Nutrition: this has generally been fine. No major events to report. I mostly stuck to my meal planning, other than one Chipotle run because I didn’t feel like making soup. And Thai curry tonight because I was too tired to do…anything. I really enjoy having a plan for my meals, because it relieves the stress of having to figure it out -or worse, leave myself feeling icky and frustrated because I made a choice out of desperate hunger instead of based on my body’s needs.

Rest: I’m trying! I have gotten in bed at a decent time every night for the past week, but falling asleep has been tough, and due to all I’m asking of myself, I’ve had to take a few naps. My recovery was really low /red all last week, then the first half of this week, it has been better/yellow-until today. I couldn’t get comfortable or settle, and my sleep was really broken. I’m going to wear my glasses tonight and try again. All I can do every day is try my best, and eventually, my body will cooperate. I basically did nothing today, because I was so mentally and physically foggy from my 16% recovery. I took about a 60 minute nap. Hopefully that was short enough to not interfere with my sleep.

Exercise : this is slowly and steadily getting better. My heart rate spiked a lot less in yesterday’s ride than it had a week ago, despite my legs being much less strong than I wanted still-due to this being my first week in ages having Leg Day on Monday and 60 minutes on the bike on Tuesday. I ended up only doing 30 minutes of yoga last night because the class I did take was a slow flow with long holds in warrior 2 on my dead legs.

The big news in this area is, I reworked my program to be four days a week instead of five,leaving just a low impact ride and a stretch on Saturday, and giving me more opportunity to recover well.

Self care: my self/soul care routine has been kinda spotty and unfocused this week. I have been more consistent with washing my face, and I’ve done soul care in some way each day, but I don’t feel like I’ve been consistent in a way that brings freedom. That’s okay, though! Practice makes progress! I also finally shaved my legs, after months of…not. It’s surprising how that simple thing can change how I feel about myself.

I’ve been a bit too tired to craft much the past few days, but I have been writing up a storm! I took today off because I was so foggy, but this past week, I’ve written 16 pages (over four days of writing this week) in my morning pages notebook. I’m really excited about everything I’ve been writing about and can’t wait to share it!

Body image/love: this is HARD right now, y’all. I’m swollen, inflamed, bloated, and puffy, and it’s hard to feel strong and mighty and accomplished. I am keeping my eyes focused on where I’m going, though, and celebrating that I wore jeans a few times the last few days, even though they weren’t fresh out of the wash, and I am celebrating the strength of my body to build consistency with my workouts.

It was a middle of the road week, neither exceptionally good nor bad, and hopefully, one that is setting me up for increased and improved consistency in all areas.