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My Lockdown Experience So Far

Kelly and I have been working from home for over nine weeks now. The IHS office has been closed for eight, which is roughly how long most statewide shelter-in-place / stay-at-home orders have been in effect.

Here’s what a typical day looks like for me:

  • Wake up and spend time with Henry
  • Drop Henry off at daycare
  • Go for a run
  • Work
  • Do yoga & eat lunch or eat lunch & read
  • Work
  • Pick up Henry
  • Spend time with Henry
  • Henry’s bed time
  • Dinner and a TV show with Kelly
  • Read / play a videogame / write some code
  • Bed

In the beginning I was largely goofing off. There was a lot more videogaming and a lot less reading or running. After about two weeks I tried to mentally shift from a short-term vacation from reality to a longer-term attempt at normality.

For me, this is more or less working fine. I don’t mean to brag. Kelly & I are lucky to not only be gainfully employed but have a childcare provider still able to operate. I understand there are people whose lives are being absolutely destroyed under lockdown. I want us to return to normal as soon as possible. But given the situation we are in, I’m glad to have built a routine that works for me.

Even if Virginia lifted all restrictions tomorrow, I anticipate following this schedule for months voluntarily. I would not be surprised if I’m not in the IHS office again until 2021.

I’ve been meaning to write more during this period, both to document what it’s like for posterity and because I (in theory) have the time. I plan to write about:

  • My thoughts on the lockdown policies
  • Running
  • What I’ve been reading
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Yoga

Everyone has regrets about high school. Maybe they should have studied harder. Maybe they should have spent more (or less) time with their friends. Maybe they passed up an opportunity they never got again. 

I wish I had done yoga.

I played football in high school. I lifted weights. I was in great shape, except I had lower back pain. It was most severe during football season, but hurt pretty much year round. 

I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t severe and I really loved playing football. I thought back pain was just part of being a linebacker. 

People told me to stretch. I stretched with the team before practice, so I thought I was following this advice.

Some people told me to do yoga. I laughed at them. Me, do yoga? Isn’t that for girls? Don’t you have to convert to Buddhism? 

When I graduated high school and hung up my shoulder pads for the last time, the back pain softened. But it never went away. Throughout most of college I was still active, mostly playing basketball. While not as bad as football season, my back pain would flare up the day after a game of basketball. 

Three years ago I found something that really helps. Yoga. 

My wife Kelly was going to yoga classes here and there. While I had ignored previous suggestions to do yoga, the continued back pain five years after my last football game pushed me to consider joining her. And so I did.

The first class was exactly what I expected. I was really bad, inflexible and with poor balance. We had a moment of meditation at the end (which I hated at the time, but like yoga, I now have a more positive attitude). The class was nearly all female.

And yet, after about four classes, my back felt better! 

Personal experience combined with Googling showed me what I would have already known had I paid attention in my high school anatomy class. My back pain wasn’t really the result of trauma to my back and it couldn’t be relieved with lower back stretches. It is largely caused by tight hamstrings. I have really tight hamstrings.

A yoga class does wonders for getting me to stretch my hamstrings and other tight spots, like my hips. I try to go once a week. Doing yoga regularly doesn’t necessarily make me feel better, it just makes my body not feel tight.  That’s a little frustrating. But it’s worth it. And I wish I could go back in time to convince my high school self of it. 

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Getting Fit Again: Three Months In

At the start of 2016, I set a few New Year’s Resolutions. I have never really taken New Year’s Resolutions seriously or followed through with them before. I haven’t kept up with all my resolutions this year, but I have kept up with my health and fitness resolutions. After three months, I am very proud to have hit my initial goals: to lose 25 pounds and run a 5k in 25 minutes.

To accomplish this, I was conscious of my diet and exercise (weightlifting and running) three times a week. For my diet, I aimed to eat at least 500 calories less than my total daily energy expenditure (calories out) with an emphasis on eating a lot of protein. For my workouts, I followed the Stronglifts 5×5 program while following the Couch to 5k program for running.

I have lost 30 pounds, ran a 5k in 24:37, and have surpassed novice strength benchmarks. I have enjoyed this process much more than I expected and plan to keep going. My new set of goals are to lose another 10 pounds, hit intermediate strength benchmarks, and I have considered aiming for a 10k.

While I allowed myself to fall into poor health and fitness habits a few years ago, my work over the past few months has me back in shape. It is a very powerful feeling to be in control of my body and change it to my goals. I hope to further solidify my new healthy habits for years to come.

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New Year’s Resolutions: One Month Update

At the start of 2016, I decided on a few New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t normally make a big deal of New Year’s Resolutions and I can’t think of any that I have seriously followed through on. This year, I’m actually doing pretty well on them. For 2016 my resolutions are:

  1. Drink less alcohol, drink alcohol less frequently
  2. Exercise more
  3. Read the Bible
  4. Play more guitar
I have set a goal of getting my weight down to 185 pounds by my wedding (June 18th). To do this, I am eating at a caloric deficit and exercising three times a week. I am using MyFitnessPal to track what I eat and have done so for 28 days straight. The biggest change to my diet has been replacing bacon & eggs with a banana at breakfast, eating more chicken for dinner, and drinking less alcohol (goal #1). Drinking less alcohol has actually been fairly easy so far. Not drinking in a day is easy for me but once I have had a drink, I like to have a lot more. I am limiting my drinking to three days a week and tracking it with my food logging to ensure it does not push me beyond my caloric goals. In just a month, I’ve gone from 206.5 pounds (post-vacation weight) to 193 pounds.
For exercise, I am working out three times a week on the Stronglifts 5×5 weightlifting plan and the Couch to 5k running plan. I gave Stronglifts a try last year. I like the program a lot but didn’t do a great job of sticking to it (often taking a week off every two or three weeks). The Couch to 5k plan has been way better than I expected. I am actually enjoying the workouts and am not feeling the painful cramps I have felt when running over the past few years (even when I was in good shape). A big reason for this has been new running shoes, a Christmas gift from my grandparents. Kelly and I registered for a 5k at the start of March, which will be my first 5k.
This is not the first time I have tried reading the Bible. I’m definitely behind pace on this one but I am still making progress. I am on the 90 day plan (stretching it out any longer will lead to me dropping it). I’m reading it from start to finish and I sort of wish I had found a plan that mixed Old Testament and New Testament. 
Playing more guitar is definitely the most fun goal. I am definitely playing more guitar than last year. Mostly this has been picking up my guitar when in my living room and playing a song or two. For a little while I was brushing up on the modal scales. However, I haven’t tried to institute regular practice or playing. I have so much structure in place with the other goals, I don’t want to overdo it and burn myself out.