The Journey – Week 7

Overview: Biggest lesson learned this week? I’m doing this to feel better about myself and for my body to feel strong and move better and not for punishment purposes and if I’m not feeling a specific workout I can stop and just be done.

That’s kind of it really. I enjoyed most of this week and I’m feeling good (apart from a little shoulder issue) and strong and I can almost do a proper side plank now. I’m like a full on yogi master now! 😀

Monday (February 15th) – Feeling motivated again! 🎉

First 8fit workout this week was Boxing Tabata & Strength with Emily. This was 40 minutes. On a Monday morning. All I can say is that is was a good job I was motivated. This was hard. The boxing part was a lot of fun but the strength part at the end was really a killer. Emily wanted me to sweat. She would not have been disappointed.

It’s important to remember that I’ve got no upper body strength. Even though the boxing was fun I definitely didn’t take it as easy as I should have. I was really getting into those punches! As a result I’ve strained my left shoulder. It’s just strain and I think a few days of Voltarol/Biofreeze and heat will take care of it. Important to remember that I need to work up to those big punches. 😀

I did my 2.5 km lunch walk and even though I’m sore I’m feeling great.

Tuesday (February 16th) – Didn’t sleep great last night but for once it wasn’t my body or my mind. The wind was crazy and there was something somewhere outside banging. Eventually got to sleep but it took ages. I woke up in bad form but went straight into a 10-minute core workout and a 10-minute Full-body HIIT Pilates and felt really great after.

Today was a lovely day so my walk was a long one. Did 8 km and the end of it was difficult. My back was more than a little sore. I may need to slow my roll. 😀

Did a nice breathing meditation in the evening and then took myself to bed for an early night as my entire body is ached!

Wednesday (February 17th) – I slept like the dead and woke up feeling great so I decided to go on a 8 km before work walk. It was a beautiful morning and I can feel Spring in the air!

Came home and got right to today’s 8fit workout. Vinyasa Yoga with Mel. I thought this would be easy. It was in fact 30 minutes of cardio Yoga and it was not at all easy. My whole body was screaming after it. I was actually wobbly.

I seem to have failed at slowing my roll. 🙈

So, I’ve decided I’m done for the day. Shower and a workday in loungewear which has become a kind of weird working from home/lockdown treat.

My whole body, right down to my fingertips, is sore, so I think I’m okay to skip my lunch walk. Might be a sit on the couch and mindlessly look at TV kind of lunch. 😀

My body is sore but I don’t seem to be in any kind of outright pain. I’m feeling okay about everything but I think I deserve a little rest after all the work I put in earlier today.

Thursday (February 18th) – So decided to go on another 8 km morning walk again and was feeling super great.

Followed the walk with an Upper Body Bands workout that was part of this weeks 8fit program. I. HATED. IT. I just ended up hate doing this and this caused me to get annoyed so the natural progression for me was to go on another 8 km walk which was what I think it’s safe to call a hate walk! 😀

So this is an issue that’s come up for me many times in the past. I stop the enjoying part of working out and start to punish myself or become obsessed with numbers. In this case it was steps and because the arm workout was so hard and I didn’t enjoy it I felt I didn’t do ‘enough’ work so I had to ‘make up’ for it for it with a walk. *sigh*

This is not a good road to go down and after a little chat with myself and having to take some painkillers, I decided it’s important to get a handle on this right now. So I need to just enjoy what I’m doing and if something isn’t working, it’s okay to stop and I don’t need to ‘make up’ for anything.

Friday (February 19th) – So, talking about not torturing myself yesterday, today I did a HIIT Cardio class. 😀

This was not about feeling like I had to workout though just that I found I really like the bookending the week with high intensity training because I feel great afterwards. This one was with a different trainer than usual and she was so much fun and 40 minutes with her just flew by. This was a great way to start the day.

I will say though, my shoulder is starting to give me more and more trouble so afterwards I was in a little bit of pain. I need to start taking it easier on the arm and punch workouts. I for sure went overboard at the beginning of the week and the bands training yesterday didn’t help matters.

I hoovered the house on my lunch followed by a shower and spent the rest of the day in a meeting. I was so glad I’d done lots of moving going into hour two of that meeting.

Didn’t finish until 5pm which is a late finish on a Friday for me but I’m off Monday so it was not a hardship.

Saturday (February 20th) – After my 16 km walk on Thursday I decided I could skip today. 🙂

Instead I opened my French doors and did Pilates to birdsong and rain. It was a fabulous start to my long weekend and I think I might need to swap this in every few Saturday’s.

Super important update: I can now do a modified plank now!!! 🎉

Followed this by having a bath, a facial, a nap, journaling and finishing my book. One of the best Saturday’s in a while.

Sunday (February 21st) – I ate, napped, watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine and read a full book.

I want to do this every Sunday.