Health and Habits - next steps

Always a new turn on the path, eh? This week marks the start of an eight-week Health&Habits session I signed up for at my new CrossFit box. It also marks the week of preparation before a 10-day Caribbean cruise with my beloved Brian and some good friends. I use this blog as opportunity to reflect and name intentions, so today seems a good day for that…both anticipation and a little foreboding. My choices are my own AND I don’t live amongst folks (except CF friends) who value health or clean eating. Always a struggle for me… [image at Blu, Celebrity Cruiseline restaurant]

I’d told myself I’d lay off the InBody scans until the summer, given my back injury, general inactivity amidst healing, holidays, and slow-restart into CrossFit rhythms. I knew it would show me moving in the wrong direction, and for the most part, yep. Wrong direction this last year. At least my metabolic rate is consistent, so there’s that. Just didn’t quite imagine I was starting so far off my maintenance usuals (by this point). Sigh. The good news is that such a scan doesn’t mean what it used to mean for me, my ingested-shame origins and past. Progress plus #2. 

“Dive deeper into the forgiveness work…” I heard in some sacred listening recently. My family line has such disdain, even contempt, for the body, which means the inner voices are scathing. Now I know deeper truths and invitations, however. Just show up. Put yourself in a community of practice that can hold healthier intentions not shared at home, in my most significant partnership. Be gentle with your back, knowing how central it now is to health and movement. Breathe into the body you have, not the body society says women are supposed to have. Love the postmenopausal fire that inspires your sacred work today–it comes from the body I have, after all. Forgive myself for moving in this direction, even with knowledge to counter it. Forgive myself for finding balance that yet outweighs what is actually healthy for me (Brian). Love the body I have, as best I can, while enjoying my life too. Both/and.

So what is the intention or goal for me in these next eight weeks?

• Enjoy life, first and foremost. Take advantage of what my life gets to be, with my beloved, with good friends. Everything in moderation, and sometimes, moderation itself.
• Focus on fresh vegetables, fruits, and hydration–on the cruise, and afterwards.
• Low or no-carb before dinnertime on the ship; enjoy whatever small bites come in the 5 course, small portion dinners at Blu (the restaurant).
• Focus on rebuilding core-stability, strength. I’ve lost so much of it, which means more stress for my back. Regain core-strength with some intentional movement each day.
• Return with ease into a tracking-macro lifestyle for a couple weeks, at least.
• Return to heightened protein intake, carefully, once activity levels increase again.

I think part of my own curiosity has to do with what my body at this age needs, beyond the assumptions I’ve made about long-distance running, daily WODs. I can re-read Stacy Sims’s work while I’m enjoying the deep blue ocean, perhaps begin to move myself into some of those rhythms, supported by my box/coaching staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if this last year marks a change with hormonal implications/impact AND I know there is wisdom to counter the post-menopausal assumptions we’ve inherited so far.

Ideally, I’d love to relinquish the 15 lbs I’ve gained since September, returning to a maintenance weight plan of 190-195 lbs, 28% bodyfat, 55lbs body fat; 77.4 skeletal muscle mass. It was only a year ago, after all. Perhaps in a year’s time, I’ll be back to my usual… The biggest gift today is seeing how very differently I can receive and respond to such news. I've learned a LOT in the last 6.5 years, and no one ever starts "back there" again, having learned functional-movements. I've not relapsed, in other words, but I am wanting to return to some things that made me happy in my body even just a year ago.

2024 was a much rougher body year than I realized…transition, interruption of rhythms with some overwork and manuscript/book work, cruises and then sickness, injury. Here’s to a more intentional 2025, fingers crossed.