Sometimes it amazes me how quickly and easily I can fall back into bad habits. I am always more physically active when I go east. Mostly it is because I have to keep up with two very active little girls. But, I am not complaining. Not just because I love the time I get to spend with my niecelettes. Also because I enjoy being more active.
Once upon a time I used to ride my bike to and from work almost daily, take 30+ mile rides on the weekends and hike on a fairly regular basis. Then I moved to Philadelphia. Although I pretty much stopped riding my bike there (no bike lanes made it a fairly scary prospect at times), I did do yoga regularly. I also started sculling, which I still kind of miss (although I don’t miss having to get up really early to do it). We had a dog for a while, and I was the one who would usually take her for long-ish treks at the local park.
I can’t remember what my exercise routine was when I moved back to Portland. I know I did some yoga and pilates. I also know that I didn’t go back to hiking regularly. In my absence, my primary hiking buddy had developed some pretty serious knee issues and had swapped hiking for kayaking.
Then we opened CubeSpace. Yoga and pilates went out the window. Most of my exercise came from walking across Portland’s bridges to get to and from networking meetings downtown. After we closed CubeSpace in 2009, I pretty much shut down for about 2 years during a period I call the Dark Time. I have a really hard time remembering what went on during those two years. But, I am fairly confident that exercise was not a priority for me.
I am happy to say that I am well and truly passed the Dark Times. I have work that I truly enjoy. My continuing education is going very well. I am reconnecting with Portland’s open source tech scene, which I had actively avoided for years because I found it to be too painful. And now, I am ready to restart some kind of exercise routine. That is, assuming I can break through the inertia of self-employment.
I both love and hate the flexibility of working for myself. I love that I can arrange my schedule so I can go to things like #PDXBreakfast and go east with some regularity. I hate that there are no truly off hours. My morning routine starts with me in my pajamas, sitting in front of my SAD light every morning, checking my email. Usually the laptop makes an appearance and before I know it several hours have gone by. By then, I usually have a sleeping cat ensconced on my lap. As anyone with a cat knows, there is some powerful force that prevents one from moving a dreaming cat. So, I stay where I am until the risk of my bladder bursting breaks the sleeping cat spell and I get up.
If I were a good person, I would use that window of opportunity to change into real clothes and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Instead, I usually use it to grab a bite to eat before going back to work. I know I need to re-prioritize my day so that walking is an integral to my routine as working. But, I am not there yet. It is, however, a goal I am working towards. Fortunately for me, I love walking in Portland rain (the misty drizzle, not the downpours we have been getting lately), so the fact that Autumn is upon us doesn’t faze me. I just need the willpower to breakthrough my own inertia.