I’m here. Now what?
I survived my ninth move in seven years unscathed last weekend. The Universe threw a whole slew of extra stress at me, mostly in the form of a sick boyfriend who becomes a toddler when he feels the slightest bit “off.” But I fought back and got it all done. I spent the last week unpacking and making two houses worth of stuff into one uniform home. It’s the coziest little house I could hope for.
The move pretty much killed my good eating and exercising habits. Mostly eating. It’s hard to make a good, nutritious, primalish meal for one when your cookware is packed and you’re working with one pot and pan. I had my fair share of takeout. Grok would’ve stared in wonder at all the garbage I ate during the handful of days leading up to and following Moving Day. I suppose that’s to be expected.
I also didn’t work out too much because I was tired and sore from carrying shit all over the place. I still walked for half an hour to an hour every day and managed to get in a few Shreds. I cut myself some slack and I don’t regret it one bit.
Now I’m here and all of the boxes are gone and I’ve stocked the newly organized pantry with healthy food. I’m two days into being back on track. It feels really good.
When I first decided to move, I was determined to join a CrossFit box once I got here. I’ve been so inspired by AndreAnna‘s journey that it seemed like I just had to get (back) into CrossFit once I moved.
Then I thought some more and decided I don’t want to. I loved how I felt when I did CrossFit. I did not love how obsessed I was with CrossFit. All of that lactic acid left a sour taste in my mouth and I’m at a point in my evolution as a person that I don’t want my fitness routine to be on my mind for the 23 hours leading up to it. Plus the closest box is a 20-minute highway drive away, which means getting up at the ass of dawn to make the AM class. And it also defeats the goal of significantly cutting down on car wear and tear (and gas) when I’m working from home by driving that 4 – 5 times a week.
I want to be fit and healthy, but I don’t want to work CrossFit hard. I want to look good naked, but I also want to have time and energy to fill my life with other meaningful stuff.
I found a bootcamp about 15 minutes away. It sounded perfect and I was excited about it for several weeks. Now I’m here and I’m not excited anymore. I don’t know why. I’m sure some of my lack of enthusiasm has to do with the fact that it starts at the same time as CrossFit, which still means getting out of bed before 5 AM. Not cool.
Yesterday my pooch and I explored a battlefield park nearby. It was awesome and had really great running/walking trails. I thought to myself that maybe I’d get back into running at the battlefield. But then I realized that running alone amongst Civil War trenches, through the woods and over a creek named after how bloody it was after this particular battle, may not be the best thing for my psyche, considering I’ll be working from home and human interaction will be at a premium.
So I’m stuck. I want to do something new and exciting and fun, but I don’t want it to take over my life. I want to enjoy it while I’m there, and then not think about it until the next morning. Right now I’m still leaning towards the bootcamp, but only because I feel like I should. Not because I really want to.
I’ve been tapping the space bar for a few minutes trying to think of how to wrap this up. What it boils down to is that I need some motivation. I need a kickstart and some inspiration. If you have any to share, please send some my way!
March 28th, 2011 at 8:39 am
Can you find a local running group? Then you’d have a group interaction, something to look forward to but not something that comes with a ton of stress.
March 28th, 2011 at 8:47 am
There are other types of activities that are just as fullfilling – are there any indoor rockclimbing places? Have you ever thought about doing Martial arts (seeing as this is what I do religiously and there are SOOOOOO many forms for any person who want so get into it…)?
There has to be something closer with people.
March 28th, 2011 at 8:50 am
How about signing up for a local race in a distance that would be challenging to train for? Or do something totally nutso just for the hell of it — boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu — something that would just be fun a couple days a week but also an ass kicker?
March 28th, 2011 at 8:56 am
So, I just went to work from home full time. I would strenuously suggest you find group fitness or a gym or something you like because you will want the break from the house. Trust me. Even if that break is at 5am.
You don’t want to drive, you don’t want to get up early. Ok. Are the middle of the day…anything… you can do? That you want to do? There’s a lot of reasons here for why things won’t work, why you don’t want to do them, but no indication about what you actually want to do. Maybe you just need to settle into your new routine and figure out where you do want to carve out time for exercise, if at all.
And that’s Ok, by the way. There’s no rush. Working out is supposed to additive to you life, right? So maybe just spending some time getting used to your new routine will give you a chance to see where something naturally fits in.
March 28th, 2011 at 8:59 am
I say join a Y or other gym, try some group fitness classes that work with your schedule. You might find that you get addicted to one of the classes and can’t wait to go back.
I second the running group.
March 28th, 2011 at 9:38 am
These are all wonderful suggestions. Thank you!
Upon further introspection, I’ve realized that the problem is in my brain. Historically I’ve exercised alone, and I’ve loved it. My social time happened elsewhere. Now exercising alone means spending entirely too much time alone, and that’s a paradigm shift I don’t know if I was ready for.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
One of my favorite periods of workouts was the last 2 months of my maternity leave. I had a sitter come to the house everyday for 90 min while I took a class at my gym. I took something different everyday – I tried everything from Zumba (waaaaay out of my comfort zone but I loved it), to power lifitng to a “bootcamp” class, to Pilates. In 8 weeks I NEVER got bored, even going to 5-6 classes a week. Since I wasn’t doing the same class every day it was always a challenge and some new part of my body was always sore; I was in fantastic shape when I went back to work. If I had the daytime freedom to do this I still would.
March 30th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Can you try out the bootcamp without committing to it? Just go to the first day? It might be fabulous and just what you’re looking for, but it’d be nice to try before you buy.