Working out at Farrell's

Since the very end of June I've been back to working out at Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping. I haven't been as dedicated as I was pre-COVID, but I am getting back to that stage. This week was the first in over a month that I've done Monday through Friday, complete. Funny enough, I actually feel stronger this week than I have since returning. It's an uphill road. I'm still out of shape in a big way but going to the gym is a release. I get to socialize with real people for fifteen or so minutes before the workout and just that little bit has been helpful to my mental health. I will say, however, that I struggle almost every day to get the motivation to go. There have ben many mornings where I lay there after waking up and think up excuses not to go. The good thing is, however, I go. I haven't lied about why I don't go. Instead, I pull myself up by my bootstraps and get in. Once I'm there and working out, I'm always glad I did. One thing about my return has been difficult. About a month after returning to the workouts I hurt my right knee doing push kicks. I figured it would just be a week or two of taking it easy and it would heal up. Instead, it is more often than not that my knee still hurts. It is likely a combination of getting older coupled with leg exercises (one reason I quit leg days on Tuesdays for about a month). The pain comes and goes but, like the wakeups, I push through it and am glad I did. While I am doing good at getting to the workouts, I might soon have a harder time if my new job with FEMA has anything to say about it. The thing with the new job is that it is unpredictable when I could be called to a site somewhere in the United States (and territories) so I won't be able to make it to the gym. I tried doing the online sessions over COVID, and did so for about two months, but I miss the socialization so I gave up on them for a year! The other big thing is that, even though I am getting stronger and gaining some endurance again, I am still eating poorly. It's a mental block that takes far more effort for me to correct. I go in waves on eating healthier, and then not, and eating healthier, and then not. COVID has really played a number on me and when I returned to the gym I was actually heavier than when I started originally! Now I've been going for four months and, while I feel better, I am about the same weight I was when I originally started going to the gym. It is likely 60% my eating habits and 40% being sedentary in my job and life. It's just one of those mental blocks I need to get past. Anyhow, I'll continue to work out and do my best. I hope to get back to where I was pre-COVID, it's just going to take time and effort. Most importantly, it's going to take me to continue to push myself to be better and I often fail at that side of things.