Fitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in 14

[sylvanwitch]

Greetings, friends!

How has the week treated you? Have you had some success with your personal goal(s)? Have there been challenges? Please share whatever you'd like, and remember: You can always adjust your goals when and as needed. No judgement--not ever. :-)



Weight: 192.6, exactly where it was last week. I did see a small drop, but alas, it didn't stick.

Exercise: Yoga 4/4, strength-training 3/3, significant steps daily. I took my first jog of the year on Thursday! I did over 2 miles total. It was wet and messy, but I had the park almost to myself and enjoyed it immensely. I got in two long rambles, too, on Friday and Saturday. I used the elliptical yesterday because it was cold and miserable out (again).

Eating plan: I've been mostly good, though I have noticed a slightly higher daily calorie total. I think it might be in part because I've been more active.

Meditation: Twice!

Hydration: Yes!

Sleep: I've been on break since Thursday, and the sleep has been glorious, as it always is when I'm off of work.

The week ahead: We're traveling for the next few days to visit friends, but we have plans for hiking or walking both days we're there. The travel days will be the more difficult ones in which to get some exercise, but I hope to at least get some steps in at rest stops. I'm bringing my yoga mat and light weights, and I'm good about exercising in the hotel room. There's a cafe with a full vegan menu a half-block from our hotel, and I am super excited about that, but we also have a full kitchen in our suite, so I'm bringing healthy food to prepare. We'll probably have dinner out each night, but I'll make good choices. And then I'll have the weekend to recalibrate before it's back to work.



Here's hoping we all have a good week full of triumphs small and/or great!

Comments

[oschun]

Congratulations on the jog. That's amazing. I don't think I will ever jog again. Fast walking, sure. Jogging, never :D

I managed to survive the final week. It wasn't easy, but I made it through. I should be feeling more relaxed now that school has broken up but I had marking to catch up on so that's consumed my entire weekend. At some point in my life I swear I will stop being so unhealthily fixated on work. Anyway, we're gong to Portugal for a week so I will be free and happy then.

Enjoy your time away!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I managed to survive the final week. <<

Go you!

>>Anyway, we're gong to Portugal for a week so I will be free and happy then.<<

That sounds fun. It's a beautiful country, mostly dryland -- I've seen videos of some nature restoration work there.

Re: Thoughts

[oschun]

Yes, it does seem beautiful. I've not been before. I'm hoping to see some countryside and do a bit of walking.

[sylvanwitch]

A few years ago--and forgive me if I've told you this already--I realized I couldn't keep taking work home with me (by work, I mean, of course, essays that needed grading). I felt *super* guilty the first year that I just...left stuff at school on evenings and weekends and during breaks. I would work my butt off during prep periods and would stay at school late some days to make sure I achieved my daily grading goals. But I didn't take stuff home.

Of course, I had to adjust the amount of writing I was assigning, but I discovered over the course of that year that my having changed my expectations for their output in no way changed the quality of their writing and its development over the course of the year. I mean, this is anecdotal evidence, not peer-reviewed. But it occurred to me that my working harder did not seem to have any impact on how well they did. I understand your mileage definitely varies, but I just wanted to offer my own example. My life--and not coincidentally, my energy for classroom teaching--is so much better now.

Anyway, I do hope you discover balance that doesn't make you feel guilty and I hope you have an absolutely fabulous time in Portugal! You deserve it, hon, so very much! Enjoy! :-)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>We're traveling for the next few days to visit friends, but we have plans for hiking or walking both days we're there.<<

That sounds exciting.

>>There's a cafe with a full vegan menu a half-block from our hotel<<

Cool! They are more common now.

A large part of the week featured pouring rain and howling wind, which limited my ability to work outside, but I got some stuff done.

Today: Ass-busting amounts of effort yardening. I planted two tree seedlings, sowed grass seed, and picked up sticks.

Sunday: I planted willow cuttings and vegetable seeds.

Saturday: I did a bunch of raking so I could sow grass seeds. Plus extra effort repeatedly scraping mud off my shoes.

Friday: We went out to visit relatives, so I got a little activity out of the house.

Wednesday: We went out for my birthday and got a lot of things done.

Tuesday: I planted a willow cutting.

Tomorrow is the April Poetry Fishbowl with a theme of "I am SO done with this!" so I'll be working in my office most of the day.

Re: Thoughts

[sylvanwitch]

I'm so looking forward to seeing our friends! We've arrived safely at the hotel, and I just ordered a very exciting vegan grains and proteins bowl and a side salad with all sorts of interesting veggies in it. I'm looking forward to dinner, as well! LoL!

You have been doing SO MUCH! That's fantastic! I'm glad you've been able to get out in the yard and work on things. I am itching to do that, as well, but we have had another long bout of rain, and then we had snow as we were leaving for our trip today, so... *sighs*

But, good news! The tulip and hyacinth bulbs in the greenhouse are growing! Yay! :-)

I hope you've enjoyed the April Poetry Fishbowl! It sounds like an extremely relatable prompt!

[cornerofmadness]

It's been a rough few weeks health wise but we're all getting a good laugh at water aerobics because they keep filling it higher and higher, a couple of the short faculty are gonna drown soon

[sylvanwitch]

Ugh, I'm sorry things have been so damned difficult for you lately, but I'm glad you're getting comic relief with the water aerobics classes, though I do sincerely hope your shorter colleagues don't, in fact, suck water. ;-)

[cornerofmadness]

It's definitely been hella hard lately but water aerobics is a blast but seriously if they fill that pool any deeper we're going to have to put floaties on the shorter members

[china_shop]

I hope the travel is going well! *hugs* <3 <3 <3

I woke up one day late last week, after a fairly distracted/sedentary week, to find that my body was stabbing me with knives. So I've been exercising 50-60 minutes a day since then to try and calm it down. Slowly getting there. I made some indulgent food choices over the weekend (Easter), and have got into a bad habit of having granola for snacks during the week (it sounds healthy, but is pretty sugary). I need to get back to mindful choices. At least hot cross bun season is over...

[sylvanwitch]

At least hot cross bun season is over...

Sometimes, all we can do is hang on until temptation passes, in my experience, so I’m glad the season has passed for you. Also, I love granola, and I can still remember the first time I paid particular attention to the nutritional information on a package of it. It was a sad discovery.

I am hoping the knives stop stabbing you soon as, my friend, and that you are feeling more comfortable in your body in general. *hugs*

[china_shop]

Oh no, I just looked at the granola ingredients, and sugar is second after rolled oats. Damn, no wonder it tasted so good. ;-p

I'm doing much better now -- thanks for your good wishes. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3