Friday, April 2, 2010

April Fun


It’s April 2nd, I know I am a day late with my monthly resolution review. There seemed to be something wrong about an April Fools’ post and my day was a little busy for reflection. I am reading a great book called The Happiness Project and loved learning that the author, Gretchen Rubin, also suggests a monthly personal progress report. I am really enjoying these monthly check-ups, even last month when I had to fess up to a lackluster February . As I had hoped, March was a motivated month.

I don’t know if it was the end of a long ski season or the change in weather or the fact that I had a bunch of fun events on the calendar but I felt a noticeable change in myself. The funny thing is that I hadn't realized how much I was going through the eating and exercise motions until I switched gears. In terms of my resolutions there was progress. In addition to the Chicago marathon in October, I have a May half marathon scheduled. I've started to run every other day and made the leap from my 30 minute “better than nothing” treadmill runs to 1 hour runs in Central or Riverside Park. Yesterday I purchased a Garmin running watch with GPS built in and new sneakers further cementing my running commitment. What’s really nice is that I am enjoying the challenge rather than feeling burdened.

I actually had another fitness breakthrough of sorts. Last month I told you that I was trapped in my yoga membership and was attending a class but not fully convinced I had yogi potential. Shortly after, I was put on the spot by the yoga teacher in class. He asked “how often do you practice?” I answered truthfully and asked “how often should I practice?” He said it depends, “3 times a week is a good start or you can be like Tatiana and attend 13 classes a week.” Let’s be clear, I will never be like Tatiana (human pretzel in front row of class) but 3 times sounded like a possibility. I got over thinking “what am I doing here, this is soooo not for me” and started trying a little harder. I am a little less worried about being inept. I am looking forward to class; I even did my first bind.

There’s something about my reading resolution I’d also like to share. I had included “read more for pleasure” on my January list. I have joined a book club and loved our first book. The second book wasn’t really up my alley. We have a meeting in 2 weeks to discuss this book. I was dreading finishing the book and decided to read The Happiness Project instead. Funny enough, in the Happiness Project Gretchen Robin discusses reading. She suggested not forcing yourself to finish a book you aren’t enjoying. I am tempted to take this advice but still feel like a bit of a quitter. I like the concept of conscious quitting though. After all, it takes a lot to decide something is not for you….but if I had done this with yoga I would never have started to enjoy it. This will provide food for thought in April for sure.
Was March a motivated month for you? Do you remember and review your resolution(s)? Do you finish books you don’t love? Do you condone conscious quitting?

4 comments:

  1. there are way too many good books out there to spend time reading ones that aren't for you...after giving titles an honest effort, of course. i'm doing a mother's day half marathon and looking very forward to it. i'm not beating myself about not doing weekly runs (i just can't fit them in) and am concentrating on doing long runs on the weekend. i'm happy where i am right now in relation to resolutions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm just trying to make good decisions each day regarding food. Getting back on track w/ exercise by purchasing new shoes. March is an incredibly stressful month for me, and I traveled a lot which made the resolutions difficult to keep. But I tried. And now that April is here and my stress level drops dramatically, I'll do better. I'll also give myself some credit by saying that my "good" efforts in March were way better than my zero efforts before.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PS -- Dying to hear your thoughts about the Jamie Oliver show on ABC.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am also running the half marathon (my first!) with Lauren. I started running three to four times a week and then i noticed my body breaking down a little. I had not run in over a year and then all of a sudden to start 3 times a week was not the way to slowly transition. I have evened it out and now am running twice a week and do yoga and spin the other days. Now i feel that I am getting stronger and am able to run longer with no pain. Before I felt burdened but now i feel enlivened as my body is adjusting to the new challenge in a balanced way.

    ReplyDelete