Category: On Life

Posts about family, work, life, existential dread… the usual.

Rebuilding the Exercise Routine, One Day at a Time

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life2 Comments

I mentioned in my June Write Day post last week that I had achieved my goal of exercising every day throughout the month of May. I’m very pleased and proud with this achievement. I haven’t had a regular workout routine since sometime during the pandemic.

For the 15ish years between high school and my early thirties, I had a regular gym routine focused on strength training. During that span, I trained with weights, running, swimming, boxing, and rock climbing, and I was able to evolve my routine over time as I moved places and my lifestyle shifted. That all changed when I was laid off in 2019 and lost access to my former employer’s amazing gym. I tried to reestablish a routine at a gym near our house, and then everything fell apart in 2020.

Starting a New Routine

So I’d like to take a look at my routine in May and see how it’s developed. This is partially a way for me to glean an early routine again. Now, I had three main principles for my daily exercise routine for May:

  1. Do anything, regardless of how tired I was. Even if it was just a 10-minute stretch, I needed to prove to myself that I could proactively do something each and every day, regardless of how small.
  2. Focus on small goals. I didn’t go for intricate, 30- or 60-minute workouts from the jump. I knew I needed to build up to that — and I’m still building up to that.
  3. Be responsive to how my body feels. If I felt like I had the energy, I’d do something more intensive. If I felt worn down and just wanted to decompress, I’d focus on stretching and movement.

Building the New Routine

I’m not going to go day-by-day, but I’d like to trace my progress over the month of May to demonstrate how a decent routine can be built in tiny steps.

Week 1

  • 4 days of basic stretching
  • 2 days of resistance training
  • 1 day with a 20-minute yoga session

Week 2

  • 4 days with a 10-minute yoga session
  • 2 days of resistance training
  • 1 day with 4km of walking

Here’s an overview of my first two weeks. Week 1 was heavy on stretching, while week 2 I managed to do a lot of yoga. I also took advantage of a family trip to an amusement park to get in a ton of walking, which I think counts for something.

Week 3

  • 3 days of resistance training
  • 2 days with a 15-minute yoga session
  • 1 day with a 10-minute yoga session
  • Unexpected and unexpectedly difficult trampoline workout

Week 4+ (Last 10 days)

  • 1 day of basic stretching
  • 2 days with a 10-minute yoga session
  • 3 days with a 15- or 20-minute yoga session
  • 3 days of resistancec training
  • 1 day of kayaking, 1300m sprint

Notice in the final two weeks, I started doing longer yoga sessions. You can’t see it in the above, but I also tried to vary the types of workouts I did, as well. I took advantage of a family play date / dinner date at our friends’ house to play on their trampoline with our kids, which was so much more tiring than I expected. I also used one of our regular summer lake trips to kayak, something I love to do and really love the workout.

Continuing the Routine

The point is, once I committed to exercising every day, I was able to quickly ramp up to more intense workouts and dedicate more time to my routine each day. I don’t have a firm routine set yet, but I think it’s plain to see one had started to emerge in the second half of the month, effectively splitting time between resistance training and yoga.

Now I just need to find the time to kayak more.

Steve D

June Write Day: Routines

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

We had a lot going on in May. Between some business travel, some home improvement projects, and living with two little boys who seem hellbent on wrestling each other into oblivion, we were busy.

June will, hopefully, be a little easier. I’m traveling to a friend’s wedding for a weekend this month, and I’m trying to focus on having a couple days to relax and reset a bit; I’m trying not to stress too much about the actual travel bit. Airports are stressful.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Actually finish two revisions for Uprooted.
  2. Plan next steps for The Herb Witch Tales.
  3. Read three books.
  4. Exercise every day.

Finish two revisions for Uprooted?

No, but I’ve identified the issue. I don’t have a routine. I’ve previously used NaNoWriMo to track writing progress, but it’s not really helpful for tracking… anything other than writing. As you’ll see in the section about my exercise routine below, staying accountable to myself, even in very simple ways, is immensely helpful. So I need to start doing this for all things writing related. More to come on this next month.

Anyway, I completed for full read-through of Uprooted. I think it’s overall solid, except the ending needs some more. As is my habit, I had gotten to writing the ending and just wanted to finish, and so I rushed it more than was necessary. I want to pad it out a bit so it’s not as abrupt for the reader. So I finished one read-through.

I got about halfway through my second read-through, the goal of which is to map out my scenes and their length, so I can determine if there’s a better way to organize my novella into shorter chapters.

In short, I have more work to do on Uprooted, but it’s nothing major.

Plan next steps for The Herb Witch Tales?

Not really. Kind of? While it’s tempting to say I’ll be ready to send Uprooted off to my editor and beta readers once I’m through my next revision phase, that’s probably hasty. I’m thinking I need to get Uprooted to a good spot where I’m comfortable with it as a singular story, and then go through revisions for New Earth.

Doing so will help me ensure that the themes and tones I want both stories to share are properly touched on throughout. Rather than finalizing one, I want to finalize both. So, that’s my very loose plan.

Read three books?

Yes! I finished this goal about halfway through May, and since then I’ve been taking my time with new reads. I’m still working through Raising Good Humans and A Memory of Light, and I’m also listening to Tyll, a retelling of a German folktale that I am honestly not sure what to think about yet.

I’m hoping to finish at least at of these this month, and I’ll find the third somewhere.

Exercise every day?

YESSS! This is the part of this post I’ve been most excited for. I exercised every single day, and after only the first one to two weeks, my exercise habits started to change. I’m going to do a deeper dive on this next week, but basically, the first week of May had a few days of just stretching as my exercise, because it was all I had the mental or physical energy for. I started doing more yoga, even in 10-minute sessions, and that has grown.

I’m continuing the trend for June and starting to formulate a basic routine. I’m just not marrying myself to anything rigid at this point, because I want to keep progressing. I’ve used Samsung Notes to track my daily progress, and honestly, it’s working. More to come next week!

Goals for June

  1. Do something writing related at least every other day. Similar to my exercise routine, I need to set of routine of writing things. Not writing, specifically, or writing X words per day, because I’m not in a drafting phase. But I need to be accountable for the progress that I’m making, so this is my way of doing it. I’m saying every other day for now, because I just need to establish the routine, then build on it. I think this will help me achieve my more specific goals for Uprooted — I’m just keeping things simple for this month.
  2. Read three books. As I said above, I want to finish at least two of the three I have in progress and then find another one to round out the month.
  3. Exercise every day. I just want to keep the momentum going. I think a routine is starting to coalesce in my head, but I just want to stay adaptable for now. This is working for me physically and mentally. I’ll provide more detail next week.

Steve D

Mid/Late April Check-In

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

It’s been a long time since I wrote a “status update” type of post, but I’m in the middle of a lot of different things at the moment.

I definitely intended to title this my “Mid-April” check-in, until I realized that it is, in fact, April 25th as I write this. So, here are my status updates.

Revisions

I’m still revising Uprooted, The Herb Witch Tales #1, and hopeful I can finish the current stage by the end of the month. Really enjoying this story, which always feels weird to say about my own writing, but considering what the first draft of this story looked like, I am immensely happy with how it has evolved.

Reading

I’m in the middle of three separate books at the moment. One of them, I may actually finish this month. Another is A Memory of Light, which I’ve just decided is my reading project this year–won’t be finishing that this month. And the third is a book about parenting–Raising GOod Humans–which includes homework.

Yes, I am trying to do the homework. I’m not reading this book because I enjoy the subject matter. I’m reading it because I’ve been having issues with my older son. The book has already helped somewhat, so I’m trying to put in an honest effort. It just means it will take me longer to finish.

Exercise

Part of the above improvement effort has included a realization that I need to exercise for my mental health as much as physical. I’ve always known this, but it’s really hit home for me recently. I’ve been pretty good about it this month for a seemingly obvious reason: I’ve gone back to a yoga channel on YouTube I’m very familiar and very comfortable with–Sarah Beth Yoga.

I had tried the Asana Rebel app, found it lacking, and then wondered what to do next. And I ended up just going back to a yoga teacher on YouTube, whose app I might as well get into, because she’s great. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.

I’ve also tried to get back into a meditation routine, focused on mindfulness. I’m at the point where a 3-minute meditation session feels short, so that’s probably a good sign.

That’s It

Anyway, that’s all I have this week. Lots of stuff happening, but mostly as works-in-progress, which is just the way it goes sometimes. My monthly goals post next week will be more substantive, and hopefully chock-full of updates.

Steve D