One Hot Stove is a teenager, and Raising the Bar(bell) in February

This week marks the 13th birthday of this blog. Nearly 700 posts. Over 22,000 comments. 6.5 million page views. I started blogging when it was a pretty new thing, I was blogging during the golden era of food blogging and today, years after it has been declared that blogging is dead and people have moved on to twitter and Instagram and podcasting, here I am, still blogging away. What does this say about me? That I'm persistent or that I'm a dinosaur who missed the boat to the next great thing?

Meanwhile, readers have come and gone. Friendships have been forged. There's a lot of my life that has been lived on this little blog! Thank you for stopping by to read it.

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It is somehow already the second month of 2018. My January goal to streamline my sleep habits went extremely well, thanks to the kids who cooperated and slept soundly themselves. Most nights I was able to read peacefully and then get long stretches of sleep- which is such an unbelievable luxury. Even though we had a few rough nights in the last week (ah well, nothing lasts forever), I feel like a new person.

February's goal is to streamline my gym routine. In the last couple of months, I've been doing lots of thinking and planning about how to get my fitness routine in place. I am convinced that regular exercise is a must for me- it is not optional. The benefits are just too numerous to miss out on, and it gave me beautiful results a few years ago. But being convinced is just not enough- there have to be practical, doable, enjoyable ways of fitting exercise into my weekly schedule. It is taking me quite a bit of homework to figure out the what, when, and where of my fitness habit.

The What: I'm already doing ballet twice a week. What I really want to add to it is strength training- lifting weights and doing body weight exercises- to build muscle. It has been on my radar for a while, with friends telling me how strength training transformed their fitness much more than running/ cardio ever had. The research certainly supports these anecdotes. And my own small-framed physique clearly needs some muscle building and bone strengthening. To really get into the mode, I read a few books in December- The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove and The New Rules of Lifting for Women, to name a couple- and got pretty excited about the whole thing.

The When and Where: The next step was to figure out how to start strength training when you don't have the first clue about it, other than what you've read from a book while sitting legs outstretched on a couch. There are people who do really well exercising in their own home, using their own routine, exercise apps or videos. Others do well with a gym membership where they can walk in anytime and use the equipment. The only thing, however, that has ever worked for me is fitness classes. I need a specific time and place and duration, and an instructor who knows what to do. Monkey see, monkey do, that's what works for me.

I started looking around for strength training classes- factoring in the timing of classes, convenience, cost, and whether it would be too intimidating for a beginner. And last week, I started doing something called BodyPump three times a week. I picked up a barbell for the first time in my life! The hour long class used barbells with weights, and handheld dumbbells, with the instructor taking us through a full body routine set to music- which is sometimes too loud and not my favorite, but it does make the hour go by very fast. Starting a new fitness routine is exciting and very hard at the same time. It is downright humbling when you can't do a single push up, not one. Also I am convinced that I am a medical anomaly because I have no triceps at all, none. But I am signed up for classes through the end of April and will see what 12 weeks of this class feels like.

Planning for stumbling blocks: It is very discouraging to start an exercise routine only to see it fizzle out when the inevitable realities of life get in the way- spouse traveling, busy days at work, house guests, kids falling sick, you falling sick and getting injured. Life has too many moving parts and the fitness routine has to be flexible. I am trying to account for that by joining a gym which offers dozens of classes every week, different styles of exercise and at different times of day. Hopefully, if I miss one class, I can go to another on a different day or time and keep the momentum going. 

My ultimate goal is to make fitness a daily habit that comes naturally, in a "do something every day" way, where that something could be an exercise class, dance class, neighborhood walk with the dog, run, weekend hike, playground time with the kids (where I actually run around and play with them and not sit on the bench and watch), walking for a couple of hours to do errands, and so on. Physical movement isn't something I am intrinsically excited about but I believe it can be cultivated and I am on my way to embracing it fully.

On this topic, here's an interesting article I read just last night on the development of an exercise pill. Spoiler alert: It won't be on a market for a while so don't cancel that gym membership just yet.

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On the food front, there's lots of everyday cooking happening over here- vegetable kadhi, spinach lasagna, all sorts of wintry comfort food. I also made a roasted sweet potato soup on the fly yesterday- seasoning it with warm spices and coconut milk- and loved how it turned out, so I jotted down the recipe at the end of my other roasted sweet potato soup recipe from 4 years ago. Don't miss the great recipe ideas (for sweet potatoes, and for soup) in the comments on that post.

Do you fit exercise into your life? What do you like to do? What are your challenges and goals for being more active?