callmeprincess

AW, Thanks!!!!

This last week I did not do very well with keeping my workouts constant. I think I was too involved with the life quest (to paint something for the show on 7/12). My deadline to turn in the image and info of my painting was originally tomorrow, but one of the people organizing the event kept emailing, calling, facebooking asking for my image! Talk about stress!! I was not in love with what I had been doing so far and kept searching for ideas and starting more paintings... I now have 3 started boards! And I've changed my submission...again... but this time for real, yo! ha! Here it is: I painted this on Sat and spent half of Sun JUST STARING AT IT. The other half I spent second guessing if this is to be the submission or not and if not, can I pound out a masterpiece before the day is over? Last night, I sent it over to the event organizer with all the info on the painting so there's no turning back now!!! I'll be dropping the painting off as soon as the gallery opens. My week summary on my other missions: Main Quest: DO ONE (insert choice word here) PULL UP! I have not yet managed to do this without assistance. I didn't even try this week. Mission 1: Strength routine. I got 2 days in of half assed workouts. Mission 2: Posture routine. I did keep a mental note of how I hold myself through out the day, but I did nothing more to better myself in this part. Mission 3: Stretch daily! nope. and I can tell. Not to be hard on myself, but I really failed this week. I didn't try. I didn't really even think of trying. I not only fell off the wagon, I dove off and then slit the tires. THIS COMING WEEK WILL BE BETTER! Since I have completed my life quest, I really have no other reason to not fix the busted wheels of my metaphoric wagon and get back on! I hereby change my life quest for the remainder of this challenge to be: NO EXCUSES. I WILL put in full effort to do my routines so that I can feel successful in this challenge!! I feel that I have a good start to the week already. I did my full strength routine this morning

Thanks Elastigirl! Im leaning towards the lady too

Week 2 went well...for the most part anyway!! I completed all scheduled workouts and painting for the week. I have been using a 25lb weight for rows but have been struggling and having a hard time completing sets. I thought if I just powered through it eventually I would just be able to do it without so much difficulty (after all, isn't that the goal?). Not so much. I was getting discouraged more than anything so I found myself a 20lb weight over the weekend. This is still a little bit of a challenge but not as much as the 25lbr. Aside from that I don't have anything new to report on the main missions. On the life quest, I did some work on the raven but I'm not sure if I like where it is going. I think the bird looks ok but I'm not so sure on the composition: ...so I started something else...and finished it... and now I'm trying to decide which to enter into the show.

Week one was rough. I thought I had it all planned out and organized and perfect. The truth I came to realize is that I was trying to do way too much!!! I think I have tweeked my routines to be a little better and more manageable. I did workout on each day I planned to and I did stretch 6 out of 7 days. I took some items from the mini challenge and replaced some of my existing items with them in my posture routine (mission 2). I must admit that I have not felt as enthused with this challenge as I did with the one before. I'm not sure if the newness has worn off, if because my goal is the same, that laziness has been tapping me on the shoulder asking where I've been, that I'm not seeing the results I want quick enough or that I've once again put way too much on my plate and am mentally exhausted. In any case, I'm bored. Friends and family have been cheering me on, noticing changes and a few have found inspiration in me so something I'm doing is working! ha! Here's my summary: Main Quest: DO ONE (insert choice word here) PULL UP! I have not yet managed to do this without assistance. Mission 1: Strength routine. I did complete all planned routines on the days planned but I have not been able to increase any weights yet. Mission 2: Posture routine. Again I did complete all scheduled routines. I do feel better and I am noticing a bit of a difference in how I sit and carry myself. Mission 3: Stretch daily! Except for Sunday, I did stretch consistently. I am noticing that my right hip is very tight and movement to the side is restricted. Sitting "indian style" is difficult and my right knee is noticeably higher than my left when doing so. If I try to push it down towards the floor, my left butt cheek raises off the floor. Any suggestions on fixing this would be greatly appreciated!!! My shoulders and back seem to be gaining mobility and I'm finding that I don't feel as much of a stretch with some of the moves. Life Quest: Create one totally awesome and fantastic painting by June 30. I have not made any progress on my painting. I painted something else but really don't like it and I think I will end up painting over it. I really just need to dip that brush in paint and go to town on it! So here's to week two and a better attitude while completing my missions!!

Well, today has sadly had a bad start! I overslept by an hour and when I woke up, I was greeted with a terrible headache! I was able to squeeze in a bit of my workout while getting ready and I will do the rest after work!! I did get a decent start on my painting. Here's the sketch and first layer of shadows:

Who does ladder pull ups?! Haha The link will lead to pics and I'll most likely post some here as well

I learned quite a bit in my first challenge. I learned that some of the goals I had were not measurable in the way I had constructed them. I learned that my fitness routines for the past too many years were basically a waste of time (except for the fact that I spent quality time with some cool people). I saw more progress in the last 6 week challenge working out in my home than I have over the last 10 years of gymming it up. I learned that if I want more hours in the day to do things that I have to get the eff out of bed in a timely manner! I learned that while focusing on doing a pull up I ignored other crucial routines resulting in soreness and weakness building in those areas. I've spent a good amount of time the past two weeks doing mega research and testing myself in various areas. I feel that I have come up with a good game plan that will help me reach my goals AND help me prepare for the next challenge!! .......and so allow me to present to you the new and improved pull up challenge: Main Quest: DO ONE (insert choice word here) PULL UP! Mission 1: Strength routine. I have laid out a weekly routine that will include proper warm ups, bent over rows, assisted pull ups, sit ups,and sissy push ups. I will do a different selection of these work outs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mission 2: Posture routine. This routine will be done on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and will include planks and supermans as well as a seated wall stretch. Mission 3: Stretch daily! A few key stretches I plan on doing are seated twist, childs pose, pigeon, and a chest stretch. Life Quest: Create one totally awesome and fantastic painting by June 30. I have signed up for a group show at a gallery and finished pieces are due July 3. The show is July 12. I plan on using all the mad skills I have been learning and make something that is completely outside of my little watercolor box. My goal is to paint for a min of 4 total hours each weekend. Right now I'm planning on doing something with a raven. I'm in complete research mode, practicing techniques and planning layouts. Typically when it comes to painting, i used to just pick up a brush and GO! and something cool would result. Sometimes I had an idea of what I wanted it to end up as but even when I did, that normally changed after a few strokes. So this whole planning and laying out process is new and difficult for me! If you're interested, you can go here and check out what i do.

Glad your people are all safe! I think I did well. I didn't complete my main mission, but I certainly improved! My goals seem to fall mainly in with the assassin goals

I've been trying how to decide how to grade myself on this 6 week challenge. Do I go for the throat and give only a pass/fail or do I give myself a participation trophy because, well, I showed up? How about a combination of both? Main Quest: Do my first ever pull up. Grade: FAIL Participation trophy: I started this off being barely able to bend my elbows when hanging from the bar. I bought two assistance bands - green for the weak and purple for the less weak. At the beginning I was almost able to do one pull up with the purple one and could do 5 witht he green one. Today, I am able to do 2 with the purple one and 12 with the green one. As an added bonus, I have "tank top arms"!!!! So while I am not able to actually do a pull up with out help, I have improved quite a bit and feel closer to doing something I previously thought impossible. Mission 1: Wake up 20 min earlier (aka when my alarm goes off the first time) to give myself time to complete mission 2. Grade: Pass Participation trophy: This one was a challenge for me until I was able to find my groove. I received all sorts of advice and tried diligently to find something that would work for me. I ended up using a combination of tricks - setting my alarm a little earlier, changing the alarm tone often, meditation and breathing exercises right before bed and consciously making the decision to get the eff up. This last week has been proof that I am on my way to becoming a morning person. Majority of the week, I woke up before my alarm and did not even have the urge to drift back to sleep. Mission 2: At least 3 times a week, follow the routine from the post: "How to do a pull up FINALLY!" - Bent over dumbbell rows and body weight rows to assisted pull ups to straight up pull ups. Grade: Pass Participation Trophy: While I never found anything to do a body weight row (nothing at the local park, no tables that would work) I was able to do the rest of the routine 3 times a week. I think that I may have been a little more successful if I had increased my weights sooner but otherwise, I feel I did very well with keeping at it. Mission 3: Practice good posture at work - most specifically, no crossing the legs!! as keeping both feet on the floor usually allows the rest to fall into place. Grade: PASS? Participation trophy: This one turned out to be hard to measure. I'm sure if I had a team with lab coats following me around or a bell that went off every time I crossed my legs or slouched or propped myself on my elbows while typing, it might be more accurate, but based on how i FEEL, I am giving myself a passing grade. Life Quest: Complete 3 paintings by the end of the 6 weeks (and no procrastinating and doing them all in the final weekend!) So in other words, 1 painting every two weeks. And then hang them up. And then sell them for thousands of dollars. Grade: PASS Participation Trophy: I didn't do the painting that I thought I wanted to do when I set this goal. I was originally thinking bigger and grander and New York type galleries (haha....keep dreaming little girl! New York is too cold!!). I did however do 3 1/2 paintings. The last one I did was Friday. As I normally do, I posted a pic on fb on my artist page. Within a few min I already had an offer to buy!! Not for thousands of dollars, but for a reasonable and modest price!!

Rancho bernardo/4s ranch, San Marcos and Carlsbad are the places that lost homes. Hopefully none of them live there!

This last week has been crazy! I am lucky to live in beautiful San Diego with the wonderful weather and the "year round" summer. We have Santa Ana winds to thank for that, bringing warm winds from the desert our way. But this makes for very dry conditions and at times puts us in a drout. These last few months has been one of those times. .. while the rest of the country was bundling up in January and February, I was wearing flip flops! We had a record high on Wednesday with temps over 100° in my neck of the woods. I went home at lunch to turn the ac on so my dog and cat wouldn't be too hot saw a nearby neighborhood on fire! We had a total of 9 wild fires in the county burning over 20,000 acres. I'm very happy to announce that the fires are mostly out and my home, people and animals are all safe and unharmed. Some people sadly were not as lucky. Today is the first day I'm not feeling panicked. I unpacked my emergency escape bags this morning and am ready to get back to normal! With that being said, I failed at all my goals this week. I spent the last 4 days moving from window to window watching the firefighters put out flames, flipping through news channels to try and get as much info as possible and waiting for the evacuation order. I spent absolutely no time on my missions from Wed to Sat.

STATUS UPDATE - week 4 recap Main Quest: Do my first ever pull up. I can successfully do 1/2 a pull up without assistance. It takes all my might and my muscles feel like jello after, but I'm half way there!<- yup still the same! Mission 1: Wake up 20 min earlier (aka when my alarm goes off the first time) to give myself time to complete mission 2. There was one day that I was not able to get out of bed. I completely slept through my alarm and woke up on my own an hour later. It's a good thing I have flexible hours at work! HA! the rest of the week I was able to wake up with less issues than the previous week when my alarm went off. Mission 2: At least 3 times a week, follow the routine from the post: "How to do a pull up FINALLY!" - Bent over dumbbell rows and body weight rows to assisted pull ups to straight up pull ups. Remember that day when I overslept? that day was a mess for me all around. I did make it up the following day and continued the rest of the week strong. Still on 15 lb weights and still a bit of a struggle towards the ends of the reps/sets. Mission 3: Practice good posture at work - most specifically, no crossing the legs!! as keeping both feet on the floor usually allows the rest to fall into place. I am continuing to find this mission a challenge. I keep catching myself crossing my legs or propped up on my elbows or leaning to the side f the chair. But I keep correcting myself. One day this will be an unconscious correction - or better yet, I won't do it in the first place! Life Quest: Complete 3 paintings by the end of the 6 weeks (and no procrastinating and doing them all in the final weekend!) So in other words, 1 painting every two weeks. And then hang them up. And then sell them for thousands of dollars. I've been having fun and learning quite a bit in my painting class. I posted a few pics earlier of things I've painted in class. I'm learning about things that I thought I already knew. I have been painting (with water colors) for 7+years publicly and I have to say that oil paint is a completely different beast. The way the brush is held and used is hard to get used to... imaging being a lefty and then learning how to write with your right hand. My coming week's schedule will be a little out of whack. We are going on a small road trip and spending the weekend at the grand canyon. I have never been and have always wanted to go! So Friday will be in the car for xxx hours, Sat hiking around and exploring, Sun kayaking and Mon more hours of driving back home. Long car rides make me stiff and sore and lazy - boo! So I may be setting myself up for a bigger challenge next week, but its THE GRAND CANYON! yea! In other news, I'd like to thank Hazard for the little push yesterday. I added in a 25lb weight to my routine. Oh, good grief! that was hard! I thought, "oh, I'll just DO IT - all reps/sets with the 25lbr. hahahahahhhahh1! I'm funny! yeah, I did the first set with the 25lb weight and the rest with the 15 lb one. I was a little surprised after putting down the 25 and picking up the 15 at how very light it felt! So my plan this week is to continue using the 25lb weight until I can't bear to any longer then switching to the 15lb for the rest of the workout.

Thanks! I will admit that I am a little worried that I may not be able to do a full unassisted pull up in the next two weeks though. I am still struggling towards the end with 15lb weights and can barely do one set with a 25ib weight.. the rationalizing and doubting section of my brain cannot understand how I will be able to lift 100 more lbs up a few more inches to reach the top of that bar!!

And this is me today. I still have some work to do, but I an surely much happier with they way things are now vs 9 months ago!!!