week #11

16 Mar, 2026

monday

➜ wanted to get up early, put on my hiking clothes, bring D to school and go hiking directly from there. but when I woke up, my body had other plans. it was so tired from Sunday - putting 3 days of cleaning work in 1 morning - that I just couldn’t get up. thankfully the husband could bring D to school so I had some extra time to start my day. sometimes I have days like this, when the hard work feels like a hangover the day after, ughh. a slow day it is!

➜ but I also had something to celebrate: I'm so proud of myself! the only sweets I ate last week was a kuchen on Sunday when we had visitors. I didn't (and don't) have any sugar cravings at the moment. feeling really good about that! :D

➜ when D and the husband were out the door, I did a 15 min pilates session and 15 min of indoor biking. a soft start of the week.

➜ I’ve been listening a lot to pan-pot!

➜ been planning on a new tattoo for a while and I think I finally found an artist that fits the style I want. thinking of making an appointment for early summer.

➜ I found a video with sciatica stretches and tried it for the first time. I was astonished how much it helped!

➜ I'm eating skyr in between meals when I get a little hungry. that seems to help!

➜ we had an appointment at the municipality to get D a new ID card. we had to hand in a photo, but when we arrived it got clear that it didn't meet the requirements. so I had to make a new appointment for next week. luckily we still have some time before we need her ID on vacation.

➜ after the municipality meeting, we visited my parents. we sat in the garden in the sun and talked for a while. my sister also visited with our dog niece. D always lights up when she sees them. the 3 of them made a trip to the playground.

➜ before biking home again, we made new pictures of D. the shop assistent made 4 different ones so that they can choose the best one at the municipality next week. let's hope it works this time!

➜ when we were in the store, D saw a stuffed animal of a fluffy red cat. she has been asking for a cat for a while (to have as a pet). so this was a compromise :’) she could have the stuffed one instead of getting a pet. she was instantly in love, named it Charly and kept it by her side the rest of the day. Charly ate at the table with us, she showed Charley her toys and she had to sleep close to her. the cuteness!!

✶ exercise | 15 min mat pilates + 10 min sciatica stretches + 15 min indoor biking + 20 min commuting by bike

tuesday

➜ today I felt a bit better getting up, so I directly dove into my hiking clothes. after I brought D to school, I went up to the attic to do my first pilates bar exercise. I'm trying the pilates (bar) exercises from jacintha brown and so far it's lovely!

➜ after a bit of rest, I went for a hike. the first time while trying the weighted vest. I started with 4 kilos on. it was a bit tricky at first finding a way that the weight felt okay on my shoulders. I had to get it off after 1 km to adjust it again, but when I did it was okay. and I had to make 2 small stops to rest, because I could feel it was taking quite some energy to get going. I took my time and tried to notice my body and mainly my knee. and I was praying I wouldn't get a headache after, because I'm sensitive to that when my shoulders are involved.

➜ the 6km route I did usually takes me max 1 hour, but with the weighted vest 1,5 hours. it was sunny and didn't rain, so all ok for me!

➜ when I got home I was so hungry I directly made myself lunch. it was still sunny, so I ate it in the garden while watching a series.

➜ schoolmate S came over to play today. the girls kept themselves busy in D's room and in the garden, playing with water.

➜ around 15:30 it was time to bring S home. I promised her mum to bring her home, so we took D's bike buggy and I had a 5km hike upon me. so much walking today!

➜ on the way back we picked up some Vinted packages and when we arrived home I was looking forward to some couch time, before cooking. I was too tired to do a lot of cooking, so I made us a pearl couscous salade.

➜ the husband was at a concert in the evening, so I had some time to myself. I made a plan to reorganize my closet to make some room for my sport clothes, so that I have easier access to them. I ordered some clothing hangers so I can start organizing soon.

➜ and I watched number 6 from 12 for my 12 documentaries in 12 months: gaga: five foor two

✶ exercise | 15 min pilates bar + 15 min sciatica exercises + 6 km hike with 4kilo weights + 5 km hike with D

wednesday

➜ it's getting easier and easier to just jump into my sporty clothes first thing in the morning (on my days off) and start doing my exercises directly when I get home from the school run. this new version of me is feeling good!

➜ doing sports on a daily basis seems to have a side effect. I am dreaming of an attic with very organized colorful sports equipment. I feel a new DIY project coming up!

➜ my random things about me got some updates at the end.

➜ I was still feeling yesterdays weighted hike, so besides the pilates in the morning, I wasn't planning on doing a lot. a good day to reorganize my closet and give my sports clothing a prominent spot. I want to do what I can to make it as easy as possible to do my daily exercises. and I think it will help a lot if all things I need are within reach.

➜ when D was home again from school, I had a lot of ironing to do. so she played a bit by herself and I was fighting through a pile of laundry. my legs were tired from hiking, exercising and standing long... but it felt like my 'day limit' of what my body can do, went up a bit.

✶ exercise | 15 min pilates bar + 10 min rowing machine + 15 min physio exercises

thursday

➜ the workday was quite busy, just the way I like it! time flew by.

➜ I noticed I had a bit more energy during the day, yay!

➜ in the evening I even felt like doing a pilates session. after dinner and putting D to bed, I did a 15 min session in the attic.

➜ I've noticed progress with the physiotherapy exercises. at first, my knees were burning after just five repetitions in the first set, but now I can easily do ten without any trouble. progress!

➜ our vacation to Turkey at the end of April may be a bit uncertain, as a yellow travel advisory has been issued today. I'm curious to see how the situation will develop. oh boy.

➜ I decided that I wanted to get an activity and fitness tracker to start tracking my exercises. I started looking into one that has the function to tell me my training status; how productive or straining my training is and what days its better to rest and recover. looking at that made me fire up my old Strava profile again. so fun to see all old data from years ago! I'm eager to add new data :)

✶ exercise | 15 min pilates bar + 10 min physio + 20 min commuting by bike

friday

➜ during my lunchbreak at work I saw that D's bestie started her swimming lessons. last year we said we wanted to let the kids start together, so I directly tried to get D into the same lesson. normally there's a waiting list for swimming lessons in the pool close to our home. but after writing with the swim teacher, D could even start the next day. woohoo!

➜ she was so excited when we told her in the evening! and even more excited that she's in the same group as her bestie :D

➜ for dinner we had a little treat, the vegan steak from planted. it's something I love but can't eat too often. it's hard to describe... the taste is really good and a real treat to eat. but eating it too often would make it less special? so today it felt like a special meal. even if it was just with sprouts and baby potatoes. hmmm.

➜ in the evening the husband and I watched our German reality show and I went to bed on time.

✶ exercise | rest day

saturday

➜ it was a rainy day. it started with rain and ended with rain. and the rain even turned into snow at some point. I thought it wouldn't be busy at work because of that, but the day went by quite fast.

➜ D's first swimming lesson was around 9:30, like every Saturday now. so it's her new daughter-daddy thing in the weekend. I was happy to receive some pictures of her first time in the water. it looked like she had fun! and the teacher also seemed very nice.

➜ the teacher even sent me an email after class. she wrote D's first time was super and she had a great time. so lovely she took the time to let me know!

➜ in the evening I did a longer pilates bar session. half of it was the same exercises that I did on Thursday, but some of them felt completely different today. my body seemed to struggle a bit more this time. I hope I receive my polar watch soon, because it tells me how the amount of exercise my body can take every day.

✶ exercise | 40 min pilates bar

sunday

➜ the husband left early, because he was running a trail marathon today. together with D I wanted to go watch, because the half marathon checkpoint and finish was in our neighboring village where my parents live. so we could combine watching the marathon with a visit to my parents.

➜ I decided it was a good day to be a bit active myself, so D and I went to the marathon with her buggy. it was a 4km walk and because we were a bit late, I walked in a 5.5/6km pace. quite sporty for me!

➜ when we got there we had to wait 20 min before the husband arrived. for D it was a little cold still, so she was happy when he passed and we could visit my parents!

➜ after we saw the husband, we walked back to the village to get lunch for everyone and visit my parents. I already suspected so, but after our break warming up, she didn't want to go with me to the finish. so I ended up going alone to pick up the husband. at that point the sun was out, so it was lovely outside!

➜ we stayed some time at my parents, had lunch and at the end of the afternoon went home again. the husband and D by car and I walked back with the buggy. it was a lovely walk, but my pace was a bit fast. so I was dead when I arrived home! still getting used to hiking more often.

➜ we didn't have food in the house, so we decided to order pizza. I guess it was busy, because it arrived at 19:45, oops! a bit late for D, but what can you do!

➜ when D was in bed, we watched caught stealing and went to bed on time.

✶ exercise | 10 km hike