Fitness Progress During the Pandemic

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The COVID-19 outbreak disrupted everyone’s lives and not for the better.

In early June I spoke with my personal stylist who told me: “You’re not a typical New Yorker.”

She had asked me how I was holding up and I told her that since June of last year I was exercising at home. So that I wasn’t affected when the gym shut down in March.

We need to be kinder and gentler toward ourselves in this time when the pandemic has not yet been eradicated.

I wasn’t so happy with my fitness progress which I felt was scattered and inconsistent since the outbreak started.

Until. I viewed the calendar sheets and tallied up my workout schedule from February through the end of July this year 2020.

Folks: 6 months have gone by. Half the year is over. We’ve spent 6 months in the throes of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Diving into the calendars I computed that since February 1, 2020 through August 2, 2020 I exercised as follows:

2x per week for 14 weeks.

1x per week for 9 weeks.

0x per week for 3 weeks.

On the monthly calendar sheets I write on the day I exercise “UB” for the Upper Body and “LB” for the Lower Body routine.

I recommend using a calendar to track your progress along with keeping a hardbound fitness journal. I inserted my calendar sheets into an orange fitness binder. I stopped writing in a fitness journal.

Luckily I’m able to text my personal trainer to get encouragement for my efforts while the pandemic is in effect.

As you can see from what I learned I have been exercising fairly consistently. Not in an ideal way–I’ve had to recycle workout sheets I used before and do them again.

Yet in light of this challenge I think: you did good kid.

In the next blog entry I’ll talk about the myth of exercising 5 days a week for an hour each session.

Tracking Fitness Progress

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At the start of the year I printed up 12 months’ of calendar sheets from an MS Word template. I inserted photos at the top right and an inspiring quote on the top left of each month.

You can despair when you have a setback. I advocate for taking the long view. Think in terms of the cumulative effect instead of getting upset over every slip-up along the way.

This is how I approach fitness and nutrition. Recording my workouts on the sheet for each month I can see whether I’m making progress.

As regards exercise too many people set restrictive or impossible goals like “I should exercise 5x per week.”

In Step 4 – Persevere of the Changeology 90-day action plan change makers are told to condemn the behavior not the person.

Tracking your progress is a catalyst in every one of the 5 Steps.

In the time of the pandemic it’s easy to give up totally when you have a setback like this.

Enter using a calendar to track your progress. You can see in black-and-white what’s really going on.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about my own fitness odyssey while living indoors since March 16.

Living Lively

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Haile Thomas is the 19-year old author and motivational speaker of this book.

Per her Amazon sales page:

At 16 she was the youngest to graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. 

Her empowering guide offers 80 recipes plus exercise pages you can write in to activate your power.

She talks about 7 Points of Power:

Wellness

World perspective

Media and societal influences

Thoughts and mindset

Education

Relationships

Creativity and community

In keeping with the 8 Dimensions of Wellness on the homepage of this blog Haile Thomas breaks down Wellness into:

Spiritual wellness

Emotional / mental wellness

Physical wellness

Intellectual wellness

Environmental wellness

Social wellness

Financial wellness

I’m a 55-year old Generation X woman who is not in the target market for this Generation Z author’s book.

Yet I’ve bought this book which was just released this week in the market.

I’m keen to see whether the recipes feature healthful snacks that can replace chips and pretzels.

In my own life the only snack I’ve been having lately is a jar of Petit Pot chocolate pudding twice a week.

I’ve fallen down on eating fruit though I’ve been having a banana. And I have organic cherries that are in season right now.

When I make a salad I mix in blueberries or raspberries with olives chick peas carrots and cashews.

I’m not a big fan of fruit.

Yet I try my best to have 2 servings of fruit every day. An organic navel orange for breakfast. And a different serving of fruit for a snack in the afternoon.

I’m excited to start reading Living Lively. My take is that reading it could benefit individuals of all ages and stages of life.

On Spirituality

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A friend and I were talking on Zoom.

I was telling him about the blogs. He thought it would be great to talk about spirituality.

Your Spirit is a unique and precious part of who you are.

In my view I champion fitness of body mind spirit career finances and relationships.

A person will make themselves ill trying to be someone they’re not just to get other people’s approval.

Your Spirit must be free to express itself.

You don’t have to become a recluse living in a cabin in the woods to have a spiritual life.

Living among other people gives each of us the chance to be spiritual.

I think spirituality is the secret sauce in life.

The Way I See Things

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I want to talk again about recovery.

You can recover even though you’re not in remission from your illness.

Even if a person has a harder time in life I still believe that within the parameters of your circumstance you can live a life of meaning and purpose.

In this regard I think of an event I went to. I sat in on a storytelling event at a guild for children with disabilities like autism. They were kindergarten age.

I felt sad that they were given the cross to bear of having a disability.

Only for one hour they enjoyed themselves listening to the songs and stories. They were like any other kids having a good time.

The enormity or severity of a challenge isn’t what matters.

It’s how a person responds to this obstacle that determines whether they succeed.

Everyone has the capacity to make lemonade out of lemons as the expression goes.

Or as I like to think bake a lemon meringue pie and give it to others when life hands you lemons.

Who knows maybe there’s a Rosie Revere Engineer among the kindergarten kids I attended the program with?

It’s high time to advocate for recovery in whatever guise it comes to a person as.

It’s time to rise above the rhetoric and champion the right of everyone living on earth to have a life of meaning and purpose.

Having Optimism

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Optimism is called for.

I created the collage above at an adult art workshop at a library.

I was inspired to spell out the word optimism in letters after I read in a personal finance book that people who are well-off or acquire wealth tend to share the trait of being optimists.

This seems far-fetched to me today. I’m an optimist and I’m not a millionaire.

Far from this–and I think a lot of other people are in the same sinking boat in today’s economy.

Why do I think optimism is called for?

The belief in a better future for ourselves is what will get us through this lingering COVID-19 outbreak which has not gone away in America.

I’m an incurable optimist in that I think people can recover from this pandemic setback that has brought uncertainty to everyone’s lives.

If you asked me why I believe that a person can recover–from an illness of any kind mental or physical–from any kind of setback or challenge I would tell you:

It’s because I think people have the power to choose how they want to live their lives.

People in recovery have control. This is what I think. For others to claim recovery is not possible they are insinuating that you are helpless to control the direction of your life.

Only you and I are in the driver’s seat. We’re the ones steering the wheel down the road of our lives.

And even for those of us who will always struggle who will continue to have a severe illness–I maintain that they can have a life of purpose and dignity.

Everyone living on earth is doing the best we can with what we were given.

Compassion is called for as well as optimism.

Giving up or giving in when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel is a mistake.

You keep walking and walking until you see the light.

I believe the future will be better. I believe that light is coming for us all.

Automating a Weekly Routine

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I find that automating a weekly routine goes a long way in helping me feel like I’m in control in the time of the pandemic.

Breaking the day into time zones helps. Julie Morgenstern talked about time zones in her book Time Management from the Inside Out – 2nd edition.

The secret–as hard as it might be to do this–is to limit what you do each day. This is how I see it: an over-scheduled To-Do list will leave you frazzled.

What I’ve begun to do on Sunday is plan each day for the following week. I have bought in Staples a Weekly To-Do List pad with sheets listing the days of the week with space below them for your tasks.

This is a great way to to record what I’ve cooked for dinner each night.

As said I want to talk about what I’ve learned living in the pandemic. It ties into this topic. I’ve found that pacing myself and slowing down is the remedy for rush rush rushing through life.

To this end I’ve reserved Sundays for exercising and food delivery and planning the week ahead.

Limiting what I do every day seems counter-intuitive. Yet I think you could agree that attending endless Zoom and Microsoft Team meetings every day can deplete your energy afterward.

This is all the more reason to plan to take time out. I no longer regret that I have empty spaces of time.

In fact scheduling time to do nothing can benefit our mental and physical health.

Mixing in tasks you need to do with time to do nothing: what’s not to like?

Summering in Place

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The COVID-19 outbreak is still in effect.

New York State has gone from having the highest number of cases to having the lowest number of infections as of today.

Where I live in Brooklyn people walk outdoors with open faces not covered with a mask or bandanna.

I walk far far away from these yahoos to get where I’m going.

It’s going on four months that everything shut down around here. We are now in Stage 3 of our reopening.

In this time I have achieved my goal using the Changeology 90-day action plan. My new goal is to cook my own dinners 5x per week.

I would like to talk in the next blog entry about imposing a structure on daily activity and automating a weekly routine.

Has anyone else found like I did that during the pandemic when you’re indoors you have whole chunks of time with nothing to do?

I would like to talk in the next blog entry too about what I’ve learned living through this pandemic.

More Ways to Get Energy

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Today more than ever it’s imperative that we take care of ourselves.

Engaging in protest could drain us of energy. We don’t have time to wait to see progress. Today everyone’s tired of being told to wait. It takes a lot of physical stamina to march in the streets.

On the radio this week the disc jockey told listeners to take care of ourselves.

Each of us is possessed with a power bigger than our pain.

Yet sometimes the pain we feel–whether about injustice or our own illness or other things–can be overwhelming.

What do I think about how to take care of ourselves?

It comes down to conserving our energy for the tasks that are essential. Letting everything else slide.

I wrote in here recently about how to get energy. A Real Simple issue titled Find Your Balance has an article on The New Rules of Eating for Energy:

Eat protein for breakfast.

People who have a high-protein meal of about 30 grams first thing in the morning with low glycemic load food had the highest energy level.

Drink plenty of water.

I wrote about this in my last blog entry on getting energy.

Fatigue sets in when you get dehydrated.

Have a healthful snack during the day that has fiber protein and healthy fat.

This could be a handful of almonds or cashews or walnuts.

Eat more calories earlier in the day.

You have a food circadian rhythm. Having a moderate-sized meal for breakfast and lunch and a small meal for dinner could be the way to go.

Nix sugar as a source of energy.

After the initial blood-sugar spike you’ll be left drained.

Dine with friends.

As per the Real Simple energy article:

Social interaction has been shown to help people manage stress pain and sadness all of which are drains on energy.

There is a cookbook titled Protest Kitchen.

If I remember it caters to vegan recipes. You might be able to check it out of the library where you live. It’s available from the library system in Brooklyn NY.

Action Plan

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I write this from my iPad on an early Saturday morning,

The tactics that have helped me were to email a friend and to listen to music.

The friend thinks that history will right itself.

The time is now. We cannot wait any longer for justice for our comrades.

To read the Action Plan see the https://www.blacklivesmattergreaterny.comBlack Lives Matter Greater NY website.

Listening to music is a way to heal. I recommend listening to music when you’re going through a hard time.

Music can power you through. I firmly believe in the healing power of music.