This was a bit of an odd month for me. I had a week of vacation, followed by a week of being incredibly sick, and all that really threw me off my schedule! I’m really looking forward to getting back on track in the month of May.
I stuck with my daily morning routine of 10 pushups, 20 lunges, and 30 plank leg lifts about half the days I was on vacation, and completely forgot about it the other days. And then, to make things worse, I got so sick the following week that I continue to skip it. Oops! I made up for it when I got back home, doing extra sets to make up for the days I missed, but that’s not the same as being consistent. And my body has noticed! Pushups have been a lot harder since my break, so I’m trying hard to do them extra slowly and build back any strength I may have lost. I’m still glad I’m doing this though – it’s a great way to start my day (when I remember).
My evening routine of walking for five minutes before bed has been a lot more ingrained, and it’s now become an unthinking habit that I march in place while I brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Honestly, I could probably do it without a timer now, since my evening routine has been coming in at almost exactly five minutes! I know that the extra steps aren’t a big contributor to my step goal / calorie burn for the day, but every little bit helps and it’s nice to get that little bit in just before I go to bed. I’m really happy this habit has become so mindless.
On the reading front, my vacation and sickness had the opposite effect – I’m now way ahead of my reading goal for the year! I’ve read 39 of 100 books for the year, which is 6 books ahead of schedule. I’ve been really enjoying my time curled up on the couch with a good book, and in fact, I’m eager to write this post quickly so I can get to bed with my page turner du jour, Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes. At some point this week, I’ll do a quick roundup of my favorite books I read this month.
It might not surprise you to learn that I’ve enjoyed curling up on the couch so much, I insisted on doing it even when a late-season snowstorm brought great powder to the mountains for what was supposed to be closing weekend. Some of my friends headed up for another day on the slopes, but even though I am one day short of hitting my goal to ski ten days this year, I skipped it. I said when I made this goal that it was more about trying to get out to ski more, and less about definitively hitting ten days. Well, that nailed it – my official tally was nine days this year, and I refuse to ski any more. Onto hiking season!
Despite all my inconsistencies in routine in April, I still did make my goal of volunteering twice a month (though volunteering only twice a month is an admittedly low bar). I did two shifts of food prep at Denver Rescue Mission in the first ten days of the month, once by myself and once with a friend. I’m hoping to do a bit more in May, as I learned that I successfully got the gig volunteering as a living history demonstrator at Walker Ranch up in Boulder, and begin training this month. I’m really excited about this! I’m also interviewing this week for some new, more regular work at Denver Rescue Mission.
And finally, I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of cooking and sharing my creations. I feel awkward taking pictures of my food in public, but whenever I’m at home, I take a quick shot of my meal and share it to my Instagram Stories… and I feel like the repetition is helping me learn to take better food pictures.
I’m no pro yet, but I have had more than a few people comment to ask for recipes – so I can only assume that means my food looks good? Unfortunately, a lot of what I cook isn’t from a recipe and it’s me inventing it as I go, so it’s not always easy to share. I’m setting a new mini goal for May: to share at least one of my made-up recipes on my blog. Perhaps something from my Cinco de Mayo party this Friday… stay tuned.