[Waanie] An hour a day keeps grumpiness at bay

[Waanie]

If I don't exercise enough, I get grumpy. Since nobody wants that, my challenge is simple: exercise at least an hour per day, six days per week. This can be climbing, running, walking, biking, yoga, etc. It does not have to be intense, as long as it is something. It should be easily doable, but those have been my famous last words before .

 

To keep my hips happy, I will also do at least 4 hip-stretches per day, which can include things like lunges, pancake, etc. 

 

Let's go!

 

[Waanie]

If someone knows how I can make a table, please let me know!

 

Today started well, I biked 66 minutes in total, and went for a run (6x2' + warming-up and cooling down makes 24 minutes). I will ride my bike to the orchestra tonight, and might or might not do yoga. No stretches yet...

[J3NN]

A table? Just a regular old table? My husband has made several of them, I'm sure I could share some tips.

[Waanie]

12 hours ago, J3NN said:

A table? Just a regular old table? My husband has made several of them, I'm sure I could share some tips.

I meant the thing with lines and all in a post here . I'm not suddenly into woodworking, that's not my cup of tea...

[Waanie]

Week 1, day 1:

Biking: 96'

Running: 24'

Total: 120'

Stretches: done!

 

The first day went well, although work was more exhausting than I'd thought. Orchestra practice was also fun, even though I can't play all the new pieces yet. It's a bit frustrating to be one of the worst players in the (wind) orchestra, but it helps me push to become better and I enjoy both the social interactions and making music together .

 

Concerning the running, it is way more exhausting to have 180 steps per minute than whatever I did before (60 or so?), and together with building up the use of my hip, I had to take a few steps back in the progression. I won't be using Zombies, Run! anymore, but got a programme from the physio instead. I alternate running outside with the treadmill, mostly to make sure that my form is stable and my speed is constant. 

 

Anyway, for today I planned a rest day, which means I biked to work and did yoga . 

[Rookie]

I also thought you meant a table as in the object.

 

This	Is	A	Table	test
Waanie	Doesn’t	Wanna	Do	Woodworking
But	Waanie	Does	Wanna	Move

 

 

Cool it worked. I made that in a word doc program like Microsoft Word and just copy and pasted it in.  It didn't copy fun shaded headers over though but hopefully that helps you. 

[Waanie]

58 minutes ago, Rookie said:

I also thought you meant a table as in the object.

 

This	Is	A	Table	test
Waanie	Doesn’t	Wanna	Do	Woodworking
But	Waanie	Does	Wanna	Move

 

 

Cool it worked. I made that in a word doc program like Microsoft Word and just copy and pasted it in.  It didn't copy fun shaded headers over though but hopefully that helps you. 

Thanks! I don't own any Microsoft Office products, but it also works with Google docs . I don't need fancy headers, but I like to add highlighting the different kinds of exercise . It would be great if they'd accept LaTeX or even html, but these copy-paste shenanigans also work.

 

Current status (might or might not add more today):

Week 1, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 96' Running 24’ Total 120’	Yes!
Tuesday	Biking 64' Yoga 12’ Walking 28’ Total 104’	Yes!
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

[Rookie]

Yah.... that would be great if they did. 

 

[J3NN]

9 hours ago, Waanie said:

I meant the thing with lines and all in a post here . I'm not suddenly into woodworking, that's not my cup of tea...

Context is everything I suppose... around my house, it's been all remodel and build new furniture, for months... so of course I went to furniture...not digital. Thank you @Rookie for the save.

[Waanie]

28 minutes ago, J3NN said:

 

Context is everything I suppose... around my house, it's been all remodel and build new furniture, for months... so of course I went to furniture...not digital. Thank you @Rookie for the save.

No worries, I was a bit unsure about my English for a moment as well... I mean, I know the furniture table is definitely table, but I was not sure anymore about the difference between table and tabular in regular English. I mean, I know what they mean in LaTeX, but not which one is the usual one .

 

Anyway, I started playing "Wizards Unite", which is very similar to Pokemon Go, but then with Harry Potter. I enjoy it, although I'm not entirely convinced yet that it is as enjoyable as Pokemon Go in the earlier levels. Later on it will probably be comparable, as they will both be grindy walking games.

 

According to my phone, I also walked 1.5 km in the IKEA today, but I'm not going to count that, as I don't know how reliable my phone's GPS is inside.

[Rookie]

16 minutes ago, Waanie said:

No worries, I was a bit unsure about my English for a moment as well... I mean, I know the furniture table is definitely table, but I was not sure anymore about the difference between table and tabular in regular English. I mean, I know what they mean in LaTeX, but not which one is the usual one .

 

Anyway, I started playing "Wizards Unite", which is very similar to Pokemon Go, but then with Harry Potter. I enjoy it, although I'm not entirely convinced yet that it is as enjoyable as Pokemon Go in the earlier levels. Later on it will probably be comparable, as they will both be grindy walking games.

 

According to my phone, I also walked 1.5 km in the IKEA today, but I'm not going to count that, as I don't know how reliable my phone's GPS is inside.

I was on the fence about trying that game. Because I was like pffft How could they make it similar or equally cool. And I LOVE Harry Potter things lol.

[Waanie]

23 hours ago, Rookie said:

I was on the fence about trying that game. Because I was like pffft How could they make it similar or equally cool. And I LOVE Harry Potter things lol.

You should try it! The animations are fairly long/slow on my phone, and there is a lot of story in the first few levels. I read the novels in Dutch and ages ago, so I don't always remember the names of things and people, which reduces the fun. Maybe I should read the novels again, but now in English?

 

This morning I went for a run of 4x4 minutes . It did not really feel like effort, and my hip is only a little stiff now afterwards, so I think I've almost completed my recovery . This afternoon a friend is coming over for Pokemon Go (edit: added the walking), and tonight I will go climbing. Plenty of exercise time today!

 

Week 1, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 96' Running 24’ Total 120’	Yes!
Tuesday	Biking 64' Yoga 12’ Walking 28’ Total 104’	Yes!
Wednesday	Running 22’ Walking 122’ Total 144’	Yes!
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

[Rookie]

UMMMMMM yes you should!  

 

Ok I will give it a go then Cause it has Waanies stamp of approval! 

[Waanie]

21 hours ago, Rookie said:

UMMMMMM yes you should!  

 

Ok I will give it a go then Cause it has Waanies stamp of approval! 

Deal! I will read the Harry Potter series in English, you will try Wizards Unite for at least an hour . 

 

I'm now splitting my time between PoGo and HPWU, and added some friends from the Rebel Juice Bar. Not sure how this will work out, but since I did not have to go to work today, I got a good amount of time in. While walking is not very intensive when I'm playing PoGo or HPWU, I still count it for my daily exercise.

 

Unfortunately, climbing did not happen yesterday because a) one of my climbing partners is injured, and the other on summer school, so I would be alone, b) my boyfriend's squash partner was tired and preferred to squash today, and we like travelling together as squash and climbing are very close to each other at 25 minutes drive from home and c) I apparently need some form of external motivation to go climbing when I'm tired already. So yeah, the plan is to go tonight.

 

Week 1, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 96' Running 24’ Total 120’	Yes!
Tuesday	Biking 64' Yoga 12’ Walking 28’ Total 104’	Yes!
Wednesday	Running 22’ Walking 122’ Total 144’	Yes!
Thursday	Walking 147’ Total 147’	Yes!
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

[Rookie]

I got it last night and you are right lol A lot of random quests and more information at once in the beginning. It is fun so far though. I am not sure which I like more PoGo or HPWU. but I do like the "atmosphere" of the HPWU one. 

[Waanie]

1 hour ago, Rookie said:

I got it last night and you are right lol A lot of random quests and more information at once in the beginning. It is fun so far though. I am not sure which I like more PoGo or HPWU. but I do like the "atmosphere" of the HPWU one. 

The same for me! I think they are very comparable, on the one hand does HPWU have a lot more stuff and atmosphere, on the other hand the long animations are a bit annoying, as well as the continuous question if you would like to buy more stuff (which cost coins, which at this point would mostly cost money). They are both a good excuse to go outside though.

 

I just had my last clarinet lesson with this teacher, as I never really had that "click" with her, and via some other orchestra members I came in contact with another teacher who will probably fit better. Just one more orchestra rehearsal to go, and then everything shuts down for summer. It will be hard to stay motivated to practice, but I'm gonna try to keep my practice sessions up.

[Waanie]

Climbing happened yesterday . It did not go very well, but at least I went and did some cool routes. I'm glad that I know most of the regulars at the climbing gym, so that I can climb even without my own climbing partner.

 

This week I'm steadily getting worse mentally, so I need to somehow break out of that. It's all work-caused, I just can't deal with unexpected things yet. Hopefully the weekend will make everything better...

Week 1, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 96' Running 24’ Total 120’	Yes!
Tuesday	Biking 64' Yoga 12’ Walking 28’ Total 104’	Yes!
Wednesday	Running 22’ Walking 122’ Total 144’	Yes!
Thursday	Walking 147’ Climbing 75’ Total 222’	Yes!
Friday	Biking 67' Walking 33’ Total 100’	Yes!
Saturday
Sunday

[Rookie]

Your day is done now right (or close to)? It's the weekend???? Cause you could use the weekend lol I hope you get that mental reset you need!

 

Great job going and climbing solo. It can be intimidating to go alone. But it's also kind of nice sometimes. (I'm talking in general lol I don't climb... I tried once)

[Waanie]

3 hours ago, Rookie said:

Your day is done now right (or close to)? It's the weekend???? Cause you could use the weekend lol I hope you get that mental reset you need!

 

Great job going and climbing solo. It can be intimidating to go alone. But it's also kind of nice sometimes. (I'm talking in general lol I don't climb... I tried once)

Climbing solo is good for interaction with other people; this way I have to talk to others and be active in getting to know people. Usually I climb harder and longer when with others compared to my own climbing partners, as my endurance is better than that of my climbing partners and worse than that of the average gym goer. It's fun and nice, and reaffirming that I can still start social interactions.

 

And yes, it's now weekend for me! The plan is to go running tomorrow and canoeing with my boyfriend on Sunday. I have not canoed in ages, so it will be fun .

[Waanie]

Okay, I'm now officially procrastinating... I feel like I'm dropping the ball everywhere, mostly exercise-wise and household-wise.

 

Maybe I should start with posting a week 1 report first.

Week 1, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 96' Running 24’ Total 120’	Yes!
Tuesday	Biking 64' Yoga 12’ Walking 28’ Total 104’	Yes!
Wednesday	Running 22’ Walking 122’ Total 144’	Yes!
Thursday	Walking 147’ Climbing 75’ Total 222’	Yes!
Friday	Biking 67' Walking 33’ Total 100’	Yes!
Saturday	Running 25’ Walking 27’ Total 52’	Yes!
Sunday	Walking 49’ Canoeing 120’ Total 169’	No

 

So, altogether I managed to exercise for at least 60 minutes 6 times last week (unless you count gardening, then it was 7), and also stretched 6 times last week. Canoeing was a lot of fun, although my shoulders still hurt a little . I think I should have done more yoga, but my climbing and running were on point. Also yay for biking to work all three times .

 

Mentally, I'm still not in a good spot, although it is getting better. Yesterday I skipped my run because changing clothes was too complicated. Yoga and stretching were also not possible for the same reason, which always feels silly afterwards. Everyone (including doctor and psychologist) says that I do the correct things to recover, but why am I then so negative and tired all the time?

[Waanie]

I did the Pokemon thing today, so that I could send gifts to everyone . I also biked to work, and the weather was great for that. 

 

New unofficial goal: mention something positive in my thread every day, so that I will focus more on the good than the bad .

[Waanie]

It is triple XP day/week(?) in Pokemon Go, so I'm catching all the Pokemon right now. Seriously, 30k XP in an hour is insane .

 

Yesterday yoga happened, I'm trying out the Keep Yoga app. Does anyone have experience with that? While I was at it, I also started on their regular workout app, and learned that the beginner exercises for abs are still hard for me. I hope I did them with good form, so that my back won't play up, but we will see.

 

Finding motivation to go running is hard today...

 

Anyway, update of this week:

 

Week 2, Day	Exercise	Stretches
Monday	Biking 24’ Walking 63’ Total 87’	No
Tuesday	Biking 64’ Yoga 15’ Strength training 14’ Total 93’	Yes!
Wednesday	Walking 70’ Total 70’	Not yet

[Waanie]

So... I made muffins, refilled spices from boxes to spice rack, refilled tea-box, coffee-pad holder and cleaned my kitchen... I guess having an orderly kitchen is more important to me today than running. I'm planning to play PoGo with a friend this afternoon, and climbing in the evening, so that's reasonably full as well.

 

My psychologist suggested I might want to give up running for now, so to not get disappointed when it is too much of a chore. I'm seeing where she's coming from...

 

Anyway, here's a picture of my overfull tea-box: 

It should last at least a month or maybe two, as we have a box of just our favourite tea next to it as well . 

[Wobbegong]

It does sound like you're developing a little bit of a running block. Procrastinating by doing everything else first, especially "productive" things (like cleaning your kitchen) is a great way to tell yourself "but something else legitimate was more important! I had a valid reason!" But on the other hand, it might be a good idea to sit with the idea of running for a few minutes and see if you can figure out what's really bothering you about it. Start with your base assumption ("I didn't run because changing into running clothes was too much effort") and keep questioning that assumption until you feel like you've arrived at a good answer. "Changing clothes doesn't take that much effort, and I had the energy to clean the kitchen, so what is it about changing to go running that's tripping me up?" 

 

It could be that you secretly hate running and are resisting changing because you know then you'll have to do something you hate. It could be that you haven't been making the progress you want with running lately and you don't want to feel like a failure on top of everything else, so you're self-sabotaging by not running at all so you don't have to deal with your results. It could be that there's something else going on that's taking up a lot of mental energy, and you know running will clear your mind but don't feel like you deserve it yet (why not?). It could be something else entirely. 

 

Remember, there's no such thing as lazy. Lazy is just a word we use when we don't understand what's getting in the way of making the thing happen. There's always something there, though. Good luck, Waanie! 

[Waanie]

26 minutes ago, Wobbegong said:

It does sound like you're developing a little bit of a running block. Procrastinating by doing everything else first, especially "productive" things (like cleaning your kitchen) is a great way to tell yourself "but something else legitimate was more important! I had a valid reason!" But on the other hand, it might be a good idea to sit with the idea of running for a few minutes and see if you can figure out what's really bothering you about it. Start with your base assumption ("I didn't run because changing into running clothes was too much effort") and keep questioning that assumption until you feel like you've arrived at a good answer. "Changing clothes doesn't take that much effort, and I had the energy to clean the kitchen, so what is it about changing to go running that's tripping me up?" 

 

It could be that you secretly hate running and are resisting changing because you know then you'll have to do something you hate. It could be that you haven't been making the progress you want with running lately and you don't want to feel like a failure on top of everything else, so you're self-sabotaging by not running at all so you don't have to deal with your results. It could be that there's something else going on that's taking up a lot of mental energy, and you know running will clear your mind but don't feel like you deserve it yet (why not?). It could be something else entirely. 

 

Remember, there's no such thing as lazy. Lazy is just a word we use when we don't understand what's getting in the way of making the thing happen. There's always something there, though. Good luck, Waanie! 

Thanks for your advice. I think that it is a combination of multiple things here, and on different days I have different reasons not to run:

1. I'm very low on mental energy (trying to finish my PhD thesis while very slowly recovering from a burn-out)
   • I can do only a very limited number of activities per day without sabotaging my recovery. I prefer to do things that are beneficial to others than myself first (today, cleaning the kitchen), or things that really need done, like cooking dinner, or that help me later on (like filling the tea-box)
   • Running in itself costs me more energy than other activities like playing PoGo
     • Running has a high start-up energy cost in the form of getting all stuff together (changing clothes, shoes, headphones, belt)
     • Running feels like a multi-step activity that requires every step to be completed, you cannot stop halfway (preparation, running, stretching, shower)
2. I don't really like running, I just started it to have some strenuous exercise in my schedule and because I do not have to program myself, and there are no limitations on equipment.
3. I'm afraid of injuring myself again. My hip is still playing up a little from time to time, even after stretching everything out and fixing my running pattern. My physio says it is fine as long as I recover quickly, which I do. 

Reason 1 is legitimate, and is about priorities. I should not expect my energy levels to improve in the next two months (deadline for thesis) and I cannot do everything that I want. I don't know what I should drop, but running is a likely candidate for that. Other options are household chores, playing clarinet, climbing, social time (currently 2 moments per week) and personal hygiene. I think in that order. Other activities are either ad-hoc, or have no (start-up) energy cost. I'm already pretty minimal in playing clarinet, and would not like to become socially isolated again. I already do not keep up with household chores, so that's why running is on top of the list of things to stop.

 

Reason 2 is a combination of just not liking it, and an inability to be proud of myself that I achieved something. I'm working on it, but especially when I'm tired I'm a perfectionist and hence negative about everything.

 

Reason 3 is mostly bs, and should not be a reason to not go.

 

I'm convinced I'm not a lazy person, mostly the opposite. I have to respect my boundaries, and that is often very hard. I have to sit down and look at my priorities again, accepting that I cannot do more than a few things per day. Especially if I want to finish my thesis and graduate.