March Challenge: Week 4
How has this been going?
March has been a bloodbath in more ways than one. There have been outside forces at play: 16 of my colleagues found themselves unexpectedly unemployed and I found myself with a mountain of work; one of my childhood friends lost her battle with addiction. And internal forces: I struggled with the common cold, depression, and burn out; I had my birth control implant removed and dealt with a period that has been HEAVY for over 2 weeks and is only just now starting to show signs of stopping.
And yet, here I am in the home stretch actually feeling better and seeing some improvement. Seems like February was pretty brutal too… nearly all of 2018 it seems… With April just around the corner I’m ready to start thinking spring thoughts and try to renew my can-do attitude.
In this final week I’m putting my mind to what I can take with me from the challenge into the rest of the year.
Monday
Intentional exercise: Took care of this one with a yoga video from the series.
Stairs: Yep, did it
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: Nope…
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes.
Overall Score: 5/6
Tuesday
Intentional exercise: Monster Cycle. I also took the long walk to the train with my favorite staircase in the park. I keep a spare work out outfit in my desk at work so when my friend Vanessa text me she was planning to do Monster Cycle at 5:30, I was happy to be able to accept. I generally don’t believe in keeping second string clothing items around but a workout kit at the office is a good plan.
Stairs: Yep, both in the park and at the office.
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: No… sigh…
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes, but going forward I think I should aim for 3 liters on days when I get in a work out class, if not every day…
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes!
Overall Score: 5/6
Wednesday
Intentional exercise: That nice long morning walk. I used to do this walk every morning unless there was a real reason not to (injury, ice, illness, etc.) and now that it’s spring time I think it’s time to maintain this as a baseline.
Stairs: Both the park and the office!
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: no goddammit.
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes,
Overall Score: 5/6
Thursday
Intentional exercise: Monster Cycle again, this time it was Johnny’s class. He tends to not ask you to go ‘WOOO!” which I really appreciate but I struggle to keep up with the pace he asks for when we do weights in the middle. Still, I like his classes and plan to make myself a regular there.
Stairs: Yes
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: NOPE, NOPE FOREVER. I’ve just given up on this.
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: No, I def ate free snacks at my desk. I don’t even usually eat chips but I was desperate for salt… thinking maybe this has to do with my excessive period that just will not stop…
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes,
Overall Score: 4/6
Friday
Intentional exercise: I worked from home Friday because it was the end of the month, end of the quarter, end of the sales year for the company and I anticipated that extra hours would be needed. I really don’t mind working extra hours so long as I can eliminate my commute.
Stairs: Yep, make a few trips up and down to check the mail, take out the trash, take out the recycling. Usually this is a one trip operation but I did them separately for the sake of the activity.
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: Kind of. I left my desk to make an omelette for lunch. It was delicious but I did work while I ate it. half point.
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes,
Overall Score: 5.5/6
Saturday
Intentional exercise: Monster Cycle! KY does the Saturday class in SOHO and she is a real treasure. It was Gaga vs Rhi Rhi and while she really asked us to go heavy on the resistance and I it was incredibly challenging, I felt great. I think I’m really starting to see some progress here.
Stairs: Yep!
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: Yep, on the weekend nearly the whole day is away from my desk.
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes,
Overall Score: 6/6
Sunday
Intentional exercise: Took a lovely rainly run/walk in the park. It was short, and since I wasn’t actually planning to run, I didn’t track it on my Garmin. I just love when I’m walking and suddenly I feel inspired to run. Remember playing tag as a kid? Running for fun is like that for grown ups.
Stairs: Yes.
Take a break away from my desk at lunch: Yes.
Free Snack abstinence / 2 alcoholic drink max: Yes! I did enjoy some wine, but kept it to two glasses. I made a big instant pot of black beans and veggies which I’ll treat as a soup, or dip chips in, or make breakfast burritos with all week. You’ll likely see a post in the Food section of the blog about it soon!
2 liters of water min / Morning vitamins: Yes!
Flossing / skincare routine: Yes,
Overall Score: 6/6
What I’m keeping from this challenge
Keeping to a routine of skin care and better dental hygiene every morning and evening has been helpful in sleeping better and maintaining my mental health. It’s such obvious advice- be consistent and have a morning and evening routine, but it’s funny how hard that can be when depression is an issue for you.
Drinking more water. This is also baseline self care. Drink water you fool! If you take a sip of water and you think it’t the best thing you’ve ever had in your life that is a sign you are not taking care of your body’s hydration needs. I set a minimum of 2 liters for this challenge but now I think it’s reasonable to aim for 3 a workout day.
While I may not have managed to take breaks away from my desk for lunch I did reestablish my habit of taking long walks through the park in the morning. Those morning walks don’t solve everything but taking that time for myself has been soothing when my mind is troubled and helped me to feel like I’m beginning the day doing something important even if the rest of the day doesn’t go so well.
If I could manage spin 2 days a week, and at least one day of yoga a week, I could be back in real running shape sooner than later. Getting back to spin really made me feel stronger and I know between yoga and spin, that’s how I did it last year. I’d like to get back to 3 days a week of spin but I know that this week I felt pretty burned out by Sunday so I’ll need to build to that.
What I’m leaving behind
I need to forgive myself for working through lunch. Leaving work on time is important to me and I am nearly always early to work, but doing a good job is important to me and right now that is just what is required for me to feel like I’ve done what I’m supposed to.
That said, I must leave behind the idea that I’m doing something wrong if I have a moment’s happiness while everything isn’t perfect at work. If I have more of a workload than can be accomplished in 40 hours that doesn’t mean the choice is to work 80 hours or else I’m not allowed to be happy for even a moment until things are fixed. This is how I ended up getting shingles in 2015 (at my last company, not this one), I worked 12 hour days, weekends, I was always on, addressing work shit from 6am to midnight… and then my body shut down... and I still KEPT WORKING…. It’s funny those lessons are so hard to remember. So I’m leaving work at work. Some extra hours are fine, but I need to make myself a priority and give myself permission to be happy even when I can’t get it all done.
I am leaving the all or none mentality behind. This challenge wasn’t perfect, far from it, almost no days resulted in full points. And work kinda sucks right now but I also love my job or I wouldn’t care enough to cry about it. More than one thing can be true.
Up Next
With April beginning tomorrow I’ll be preparing for the first 5k of the year! I’ll be posting about my goal for that race and how I plan to get there before 4/20.
You’ll soon be seeing the first guest post from Patti, who you’ll get to know as my best friend and running partner in Maryland. She is the Jay to my Silent Bob. She’s doing this marathon with me and since we’re in different states, she’s agreed to keep us abreast of her training progress!