The Fitness Holiday

If you are hoping for a blog post detailing one of those holiday packages where you are whisked to some sunny location to do Crossfit/other athletic activity then you are about to be incredibly disappointed. The fitness holiday I am referring to is the one I have taken from Crossfit and by that I mean I haven't exercised since the end of January and I guess I thought it was a better title than getting fat.

 The reason for this so called holiday is very simple. I used to go home on my days off and pop into my sisters gym for Crossfit classes and  then I got this new job in social care and my hours are less structured so I haven't really been home at all. Given that I have a kettlebell at home and a working knowledge of many weighted and body weight exercises, technically speaking this shouldn't have thrown me too far off the fitness path but that is forgetting the fact that I am incredibly lazy when left to my own devices. At first it wasn't too bad because I wasn't working out but my diet was fairly okay so while I wasn't getting fitter, I wasn't getting fatter either. Then I rediscovered sugar and it's all gone downhill from there. I keep telling myself I'll stop but it seems like the sugar is addicted to me and it wont let me. Okay fine so that bit was a lie. I am somewhat lacking in willpower plus since I started working nights last month I haven't really recovered, I am just tired and run down and wanting sugar and coffee on tap. As you can imagine this isn't going anywhere good as my crappy diet is making me more tired and quite sick, not to mention the lovely things its doing to my face and waistline (that's where the weight goes first for me).

 This is the bit where I start making a plan to do something and then hopefully follow it through before I start having to buy bigger and stretchier pants. I promised myself that I would look into fitness classes when my finances even out and it looks like I should be getting back payment from the social welfare for the first few weeks where I had 20 hours or less. I will be using that to pay bills even if that's really boring but that frees up some of my wages for me to pay someone to shout at me until I do some exercise. To prepare myself for this eventuality ( of regular exercise and not dying as a result) I have been trying to get myself into the right mindset but it appears I have done great/terrible (depending on how you look at it) work in the weeks since I last had a proper workout so I have a long way to go.

 So far this has amounted to going on walk that ended in Ardkeen stores where I then bought chocolate, running (away from a cat that was following me) and then feeling a bit ill but in my defence running was never my favourite and looking at fitness stuff on pinterest while eating  a crunchie. I did find a Burpee challenge for March which caught my eye while doing this so it wasn't a completely wasted endeavour and got it into my head that I should do it. Given that I have done challenges involving lots of burpees at other points in time and not died, all evidence would suggest that I am able for it but I think I might have been a little too enthusiastic. The challenge is actually pretty simple on the first of March you do one burpee, on the second you do two and so on as the month goes on. The only thing was I started on the 11th so yesterday I did 54. I regretted the chocolate I'd eaten earlier that day when I started feeling sick and dizzy and yet I completed them. This morning I woke up and my whole body hurt. It's kind of embarrassing when I consider how tough a workout I'd have had to complete in the past to get that but it's a start. 

 So my fitness holiday is coming to an end. I will be taking baby steps as I gradually ease myself back into it as though I am tricking my body into getting healthier. Easing out the sugar, a tonic and ginseng tablets for my energy levels (plus coffee ) and exercising until a few burpees no longer hurts me. At least that's the plan. Sure what fun would it be if I got it right the first (more like 50th at this stage) time. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes out ..

Image
I have been told on more than one occasion that I'm sarcastic. Often that I'm too sarcastic (as though there could be such a thing) and I have retort up my sleeve for such occasions which is if you think I'm sarcastic you should meet my mother. No, really you should because my sarcasm is but a pale imitation of hers. Every so often though I come out without something that makes my friends or other family members pause because sometimes when I open my mouth, my mother comes out.  It's funny how people always take the words you are turning into your mother as such an insult because the reality of the matter is it's a both a good and bad thing. Obviously there are certain qualities I am perfectly happy to emulate and others not so much and on the whole I am not entirely sure how much control I have over it. It's not quite a pick and mix counter here. I think there are some habits you are not even aware you have picked up until someone else kindly points it out....
Read more

How long does it take to learn to drive?

Image
I remember my nieces a year or so back asking me in an incredulous tone how long it takes to learn to drive because for as long as they could remember I had L plates on my car. The answer in my case is four years. Admittedly I probably could have gotten my full licence sooner if I hadn't been so hesitant to do my test in the three years that have passed since my last attempt. I get very anxious during tests or Interviews and so do not perform particularly well at either. I will put that in my list of things I need to work on in the new year. In time since I have learned to drive I feel I have accomplished a lot and yet I will go out of my way to avoid having to parallel park because I feel like its always going to be my Achilles heel. At least I have come a long way from the days when I used to feel anxious about getting into my car and was likely to bunny hop across roundabouts in third gear. The problem with learning to drive is that the older you do the harder it is and...
Read more

Burnout: the sequel

Image
  I am burnt out. Hardly the most shocking declaration given I have been saying it out loud for a while now but here we are. This isn't my first run in with burn out nor will it likely be my last. Not only am I working in a stressful job, a social care worker in residential care, which is no stranger to burn out but also I am autistic so its like I know a secret short cut to getting there. I think as bragging goes this is up there with declaring how many times I have managed to catch covid. Which is 4 at my current count and they say there are no benefits to working in Health care. If you are lucky enough to not have experienced burnout then I can tell you its not an experience I would recommend to a friend. If you have friends working in social care then you probably wont need to.  Some of the things I have been experiencing are random bouts of crying. Given high sensitivity is part of my autism profile, I am no stranger to crying and the first time I experienced burnout it t...
Read more