I am officially declaring myself in my post-recovery training period, nutrition will follow as soon as I'm done with these antibiotics. I'm recovered but I'm not as I was, I'm less focused on discrete, high-intensity workouts spaced through the week, and much more on whole day fitness focusing on continuous low-level activity throughout the day. Which I was moving toward anyway, but it's more front and center now that it's pretty much all I do. I've started working out again, but just; we will see how that goes. I've been getting my whole day fitness act together through my recovery period, and it is solid:
1. I walk before breakfast.
Nothing major, just by default: on work days, how I get to work is walk to the train and take the train, thirty minutes door to door, some walking, some stairs, some train surfing, some sitting, some more stairs. On home days, I'm up and about tidying the bedroom and the kitchen, also about thirty minutes.
2. I get up 2x/hour mornings and afternoons.
On work days, I have this down like Leroy Brown. I don't track this with jelly bracelets anymore, I have a new system that I will tell you about later. On home days, I tend more toward being on my feet for at least an hour, sometimes two, cooking or cleaning in the morning, and then off my feet doing desk work in the afternoon. Ideally I'd like to be getting up 2x/hour here too, but it depends how I feel; if I feel like I need to rest, I rest. It's more important to be rested for clients in the evening, which is also on my feet for an hour or two—not to mention mentally and emotionally present.
3. I meditate before dinner.
I also have a new meditation routine, I don't meditate in the afternoon anymore. I still do breath counting versus the parade, but now I do it at home to start my evening. On work days I leave work at five, get home, tidy the bedroom and change out of my work clothes into my home clothes, and sit on my bed and actually I have some PT to do for my neck that I set to breath counting, two birds, one stone, wot. I know, multitasking makes it seem like I'm unclear on the concept of meditation. But it's very focused and single-minded, just because it's productive and time-saving doesn't mean it doesn't count. On home days, it's similar but sort of in reverse: I change into my play clothes at five, sit on the couch and meditate, and then leave the house for the gym. So I always have this nice transition into evening, wherever I'm coming from or going to.
4a. I work out 3x/week evenings.
My workouts are 60 minutes of kettlebells with Box on Monday, and whatever 30 minute program I'm on for Tuesday and Thursday. At the moment and probably through May, I'm doing some PT for my knee, building myself from the ground up!
4b. I rest 4x/week evenings.
What on earth am I doing with all these nights off, well I'll tell you, on Wednesday I am resting like woah. I leave Box's workouts thinking ah, I could have done more, and then I am sooo sore for the next two days. The other three nights I am leaving open to be ...social. I know, concept. I mean, Box has also classes on Wednesday and Saturdays that I could pick up. Or I was also thinking about Pure Barre, or Orange Theory. But I decided that I didn't want to just fill my schedule right back up with workouts, I need some breathing room. I don't always go out, in fact I mostly don't, for now I just want to be able to. If I don't, I just chill and watch TV or do something off my to do list.
5. I stretch before bed.
Boy I could not get down to stretching when I was still derbying, but now it's as easy as eating. Which just goes to show, your resources are exhaustible. Saving on workouts means that I have some to spend on stretching, simple as that. I have a flow for this, hopefully it'll be second nature by the time I ramp up on my workouts and I'll be able to maintain both. (I don't think I undercut what I just said, setting up a new habit takes more energy than keeping up an old habit.) Now that I don't have late practices, I start going to bed at nine. Nine!! I drink a glass of tart cherry juice, then tidy whatever needs tidying in the front room (the evening counterpart to tidying the bedroom and kitchen in the morning), then brush my teeth, then stretch, and then go to bed. I don't have to make myself or talk myself into stretching, all I have to do is drink that glass of tart cherry juice and it all just flows after that. Including brushing my teeth and washing my face before bed, which I also didn't used to be good about. Life is so much more civilized without late practices.
Anyway, this here stretching: I was doing ballet stretches for a bit, but now I'm doing the second half of my neck stretches before bed—there were so many of them, I divided them into two parts. AREA WOMAN ACTUALLY DOING HER PT EXERCISES, call CNN. Actually I found a connection between the neck and the ballet stretches and brought them together, so still get to do a little ballet, and will get back to when I'm done with my neck.
