Spring. Rejuvenation, fresh starts, fresh air, all that crap. And it’s a time to take stock of life and look ahead to a brighter future. To throw one final platitude onto this plate of White Woman’s Instagram, hope springs eternal! Ignore the fact it was freezing yesterday with wicked winds whipping through the streets of New York.
It was a dark winter – literally and figuratively – around these parts. There were bouts of seasonal depression, too many red wine happy hours that bled into bourbon nightcaps, ballooning credit card debt, and ya boy got a bit of a gut that didn’t help the self-esteem. There were also far too many late night texts to the ex. In summary, rough three month stretch with atrocious vibes.
The time for action is now. I joined a gym that’s a 5-minute walk from my apartment. My last gym was 30 minutes away, which gave me the perfect excuse not to go. I had inspiration stints where I’d hit the gym hard for three weeks, convincing myself that the mile walk there and the mile walk back were an added fitness bonus. Unfortunately, leaving my apartment at 5pm for a quick workout and getting back at 7:30 was dispiriting and those stints fell off quickly. In just two weeks I’ve already talked myself into quick workouts because I can be back in an hour leaving plenty of time to make dinner/write/play video games/waste time on youtube etc. etc. without the added guilt of, “you haven’t left the apartment today.”
I also signed up for a ten miler in April and training has begun in earnest. I’m hitting at least three miles twice a week and even knocked out four miles through Central Park yesterday in those aforementioned freezing winds. Old Chris sought out booze and burgers to drown out the feelings but, I regret to inform him, the workout endorphins are real and they’re fantastic.
I’m tying healthy eating into all this too. After a workout, I don’t want that glass of wine. I reach for the protein powder and a water 10 times out of 10 after lifting, running, or spinning. Salmon over salad for dinner and meal prepped tofu and vegetables for lunch keeps me from the Seamless orders and on track for some weight loss (fingers crossed).
It’s been a couple weeks of (mostly) healthy lifestyle slamming 64 ounces of water a day and getting workouts in. I’ve had more good days than bad. Yes, I’ve gone through the inspiration sprints before and fallen off, and yes there have still been cheat days that spiraled into cheat dayssss, but even through it I found time to lift or get a run in or do yoga with Adriene, so I’m optimistic. Plus, the looming 10 miler is solid motivation. I have a spin class booked tonight and since I’ll be there, might as well pick some stuff up and put it down again.
There’ll still be treat yo’ self days, but let’s hope I can keep them to a minimum. Time to turn it around because, after all, hope springs eternal.