I have to remind myself this a lot; my body is here to help me to survive. It is not who I am. It is just the vehicle that carries my consciousness. It has prevailed through some really difficult things… even things that my consciousness has put it through, and still it has the goal of keeping “me”… us(?) safe and alive. Why would I let a number on the scale make me feel negatively about it? That would be cruelty and absurdity. My body is not bad and doesn’t need to be anything. My body deserves my respect for its perseverance. It's allowed to fluctuate. It will change, as if always has, it will age, as it is doing and has been doing every moment since birth. It’s enough as it is. It's something I just have to remind myself of when I start to get into fitness and weight loss. And if you need a reminder too, then I hope this helped you.

That being said, yesterday for exercise Spinch and I played a dance game and switched off after a few songs. It was fun, very reminiscent of swimming. We discussed options for future exercises together, now that we placed down large rubber mats to avoid disturbing the family downstairs. We may try going back to the dumbell training we used an app for, and we also may look into converting Spinch's basement into an exercise area. Now that the holidays are over we can also walk in certain areas that were previously closed due to holiday events. I hope we are able to continue working out while also maintaining the peace. I guess learning tap dancing and clogging are out of the question, and that's ok lol

A very grateful shoutout to Spinch for making this blog! A place we can track our goals and keep a track record of our progress. Personally, I’d like to lose ten pounds, incorporate more exercise for the sake of finding joy in movement, drink more water, and find a helpful routine/structure that helps me to upkeep changes I make without expectations that reinforce all-or-nothing thinking. I’d like this journey to be a kind one, one where I can have a few days off of my routine and not have the next few months unravel because I feel I “failed”. So I’m looking to move in an overall generally positive direction and find ways to gently maintain amidst the natural fluctuations that happen.

Here is the plan so far:

• Incorporate daily “workouts” that are enjoyable and help find the joy in moving my body; dance, walking/hiking, playing with our cat (we chase eachother room to room sometimes) , stretching, climbing trees even

• Doing several movement activities that are short in duration through the day so exercise doesn’t feel like a huge chunk of time I need to carve out or find tremendous energy for. For me, doing 4 ten minute exercises is more sustainable than setting aside 40 solid minutes for it. Though there will be days I will do 40 minutes too… but out of joy and not out of obligation.

• Drinking a few glasses of water a day and letting the momentum build. I know in time that will lead to drinking more water.

I have a lot of things I’d like to try creatively, spiritually, and professionally too, but I think for here I will track my fitness and health progress first. Thanks for reading.

-spinkuhl

Happy New Year! 🥳

2026 will be a great year and this blog will serve as a record of our journey as it relates to fitness this year. It will be used mostly as an accountability tool. Feel free to follow along the ups, downs, and everything in between.