A Break from Sheltering in Place

Christmas 2020 I spent two weeks at my son’s home in southern California. We had taken all the precautions. Everyone tested negative. The gardener and the housekeeper were given two weeks off. I drove door to door with only one stop for gas.

It was a wonderful visit.  I reacquainted myself with my four-year-old granddaughter. I also observed how often and lovingly her family was using Sheila, my Class B motor home that had previously been sitting, unused, in my driveway since Covid19 began. I soaked in their spa while my son and his wife, their dog, and my granddaughter swam in the pool. I joined them on several hikes in the countryside and watched movies long into the night with my son.

Fitness Slipping Away

Something I learned during my visit was that my physical fitness, never great, had slipped away during the many months of sheltering in place. The three-day-a-week circuit class I attended before Covid had been keeping me strong and flexible.  At the start of the pandemic, I could still haul groceries in from the car, take the three trash bins out every week, keep up with my laundry and stand on tiptoes to reach plates and bowls on high shelves. 

But now I needed help to get my suitcases up a flight of stairs, pull myself out of the spa, and scale steep hills. It wasn’t a happy discovery.  I’d been thinking that twice-daily walks in my neighborhood were keeping me fit, but clearly, they hadn’t been enough. Six months of having groceries delivered, a year of writing every day to the exclusion of nearly everything else, and watching way too much Netflix had left my muscles weak and my joints creaky.

Fitness at Home

Several years ago my son and his wife gave up their gym memberships. They bought several pieces of exercise equipment, which they set up in the garage. While I was visiting, they added an elliptical trainer as a Christmas gift to themselves.  I watched from the sidelines as my son put it together. It didn’t look difficult, although it took two long sessions during my granddaughter’s naptime and some hours late into the night before they could use it.

An idea was born as I watched my kids trying it out.  Perhaps I should get an exercise bike for myself!

When I returned home I researched equipment that I could afford and found a lightweight, foldable recumbent exercycle with an upper-body exerciser.  I clicked BUY and waited for my new toy to arrive, imagining how strong and fit I would be by the time the pandemic ended.

I was in my back garden when it came. The delivery person stood the box up against the front door. I couldn’t open the door, so had to go around to the side of the house to get out. I shoved the box so it fell to the ground, and there it sat, too heavy for me to lift.

What had I done? I couldn’t even move the box. How was I going to put this thing together?

Some Assembly Required

It was two days before I was able to face The Box. This was ridiculous, I told myself.  You’ve been putting Ikea furniture together for years and helping children with Lego projects, too. “Yes, but you always had help,” my internal naysayer reminded me. That was true. I had children to help me with the bookshelves and desks and Lego projects, and a partner to help with the couch and the art carts. I had never assembled anything alone.

Now I remembered that on several occasions my son had asked me to “hold this” or “lean on this” as he put together the elliptical. But I had no “someone” to help me now.

Stepping into the Fray

Finally, I decided to at least open the box and get it off the front deck. I rummaged around on my bench for a box cutter and began cutting the box apart. Each part was individually wrapped in plastic and tape. The 22-page instruction booklet contained detailed drawings that identified the many parts and 33 bolts, nuts, and washers, and listed 11 steps to assemble them.

The most recent Lego project I had helped my Santa Cruz granddaughter build was a Frozen castle. It contained hundreds of parts and three separate instruction booklets. Thinking about that project, I decided I would just do what I had coached her to do: Start with Step 1 and don’t worry about the rest.

My new cycle took three days to assemble. I worked on one step at a time, taking a break after each one, rewarding myself with a cup of tea or a walk around the block. And, with just a few missteps, I did it. I climbed on and tried out the pedals. I could barely move them. It was super stiff. Discouraged, I left the bike alone for a couple of days. Then, encouraged by one of my daughters, I sat down with the instruction manual and finally realized that the pedals were by default set on the highest number: 8.  I dialed it down to 1 and then I could pedal freely.

More Assembly Required

I suppose it’s not too surprising to readers that I found sitting on an exercycle kind of boring. There wasn’t a shelf to put a book on, so I tried using headphones connected to my iPhone, then listened to podcasts or audiobooks. But I was a wimp – I would stop after five or ten minutes. It was boring and it was hard. My East Coast daughter called one day and offered to be my exercise buddy.  “Check-in each day with a text telling me how you did,” she suggested. “If I don’t hear from you I’ll call.” And that’s what she did. Apparently, I needed some assembly too. A few days later, my daughter sent me a podcast called “Re-Engage with Your Resolutions,” which listed several strategies she thought would help. Three of them resonated with me.

• Be accountable to someone (Accountability).
• Record progress (Tracking)
• Make exercising more enjoyable (Pairing)

After some experimenting, I discovered that exercising while I watched the noon news program worked. I would get so caught up in the events of the day, the daily Governor’s report on Covid 19, the weather report, etc., that I forgot to be bored. My daughter continued to check in with me for a few more weeks, and I recorded my progress on a chart.

There was a period when I was moving to southern California when my exercise bike became a coat rack, but almost a year later I once again have a regular routine and I’m slowly getting stronger. I still don’t love my exercycle, but I’m using it. As my Peloton-pedaling daughter says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

Have you faced a project that overwhelmed you? How did you approach it?

Marlene Anne Bumgarner writes primarily about food, families, and traditions. Her 2020 memoir, Back to the Land in Silicon Valley, is about raising children, animals, and vegetables on a rural plot of land in the 1970s.   Organic Cooking for (not-so-organic ) Families will be out in the spring. Her next project is a book about Grandparenting.