Finley Wright 🥉

Hi Cory! I was in a similar spot a couple years back, used to run regularly but life got busy and I stopped for over a year. What worked for me was starting super slow with a mix of cardio and strength to rebuild without stressing my joints. In your 25-minute window, I'd suggest beginning with 10 minutes on the treadmill at a brisk walk, then alternate with 5-minute jog intervals if that feels okay, aiming for a total of 20 minutes including warm-up. Follow that with 5 minutes of light free weights, like dumbbell squats or shoulder presses, keeping reps low at 8-10 to avoid burnout. The key is to focus on form to protect your knees, maybe keep the treadmill incline at zero to start. As you progress, add a minute or two to the jog parts each week, or switch to the bike for variety if your knees act up. I found that incorporating short mobility sessions at night helped a ton, like 10 minutes of simple stretches focusing on hips and hamstrings before bed. For example, try child's pose or seated forward bends to loosen up after a day of sitting at work. This kept me from getting stiff and made mornings easier. One pitfall I ran into was pushing too hard in the first week, which left me sore and unmotivated, so listen to your body and take a rest day if needed. In a small town like yours, I stuck to what was available and didn't wait for fancy gear, which helped build the habit steadily. After a month, I had more energy and it stuck without feeling like a chore.

Just commit already or you'll flame out like every other desk jockey who thinks they're gonna transform overnight.

Hey Brittany. Started with a five minute walk that turned into me inspecting every mailbox on the block like a nosy detective. The trick was telling myself I only had to lace up and step outside and nothing heroic, then stopping while I still wanted more. Weirdly, I also laid my shoes by the coffee maker, because apparently I only respect rituals tied to caffeine. Couple weeks in, I graduated to a few pushups and a plank during the nightly dish soak, which sounds silly until the sink becomes a timer. Momentum sneaks up when you stack tiny wins in boring places.

Refuse subscriptions, so I run Syncthing on both phones and the laptop to auto dump DCIM into a Photos/YYYY/MM folder on a hard drive. De-duplicate with Czkawka or dupeGuru, then tag or album by dropping selects into simple folders. If you want pretty without cloud bills, Immich on a cheap mini PC works and does faces offline.