Resolutions Regardless of the New Year

This is the time of year when everyone starts thinking of change.  I don't like to save that sort of thing until January; I find it the most difficult time of year to start something new, but this time year the timing just worked out. I'm not sure if I've been consciously avoiding my jeans or it's just worked out that I haven't worn them in a while, but the other day I was heading out to a little event that was very casual and maybe even involved some hiking, the kind of thing where a dress just won't do.  So, I reached for my jeans........they didn't fit.  It's not that they were a little tight or that I struggled to zip them, it's that I couldn't even get my legs in them.

So, even though I have been trying to be more active since July, by adding a trip to the gym for an hour two or three days a work,  it just hasn't added up to being enough.  During a typical day at the office I am far more likely to get up from my computer to fetch things from the printer, answer phones, drop things off at people's desks, etc.  I rarely sit for more than half an hour before I get up to do something.  At home, I just sit for eight hours a day working on my computer.  One cannot spend most of the year being sedentary without gaining a few pounds.

I've known for a while now that I have been in a slump--a slump which has been building to depression--and inactivity is tied to it all. expected a few pounds, A FEW.  But, this is a little more than a few.  I decided to step on the scale to know exactly how many and I was a little shocked.  Then the insecurities set in.  Suddenly I didn't feel comfortable in anything and considered canceling my plans.  I considered just digging in deeper and letting depression win.

I didn't though.  That would be silly.  Canceling my plans wouldn't change anything and isolation leads straight to depression.  So, I found something comfortable and appropriate for the occasion, went out and had a nice time, and then came home and started working on a new fitness regimen.  My diet hasn't changed much, so I know it's just inactivity that's caused all this and that's an easy fix.  

I've decided that for 4 days a week I'm going to workout first thing in the morning for 30 minutes, followed by an afternoon cardio for 20 minutes and an evening session of yoga for 20-30 minutes.  It may sound like a lot, but it think it will probably just compensate for how much activity I used to do and haven't been doing since the quarantine.

This goes beyond sizes and numbers on the scale though.  Add to the lockdown all the difficult things that keep popping up in my life lately and I've noticed depression really starting to sink in in the last couple of months.  I've kept it at bay all during these long months of quarantine, but everyone has their breaking point and I was starting to feel like I was reaching mine.  

Stepping on the scale, even though it sucked to see the kind of work I have ahead of me, also gave me a goal to work toward.  And part of that goal will be fitting into these jeans again soon.  (obviously, these photos were taken months ago when these jeans still fit.)  So, I'm getting out of bed an hour earlier most mornings to workout, and trying to squeeze in an evening walk or yoga session too.  Hopefully I can keep it up and feel more like my pre 2020 self again soon.