When The Wheels Fall Off

 

And do you know what the worst part is? I let it dam my flow!  I’ve come to learn that it is so much more fun to write when things are going well.  I’ve also learned that I need to publish immediately, even if I’m not proud of the contents, because that’s what blogs are for.  Who’s to say that posts about honest struggle carry less value to the reader or the writer than brag posts?

A quick recap:  I am in the middle of a massive self-reconstruction project.  (It’s massive to me, but I don’t think anyone outside the audience of this blog would have any idea that I’m doing anything out of the ordinary.)  My goal is to take this Covid time-out and use it to completely change.  My goal is to be a better person physically, mentally, and professionally, and in any other way that occurs to me.  It occurred to me early on that this really is an opportunity like no other, like a caterpillar in the cocoon, I’m leaning into the voluntary social distancing required to stay healthy.

So, even though you, the reader, are probably only interested in parts of this post, I thought I would use it to do a general check-in on all plates I have spinning around me all at once. Yes, that’s clunky, but I’ve fallen behind.  Good luck readers!

PHYSICAL

I might as well start here and get the disappointment out of the way.  Unlike other posts you will find no graphs or tables here today.  The injury I sustained to my back two Sundays ago has proven to be persistent.  That said, I have 5 days of extremely light resistance and gentle stretching under my belt.  I’m close to getting back to it, but it has taken a complete fortnight to get to this point.  

In addition:

I have learned that there are limitations to my garage gym.  I was able to deal with humidity and melting snow from the cars, but the weather forecasted above is only a continuation of the weather we have already endured.  January was jungle hot compared to February.   So my new gym is literally a 6’ X 7’ landing near my basement stairs-literally the only place in the house where I can lay without stacking couches or beds.  And you know what?  It’s perfect!  I’m absolutely prevented from undertaking anything that could further injure me.  It seems I’m being instructed from above to ease my way back(pun intended).

DIET

My “Dry January” turned into “Dry Close Enough!”  Yep, tripped at the finish.  On a positive note this has become a bi-annual undertaking, as I take Septembers off too.(If I have successfully completed two January and one September liquor fast am I allowed to talk about it like this is a thing I do?)  I think it was my frustration at not being able to work out as much as anything that was responsible for my falter.

I am also not using Fitness Pal to track my eating at this time.  This was never meant to be a long term intervention, rather a mental calibration to get a feel for what portion control should feel like.  As I stated in earlier blogs, I’m not out to lose weight.  If anything I probably need to gain some.  My ultimate goal is to maintain mass as I traipse through time.

What is really helping me most is that, as a family, we are extremely motivated to eat well right now.  My current belief is that rather than restrict the amount eaten we should add fresh vegetables to every meal.  A salad or a soup, when added to a meal, fills in the cracks before the naughty foods can.

SPANISH

This is the view from my Rosetta Stone progress plan.  I have completed 4 weeks, and have one more lesson in week five.  As I mentioned earlier, for me this program is best used in conjunction with Duolingo as it focuses way more on pronunciation.  However, I find myself counting the seconds for each lesson to be over.  In the program’s defense I usually do it after I have already completed an hour or two of Duolingo.  How fair is that? 

On January 3rd, when I last posted about Spanish I was at 19500 XP, so as you can see, I’ve earned almost 4000 points since then(with corrections that’s like 5000 questions!)  Check out the streak of days!

Professional Growth

I’d like to start by mentioning this very blog.  This was new to me.  I’m going to give myself a pat on the back here.  No, this isn’t Catcher In The Rye, but I do try to put a little thought into what I produce here.  Also, putting yourself out there publicly has to be worth something too.  So there it is.  Another 10 posts during the month of January.  Not terrible.

In addition to blogging I have completed 5 online education classes for my teaching licensure to date(Digital Literacy and The Connected Classroom from Eduro, and Cultural Competency(2 parts) and Mental Illness in Children and Adolescents from EQ Learn.

For the record, this is not the only place I record my thoughts. I have a journal I have kept on and off for almost 30 years(mostly on!). I mention this because, in looking over what I have written so far, there are some pretty major omissions that I’m still not at the point I want to share publicly. My spiritual journey and future plans make up a large portion of what goes into it my hand written journal(incidentally, there is nothing better than a fountain pen and a good journal to coax out the most stubborn thinking!) Perhaps, in the future, I’ll pull back the curtain on some of this growth as well. For now you’ll just have to be satisfied with that Duolingo streak. Whoa!

Photo Credit

Featured Image: Photo by Mark Zamora on Unsplash