So, school is over. I graduated last Friday with an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. It feels really good to be done, but I think the past few days have been a series of “now what?” moments, where I’m just not sure what happens next. After all, school took up a good deal of my time and energy, and while I am glad that it is over, I know that the empty space where all of that time and energy used to be spent needs to be filled with something. I am not one to sit around that much.

Or am I? I have been looking over my lifestyle, and while I have pretty much conquered the Paleo lifestyle (2+ years and counting!) I haven’t been very active. I lost 50 lbs in the first six months of the Paleo journey and I haven’t lost anything else. I’m horribly out of shape. And I tend to hibernate when the weather gets warm.

Back in December I started doing yoga. It was one of the BEST things I have ever done for myself! I started it for stress relief, because between school and the business that I am trying to get off the ground, I have been a big ball of absolute stress. When the stress from school got really bad and allergy season hit me like a ton of bricks a few weeks ago, I had to stop doing it as regularly as I had been. I don’t think I’ve done anything in about a week now, and it had been a week or so before that. Whenever I get off the mat, I miss it. And every time I step back on the mat I talk about how I shouldn’t have let it take so long before I got on the mat again. Yoga is definitely something that I want to keep doing, for the stress benefits and the health benefits as well. I have seen improvement of my strength and flexibility since I started, and I may have to come up with some sort of schedule so that I will keep doing it more regularly.

I started my spring vacation today, and I stepped out on a big limb. I bought a bike. This is huge for me, because – as I said – I tend to hibernate when the weather gets warm. I don’t think I have voluntarily done anything outdoors that would make me hot and sweaty (get your mind out of the gutter!) in years, so this is a very big leap. Not only that, but I’m pretty sure that I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a teenager. I was anxious about getting a bike the right size since I am incredibly short, but the one that I got is perfect. The guy at the bike shop that we went to was very helpful and helped me pick out a bike that fit me perfectly. I took the bike out when I got home, and had to do a little adjusting, but after taking it back out again later, I felt just like a kid again on that bike. It was great, to feel the wind as I was riding down the road. Bikes have come a long way since I had one, so I have been getting used to changing gears. I have come a long way since I had one, too (not necessarily in a good way) so I have also been getting used to pedaling up hills again. It was fun taking it out and riding around, and the great thing is that we have a bunch of bike trails right near our house – we are in the middle of the biking area of town. I should have no problems finding places to bike.

So this is something that I want to schedule some time for, too. I need to make myself get outdoors more and move around more. It will probably help my overall mood and strength and probably other things, too. And now that school is over, I have more time to blog about it, too!