Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in Six

[sylvanwitch]

Greetings, Friends! I hope life has been gentle with you this past week and that you've had opportunities to move your body and eat good food and get lots of rest for both your body and your mind. I've had to force myself off of BlueSky because doom-scrolling messes me up. I hope you're likewise finding ways to moderate your intake of the chaos.

As always, please share as much or as little of the week's fitness journey as you'd like. Don't forget that you're welcome to change your goals at any point; this little group is about public accountability, but you can define that however is best for you.



Weight: 208.8, down 1.2 from last week. I've lost a total of 8.6 pounds since the first of the year, and I'm very happy about that but also trying not to make it All About the Scale Number, if you know what I mean.

Exercise: I did at least 40 minutes every day, including four days of yoga and four days of light weights. Yesterday, I graduated to five-pound weights from three-pound, and I made the adjustment with less struggle than I'd expected. Go, me! I've started this week off strong by taking a two-mile hike through the snow at a local park, where I had the trails entirely to myself. (Our school had the day after the Super Bowl off because the students achieved an annual fundraising goal. It works to our advantage because at least one-third of the students are absent the day after the SB anyway.)

Eating Plan: Other than a serious splurge treat on Saturday (a pint of B&J's non-dairy "Milk & Cookies" ice cream), I've been mostly on-plan, though I've sort of got my own definition of what that means. I've been experimenting with using up the "extra" weekly points that I can add to a particular day or for a particular occasion, and I've found that as long as I'm reasonable, I still lose weight. I will say that thanks to the way the points work, I'm definitely cooking more meals from scratch and eating more fruits, vegetables, and beans every day, so in this regard, the points plan works well for me.

Meditation: Since I cannot recall a specific example, I'm guessing I didn't do any breathing/meditation this week. I have to rectify that for this week, for sure.

Sleep: Other than one weeknight when I stayed up too late reading, I've been pretty good about getting to bed on time, and I have had some awesome sleep over this three-day weekend and have gone to bed early a few times this past week. While I have been getting more sleep, however, my dreams have been just unsettling--not nightmares, just the kind of low-level dread-inducing nonsense that is difficult to shake off the next day. *sighs*

Hydration: I have been VERY conscientious about making sure I consume enough water every day because the drier winter air definitely sucks it out of me.

The week ahead: More of the good stuff, this time with actual meditation!



Wishing you a good week ahead, my friends, with plenty of chances to do what's best for you and your health. *hugs*

Comments

[luzula]

Do you measure your weight in miles? : P Good work with everything (well, except for the meditation), sounds like you're on top of things. <3

As for me, I'm finally completely well and have been running and working out and doing outdoor work for three days straight now. I have lots of muscle ache, but it's the good kind of ache. Sleep is mostly fine, weight is fine. This week I aim to continue working out! Perhaps also to be a little stricter about bedtimes and getting up a little earlier.

[sylvanwitch]

D'oh! Thank you for catching that. Fixed! :-)

Congratulations on your progress! I'm so glad you're feeling better and have returned to your fitness routine! I'm sending you all the best ZZZZZZs for good nights' rest and all the willpower you need to be better about bedtimes. (Gods know I need some of that willpower myself!)

[lenzes]

Your progress with the weights is awesome! And congrats for keeping on track with your hydration/eating/weight and sleep goals!

Goal 1 – walking: I only walked three times last week which means I didn't quite finish week 3 of the program. I'll take another stab at it this week :D

Goal 2 – push-ups: Sadly, no push-ups last week for me. Hopefully, I'll manage to do some this week.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you for the kind support! I appreciate it. :-)

I am sending you ALL the good walking and push-ups energy for this week and hope you're able to make progress on your goals.

Go, you! You can do it! :-)

[oschun]

Well done on graduating to heavier weights.

Seriously, a third of your students are absent after the super bowl? That's insane :D

I'm having a rheumatoid flare-up in my left hand and wrist that's been causing me pain for about the last 10 days. I can't do pilates because so many of the positions require you to lean on your hands and wrists. Even changing gears in my car in the morning is painful. It also woke me up at 5am this morning and I've been singularly grumpy all day. Anyway, next week is half-term, so I'm glad about that.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you!

Maybe 1/3 is a little high, but it's definitely at least 1/4, largely the upperclassmen, who likely imbibe "college pop" at Super Bowl parties and then aren't in any shape to come in the next day.

I am so sorry to hear that you're having a flare, and I really hope it eases up for you very soon. It's miserable to have pain wake you up like that, and you absolutely have every reason and right to be grumpy. Yay for half-term to look forward to! We also have next week off, and I am also clinging to that with what is left of my fingernails!

[delphi]

Congratulations on a strong week, and best of luck picking the meditation back up. And oh man, do I ever hear you about the drying winter air. I am soooo itchy right now.

I hit my goals this week on everything except sleep, which hasn't been horrendous but also hasn't been where I want it to be (I say, writing this a half hour after I should have turned off my computer.) But I've been making progress on avoiding evening doomscrolling, so I'm counting the fact that I'm staying up a bit talking to friends and reading books as a minor victory nonetheless.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you so much for the support and encouragement. We're on Thursday, and I'm having trouble clearing my mind and remembering to breathe during yoga practice, so I have a sinking feeling the meditation is going to be a no-go, but we'll see.

SO ITCHY! I'm actually using heel crack cream on my hands because my thumb pads have a tendency to split when it's so dry. I hate it.

I absolutely think that being able to turn your computer off and avoid doomscrolling is HUGE and deserves staying up late to socialize and read. I mean, yes, we should both be getting more sleep, but if we're sacrificing sleep to do active self-care, I think there's a reasonable trade-off for us. Still, yes, for sure, we should probably be sleeping (if we can). *sighs*