Lockdown Goals: Week 1 check in

After realising recently that my apathy and laziness was causing weight gain and a relapse of my more severe PMDD symptoms, I set myself some goals this time last week. Today sees my first check in and a review of progress so far.

Minimum 10,000 steps a day

This one has been interesting. In normal circumstances I’d not have any problem meeting this goal, easily clocking up between 6000-8000 steps in school run alone, but it turns out that when you’re supposed to be limiting how often you leave the house because of a global pandemic it’s not quite as simple! There have been a couple of evenings where I’ve paced back and forward the length of my house to make up the final thousand steps.

Although I pointed out in the last entry that 10,000 is a bit of an arbitrary number, and physically being a few steps shy isn’t going to affect me, I know that from a psychological point of view that if I miss my goal one day I’ll be more likely to miss it the next so consistency is important.

Three bodyweight sessions a week

I have easily met this goal: 4 sessons of PE with Joe, a session of Yoga with Adriene, DISCOaerobics with Carly, and several days of ROMWODing (more on ROMWOD another day). Hoping to keep up this momentum as I head into week 2.

I’ve also managed to fit in my first socially-distanced pair run with a local friend, doing a very hot 5km. I’m a much better runner when I’m not on my own, and having a conversation with someone who wasn’t my husband or my children was surprisingly therapeutic. That said, I don’t see how this kind of socially distanced running is feasible for many; it’s only because we have a wide local lane with little to no traffic that we were able to safely stay apart from each other and others.

Three weighted workouts a week

This is my big fail. I’ve not done a single weighted workout yet. I seem to be really struggling with picking up the dumbbells, and I think part of it is because I know in my heart it’s not the same as a heavy barbell and it feels so disappointing and a crappy reminder that I can’t go to the gym and I can’t do workout how I’d like. I know this is a bit of a stroppy / petulant child excuse, but I’m not too worried if I can maintain the increased bodyweight work. My ‘gains’ are probably all in the bloody toilet, mind you.

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It’s only been a week, so I’m reticent to say “it’s working”, but I have been fairly stable in the past week. My weight is down to 73.4kg. I did have a HANGRY STROP a couple of days ago because I was late to eat lunch (work + kids), but I am not being overly restrictive nor am I currently counting macros, so I think the balance must be more or less right at the moment. I will probably increase carbs further if I continue to run regularly (good luck with that, Jem).

Lead photo by Larissa Gies