Fitness Fellowship 2025: Check-in 47

[sylvanwitch]

Greetings, fellow fitness travelers! I hope the week has been a good one for you, giving you time to find wellness in whatever way works best for you.

As usual, please do share with us how the past week has been and any plans you have for the week ahead.

For US folks, we have a major food-related holiday looming large in the near future. How do you plan for big eating fests? Do you have a strategy, or do you prefer to wing it, let yourself enjoy it, and not worry too much about it? Whatever your approach, if you feel it's worth sharing, please do!



Weight: 200.4, up 1.2 from last week's latest low. That's entirely down to the way I ate over the weekend. Though I was very active both weekend days, I did splurge on Thai for lunch on Saturday and vegan pizza for dinner on Sunday. I'm not that upset about it, and I'm sure I'll see a downward adjustment now that I'm back on my usual plan.

Exercise: I tried power yoga for the first time this week, a 15-minute video session for beginners, and I liked it! I hadn't expected to enjoy it as much as more traditional yoga, but power yoga is VERY athletic, and I was able to keep up, for the most part, which made me feel good about how far I've come in the practice of yoga. I did four yoga sessions of four pledged, three strength-trainings of three pledged, and I walked every day. We went hiking on Sunday, and it was lovely and so necessary for me; getting out in nature genuinely resets my mood.

Eating plan: Other than the weekend food choices, I ate healthfully and well every day.

Hydration: Yes!

Meditation: Yes!

Sleep: Um...I have been so-so about getting to bed *by* 11:00pm, which shouldn't make much difference, but it adds up. 11:10. 11:12. 11:15. You get the picture. So, I've been working on making sure that I'm in bed, ready to sleep BY 11:00. Of course, I have three days off for Thanksgiving, so I'll probably revert to my night-owl ways. *sighs*

The week ahead: I'm going to do my best to balance my love for stuffing and squash-apple bake with my need to maintain my weight. I definitely don't want another gain this week, so I'm going to be very good about what I eat except for Thursday (the holiday itself) and Friday. (Friday is my annual Lord of the Rings rewatch, during which I eat lots of leftovers but also walk in place, use the elliptical, and lift light weights.)



As always, I'm sending you lots of good vibes for the week ahead, friends!

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

I am honestly just trying not to turn into the sort of person who always talks about yoga. I am really growing into the practice in a way I never expected. Thankfully, I have a colleague at work who also does yoga, so he and I can compare notes and get our yoga-geek on without bothering other people. :-)

I'm glad you're recovering from your muscle strains and learning how to prevent future ones. It sounds like you are approaching your new fitness goals with the same practicality and energy with which you approach everything else. I hope the stretching and walking and new methods of working all combine to make you more comfortable in your body when you're doing the good work you do! :-)

[luzula]

Well, I'm glad you're enjoying yoga so much! What is your favorite thing about it? *curious* I did a little bit of yoga in my early twenties, which is when I learned to stand on my head (don't know if I can still do it, but I don't want to subject my neck to the attempt...)

[sylvanwitch]

I definitely cannot stand on my head, nor can I even do a complete backbend (a full "bridge" pose), alas, though I could do so when I was young. I think what I like most about yoga is how there are things I CAN do that I hadn't expected I could do nor even ever really considered a thing bodies did (?). For example, I tried a couple of new-to-me yoga video workouts from FitOn, both of which happened to spend a lot of time on "opening" the hips. As I remarked to the aforementioned work colleague, I felt like my legs were going to disarticulate, like I'd somehow loosened my joining places, but while the process was painful, that feeling of looseness after the fact was quite lovely.

And I think it's that discovery of new things my body can do/feel that makes me happiest. I have been plagued with a rather stereotypical midlife mindset about how from here on out it's all going to be giving things up (i.e. a sense of balance, muscle strength, etc.), but yoga has helped me to realize that while I will lose things as my body ages, there are also things I can do about mitigating that loss. And that makes me feel more settled, I guess? I'm not sure I'm describing it at all clearly, but there it is.

[luzula]

I have been plagued with a rather stereotypical midlife mindset about how from here on out it's all going to be giving things up (i.e. a sense of balance, muscle strength, etc.), but yoga has helped me to realize that while I will lose things as my body ages, there are also things I can do about mitigating that loss.

I'm so glad you've found something that works for you! I am also feeling a little bit of that sense of future inevitable loss--the stiffness/pain caused by my small injuries made me feel like I was getting a taste of getting old, and I didn't like it. I am determined to do what I can to mitigate it going forward.

[sylvanwitch]

I am giving us BOTH big rounds of applause for making a commitment to aging better, if not totally gracefully. Lol! :-)