Tag: habits

fitness · running · training

Tracy’s C25K is taking longer than 9 weeks and that’s okay

Tracy I1 Comment
Image description: Overhead shot of white running shoes on a dark hardwood floor. Shoes show a bit of wear and tear, laces untied. Photo by Tracy Isaacs

Back in early April I posted about easing back into running with the Couch to 5K program. It’s a nine-week program and I had high hopes of being able to complete it as written, within the nine weeks. In my original post I said I’d report back at the end of April with an update, and I thought I’d be done by the end of May.

Well, life has a way of not cooperating with the best laid plans, doesn’t it?

Things started to go sideways when late April got ridiculously busy with the end of classes. Then I had an intensive photography workshop in Indiana where it rained pretty much all the time. I took my gear but I had neither time nor energy nor weather to get out for my runs.

And then I four days after I got back I lost my mother. And that was it. For the next several weeks life was a surreal blur of grief, spending time with others in grief, and making plans to celebrate the life of a wonderful and much-loved woman who we were expecting to be with us for some years to come. It was very sad. And there was no room for a training program.

I have regained my footing enough to get back on track and have almost completed Week 7 of the program. The big jump from reasonable walk and run intervals happens in week 5, where the third run suddenly has a 20-minute continuous run flanked on each end by 5 minutes of walking to warm up and cool down.

Week 6, which is behind me now, goes back to more run-walk intervals but ends with a 25-minute run (as always, 5 minutes of warm-up and cool-down). And Week 7 is just three 25-minute runs, repeating the third day of Week 6. I don’t anticipate any new hurdles (let me touch some wood!) to get in my way. If I’m right, that means I’ll bring the program to a close in the first week of August.

So how’s it going? On balance I’d say it has gone and is generally going well. I did not use the C25K app. Instead I set up the intervals on my Intervals Pro app, and when we got to the longer continuous runs of 20 and then 25 minutes I used the Nike Run Club apps guided runs with Coach Bennett. He’s cheesy but oh so encouraging and makes me feel like I can do it. And so I did that for the first 25 minute run. The other day I did one on my own, using my own inner voice to self-coach in Coach Bennett style. That was my best run to date and I felt a real sense of accomplishment.

I felt nervous about the 20-minute run in week 5 and the 25-minute runs at the end of week 6 and throughout week 7. I have not done a lot of continuous running training in my life, opting mostly for the 10-1 run-walk intervals that the Running Room promotes in its run club, which is where I got my start.

There is an ongoing debate about whether to do continuous running or run-walk intervals. Some people say that over distances the pace balances out and you get a little break to look forward to every 10 minutes. That makes it psychologically easier for some people. I have tried both ways but I admit that I feel like more of a badass when I do continuous. I also find it in some ways easier to maintain a slightly slower consistent pace for longer than to start running again after a one-minute walk break. The countdown at the end of the break sometimes feels as if it’s signalling a fresh new punishment. It’s all attitude and different things work for different people, but at the moment, not taking walk-breaks makes running a more positive experience overall for me. I also had my best 10K time ever (way back when) after the only time I consistently trained for continuous running rather than 10-1 intervals.

I am feeling enough back on track that I even have plans for when I’m done this program and can do 30 minutes of continuous running. I don’t think I will hit a 30-minute 5K, but even in my 50s I couldn’t do that. I’m going to do the Run Less, Run Faster cross-training plan that follows the FIRST method where you do to do three “quality”run and two cross-training workouts (I’m going to swim) each week. I’m also adding some resistance training and a couple of yoga sessions each week. The runs in that program are purposeful: one tempo, one speed intervals session, and one long run.

I’m working on the 5K distance and signing up to do a local 5K in September. I’ll post more about that in a bit. Meanwhile, wish me luck as I embark on the final couple of weeks of C25K. I can see the value in this program and I recommend it for anyone just starting out or wanting to get back into running.

a photo of purple lupins (flowers) with a bright blue sky and water in the background (Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’
ADHD · fitness · functional fitness · habits · mobility · self care

(Finally) Circling Back to Trisha Durham’s ‘Movement Snacks’

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Back in Planuary 2023, my Dad was in hospital and my time was very limited so I was using movement snacks from Trisha Durham’s Instagram account and, later from her book, Movement Snacks to add more movement to my days and to help me take the edge of my stress.

I found the practice quite useful at the time. Having a list of small movement prompts that felt useful, that kept me from stiffening up too much, and that could be done quickly made a huge difference for my mental health at a difficult time.

I know that I kept it up for a while but I don’t remember noticing when I fell out of the habit of doing them*

In fact, I had essentially forgotten all about them until I came across the book again this weekend and actually said, “Oh! Movement snacks! I love them.”

I flipped through the book right away and picked a movement to do (I put my arms overhead and wiggled my fingers and the like) and as I did that, I had an idea…

“Do you know what would be better than having these listed in a book? If they were on separate cards or something so I could just pick one out at a time without having to flip through them.”

And that, my friends, is how I spent a chunk of my Saturday cutting up a photocopy of the listed movements and separating them into two types.

The first group was ‘overall practices’ – like taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., and the second group was ‘quick things’ – like using a ribbon to practice balancing skills or standing on one foot to brush my teeth or stir a pot.

Now I am trying to decide the best container to hold all the movement ideas (and I strongly suspect that I will be decorating the container AND the slips of paper but I will leave that as a fun treat for Future Christine) so I can just pick one when I am so inclined.

A selfie of the author sitting on the floor, wearing a black shirt.
This is from before I rediscovered the book but before I took this I was practicing getting up off the floor without using my hands for support so that’s totally a movement snack! I look a bit cranky because I wanted to be better at that project than I was. Image description: A head-and-shoulders selfie of me – a middle aged woman with a round face and shoulder length light brown hair that is kind of wavy/curly here – sitting on the floor. I am wearing a black shirt and a slightly disgruntled smirk. Behind me you can see the light green wall of my bedroom with a bunch of photos and decorations on it – including a string of star-outline lights hanging up behind me. Also, I can never seem to remember to look at the camera instead of the screen so I am looking downward a bit instead of straight ahead.

PS – Sam wrote about exercise snacks in May of this year and Catherine wrote about them in September 2024 but the ‘snacks’ they describe seem to be slightly different than the ones in Durham’s book. While she has some suggestions – taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., that are more exercise-y Durham has much more of a focus on mobility/movement rather than on getting a few minutes of cardio in. I guess that’s why the book is ‘movement snacks’ rather than ‘exercise snacks!’ Also, I agree with Catherine that using the word ‘snacks’ is much more likely to make me think of food than exercise. Don’t worry though, I make sure to have plenty of both kinds of snacks. 🙂

*My Dad actually passed away in May of 2023, just a few months after my initial post, so my timeline for those few months is blurry, to say the least.

A photo of a wire card with the word decide drawn on it. Meditation Jumpstarts Christine’s New Exercise Routine
ADHD · habits · meditation

Meditation Jumpstarts Christine’s New Exercise Routine

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

I started the Hybrid Calisthenics routine last Monday and I swear I can feel a big difference in my movements already.

Yeah, I know, it’s unlikely that I actually have many results from a single week of focused training but my brain is convinced otherwise so I am just rolling with it. 

In fact, my brain is so convinced that it isn’t fighting me on finding time to exercise every day. Instead, it has let me just get started* when I reach ‘exercise time’ each day. This is virtually unprecedented. 

And I think this shift comes down to two things:

  1. A meditation on Insight Timer called Train Like An Athlete**  in which Amanda Sellers said (among lots of other helpful things), “You don’t need motivation, you need a decision.” 

I swear when I heard that, I actually said ‘Oh!’ out loud.

I don’t know why that really hit home at that moment – I know perfectly well that I don’t need motivation but perhaps subconsciously I didn’t believe it until just then. 

Right after I listened to the meditation, I got out of my chair and did some stretches, squats, and standing twists just to keep myself in the right frame of mind. 

And later that day, when I was mowing the lawn, I reframed that chore as exercise and decided to make sure to push myself a bit harder throughout the process.  My ADHD brain loved the feeling of that decision and it loved the fact that I was accomplishing two things at once. 

The good feeling of DECIDING to move my body more effectively lasted through the rest of the yard work the next day and brought me right up to Monday morning when I realized that I could build on the momentum of the last two days by choosing a new exercise program and starting it RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT. 

And that’s when the Hybrid Calisthenics app kind of floated into my mind. 

  1. The Hybrid Calisthenics program app is VERY straightforward and VERY clear.

I have sort of tried the program as outlined on the website before but I didn’t get very far with it because, as I now realize, I don’t do very well with just a list of exercises.

When I just have a list, I always either push myself too far and overdo it early in the process or I don’t push myself enough and I get bored with it. 

So, while I love Hampton’s friendly and encouraging style on the Hybrid Calisthenics YouTube Channel   I had kind of filed his program away for later.  You know, the perfectly logical process of putting a program that will help you slowly build your fitness on hold until you feel fitter. (Note: please read that sentence in a dry sarcastic tone. Include an eyeroll if you can.)

But once I took a look at the app, his routine felt a lot more possible so I once again took Amanda’s advice and made two decisions 1) to give the routine a try and 2) to follow the routine as it was laid out – no second guessing, no figuring things out, just following the instructions in the app.

Before I knew it, I was doing two sets of 30 wall pushups and two sets of leg extensions, recording my progress on the app, and feeling a real sense of accomplishment. 

It must have been the perfect combination and level of exercises for me because while my muscles were a bit tired the next day, they weren’t discouragingly sore and I could do the next part of the routine without strain or stress. 

And now it’s a week later and I could increase my wall pushups by a few reps this morning. 

All because I heard that line “You don’t need motivation, you need a decision.” and made a decision at just the right time. 

Now I just have to keep deciding to show up for myself. 

Go me!

*Task initiation is notoriously hard for the ADHD brain in general and my ADHD brain in particular. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adhd+trouble+getting+started

**The full meditation isn’t available without a membership but here’s a sample – https://insig.ht/a0IpEg5jK4b)

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.
fitness · habits · health · mindfulness · self care

Jump Back Up July? Sounds like a plan.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

This month’s Action for Happiness theme is ‘Jump Back Up July’ and their calendar is full of small steps to help you build your resilience, to increase your ability to face challenges, to notice your strengths, and to be kinder to yourself.

Now, as I am sure you can guess, I don’t really think that we have to *jump* back up every single time but even staggering back up gets us back up and trying again.

Cultivating the inner fortitude to try again when things go awry, to be compassionate when we make mistakes, to ask for help when need it, to reframe challenges, and to nurture hope throughout the process can serve us well in so many areas of our lives (including fitness!) that the effort to build our resilience skills is worth the effort.

Even though many of these practices are already in my regular repertoire, I’m going to make a point of practicing them during Jump Back Up July (or Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Choice of Movements July which is more accurate for me but far less catchy. 😉 )

Are you in?

Here’s the Jump Back Up July Calendar :

a brightly coloured calendar of resilience tips from Action for Happiness
The ‘Jump Back Up July’ calendar from Action for Happiness. I will, of course, be using this for ‘Get Back Up At Your Own Pace Using Your Own Choice Of Movements July’ too. Image description: A calendar for July 2026 with each block coloured in a repeating pattern of dark green, light green, orange, and yellow. The text in each block is a daily tip for building the skills to ‘Jump Back Up’ and the edges of the calendar are decorated with black and white cartoon images of people doing resilience activities such as hugging someone or carefully repairing a loved object.

And here’s a tip video from Action for Happiness featuring Vanessa King:

A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel called ‘Coping with challenging times. Jump Back Up July with Vanessa King’ on the left side is a still image of Vanessa King, a middle-aged white-presenting woman with reddish blonde hair that is pulled back from her face on the sides and top but with her bangs curling down towards her eyebrows. She is wearing brown-framed glasses, a black shirt, and a green scarf decorated with white flowers and gold-coloured leaves. She is looking towards the camera and smiling and there are two books and a vase of flowers behind her. On the right side of the image is a light blue rectangle with text that reads ‘Resilience. Bouncing Back’ in red and ‘3 top tips with Vanessa King’ in yellow.

Here are a few links about resilience that you may want to check out:

Leo Babuta – A Guide to Habit Resilience

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health – Building Resilience

Dr. Tracey Marks – Is Your Brain Stuck? How To Build Resilience Through Microregulation.

Robert Waldinger – How To Ease Suffering By Widening The Container

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side. Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up
fitness · fun · Go Team · goals · habits · health · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Keep Showing Up

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Team,

When was the last time you celebrated showing up?

If it has been a while, then please take this post as a sign to pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself, and claim your gold star.

And if you congratulated yourself earlier today?

Well, pat yourself on the back, congratulate yourself again, and claim your gold star.

If you’re like me, there will be times when you are really challenging yourself and times when you are just kind of treading water.

Both are good.

In fact, the whole range of ways to show up are all good.

And I’d like you to celebrate every one of them.

I am proud of you for showing up when it’s fun and I’m proud of you for showing up when it’s annoying to be there.

And I hope that, overall, you get more fun than annoyance but here’s your gold star for your efforts either way.

Go Team Us!

A painting of a gold star on black paper with encouraging text on one side.
I’ve been trying out gold star cards with encouraging text and I like how this one turned out. Image description: a black card with a small painting of a gold star on the left side. On the right side is a piece of white card with rounded corners that says, in black text, “ this gold star celebrates your hard work, the effort you put into showing up every time. Congratulations! I’m so proud of you.” The white card is framed in black with a gold frame outside of the black one. There is a thick gold line a little ways under the star that also extends downward underneath the white card.

Nat is back at strength training
Sat with Nat · strength training

Nat is back at strength training

natalieh (she/her)Leave a comment

Somewhere along the way strength training fell off my routine over the last six months.

I injured my lower back in the winter. Part of my recovery was limiting some types of movement. I had to be very careful with what activities I did to not further aggravate my lower back.

While strength training helps recover from and prevent lower back injuries I found myself sticking to my physio but not much else.

Dumbbells with rubber coating are nice a quiet when I put them down.

Michel and I started back with a Peloton 30 minute full body class on Sunday. He loves Andy as an instructor and I love heavy metal music. Thankfully Andy has a few heavy metal workouts so we were both pumped to get back at it.

I prefer my workouts to feel like a rock concert.

The first class I used three pound dumbbells to warm up and five pounds for the core movements. I focused on form.

Two days later my pecs were tender. What? Even with that light of weights?

Last night we did the same class again right after work. I bumped up to 10 lb weights for some exercises but stuck with fives for the rest.

I caught sight of my reflection during a suitcase squat. I appreciated how strong I felt and how quickly my body was responding to training.

How I feel in strength class, jacked!

Michel looked at me. “I love you so much. Thank you for doing this with me.”

He is starting to hate strength training a bit less. He credits that to us making it a date. I love that we can modify moves, swear and complain in our basement without bothering anyone else.

It is no small feat, to regularly carve out time for strength training. I had thought with me being retired I would feel an abundance of time. It is surprising how many demands are on my time. My expectations have also changed. I suffer from being an optimist and underestimate how long a given task will take.

Our goal is to lift weights three times a week. I do love it. I feel badass and the heavy metal music makes my heart sing.

Metal is working class opera. I love the big feelings, intense vocals and shredding guitar. The music gives a place for my effort filled grunts and complex thoughts about my fitness to go. It’s a winner.

Rock on my friends.
Nat’s no good at limiting gardening time
Sat with Nat

Nat’s no good at limiting gardening time

natalieh (she/her)Leave a comment

I swear it was just a couple weeks ago I Adopted a new motto of “little and often”.

This week flipped that upside down and lit it on fire.

I started on the holiday Monday with a list of things that needed to be done before fence replacement work would start on Wednesday.

My youngest kid, Jean, came over. We dug up plants to move them out of danger. We moved and flipped the contents of two composters.

Michel cleaned out our garage and mowed.

Dividing and conquering we got lots done.

Tuesday was even more frenetic gardening.

Wednesday my contractor arrived and I puttered around outside and kept myself available.

Thursday I gardened at my place for three hours before flitting over to Heather’s for some visiting, snacking and, oh yes, two solid rounds of weeding. Then back home for more outdoor work.

Nat grimacing at the camera. Her face says “not so little but very often”

Friday, more work on my gardens in the morning and time with my friend Phyllis in the afternoon. I brought her scant amount of transplants and in return she filled my car with plants.

I got home, had a light dinner then quickly set to work planting all my new plants so that Saturday’s rain will help them adapt to their new home.

This has been a boon to my average step count. I’ve been averaging 9,500 a day over the past year. This week I averaged over 13,000.

A bar graph showing values for each day of the last week ranging from 8,000 to 18,000 steps on a given day.

Somewhere in there I had physiotherapy and a massage. I’m taking care not to aggravate my lower back and stick to daily physio exercises.

It is pretty typical that I put a lot of effort into my gardens in the spring. This year I feel like I’m making fast progress. I want my gardens to be lush and full of life without looking unkempt. It’s tricky because my garden is informal and uses a lot of native plants, folks sometimes think it’s merely overgrown.

Here’s to my efforts reducing a bit over the coming weeks as I focus more on writing and crafting.

A drawing of a shiny gold star against a green background that is decorated with black spirals Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.
ADHD · advice · Go Team · goals · habits · motivation · self care

Go Team 2026: Be kind to yourself about frustration, please.

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Hey Team,

I am solidly in the messy, frustrating middle of so many projects right now – fitness and otherwise.

And it is taking a lot of effort to keep working away at stuff instead of ditching everything and starting over.

The middle of any project is rarely fun but it can be especially dreadful for those of us with ADHD. The novelty has worn off, there’s a lot of trial and error, and everything seems very, very dull.

My brain really wants me to

  • start some new stories instead of working on ones that need revising.
  • try some new exercises instead of sticking with my walking/yoga/mobility routine.
  • buy new containers to store stuff instead of decluttering (decluttering = so many choices to make -ugh!)
  • try some new drawing techniques instead of improving my current skills.
  • invent different workshops and projects instead of finishing and promoting the ones I am already working on. 
  •  (don’t even get me started on my volunteer projects!)

But despite the noise my brain is making about this, I know that starting something new – in any category- will only be temporarily fun.

Pretty soon that new, fun thing will be at the messy middle stage and I’ll be annoyed all over again.

And, even though my brain has doubts, I know that I will REALLY enjoy when I finally finish something, when I can feel a difference in my body or my mind, and when I can see some of the progress I have made.

The only way to get to that real enjoyment is to keep inching everything forward, to add fun and novelty where I can, and to keep reminding myself that it is extra fun to actually finish something – even if that time feels very far away at the moment.

So, Team, even allowing for ADHD-related intensity, I’m pretty sure that ‘Why is the middle so annoying?’ is a pretty common feeling.

In fact, being annoyed with any part of any process seems pretty common.

You might be annoyed with the details required to get started or the details required to finish up.

You might find the middle incredibly tedious.

The unknowns at the beginning might get on your nerves.

Figuring out the last few steps might be frustrating.

All of it makes sense and it is all perfectly ok.

Sure, your frustration might lead you to use a slightly different approach or it could mean you need a little break or need a little more support.

But none of those feelings of frustration automatically suggest that this project isn’t for you.*

And when they arise, you can remind yourself that they are part of your process and then find a way to forge ahead – perhaps slowly, perhaps after a break, perhaps with a little more fun added to the mix.

I’m not saying that it is easy to do that, just that it is possible. 

And your effort will be worth it. 

In fact, speaking of effort, here’s our gold star for our efforts today – no matter which part of the process we are in right now. 

Go Team Us!

PS – Be kind to yourself out there, pretty please.  

*Meanwhile, if every part of the project is frustrating every single time, then it may be time to consider whether the project is a good fit overall.

Moving more makes Christine want to move more – go figure!
challenge · dogs · fitness · walking

Moving more makes Christine want to move more – go figure!

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Khalee and I have been working on a walking challenge – The Great Sniffari 2026 – and I chose for us to walk 21km over the first 10 days of May.

Often when I try to take photo of Khalee, she steps out of the way. This time she kind of photobombed my photo of this fallen tree with the roots exposed and a ‘witch broom’ tangle of branches on it. Image description: a photo of Khalee, my medium-sized dog with short, light-brown hair on most of her body and white paws, tail, and face, wearing a jaunty green bandana with cartoon bugs on it. She is looking to the right in the photo and her neck is foreshortened because of the angle so she looks a little squished. Behind her is a fallen tree with the roots exposed.

The challenge seemed like it would be fairly easy at the outset – a small extra effort on top of our usual walks – but things went a bit awry and I realized last Thursday that I was going to have to do a bit of a push to finish on time.

So on Thursday we walked 2.78km, on Friday we did 2.81, Saturday was 3km which technically brought us to the end of our challenge.* (In fact, we only needed .29km on Saturday to finish.)

I say technically because I didn’t realize the settings in the app wouldn’t carry over from my other, year-long, challenge and the Sniffari was pulling Apple Health step data.

I didn’t actually want to include steps from things like walking around the house or the grocery store but because they automatically uploaded at the end of each day, I didn’t realize they were being rolled into my total and I was surprised to find out that I was finished.

Once I figured out why I had finished a day early, I calculated my actual distances and then added extra amounts to my daily walks for the next few days to match the way I wanted things to play out.

No matter the details of the challenge, on Saturday I realized something important.

These longer walks were making me feel great.

I mean, I generally enjoy going for a walk – even when I have to drag myself out for them – but this was a different kind of enjoyment.

I was starting to feel those kind of intangible benefits I get when I exercise regularly – a looser feeling in my hips, a certain ease of movement, an overall feeling of wellbeing – after only 3 days of extra effort.

That seemed kind of quick but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in its proverbial mouth here. Instead, I decided to keep building momentum.

So, on Sunday, we walked 4.42km and, on Monday, we walked 4.08km, and it felt purposeful, straightforward, and kind of tiring – but in a good way.

And, on top of that, all of this extra movement seems to have flipped a mental switch for me and I have found myself doing a bit more yoga, a few more strength training exercises, taking a few extra trips up the stairs, and adding mobility exercises while I am doing things around the house.

So, it seems that, like the title says, moving more makes me want to move more.

And I like it!

Of course, I know that this has happened to me before – I’ve gotten into an exercise routine, started to feel the effects, been enjoying myself, and then something has gone sideways and I lost momentum or had to change gears.

So, I have told myself to keep an eye out for when that happens and in the meantime I am developing some backup plans.

I’ll let you know how it all goes, obviously. 🙂

a photo of a dog next to a small river
a photo of Khalee, my medium-sized dog with short, light-brown hair on most of her body and white paws, tail, and face, standing next to a river on a bright, sunny day. She is sort of side on and she’s facing the left side of the photo. She has a harness and leash on. She’s standing on dried grass and mud, the river next to her is filled with brownish red rocks and there are trees and more dried grass and mud on the other side of the river.
Nat’s new motto “little and often.”
fitness · habits · Sat with Nat

Nat’s new motto “little and often.”

natalieh (she/her)2 Comments

As word of my retirement got out, I started receiving invitations to do cool things on weekdays.

One of those invitations was from my friend Heather to hang out in her garden. Oh. Maybe that was “work” but I just love her vibe and I’m happy to help anyone in the garden.

I tried to remember how we met. It was probably Food Not Lawns or The Carolinian Food Forest. It was definitely around growing plants!

In addition to gardening, we share a love of crafting, especially sewing.

I was so glad I got to see Heather this week. She procured scones and we enjoyed tea as we shared our hopes for our gardens.

Heather has beautiful gardens on all sides of her house. Some plants are for pollinators, some are for eating and still others are for pure joy.

Heather shared her motto for her garden this year: little and often. I love it and have decided I too will do a little amount of things often.

On Tuesday I was getting more work done on my tattoo. Kaley shared she had been doing some chopping of roots with her wife.

“I don’t know why gardening is framed as a gentle activity. I’m always moving wheelbarrows of stuff, lifting, digging, it’s hard work!”

Kayley is very wise. I often get caught up in puttering in the garden and forget how hard I’m working. A bit of weeding and light pruning can drift to chopping down a tree and hacking away at roots. Two days later wondering why my hamstrings are sore.

“Little and often” works not only my gardening efforts but also my crafting and writing. My goal is sustainable efforts that avoid burnout or injury.

Two hours in the garden caused me some lower back pain and some tender muscles. It’s humbling that what used to be a reasonable effort is now a bit too much, at least early in the season.

So I’m changing my expectations. I’m going for 30 minutes at a time for gardening, an hour at writing, crafting and housekeeping. Small, continuous progress always yields satisfying results.

I am so glad Heather shared her motto with me.

A pretty garden with a bicycle decoration. The best things in life!