Happy Sunday! The sun is out but it is COLD. It's still March.
This week had some really good things. For example, I had Tuesday off work and I hiked up a local mountain with a friend and it was great
On Wednesday evening I went running with a local ladies run club. I'm so glad I got out with them, the first time with a new group is always scary but they were nice and I will definitely go out with them again.
I love getting stronger and knowing that I will never be pregnant again so all the work I do to get better and stronger will not get reversed soon to have babies. I can actually see and sustain improvement. It's great.
Reading
I started reading again. Real books. I'm reading both of these now:
I thought about this when we bought our most recent car. Our previous car was £500. Our new car was more than 20 times that. I asked Andy "is this new car twenty times better than our old car?" It turns out it was, because our new car fits all our children (along with other benefits) which is twenty times better than not having a car we can use. Also, it brings me frequent joy to drive a car that does not feel like it's going to fall apart on the road.
I know Woody Allen is an awful person, but books like this remind me of his quotes about money:
"Money does not give happiness, but it procures a feeling so similar, that it needs a very advanced specialist to verify the difference."
I know Woody Allen is an awful person, but books like this remind me of his quotes about money:
"Money does not give happiness, but it procures a feeling so similar, that it needs a very advanced specialist to verify the difference."
"Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons"
Sports
A great week for sports again. Yay.
- Monday
- 15 Minute Peloton ride (it was supposed to be 30 but instead it became 15)
- Tuesday
- 7 mile hike up and down a mountain. Yay!
- Wednesday
- 20 Minutes Arms and Shoulder Strength with Rebecca Kennedy
- 20 Minute Standing Core Strength with Rebecca Kennedy
- 20 Minute 90's Ride with Cody Rigsby (and San!)
- 10 Minute Lower Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
- 1 hour Run with Running Group
- Friday
- 1 hour gym with gym buddy
- Saturday
- 30 Minute Broadway Ride with Bradley Rose
- 30 Minute Full Body Strength with Katie Wang
- 10 Minute Stretch with Ben Alldis
- Sunday
- 10 Minute Glutes and Legs with Ben Alldis
- 10 Minute Chest and Back with Ben Alldis
- 10 Minute Upper Body Strength with Ben Alldis
- 30 Minute Sundays with Love ride
- 10 Minute Full Body Stretch with Ben Alldis
I learned this week that on Peloton app you can "stack" classes and that's what I did on Sunday and it was fun. I made a list of classes and did them one after another.
Sleep
We have been on a sleep mission lately. I have averaged 8.2 hours this week, which I did not think was possible. I thought I couldn't sleep more than 7.5 hours a night. Maybe it's because I'm doing more sport, or maybe it's because other stressful things have resolved, or maybe it's just catching up from years of not sleeping, but it's great. On multiple nights I slept straight through from 9pm until 5am. On Friday I slept from 9pm to 6am. 9 hours of sleep. Dreamy.
Habits Update
Y'all wanted to know more about my flossing habits right? Well my dentist appointment was this week and they basically said I had the best teeth in Wales. That's not a great benchmark, but it was almost unmotivating in how wonderful my teeth apparently are. I mean if I can undo a year of floss neglect in 4 weeks of intermittent flossing then what is the point of good dental care? Also, is floss itself old school? Does everyone use TePe brushes or floss picks now? I will still try to keep this habit up.
Another habit - Food. I have been tracking my food for a while and was suprised at how generally unhungry I am as long as I get a decent meal at 10am ish. That all ended this week when I have been ravenous all the time. Maybe it was my hike that broke my hunger levels, but I have been eating everything. I figure I will go back to eating like a normal person soon, but last week for lunch I had a cheese sandwich and a slice of quiche and a bowl of pasta because I was just hungry. I pretty much eat whatever I want usually but I am trying to make sure I eat fruit for at least once meal or snack, in addition to whatever other things I want to eat for that meal/snack. Tracking has shown me that I definitely eat vegetables every day but I have to remind myself to intentionally eat fruit.
Do you eat fruit every day? Do you find your hunger levels vary a lot week to week (or month to month?) Have you slept more than 8 hours in a row recently?
Wow, look at you getting all the exercise in! I am glad that you got to ride with San; that is fun! Also that hike sounds great and hopefully your ladies run group ends up being a good one. I had a bit of trouble finding a "group" when I moved back to the Bay Area, and the run group turned out to be the best thing I had ever done and made me friends for life. Also when you are running, you have to talk and often you talk about deep things and so you become friends a lot faster than you would with people you were just going for coffee with (at least I did).
ReplyDeleteI think re the hunger thing, I definitely am more hungry at the beginning of starting to ramp up activity/exercise, and then it plateaus once my body gets used to the new level of activity. However, I remember when I first started getting back into running; I was hungry all the time, and even just after a 5 or 8 mile run, whereas now I can do that and maybe need lunch after but I am not desperate.
Great job on working out and flossing!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of flossing, I have my 6 month dental cleaning today and I am not looking forward to that. The thing is, I have receded gums, and very sensitive teeth so all the pocking and scraping is painful for me. BUT. It needs to be done so I'll be there, in that chair, clutching my fingers together.
Hi Rachel, I feel that my hunger levels have changed around my work schedule. Nowadays I usually eat around 10ish am - in the office, after the chaos of our mornings has settled.
ReplyDeleteI have two school-age boys, who walk to school, but I do make their breakfast and in charge of the homework prep (spelling tests practice, and math practice :) I lately skip through lunch, and then just eat a big meal around 4ish pm, after i get home. My boys walk home at 3.30 pm, so instead of giving them snacks-snacks-snacks we adopted a practice of early dinner at 4 pm. They can then have snacks around 7ish if they had a good dinner, veggies, etc. It works great so far :)
I have previously tried eating with the kids in the morning, and it took away all joy from eat. I also used to eat my butter & jam sandwich in the car on the way to work for a few years actually, but nowadays our life is less hectic and i love my late breakfasts :)
Ooh Irena than you for the info! Yes I agree about breakfast with kids, I think some of the joy is removed. Or rather, I experience more joy with a family breakfast if I am not trying to feed myself at the same time.
DeleteI am intrigued with a big meal at 4 and then snack at 7. We do snack at 3:45 but it's very tricky because if the snack is too small they get hungry before 5:30 dinner, and if it's too big then of course they're not hungry for dinner. How cool to do a reverse meal!
Aww, Rachel, I know that the Peloton is not for everyone, but I feel so honored that my way of talking about my love for Peloton and my bike mad you take the plunge and that you love it as much as I do :) and it's been so fun that we've caught each other on the LB a few times lately. I am always so happy when the name of someone I know pops up on the LB!! I hope we can continue to catch each other on rides... I know it's hard to overlap with the time difference, but since you know now that I work out in the early morning and you can squeeze in midday workouts, we might see each other here and there <3
ReplyDeleteMy hunger levels definitely vary. I try to eat intuitively (although I also track my food just out of curiosity and habit) and I definitely have days/weeks where I feel like I am ALWAYS hungry and then days/weeks where I eat normally or even less. I think it's generally fine to have fluctuating appetite but I also think it does relate to my activity level!