new September, new healthy habit

I don't know about you, but in the last years, pandemic "helping", my physical activity has gone very much down so I can really feel how I have gotten weak - no stamina, no strength. Time to do something about it! Let's create a brand new physical activity habit, and having some accountability often helps, so your partner will be the one to "judge" you if you get too lazy. ;)

Think about what kind of a daily physical activity routine you could sustain, don't grab a random 30-day challenge off internet. Maybe it is a half-hour of walking? Maybe it's a certain yoga routine or stretching exercises? Maybe it's dancing to the music of the day for ten minutes? Maybe it's five push-ups? Maybe you really should do those exercises that your physiotherapist gave you for your bad back? It will be a good thing if you have done the thing of your choice before because then you know you can do it - you just need to get into doing it regularly for it to really help.

Whatever it is, don't try to shoot for stars - just step out of your comfort zone with one feet and stretch out your hand in order to grab this new healthy habit, so to say. Think of it - if you do five push-ups a day for a month, vs set your goal to do fifty and give up in the middle of third day (which would be quite a probable scenario), in second case not only have you not gotten into a healthy routine, but you have made less push-ups total, too! After all, what we are setting up as a goal is the minimum amount of exercise to get each day - you can totally do that sixth push-up today if you feel like that, or take a longer walk on weekends, or do both a walk and push-ups some days. Find something such that, if you discovered late in the night that you haven't done your routine today, it would be easier to think "I'll get this done, I'd be embarrassed to admit I got so engrossed in my phone that I couldn't spare those two minutes for my health" than "oh, it's so late and I'm tired, I won't have time/energy for it, I'll just skip it today/do double tomorrow". Just as example, I'm myself considering either a walk around block first thing in the morning or a set of exercises with resistance band - both are things I won't need to go out of my way to do. Although I also hope to go once a week to orienteering (have gone twice in a row now, yay), this is not going to be relevant for this swap because it is not daily.

Describe in the start of your letter what kind of habit will you try to get into. Think of how you'd want to format your account of your activities - you can keep a diary, or you can make a calender where you can write in what you have done daily. The period of accountability for this swap is September 1st to 30th but you are welcome to start forming that habit now. Handwritten, typed, or a combination of both are all allowed - I don't see that we'd need to worry about this being a form letter. Relevant extras (like a nice nature photo made during your walk) allowed but not required - make your very letter the treasure that your partner was waiting for!

To recap:

• one daily habit of physical activity to create
• do it through the month of September (and hopefully after that as well, just not for this swap)
• keep daily track of your progress (every new day in a row is progress!)

No swappers with unexplained low ratings, no 1s owned to active swappers, no multiple or underage profiles, or other kinds of questionable swappers, please. You are welcome to PM me if you spot any in my swap.