sterre

Wow. That journal is a work of art. I also really like the idea of the miracle morning, it does seem really good when one doesn't have a fixed schedule.

Backbends sound like a lot of fun! You'll definitely have to share links to the routines you're using.

Sorry everyone, February got to me. I stopped tracking or posting or doing pretty much anything challenge-related toward the end so I'm going to count this as a failed challenge. I thought about starting a new challenge, but I don't think I'm up for it just yet. I'll be regrouping in my Battle Log until the next challenge, but I'll try to visit everyone else's new challenges.

I drifted off at the end of the last challenge and I think I need to regroup, so I've decided that it's back to the Battle Log for a little while before I get back into doing challenges. I might just sit out this one challenge and be back for April, but I'll take it a week at a time. Looking back, I also realize that I was probably doing a lot better at fitness when I wasn't just focusing on my challenge goals, but also doing extra stuff. So my numbers are probably going to be a bit sad to start with. Anyway, my goals for the remains of this week are as follows. Fitness/Body 1. Yoga: Do it three times! 2. BBWW: Do it at least twice! 3. Run: Go out at least once! 4. Go out: At least half an hour a day! 5. Food: Diary for the rest of the week! 6. Feet: Take care of them because they're still a bit sad (but getting much better). Life 1. Work: Apply for a job (or at least get an application mostly ready)! 2. Home: Spend 10 minutes a day tidying! 3. TCoB: Get a haircutRegister with a GP (or contact and attempt to register)

It's not my running shoes that have holes in them, but yeah... I do need new ones. I'm putting it off and wearing two layers of socks until my partner gets paid (his paycheque was delayed by a month because getting a bank account in the UK was not a speedy process so we're living off savings which we have to convert from much weaker currencies, which means that we're basically putting off buying anything other than food until he gets paid).

It was fun. Unfortunately, the rest of my challenge isn't going so well. Or at least the running part. My feet have been extra sore lately and I'm not sure why. It's a bit chilly outside (though not too chilly, really), my shoes have holes in them and we've been keeping the temperature down in the apartment until my partner gets paid so maybe it's a result of the cold? I've been a bit down about it lately.

Good luck with the cookware decluttering. It's surprising how difficult that sort of thing can be.

That's too bad about your friend. You'll definitely be able to keep in touch though. The internet makes the world much smaller in some ways. It's good that things are generally looking up too.

Yep, that's what I figure. I'm pretty excited about the cello yoga too, it's been so long since I've taken a yoga class. Exactly. I also looked up one of the initialisms they used to describe the degree requirements and realized that it's what would be called a diploma in Canada (like from a two year college instead of a university) instead of some fancy, technical qualification that I don't have. I don't have a super in-depth knowledge of all the programming languages they want, but I do some knowledge of most of them and if there's one thing I'm good at, it's picking up things faster than the average bear.

Week 3, Day 2 Another day when I got up late, but this time the weather outside was miserable during the day (it got better after dark). Quest 1: Yoga No yoga. (1/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running Rest day. I had planned a run to avoid areas where the roads are busy and the sidewalks have school children, but then it started raining sideways. (0/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 5 servings of fruits or veggies. (12/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had a wine glass of cider. (1.4/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work I finished making my profile on a tutoring website, which I'm going to count as applying for a job, even though it's almost like looking for self-employment. (1/4 jobs applications) I found another job that I was excited about until I read the qualifications they wanted. I'll probably apply anyway since I have some relevant experience and it's something I know more than a little about, but it might be a stretch. So I'll rework my resume today and start working on a cover letter. I'll also go for a run (finally) and do some yoga.

Hah, maybe. And no worries, I finished my profile and just have to wait for the people on the website to validate my ID and junk before it can go live.

Week 3, Day 1 I got up late again and cleaned the apartment a lot instead of working on my challenge goals. On the upside, the apartment is clean. Quest 1: Yoga Daily stretch routine, sun salutations, standing poses, yoga for arms, seated stretches. Basically, the yoga I should have done on Sunday. (1/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running Rest day. (0/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 7 servings of fruits or veggies. (7/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had a wine glass of cider. (0.7/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work I got halfway through making my profile on a tutoring website before my browser crashed...

Heh, I have no idea what it should be, but it seems a bit odd to declare myself enlightened for eating way more veggies than I planned.

Woo! Great job on week 2 and not a bad start to week 3 either.

Woo! Awesome job in week 2! Keep up the amazing work.

It's good that you're starting to feel a bit better though.

The cold really does make it hard to want to go outside. Good job going anyway though.

It's definitely good to learn what you don't like from yoga videos. That's definitely an important part of trying new things. Maybe there are some beginner vinyasa ones out there (or some non-video format) that are easy to follow until you get the hang of a new routine?

Moving your bedtime an hour earlier is definitely some good progress. So is noticing that you can now curl up into a ball for a long time without your knees locking up.

Week 2, Day 7 I was definitely not very productive on the last day this week. I had planned on going for a short run and doing all kinds of things, but I got up so late that I just didn't really feel like it in the end. Quest 1: Yoga No yoga. (3/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running Rest day. (3/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 6 servings of fruits or veggies. (42/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had 500 mL of beer. (6.5/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work Nope. :/ Halfway Report Main Quest: Trim my waistline I promised a halfway measurement (and also figured it would be a good idea in general to see if I'm on track at all), so I performed one today. Halfway through the challenge, my waist is at 78.5 cm, representing a 1 cm decrease from my initial measurement. I'll try to keep up the fitness and reasonable eating and hopefully, my waistline will continue to change in the direction I want it to. Δw < 0 (tentative pass) Quest 1: Yoga At the halfway point, I'm doing pretty well. I missed one session in week 2, but I can make up for that pretty easily. 7/8 yoga sessions so far this challenge (A ) Quest 2: Running I had some setbacks in week 1, but in week 2, I completed all of my planned runs (though I failed to make up for any missed runs from the first week). I think that I will plan some more short runs in the next two weeks to make up for the ones that I missed. 4/6 runs so far this challenge (B ) Quest 3a: Food So far, I'm doing really well at this one. I did a little less well in the second week, but I still overshot my goal. 92.5/70 servings of fruits and veggies for the week (A++) Quest 3b: Drink On this one, I'm still on target. I'm drinking less and what's more, I'm drinking less quickly, which is nice. Normally, if I have a drink in front of me, it doesn't last very long, not because I try to drink fast, but because it's usually tasty and I can always have another. Limiting myself to about one drink a day seems to result in me savouring my drink instead of just downing it. I will sort of point out that this quest is probably a bit easier because my partner and I are trying to limit our spending until we start getting paid here (because exchanging money sucks) so we haven't gone out at all since the challenge started, but I also think that taking it a bit easy this month will help me take it a little easier when we start being able to go out again. 13.5/14 drinks so far this challenge (A++) Life Quest: Work I have not really made much progress here at all other than looking at what jobs are available and procrastinating (in part because most of the jobs that are available aren't an especially good fit for me). I will definitely be working on applications in the remaining two weeks of the challenge though because I do need a job of some kind, even if it's not my ideal job (I can always keep looking once I have something). All in all, I think I'm doing well. To get an A in all portions of the challenge, I have to keep up what I'm doing for the most part, except that I have to fit in seven runs (four one week and three in another, probably) and apply for four jobs during the remainder of the challenge. I think I can do it, I just have to get it done. note: I realized that I'd done a silly thing when calculating how many runs I have to do. I think my thought process was "this is a four week challenge, with three runs each week plus I only want to do two in the last week, so add two" when it should have been "this is a four week challenge with three runs the first three weeks and two runs in the final week". So instead of doing 3*4-1=11 (or 3*3+2=11) runs total (making 80% of that value 9 runs for an A), I did 3*4+2 = 14 runs total (making 80% of that value 11 runs for an A). I always give myself a bit of wiggle room in case something like this happened, so I was trying to figure out why I needed to make up for two runs to make up for the two I missed. So I'm changing that goal in the OP to reflect what I said and meant instead of what I wrote down and I'll be double checking my other goals as well to make sure I didn't botch any others.

So I was less than productive the last two days... Week 2, Day 5 Quest 1: Yoga Daily stretch routine, sun salutations, standing poses, yoga for abs. (3/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running I went for a run. I had planned 2 km, but then I took several wrong turns and it ended up being about 1.6 km instead. I enjoyed the shorter run and I'll try it again sometime (indeed, I could probably do it in between longer run days), but I probably could have run it harder. (3/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 5.5 servings of fruits or veggies. (28.5/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had a 500 mL bottle of beer. (4.3/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work I did not do anything here except buy a phone which will in principle allow me to apply for jobs reasonably. It's too easy to procrastinate on this. Week 2, Day 6 Quest 1: Yoga No yoga. (3/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running Rest day. (3/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 7.5 servings of fruits or veggies. (36/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had a wine glass of cider. (5/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work Uh... oops. :S

That is a possibility. The other possibility is that one would end up with an endless supply of kittens to play with...

I don't know if they do this with dogs the way they do with cats, but you could also look into fostering... then you can have a puppy to look after for a bit while it waits for a permanent home. Granted, I haven't heard of fostering puppies the way I've heard of fostering kittens so that might not be a thing.

It does sound like a lot of fun though. And it's an excuse to get more exercise if dog walking is involved. I have considered that maybe when I have a job, I might try to find an animal shelter to volunteer at as well. It's one of those things that I wanted to do when I was in high school, but wasn't able to (you had to be 18+) and then didn't have time during undergrad or grad school and then I moved to Japan, where I wouldn't be able to do a job like that because language.

Week 2, Day 4 Quest 1: Yoga No yoga. (2/4 yoga sessions for the week) Quest 2: Running Rest day. (2/3 runs for the week) Quest 3a: Food I got 5 servings of fruits or veggies. (23/35 servings of fruits and veggies for the week) Quest 3b: Drink I had another wine glass of cider and yet again, I sipped it and took a while to finish it, which is good. (2.8/7 drinks for the week) Life Quest: Work I found a few places to apply and attempted to sign up for one of the tutoring websites, but that required a phone number and my phone number wasn't actually activated until today (day 5). So today, I plan on doing a short run (I want to make up for a missed run but going from 5 km last week to 20 km this week is a bit much so my last two runs will be shorter), doing some yoga, finding a home phone and applying for a job or two. I'm going to pass on two tutoring companies temporarily because they require some certificate that basically says you don't have a criminal record (I don't, but the certification costs money I don't have to spend on it until either my partner or I get paid), but there's one that doesn't require this so I'll sign up there and hope that the work comes pouring in.