a road crew who were fixing some wiring. So I had to turn around (very awkwardly and with an audience – sigh!)to go another way, another way that was UP A HILL.

At this point, I was being asked to demonstrate two challenging things immediately. I have a bit of trouble making any turns so making a tight turn was a nightmare. And going uphill is, well, going uphill. (And yes, for the record, I *do* feel quite odd talking about my challenges amongst all the excellent cyclists on this blog.)

But I got through both challenges with a good combination of spite, perseverance, and walking my damn bike in spots and then had the reward of riding downhill to my planned practice area.

I got to the parking lot and decided that riding in a large oval around the (empty) parking spots would be a good way to practice turning in a low-risk environment. And because I was looping around the same number of parking spots, I could create a baseline measurement of my efforts and how I was feeling at different points in the loops.

It went ok.

I was, however, plagued by the thoughts that pop up whenever I am trying to build a skill. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing here? Is there something you’re missing? Is this hard because you need more practice or is it hard because you are missing some information? Maybe you are wasting time and effort here because there’s a little trick you don’t know? Maybe you should stop until you know what you’re doing?”

(Are those questions an ADHD thing? A Christine thing? A human thing? Since I have always been me, a human with ADHD, I don’t know how to distinguish which thoughts belong to which category.)

I didn’t let my brain talk me out of my self-defined practice though. I filed a few questions away to ask my husband later and just did what I set out to do.

And then I left for home.

It was only as I reached the end of the parking lot that I remembered the road crew and the fact that I had ridden downhill right before arriving at the lot.

That meant I had to ride uphill AGAIN right away and right after tiring myself out with my parking lot practice.

I did a ride/walk combination and got myself back home with minimal swearing but a fair bit of sweating and drank about 25L of water. (ok, it was probably far less than that but this version is more interesting AND it speaks to my perception of my refreshment.)

And I definitely plan to do it again this week.

Maybe even twice.

a selfie of Christine in her bike helmet and sunglasses, she is smirking
I think this expression could be described as ‘bemused smirk.’ Image description: a selfie taken during one of my MANY breaks on my short bike ride. I am wearing a grey and green helmet and large sunglasses and I’m smirking in a ‘Get a load of this nonsense.’ kind of way. I’m wearing a black blouse that has white star-like shapes on it, my hair is sticking out under the helmet and kind of curling backward in a mullet-y sort of way and I look a bit sweaty.

*I have always found cycling very challenging. I don’t make good use of the gears (a combination of a lack of practice and an utter inability to remember what to do when.) I find it hard to turn and I get panicky about it and often overcorrect. I am plagued and distracted by the feeling that I am missing an important piece of information that will keep me safe/make this easier. Yeah, there are a bunch of things.

PS – So, I just came back to this post to edit something and accidentally opened last week’s post instead. I had completely forgotten what I had written last week but I was delighted to discover that I actually followed a lot of my own guidelines when I decided to go out on my bike.

A photo of small white flowers in a little cluster. Christine “Commutes” To Her Desk
ADHD · fitness · walking

Christine “Commutes” To Her Desk

Christine Hennebury

When my kids were small I usually walked them to school. It was sometimes a hassle to get three people with ADHD out the door on time but I really liked that I had some exercise built into my day AND that there could be a clear end to the ‘home’ part of my morning and a clear start for my work day.

Now my morning commute is from my breakfast table to my desk upstairs and lately I have found myself wishing for an office a little ways from my house.

Not that I need a separate workspace, what I want is a reason to get moving for a fixed period of time each morning before settling into my workday.

I don’t really need a separate workspace to accomplish that, do I?

I just need to pick a physical activity to represent my morning commute, do it for a fixed amount of time, and then start my workday immediately after that.

But, as always when working around my ADHD, I need to be careful about how I add something into my day. I can’t add something too long or something with a lot of potential for distraction or anything that will complicate my mornings too much.

All of those things are just as likely to wreak havoc on my schedule as they are to help me shape it.

This is partially why the idea of a separate workspace has appeal – I could convince myself that I HAD to walk to get there – but, realistically, I would never actually waste money/time/space to rent a workspace just to make myself get moving.

So, I am experimenting with an alternative approach – getting all of my personal/home morning stuff done and then either taking a 5-10 minute walk “to work” before settling in for my first task of the day.

I imagine myself walking briskly but in reality I would probably look more like this, trundling along in my comfy clothes. Image description: a GIF of a small child in a fluffy coat and pink leggings walking in a bouncy way away from the camera down a sidewalk.

That might mean walking outside (possibly with the dog but I’m not sure I want to train her to expect a walk at that time) or it may mean an indoor walk of some kind but, either way, I will be ending that walk at my desk with a clear plan for my first task of the day.*

In fact, I started writing this post on Monday morning after a brisk, 5 minute walk next to my desk and it felt pretty good.

Updates as events warrant!

*This is a separate part of my plan to make the start of my work days easier – getting a bit more detailed with my task planning. My right-now brain hates breaking stuff down but my future brain loves when it has been done.

Today is International Dance Day? I’m in!
fitness · fun

Today is International Dance Day? I’m in!

Christine Hennebury

Ok, so I have to be careful with my movements these days because I don’t want to aggravate my neck/shoulders/back but I’m still going to be low-key flailing around in celebration of International Dance Day today.

And I hope you’ll do the same because…

A quote about dancing
Image shows a quote from Lynda Barr that reads “ Any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all.” and there is a person leaping in the air on the background.

I’m not a great dancer (choreography confounds me) but I thoroughly enjoy galumphing around whenever the mood strikes me. In fact, when I am feeling overwhelmed or that things have gotten too heavy, throwing on a danceable song is one of my go-to ways to release all that ickiness.

A photo of a little girl dancing with her dad at a wedding in the 1970s
One of my favourite photos of all time, me and my Dad dancing at my Auntie Val’s wedding in the late 1970s. Image description: Me, at about age 6, dancing with my Dad on the dance floor at my Aunt’s wedding. I’m wearing a light-coloured sun dress and my blonde hair is in pigtails, my right arm is in front of me at chest height (obviously mid-dance-move) and I’m smiling up at my Daddy. My Dad, also mid-dance move with his right fingers mid-snap, is wearing a light grey suit and his brown hair is a floppy sort of length, is looking down towards me with a good Dad-energy. There are people sitting at tables in the background.

And, apparently my instinct to dance in those situations is a good one. Here are some links to articles and videos about why dancing is good for us – even if our techniques are ridiculous:

Why dancing is good for you

Four Ways Dancing Makes You Happier

Dancing and the Brain

Still image shows the title of the video ‘The science of dancing’ next to a silhouette of a dancer who has jumped into the air with her head leaning back. There are chemical symbols in the background.
Still image shows the title of the video “The importance of dancing like an idiot” next to two silhouettes, one solid one in light pink and one white one in scribbled lines.

If you aren’t feeling up to reading or watching a lot today, maybe one of these quotes from Planet of Success will inspire you to dance?

a quote about dancing
Image description: a quote from Amelia Altwater-Rhodes in white text, the background image is of a person on a skirt dancing on the street. The quote reads: In a society that worships love, freedom, and beauty, dance is sacred. It is a prayer for the future, a remembrance of the past and a joyful exclamation of thanks for the present.”
A quote about dancing
Image description: a quote from Agnes De Mille that reads “To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful…this is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.” the background is blue (some shapes are visible but I can’t tell what they are.)

And, last but not least, here are a few of my favourite songs to dance to, feel free to borrow them for your own galumphing around:

Bif Naked’s “I love myself today” – Be sure to jump up and down during the jumpy parts. You’ll know ’em when you hear ’em. The still image is a photo of the singer, a woman with chin length black hair and bangs, sitting in the back seat of a car with her (tattooed) right arm on the window ledge and her hand upwards.

Great Big Sea’s “The Night Pat Murphy Died” – apparently this is a very old song but this was the first version I heard. It mentions drinking and wake, so judge yourself accordingly. This is the song my sisters and I dance to at weddings -we need a lot of room for this level of galumphing. The still image is a brightly coloured plastic doll of a guy playing the accordion. The background is yellow and the album name ‘play’ is on the right.
Charming Disaster’s “Baba Yaga” – the catchy tune, the folklore, and the clever lyrics makes this one of my favourite songs. Excellent for dancing in the kitchen or in the car. The still image is of three odd folk art dolls with the name of the band and the song superimposed on the image.
Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” – This is a great song for goofing around with my friends. We have a dance for this one that is reminiscent of dancing on someone’s lawn in the summer when you’re 10 years old. Still image shows the singers face in a celestial setting.
Elle Kings “Ex’s & Oh’s” (the apostrophes are hers, not mine) – This is another song for goofing around and I like the snarky lyrics. Still image is of the album cover with the singer looking over her shoulder at the camera. She has blonde hair, defined eye makeup and she is wearing a multi-coloured shirt.

How will *you* be celebrating International Dance Day?

fitness · health

Things I Never Thought about Learning in My 60s: Breathing and Walking

Diane Harper1 Comment

My continuing quest to improve my posture and knee health has taken me down the weird road of re-learning to walk. I didn’t quite realize that was what I was doing until I read Breath, by James Nestor. He writes about a multi-year drought project to learn about breathing, and how it has affected his health.

Obviously, I know how to walk. What I’m less good at is walking with my shoulders back, my torso lifted, and my head and feet at optimal angles. My new habit is to walk during my shifts on desk at the pool. I wiggle my shoulders to remind them to be wide both front and back. I peek at my reflection to make sure my feet are facing forward, rather than turned out like a duck’s.

I walk backwards sometimes (most of the benefits may be overstated, but it’s a good way for me to keep scanning the pool as I move around). I walk sideways. Sometimes I stop and go up on my toes 20 times, or do little leg lifts.

A Lego image of a lifeguard wearing a red bathing suit and pinny.

Similarly, I am trying a few of the techniques in Breath. I breathe in through my nose and exhale slowly out my mouth as much as possible when exercising. Sometimes I try box breathing, especially when I’m trying to relax. Occasionally, I’ll even do a bit of yoga alternate nostril breathing. The rest of the time, I focus on breathing only through my nose, at least when I’m awake. I have not yet resorted to taping or strapping my mouth shut for sleep, though I confess to having considered it.

Mina wrote recently about some of the alternative medicine things she is trying alongside her prescription medications. I thought it was an interesting approach.

Like Mina, I’m just doing them as entertaining supplements to my physiotherapy and prescribed medications. I think they’re helping a little. If not, that’s fine; they won’t hurt me (as long as I don’t trip).

fitness

Physiotherapy for Athletes – I’m an Athlete!

Diane Harper

I have a terrific physiotherapist who has been helping me with hip and shoulder issues of the past few months. I almost didn’t go to her because her profile at the clinic says she likes to work with athletes.

Red flag of imposter syndrome!

I went to the other physiotherapist at the same clinic instead, up until she went on maternity leave. Then I debated going to another clinic, but finally decided to be brave and see Emma.

I’m glad I did. It turns out that Emma is really good at listening to what I say about the activities I enjoy, and helping me find exercises that not only make me better at those things, but are exercises that may already be somewhat familiar.

A couple of examples for you, related to strengthening my glutes: lying on the ground and doing lifts while wearing a band is great, but standing at the ballet barre and doing a similar move while lifting up my core until I feel the glutes engage (just like I need to do in ballet class but often don’t) is also really good. Similarly, doing clamshells while wearing a band activates the same glute muscles I should be using when I do whip kick in the pool. If I adjust my swim to make sure I’m doing that, it totally counts toward physio.

I have written before about how important it is for me to use mental images to help me position my body correctly. The more I have worked with Emma, the better I have gotten at feeling what parts of me need work and how to get them engaged.

It’s still a work in progress, but I’m feeling much better about my balance, posture, and the state of my knees than I did when I first started going to physiotherapy as a somewhat broken older woman who was afraid of falling. So good, in fact, that this week Emma sent me off with no follow-up appointments. I will check in for a tune-up when needed, but I no longer need her regular supervision. Yay!

There will definitely be tune-ups; I’m still really bad at moderation and will undoubtedly overdo some sport or other.

Diane in a colourful hat and coat at a small skating rink. It was the first time skating in at least three years, and came on the heels of two dance classes and two hard swim workouts. Ow, but so much fun!

body image · fitness · Guest Post · illness · weight lifting · yoga

Before and After: A personal reflection on exercising with chronic illness

Tracy I1 Comment

by Christine Junge

Image description: Outside shot of a woman (Christine) with dark medium long hair and wearing a short-sleeved shirt, holding a young boy while he climbs on a rope climber in a playground, with dappled light, a fence, and a tree in the background. She is looking up at the boy and the boy is looking up at the next rung of the rope. Photo credit: Viceth Vong.

“Why aren’t you doing another triathlon this year?” an acquaintance asked.

I gulped. “I’m having some, uh, health issues,” I said. I was keeping things vague out of necessity—I had no damn idea what was happening, only that I had a constant (and I mean 100% of the time) headache that reached an unbearable level by the time I left work for the day. I went to sleep pretty much as soon as I got home—not only because being in pain is exhausting, but because sleep was the only time I didn’t feel awful. My life goals had gone from: publish a book, rock my career in publishing, and finish a tri even though I can barely swim, to: get through the day.

In the year after the pain started, I had test after test. They all came back negative, which was a good thing on the one hand (who wants to have a brain tumor or Lyme disease), and utterly frustrating on the other. After each of my appointments at Boston’s various prestige medical clinics, I wanted to scream, Why can’t you just tell me what was wrong with me?

Eventually, through a process of elimination, they diagnosed me with occipital neuralgia (nerve pain in the upper neck) and idiopathic chronic migraines (idiopathic just means that they have no flipping idea why it’s happening.) I tried treatment after treatment (Botox injections, handfuls of pills, various psychologic therapies) but the headaches wouldn’t budge. I was in bed for the vast majority of most days. The body I toned through hours of training atrophied.

Eventually I went to the Cleveland Clinic for a three-week “headache camp,” as a friend called it. There they tweaked my medications but more importantly, they taught me more than I could’ve imagined about headaches and how to maneuver your lifestyle to live with—and hopefully eventually prevent—them.

One of their prescriptions was to get back to exercising. I had all but stopped as the pain consumed me. There were a few scientifically backed reasons for this recommendation: exercise has been shown to reduce the severity of pain in people with many chronic pain conditions; it also greatly helps with the anxiety and depression that often hits people with chronic illnesses of all stripes (and that certainly hit me).

For me, it also allowed me to get back in touch with that former triathaloning self. I started with walking—an exercise I still love. I added yoga and light weight training. Slowly but surely, I started to feel better physically and emotionally. Now, I walk for an hour a few times a week, do pilates at least once a week, and I’m currently attempting to reintroduce weight training after that fell out of my routine. On days I exercise, I feel less achey—and also like my body is my friend again, not something that revolted against me. I feel, too, that I am strong—I hadn’t realized how upsetting it was to my sense of self to think of myself as weak. Now, I am not just someone with a disabling condition, I am someone who can keep up with her son on the playground, who can squat down and lift his four-year-old body, who doesn’t have to fear the idea of trudging around a theme park all day. 

I have greater exercise ambitions, too: I plan to conquer a ten-mile hike in the next few months, and an even longer one by the end of the year, with the eventual goal of walking 100 miles or so on Europe’s El Camino Santiago. I have no thoughts of trying for another triathlon, but thanks in part to regular, light exercise, I’m doing much more than just getting through the day now. 

If you have a story about exercising during or after illness, we’d love to hear it!

Christine Junge is a writer living in San Jose, CA. She’s currently working on a novel, and blogs about parenting with a chronic illness/disability at ThanksForNothingBody.substack.com


advice · fitness · food · habits · motivation · winter

What gets you out of bed?

elan.paulson

I had a hard time getting out of bed Monday morning. Winter weather. Less light. Cold room. Early hour. Big work week ahead. Feeling kind of stiff.

And one great reason to stay in bed: Warm blankets.

I put off rising by scrolling through a few photos from the weekend when my friend, Kimi (who recently travelled to Turkey), made us a great Turkish-style brunch with simple but fresh and delicious foods: simit (a sesame crusted bagel), menemen (an egg and tomato dish), clotted cream and honey, tahini and molasses, cheeses, fruits, Nutella, crusty bread, and Turkish tea. Easy to make, eat with your hands, and enjoy many cute little ramekin dishes! After our feast, she gave me some of our leftovers.

Turkish-style breakfast for two. All the cutlery was placed by me; turns out it was not needed because you are supposed to grab things with your hands or with the crusty bread.

In my bed nest, looking at the photos, I thought: I could make breakfast today. But I almost never make breakfast during the week, even when I work from home.

So that is what I decided to do. Instead of heading straight to my desk with a cup of black coffee sloshing in one hand and store-bought granola in another, I made myself leftover Turkish-style breakfast and a half carafe of tea. A decadent breakfast by my weekday standards.

A smaller but still exciting leftover Turkish-style breakfast for one. Notice the lack of unnecessary cutlery this time.

As I munched, I mused over how I have periodically tried to motivate myself to rise early with exercise: stretching, YouTube dancing, around the block walking. This time last year I was training for a Ho Ho Ho holiday run. But I haven’t loved AM exercise enough to stick with it; plus, for me PM exercise feels good for unwinding from the day.

While I have had many noble starts with early morning exercise, I could not remember the last time I got up early on a weekday intending to eat a great breakfast. But Turkish-style breakfast was awesome: I was fuelled all day (sustained by the caffeine infusion of clove tea).

A carafe of loose black tea in a small bell tea cup.

I share this story as an idea and as permission: if you wake up and you don’t feel motivated by what usually gets you out of bed…try making yourself an awesome and unexpected breakfast.

Toothbrushing, morning stretches, reaching out to a loved one, pet care, awesome breakfast: what gets you jumping out of bed in the morning to face the day?

Elan and Kimi and our tea cheers
health

Hip Physio

Diane Harper

Way back when I started seeing a physiotherapist, my biggest complaint was my knees. However, my shoulder that became a frozen shoulder and torn rotator cuff trumped the knee issues. But now that the shoulder is in good shape and I know how to keep it that way, we are finally returning to my knees.

Step one: assessment that confirms the crunching and grinding I hear when I bend is not normal. To do: book an appointment with my doctor to see about getting a proper assessment for arthritis.

Step two: test the muscles surrounding my knees to figure out what else is going on. The constant quad and IT band pain are also not normal, and they are impeding my ability to stand up unassisted, or even use the stairs comfortably.

Diagnosis so far? Quads that are massively overcompensating for my underperforming glutes. So tight, in fact, that my quads are pulling my kneecaps up and out of alignment. they are probably a significant factor in causing my bunions, too.

My immediate future looks like a lot of clamshells using a band, leg lifts slightly to the back to engage and strengthen my glute and hamstring muscles.

Not like this! Four images of Jane Fonda doing various leg lifts in the early 1970s, complete with skimpy body suit and leg warmers.

There will also sessions with a rolling pin, and just hanging around with my leg elevated behind me to stretch out those quads.

So far, my lifts are very tiny. Sometimes it feels like I am only thinking about lifting the leg, not moving at all. But my butt has definitely been engaged!

What do I hope to achieve? Deeper pliés in dance class, a decent flutter kick when swimming, and knees and feet that don’t hurt every time I move. Honestly, I would settle for the last two.

ADHD · planning

What’s your fitness wish?

Christine Hennebury

I know this sounds like a Christmas post but that’s by coincidence not by design.

Thanks to an off-hand reference on a TV show on the weekend, my family ended up talking about what we would ask for if we were granted one wish.

A photo of a brass genie-style lamp
An artfully lit photo of a brass genie-style lamp with a raised design, a loop at one end for holding it, a sort of spout at the other end and a little conical top. The lamp is sitting on a shelf or table.

After we did the usual rounds of wishing for peace, wishing for wealth, and wishing for super powers (one of us would like to fly, another would like to be able to turn invisible, and I’d like to have to power to calm an anxious crowd – big shock there, hey?), we got into a certain type of more specific wish and I surprised myself with my answer.

It was one of those situations where I don’t remember ever thinking this before* but I was intrigued once I said it.

My wish was to be already 6 weeks into a fitness routine – a well-established practice, the challenges of fitting it into my schedule already behind me, starting to feel some results, the aches and pains of new movements already done.

The thought of being able to step into that point without the specific challenges of the early part of the process is incredibly appealing.

It’s not that I don’t want to work hard, I am totally willing to do that, but since all of my efforts to establish habits involve the extra loops and challenges that my ADHD throws at me, I find that there are more mental layers for me during those first few weeks than I hear about from other people.

My friends will report a reluctance to get started or some resistance to the activity itself or muscle soreness or whatever and I get all of that plus a lot of second-guessing, a lot of task initiation problems, a lot of overthinking about every part of the task, and a lot of internal pressure not to be wasting time if my efforts don’t pay off quickly.

Now that I have had that wish pop up, though, I am thinking about this whole thing differently.

I know that I can’t actually wish myself into that 6 week point but what can I do to help myself have some of that 6 week feeling sooner rather than later?

Is there something I can be doing now to help smooth the path to that feeling?

What can I do to give myself some relief from the endless loops that my brain goes through during that first part of a new program?

I don’t have the answers to all of those questions, of course, but I am going to figure them out.

And I will happily read any suggestions you put in the comments – as long as they don’t include ‘you just need to buckle down and do it’. I know that one and it doesn’t help. If perseverance was the answer, I would be the fittest person in the world by this point

ALSO, I would love to hear your fitness wishes!

What would you like to be able to do?

What would you like to make easier for yourself?

What would you magic into existence fitness-wise?

*Note: Given my ADHD and the way that brains work in general, I am not claiming that I have NEVER thought this before. I just don’t remember thinking it.