Day 7 of my self care challenge: back to basics

Day 6 of my Self care challenge: practicing self regulation and self compassion

It’s Sunday! My favourite day for self care as I feel like I can really make a difference in my week by actively choosing activities to prepare myself for my week. I just recently realized the power of saving my Sunday for me. I try my best not to plan much for Sundays so that I can do whatever I need to prepare myself and feel calm for the week! Today I feel like I really went back to the basics of self care which is that basic need of cleanliness, health and rest!

This morning on day 7 of my self care challenge, I drove us back to the city and while my wife did the grocery shopping (as promised), I went and signed up for a gym membership! Planet fitness is close to my house and I honestly just stopped going because the first time I went back after the pandemic I literally watched a man spit all over his treadmill – I’m talking collecting spit and spitting it out and also putting water in his mouth and spitting it everywhere. And as much as I work with children every day, the germs were just too much for me. Something that I need to commend Planet Fitness for is their ease of signing up and lack of pressure. I’ve been to other gyms before where they try to sell you on personal trainer packs or ask you tons of questions about your workout goals. That’s just too much involvement for me, I just want to go workout!

We spent a solid part of the afternoon cleaning, purging and doing laundry since the weather wasn’t beachy like we had hoped, but it felt good in terms of productivity! I felt super proud of the cleaning but I also was very antsy, so I tucked out to the gym while my wife was organizing her book shelves and I did a bit of a workout! I forgot how much I like going to the gym!

One of my self care goals that I’m going to start trying to implement is taking away the pressure of workouts. I feel like once I’m at the gym I have all the energy in the world but I put too much pressure on myself. So this year I’m going to try just going to walk on the treadmill or do the stair climber and then if I want to do more I’ll follow that energy. Lessening the pressure and expectations of workouts seems to be a good place to start for me as I have a physically demanding job and also getting anywhere is my biggest challenge.

I also thought I’d do a bit of self care (and wifey care) through food as we started talking about cooking again. On my way home from the gym I picked up some ingredients and made one of my favourite pastas my mom makes- spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams). I was shocked how easy it was and I think I need to take my own advice to my clients more and choose simple recipes to try and enjoy! Food tastes so much more magical when it’s freshly made and I feel good about sharing it with others!

I also set up a self care station so we had dinner and on the table there was also our water cups, a candle, some treats, my craft and book, and my wife’s video game! So we’re going to snuggle our cats and have a lovely evening before and early bed time! 🩷

Ideas for tomorrow:

Tomorrow is going to be not only the first day of this challenge that overlaps with a workday, but it’s also the first day of our new program, with new clients AND new placement students. All of our clients are going to be in transition back into the school year, so I’m anticipating this week to be a tough one. In anticipation, my self care has already been cancelling plans for tomorrow with our friends so I can come home and rest if I’m absolutely exhausted. If I’m not, maybe I’ll find some nice things to do in the evening 🙂 but for tonight my self care is to have no plans for tomorrow!