Some insights from the “fantasy success story”

Saturday: Yoga 30 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.2 miles
Sunday: Yoga 30 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

It’s absurd how little I can walk before my Achilles start complaining, but it seems important to do at least this 1.2-mile down-to-the-park-and-back walk. In fact, I wrote out my “fantasy success story” last night, focusing mostly on what I “did” and how I “overcame obstacles” (yeah, it feels embarrassing and I will not be sharing it at this time). But one of the things I found myself writing was: “I think the important breakthrough I had was realizing that I didn’t need to have my Achilles 100% better in order to start walking (slowly, gradually) again.”

That little gem just popped out of my brain unexpectedly during the exercise, but I think it’s valid. I’ve tried not walking at all, and my Achilles just got worse. I’ve also tried walking tons as if nothing was wrong, and my Achilles also just got worse. But little tiny slow walks don’t seem to matter much either way. And even though I know I can do all kinds of other exercise and movement, I just think walking outdoors is uniquely important for human health, and some has to be better than none.

Another thing I wrote about was that I taught myself to LOVE cooking, so now I’m wondering how exactly to go about that. My first thought was that maybe I could try to make my food “pretty” and take pictures of it. 

Breakfast

Unfortunately 1) it wasn’t that pretty and 2) it’s LESS satisfying because it’s just more work. Some other ideas I have are:

• music always playing while I cook
• count the number of different plants I eat in a week and make a game of trying to keep the number really high
• weekly meal prep night with M.H.
• find a cookbook that makes me excited to try new things?
• positive affirmations???

Help?