Day 42 (I think) of quarantine and, luckily, we are doing okay. It’s just – when you live in Queens, NY (you know, the epicenter of the epicenter) it makes going out to do anything tricky. I haven’t actually left my apartment building in four weeks. I’ve done laundry in our basement and grabbed mail & packages from the lobby, but I haven’t stepped outside in weeks.
I knew I needed to keep up with my exercise habit, I mean before this I was just a few classes shy of 100 workouts at OrangeTheory Fitness. I was feeling a part of that community, made great friends, and felt so much better. I had more energy, was sleeping better, just overall felt better. And then the reality of my home life changing, adding in online schooling, and the fact that outside is kinda scary kinda stopped me from working out altogether.
For the first month of lockdown, I only did one at home OTF workout. You see one of the reasons I joined OrangeTheory was because I hate working out at home. I’m not self-motivated. I have no inner reserve to call upon to get the workouts done. I need classes and a coach and good music.
After that first month, I wasn’t sleeping well. My energy was shot and I was cranky. Part of this was missing exercise, but another part was just my overall routine was disrupted so I decided to create a new morning routine that would include some sort of movement. I have a really old book on my shelf called “8 Minutes in the Morning” where you do two strength type exercises a day with a warm-up and stretching afterward. I did the whole book about 15+ years ago when I lived in a studio apartment in Manhattan so I knew I could manage them here in Queens.
I looked through the book one weekend and then set my new routine up. I would get up at 6 am – do my morning pages, affirmations, meditation, and then grab the old book and do the warm-up, moves, and stretching. So far, I’ve only missed one day due to not sleeping well the night before. Otherwise, I’ve been really consistent and I just started week 3 this past Monday.
The book is a 4-week program so I’m thinking after it’s over I’ll either do the whole thing again or start doing some of the OrangeTheory YouTube videos. I’m back into the swing of things and feeling strong again. I’m feeling ready to tackle a longer workout. It was really hard to go from 3 one-hour workouts a week consistently to nothing for a full month.
Now, I’m still feeling the effects of quarantine, but I am able to handle things better. I have more patience with myself and my family. I’m able to manage my stress levels, get really good sleep (most nights), and laugh instead of scream when things get tough.
How are you handling things? Are you getting in some movement? Are you able to get out and about where you live? Just know that it’s still all okay. I needed some movement, but it doesn’t look like it did before and that’s fine, so if you’re not able to do the things you did before, know that eventually, we will get back. I hope.
The form you have selected does not exist.
