Week 5

I am sticking to my exercise resolution, though the work responsibilities I mentioned yesterday are making it harder. I keep telling myself that if I show up and exercise, I will feel more energetic and cheerful about doing more work than I might actually like to be doing right now. 

Younger Next Year for Women told me that in addition to lifting I ought to work up to 45-minute sessions of cardio, 4 times per week. I've been plugging along in that direction: 20-minute sessions in week 1, 25-minute sessions in week 2, and so forth. This week I was looking at my work schedule and trying to figure out where I was going to fit four 40-minute sessions of cardio (on top of three lifting workouts). I had a moment of discouragement, and then I said to myself, "Self, do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good! What if you bump it back down to 30-minute sessions this week? Thirty minutes is much better than throwing up your hands and saying it's too hard!" 

"Oh," I thought, "I could manage 30-minute sessions." It does not seem entirely logical that showing up for 30 minutes would feel doable when 40 minutes felt unreasonable, but you know what they say about hobgoblins and foolish consistency.

On the habit-strengthening front there is one thing I would like to work on, which is that these workouts are drifting later in the day. I just don't have as much oomph at 8pm as I do earlier in the day. It just feels harder. I'm also not sure it's great for sleep to exercise vigorously close to bedtime, though you could probably find a half-dozen opinions about that without looking very hard.

As the days get brighter it will get easier to work out before work. I am not going to berate myself here -- I'm just going to aim for "before dinner" on days when working out doesn't fit into my schedule until evening arrives.

A pleasant part of winter 2022 that I want to remember: Pete has been keeping me company in the basement when I work out. He brings down a Bluetooth speaker and his phone, loaded with a playlist that he and Joe made together. He plays music for me and quizzes me about what I like. It's much better with company. Tuesdays are the days when I try not to fall over while doing Bulgarian split squats. They're easier than they were a month ago, but still pretty humbling.