the power of routine

I have so much walking built into a normal, non-quarantine workday. I wake up at 6:45 (well, not always, but that's the ideal) and spend half an hour walking in place while I do my Alchemist Code dailies. Then I catch the 7:30 train downtown, which gives me time for a 40-minute walk before work. I grab Starbucks or Argo Tea on the way in and count my steps. According to my Starbucks ledger I took an average of 314 steps waiting for each Starbucks drink I got over the past year.

I take a midday walk: sometimes while getting lunch, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes both (especially if it's nice out and/or there's a convenient legendary raid nearby). Restroom breaks also add up, because I have to go out past the security desk and down the hall, and I do a bit of extra walking to bring me up to 500-600 steps each time. Then in the evening I walk back to the train station + walk home, which nets me another 2K steps.

Basically, I roll out of bed in the morning, do my thing, and roll home, and I get maybe 17-20K steps with no extra effort. That's the power of routine.

Here in quarantine, I have no routine (besides "try and take a half-hour balcony walk every day"), and it shows in my flagging numbers. There's a lot of walking in place at my desk while browsing goodreads or twitter. There's a lot of pacing up and down my apartment at 11 pm to hit a minimally acceptable total for the day.

Well, that's just how it goes, I guess. My totals are still pretty decent under the circumstances, and I've actually lost 5 pounds in quarantine due to complete lack of access to fast food. Also I'm glad to be out of my routine on a day like today, when it's 91 degrees out.

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The Croatia trip was this time last year, and every day Google is like "Rediscover this day" and reposts my vacation photos. Literally a year ago today (title drop!!). This year we were planning to visit Ukraine/England, but that's obviously not happening now. Instead Dad spent the vacation money on a backyard tool shed. He's so excited about it. He sent us pics of every step of construction.

(attached pic is not Dad's tool shed lol, it's from the Croatia trip last year)