Measuring progress
So many stats!
When I started this crazy experiment I was already totally hooked on tracking my fitness.
I got my first Apple Watch during the pandemic.
I use a few different apps. I mean I really use them. It’s been interesting to watch my enthusiasm and experiments ebb and flow
For example, here’s some of what’s recorded on my devices since January. The first three are new this year (or revisited after a long time away). I added them to the mix, to the practices I’ve done for years (decades in some cases): tai chi/sword, strength training, Pilates, Egoscue, and more…
Solo jazz dance practice:
January: 9h 3m
February: 10h 55m
March: 3h 16m
April: 1h 8m
Diaphragm training/yoga:
January: 10h
February: 7h 16m
March: 3h 52m
April: 3h 7m
Breathwork
January: 18h 3m
February: 15h 58m
March: 3h 55m
April: 2h 26m
Cardio:
January: 1h 41m
February: 0 (guess I was too busy practicing the Shim Sham!)
March: 1h 24m
April: 55m
April’s interesting for me to look at. It’s also the month I started pruning bushes with tools taller than me, hauling a bale of straw down my driveway, prepping and schlepping dirt and seedlings, digging way too much compost and dirt, and more. April is also the month when I went partner dancing for the first time in a year. I went three times — it didn’t go well.
In fact, April felt really discouraging, to me anyway. Got sat down hard by a back spasm after a bunch of that crazy activity I just described. What’s actually happening doesn’t match my expectations ha ha lol — What else is new? I’m catching myself annoyed by the setbacks, yet gobsmacked by the reactions of my pain doctor and my physical therapist.
No problem, they said, smiling. Keep going! That there is much to celebrate in the fact that I can, and I do, and while the doing may be too much for my body sometimes, I still manage to recover enough to try again. So far, anyway.
My goals seem to be shifting here in month five of this crazy experiment. Instead of my main goal being partner dancing again, I’m becoming aware that under that I’ve got a much more compelling goal:
I’d like to spend more of the minutes, hours, and days I have left enjoying life and less time dreading and worrying about what’s happening now and what I make up might happen in the future.
Know what I mean? Shifting my goals like this allows me to approach the ongoing challenges with a lighter heart.
Partner dancing’s still out of reach.
Sleep’s still showing no signs of improvement (average time asleep around 6 hours, deep sleep around 30 minutes… stalled). I nap every day.
Should I dwell on what’s not going the way I think it should? Or might my perception of how things are going shift if my focus is on the gifts of the moment?
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