Body
The past few weeks have been pretty tough on my fitness goals. Running has been pretty spotty at best. As always I seem to come up with a lot of things I’d rather be doing. And the more I don’t work out, the more I think I don’t want to. Having fallen off the wagon for a while I pretty much just admitted defeat last night, accepting my self inflicted tubby belly sadly. But after kicking myself around for a bit I realized that wagon hasn’t like left without me since I’ve fallen off and all I have to do to get back on it is get up. So I made some tweaks to the running schedule (still have 15 weeks till the half-marathon, plenty of time) last night and actually got myself up this morning and went for a leisurely run. I haven’t gone for a run outside for a while (The past two have just been at the gym cause it was so late at night) and it was really nice. And I actually did 4 miles instead of just 3 just cause I felt like I could.
“Planning for the future is escapism”- Jenny Holzer
I find that I am constantly trying to keep myself in check when it comes to being too future-oriented. I mean in a lot of ways I think it’s good that I’m constantly looking ahead and have some semblance of a plan. Goals are good. But I also feel like I have a ridiculous ability to get lost daydreaming and researching about all the details of the future. I’ve lost many hours looking at listings on redfin or craigslist. Or spending hours looking through the details of various grad programs, even when I know I’m not applying to grad for at least a few years. It was thinking about all the time I’ve spent “planning” for the future that I was kicking myself for not using that time to just go out for a run (Something that is much more useful to me now and relevant to a much closer goal 3 months away) or anything else that was more interesting than internetting.
Financial Guilt
This weekend we hit up REI (and Bed Bath & Beyond) pretty hard to get stuff for this weekend. “Getting back to nature” sure is pricey. I didn’t even get THAT much stuff, just some basic things since I don’t really have any: a pack, hiking shoes, socks, rain jacket, rain pants, and a stuff sac. That racked up a pretty good bill though. I justified it to myself saying that it was all basic stuff that I’d need if we wanted to do more hiking/camping (which we do). But I still feel really guilty about spending that much on gear just for the possibility of a couple of random days a year where I get to wander around the woods. Below is the painfully honest graph (without the values) of my shopping trends for the past few months, thanks to Mint.com. I was being so good.. It’s sad that a bar graph can make me feel guilty.
So after all that rambling I guess it just comes down to the same things I keep telling myself. This should just be my new mantra:
Exercise more. Live in the present. Buy less shit.
Rinse. Repeat.