health – Kendal (Gapinski) Kloiber

[Attempting to] Thrive During Quarantine

I haven’t felt the urge to write in a little while, mostly because the world has flipped on its head over the past month or so. We’ve been in quarantine for roughly 2ish weeks, and I’ve been working from home for a little less than a month.

I work for a school district, so when the governor closed schools on March 13, my work went into overdrive. I was swamped answering calls, updating the website, sending out communications to families and more. Now that I’ve found more of a rhythm and things have leveled off (a little, anyway), I thought I would share some of the things I’ve found most helpful in dealing with this entire mess of a situation.

Find a routine. It’s taken a few weeks, but I now have a fairly solid routine that I really enjoy. I’m up early, usually around 6:30, and spend a few minutes cleaning up the house and making coffee. Each morning, I strive to get 2,000 steps in before I sit down to do work (which sometimes means I pace back and forth in my living room like a crazy person), and then I write down in a blank notebook the day’s to-do’s, an hour-by-hour schedule, and five things I’m grateful for that day. After all that is done, I work for a few hours (using my new stand-up desk which has honestly been a game changer), and then take a break around 11 to work out. After that it’s lunch, a quick call to my mom to check in, and then spend the rest of the afternoon finishing up with work/meetings. I stop to make dinner around 6 and then spend the rest of the night with Tom and Zoe (my little sister who moved in with me just before the shit hit the fan in order to work at a local restaurant, which shut down approximately one week after she got here). We’ve been trying to find new shows or movies each night to watch, but we also “play” a little trivia by watching an episode or two of Jeopardy, which is a GREAT (and underrated) way to pass the time.

Focus on movement. I’ve always loved exercising, but recently I’ve really started dedicating at least an hour a day to working out. I’m privileged enough to have a Peloton bike, so I ride 3-4 days a week, mixing in some yoga and weights most days too. In addition to the 2,000 steps before 8 a.m., I also try to get a nice long walk in with Zoe at least once a day, especially now that the weather is getting nicer. Honestly, compared to working in my office, I feel like I’m moving more now than I have before and it’s something I intend to carry back into “normal” life.

Clean and organize. I’ve been saying FOR YEARS that I want to clean out the house and purge all of our belongings that we no longer need, but that I didn’t have the time. Well, I don’t have that excuse anymore. I’ve been spending weekends going through the house (since weekends seem to be the time where the boredom sets in the most), and I’ve seen such a difference in my overall attitude. Not only does it eat up some time, but I think the idea of cleaning out something, even if it’s just going through the junk drawer in the living room, brings a sense of accomplishment to the day… even if you’re just spending the rest of the day binging Tiger King.

Find joy and gratitude. Love her or hate her, I’ve been following Rachel Hollis’s free Next 90 Days challenge for the past two weeks. The idea is that every day you do your best to complete the Five to Thrive (drink half your body weight in ounces of water, move your body for 30 minutes, write down five things you’re grateful for, give up a category of food you know you shouldn’t be eating, get up an hour earlier and use that time for yourself). Sure, it’s a little hoaky, but having a list of things to accomplish each day has been super helpful during this time. Additionally, there is a theme each week of the challenge, and they send out a 30-45 min video lesson on that theme. Last week, it was all about perspective and this week the focus is on finding joy. For me, that’s translated to spending some time every morning writing down things I’m grateful for, because honestly, I am so lucky. The big things currently making the list? My family is all still healthy, both Tom and I are still receiving a paycheck, Zoe is here with me, and the only big sacrifice I am being asked to make is simply STAY HOME. If you would have asked me 6 months ago to stay home for a month — when I was go-go-going nonstop and felt so overwhelmed — I would have jumped for joy. Instead of focusing on the worry and anxiety (which, trust me, I have that too), I’m trying to really think about my quarantine as being a privilege. It is a luxury that all I am being asked to do is work and stay inside my home that’s filled with food, Netflix and a comfy couch. Not everyone has that luxury.

Give yourself some grace. This is a weird time, ya’ll. I have been trying to use it to focus on improving my health and my work, but I definitely don’t want to make it seem like I’ve been handling this perfectly. For comfort, I’ve been turning to lots of snacks and sugar. I have days where my anxiety feels overwhelming and I’m not sleeping soundly. I worry about Tom being out working and potentially getting exposed, but I also worry about him not working and figuring out how to support ourselves with a single paycheck. I worry about my Dad who has bad asthma and an 80% lung capacity. I worry about myself, since I have asthma. I worry about our wedding in September, and whether it will happen or if it’ll be canceled and we’ll lose thousands of dollars. It’s hard, and it’s hard for everyone. So even though I’m challenging myself to work out, eat better and focus on the positive, there are days where that just does not happen. There are days when I just want to sit and watch Housewives while eating a big old bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And I think that’s okay. We all need those days, so long as you can pick yourself up and keep moving forward.

We’re all trying our best to get through this, and that can look different for everyone, but this is what has been working for me. I hope it helps someone.

Above all, stay safe and stay home. I hope to see everyone on the other side of this stronger, happier and healthier.

My Peloton Review and FAQs

I love my Peloton that I made space in my TINY storage room for it.

It was only a matter of time before I wrote about my Peloton.

My sister, Hannah, purchased one towards the end of last year. I was skeptical – I figured I’d get sick of it after a few months, and that it wasn’t worth the $2,000+ price tag. Before making the jump, I decided to try out the app ($12.99 per month) using the bikes and treadmill at my local gym.

It took one class before I was hooked.

I loved the guidance of the instructors and how they pushed me right when I felt like my legs were slowing down. The music was great, there was a ton of variety in the classes, and it felt like I was part of this small community of people supporting and cheering each other on. I gave Hannah’s actual Peloton bike a try shortly after that and purchased the bike during the Black Friday sale.

I’m not kidding when I say it’s the best thing I’ve ever purchased.

Since then, I’m almost at 50 total rides, and I’ve worked out every week for 13 weeks. I actually look forward to working out (who woulda thought?!). When I switched to riding in the morning, I saw an immediate change in my mood. I feel stronger than I have in the past and more motivated than ever before. I’m also down about 8 pounds (though, let’s be real, that’s 80% due to diet changes).

When I was doing research, there were plenty of Peloton reviews out there, but I had trouble finding one that answered all of my questions. So, before you take the leap, here are a few things I wish I would have known ahead of time.

Let’s get right to it… how much does it cost?

The bike is not cheap, and I’m not gonna lie, when I looked at the price tag I was put off (especially with a wedding this year!). For the bike plus accessory package (which I got for free as part of the Black Friday deal and included weights, a mat, shoes, headphones and a heartrate monitor), it was $2,244. I also added a two year service plan for $175. Delivery is $250. In total, the purchase cost $2,565.21. There’s no way I could have forked over that much at one time, but what sealed the deal for me is that Peloton offers 0% financing for anywhere from one to three years. Since there isn’t any interest, I chose the three-year financing through Affirm, which means a roughly $65 monthly payment for the bike. Additionally, Peloton charges $39.99 per month for access to the classes and the ability to track metrics, use the leaderboard, etc. In total, each month my bike + membership is roughly $105, which when I did the math, was about $15 cheaper than what I was spending monthly for my gym membership.

Does that mean you can quit your gym?

Absolutely! I’m a group fitness class lover and I honestly haven’t missed it over the past three months. In addition to the spin classes, the app offers strength, yoga, treadmill, meditation, cardio, and bootcamp classes. If I had the space, I’d buy a cheap treadmill, a few more sets of dumbbells and set up my own gym. For now, I have the bike, and a few sets of dumbells, which is still enough for me to do a majority of the classes.

Why spend the $$$ on the bike instead of the $12.99/month app?

I thought the same thing too, which is why I did the app for a month or so before committing. And honestly, if it’s just not in your budget right now, you can totally get by using the app on a different bike. BUT (and this is a big but) it is hard to know your cadence and resistance if you’re using something other than a Peloton bike. That meant when I did the app I was basically guessing when instructors would tell the class to turn up the resistance or to speed up. Once I transitioned to the bike – and I actually experienced what something like 80 cadence out of the saddle felt like – I realized how different of a workout it was. The leaderboard ended up also being a huge thing for me – I love group classes because of the community spirit, and having access to compete and virtually “high five” others in the class boosted my overall effort.

Do you get bored?

I wanted to give it a few months before reviewing the bike for this reason. I tend to get bored with workouts easily, but three months in and I can say I still look forward to using the bike to work out. I think that’s because there are so many class options – there are artist themed rides (Backstreet Boys, Coldplay and Pink are three of my favorites), intervals and arms for full body workouts, HIIT and Tabata for short but mighty workouts, low impact for your off days and more. Cody’s Groove Rides have you dancing and performing choreography on the bike, while the plethora of 90’s rides are always a good time. I often spend a few minutes at night going through that day’s list of on demand rides to favorite a few for the future.

What about the non-cycling classes?

If spin wasn’t my thing, then I’d forgo the bike, but I would still be an app user. The strength classes kick your ass and leave you sore for days. I did a boot camp class at the rec for a year prior to Peloton, and have to say that the 30-minute Peloton classes leave me just as sore, if not sorer, than those early morning boot camp sessions. The yoga is nice, and they do have different styles like flow, restorative or power yoga, but it’s no substitute for a real in-studio class. I love the stretching and foam rolling classes for recovery days. As far as the tread, I’ve only taken one or two, but I loved them and plan to get a treadmill once we have the space for it. They also are always adding new programs. For example, they just put out a 4-week sleep meditation program, and before that was a total strength program that had you working out three to four days per week for four weeks.

What are some of your favorite classes and instructors?

It really depends on what type of coach you need that day. For days where I want to have fun and laugh through a ride with a good pop playlist, I’ll do a ride with Cody (his XOXO series was awesome). When I want to sweat and push myself, I’ll do a Jess King or Kendall ride. And when I had a bad day and need someone coaching me through it, I’ll do anything with Robin.

We get it, you love it. But what are the downsides?

Aside from the cost, it can have a glitchy moment where the class freezes for a second or two. Also, the heart rate monitor that comes with the bike is NOT WORTH IT. I ended up having to buy a Scosche monitor a few weeks after getting the one that came with my package because it stopped working. While I have a several instructors I love, there are also a few that I really don’t like. There also isn’t a pause button, so you need to make sure that you can dedicate that chunk of time to just the workout. The leaderboard pushes you, but it can be defeating when you’re down further on the list (though you can tap it and have it disappear if you need to).

Okay, so how do you put it all together?

The hardest part when I transitioned from a gym routine with set group classes to the Peloton was figuring out a schedule to stick to. The bike is so fun that it’s easy to just want to ride every day, but that’s probably not the best for my health or fitness goals. After a lot of trial and error, here’s what a week typically looks like for me:

Monday: Intervals and Arms class, or a 20-min ride plus a 10-min arms toning class
Tuesday: Full Body 20-30 min Strength Class
Wednesday: Rest, Yoga or Foam Rolling Class
Thursday: 45 Minute Ride (usually something that pushes me, like a Sweat Steady or Tabata)
Friday: Rest, Yoga or Foam Rolling Class
Saturday: 30 to 45-minute fun ride
Sunday: 20-min ride or strength class, depending on how my body feels

This is a ton of information, and probably the longest post I’ve ever written, but I’m hoping this helps someone! I went into Peloton hoping for the best, which it turned out to be for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. If you are planning to buy one, you can use my promo code (ZSWWRV) to get $100 off accessories like shoes and weights (and full disclosure, I get $100 to the apparel store). If you are interested in knowing more, let me know! I’m (obviously) thrilled with the bike and the community that comes with it. See you on the leaderboard! #KendyKen

Finding Health, One Bite at a Time

Photo by **Natasha Spencer** from **Pexels**

For the past few years, I’ve struggled with my weight. Hell, I feel like I’ve been at battle with my body for as long as I can remember. But my health journey really kicked off when my weight crept up after college, and now despite trying my best to eat less and move more, it doesn’t want to come off.

And that’s been hard to process. Really hard. I’ve tried calorie counting, intuitive eating, low carb, Whole 30, Weight Watchers, Noom, etc. Yet every time, I’ll drop a few pounds, but stay stagnant once I’m past that initial 2-5 pound drop. Inevitably, after a month or two of stagnation, I’ll get frustrated with the lack of results, binge on pizza and nachos, decide I need to get on a new plan and start the process over again.

Several months ago, I realized that I’m a Gretchen Rubin Obliger, and that accountability was key for me. Through one of the many health podcast groups I’m a part of, I connected with a health coach (Taylor, and she’s awesome! Check her out at https://www.habitcoach.org/). Working with her has been tough too, but it’s forced me to stick with something long term.

Yet, I’m not down a bunch of weight. And yes, that’s still extremely frustrating. But I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that my screwed up relationship with food and my body is something that’s going to take time to reset. I may never get down to that college weight again, but I’m still thankful for this journey. My relationship to food is shifting. Over the past few months of working with Taylor, I’ve realized a few things:

Consistency is key. I follow Rachel Hollis (she can be problematic, but a lot of her work is great), and one of her practices is to choose a word each year that represents what you want to achieve. My word for 2020 is consistency. I lack it in a lot of areas, but food and finances take an especially hard hit. Since I tend to lose weight s u p e r s l o w l y, I’ve realized that I need to stay consistent to see any results. That point in time where my weight loss stalls on a diet and I give up? I’ve started to wonder what would happen if I just push through – weight loss or not. Would I feel better? Sleep better? Eventually push past that plateau? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, though, I should give myself the chance to see what happens when I actually stick to something long term.
Mindset changes everything. Duh, Kendal. But my mindset before working with Taylor around food, and why I ate the way I did, was effed up. In a recent call, Taylor told me she was proud of how much I changed the way I talk about food and my diet. She’s right, I have. Before, I was full of excuses. I HAD to go through the drive through because I had a busy night and didn’t have time to cook. There was NO WAY I could work out that day because I stayed up late the night before watching Fraiser (side note – if you’ve never watched Fraiser, you are missing out). My mindset now? Everything is a choice – and I have the power to choose.. If I go to Chick Fil A between evening meetings, I made the choice to do that versus eat a few different healthy snacks I keep in my desk that can make for dinner in a pinch. By recognizing where I’m going wrong, it’s a little easier to steer the right way.
…But I’m still a work in progress. Choosing Chick-Fil-A over the healthy options on a school board meeting night? Yeah… that happened just last week. But I’ve come to realize I need to, as the song suggests, LET IT GO. I recognize what I chose to do, acknowledge there were better options, and try better the next time. The guilt is still there sometimes, but I’ve realized that when I shame spiral, it’s usually straight down into a plate full of tacos and pizza and beer that end up making me feel MUCH worse.
Find what works for you. I’ve done a bunch of diets, which may not have been great for my metabolism, but it has been great to see what I like, don’t like and what works best for me. Focusing on getting protein, fat, fiber and greens at every meal (ala Kelly Leveque or the Nutrition Addition’s Megan Kober, two of my favorite people to follow) feels best to me. I like three solid meals a day, not 5 small snack-y meals, and I feel great when I get a 12-14 hour fast in every night. I’m not counting calories, which can lead me to a numbers game (…hmm I have enough calories to fit a whole cheesesteak in today as long as I eat nothing but that and some rice cakes), but at the same time, I have a light structure to keep me in line. One day, maybe, intuitive eating will work for me, but for now, this makes the most sense.

Just to reiterate, I haven’t lost a ton of weight. In fact, I’m only down about 5 pounds from where I was when I started working with Taylor. But I felt like sharing what’s working for me and what I’m learning might be helpful, since I know weight loss is so ingrained in our society. My mom, sisters and I talk about it incessantly, as do my colleagues at work. Yet, I’ve come to realize that I’ve felt lonely and isolated about my struggles with weight loss. That I’m not doing it right, that something’s wrong with me, that I’ll feel this way forever, blah, blah, blah.

I know I want to change that, so I’ll be sharing my struggles, wins, losses, etc., here in this space. Sure, it’s another way to stay accountable as I continue to find what’s right for me in my health journey. But maybe it’ll also help others to realize that the struggle is REAL, and we’re not alone.

A New Year with New Goals

Ahh, the start of the new year. I love it. I know it’s cool and all to be against resolutions, to tell everyone that you’re just fine the way you are, but there’s something about a fresh start and tackling new goals that I just LOVE.

Leading into the new year, I spent some time journaling and reflecting about the lows and highs of 2019. Getting engaged was obviously one of the biggest highlights, but so was growing my freelance business, traveling to five new states and buying my Peloton (sounds silly, but I SWEAR this is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself).

For 2020, I started to think of my goals by picking a word that represents what I want to achieve this year. My word for 2020 is Consistency. It might sound silly, but I started really caring about my health at the end of last year. I hired a health coach (shout out to Taylor Lawrence!), tracking my calories and getting serious about becoming the best version of myself… But I always seem to struggle with consistently following those well-intentioned plans. I’m great Monday through Friday afternoon, but come Friday evening, a box of pizza and some wine sound like a MUCH better option than the Cesar salad.

That goes with things outside of diet too. I love to workout… until I decide to take a three-week break. Some of my weekends are so jam packed with social events that I’m home for less than an hour a day, while other times I might go two weeks before I hang out with anyone outside of Tom and work colleagues. One week my sleep is on point, I’m reading nightly, working on my goals… and the next I’m binging Lord of the Rings until 1 a.m.

So for this year, I’m going to find consistency. That doesn’t mean always being “good” (whatever that means), but it does mean giving myself a regular routine that sets myself up for success. I started by laying out what things I do daily that make me feel best. That includes items like working out in the early morning, eating mainly whole foods, limiting sugar and snacks, drinking half my body weight in ounces of water, and getting to bed by 9:30. Now that I figured out what made me happiest and feel best, I’m working to incorporate these habits into everyday life.

While my health is one of my biggest goals for this year (hello wedding dress that I want to fit into!), I made a long list of things I want to do this year that would make it a FANTASTIC year. A few of my favorites:

Start tackling some of my debt and pay off at least one loan.
Blog more (which is why I’m here right now!).
Get to level 5 Spanish on Duolingo.
Get married and have the BEST time at the wedding.
Read at least a book a month.
Hit 100 Peloton Rides (again, I’m obsessed).

I took the thinking that if I have daily habits that make every day feel great, then I should also list out the events that would make the year great as well. I’m adding to the list constantly, and while I don’t know that I’ll tackle absolutely everything on it, I’m sure that by intentionally setting out what I want the year to look like, I will make it one of the best years yet.

What are your goals for 2020? Share in the comments below!

My Mid-Year Check-In

Is it just me, or has 2019 absolutely FLOWN by?

I got to work today and started the day by checking my planner before it hit me that OMG WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE YEAR AND I HAVE DONE NOTHING.

Okay, so, that’s not exactly true. I know I’ve done some things. But that giant resolution list I set out at the start of the year? A lot of it is still sitting untouched.

Since today marks exactly halfway through the year, I thought it would be a good idea to – publicly – discuss some of my goals and how close (or far) I am from hitting them. Maybe you guys could do it too, and we can all be accountability buddies?!

So without further ado (and hopefully without too much judgement) here it goes:

Get back to be comfortable with my body.
Status: Working on it. After a (failed) Whole30, I feel like I’m finally starting to realize what works for me and what doesn’t. If you’re on the struggle bus too, check out the nutritionist Kelly Leveque’s book Body Love or follow @TheNutritionAddiction on Instagram. Both ladies share a similar philosophy of basing meals around protein, fat and fiber with limited carbs that I have found tends to work best (for me, anyway).
Run a race somewhere new.
Status: CHECK. Ran a 5K at King’s Dominion in Richmond in June.
Get my finances in order.
Status: Ehhhhh… let’s just say I’ll be taking a closer look at this moving forward. I wanted 2019 to be the year where I finally pull my finances together, with a few specific financial goals, but I’m definitely not where I want to be with it (thanks student loans). I have recently found a personal finance guru that I relate to called The Budgetnista, so I’m in the process of following her program now.
Get a new website and blog up and running.
Status: CHECK! You’re here!
Travel to four new places.
Status: I’ll be checking this off in a few weeks when Tom and I take a road trip up to New England. Where are we going exactly? I’m not sure! The plan is to just hit the road and head north.
Do the wheel in yoga.
Status: Yikes…. not quite there. Check back in December.
Clean out the house, Marie Kondo style.
Status: As evidenced by the fact that I’m currently storing my bike in my kitchen, my crock pot on a seat at the dining table, and some vintage glass dishes on the entertainment stand by the TV, this is not quite where it should be. (But I’m gonna blame Tom on my lack of progress in this area. While I’m a minimalist, he is most definitely a maximalist.)

So that’s it — the good, the bad and the ugly. By posting this I’m hoping to better hold myself accountable as we work through the last six months of 2019. Hang on, it’s going fast.

What were your goals for the year? Share them in the comments below so we can all hold each other accountable!