I want to stay active during this time. I know there will definitely be some muscle loss and some slight flab regained to my stomach area because I’m not working out as hard as I usually am with my full heavy lifting routine. And thus, my body is not burning as many calories everyday anymore but hopefully that will bounce back quickly when I can finally go back to the gym. Hopefully this quarantine period is a shock to my system and throttles the plateau I’ve been stuck in, once we’re back in business and can start lifting normally again.

My goal is to do at least 30 minutes of activity a day, if not 1-2 hours. It’s harder at home for me due to lack of equipment and I get distracted easily in the house and will lose focus. I’m just not a home workout person, I learned. I do best inside an actual physical gym environment. This is a totally different type of discipline I need to work on. I also can’t do just cardio, especially with no race to train for and no specific goals or timeline in mind. Unfortunately, running alone will literally “run” off my muscles so I do need to continue lifting to maintain the shape I’ve worked so hard to build for the past two years.

I got desperate enough in the first few days of gyms shutting down that I finally caved and ordered a barbell and weight set but I have to wait for it to arrive. In the meantime, I’m using my husband’s dumbbells but it’s hard because they’re much heavier than what I’m used to lifting so it’s going to take a bit before I can build up to handling them without difficulty and they don’t work as well for the leg and back exercises I’m used to doing with a longer bar with the weight more evenly distributed. I even got so desperate that I’m deadlifting and squatting my bike as an alternative. I saw a video on Instagram today where a girl was using her sofa as an alternative to a leg press. It gave me the idea to leg press my treadmill (my sofa set is too big and bulky to leg press). It looks strange but it’s working and damnit, I’M TRYING.

Honestly put, I’m struggling with the whole home workout thing because (a) I’m so used to my routine in the gym with the same machines over and over and (b) I don’t have a routine established yet. It’s going to be a learning curve adjusting at first before I can settle into the groove of things and figure out a set routine I like and will rotate through on a daily basis. BUT! I’m working on it. I’m determined to get through this and make do in the meantime. I really refuse to do nothing and be complacent with being lazy during this period. I’m going through different home workout videos and seeing what I like and trying to put together alternatives to my leg, back, chest, shoulders and arms routine.

Here are some ideas of ways to keep active during quarantine that I’m trying if you’re interested:

1. Running/Walking - I try to aim for 20k steps a day, and a minimum of at least one 5k run a day.

2. Biking

3. Lifting - barbells, dumbbells, bikes, cases of water/drinks, anything heavy and sturdy to hold on to

4. Stretching with resistance bands (donkey kicks, fire hydrants, monster walks, crab walks, etc)

5. Body weighted exercises (planks, push-ups, leg lifts, sit-ups, etc)

6. Virtual workouts - there are a lot of people streaming their workouts online if you’re interested in joining in. There are also a lot of workout videos on Youtube, Instagram, etc that you can save and do on your own time as well. I’m saving all the IG videos in a folder and going through them when I have free time.

I’m also trying to practice eating more mindfully. What I mean is, I don’t want to eat just because I’m bored or have nothing to do. This is how things get out of hand real fast. But this is why I need to fill my days with things to do, increase the time spent on physical activity, etc to make sure I’m always occupied so I’m not bored and left to wonder about what I should eat. I know what my problem areas are and I’m working on changing them. It’s also hard to eat healthy during this time because of the scarcity of items in stores. Some days I can find my regular items I buy and other days, it’s a madhouse and the store is ransacked. I’ve also found that this quarantine time is dangerous for cravings. I found myself making excuses and giving in to food indulgences. I need to work on this, find my center again and work on that discipline.

These photos were taken in the first two weeks of March before gyms were closed down as I was working on cleaning up the damage from my Disney trip and I was training for my DC cherry blossom 10 mile run before it was cancelled. I’m leaving them here to remind myself where I left off and to keep it as motivation as I work towards putting together an effective home workout routine for myself to get myself back there.

These photos were taken the past two days. I’m going to try and monitor my progress or should I say regress so I can keep myself in check and keep the quarantine damage to a minimum. The number on the scale is definitely creeping up and they don’t lie because I can definitely feel the bloating and see the definition leaving my stomach area as I’m not burning as much anymore to keep it in check. But I mean, I’ve done this several times in the past 2 years as I train for races and work towards goals to look good for vacations and such so it won’t be much different. I should have faith in myself in knowing I’ll get back there in due time once I get back on track.

I’ll be honest, it IS getting really hard to push through and show up for myself every day but I’m really trying here to make it through. I fall into a depression every time I think about it because I worry about so many things like falling off the wagon and reverting back to old ways. I worry about progress lost. I worry about weight gain. I worry about the stress it will have on my mental and physical health if I don’t keep up. And then that stress adds further to it and I worry that that stress is causing me to eat my feelings and wonder if that’s how I’m gaining weight. The water retention and bloating I obsess over constantly. It’s one big inner battle with myself as I navigate this home workout/quarantine land mine. I obsess over pictures I took just two weeks ago about how my body was still defined and within the last week since gyms have been closed, the definition in my abs is suffering. Ugh. That’s another thing I know I REALLY need to work on that I said would work on for 2020 but the whole corona thing isn’t exactly helping. I said I would work on being kinder to myself and easier on myself. But so far all I’ve done is the opposite. The scorpio dragon in me and my obsessive ways. Maybe I’ll work on that during quarantine too. Practice being gentler on myself.

There are other non-workout things I can also do to take my mind off this. I have a few books I borrowed from the library that I have yet to read so I have those to look forward to since the library is also shut down for the time being so there’s no worry about having to finish them soon to return them. I also have my old Gossip Girl books I keep wanting to re-read.

I also have a lot of shows and movies to catch up on. I should probably make a list. It would be helpful to have something to watch during times I have to run inside on the treadmill because the weather isn’t exactly run-friendly or because it’s late at night after work and that’s the only time I can squeeze my workout in because this quarantine thing is throwing my sleep schedule further out of wack since I don’t have to be up earlier to make it to the gym on time before work. You see how easy it is to fall back into bad habits?!?! This is why I worry about my health and fitness. As well as my mental health. The gym has been keeping me sane for the past two years as well as physically well. It’s what I need to do to feel normal, to build up energy for the day, to take out all my stress on, to feel productive, to create endorphins and just damnit, feel good for the day. We ain’t trying to revert back to old demons, y’all! Please send help.