The Journey – Week 1

When I initially decided to leave my old gym I knew there would be a few months where I didn’t have access to classes or a gym so I purchased a subscription to the 8Fit app. It was January and I got a year on sale which was fortuitous given the year we ended up having. I had a lot of problems at the beginning, but I must say, they have really improved during the pandemic. I don’t love their recipe section though. It’s not very user friendly and I personally think it needs a lot of work.

The workout programs and classes are good though and for a while I was taking part in their daily classes and I really enjoyed them. They started a 3-week New Year’s program for January, and I’ve decided to take part in it.

Oh, also, an important note. I won’t be weighing myself throughout this. I don’t weigh myself! As mentioned, part of this has to do with mental heath and wellbeing and weighing myself would absolutely work in counterpoint to that goal. I’m trying to be kinder to myself and regain some of my former fitness. I have no desire to torture myself weekly. I’ll know if I’m making progress by how I feel in myself.

So this week! It would be a total lie if I said it was easy. My level of fitness is somewhere near the floor so there is a lot of work to be done.

Monday (4th January) – I’m not very good at early morning workouts. I always do better later in the day but I also know that it’s likely more beneficial to try do morning workouts. Since the pandemic began, we have been very good about going for a walk each morning before we start our work day. We’d usually leave at about 07.15 and get back to the house about 08.15. Since I injured myself, I’ve been going on these morning walks less and less and sleeping in more and more. We stopped altogether over Christmas. This morning I skipped the walk again and replaced it with the 8Fit Day 1 of their New Year’s Program. It was called the ‘Heart-pumping cardio workout’ and it was definitely heart pumping. About 35 minutes in total. I did have to modify quite a bit, mainly with light dancing or light jumps in one spot, as there was a lot of higher impact jumps, but I actually really enjoyed it. I felt like I was going to throw up after so that’s always a good sign right? 😀 I’d like to do this workout again but would need to add some more leg stretches at the end I think.

I also went for a light walk at lunch time. My job gives me 90 minutes for active time while working from home, so I’ve been using 30 minutes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for a walk before lunch. They are usually about 40 minutes long. I had to take it very easy today as my lower back was a bit achy (so it took about 50 minutes) but by the end it felt a lot better so this is definitely a case of working through it but doing it gently.

I probably should have done a light stretch after the walk. I didn’t.

Tuesday (5th January) – I have discovered morning bed stretches and they are a game changer.

One of my major issues over the last few months is the pain I’m in after a morning walk and I suspect it has to do with basically jumping out of bed, getting dressed, brushing my teeth and heading straight out the door for the morning walk. As soon as I’d get to the end of my road the lower back pain would start and, on a few instances, when I got home, I was at a pain level of about 8 which isn’t the best way to start the day.

So, I decided I was going to get up and stretch before the morning walk. As mentioned, I’m not great in the morning, so I found some morning bed stretches and it’s only one day done but I’m kind of loving them. I mean, I get to stay in bed, what’s not to love? My back didn’t begin to ache until about halfway through the walk and I also felt much more chipper in general.

4.5 km walk done before 08.30, normally would be more but we chatted with some doggo’s in the park! 🙂

Didn’t stretch after the morning walk which may have been a mistake as I went for a 2.5 km walk on my lunch and it was more than an ache after. One stretch doesn’t cover everything, I know this, I also ignore it constantly. Maybe I will learn through this process? Needed the heating pad and Voltarol.

The 8Fit Day 2 of their New Year’s Program was ‘Yoga for spine mobility’. This proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I wasn’t very nice to myself during this routine and called my self a hippo, among other things. Need to work on that being kind to myself thing.

My lower back absolutely benefited from this though and I think if I keep going back to this specific routine I’ll only get better and it will really help my lower back in general.

Wednesday (6th January) – Decided to skip the morning walk because of rain and the fear of I’d melt.

2.5 km walk at lunch with the view to do the 8Fit Day 3 of their New Year’s Program. Today was ‘Full-body HIIT’. It’s a 30 minute program. I got 15 minutes done. I was enjoying it but I could feel some unwelcome pain beginning in my left hip and didn’t want to exasperate that. Oh, and I thought I was going to pass out! I really want to be able to do this workout at the end of the three week period. There are burpees though so that may never happen. 😀

Lots and lots of sore muscles today which is all to be expected but a little bit of sharp pain down my left leg as well.

To be honest I was distracted by the Georgia Runoff and the Insurrection in the USA most of the day so I wasn’t really giving everything my full attention because I had one eye on CNN for the majority of the day.

Thursday (7th January) – Snow on the ground today, so again, no walk. I was also watching CNN until 3am and my whole body is a bruise!

Today was a planned ‘rest’ day though and it couldn’t be more welcomed. 2.5 km walk and 8Fit Day 4 of their New Year’s Program which is ‘Meditation for letting go’. I’ve got to hand it to 8Fit, this one was almost an act of divination.

I find meditation really difficult. This one was nice and all but I just felt like all I learned was that I clench my jaw. A LOT. Really hope to work on mediation this year and will keep doing these ones and hopefully start using the Insight Timer app, which has over 70,000 free guided meditations.

Friday (8th January) – No morning walk again and skipped the lunch time walk. Today’s 8Fit Day 5 workout was a ‘HIIT Pilates shake out’ which concentrated on the lower back and it was absolutely amazing. I’m going to add this to other workouts in the future.

I also did all the housework for the week today. That counts as a workout right?

Ended the day having a glass of Prosecco on my couch in my library with my book. My reward for completing (I’m ignoring Wednesday’s little glitch) week one of my new workout routine.

Saturday (9th January) – I was looking forward to this all week. We have planned to go for a walk in the Phoenix Park every Saturday during January and February. Rain, hail or shine. It’s 3 km from home so is within the 5 km COVID-19 travel restrictions in place here. It’s also massive so we got a total of 13 km in and plan to add to that as the weeks go on.

Today was icy cold and glorious. There is a lot of wet ground there at the moment so with the freezing conditions the ground was hard and we got to wonder around places that we wouldn’t normally go at this time of year.

The park has wild deer which I always love to see but they weren’t around the usual area today. Hopefully next week.

Today I had the most amount of pain I’d had all week. A painkiller and bedrest was needed. I think I might need to add some hip Yoga or Pilates to the end of the walk. We also went up some super steep inclines which I don’t think I’m ready for just yet so will leave those out next time. I’d like to work them in over the coming weeks though as I’ve formulated a plan that will require a lot of inclining in the future. More to follow.

Sunday (10th January) – I slept in until super late. Like super duper late. This meant I was way behind on my day but I think my body deserved the rest. Sunday is meal prep day so I spent about two hours doing that and spent the rest of the day relaxing. It was lovely. Sunday nights usually contain a low level feeling of dread but this week I just felt rested and looking forward to the week ahead.

So I think all in all it was a positive week. I’m feeling energised and excited!