Author: Erica

Still Running – One Year of Exercising!

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Last year in April, I decided to start regularly working out. I have definitely always had an on again/off again relationship with exercising. At the beginning of 2018, I was in an “off again” phase. I had just started grad school towards a Library Science degree, and as it turns out, grad school added a bit of extra stress to my life. (Go figure.) 

I decided to start exercising mainly as a way to cope with stress. I was in the midst of a stressful group project with school, and I was so stressed out that I had literally started losing my hair. Exercise was one of those things that I knew was going to help my mental and physical health, but I had convinced myself I didn’t have the time. I worked full time, I had a young child, I was tired!!! Until one day I just decided I was done with the excuses, and I would just start doing it. (Read more about how I motivated myself to start exercising here.)

I started out running 2-3 times a week – and I surprised myself when I had kept it up for a month, and then two months, and three… I surprised myself even more when I started to look forward to it. (I also surprised myself when I began having major hip and shoulder pain from running… a reminder I’m not as young as I used to be!) 

I told myself if I made it to the year mark, that I would write a post about it: so here it is. 1 year of exercising. 1 year of staying steady with a goal. 1 year of not giving up on something. It feels good.

I did have one major low point in past twelve months about Christmas-time through February. I had gotten a cold and had stopped exercising to recover, and I had just finished a really stressful semester at school, and things in life kind of seemed like they were falling apart for a bit. My energy dropped, and for a few months even when I tried to exercise, it was hard. I had lost progress and speed on my runs, and even just doing a slow jog felt like I was running underwater. I know my mental health was at a low point too – it’s so interesting how our bodies and minds are so intertwined. I really thought this was the point I would give up running.

During this time, I still managed to go on runs, though some of the time it averaged only once a week, and some parts of the run I would just walk. But the point is, I kept going. Really by the end of February I started noticing the runs were getting easier again. The weather started getting warmer, and I was enjoying running outside again.

Today, I went on a run around ACU’s campus – my normal route. From my house and around the trail it’s about a 2.7 mile run. I don’t run it very fast – I average between 9-10 minute miles. I wish I could say that after a year of running, I’ve made some amazing gains in strength or speed, or even my physique. I haven’t really made any of those gains, but I have stayed steady – which I think is also a worthwhile goal. Sometimes that’s the best we can do – and it’s good enough.

I am good enough. 

 

 

 

Turning Point Anniversaries

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I’ve been thinking lately about dates. Important and significant dates. We all have those times in our lives where something significant has happened, and our life is forever separated into the “before” and “after” of an event. Take for example, the birth of a child: like how I now refer to my life in terms of “before Calvin” or “after Calvin.”

I thought it would be interesting to create a collection of all the significant dates and anniversaries in my life, and create some sort of timeline. Below is my list of the dates that represent significant turning points in my life, the pivotal BEFOREs and AFTERs. I may have left a few out, but it is interesting to see them all in one place, and to note that most of my turning point events have been positive. It’s also interesting to note that most of my dates happened when I was at least 20 years old – so as a young child I did not experience a lot of huge changes in my life – aka my life was pretty stable. Maybe this explains my resistance to change… even positive changes.

January 18, 1987 – Birthday – 0 years old

September 21, 1998 – Baptism – 11 years old

June 5, 2009 – Marriage – 22 years old

(mid) June 2009 – Moved to Abilene – 22 years old

June 30, 2016 – Birth of Calvin – 29 years old

July 26, 2016 – Admittance to Abilene Behavioral Health Hospital -29 years old

August 14, 2017 – Started job at ACU Library – 30 years old

??????

What are your turning point anniversaries? Have they been mostly positive or negative? It’s an interesting exercise to reflect back over your life and see the exact moments when something happened that would forever impact your future.

 

 

 

“sometimes when you’re tired, you have big feelings”

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If you have not yet had the privilege of watching “Word Party” on Netflix, let me take a moment to explain the gist of the show:

There are 4 babies (that happen to be different baby animals) who hang out together, and you as the viewer are a “big kid” who helps them answer questions as they go about their day. It’s a very repetitive show and each episode they learn a few new words… thus the basis for the title: Word Party.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes you’re watching a little kid’s show, and they say something that is actually kind of profound?

This happened to me a while back. In episode 9, Lulu (the panda) decides not to take her nap, which then leads her to be not so nice to the other babies later in the day. They finally realize that her lack of sleep has made it harder for her to manage her emotions and feelings, which is when the statement: “sometimes when you’re tired, you have big feelings” was announced by the narrator.

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