A Year Off Bodybuilding

Hi Everyone!

So, about this global pandemic, I’ve taken the year to isolate from the planet.  And I do mean isolate.  I haven’t been to a big box gym since March, haven’t removed a sparkly bikini from its case to even attempt to fit into it, haven’t really posted a thing on this blog, Instagram or Facebook (or read other’s feeds) in months.

It was actually kind of great.  Especially escaping the social network.  Facebook makes me feel bad.

I’ve been doing other fun things.  Things like eating junk food.  For as fabulous as it has been (chocolate chip cookies cannot be overrated) I’m starting to miss bodybuilding again.

I miss being strong.  And fitting into my jeans.  The plus side about gaining weight during a pandemic is that no one can see your sweatpants but you.  Also, if you angle your camera right and put a little brown eyeshadow under your chin, you can shave off ten pounds on Zoom.

Like everyone, I’m looking forward to 2021 and having this thing wiped out with any number of vaccines.

Every time I take a walk I feel like I’m in a zombie video game.  I see people and cross my street.  If I can’t cross I hold my breath, even with a mask on, which makes grocery shopping difficult.

Has anyone not been impacted personally by this point?  We’ve had family and friends get the virus, some of them landed in the hospital.  My deepest condolences for any of you who lost someone this year (where through Covid or not).  As some of you know, my husband’s father passed in June and my uncle passed in April.  My best friend since childhood lost her mother as lockdown was starting.

I have family who found themselves unemployed and fighting for benefits.  As a small business owner my husband and I have been nervously watching our pennies and the ever-changing government rules and regulations that are a giant cluster, just hanging in there until next year.

And that’s why God made chocolate and wine.

Thankfully NPC promoters had the good grace to limit the amount of bodybuilding contests during the year.  It was like a get-out-of-guilt free card to take the year off.

I redirected all my energy into creative pursuits.  I actually finished the first draft of my first novel.  Like all first drafts it’s very bad, but the important thing is that I actually finished the damned thing.  I’ve made two previous attempts to write novels and never finished.  This time I tricked myself by saying it’s part of a five book series, so even though I’ve finished book one, that’s really only one fifth of the story so I can still consider myself a procrastinator.

If you ever want an exercise in humility, ask your thirteen-year-old daughter to be a beta reader for your first novel.  She will crush your tender ego, but make the book better.  Also, she will delight in pointing out all your grammatical errors and scold you for using a comma as a crutch.  (I homeschooled her for two years, so she is really enjoying that part.)

But now that my novel has been written and a vaccine is on the way, I guess I’ll get back to bodybuilding soon.  My Tupperware looks lonely and desires to be filled with turkey, brown rice and green beans again.  My feet are having flashbacks (“Remember in the before times when we wore heels?”).  My skin is missing spray on tan.

I know; it’s a weird sport but honestly, I’m a quirky woman and not everyone wants to take Crossfit classes or run 5ks.

I hope you are doing well and hanging in there.  Hopefully, we will all land softly on the other side of the plague.

See you in 2021.

Lisa 😉