I struggle with stillness. I’ve been like that for as long as I can remember – wake with the sun and move until the sun bids the sky adieu. Dancing and singing and talking – really just a whole lot of following people around talking.

Maybe that’s why I always preferred workout classes over alone time in the gym. While so many people like to put their headsets on, muting the world for the steady beat of Taylor Swift telling you to Shake it Off or Beyonce reminding you who truly runs the world – I always opted for an instructor at the front of a room telling you how many more seconds you have to hold a plank. (The answer always being a million more seconds.) To me, I liked the feeling of being pushed and the motivation of doing that among other people. (And the chatting after class.)

For years, I was a gym member in whatever city I lived. The local woman-owned gym when in the Toronto area, a yoga studio while in Ottawa, and then a spin studio and Class Pass while in New York. I worked out four to five days a week, and would sometimes throw in an extra day for good luck. I loved it! Until I didn’t. Or maybe it was never that simple?

I had a weird and confusing break up that lasted for months and somewhere in the haze of saying goodbye to someone I loved and welcoming myself back into my own body, I stopped being a member of any gym. I stopped moving regularly. I still found my way to my yoga mat for some calm and peppered in workout classes – really just enough to say I hadn’t quit cold turkey.

Weeks became months and then I started this job that consumes more of my time than I’d like to admit (that’s for another post), and now it’s been over three years.

A note – I still follow people around just to talk. I move throughout every day, from dance parties in my kitchen, to walks with my sweet pup, Luna, to hikes with my sister and boyfriend, (known in every text not to him as M, and so shall be called M on this blog) – but nothing regular, nothing that would count as a routine.

And then all routine got thrown out the window and I decided it was time to start welcoming regular movement back into my days. M loves working out. Loves moving. Loves pushing his body simply to see what it can do. And since he lives in New York and I in Ottawa and we’re always finding ways to pretend we’re together when the miles apart are nothing to sneeze at – we decided May would be the perfect month to start a ‘Wellness Challenge’. And I use challenge loosely because I am the least competitive person that has ever taken a breath and the intent was only ever to kindly and slowly reintroduce myself to an old friend.

And so the May Wellness Month was born.

Here it is: drink 2,000 mL of water a day (HOW DOES ANYONE DRINK THIS MUCH WATER?!), no ice cream (cruel), and complete the below circuit three times through, once a day.

• 5 push-ups
• 5 sit-ups
• 5 squats
• 20 second plank

Then do that circuit four times (4 push-ups, 4 sit-ups, 4 squats, 20 second plank), until you hit the 1s. Repeat three times. It takes 20-25 minutes total. The perfect bridge time from ‘work day’ to evening, or morning to productivity, or a lunch time break.

It was achievable- not a challenge that laughed at me, mocking me every day when I would think about the hill I just couldn’t climb. As if I was going to go from zero to a 5K run five times a week. That’s a no from me. I needed something that was like a handshake. Easy. Welcoming. Quick. No promises. And that’s what this Wellness Month has been.

Now, May isn’t done yet. We still have a week left. And I haven’t done every part of it every day. There is often a full water bottle on my desk in the afternoon forcing me to chug 500 mL most nights.

And I don’t do the circuit everyday. I didn’t workout today, for example (sorry, M, if you’re reading this. I know I said I was going to try, but something came up with work – as it always does – and I am choosing a moment on the balcony over the circuit today).

BUT the point is that I am thinking about it. That I am trying. That I am finding ways to move (like a bike ride to sit with friends in the park last night), and that I am being kind to my body, and for right now – that’s good enough for me. It’s more than good enough.

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