A Physical Challenge
I know I probably don’t talk that much about physical things and, admittedly, I find my relationship with my body to be something less than straightforward - still an area of learning for me. From time to time though I’m able to hear what it needs and this has been one of those times.
Exercise during the lockdown has been a conundrum for me as I’m sure it has for everyone else. I used to get a fair bit of walking done as part of my commute to work, although as soon as I realised I could just go to the lakes each day instead of pounding the pavements of the city and soaking up all the heat from all the concrete I was happy enough. I used to swim, and was just getting back into a daily swim routine when the pool got closed. When I couldn’t swim I would gym, but obviously that’s closed too. There are other options and things I could buy (I’m not ruling out a bike later) but for me now and my level of fitness and the weather and the time available, it’s really walking that’s going to do it for me for now. And I’d done fairly well with the walking on lockdown having plenty of routes near the flat, but it was more chore than challenge and not as consistent as I needed it to be to feel really good about it.
So when they eased the lockdown rules and said we could go out as many times a day as we liked, I started committing to 20,000 steps a day (this is on my phone, it may or may not be truly accurate but it’s a relative measure of doing more vs. less) which works out (again, supposedly, with my little legs) at about 10 miles a day and takes about 3 hours +/- steps around the flat at home. And I got through the first week and decided I wanted to try and commit to 20 days (so 400,000 steps or 200 miles) in a row and see if I could give myself a bit of a boost physically. I’m not here to offer anyone else advice on their physical health but I know for myself sometimes I need a bit of a push and some discipline to level up and that having an exercise challenge does wonders for my energy and motivation.
I can tell you though I have been THROUGH IT with this one! I was tired, I was cranky, I was splitting it up in to two or three walks a day and racking up steps any way I could manage it and going out last thing in the evening and curses curses…. I was achy pretty much all over and then there was The Toe Incident last week just to really make it even more awesome… I have had to really persevere. But I got past the two week point (I’ve completed 16 days now) and something just clicked. I started wanting to go earlier in the day, and I started (where daily routine would allow) wanting to do the whole walk in one go. And things stopped hurting (so much). And I started sleeping better (a bit). And I had a bit of that sense of achievement that a 6am swim before work would have given me. And now since I’ve been planning these 3-hour routes I find the effect mentally, while I’m out there, is just so incredibly positive - I’ll start daydreaming and get all these reassuring visions about both the immediate and the distant future and come back in like a thousand times better mood than when I left. And if I’m tempted to not go I’ll feel antsy until I do go.
So I’m hoping I’ll stick with it now, that I’ve cracked my activity needs for the lockdown (however it lasts) and can start adding in bits of jogging and some lifting and so on. But one piece of the puzzle that actually finally seems to work. I just kept thinking if I kept walking eventually I would have to feel stronger - so if you’re struggling with something and it’s taking a while, keep focused on the outcome because you might be nearly there.