Self-Care: My School Year’s Resolutions

My boys are back in school and I have big, big plans for all of this “free” time I’ve found as a result. Lots of self-care time. My daughter sleeps for most of the time that my boys are in school, so I feel like I have the whole day to myself! The possibilities are endless and I’m so (so so so) excited! As a result, I’ve decided to start what I’m calling my “School Year’s Resolutions” because the way I feel now is how I normally feel at the beginning of a new year. Having two kids in school is amazing!!!

So, what’s my plan? I’m going to focus on “me” areas that I’ve been neglecting, personal fitness and blogging, as well as general-life-areas that need work, cleaning and studying. I’m working on overhauling my blog and I thank you guys for being patience as the dust settles. And while my master’s classes may have ended, I still have that Praxis math test standing in the way of my starting student teaching in the spring. So, my studying continues.

Here’s how I planned out this past week and the weeks to come: M/W/F are for running, studying, and light cleaning (dishes, laundry, etc.). T/TH are for blogging and heavy cleaning (everything else…pinterest house goals!). I plan on doing yoga every day, and weekends are free days because weekends are crazy and I’m lucky to fit in what I can.

So far, this plan is going well. Except that my house was in a major state of disarray, so I chose to catch up on that and will start studying next week. Let’s get into the fitness details:

Running Talk

One summer, back when I lived in South Carolina, my husband decided that I was going to become a runner. Not that I actually consider myself a runner, but we ran every other day. Running is basically the only way I know how to exercise, so that’s what I decided to do with my M-W-F mornings before my daughter takes her nap. My goal is to run at least 2 miles for the first couple of weeks, then bump it up to 3 for a week, then up and up and up until I get to 6 miles. Once I get there, I’ll work on speed. This past experience with running is why I’m able to just jumpin at 2+ miles when I haven’t really run in almost a year. That, and stubbornness determination. Right now, I’m sloooooow. The jogging stroller makes me even slower. I’m not sure how I ever used to do this with a double stroller. An 8k with a double stroller just seems insane to me right now. (Yet I did this in Nov. of ’13.)

Anyway, I always have a couple of apps open while I run. Charity Miles, so that my runs are worth something, and Pandora, so I have some music. If you’re unfamiliar with Charity Miles, it’s an app that donates money to the charity of your choice, from their list of options. Granted, it’s a tiny amount of money, but it’s enough to motivate me to go juuuust a little bit farther so that X charity gets that whole extra quarter or whatever.

Running Details:

• Stats: I don’t have exact data, but I think my average pace was 12.5 per mile, which is terrible, but you have to start somewhere! My runs were 2 or 2.5 miles each day.
• Pandora stations: No Doubt and Flogging Molly. I was in a ska-ish mood, I guess.
• Charities donated to: Autism Speaks and the National Park Foundation.

 

Yoga Talk

I started a 30 day yoga series that I randomly found on youtube (It was actually “recommended” when I typed “Yoga” into the search bar in the youtube app on my TV/Xbox…) and is hosted by a woman named Adriene, who is a yoga instructor from Austin, Texas. All the praise hands emojiis to youtube for recommending this series to me. Adriene is a great host because she doesn’t take herself too seriously, which is great because I am AWFUL at yoga and her slight goofiness makes me feel better about myself. Like, seriously. I have no balance, week muscles…I am the worst. DESPITE THIS THOUGH, I can follow along with her videos! I might spend the quiet time thinking about how I need to vacuum, but I can do it. Which means you can too. Here is the first video. If you’ve been wanting to try yoga, but haven’t been sure where to start, this is a good place. The videos seem to range anywhere from 15-30 minutes, so it’s totally doable to fit a quick practice into your day.

FitBit Stats for the Week:

• Monday (8/29): 17,354 steps | 48 active minutes
• Tuesday (8/30): 12,346 steps | 14 active minutes
• Wednesday (8/31): 20,028 steps | 112 active minutes
• Thursday (9/1): 11,793 steps | 32 active minutes
• Friday (9/2): 17,697 steps | 73 active minutes

That’s my fitness talk for the week! I’ll check in with you next Saturday!