Week 21/2021: websites, exercise and Tasmanian stories

What did I want to do better this week?

That thing about doing afternoon exercise.

I’ve been working through the Wicking Centre’s Preventing Dementia MOOC, which is a free online course open to anyone interested in learning about what the risk factors for dementia are and how to modify your own risk – which you can start doing at any time of your life.  

This week we looked at some of the main modifiable risks that are also related to heart health, including exercise. The course notes that the recommended physical activity level we all should try to do is approximately 150 minutes per week, which can be spread over the week in chunks no shorter than 10 minutes. One suggestion is to do 30 minutes of mainly moderate aerobic exercise most days of the week. That could be fast walking, or going into a gym program, bike riding or swimming.

Okay, I’m not old and at risk of falls quite yet, but I imagine any balancing work I do now will pay off when I am in that situation.

So, how did that go then?

It didn’t.

My main issues is that I don’t enjoy “moderate” exercise. I like walking, slowly, but I hate any form of vigorous exercise. I know it’s good for me and I’m scared of the consequences of not doing it as I get older, but my dislike of it seems to outweigh that fear. This always stops me from continuing with any exercise plan that I try to start.

I have my strength program from the exercise physiologist (thing 1 from my 21 for 2021 list) that I’m also supposed to be doing four days a week and I’ve really struggled to put in place.

I might do it for a week or two and then I give up because, unlike my morning walks, I can’t make it a habit. I don’t have time in the morning to do a second set of exercise but afternoons are unpredictable and I’m never doing the same thing two days in a row so building the habit has proven to be difficult. It’s even harder in winter when it’s so cold and I’m wrapped in three layers of jumpers and blankets to keep warm. It makes moving so much more difficult.

It’s one of those “future me will do this” things that I know I have to put in the work to make it a habit or future me will never do it.

21 for 2021 update

Website (thing 13)

I thought my website work (thing 13) was pretty much done last week. The only thing I wanted to do was to get my own domain for this blog. Pretty easy, right?

Not if you’re me.

I did some research and decided to move away from wordpress.com and onto a self hosted site.

So I got the domain, set up the site and . . . well, you’re looking at it.

I’m still wrestling with a few things on the side, like contact forms and subscriptions but I don’t think they’re urgent. You know where to find me (see my cool social media buttons on the side bar).

Change Journal (thing 4)

I didn’t start a new chapter of the Change Journal but I’m still working on Habits (Chapter 7), Clarity (Chapter 8) and Pitch Yourself (Chapter 9). I think I need to get those done. They are, like my resume (thing 18), sitting around 80 per cent finished and I just need to do them.

My mother’s story (thing 9)

There was a funny story about this. Well, a Tasmanian story. I’ll give you the short version. I was talking to a workmate about the town I grew up in, someone else overheard us and asked if I knew a woman. Let’s call her Kate.

Not only did I know Kate, but my mother had been her kids’ day carer and after school carer when they were young, and her son had been my first “boyfriend” at the age of about six.

We’d lost touch when they moved to the mainland. Well, said my workmate, they are my cousins and here’s what they’re doing now . . . . Perhaps your mum might like to catch up with Kate?

So Tasmanian.

Kramstable’s videos (thing 8)

I think I finished the one I’ve been working on. Kramstable picked up a few glitches last week and I had to fix up the volume in a few places. There were a couple of other things I wasn’t happy with and I think it needs one more check and then I can call that one done.

Brainsparker (thing 17)

I worked on lesson 3 of module 6, which asks questions like “how might we . . . .” or “Imagine a world where . . . ” I also started to read Gabriella’s book gulp! The seven day crash course to master fear and break through any challenge . It’s got some interesting exercises for embarking on a new project that’s a bit scary.

Vegetable of the week (thing 2)

Thing 2 is to choose a different vegetable every week from the book In Praise of Veg and make a recipe from the book using that vegetable.

I posted about this week’s vegetables on Saturday.

21 for 2021 summary

• Things completed this week: 0
• Things completed to date: 3 (1, 18, 20)
• Things I progressed: 6 (2, 4, 8, 9, 13, 17)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 7 (5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16)
• Things not started: 5 (3, 12, 15, 19, 21)

What I’m reading this week

• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• gulp! The seven day crash course to master fear and break through any challenge by Gabriella Goddard
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• What would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life by Emma Brockes

Habit tracker

• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 4): 4
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine(Goal = 4): 3
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 3
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 4 work days): 4
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 3
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 4