Life Update

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post. With the constant worry of coronavirus going around and trying to find my centre and calm during all of this, somethings got set to one side and unfortunately, the blog was one of them. Thankfully, I’m getting into a flow with things and adapting. I shall do a little update into what has been going on and start to say where I would like to go when things start returning to a form of normality. So, here goes nothing …

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The last blog I wrote was a beginning update, so with this being week 6 of 12, I’m in a slightly better place than I was. My initial plan was to learn coding, to better myself, however, I noticed I wasn’t actually learning it but more just doing what was required. So, while I did the requirement, I couldn’t go back and say why I did it or reproduce it from scratch. This affected my mental health a little as society dictated (in a way) that whilst not working, you should learn something, you should better yourself and I thought the same thing. While some people can do that, not everyone will be able to. For some people, getting dressed, getting moving can be the win for the day. The whole situation is something that nobody alive has ever been through. Nobody knows what a normal is with a global pandemic, so I decided to give myself a break and not to worry if I don’t learn how to code, or learn a different language etc. 

That being said, I do have access to LinkedIn learning and, from a quick glance, have seen there are filmmaking courses and video production courses that spoke to me. While it would be nice to learn something like coding, it would be cool also to learn something that can feed my creativity more than this blog could. Whether I will like it and continue it is yet to be seen but I haven’t actually signed up for it yet, so I’ll do some thinking. It has been a niggle in my mind for some time about producing things on film. I always enjoyed the production of my YouTube videos so maybe being able to learn how to do it properly and officially would be an asset. It would then require equipment to do properly but I have the basic equipment now so I could at least make and produce something. Stay tuned for more on that.

When it all started, I make a plan to keep a routine going. That went fairly well for the first week, maybe stretched a little with the wake-up time, the exercise time etc. however, it didn’t last. I had the worries of what this meant for my life and what I knew. Worries about my vacation in June, worries about my family, where some had to go to work as they are key workers, of my mum and dad being protected and not getting sick, even worrying about me not getting sick. So the first few weeks was a sort of blur, emotions went wild, days blurred into each other and I didn’t do any exercise. Well, I didn’t do much exercise. Not as much as I did before the lockdown. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to do as much as I wasn’t going to work and walking home, but I did do some resistance band exercises. Around week 3, I knew I had to get back into it. I had this time to be able to go out first thing when nobody was around and work on my running. Build up my distance to get back up to comfortably doing 10ks again and do some speed work. 

I used to run often and be able to do all of that, and even run almost half marathon distance. I stopped and then my running went to hell. I started to build it up a bit before the lockdown and started to enjoy it again so figured, while I have the time, why not do it again. I wake up at 6am (which also helps keep a routine and early wakeup which will help when I eventually go back to work) and head out for either a run or a walk. I’ve been doing that for 3 weeks now and I’m enjoying it. It’s hard to wake up and get up sometimes but I push myself and I’m getting the distances down and with that, pace will increase as well as fitness. Last week I managed to run 5ks for 3 out of 4 days which I am super proud of. Some of the runs I stopped to walk but as with before, I need to give myself a break. I’m not going to be able to get back into running big distances and go fast in a week. I will have bad runs and good runs. 

This week, I have a virtual run coming up. Me and my sister saw these medals on a Facebook ad (who’d have thought they would be good sometimes when stealing data and tracking everything) and they looked amazing. We went on the site and saw there were loads of custom medals for running various distances for different events. I saw a “this is the way” medal which was the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda for Star Wars day (may the 4^th) and they were cheaper than doing the great Manchester run (which is fun but I’m not there yet … plus it will more than likely be cancelled this year). Plus, it split up the distance, so its 10 miles over 4 days which is very easily attainable for my fitness. Plus I get a cool medal at the end and it’s all dependent on myself, I don’t need a ride there, don’t have to have people hanging around (these were all issues I felt for myself for the great Manchester run as I mentioned in my running blog). Don’t get me wrong, I love the Manchester run and will do I again eventually. 

So, as well as the running, I am going to attempt some at home workouts that I got from my gyms app. I keep putting it off though as I don’t want to work out in my jeans and don’t want to get changed into workout clothes for maybe 30 mins and then put them for wash. Might just have to close doors and do it in my underwear XD. There is one thing I’m certain, however. When a new normal is achieved, I am CERTAINLY going to hire a PT. learn the machines I’m not confident on at the gym, get some definition in my muscles and get the fittest I’ve ever been and build some strength. Plus, it will hopefully help with my confidence as I shall learn to love myself again and need to work on not linking the way I look with how I see myself. Be happy in my own skin and build up my confidence. I have floated through life so far and now I need to live it. Travel, do things I want to do, get out of my comfort zone and enjoy life, because this virus has shown me that anything could happen and there’s only so much control I have. 

Here’s to living life to the fullest and enjoying things … after the lockdown has passed and corona is manageable of course.

I hope all of you are staying safe, staying healthy and taking it easy on yourselves.