It’s mid-February and I’m finally getting around to reporting on my January fitness progress. I made the intention to exercise once a week at the beginning of January and stuck with it. I started C25k over because I felt continuing the program in the new year where I left off was a not legit, so it was time to quit and press the restart button. I still did only one day a week, but I’m working on changing that in the coming week. I’ll report now that February fitness has been appalling. It’s been a hard month in my household, completely unfocused and I’ve written about it on my personal blog, Blanket Fort Adventures.
But January did have a few fitness wins, like increasing my running speed and going on a hike in the middle of the week. As a freelancer, I basically own my time now yet still feel chained to my desk. I want to break that programming and am trying to be bold about doing activities during the day when my client load is low. The one thing I discovered in January was an amazing hangover cure. Riding the wave of the holidays, nightly glasses of wine or a whiskey soda became routine. As I am half Japanese, I am very sensitive to alcohol and am a cheap drunk. I also get wicked hangovers and it’s almost like playing Russian roulette with how I will feel in the morning. So one night after I had drank multiple glasses of red wine while binge watching Parisian fashion videos on YouTube, I knew I was in for a rough morning.
As the terrible feeling one has from hangovers are not only caused by dehydration but an increase in toxic chemicals roaming the body, this information gathered from an AsapScience video, I decided to combat it with supplements. I pulled out my Vitamin C, B-complex, Calcium + Magnesium + Zinc supplement, a Wellness vitamin, and two ibuprofen for good measure and drank a lot of water. I also keep water beside me when I go to sleep, so every time I wake up in the night I take a few more sips. When I woke up the next morning I was completely functional! It was my miracle cure and I continued to give myself a vitamin supplement cocktail before bed whenever I enjoyed an adult beverage.
The one thing my miracle cure didn’t fix was the depressive side effects of alcohol. My nightly drinking* left me feeling out of whack, scattered, and sad for no particular reason. The uncertainty of life left me in a tizzy and I was spiraling into an existential crisis. I work really hard on my mental health and with a history of chemical depression, I have come to recognize the fine balance that exist within my brain. I love a good cocktail, but now I know I’m not one that can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner every night, it will eventually cause me to slip into a depression. Before my miracle hangover cure, I’d never been one to have a glass of wine every night, so I had never realized how sensitive my brain chemistry is. But with this new knowledge I’ve decided to put at least a week between times I enjoy alcohol, because even though my body can bounce back quickly my brain can’t and I don’t have time to not feel awesome.
I have a lot of plans for my fitness journey, so expect a report come mid-March. My fiancé and I are ready to step it up together! How has your fitness journey been so far? Please share your own self-discoveries in the comments below, I’d love to read them!
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