Daily Accountability

It’s a fact that many things in life are out of my control, and that is relatively discomforting to think about sometimes because I like to be in the know and have a sense of control over different events. But as I remain lingering between the education and employment stages of my life, I find myself occasionally lacking motivation with more than job hunting, primarily with fitness.

One of my majors in college was dance, so I have been living a fairly active lifestyle for the past four years. But I’ll admit that after I sprained my ankle (again) in March and played the waiting game known as recovery, I lost momentum with staying active. It was a combination of not being able to do lots of exercise due to my ankle and not having the accountability that comes with being enrolled in dance classes.

After my ankle healed, I wanted to find ways other than ballet to stay in shape, which is how I discovered different workout videos on YouTube. Over the summer, I tried following Chloe Ting’s Two Week Shred Challenge. She has a number of rest days included in the two-week program and after I made it to the first one (day five), I just kept resting and never got back into it. Yes, I promise I know how shameful that is.

Since returning to Raleigh, I have been putting in the effort to prioritize good habits—including physical fitness. But because I don’t have a set daily schedule to follow, I’ve had a bit of trouble getting into the habit of working out. I even downloaded a habit tracking app on my phone to help give me a visual to see how often I’m keeping up with habits such as making my bed, job hunting, and of course exercising. If I don’t see the bulk of my daily habits checked off at the end of the day, I view my day as less productive than it should have been—a feeling that isn’t the greatest.

With that being said, I have consistently been stretching and following different YouTube workout videos. Believe it or not, I’ve also been trying to get back into running. And by “back into running,” I mean that I still have a strong hatred for it but am learning to push through the loathing to get in the habit of doing cardio that isn’t dance. Currently, my mile time is just over 10 minutes. I can run most of it rather than walking often to catch my breath.

All of this is to say that slowly but surely I am getting into the habit of exercising daily and being my best self. And while I continue to hold on to my long-standing belief that anyone who truly enjoys running is a masochist, I’m steadily working on holding myself accountable to form healthy habits that might sometimes push me out of my exercise comfort zone.