Over the many weeks of lockdown my exercise has generally been excellent. Lockdown has made me commit to pretty much daily exercise of some sort, and I have been really on top of it, but the last couple of weeks have been comparatively terrible! I think the change in weather has made early morning exercise less attractive and the darker nights make me want to sit on the sofa with a cup of tea watching Netflix. So I have been doing that for a little while and I am beginning to feel a bit rubbish for it.
All the things I know I need to do for keeping on top of my workouts I haven’t been doing. So I am here to keep myself accountable.
What usually works for me is to have a plan. I need to have a documented, achievable workout plan that I set around my workload. Then I need to have a reward scheme, and for me this is a straightforward sticker chart. Yes I have the same reward response as a toddler, but it works for me!
It is also helpful for me to I set a mid and longer term goal and associated rewards.
So, I would like to get back to running half marathon distance, and so mid term goal is to run a 10Km by 1st November (rewarded by a new pair running leggings or top) and then a half marathon distance by Christmas (new pair of trainers). These rewards are both things that I need, but will motivate me to get back to running which I do really miss.
I’ve been back to Bikram at weekends and I am enjoying that in a way that I just haven’t been able to achieve with doing yoga at home during lockdown. For me there is something about the journey I take to the studio that gets me in the headspace for practice, and I haven’t been able to recreate that at home. I’ve done 1-2 classes a weekend for the last 3 weeks, and didn’t realise the congestion charge had been changed to 7 days a week, so it has proven to be a very expensive experience in fines!
This week so far I have done an hours walk in the park on Monday, a 3Km run on Tuesday morning (it felt terrible, but I haven’t run for a few weeks so to be expected), and an hours walk in the park on Wednesday night. I ran 4Km on Thursday, which also felt really tough.
On Friday I did a walk and a 90-minute Bikram class and Saturday a yin class and a hot Vinyasa session in the afternoon back to back. This morning I did another 90-minute Bikram class.
So it’s been a fairly good week. My aims were achievable and hopefully will get me back on track. As you may know I hit my ‘goal weight’ a few months ago, so my fitness isn’t about losing weight. It’s all about keeping my mental health good and I really want to focus on having some fitness goals to work towards again as it gives me direction with my training.
This is a ‘getting back into it week’ and then I want to start increasing my HIIT and weights to get myself more toned up over the winter months with the aim of feeling bikini ready by the end of February when I will hopefully be travelling to Costa Rica (Covid permitting).
So I will also spend a little time this afternoon writing out a training plan for the next 4 weeks so I can really get back into it. Will keep you posted here on my progress and of course over on my Instagram @my.happy.life.project
my happy life project 