#ItTookAPandemic


I realize that I am blessed and privileged to even write #ItTookAPandemic. Our family’s ups and downs have been minimal when compared to people facing major health crisis, job loss, impending housing eviction, or a food shortage. I am so blessed that I am feeling quite driven these days. Having our schedule full of activities come to a near screeching halt allowed us to breathe for a moment, and evaluate what is truly important.  We are approaching 5 months since that initial lockdown. For the average middle and upper class people, it is time to consider what you are doing with your life. We can’t keep waiting for things to “get back to normal” because we will literally be waiting forever.

One of my sayings, well it isn’t mine but one I say, You can only control what you can control. No one is responsible for what has happened to them during this pandemic, but each person is responsible for how they are responding to their situation. I also preach that it is about progress, not perfection. I want to share a couple examples of how you can take control of certain aspects, even if it isn’t your normal or perfect enough.

Let’s say that your money has decreased/availability to food has changed. Do you need to keep following the perfect eating plan? Not at all, but you can watch portions. Maybe switch from fresh to frozen veggies. Eat starches, like potatoes and rice, with portion control. Let’s say you cannot venture out to the gym, should you quit working out? Of course not! I am one of many, many trainers putting On Demand content out there, some are even sharing it all for free. Sometimes it is therapy we need. Is tele med therapy sessions the same as in person? Not really, and having other household members around can make privacy harder. Can it still help? For sure! It is a better option than skipping all together.

My Challenges

Most all of us have faced a change in our exercise routine, from a number of factors including gyms closing, unavailable home equipment, schedule changes, etc. My focus this year was going to be dancing and running, in terms of my physical activity. The dance company was going to tour with our show from last August. We had a change in dancers, so everyone had to learn dances. I went from 5 numbers to 8, and I was spending a lot of time dancing. In March, I had also ran a practice half marathon, my goal was to PR my half time in June. Mid March, everything changed. Show business, dance included, stopped. When I started doing 2-3 boot camps a day, I stopped running almost completely.

Does that mean I gave up on working out? Not at all. I adjusted my schedule, added in lots of yoga at first. Now that we have been at the lock down, different phases for a while, I am adjusting again. I am doing a solo in a virtual dance show, so I have been dancing, on my own, again. The last 4 months, I have participated in 4 different virtual Ragnar races, I wasn’t signed up for any initially. It has been a great push to complete mileage on the weekends. Now that I do 5 boot camps a week, I have found a groove for myself. The improvement in my strength and endurance is evident when you watch videos from March and compare them to today’s.

We had a lot of family together time in April. We ate every meal together, I spent hours with the kids while they did school work, and on weekends, we really just had each other. Now that I am back to in person classes, I am not in the house when the kids eat breakfast and dinner most days. They are usually at the park or on a bike ride all day, so we don’t usually have lunch together anymore either.

It reminded me to prioritize family time, even if in a different way. We have started having family meetings, where we go over our schedules for the week, set a goal to accomplish, and the kids pick their daily chore for the week. I also pulled out a notebook for High/Low writing. we have done it before, with everyone sitting at the table together. Now, we each write our highlight of the day and something we did that was really hard that day. These are just 2 ways that we have found to stay connected, and will continue to work for us as we go back to more activities over time.

My Growth

I am continuing to wake early and do daily meditation and journaling. It has been a strong priority of mine to find time for myself, even if I take a cup of coffee with me into the garden. We all have certain aspects that we can focus on and it helps us find the drive to keep going and pushing through. You just need to try different things until it clicks for you.

We are literally living history right now. We can sit back and wallow, or we can say #ItTookAPandemic, look at me now! All that to say, maybe the changes you are making are just the changes your body needs right now. Change can shake up for the good, in the midst of the stress and constant changing everything. We have 4 more months left in 2020, are you going to say, Look at what I did? Or where did the year go?Below I am sharing my photos from January of this year and today. As you probably already know, I struggle with autoimmune and with that comes bloating and not feeling well. I said all of 2019 that my 40s would be when I finally came back into my health. And can I tell you, it feels great to be back here again.

the difference of time into yourself   getting life under control