I had no time for a workout during the day, so I went for a late-night walk.

I rather liked the HIIT workout video I followed on Tuesday, so I did the same today.

I tried to get a more interesting photo today. Mid-workout action selfies are tricky, though. As a colleague commented, I look like I’m levitating.

Today’s workout was 40 minutes of vigorously raking leaves in the yard.

The smaller cherry tree finally dropped most of its leaves, and the tree behind the house is now also mostly done, so this may be last round of raking for this year.

I really didn’t feel like working out today. But the challenge, and especially the knowledge that my laziness would drag the team’s score down, got me off my backside anyway. The uninspired photo quite accurately reflects just how uninspired I was feeling about the whole thing.

When I don’t feel like it, then I have to make it really easy for myself. The less I have to think, the better. Today I just followed a thirty-minute workout video I found on Youtube. Someone told me exactly what to do, when to start, when to stop.

And of course afterwards I felt really good about it. I never, ever regret working out after I’ve done it.

We’re doing a daily workout challenge at work this month. It’s a team effort rather than an individual one, which is a lot stronger motivation for me. I probably wouldn’t care about my individual position in a leaderboard, but I can’t let the team down, so I’ll be doing daily workouts now.

And photographing them, because naturally it’s a social thing with photos and likes and comments and such.

And since I’m taking photos anyway, I might as well post them here, too. The new phone actually takes pretty decent photos. So: here’s today’s workout. I cycled to Sundbyberg and back to drop off outgrown children’s clothes at a second hand store, killing two birds with one stone. (What an unpleasant metaphor that is!)

It’s November, so you’d think it would be cold. But it was an incredible 15°C outside today, which would be a normal temperature for an evening ride home from work in August. I started out wearing layers (plural) but by the time I was halfway back, I’d shed all of them except the last one.

For the past two weeks – or maybe more like three – I’ve been feeling tired and dull and joyless. I don’t feel like doing any of the tasks I normally enjoy. Not reading, not working, not going out, not exercising. I don’t know if it’s due to the shortening, darkening days, or the lack of anything actually happening in my life, or something else.

I can push myself to do the low-effort tasks: work, buy groceries, cook dinner. But workouts are more of a struggle. The smallest excuse is enough to not do it. “I’m in the middle of this coding task… and oh look, now it’s too late.” Last week I only worked out once.

It didn’t take long before I started feeling the results. Less than a week, in fact. My back gets stiff and achy. My hip joints pop and crack. Sitting in the sofa became uncomfortable; I sit on the floor in front of the sofa and lean on it instead.

This week I’ve pushed myself to work out every day, even though it still feels 100% a chore. I’ve set 20 minutes of strength training as the absolute minimum. After every single exercise I think: “Are we done yet? Can I go back to doing nothing now?” but the clock says no.

But the effect was immediate. I can lie down in bed comfortably again without tossing and turning to find a good position for my back. Well worth 20 minutes of daily effort.

I haven’t been making much progress on digging for the planned plum tree. Somehow there’s always something else that I’d rather do. But today I did some digging instead of my lunchtime workout.

“Deadlift” in Swedish is called marklyft, “ground lift”. There was plenty of that here.

Next time I’ll have to start removing all those big rocks.

I’ve hit bedrock at the bottom. Again. But this time the hole is at least knee-deep, which should be enough for a plum tree.

I rarely take off my rings, but I do do so when I work out. I once damaged one of them when working in the garden, carrying rocks I imagine. Since then I take care when lifting or carrying hard, heavy things, such as rocks. Or kettlebells.

My workout discipline is still so-so. I don’t push myself nearly as hard when I am doing it alone. I will be badly out of shape by the time this social distancing ends. But something is better than nothing.

Vacation is over and I am back at work in my home office. And working on re-establishing a healthy, sustainable everyday routine.

Eric recently saw a kettlebell at a sports store! We seem to be past the worst of the quarantine shortage of weights. There was exactly one kettlebell in the whole store, and at 24 kg, it just happened to be the perfect weight for me. I’m not going to build up a whole home gym (no room for it) and I intend to make do with just the one weight for the foreseeable future. 24 kg is usable for squats and lifts as well as swings. I’m glad this one and only kettlebell was green and not pink, for example.

In this fine weather, I do my workout out on the grass. The grass feels nice, warm, firm without being hard like a floor, and wonderfully grippy for bare feet. I’ve always done my workouts barefoot and while bare feet are nicer than shoes in almost all ways, it can be harder to get a good grip on smooth gym floors for things like side plank variations. The slightly bumpy ground here in the garden is perfect.

On the flip side, grass is itchy to lie on with a bare neck and shoulders, or when I get my face too close to it. But this view during my hip lifts is pretty darn nice.

I’ve been exercising more or less daily during my lunch break recently. I have found a bit of a routine by now and it’s going pretty well. Some days I go out and cycle, some days I do a bit of weight training in the living room.

(You know what else we have a quarantine shortage of, in addition to toilet paper and web cameras? Kettlebells, and other types of weights. I make do with the small 4 kg weights we had at home and think vague thoughts of making my own weights. I have plenty of rocks in the garden, after all.)

Today the weather was so fabulously nice that I moved my weight training outside to the deck. The bushes are all still bare and don’t screen the garden from passers-by so I felt somewhat self-conscious, but the passers-by were few and didn’t notice me.