The month of June is almost over and I have not yet shared my fitness journey of May with you. You may not even be interested but in order to keep myself accountable I need to get this published. Skip if you are bored. Comment to motivate me.
I decided that I will no longer list the walking to grocery store, bus stops (I rarely did that) or biking when it is part of getting from A-B. I will add biking when it is intentionally my exercise for the day but that will mean more than 3km or so. I feel this way I will not cheat myself out of real exercising.
Friday, May 1st
travel day with 21,884 steps
Saturday, May 2nd – May 4th
Rest Days
Tuesday, May 5th
22 min/1.88km – walking home from church (conscious decision I could have gotten a ride)
Wednesday, May 6th
No Exercise
Thursday, May 7th
30 min/2km – walk in the woods for mental health
May 8th – May 9th
No Exercise
Tuesday, May 12th
14 min/4.11km – biking
60 min/1.475 meters – swimming
4.5km – biking
Sunday, May 17th
10 min – breathing meditation – 85 bpm was hard to relaxe
Monday, May 18th
10 min – sleep meditation – 75 bpm
Tuesday, May 19th – Travel Day
5 min – Sound Meditation – 73 bpm
10 min – Sleep Mediation – 66 bpm – fell asleep while at it
Wednesday, May 20th
10 min – Sleep Mediation – 65 bpm – hoped to fall back to sleep, no such luck
Thursday, May 21st
rode my back and had a lunchtime walk but not counting it as exercise
Friday, May 22nd
21 min – Pilates for beginners – not as bad as anticipated
10 min – Yoga
5 min – Breathing Meditation – 76 bpm
5 min – Lunchtime Sound Meditation – 64 bpm, much needed
Saturday, May 23rd
Rest Day
Sunday, May 24th
43min – Deep Stretch Yin Yoga for Flexability – felt restless at times, a bit stiff
Monday, May 25th
10 min – Pilates
10 min – Yoga
10 min – Kindness Meditation – 75 bpm
Tuesday, May 26th
20 min – walking pace 11’42”
Wednesday, May 27th
Rest Day
Thursday, May 28th
11 min – Yoga for beginners
10 min – Sound Meditation – 63 bpm
May 29-30th
Rest Days
Sunday, May 31st
31 min – Slow Flow – much needed
Observations I made
- I struggle to get back to exercising.
- I am not entirely convinced by Apple Fitness yet. The Yoga sessions are not what I look for.
- I start to appreciate meditations – specially the sound meditations. For that I enjoy Apple Fitness.
- My cardio fitness is rapidly declining. It’s worth than two years ago. How?
A few other Stats
- doing yoga five times, total of 107 minutes averaging to 21 minutes.
- walking over 10.000 steps/day on 5 days, total of 129.9km and an average of 5,764 daily steps (82.3% of goal) and the lowest monthly average this year. This was another bad month. Sigh.
- no strengths training.
- closing my apple rings five times.
- riding my bike a total of 13.7 km. I think it’s been more but since I often didn’t start my watch as I didn’t see it as exercise the total amount wasn’t tracked. Need to do that more consistently.
- one hour of swimming. I was tried at 20 minutes and figured I try for 40 but then I was in a flow and managed 60. Slight muscle ache next day but no sore muscles.
I am not happy with this month. But May was hard. So much work and I didn’t manage to get up early enough to do it before work. And I am not good in doing anything after work. Nothing new but a good reminder. For June I am hoping to find some routine again.
How is your training going? Any milestones you want to share? What are you struggling with? Any motivation to share? Do you have a bike and use it? What is your daily step count?
8 comments
It sounds like you did quite a lot during May! Especially when it was a stressful month. I expected that during the summer months, my workout schedule would change – and yep, that’s what has happened. There’s so much to do outside, and those tasks are difficult to track. I feel like I work hard all day, yet my exercise tracker doesn’t show it. Well, hang in there! I’m here to cheer you on!
Summer is definitely a challenge on a whole other level for me with the heat and the migraines. I hope to do more river swimming and of course I am deep into golfing. That is a challenge. Thanks for supporting and motivating.
And it is mean that the trackers don’t show hard farm work.
I rode my bike to work one day in April (about 5 miles) and then never found a good time to ride it back home and ended up just putting it in my car to bring home. Usually I’m pretty good about riding to work once the weather turns nice, but I just… didn’t this spring. Oh well.
I admire you swimming for one hour. During the summer I will try to swim when my kids are at swim team practice, but I’ve been working a lot of evenings so haven’t been driving them to practice. But the one time I did swim laps, I only managed 20 minutes and my arms were so sore that evening I had to take an ibuprofen to sleep that night.
I like that you note the walk for mental health and the meditations here – it is such an important part of fitness!
I was so surprised with my stamina in the pool when I did for an hour. I could see myself doing it more often but the pool is 5km away and will close during summer. And in winter it is tough to ride my bike there – the husband usually has the car. So I will see. For now I hope to do some river swimming. Hopefully you can sneak in a bit of swimming for yourself.
Riding your bike one way and then having it stuck at a place you don’t need it is tough. Maybe summer will be good way to use it more often.
You know my relationship with exercise… for 44 years I have been doing exactly nothing. Back in January I signed up for the ymca, a local gym and community center, and I have been going relentlessly. I go in, do my weights, and get the hell out. Because the weights are heavy, the program is short. So I am in and out in 30 -45 minutes. I stopped doing cardio since it’s not good for women in their 40s or 50s. See if you can find info on Dr Sims- she is a doctor, a nutritionist, and a perimenopause specialist. My body doesn’t look dry different but mentally I am feeling so much better.
Mentally is a big thing. I know weights and strength is becoming more important as we head into perimenopause.
I have always liked doing weights but always hated cardio. And currently my cardio is shit. I wish I was not as breathless.
I admire you for turning your habits around like this.
I think you should be a bit less hard on yourself, friend. Sometimes life gets in the way and other things get prioritized. Do the things that feel right to you and eventually the other things will come around. How would you talk to a friend who was going through this? Would you be harsh like you are to yourself? Of course not. Something is better than nothing and you will build on that. Focus on what you are doing and give yourself credit for that.
Puhhh. I think I needed to hear that. I just skipped another workout and stayed in bed finishing my book. I just felt everything was too much. One day I will hopefully get back to a routine. Maybe I need an exciting new goal. I don’t know. Everything feel hard these days.
Hope your life is a bit more lighthearted.