Brilliantly, the hoop and acro classes I've been going to have acted as a bit of a motivator to exercise the rest of the time. Maintaining or increasing physical strength would make both things a whole lot easier, so that's a good reason to do weights and pressups and take the stairs some of the time in Edinburgh (ok, I draw the line at taking ALL THE STAIRS when working on the thirteenth floor*, but believe me there are plenty more stairs around!). It feels like I'm doing these things for a reason, rather than for their own sake. That's good, because while weights can help to take my brain to a happy place, pressups, crunches and stairs really don't. Then there's the headstands. In acro, being able to turn yourself upside down from upright is a necessary skill. Handstands are best, but being able to do a decent headstand is a good start. There is no way I can practice handstands at home until the weather gets nice enough to do it in the garden, but I can just about fit a headstand in on the bedroom floor. (It's the only one with fitted carpet) It's been an interesting challenge. (Not least convincing Ducki that it is an appropriate thing to do indoors/upstairs/anywhere) I've managed a few half-decent ones, but can't quite combine elegance (legs straight up and toes pointed) with, well, not promptly falling over. So I'm pretty good a forward rolls now, apart from the neck-crunchingly crap one that followed one second of epic headstand this morning. Amazingly, I still feel like continuing to practice. If I can do the things that initially worried me about acro, I can absolutely keep doing this. I can't make tonight's session and may skip next week's to see Surveillent Dave if that works out, but I do want to go back - and I want to go back able to do a headstand this time!


*NB I've heard rumours that the top floors of this building sway when it's windy. I have never personally verified this, but am praying for calm weather for the next ten Wednesdays.

So last night I came up with a list of things that would aid my goal of improved physical fitness in ways that might more or less fit my existing conceptions of 'fun', collated them in terms of day, time and cost and ranked them in terms of possible scariness. (I very bravely didn't include 'fear of being sneered at by thin girls' this time)

Here's the things I could feel sort-of confident about doing any day now:
Basic yoga
Zumba
Kettlebells
Stretch and Flex
Beginner Ariel Hoop
Various things involving small weights and dance
Boxercise (non-contact, basically doing boxing moves without thumping anyone. Probably just as well since I've become disgustingly pacifist in my old age)

I want to try one of those within the next week and do at least one each week in January. From early February my work schedule will be deranged so I'll need to reappraise how much extra stuff I can do.

Here are the things that will be more difficult for various reasons.
Going to a local gym and using larger weights than I can store at home. (Will need me to build my strength up again a bit first, also the gym is a major walk from my home)
Beginners session at the local climbing wall. (Needs to be booked in advance by phone. At the same distant gym as the last item. Outside my usual set of skills.)
Shockfit - aerobics and weights, very fast. (Higher impact than I'm used to so I want to be a bit fitter before trying that)
Acrobalance/adagio (Would involve getting over huge scary boundaries and probably needs me to build up a bit more strength)

I would like to have tried at least one of those by the end of January, if only to reduce the list of things that give me the fear. Hopefully by this time in 2015 I'll have given everything on the list a try or had a good reason not to.

I am spending a few days in a place where I have no stuff apart from the basics I need to wear, wash with and read, so it's a bit of an enforced break from Reduction of Stuff. Sods Law dictates that this is when my mind is most on the subject, as I also have fewer distractions than usual. In a way that's good - my mind is a whole lot clearer, and I have a bit of distance. This makes planning way easier than it can ever be when I am standing on a tiny patch of available floor in the middle of my cluttered study tugging my hair out wondering what the almighty fuck to do next. So I am giving near-future-Lisey her instructions now in a place that the brain weasels (can't remember whose phrase that is, but kudos to them) can't get to.

( Cut for anyone who finds this boring or triggering or otherwise doesn't want to read itCollapse )

I no longer do new years' resolutions as such, as for years I'd make grand sweeping ones that I had zero chance of living up to in whatever circumstances I lived in at the time. But last year I did a list of goals that was fairly vague and general, and some improvements happened in terms of handling everyday life. They didn't always happen consistently, but they usually happened at the times they were most needed. I had the right clothes for the right events, the right notes and equipment for the right classes, the living room sufficiently unfucked that getting ready for visitors* was a minor headache rather than a major one. I had the necessary food supplies to fit meals around my schedule. I didn't pass on nasty messages, luckily didn't have any passed to me by actual people and generally (sadly not always) managed to fend off the phantom whispering voice. So, that strategy works better than the grand sweeping resolutions.

( Cut for those who find such things boringCollapse )

*Unfuck Your Habitat has this idea that a space should be you-ready, which is better than being company-ready since you live in your home and should be the one to enjoy it. This is all very well and probably works nicely for a lot of people. Thing is, I'm not one of those people. Me-ready entails having a selection of work-related papers (research and teaching), at least one work of fiction or other break-time read, an extra jumper and pair of socks and often sweeteners like chocolate and nail varnish immediately to hand in the area around where I usually work. It's an improvement over the protective layer of pure debris I used to need, but it still needs removing before anyone other than me or Ducki sees it, especially if they might want to sit down or put drinks on the coffee table.