Wow, it’s been a while! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy as much as possible. These are certainly difficult times, but we can work together to keep ourselves AND our fellow human beings safe and healthy, too.
I’ve been meaning to post more, but the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted my priorities a little bit. I’m working mostly from home for my full-time job (going in only 1-2 times per week to see patients), and since Yoga Pole Studio had to halt all classes since mid-March, I’ve been teaching online flexibility, conditioning, and inversion classes.
To be honest, I wasn’t keen on teaching online in the beginning. Being able to move around and spot students, watch from different angles, see facial expressions, see body language, etc. are all things I rely on to provide instruction in-person. I knew I’d lose most of that in an online format. But after a few weeks, I managed to make it work and acknowledge the limitations of the online/virtual format. It’s not perfect, but I’ve gotten used to it. Plus, it is nice being able to see students’ faces at the start and end of classes (if not also in the middle of classes depending on their setup), because these would be faces I would not be able to see otherwise.
My evenings revolve around teaching one or two classes almost every day now. Every day except Sunday, I have classes scheduled to teach, and it’s a pretty good variety of types of classes, too. Flexibility is three times a week, my full body Total Body Blast conditioning class is now twice a week, and the other classes (Abs & Glutes, Beginning Headstands, and Intermediate Inversions) are all once a week. It’s become part of the new rhythm.
As for my work as a Clinical Dietitian, I have been working mostly from home since mid-March. I’ve been going in every Saturday to cover inpatient floors and occasionally on the weekdays when I’m needed to fill in. I don’t love the idea of getting on the subway to get to work, but at least the subways haven’t been very crowded in the mornings. There’s usually pretty good opportunity to maintain social distancing, and most (though, not all) subway riders have been wearing their masks appropriately. The afternoons are a different monster, and the subways can get rather crowded. Most of the time, I try to ride CitiBike home, but once in a while, there aren’t any available CitiBikes or if it’s raining, and I am forced to take the more crowded subway home.
Working from home most days, however, means that I’m nowhere near as physically active as I used to be when I had to commute to work. On my work-from-home days, I’m lucky if I can hit 5,000 steps as a minimum. On my days off (Thursday and Sundays), I make a point to go on long walks (even if it is raining) and try to get at least 10,000 steps (but often more). Just to get outside, breathe fresh air, and just move. Thankfully, teaching the online classes has also helped with physical activity, but not necessarily when it’s JUST flexibility that day, for example. Biking home from work is also a great cardio workout, since it is ~9.5 miles to bike home and there are a number of moderate hills to have to go up (the Manhattan Bridge is definitely quite a workout if you’ve never done it).
Oh, and I’ve been ordering take-out most days of the week as well. Part of it is to support local business restaurants – especially the Asian- and Black-owned restaurants. A lot of Asian restaurants were struggling a lot at the beginning of lock-down/shutdown because of anti-Asian racism, so I’ve been wanting to support them and help them keep from shutting down. For a few months, though, I was almost exclusively ordering take-out from Black-owned businesses. As racial injustice against the Black community and inherent systemic racism is coming to light, it is more important than ever to show them our support. I’m grateful there are so many Black-owned AND vegan-friendly restaurants and even a bakery in my neighborhood that I can go to. I was able to go to a different one almost every day and get delicious and filling vegan food for dinner.
Sadly, one of my favorites, Greedi Vegan, just last week closed their Bergen St. location, and their Ralph Ave. location is just a little too far for me to walk to in the short time that I have after work and before teaching.
It’s unfortunate, but A LOT of restaurants and small businesses have had to permanently close due to COVID-19. These are particularly difficult times for them. They’ve not been able to survive the economic hardship of not having indoor dining or in-person shopping. Rent in NYC is not cheap (the exact opposite, in fact), and most landlords have not made it easy for businesses to continue. (Landlord have also not made it easy for residential people, either.)
It’s scary not knowing how long this will continue. We don’t know if the virus can be controlled (by people wearing masks appropriately and following strict social distancing guidelines), or if it’s going to surge again when cold and flu season hits this winter. Does that mean we will have to go back into strict lock-down again? The death toll is already at an unimaginable level, and it is horrifying that it’s going to be many more before we can get the virus under control.
But … I’m here, just doing my part, keeping socially distanced from people, working from home, teaching my online classes. Taking it one day at time. Some days are better than others. Some days have royally sucked. As much as I would love for things to go back to normal and be able to go back to teaching group and aerial classes, protecting everyone’s health is the utmost importance. Nothing else matters as much.
I plan to do a couple of blog entries to highlight some of the places I’ve been getting food for take-out, so keep your eyes peeled for that!