March has come and gone, in like a lion, and out like a lion. The weather in the UK has been cold and grey – thankfully yesterday on April 1st the sun decided to shine, and it came out again today. Maybe this is a sign that spring may finally arrive?
Not wanting to wait around for that which may never happen (better weather), we headed off to Florida at the end of March for our traditional Easter break with my sister and her family. It was needed.
Humid, warm, tanktop, shorts – distinctly NOT London!
There are a few things that being with family hammered home to me – besides the fact that I really prefer sunshine and warm weather! No, nothing earth shattering… Let’s just say that I once again affirmed that I am a much happier person when I surround myself with people who share my values and who are tolerant of my quirks. For me life is far too short to waste on people or things that don’t fit that bill…
The numbers
99: minutes of racing (my first race of 2013 done and dusted – so happy!)
40: dedicated minutes of rehab (not counting bootcamp or yoga, which do count for rehab as well as cross training, but not in this count)
22: hours of training (excluding racing and dedicated rehab minutes, see above)
7: hours of sports massage and physiotherapy – that’s a crazy amount of time dedicated to trying to make my body work properly…
5: kilometers done as a run/walk at a race – not signed off by the doctor, but no apparent negative consequences (fingers crossed!)
2: new events I’m adding to my calendar for the summer – a swim and a run (well, run/walk!)
1: event dropped from my calendar – the MS150 – so that I can focus more on rehabbing my knee properly before taking on long events
1: at home dinner party – we really are trying to keep a balance in our social life this year, and this was our first dinner with guests since the autumn!
0: weight gained in the month – completely unexpected as we ALWAYS gain weight when we go to the US – but I’ll take it!
Challenge Update: #BestFoot SBBC
I signed up for the Spring Bootie Buster Challenge (also known as #BestFoot) run by Amanda from Run to the Finish as I had never done one of these online fitness challenges, and I was curious what they were like.
I also was curious if the challenge would give me some extra motivation to help me to set new habits – especially when it comes to making my physio therapy rehab for my shoulder and knee a part of my life. I need all the extra motivation I can get!
The verdict so far: I enjoy the #bestfoot challenge, especially being able to pop in to the Facebook Group to see what everyone is doing with their day. In some ways it is not so different from the way that I use Twitter, except that it is a different community than I normally engage with.
I like being able to earn points from doing my normal everyday things – like eating fruits and veggies, and drinking enough water. Seeing points accumulate is a great way to check my consistency, and an affirmation that I am doing just fine with living a healthy lifestyle.
I had hoped that the challenge would help to motivate me in my quest to turn my physio work from a chore to a part of my lifestyle. But in the last four weeks I have found that for some reason, developing a new habit of doing my physio daily is JUST NOT STICKING.
This post on forming new habits by Dr Yoni Freedhoff probably explains why it is not sticking – I don’t find it any fun to do the exercises, and I haven’t yet convinced myself that it is a MUST DO. Freedhoff (in his US News & World Report link) goes on to say that a habit can take years to form, until it is engrained in our thinking and behaviours.
So this got me thinking… What could I do or change to turn around my mentality from “physio – meh” to “physio – must do MUST MUST MUST”
Another Challenge?
I don’t know why but I haven’t given up faith that a challenge of some sort could be a way for me to start getting new habits to stick. Enter #project30days.
Run by my blogging buddy Kelly (I swear we are really twins who have never met) I am joining her challenge and recommitting to something important to me for 30 days. Her idea was to start something new. But my #project30days will be more about starting NEW HABITS.
So what are my #project30days aims? I have two “new habits” that I want to reinforce over the next 30 days.
1. Do my physio. Daily. Either shoulders or glutes.
(and be accountable to a friend like Kelly with my tweets to get this to stick. Fingers crossed)
2. Do not bring my phone to dinner.
One of the things reinforced to me over spring break was that family time matters. When we ate dinner each night with my sister, technology was off. We respected each other and focused on conversations and banter, rather than being distracted by our phones and the neverending stream of alerts and interruptions from live-time social media. And I loved the “unplugged time”. It’s a habit I want to replicate at home.
I think both of these things should be completely achievable. I’m starting on 2 April, so let’s see what my April in Numbers will say about days that I have achieved my #project30days!
PS – if you would like to join #project30days hop over to Kelly’s blog, check out her post, and join us!