18 Jun

Finding your routine

"Just remember, we are all in this together and you are not alone"

I have written this blog to share with you all my roller coaster of emotions and antics during lockdown. This is from me, Lindsey, on being up front and honest of the last few months and how what I needed was to get myself back into a routine.

Lockdown Fear

Living on my own and having a busy life with work, family and friends, I was worried I would get lonely and struggle mentally with lockdown.

Living with a 1 year old needie french bulldog was what worried me the most!! Trying to teach live classes from my sitting room whilst he was diving all over me and biting my toes was a bit of a concern haha!!

Lockdown for me the first week was sad, the weather was dull and it hit home; I couldn’t see anyone, I couldn’t drive anywhere, how would I cope mentally?

My excitement was getting up in the morning and walking around Ashington woods with my nut job of a dog woohoo!! BUT then …. Mr Sunshine appeared, the weather was LUSH!! I had just had my garden renovated and over the next few weeks, I treated lockdown as a party for 1 in my new garden and my Ashington tan was coming on a treat.

Needless to say though the exercise took a back seat.

Tik Tok Antics

During lockdown, I discovered Tik Tok, (an app where you can sing and dance using certain sounds, if you’re not sure).

If I’m honest I wasn’t in the best of moods at this point and I was becoming very bored, I needed to find something to do which gave me a laugh and to get my mind away from the "L" word.

I began finding props such as wigs and clothing and off I went creating these daft video’s. To name a few Mrs Doubtfire cake splat, The Mask, Vicky Pollard and Mrs Brown.

I was entertaining my Facebook friends trying to keep them upbeat but I was slowly beginning to lose the plot!! I’ve attached some photos for your reference haha!!

DIY SOS

I needed to get into a routine again and give me something to achieve each day. This is where paint became my best friend in lockdown!

I began painting the majority of my house from garden fences, kitchen cupboards, revamping my entire upstairs and I even painted my PVC doors!!

I’m the type of person who needs to keep busy and I found revamping my entire house was helping. I enjoyed doing it and making good progress was keeping me ticking along nicely.

This also made my home a nicer place to be in during lockdown.

Using the paintbrush was my only form of exercise may I add. I was very motivated to make my surroundings look better, but I had zero motivation to make myself look better!

As you can tell, painting became quite obsessive and to go alongside my decorating, I found a love for online shopping!!

Building a routine

I'm not going to lie, the month of May was a struggle.

Yeah my house was nice, my garden was nice (looks like Love Island at night with all of the B&M lights), but my energy levels were low, I was out of shape, unfit and quite miserable.

I was asked to go back to work at this point too and I thought SUGAR!! How the hell am I going to be able to teach a class in this state? How would I fit on the screen teaching online classes and be upbeat??

At this point I started to think about myself! I began eating healthier and had to get back in shape.

I mentioned my love of online shopping earlier, this led to an spur of the moment bike order which has seen me conquer Bothal Bank!

Slowly my mood started to pick up, thank the lord!

Getting back to work, even though it was just working from home, I felt a lot better as I had a bit of routine back.

Back on Track

We are now into June and I am getting back on track. I'm thinking about my wellness. I’ve started exercising again, eating better and I feel much happier for it.

I have just taught my first class live from my living room through Active Northumberland’s Facebook page and it went really well. I’ve been walking like John Wayne for 3 days after like but it was worth it!! - View it here for anyone who want's to join me

Working from home is a little challenging as I have little Alby to entertain (frenchie) and it is tough to stay motivated sitting on the sofa at a laptop the majority of the day, but having some focus and work to do is what I needed to keep me going.

My neighbours are a great help and they have Alby when I teach my live classes. I've got a slot every Friday at 1.00pm for any of you lovely folk who wish to join me on the Active Northumberland Facebook page

Well, if you've made it this far, thanks. It's safe to say things are moving in the right directon now and hopefully we won't be too much longer until I can meet you all in person once again.

For anyone else who thinks they are in a slump, take my advice and get yourself into a routine again. Write down what you are going to achieve in the next week, a To-Do list which you can tick off as you go. You can then look back this time next week and see just what YOU have achieved.