So, every once in a while, I’ll give a few glimpses into my personal life, if any of you give even a small care about that. Today, I’ll take a look back on January, and how various changes have impacted a certain area of my life: exercise. Cue groans here.

I truly can’t believe January is almost over. Didn’t we just get here? This month has been one of major adjustments, to say the least. Every year, I try to work out what’s known as an “ideal week,” where I try to figure out how much time I have during the week to do the things I’ve got planned. That’s really how I plan out what I’m going to try and release in the year, and that’s what I did the first week of the year.

Then I got strong-armed into taking an office job.  I went from mildly considering it, to I’ll be starting Monday. There’s more to it, of course, but it means I’m  getting dressed and leaving the house regularly for the first time since 2016. It also means that I’m trying to determine a new ideal week, and see when and how I’m going to get my writing done. And get my life back on track. Which brings me to: exercise.

I’ve had a love-supreme dislike relationship with it (don’t we all?). I used to love it, the way I felt after I’d worked out, the feeling I’d done something really good for myself. In other words, I was young. Life got in the way, as it’s wont  to do, but I was okay for a while. Until I had four car accidents in a little under 18 months. Then exercise hurt, like big grown woman tears hurt, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. That was over a decade ago, and the decisions I made then still have repercussions today. AKA, it takes very little for my back to rebel against me.

Which brings us back to this new job. The new chair leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve been leaning forward a lot because the arms aren’t adjustable, and my back took exactly 2.3 days before it pitched a tantrum that any two-year-old would be proud of. Now, before, I’d been working out when I was going to work out, but that was during a time when I’m on the road. I’ve got writing obligations multiple times a week (trying to make up for some of the time I lose in the morning), and when I look at the schedule, all I see is no time.

But when something’s important, you make time for it, right? That’s what they tell me, at least. But as I get older, I’m starting to think that’s a little simplistic. There truly are only so many hours in a day, and you really have to be deliberate about how you use them. Exercise is that important to me, but let’s be real: I have a TotalGym at home. I don’t have to leave the house and go to the gym and find a parking space and fight for a machine to use. I’m really freaking lucky, and I still struggle to find time. And we don’t have kids! All that to say, I’m trying to rein my judgment way back this year. I thought I was pretty good about it, but I can tell I have more to go.

And with that, I’m going to get my butt on that machine and do something before my back gives up the ghost.