Fitness Fellowship 2024: Week 30 Check-in

[sylvanwitch]

Howdy, friends!

I hope the week has treated you gently and that you are feeling healthy today. As usual, please share your fitness progress (or lack thereof--no judgement here!) with us in the comments.



Weight: I'm down at least 1.2 pounds from last week.

Exercise: I've exercised every day for at least an hour. I did yoga every day. I got a LOT of miles of walking in. I did weights/cardio only one day because my right elbow has been giving me some grief, but I supplemented that lack by gardening for 1.5 hours in the heat yesterday, which activity included lots of weeding and yanking of strangling vines.

Eating plan: I'm still snacking at night, mostly sunflower seeds. I have managed to regulate my daily caloric intake, however. And when I do snack at night, I extend my eating window further into the next day, breaking my fast at lunchtime instead of 10am. But I need to stop with the sunflower seeds.

Hydration: Definitely.

Meditation: Yoga has been a revelation in terms of how much tension I'm carrying in my body. I also think about my yoga sessions later in the day, and it helps me un-tense. I also still do boxing the breath sometimes, as well.

Sleep: This has been dodgy, but I'm working on not drinking as much water in the evening, to avoid having to get up to use the loo in the middle of the night, and I've also been much better about putting the iPad down and picking up a crossword puzzle book or a physical book to read. The anxiety dreams are hit-and-miss. I think they've gotten a little better since I've curtailed my Twitter viewing.

The week ahead: The usual plan: At least an hour of exercise a day (including 15 minutes of yoga); sticking to an eating window and NOT snacking in the evening; getting enough sleep and hydration.


I think we need hope these days, so I'm sending you as much hope as I can spare for your use in the week ahead.

Comments

[oschun]

Thanks for the message of hope. It was announced yesterday that teachers and NHS workers will get a 5.5% pay rise to finally put us in line with inflation so we're feeling more hopeful over here. Your polls are looking marginally better. Sending you hope in return!

Well done on the weight loss and daily exercise. Take care of the elbow.

My feet are giving me some trouble. It's been an ongoing issue for at least a year. I get these zinging pains in my right foot after about an hour of walking which the orthotics guy told me is because the bones are rubbing against each other - could be caused by either osteoarthritis or the rheumatoid arthritis that I've had for 20 yrs. He gave me inserts, which do seem to work but are taking some getting used to and cause discomfort in other areas of my feet. I had to take them out midway through a hike yesterday. We've been hiking most days and trying to escape the heatwave by walking through forests and woodlands. My soul is enhanced by cool, green spaces. Why anybody would want to sit all day on a crowded beach is beyond me. We did it briefly on Saturday because there was a mini-festival in town and cool food-stalls along the seafront. Today we're doing a river walk to a medieval estate where there will be food and music on the lawns.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement. I appreciate them SO much these days. (I have a meeting with the admin tomorrow morning to defend the new curriculum I wrote for 11th grade English, and I'm absolutely fixated on imaginary conversations. So your kindness comes at a good time. *hugs*)

I do hope you're able to get your feet sorted. I'm having some foot issues myself, and I have noticed that if my feet are tired and/or hurt, the rest of me is likewise tired.

Your walks sound AMAZING!

I also do not like sitting on beaches and much prefer walking along empty shores, if I'm to be by the shore. I have been a mountains person since I was a wee one, though, and always preferred our shorter family camping vacations in the Adirondacks over our longer spring break camping on the beaches of South Carolina or Florida. Give me a rushing mountain stream and the cool dance of leaves ANY day!

Enjoy the festival and the trek!

[sylvanwitch]

P.S.: The meeting was amazing! I had SO much support from the principal and asst. principal, who are excited about the very significant direction change I've taken with the new curriculum, and the dept. chair was also supportive about what this means for changing the other year programs. I am super excited and charged up now!

[oschun]

Hooray! I'm so glad to hear they were so supportive. A significant direction change sounds like exciting stuff indeed. I'd be interested in any details if you'd like to share.

[sylvanwitch]

I'm happy to share! So, our old Year 11 curriculum, also written by me, dovetailed with Year 11 US History. The approach was chronological and literary historical, and the theme was, predictably, the American Dream, but with a focus on discussing who decided what the dream was, who was included in it, and--especially--who were excluded from it. A few years ago, I tweaked it to be even more inclusive.

But the curriculum was predicated on students having already developed certain critical thinking scaffolding skills and on ours being a literate culture. Neither of those things is true anymore, so I completely overhauled English 11.

The first half of the year is broken into four units--active listening, reading, writing, and speaking. These build cumulatively and are then used explicitly in the second half of the year, the three literature units, namely poetry (very contemporary, American, and explicitly focused on marginalized voices), short fiction (speculative fiction--a couple of 20th c. classics, e.g. Bradbury, LeGuin, and then all VERY contemporary stories from today's writers), and finally the novella/novel, an American YA classic foregrounding a marginalized voice but NOT trauma fiction, if that makes sense.

Every unit uses the same analytical lens, namely five traits the students learn as freshmen and have to demonstrate in a year-long project in their senior year. Students are also being asked to meta-cognitively evaluate what they've heard, read, written, and said in each unit, and they'll be developing portfolios and presenting a final comprehensive project on those at the end of the year. We're also going to incorporate an oral portion for the midterm and final exams.

There's a lot more to this, of course, but that's the basic outline. A lot of the first semester stuff I'm using comes right from the college text I used when teaching oral communication at a local college.

I am *so* excited to get started. The real point of the curriculum, to me, is getting the students to have ownership of their own learning and to somehow engage their enthusiasm again. I want them to stop pressing a lever to get a pellet and start imagining new ways out of the maze, you know?

[oschun]

That sounds fantastic, especially the focus on orality, independent thinking and the inclusion of marginalized voices. It’s interesting what you say about how teaching is often predicated on certain assumptions – especially the assumption that the scaffolding is already there for critical thinking skills. It so often isn’t! Students being enthused and taking ownership of their own learning are always the golden aims, but it’s not easy getting there, as you’re well aware. It sounds like you’ve got a clear roadmap through the use of portfolio and project work. Sounds fab! (I’m intrigued by the five traits you’re trying to instil.)

I’m glad you haven’t encountered resistance against including marginalized voices. (Yes, I do know what you mean about trying to be inclusive while avoiding wallowing in trauma fiction.) There’s a similar push over here to revitalize the national curriculum and make it more inclusive (and more contemporary!) Our issues are different to yours in some respects. We don’t really have the same issue you have over there with the Religious Right, for example. I can’t remember if I mentioned this to you before: For World Book Day my department all wore ‘I read banned books’ t-shirts and we discussed banned books with every class we taught that day. I used this article to stimulate discussion The 50 most banned books in America (cbsnews.com) Every class I discussed this with wanted to read ‘And Tango Makes Three’ after reading the article. What’s not to love about the idea of two daddy penguins raising a baby boy penguin!! :D

💟

[oldtoadwoman]

My weight is up a tiny bit, but not as much as it could be so I'm taking it as a win.

(I was cat-sitting for a friend for a week who very kindly stocked the fridge and told me I could eat anything I wanted and even pointed out there was ice cream. I probably wouldn't have even looked in the freezer if she hadn't said that.)

Re: 💟

[sylvanwitch]

That is a HUGE win when you've basically been gifted a freezer full of ice cream! (I have no self-control where ice cream is concerned.)

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[oldtoadwoman]

Yeah, the ice cream is the main reason for the small weight gain because I just couldn't stop going back for "a little" more. But the last time I was out there cat-sitting, I bought junk food and candy. (Lots of food options walking distance from her apartment.) So I still did a bit better than usual.

Today though I am only about 4 pounds above my lowest weigh-in of the year and that's well within reach.

Unfortunately I really need to tighten my budget, but I'm trying to turn that into a plus because all of that can come from not impulse-buying empty calories.

And my best success with dieting isn't even a specific food/exercise plan, it's just weighing in every day to stay in touch with reality. So I've decided that's the strategy for the budget. Last night, I made a spreadsheet and starting Aug 1st, I'm writing down everything I spend the same day and I even added a column for regrets to comment on whether the money was well-spent or not. (I pay my credit card off every money, so I'm not that irresponsible with money, but the total shocks me every single time. When I scroll back to see how it could possibly be so much, it's always impulse food purchases.)

Diet and budget both, my greatest weakness is conning myself that "just this once won't hurt". So I need to make myself face reality every single day.

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[sylvanwitch]

I also have a "retail therapy" habit, so I really do feel what you're saying here about budgeting and being accountable. It is too easy for me to ignore the checking balance or to use a credit card I shouldn't be adding balance to. (And I'm in the midst of paying down a big credit card debt, so the less I can spend using credit, the better.)

Also, THANK YOU for the handwritten card and note! It was a delight to get real mail! *hugs*

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[oldtoadwoman]

I love writing real letters. There's something meditative about putting ink on paper. (Also when I sit down to write a handwritten card, I'm not tempted to click in another tab and start distracting myself.)

[batdina]

I'm not sure what my weight is doing right now as I won't hit the scale until this Sunday. However, I'm back on the exercise bike, and doing some stretching. I'll pick your brain about that Yoga app at some point in the near future.

I'm glad you're hanging in there! And I too am looking at hope as the word for the rest of the year, particularly as I start prepping for the High Holidays (first meeting this morning!).

I wish you well for the rest of this week my friend.

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, I'm SO glad to hear you're back to exercising because I know that's an important part of your personal equilibrium program, so to speak. (It is absolutely essential for my mental health these days.)

I pitched "hope" as the theme for one of my two courses next year and for a special workshop we're having, and the principal of my school was especially enthusiastic about it. I think all thinking, feeling people are clinging to hope. I can't imagine a better context for that theme than in faith-based contexts such as yours (and mine, given that I work for a Catholic school, though I am not myself Catholic). As a person of faith myself, I pray for hope (along with strength, faith, and love) every day.

Anyway, now I'm rambling. I just wanted to send you ALL the good vibes for the meetings to come and for a deeply meaningful season of High Holidays to come. *hugs*

[luzula]

I could have sworn that I commented on this! But apparently not. *sigh*

Anyway, it sounds like you're doing well--but do take care of that elbow. As for me, I got a sore throat on Tuesday, and have been nursing that and now it's pretty much gone, which I am grateful for--but I didn't do much exercising because of that. As you might have seen, I was outdoor a LOT the previous two weeks, but didn't do any working out, so I hope to get on that now.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you! I am definitely babying the elbow and trying to avoid more serious injury.

I'm glad you also are taking care of yourself to avoid making an illness worse, and I hope you feel better and are recovering your strength. Good luck getting back into a routine after all your outdoor exercise! :-)