Category Archives: Fitness

The Busyness and Happiness Connection

My blog bud Janetha has started a Three Tips Thursday series, and she asked me to write her second installment of tips–go check it out! I wrote for her about happiness. I’m no expert on happiness–but when I lived in D.C., I knew more about unhappiness than I’d like to admit. There was no real reason for me to be unhappy, but I just felt a giant void in my life that I no longer feel. While I wish I had turned things around earlier, I’m just glad that I finally found my way.

As I mentioned on Janetha’s blog, a big part of my unhappiness was that I wasn’t doing things for myself–things that made me happy. I hung out with friends and hoped their happiness would rub off on me. It doesn’t really work that way. I stayed busy, but much of it was work-related and networking with lots of political people. I quickly realized politics wasn’t what I wanted to do, and became increasingly unhappy going to political events and pretending I cared.

Back then, I filled my life with random events so that I didn’t have time to face my unhappiness.

These days, I’m just as busy, if not busier, but it’s all (well, mostly) stuff I choose to do. I chose a job I knew would have long hours. I chose to join the New York Junior League and chair my committee. I chose to start this blog, and work hard at it to make something I’m proud of. I choose to run and train for races. None of these are minor time committments, but they make me happy, and I’m no longer keeping myself busy for fear of unhappiness.

Whew.

I’ve also learned to say no. I don’t go to every blog event I’m invited to any more for fear of missing out. I’d much rather miss out and spend time with close friends (although many of my close friends are also blog friends), work out or just chill. (Wanting to take time to just chill is also a phenomenon I learned upon moving to NYC, ironically.)

But a comment on my blog from Nicole made me realize how much I’ve been putting on myself in the past few months:

Screen shot 2012-03-29 at 9.13.36 PM.png

Since starting my new job four months ago, I have:

No wonder I’ve been feeling exhausted and having a hard time waking up to work out. This weekend I have two workout classes and a run planned, and THAT’S IT. And I am psyched.

Tonight, I was still feeling an allergy-induced death, so I made a very conscious decision to blow off my run. I felt in such a fog that I felt like I’d keel over if I tried to do anything faster than run.

DSC_0600.JPG

I picked up a new Neti pot and some eye drops.

DSC_0599.JPG

DSC_0597.JPG

Warmed up some of my mom’s sauce and had it over some whole wheat pasta and am vegging on the couch watching 30 Rock and The Office. Just what I needed.

And that. That’s also what I needed. It really made my entire week.

In Search of Consistency

This is the second time this week I’ve written a post and Ecto, my blogging software, has gone and deleted it. Thanks, Ecto.

Just when you’d think I exhausted every single stupid excuse for why I didn’t work out this morning, I have a new one!

I plugged my phone into a different outlet last night (why, I don’t know either), and it turns out that it was an outlet controlled by a light switch, which, of course I’d turned off and my phone died.

I’d reserved a bike for a 6:30 spin class this morning, and I woke up naturally at 6:20 and realized there was no way I could get changed and make it there in 10 minutes…and so I plugged my phone into a different outlet and rolled back over, defeated. I ended up sleeping until almost 8, getting a full nine hours of sleep.

I don’t know if it was too much sleep (that’s not really a thing, is it?), an allergy-induced fog, or a bit of both, but today dragged on and on and on. A trip to a client event to take some photos at mid-day was a nice diversion to wake back up.

Around 4, I realized I needed to come up with a workout plan, so I decided I’d work to get everything done and get out of the office by 7:10 to get to 30/60/90. Per usual, the class was awesome, but I couldn’t help but watch two girls in the front who were in kick-ass shape. I want to be like them when I grow up. How can I be like them? Consistency.

IMG_1296.JPG

IMG_1295.JPG

By the time I got home, walked Bailey and was ready to start making something to eat (fajitas), it was 9:30. If that’s not reason enough for me to try to become one of those morning exercisers, I don’t know what it is.

That, and the endorphins evaporate overnight. I was in such a good mood when I ran before work last week, and I definitely don’t feel that same way when I work out at night.

So, I’m not going to ask how you make yourself wake up to work out in the morning, because that one’s beating a dead horse, but what workouts do you struggle to do consistently? For me, it’s obviously anything that’s not running.