I try to really think about the monthly challenges that I set for myself before I decide which one to do that month. I usually have a few ideas that are very different and then I think about what I will get out of each one and try to pick the best option. For a while, I think I was doing a lot of challenges that would better myself in some way. But lately, I’ve been focused more on things that will better my environment or living situation.
That’s why when I picked my challenge for this month, I really thought it would be a good plan for feeling more settled in my place and just having a better routine and schedule. I know that things for me can feel like I’m in a rush to get them done or that I’m putting things off until the last minute without intending to do so. So if I could have an idea of what days are best to do certain things, I might feel a bit more stable when I’m trying to plan ahead.
But what I didn’t plan for were things that are out of my control and would affect what I could do and what I wanted to do. For example, with all the rain lately, I haven’t been wanting to run errands if I could avoid it because I don’t like to be out in the rain. Even if I had planned to go to the grocery store if the rain was coming down too hard I didn’t want to do it. I also don’t love driving in the rain and many other drivers seem to not be great at it either, so being off of the road seems like a smart choice. I wasn’t expecting to work extra hours this past week, so when I had things planned to do after work, that was affected by my later hours. And if I’m working until 8pm, I just don’t feel like going out to do other things after work. I’m ready to settle down for the evening.
On top of all this, I haven’t been feeling well and have been working through nausea for the first half of the month. Maybe if I was feeling ok, I would have been up for doing some of the things I had been putting off. But with all of that together, I just haven’t wanted to do a lot of anything. I know that if I had to go out and do something, I would. I had some errands I couldn’t avoid or do another way, so I went out and did them. I wasn’t always happy about it, but I got them done.
Maybe I’m just making excuses for myself because if there were things I had to do, I probably would have done them. But it’s easy to not go to the store and get groceries delivered or put off cleaning because nobody is going to see that my house is a little messy. And I’m aware that how I was feeling affected my mental state and that had a lot to do with things. I really set this challenge this month with the best intentions of getting it done and I’m wondering if I picked the right one. But I also think that maybe because of this struggle, this was exactly the challenge I needed to do and I need to step up my game.
I have used up half the month really not doing anything for this month’s challenge. Maybe I’ll be able to turn things around for these last 2 weeks and end the month feeling successful about what I got done. Or maybe the end of the month will come and I’ll be feeling down about what I picked for this month and wishing I did something different. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
Posted onJune 15, 2022|Comments Off on Feeling Sick And Unmotivated (or Trying New Things To Feel Better)
I’ve had to deal with monthly pain and nausea for several years now. I know I was lucky that I got to avoid this for 15 years when I was on the birth control pill, but I’m still annoyed that I had to stop taking the pill because of my tumors. I wish I could still be avoiding this every month, but unless I take extreme measures (which I feel will be in the future for me), I don’t have many options. I know my doctor is always trying to think of new medications I can try, but I’m just in an unfortunate spot where there aren’t that many options for me. But I do the best that I can to manage it.
Because I’ve been dealing with this for a few years, I do have a bit of a routine that I rely on to try to feel better. But I do feel like each month things are getting worse for me. Sometimes I have more intense pain and nausea and sometimes it just lasts longer than it did before. Occasionally I’ll have a lucky month where things are just annoying, but then I’ll have other months where I really struggle to feel like I can get anything done. And this month is one where I’m really struggling.
Part of this struggle is my fault because I didn’t realize I was out of my preferred anti-nausea medication. I have another one I can take while I wait for my refill to come in, but it doesn’t help as much. And I have a feeling I won’t be nauseous by the time my refill gets here. But at least that means I’ll be prepared for next month.
I think this is true no matter what is making someone feel sick, but when I’m dealing with pain and nausea I’m not that motivated or productive. I try to do what I can, but sometimes I have to prioritize just doing what I have to do, such as work, and not worrying about anything else. But I also know that I can’t just do nothing for the next week or so because my brain won’t let me. So I’m trying new things this month to try to feel a little better.
I’m really focused on trying to stay hydrated throughout the day. Overall, I don’t usually worry about hydration because I know I drink enough water. But it can be in chunks of time where I drink a lot in the morning and then I might not drink any water for a few hours. So now, I’m trying to make sure I keep drinking water throughout my day. I don’t have an alarm or anything because I think this will be easy enough for me to do, but it is something that I make sure to focus on. And I think like most people who deal with pain know, a heating pad can really make things better. And I’ve had a variety of heating pads that I have used over the years. The main ones I have used were a microwavable one that was filled with rice and the one-time-use ones that have adhesive so you can wear them under your clothes. But I finally got a plug-in heating pad and it has been a very nice tool to help me.
I didn’t have a plug-in heating pad before for a few reasons. First, my old place had very few electrical outlets, so I could only use it in a few different spots that might not be as comfortable unless I unplugged other things that I needed. Also, the plug-in ones get really hot (which is a good thing), but I was always warm in my old place even with the a/c running. But now, I have central a/c so I have been running it to keep me cool when the heating pad was on high. I still feel a bit overheated, but it helps and lets me use the heating pad a bit longer than I would without the a/c.
I will just have to try my best for the next week or so. I hope that I feel up to being more productive again soon because I really hate feeling like I’m just being lazy. And maybe my refill will get here sooner than expected so I can use it this month. But just like always, I know this time is temporary this month and soon I’ll have 2-3 weeks of feeling good again.
Posted onAugust 24, 2020|Comments Off on The Motivation Struggle Is Real (or Nausea Really Kicked My Butt)
I knew going into this past week of workouts that it was likely to be a tough week. I knew I’d be dealing with pain and nausea, but I never know exactly how it will hit me. Sometimes I have a few really horrendous days and sometimes I spend the entire week with minimal but constant nausea. It’s usually a mystery until the nausea ends and I can reflect back on the week.
As I’ve said every time I’ve dealt with a bad week while working out at home, I really am struggling with my workouts. It’s one thing to go to the studio to work out and to try my best. It’s another to be home when I’m struggling and it’s much easier to slack off. And I’m almost embarrassed how much I slacked off this past week.
Monday and Saturday were the worst days for me. I know I didn’t really do the workouts. I tried and I did little bits and pieces of it, but I wasn’t doing most of it. And I wasn’t being good about figuring out modifications or other exercises I could do. I ended up spending a lot of time laying on my workout mat and waiting to feel better. If I was thinking more about it, I would have paused the workout when I needed to do that and continue when I was feeling better. But I didn’t have that thought at the time.
Wednesday was slightly better and I was able to feel like I at least tried to do the workout. It still was not the full workout or doing what I feel like I should be able to, but it was better. Again, pushing myself to work out when I feel so awful is such a struggle. But I can’t go easy on myself because it would be too easy to just start skipping workouts or not trying when I am feeling ok.
Friday was my Zoom workout. This is always my toughest workout of the week. And this past week was no different. It was the toughest workout and I tried my best. I had to take several breaks during the workout to let the nausea pass. Fortunately, the coach that does our Zoom workouts knows me and understands what I deal with each month, so she wasn’t freaked out when I started to look off. She knows that sometimes I just need to let the nausea pass and she doesn’t make a big deal out of it (because I have told her I am used to it). It was nice to have my workout with my friends as a nice distraction for when I was feeling so sick.
I’m hoping this week will be a bit better. I’m still not completely over the nausea, but it should be ending within a day or two. Then hopefully I will find my motivation a bit so I can feel strong when I write my recap next week.
Posted onAugust 17, 2020|Comments Off on It’s Not Always Easy To Go Easy (or Doing What I Can)
This past week of workouts was just a struggle for me. I had so many things working against me and I really couldn’t find a way out of it. I was dealing with a lack of motivation, lack of interest, and the pain and nausea that I was expecting. If I was feeling ok, I still didn’t want to work out. When I felt more like working out, I was feeling sick. I felt like I couldn’t win. And each time I had a bad workout, I felt even worse after it was done because I felt like I failed somehow.
I had video workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this past week. I tried to do what I could, but I wasn’t really doing the videos. I wasn’t feeling encouraged or motivated to do them. I felt like I wasn’t doing each exercise to the fullest and I was just kind of playing around. I know that doing something is better than doing nothing, but I couldn’t convince my brain that was true.
It didn’t help that I’ve been seeing friends in different parts of the country able to go to their gyms again. I’m especially jealous of my friends who can go to Orangetheory where they live. My last class in the studio was 5 months ago. And I miss it more and more every week that I’m not back there. I miss the coaches, everyone in the class, the workouts, the community feeling and encouragement, and feeling like I’m accomplishing something amazing when I finish a workout. I feel like my workouts when I’m dealing with nausea are so much better when I’m in the studio because I can work with so many more modifications. I used to feel more confident about when we would be able to go back, but now I’m less optimistic about it. I’m scared that it won’t be until next year that we can be back. And feeling like I’m missing a huge part of my life isn’t easy. I know that I’m not the only person dealing with this right now, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easier.
So for now, I just have to do what I can on my own. And for right now, that does mean doing the video workouts 3 days a week. I am working on finding alternatives to those because maybe I just need more variety. But it’s also easy to just do those videos since I know how to get everything set up and I don’t have to think too much about it.
What does help is having one workout each week on Zoom. This week, we had to move it to Saturday, so it was my last workout of the week. Having someone coach me feels so good and so familiar. Having my friends on the screen with me makes me feel less alone. Even though I was feeling the worst on Saturday, I know that was my best workout. It also was easily the hardest. If I could do Zoom workouts every time, I think that might be perfect (and I am looking into seeing if that could happen with different coaches).
Our workout on Saturday was a great all-over workout. We worked core, legs, and arms. And some of the exercises were not just strength but cardio too. For most of the workout, we all work together on intervals. For example, we have 6 different exercises that we do for 40 seconds on and 15 seconds off and go through the series 2 or 3 times. We also had one block where we had 3 exercises to do in 1 minute. It didn’t take the full minute, so whatever time we had leftover we got to rest. And we did that 5 times. I still don’t have my weights that I am getting for my birthday, but I was feeling really weak so the weights I use right now (like my water bottles) worked fine for me.
Even though there were a few times where I truly thought I would have to run to my bathroom to throw up, I finished that workout feeling amazing. I know I didn’t work as hard as I could when I feel normal, but I still finished that workout on the high that I am used to. It was the best way I could end my workout week.
I potentially have another week of dealing with pain and nausea this week. And I’m going to try my best to do what I can. My new weights might also be arriving this week, so that could be awesome if it happens. I know that I won’t be able to do the best or hardest workouts if I’m feeling ill, but I know I will try. And for me right now, trying is sometimes all I can ask of myself. If I’m not feeling like I want to work out, I just have to try. I can’t give up and do nothing. Even though there definitely were days this past week where I felt like it.
Posted onMay 11, 2020|Comments Off on My Workouts Are Never Simple (or I Need To Keep Working On Modifications)
I knew going into this past week that my workouts weren’t going to be my best. I was going to be dealing with nausea and I was still struggling with losing some motivation. I’m not going to lie and say working out when feeling like this is easy. It’s not even as easy as it is when I’m in the studio (when it’s really not that easy). Pushing myself when I’d rather be lying in bed is tough when there’s nobody expecting to see me at a workout. I could easily lie and say I worked out when I did, but I know that would just make me feel worse.
What I wasn’t expecting going into this past week of workouts was dealing with the injury to my finger. That caused an entirely new set of issues for me. Of course, I knew I didn’t want to stress my finger as it was starting to heal because I didn’t want to delay the healing process. I always bandaged up my finger when working out because I wanted to protect it. And part of that protection involved not allowing myself to bend it that much. Bending my finger stresses the injury and can damage any scars or scabs on it. So I had to be as careful as possible.
Even though I knew I was bandaging my finger to prevent it from bending, I guess I didn’t think through how much that would affect my workouts in terms of being able to hold or lift anything. Monday’s workout was the worst for that. I tried to lift even the lightest things, and I couldn’t get a grip on it. Even though I was using the rest of my fingers, it was like I lost my grip strength because I was not able to use my middle finger. It might have been how I wrapped my finger or it might have been how new the injury was. Lifting things was a struggle through the rest of the week, but it did get easier as the week went on. I think it’s still going to take a few weeks before I’m completely healed and able to use it. The healing process is going much faster than I expected, but the lack of movement in my finger is almost the same as it was when it happened. I have no clue how long it will take to get that back.
And the pain and nausea were also worse toward the beginning of the week, so at least all the tough things were easing up through the week. I continued to struggle with figuring out modifications for the plank work, which was made harder by the limits I could do with my finger injury. I’ve tried so many types of chairs and ladders to be similar to a weight bench, but they don’t work. And the things I have found online that could be good are either out of stock or cost too much. I know that people are hoping the studios can open up again in about 2 months, but that’s still 2 months of home workouts that I want to have as much success as possible. So I need to figure this out.
Even though I would say that this past week of workouts was probably the hardest one I’ve had since starting the home workouts (possibly the hardest workouts I’ve had in years), I still got my 4 workouts in for the week and I still tried my best. I took a lot of breaks and rests for various reasons, but I did remember to pause the workout video sometimes so I didn’t use workout time as break time. And I just keep telling myself the same thing over and over again. I am doing something. I am trying. I am not giving up and saying I’ll just get back into my workouts when the studios open up again. I have prioritized my workouts and that is a win to me. I just look forward to when things are a bit easier for me so I can feel like I’m making progress or getting some wins in my workouts each week.
Posted onMay 4, 2020|Comments Off on I Hate Not Having As Much Motivation (or A Week Of Workout Struggles)
I’ve written before about how I’m really doing my best with the Orangetheory at-home workouts. I am so appreciative of Orangetheory for doing these for everyone every day. There are other workout studios that either took much longer to pull something together or still have not found a way to do virtual workouts. I’m so lucky that the place that I consider my workout home was one of the leaders when it comes to creating home workouts to do right now.
And I have maintained my workout schedule by doing the workouts 4 days a week. I’m not necessarily doing the workouts at the same time as I usually do, but I do get them done. And I do try my best in the workouts with every exercise that is given in each workout.
But just because I am trying my best, it doesn’t mean I am doing my best. And I know that this past week was not my best at all. I had 2 things working against me that just made things harder than normal.
The first thing was that this past week was the start of another cycle of nausea. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be that bad this time, but it really did kick in a lot this time. And the workouts weren’t ones that were easy for me to do while nauseous. I’m used to having the ability to make modifications for a lot of things that are hard for me to do when I’m nauseous. But because I don’t have all the equipment that I normally use to help me. I really tried to find ways to do things like making burpees easier, but I really don’t have the right setup. I thought maybe I could use a step stool as a replacement for the bench, but it didn’t really work the way I needed it to. It wasn’t wide enough for the plank work and it was slipping on my floor.
I have looked at what other alternatives I could use for a bench. There are a few ideas like different types of workout boxes (like a wooden box). Some of them are really expensive or really huge, and I don’t want to make it something that isn’t easy to store in my house. I’m looking at the brands that make them seeing if they have some other types that would work better for me. And I have been looking at workout benches to see if there are better portable ones that I wasn’t aware of.
But even without the issues of not having the right equipment to modify my workouts, working out when I’m nauseous is always a tough thing for me. And it was just so much harder when I wasn’t surrounded by my workout friends or have my coach helping me out. There is no question that a big part of what makes my workouts so amazing is being around people that are so incredible. And lack of motivation was another big issue this past week that made things harder.
I never knew I would connect to a workout the way that I have. And so much of that workout is about what happens when you take a class in the studio. I’ve never been a huge fan of working out at home. I’ve tried it so many times and it just has never clicked with me. I’m forcing myself to do them this time, even if I don’t feel like doing it. But when I’m not feeling like it, I know that I’m not doing the workouts as hard as I can and I’m not necessarily getting as much out of it as I should.
I’ve been doing this for a while now, but there’s a chance that I haven’t even gotten through half the time that we might need to do this. There is so much unknown still about when things will be reopening. Even states that have reopened aren’t really fully open. The studios in the states that have opened gyms back up have released statements saying that they will not be opening until they can make it safer. California isn’t close to being open again. I’ve seen some things that people think that gyms (of any type) won’t be open again until maybe July. Obviously I don’t want things to open up until they are safe, but July seems so far away. And I’m trying to not focus on how much longer I will have to work out at home, but I also can’t forget that. I’ve been looking at options to still be working out at home but not feeling as alone, but they haven’t happened just yet. But I need to figure out something to make these home workouts better for me because there is a chance that I’ll be doing these for a while.
I really hope that this week of workouts goes a bit better for me. I’m expecting another week of nausea (fortunately, I haven’t been experiencing as much pain as normal). I don’t know what it will take to feel more motivated, but maybe something will kick in as well. I wish I had a better post to write about how my workouts went last week, but I feel like being honest is the most important thing. And honestly, this past week just wasn’t that great for me.
Yet again, the beginning of a month bring the end of one monthly challenge and the beginning of another. I have struggled in the past with coming up with some ideas for these challenges, but fortunately I found a good list online that I’ve been using for some inspiration, So hopefully my challenges keep being interesting (at least to me).
In April, my monthly challenge was doing a version of what Orangetheory was doing as a challenge. Orangetheory was doing a marathon challenge where they had different distances for what you should strive for based on if you are a power walker, running, biker, or strider. I knew I couldn’t really do the challenge officially since I would be using both the treadmill and bike, but I decided to track my mileage on my own.
For some classes, it was super easy to track. If we were on the treadmill (or bike) for half the class and then switched, I could just take one photo at the end of the cardio time and when I got home I put it in my planner. But if we were bouncing around a lot of had a run/row, things were a bit more complicated. There were plenty of times that I would come home and have 7 or 8 photos of distances that I would need to add up to figure out how much I did. I was worried that there may be times I would forget to take a photo, but that never happened. It was probably because I was too terrified to forget so every time I went to a workout I kept saying to myself over and over again “don’t forget to track the mileage”.
I felt pretty confident that even with having to switch between the treadmill and the bike that I could do the half marathon challenge on the treadmill. Over the month, I ended up doing 15.929 miles in the workouts I had using the treadmill. I was happy that I went beyond the half marathon and didn’t really have a goal to hit once I got past that. And on the bike, I did 30.1 miles. The bike challenge was to do 105 miles, but that was based on the idea of only using the bike during the month. Out of the 17 workouts I did last month, I did 4.5 workouts on the bike (the half one was when I did a warmup and the start of one block on the treadmill before switching to the bike for the rest of the workout). Considering how few workouts were on the bike, I was pretty happy with the distance I did!
Overall in April, I did 46.029 miles in my workouts. Since this was the first time I tracked mileage in workouts, I don’t have anything to judge this against. But I am thinking about maybe making this a regular thing so I can see how one month compares to another. I’m not totally sure that I’ll keep this up, but it’s an idea I’ve been playing with and I’m going to see how things work out for me.
After a good physical monthly challenge, I wanted to do another mental one for May. While I’m not very new-agey with many things, I do have affirmations I read every day. I mainly use an affirmation app that gives me a new affirmation each day and I like having that as a focus for the day. It’s good motivation for me especially when it’s exactly what I need to hear that day. I’ve been using this app for years and it works for me, but I want to take things a bit further this month.
I’m not sure if I’m considering these more affirmations or maybe they are intentions for the day, but my challenge is to write down what I want to focus on each morning. I want it to be my motivation for what I want to do and what I want my attitude to be about. It may be that I write down that I want to focus more, or to organize my space, or just to relax. I’m a bit open-ended with how this will be because I’m not exactly sure what will resonant the most with me. But I want to do this each morning to set some sort of focus before I get too distracted with the craziness of the day.
I’m planning on using the weekly pages in my planner to write these in. I currently use the evening section of the weekly page to write my gratitude list each evening, so I feel like it will be nice bookends for my day to write my intention/affirmation in the morning section and my gratitude list in the evening section.
I’m excited to have another challenge that should help me focus and remain positive. I’ve had a few things challenge me lately that have brought down my mood. And while I’m not expecting to be positive all the time, it will be nice to have something that at least puts a little bit of my focus on something positive in the morning while I get ready for my day.
Posted onApril 2, 2018|Comments Off on An Up And Down Workout Week (or I Love Having Workout Buddies)
This workout week didn’t start as the most ideal for me, but this is sadly becoming the norm for me. While I’ve been dealing with the nausea issue for a while now, it’s not necessarily getting easier to manage and I’m really trying to figure out what to do to make things the best possible for me. But fortunately, this past week of workouts ended on a high note and that’s what I’m trying to focus on going into this week.
Monday’s workout was a bit rough for me. I had spent all day Sunday being very nauseous and in a lot of pain. I was hoping that I could sleep that feeling off, but Monday morning when I woke up it wasn’t that much better. But I also know that I need to go do what I can in a workout and that’s what I went into class thinking. It was a 3 group power class, so that did work a bit to my advantage because everything was in short bursts.
I started on cardio and was on the bike. For the entire block, we had the same plan. The runners had a .25 mile run (on the bike it was 1 mile) and then we had 15 power jacks with a medicine ball. I wasn’t able to do the power jacks so I did squats to a shoulder press. I took it easy on the bike and the mile took me a bit longer than it normally does, but that might have been due to me keeping the resistance low. When a wave of nausea hit me, I stopped the bike and let it pass. But I just tried to keep going when I could and while it wasn’t my best cardio workout, it was better than staying in bed and doing nothing.
Next I was on the rower where we had a partner type row. Everything was split into 4 minutes and in the first round one person did a 400 meter push row while the other person did a base row. When the 400 meter partner was done, they told the other person and they did the 400 meter push row. We went back and forth until 4 minutes were up (it was about 2 rounds). Then, after a 1 minute rest we went again for 4 minute but it was a 300 meter push row. My push and base rows were pretty similar because of how I was feeling, but I only had to take 2 breaks to let nausea pass for the entire rowing time so I was very happy with that.
The floor was where I really struggles. The main part of the floor work was doing pull ups on the straps, sit-ups, and burpees with step ups. But between each exercise we had a variety of things we had to do like pop jacks or pop squats. All the in-between exercise moves were ones where we had to be parallel to the floor and I knew I couldn’t do that. I was terrified of getting sick in class and putting my body into that position made me feel awful. So between each exercise I did squats instead. I also wasn’t able to do burpees for the same reason but I didn’t want to do more squats than I was already doing. Since I do lunges instead of step ups, I just did lunges in that section. I felt like I wasn’t able to do anything in the floor block and I felt horrible about it. I also had more waves of nausea while on the floor than I did in any other section. I did my best, but I know that it was far from what I normally could do.
Wednesday was another morning workout at the Culver City location. My nausea hadn’t gotten much better since Monday so I knew it would be another day trying to take it easy. It was an endurance, strength, and power workout and we didn’t switch between blocks. So that means I was on the bike for about 30 minutes at the beginning of the workout.
I kept my bike resistance at a similar level to what power walkers had for their inclines on the treadmill. So for the base pace, I was at 4 resistance since I’m normally at 4% incline. I kept that going for pretty much all the blocks including the strength one where it was supposed to be like hills. There were plenty of times that I had to stop biking to drink some water and wait for the wave of nausea to pass, but it didn’t feel as disappointing to me as it did on Monday. Maybe I’m just getting used to having to deal with this?
Once I was on the floor, I tried my best to do everything I could. The first block on the floor had shoulder presses, tricep presses, plank work, and crunches. I couldn’t do the plank work because of how I was feeling, but I did everything else. And with the weighted work I tried to use the heavier weights that I’m used to using. The crunches were a bit tough because I would feel nauseous when I was laying on the floor, but it seemed to pass quickly and I just took it slow with the crunches. The second block was squat thrusters and pull ups on the straps followed by 200 meter rows. My rower was being a bit weird so I have no idea what time I really finished my 200 meter row, but I think it was under a minute.
And the last block on the floor was one I was a bit worried about. It was going to be a 5 minute row for distance. I know I can row for 5 minutes and I have been getting better on my endurance rows. But considering how I was feeling, I had no clue how I would do. The 200 meter row was tough enough and this was going to be about 5 times as long. So I set a goal of just rowing without stopping and hopefully getting more than 1,000 meters which was the minimum we were supposed to get to. I focused on keeping my stroke rate steady and not letting it get too high. I did have some minor waves of nausea but I didn’t stop rowing. I just closed my eyes and focused on my breathing and fortunately they weren’t as bad as some of them that I had earlier in the workout. And when 5 minutes was up, not only did I row for the entire time without stopping but I also hit my distance goal!
Friday’s workout was a strength day and I spent my cardio time on the bike again. I wasn’t necessarily feeling nauseous when I got to the workout, but I’m glad I was cautious because it ended up being another workout where I had waves of nausea. While on the bike, I did my resistance at the same number that the incline would have been as a power walker on the treadmill. Most of the time I was between 4-8% and that worked for me. But I was much slower than I normally am on the bike because of how I was feeling and I needed to take several breaks to get myself back together. It was a bit frustrating because I’m trying to not go easy on myself on the bike and that’s really what it felt like I was doing. But I also have to just remember that I was dealing with situations that were a bit out of my control and I really did try my best.
On the floor, I did try to focus on using heavier weights. In the first block we had chest presses, reverse flys, and toe reaches and I used heavier weights for all of those exercises. We also had 250 meter rows and while my time was under what we were supposed to be under it wasn’t that great of a time for what I can normally do. The second block was squat twists using the straps, tricep kickbacks using the weights, and straight leg raises. Leg raises are one of the things that I have always struggled with because of my hip, but I was able to take breaks while doing them and managed to get them done with pretty decent form! And the final block was a row block where we had 3 rounds of 1 minute all out rows with recovery in-between. I probably should have reset my rower for each of the 1 minute all out rows, but I just let it keep going so I didn’t really know what I did in a minute. But I tried to keep my wattage up and my stroke rate down the entire time so I think I did pretty well.
Saturday’s workout was one that I was excited for. Since the Culver City studio opened, I knew that some of my friends who live near me would be doing some workouts. But until this past Saturday, we hadn’t had a chance to be at the same workout. I was so excited to have friends with me in class because that’s something that I know makes my workouts better. I was debating about using the bike again, but I took a treadmill and a bike card so I could decide which way I wanted to go.
It was a power day and on the treadmill we had 5 blocks that were all under 5 minutes. I figured I would try to see how the first block went on the treadmill and go over to the bike if I felt like I was feeling sick. But I also had my friends next to me and that was extra motivation. All of the treadmill blocks had a similar pattern of being a push pace, a base pace, and a push to all out pace. I was using my normal speed and inclines and even though I had to take breaks in every single block, I managed to use the treadmill for the entire first half of class! I was pretty proud of myself and it was a nice mental boost for me.
The floor block was one long block that was an add-on type of workout. We were supposed to start every round with burpees, but because I was still feeling a bit off I did squats and push-ups instead of burpees. Then we had a 200 meter row. Each round, between the burpees (or squats and push-ups for me) and the rower we added on another exercise. We had plank low rows, bicep curls, high rows on the straps, and plank jacks. I managed to get through everything and was doing the last 200 meter row when the block was done and I felt amazing! It was a really hard workout, but I think that it was the hardest I had worked in a while. And I do think that it had something to do with my friends being there supporting me and pushing me to keep going.
While this past week of workouts was a bit of a struggle in the beginning, I felt so incredible at the end of the week and I hope that the feeling continues into my workouts this week!
Posted onMarch 15, 2018|Comments Off on Turning Myself Into A Morning Person (or Continuing On My Productivity Kick)
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been so motivated to be productive lately. I’ve had my giant cleaning spree and I’ve been working on figuring out how to make my downtime at work more productive. And my motivation kick seems to be continuing which can only be a good thing for me.
I know there are some people who say that you are either a morning person or a night person and because that’s how you are it’s pretty difficult to change. And I used to believe that. I know that I naturally am a night person. I could easily stay up until 1 or 2am and then go to bed (I’m sure for some night people that still seems early, but for me that’s late). And when my work schedule was later, I would sleep in to make up for staying up late. But because I wasted my morning and my late nights weren’t super productive either, I always felt like I needed to work on catching up and I didn’t like that feeling.
I’ve tried to become a morning person several times and it’s never really stuck with me. But for a while, I’ve been working on regulating my sleep schedule and I think it’s finally helping me become a morning person. On my earliest work days with my day job, I need to wake up at 7am. So I’ve been working on getting up every day at 7am. And I know that 7am isn’t super early and there are plenty of people who get up at 4 or 5am, but for me it was early since there were days I would be sleeping in until 9:30am. And I know that I need about 7 hours of sleep so I have a goal of trying to go to bed by midnight. I don’t always accomplish that, but like with so many other aspects of my life just being aware of it is helpful.
It’s taken a long time and I’ve had lots of setbacks, but I’m finally starting to get more into my sleep routine and it’s becoming much easier for me. I’m starting to feel tired when it’s getting closer to midnight and I’m finding it much easier to get up at 7am. I’ve also been noticing on my Fitbit that I am not as restless while I’m sleeping so I’m getting more sleep in those 7 hours than I have in the past. Most of the time I still need an alarm to get up (or if I’m being honest, multiple alarms), but I’m not hitting snooze like I used to and there have been the rare occasional morning when I naturally wake up right before my alarm goes off. It does feel so great when I wake up naturally and I’m hoping that it happens more often.
And with getting up at 7am even on my later shift days, I’ve had a few hours in the morning to get things done. I’ve been doing a lot of errands like going to the grocery store or other things like that, but I’m looking at more ways to spend those few hours in the morning being productive. It’s also nice to feel like I’ve accomplished a lot before I get stuck sitting at my computer for several hours. If I’ve gotten a lot done in the morning, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m home but can’t really do much.
There are still plenty of times that I know I will sleep in (or want to sleep in), but I really do want to try to make it the norm that I get up at the same time every morning. Having some consistency is helpful and I know that getting into more routines will help me stay calm and figure out when I can get other things done. I also have to take my medications in the morning and when I do oversleep I usually don’t end up taking them since they are stimulants and if I take them too late I won’t be able to sleep (and that puts me into a bad cycle of staying up too late). So if I’m getting up early every day that helps me stay consistent with medications and I can be a better judge on if they are working or not.
I have no idea what the next productivity thing that I’ll be motivated to do will be, but I’m seriously feeling so amazing about how I’ve had so many different productivity things in my life lately and I know this can only benefit me in the long run.
Last week, I blogged about my lack of 5Ks in my future and how I felt that was affecting my workouts. That post was in the middle of this past week of workouts and it was what I needed to get my butt back in gear. I was struggling during the beginning of the week because I was having horrible nausea (I’m looking into finding new medications that should help me) but when I wrote that post I was coming to the end of the problem and was able to get back to what I know I should be doing.
Monday’s workout was a power and strength day and it was one of the worst days for my nausea. I was terrified that I would throw up during class and wondered if it would be dangerous to take more medication before I was supposed to (I didn’t, but for me to want to means it was really horrible). Because I was feeling so awful, I only had a goal to get through class and not worry about anything else.
It was a 3 group class and each section of the room had 2 blocks. On the treadmill the first block was increasing 1 minute hills and the second block was 45 second all out paces with front raises with weights in-between each all out. I had to decrease my speed for the entire time because just walking fast was making me feel sick. But I did manage to do what I could and didn’t give up which was all I could ask for.
On the floor, the first block was squats, lunges, and scissor ab work. And the second block was lateral lunges, rotations on the straps, and plank work. Unfortunately, there was a lot of up and down while on the floor and that again made things tough on me. I took time to sit and tried to feel more like myself while I was working because I knew that pushing myself harder wasn’t going to be a good thing for me.
And on the rower, the first block was 200 meter rows with shoulder presses in-between each row. I didn’t look at my rowing time because I knew it was bad. And the last block was a 6 minute row for distance and I ended up taking a break every minute or so to try to feel better. It was a tough class to get through and I tried not to be hard on myself because I know that these were not normal circumstances for me.
Wednesday I was finally starting to feel better and I had the extra motivation of trying to get back to my running. And this class ended up being a run/row switching format so it was a good opportunity to work on my running. It was interesting to switch a couple of times during a run/row, but that allowed me time to rest and recover. There were 3 blocks in the run/row and the first block was .1 mile runs with 200 meter rows. I was able to run every time I had the .1 mile run. The second block was 3 rounds of 30 second intervals, 2 rounds of 45 second intervals, and a 1 minute all out pace to end the block. I ran all the push and all out paces and walked my bases. And the last block was an incline .1 mile run which I ended up doing as a walk because I didn’t feel ok with running on an incline. And the rowing in the last block was 200 meter rows that increased each round.
The floor was a lot of arm work and lunges. The first block was single arm snatches, pop jacks, and lateral lunges. The second block was lunges with weights, upright rows with weights, and crunches. And the last block was rows on the straps, pullovers with weights, and plank work. I felt pretty strong on the floor and only had minor moments of nausea so I was feeling proud of myself. And I did a decent amount of running so that really helped my confidence.
Friday’s workout was a power day so it felt like another perfect opportunity to work on my running. All of the blocks on the treadmill were really short. The longest block we had was 4 minutes but most of them were closer to 3 minutes. The first few blocks started with a push pace that was between 30-90 seconds and then had a base pace and ended with a push pace to an all out pace. I ran all the push and all out paces and walked my bases. This was more what I was used to so I was feeling amazing!
On the floor, we mainly had 1 long block. In that block, we had 3 sections that each had 2 moves in them. We were supposed to do 3 rounds of the 2 moves in that section and then go to the rower to do a 1 minute row for distance. The moves were push ups, skaters, chest presses using the straps, low rows using the straps, lunges, and plank work). I think my rower was having issues because it was telling me I was only doing 40 meters in 1 minute when normal for me is around 200 meters. At the end of the workout, we went over to the rowers to row in the same pattern as the treadmills. It was a 3 minute row for distance and again my rower was having issues with telling me the distance. It ended up saying I did just over 100 meters when I know it was closer to 600. But I was able to row for the 3 minutes without stopping so that was an improvement over the beginning of the week.
I was feeling pretty awesome about my running when I got to Saturday’s class and found out it was an endurance day. Those are tough days for me to work on running, but I was going to do my best. Since it was a 3 group class, I knew I’d only be on the treadmill for about 15 minutes so that helped. The treadmill was distance runs on our own time. We started with a .25 mile run which I was able to run without stopping. Next was supposed to be a .5 mile run and I was going to try to do running intervals. I did about 90 seconds of running before going down to my walk and thought I could get back to running after about a minute. But my legs were feeling like they weighed 1,000 pounds and I ended up walking on an incline to finish it. But I did do it as a .5 mile run/walk and not doing the power walk option of .25 miles.
Next I was on the floor were we had increased rep work. Each round started with 5 burpees (I was so glad my nausea was gone because the burpees would have been horrible otherwise) and then we had squats, push ups, sit ups, and pull ups on the straps. Those other moves started at 10 reps each but went up 5 reps each round we did them. I made it through the 20 rep round before time was called to switch to the rower.
On the rower, we started with an 800 meter row and the row went down 200 meters each time. Between each row we had jumping jacks with a medicine ball. About halfway through the time on the rower, things switched to be squats with the medicine ball between each row. I was able to do my 800 and 600 meter rows without stopping and the only reason my 400 meter row had a break was to learn about what the new move was going to be in-between the rowing.
While this past week of workouts got off to a tough start, it ended on a pretty great note. I had 3 decent days of running including running .25 miles without a walking break. It wasn’t that long ago that running that distance without walking seemed impossible and I was able to just jump back into doing that. Hopefully I can figure out some more motivation for my running and I can figure out better ways to handle my nausea so this doesn’t become an issue for a week each month.
A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)
