rathlan

I've had a pretty hectic year or two and have managed to keep a few of my good habits going. I've been more able to keep my diet going than I have been able to keep exercise regular, and my maintenance of mental health has dropped back to simply ensuring I take my meds (anxiety related). So my aim for this challenge is to start focusing on getting back to exercise more and to start some better mental hygiene practices, as well as some skills growth. Health * 5 x exercise each week (2 strength, 2 cardio, 1 Yoga) - 15 points each. * Packing lunch each working day - 15 points each Mental health * Waking up by 6:30am on working days - 15 points each. * Planning my weeks - 25 points Leveling up my life: * Music practice 3 times a week - 10 points a practice * Every week, I will pick a task to do, which will count 20 points. My evaluation will work our to 250 points a week, and I'll use that to get an XP value for my avatar. I will likely edit this post tomorrow to neaten it up a bit, I wanted to get something up before the 28th, so that I kept to the start of the challenge. [emoji16] Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

I've had a lot of other things to sort out to prepare me for the challenge. I've signed up for the Academy and Yoga, have started preparing my sleep/wake routine, setup a bit of a mental health routine, and am starting to work on dailies and habits in Habatica. While I haven't framed it as a "mini/partial challenge", it's been a preparation time for me.

The last year has been pretty rough, I've managed to get through a lot of personal changes and upheaval and still keep bits of fitness, diet, and mental health going alone "ok". I've picked up a bit of weight, and my posture and flexibility has dropped significantly which is what got me thinking about NF again. So now I'm respawning and getting back to my core of good habits and exercises. I've been "banting" for the past month and it's going well, even if I make the conscious decision to eat outside the plan sometimes. I'm going to use the next few weeks (before the next challenge) to start getting into more regular exercise, and especially more regular stretching/mobility work.

Yesterday was just stretching and some meditation. Had some great clarity afterwards. :-) Today I should have been running, but swam instead (1km). I haven't done any swimming in quite a while and really enjoyed getting back in the pool.

Today was "upper body" and wow - will I only be sore tomorrow. It was great fun though :-)

I am just trying to continually get up at the same time, no excuses. A friend of mine told me once "there's no such thing as a morning person, only a person who makes excuses for not getting up early" - so I'm just trying to stop making excuses. :-)

The run today was pretty slow (3.5 or so km in 20 mins - around 10.5km per hour), but my legs were taking some strain from the leg workout yesterday. It was fun to get back to my daily commute on the train & bus, but walking up the escalators from the train (maybe 7 floors or so) was tough ... "Thanks Leg Day!" Tomorrow, it's time for another upper body workout, and my earliest wake up yet - I need to leave home by 6am. So far this "become a morning person" routine is working out ok. I know it's only day 3, but I'm looking at the small wins here ;-)

Oh - never mind, I see the forum does it nicely for you automatically. Yay! Looks like you've made some great progress in your challenge. Nice going!

Thanks for the encouragement... How did you get that instagram pic in here so nicely?

Gym was still pretty empty this morning. Tomorrow is back to work, and I'm not entirely looking forward to giving up the holiday vibe. ;-) Had a great leg workout today, and tomorrow I run.

Today was my intro to "Becoming a morning person" - since it seems the best time for me to gym is in the morning, before I've become tired and drained from the day. Had a great run and steam/sauna - not sure why but the heat helps me with meditation. Getting up early was actually easier than I had thought. Now I just need to get to bed on time so I can do it again tomorrow. Work starts on Wednesday, so I'm getting two days to practice the routine before it "goes live". I suspect the gym will be PACKED tomorrow - first day after all the public holidays, and sure to be filled with everyone working out their new year resolution energy.

The "light run" turned into a basic weight lifting session. I was intrigued to try out the Freeletics gym app, and did a starter workout. I quite dig their warm up and stretch work, and really found that I enjoyed lifting weights instead of just my body. I was able to map out my week, and get some plans for how I will keep up with exercise in the next month or three... tomorrow is a dry run for that. :-)

Much better today, managed to get through a decent steam room session without dizziness.. so tomorrow I will try a light run and stretch.

Woke up this morning and found that moving around made me dizzy. Turns out my ears were affected as a side effect of a bout of bronchitis I had. Went to a doc, got meds, and approval for some "light exercise". Apparently my ears disagree... I chose to do some stretching and while doing a down-dog, I completely lost balance and had to sit for an age before I could move again. Sigh, time to rest more fully.

Final day was yesterday- went for an early run before we left. Got home late but happy to be home.

Walked 4km with my wife, and had a great last evening on holiday. Lovely sunsets and reflections off the water. For the first time ever, we braved the sea spray and made it to the end of the pier (previously washed away by a storm) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This holiday I've been trying to run each day... initially I thought "yay, I can run on the beach it will be fun" but wow - running in soft sand is hard. Lol I've kept it up almost every day, and just missed a few days while sick. (Allergies leading to a small case of bronchitis) Today I went for a run out of town, about 5k each way... ended up in a secluded spot where I could do a short mediation before running back. I like getting out into nature where nobody else is around. Today's meditation was here:

I seem to have an on/off relationship with journaling anything... hoping this will assist me in getting this right.

Where about are you based? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Week 1 was great, I think I made good progress. Week to had some ups and downs and I managed to get to my Budokon session, plus fit in some yoga and another simple body weight session at a new gym nearby that has some epic views of the city. (I'm going to be quite stiff from that tomorrow) Busy planning my next week so I can get more focus on my days and have more of a sense of accomplishment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Week 1 almost done... Missed my Budokon session on Monday due to work crises Kept to food budget, and managed to get in some flexibility, strength, and running in. I'm hoping to do another run tomorrow, but we'll see how far thing go.

It's been a few months away, and I've had a good while to think. I've found that I have two main reasons for not sticking with routines recently: Preset routines (They don't always fit my fairly chaotic schedule, and quite often I find I just get too stubborn to do what I'm supposed to do) Lack of measurable progress (Goals like "complete 10x sit ups three times a week", don't leave me inspired) Two Fitness goals: Increase mobility - I want to be able to do a seated forward bend and be able to actually hold my feet (not just barely touch my toes) Increase shoulder/back strength - I've started doing "Budokon" which is kicking my "ass" (or rather my shoulder/back). I'd like to be able to complete 3 rounds of their Rolling Salutation with ease. One Diet goal: Pre-plan meals for the week, and assist in cooking as often as possible. One Life goal: Stick to food budget!

There are a few of us around

I have arranged a plan with a local calisthenics trainer where I'm doing a set routine 3 times a week (with a warm up/stretching routine), and he's given me a short mobility plan. If I get bored of the mobility work I'll top it up with some yoga. I'm due another update to the plan soon, so I'll hopefully get a bit of variation. I've really liked that there's a strong focus on correct form, and getting my body used to the correct movement which meant I did a few weeks of knee pushups before I could progress to normal pushups - specifically to correct some dodgy habits I'd gotten into.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!