The gym I go to had to close due to the pandemic. But it was OK, because I was doing so much walking (6 – 8 miles a day) and lifting (25kg sacks of cement, concrete, sand) at work that I was getting fitter and stronger by the day.
I must have been getting through the calories too – I was actually waking up in the middle of the night because I was hungry! So I increased the amount I was eating – a bigger bowl of cereal in the morning, a whole pizza rather than half of one on a Friday night, more food in my lunchbox for work, extra bikkies.
But now – the gyms still aren’t open, work has gone back to normal, and I’m still eating the bigger portions. I’m a kitchen designer really, so I’m back to sitting at a desk most of the time. But I still had a whole pizza on Friday night…
Is that a bit of flabbiness I detect around the tummy? It surely is.
I don’t own working scales (really must replace that battery…) so I have no idea how much I weigh, but I just feel that the lack of exercise is taking its toll. And the clothes feel a little tighter round the middle.
Time to return the diet to its normal level.
And I need to do some sort of workout.
I’ll start gently – it’s nearly 4 months since I did any sort of formal exercise, and I’m old enough and wise enough to know I won’t be able to go back in at the level I was at before, regardless of the number of bags of compost I’ve shifted at work.
I dusted off the yoga mat last night (once I’d remember where I’d put it). I’m going to start with a few gentle Pilates exercises, just to get the body used to moving again. And then after a few days of that, I’ll start going out for a little light run. Need to think of a way to add weights to the mix as well.
At the gym, we only ever did cardio for 4 minute bursts. It doesn’t sound long, but if you’re really going for it, it’s long enough. The last time I did jogging outside was years ago when I attempted Couch to 5k – hip started to hurt and I didn’t have the sense to stop, so hip took a long time to get better. Hopefully a) I have a better baseline fitness now than I did then, b) I have realistic expectations of what I can do, and c) I’ve learnt the hard way to stop if anything hurts.
I was kind of holding on until the gyms were able to re-open – I was a regular gym-bunny before lockdown, going every other day regardless of anything else happening in my life. And going to the gym saw me through a lot of the ups and downs since my husband left. Don’t want to lose all the fitness I’ve gained, both physically and mentally.
So, until the gyms are able to open again, I’m going to have to just get on with it.
OK, confession time – the gym I go to have been absolutely fabulous at putting on virtual gym sessions that I could probably access at any time I wanted to – but it all sounded a bit technical, and I neshed out. I couldn’t face getting all ready and then maybe/possibly/probably not being able to access the session. I knew I would find it frustrating and demoralising. So I didn’t bother.
Tech never seems to work as simply as it’s supposed to for me, and then I feel stupid because it probably is just me not being able to work it.
But that’s no excuse for not doing anything at all. So I’m just going to do my own thing, and then if the gyms don’t open soon I’ll bite the bullet and get to grips with the virtual sessions. No really, I will.
God, the gyms had better open soon…
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