These are from Ali’s 31 More Things class. More context here.
So here’s my day twenty-six – move.
(journaling below)
Journaling:
Exercise, food, and I have a complicated relationship. I grew up without the discipline of exercise. I swam, played tennis, and skied as a kid, but I wasn’t really good at any of it. I’d say just above or just below mediocre. I never played any sports at school.
I tried to pick up the practice of moving more after I moved to the United States. I did some years of step aerobics, some kickboxing, some yoga, and some pilates. I even used the treadmill every single day for almost five years.
But none of it stuck.
It never sticks. I never feel the endorphin high others talk about. I never crave it. If I could stay healthy by sitting on the couch and reading my book all day long, I would not feel the need to exercise. Ever.
Alas, that’s not an option. So, like many times before, I’ve begun to make an effort to move more. Thanks to my fitbit, I’ve been tracking my steps for the last few months. My goal is just to get my 10K steps in every day. Once that becomes really easy, I can definitely raise the stakes, but for now, this seems lofty enough.
Since I work from home, on a typical day I move maybe 2K steps at most. To make up for this, after my morning meetings are over, I grab my ipad with my audiobooks and take a walk from our house all the way to El Camino and then walk back but instead of coming back home, I then walk down to Palo Alto and grab some coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee and then walk home. This usually gets me close to 7-8K steps which makes it easier to reach 10K before bed. (Even though it looks like I missed a bunch of days last week, it was actually because my fitbit died one day and didn’t log another day. So I think I only missed one day. And the other two misses in the last month are Jake’s and my birthdays where I gave myself permission to skip.)
I often wish I could be one of those people who crave the exercise. I wish I had strong muscles and could do yoga or push ups. I know these things are not magical for anyone and require hard work just like everything else but I wish that it wasn’t so very hard for me. Until then, I will show up and keep being grateful for audiobooks and California weather.
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