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ayyy i‘m walking (more) here!!

i’ve been on this journey over the past month or so to recreate routines so i can get back into them and adapt to this pandemic vs. wait for a “normal” that’s not gonna happen. some of the routines i’ve already got locked down are:

  • working from home comfortably
  • following a morning and evening skincare regimen
  • wearing spf
  • drinking water

the “drinking water” routine is fairly new. as i stopped going to the gym i stopped drinking water and this only occurred to me like last week! so, yeah, until 1.5 weeks ago when i started a hydration routine, i was just a shriveled up raisin with good skin (because of my skincare and spf regimens, which kind of are not complete without the hydration part of the equation, whoops).

there are a few other routines that the quarantine stopped in its tracks and that i’m working to adapt this month:

  • going for walks
  • weight training at home
  • reading books
  • drawing/painting

this weekend i decided to go for an hour (at least) long walk every day, weather permitting. here is the health app’s chart of my steps over the past year, which tells a tale as old as covid-19-time:

bar chart showing that i walked a significantly higher number of steps before the quarantine

as you can see in that chart, i used to walking a LOT! but i’m also very easily bored, i hate the sun and wear mostly black, so a lot of that walking was for the purpose of getting somewhere (work, therapy, andy’s, coffeeshop, gym). the purpose i’ve been giving myself this week is to get that bar chart up to where it was in the winter and to photograph neighbors’ cool flowers for me to draw and paint.

a photo of some red, yellow and orange flowers

while wearing a mask in 90 F heat can seem p brutal, it’s not so bad as spreading a virus and/or getting sick. i look extremely hot (temperate-wise and boner-inducing-wise) with my mask on, and i gladly embrace the mouth sauna these unprecedented times have bestowed upon me by putting on an intense lip mask before i head out. you can peek my latest gel manicure i had given myself that afternoon:

a photo of me outside with a black mask on, gray t-shirt and black nails freshly painted

the problem with depending on “the outdoors” for exercise instead of gyms is that i can only partake in walks when it’s not thunder and lightning outside (as it literally is as i type this). i did get a short walk to the cafe in before the storm started, then i noticed some asshole stole our tomatoes. thrilling!

RIP my large, not quite rip son.

photo of me holding up a not-quite-ripe tomato on a plant

if you’re routine/streak-driven like me, try to list all of the things that you stopped doing because of the pandemic and pick one thing at a time to get back on track. a very good start is to make sure you’re staying hydrated and applying an spf; they are low effort routines with high impact for your health and state of being. take care of yourselves, friends!

xoxo j

this was published July 6, 2020 under living health routines flowers steps exercise beauty spf water