Today I went back to full-on mode. It’s been an intense Monday, I would say, and even though I feel exhausted, I also feel alive.

I woke up this morning with the aim to get my new favourite train to go to work. It arrives packed at my station, but everyone gets off the train at Lewisham, so I can then choose where I want to sit. It also stops by my office, so it’s a super win-win train of happiness.

Of course, I hadn’t factored in the road works that are plaguing Lewisham. I could have made it to the train on time, if it hadn’t been because the pedestrian crossing was closed and they forced us to walk back and around the roundabout, instead of letting us cross straight, as usual (FYI, I’m walking to the station tomorrow).

I didn’t let my annoyance take the best of me, and was lucky to enjoy a lot of banter with Oummou and Brian, who were both a train ahead of me (and a slightly more packed train than mine!). It was so much fun! We all met at Cannon Street and took the tube together.

The day was busy, but somewhat enjoyable, I guess. We had this big meeting at work, and while there were some interesting bits, we were more concerned in commenting what was being said, and wondering why we were in that meeting room, instead of having received an email. Ah well…

My lunch was cool, I convinced Brian to go shopping with me (or rather, window shopping), since none of my other friends wanted or were available. I tried to convince some of the girls, before I pretty much dragged him with me… I’m proud to say I took less time in the shops than him! However, in all fairness, I’m going back again this week, now that I’ve seen which shops have what I want.

After work, it was gym time.

Currently, I’m following a NTC (Nike Training Club) workout from the app. You download a program that has different workouts each day, and you follow the schedule. I had started a couple of weeks ago, but due to those standby days we rather not talk about, I had missed a few sessions, so today I decided to start from scratch again; after all, the trick is to keep going, even when you fall, don’t let it get the best of you and just get back up again.

As you know, I’m also following the Body Project with work, which we have started again. It’s 10 weeks of changing habits and becoming healthier. Officially, my goal is to become fit enough to survive a full week of snowboarding at the end of March. Unofficially, I also want to have the body to attend the pool party we have during that snow trip! But let’s not focus on looks, OK?

I started with a short run of about 15 minutes. I ran 2.5k at a pace of 6’21” (if I remember correctly). To be honest, the last bit I ran it fast and I wasn’t really tired, but since I had a 45 minutes workout, I decided not to push it and stick to the plan: the run was just a warm up.

Today’s workout was a bit of everything: lots of squats and lunges, exercises with dumbbells, and a few press-ups (which I failed miserably). I had to do a plank on the dumbbells, and lift them alternatively. The ones we have at the office’s gym are round, so I could feel all my body tensing up every time I had to lift one of my arms and rest my bodyweight on the other dumbbell. By the end of that exercise, the muscles in my arms were shaking.

Since I had convinced Brian to skip the gym at lunchtime, he joined me in the evening. Of course, I only work with 2kg worth of dumbbells, and he works out with an array of different weights. I have to say we were both probably sweating as much (that’s the test of true friendship, people, when you’re wincing with pain, sweating like crazy together in the gym!).

The good thing is that we got to commute together, especially since I barely had any battery left in my phone. He was joking that he’s seeing me more often than he’s seeing his wife lately! I’m just keeping an eye on him and making sure he behaves when she’s not around (don’t worry Wife, I have your back!).

Finally, it was a healthy dinner and a bit of meditation, which I never do, so I never get points at the Body Project for this. It’s always interesting to meditate, because you never know how you’re going to react or how you’re going to feel afterwards. We have many emotions and thoughts bottled up and when we let ourselves be relaxed and not judge our own selves, all those emotions and feelings come out. Some people laugh, some people cry, and many people don’t know why. Some people freak out focusing on their breaths. Sometimes when I meditate, I feel like I don’t have space in my chest, but then, after a couple of minutes, it gets much better and I manage to relax (and realise that I actually have plenty of space inside of me, and that I can actually float through life, if that makes sense).

Anyway, it’s been a full day, but quite rewarding. I managed to tick all the boxes in Body Project, which means I had a super healthy day. Hopefully, I will manage the same tomorrow.

Any day is a good day to change, or to improve your health (both physical and mental), so why not start now?