Slo-pez

Week 1 recap! Fulfilled my requisite 2 extra training sessions in prep for my competition, meditated and did yoga 4 times each (surpassing my goal by 1), and tackled some reading as well (though definitely not enough if I'm going to finish both books in these 4 weeks). Feeling pretty good heading into 2nd semester, which starts tomorrow!

In true slopez style I'm not only late to the party today but I'm also jumping on that crazy Jedi bandwagon. I was already planning on the following goals, but now I can model them after the badass that is Rey. If only I had her natural talent with the Force... Anyway, here's my plan for the next 4 weeks: -Jedi conditioning: follow my box's competitive athlete programming since I'm, ya know, competing, in 3 weeks - at least twice a week with the option of a third -be like Yoda: meditate, or at least get some dispositional mindfulness going - three times per week minimum -be like Luke (30s handstand hold is a 6-month goal of mine): yoga to retain and regain the flexibility from my life back when I was a dancer/gymnast and not a CrossFitter - again, at least three times per week -open my mind: finish a book for fun! - shooting for two and I've got a third I could tackle if grad school doesn't consume my life too much That's all for now, good luck to all the other Ranger nerds, and may the Force be with you!

Whoa, where did that last 2 weeks go? Surprisingly, Thanksgiving went off without any food comas or sloth days, but between moving and working (15 days and counting), posting has been in the far corner of my mind. Today has felt like an emergence from some dark tunnel I've just been trudging through forever though (see what I did there?), but upon reflection I've come out completely okay. My diet wasn't derailed, I still trained as much as I wanted and needed to, I'm in Dead Week and not a zombie, and I didn't kill my husband. I'd say overall I'm winning this thing on all fronts, which is pretty huge for me. Here's to keeping momentum for the last week, and I hope everyone is conquering their challenges as well!

I booked my spot with the first 200, I am definitely going back next year! Are you??? Hoping to help out in some capacity as well, as it'll be my 3rd time around and I'm eager for others to experience the awesomeness. Weeks 2 and 3 were great! I've actually found that on days when I do forget to pack a lunch/some sort of snack, I'm really okay just skipping the meal altogether, and I'd almost say it helps me refocus my afternoons by just dealing with a little hunger. Today was a little rough though because by the time I got to the gym at 5 I realized I hadn't really eaten hardly anything all day so my workout suffered, but that's an extreme case that I don't think has ever happened before during this challenge. Also, cooked NomNom Paleo's slow cooker Kahlua pork last week, and it was unfortunately overdone (dry). Tastes great with barbecue sauce, but that's not quite paleo. Oh well, try again next time! CrossFit's going well, and I've worked in some "structured" play in the form of physical projects at work: clearing leaves and clutter from around the building, hauling recyclables to the plant, and general active cleaning in the basement that have left me exhausted but content in productive, active work. Finally, 25 thank-yous are IN THE MAIL. That's like 1/3 of all that need written, but that's 1/3 more than I had done the week before. Progress! Whew that was a long one. I'll be back next week with (hopefully) some more momentum to comment on. Thanks for the support all!

Also spalm, I don't think we did meet, but how was your camp experience as a wizard?

1st week check-in! So far so great, last week was kinda weird in terms of my schedule at work and with teaching/my own classes, but I hit 3/5 on packing food, and hit my goal for CrossFit/functional play as well. Also got my thank-yous ordered and am now just procrastinating writing on all of them. Finally, I have officially donated 1 of my 3 boxes for these 6 weeks! I went pretty hard Saturday organizing my closet and packing what needed packed into boxes, eventually finding a ton of clothes and other small stuff to toss in a box to take to Goodwill. Progress!

I got a little ambitious and accidentally posted the following in the last challenge's forums, so here it is again! One of my favorite movie quotes of all time was brought to mind in Steve's recent article regarding adopting the mindset of Groot. It comes from one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale, and goes a little something like this: "To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on." I love this and the mindset it creates (even if I'm not so slow, weary, or depressing... I hope). After over 3 years of rearranging my priorities, transforming my mind and body, and creating the best version of myself so far, I feel as if I've reached the "bear down" or "keep calm and carry on" phase of my life. That's not to say I'm not still modifying or leveling up my life; I'll always be aiming higher. But I'm no longer in the "change all the things!" mentality where I'm constantly introducing new habits into my life; I know what I'm doing, and I do it. That said, now I want to do it better. Below are my goals for the next 6 weeks: Diet: pack a breakfast every day (I work at 6:00 am every day and just find it easier to stay paleo if I already have the option with me when I'm finally hungry at 9:00), and try 1 new recipe per week. Michelle's classes at CNF got me way too excited about her cookbook, so when I came home and had a surprise copy of it waiting for me I had and will continue to have to reign in the excitement, or else risk overwhelming my husband with all the food I'd make. Training: 3 days of CrossFit per week (this is actually cutting back, as I've been going 5+ days per week), to make room for 2 days of bodyweight training per week (thanks Jim Bathurst for getting me hooked on parallette HSPUs and muscle ups). In addition, I'll be incorporating time on my university's rock wall once a week for some work-disguised-as-play. Life: I'm seriously behind on my wedding thank-yous. Like, my husband and I just celebrated our 1st anniversary a couple weeks ago behind. Those are getting DONE by Thanksgiving. Also, we'll be moving the first week of December, so I'm ditching at least 3 boxes of stuff (ahem, clothes) I don't want or need by then. That's 1 box every two weeks. Time to downsize! Just typing this feels great, and I'm so excited to continue "trudging" on. Besides, "trudging does represent pride. Pride, resolve, and faith in the Good Lord Almighty, please, Christ, rescue me from my current tribula -- OW! -- lations."

One of my favorite movie quotes of all time was brought to mind in Steve's recent article regarding adopting the mindset of Groot. It comes from one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale, and goes a little something like this: "To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on." I love this and the mindset it creates (even if I'm not so slow, weary, or depressing... I hope). After over 3 years of rearranging my priorities, transforming my mind and body, and creating the best version of myself so far, I feel as if I've reached the "bear down" or "keep calm and carry on" phase of my life. That's not to say I'm not still modifying or leveling up my life; I'll always be aiming higher. But I'm no longer in the "change all the things!" mentality where I'm constantly introducing new habits into my life; I know what I'm doing, and I do it. That said, now I want to do it better. Below are my goals for the next 6 weeks: Diet: pack a breakfast every day (I work at 6:00 am every day and just find it easier to stay paleo if I already have the option with me when I'm finally hungry at 9:00), and try 1 new recipe per week. Michelle's classes at CNF got me way too excited about her cookbook, so when I came home and had a surprise copy of it waiting for me I had and will continue to have to reign in the excitement, or else risk overwhelming my husband with all the food I'd make. Training: 3 days of CrossFit per week (this is actually cutting back, as I've been going 5+ days per week), to make room for 2 days of bodyweight training per week (thanks Jim Bathurst for getting me hooked on parallette HSPUs and muscle ups). In addition, I'll be incorporating time on my university's rock wall once a week for some work-disguised-as-play. Life: I'm seriously behind on my wedding thank-yous. Like, my husband and I just celebrated our 1st anniversary last week behind. Those are getting DONE by Thanksgiving. Also, we'll be moving the first week of December, so I'm ditching at least 3 boxes of stuff I don't want or need by then. That's 1 box every two weeks. Time to downsize! Just typing this feels great, and I'm so excited to continue "trudging" on. Besides, "trudging does represent pride. Pride, resolve, and faith in the Good Lord Almighty, please, Christ, rescue me from my current tribula -- OW! -- lations."

Officially working only 1 job now, so free time has definitely opened up. Lunch is still going strong, in fact today is actually the first time I've bought lunch since the challenge started. The Open is going great too, I'm holding strong in the top half of my region at the moment, which is all I was really hoping for. I've fallen a little short on my free reading, but only because I've been focusing a lot of effort on my certification, which is going swimmingly Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks Balsquith! So far going well, as of yesterday I am officially working 1 job, which opens up so much time for other things. To answer your question though, e Primal Blueprint Certification is an online "class" of sorts with more information than I could have ever asked for on everything primal. There's sections on diet and nutrition, movement and exercise, and even mental health and stress management. It's a life goal of mine to teach/coach primally, so the cert is a major step in a good direction Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Slopez has officially graduated from the Recruits! That said, 4 of the next 6 weeks might kill me. My last 6-week challenge got me to quit my job (a job I went to school for but ultimately hated), but it's been a bit of a slow process in the sense that, for the next 4 weeks, I'll be working both the new job and the old job to help with the transition. With this in mind, I'm scaling back my goals for this challenge, because 11-12 hour days are what I really need to focus on right now. So: Goal 1: pack a lunch. Every day. I'm already at 3-4 days a week, but the days I miss usually end up with me sipping a protein shake in the car between jobs. Not my favorite. Goal 2: participate in the CrossFit Open. I am so beyond excited for this, I even signed up in the Rx division. I'm also running a half marathon in April, so I'll be starting that training regimen during this challenge as well. Goal 3: finish the first Outlander book. I really need an escape from work life/something to keep me sane. Life goal: complete my Primal Blueprint Certification course. This one rolls over from the last challenge, but this time my goal is to FINISH the course. All of the above ultimately contribute to me not only surviving the next 4 weeks, but absolutely thriving in the challenge. What more could I ask for? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Slopez has officially graduated from the Recruits! That said, 4 of the next 6 weeks might kill me. My last 6-week challenge got me to quit my job (a job I went to school for but ultimately hated), but it's been a bit of a slow process in the sense that, for the next 4 weeks, I'll be working both the new job and the old job to help with the transition. With this in mind, I'm scaling back my goals for this challenge, because 11-12 hour days are what I really need to focus on right now. So: Goal 1: pack a lunch. Every day. I'm already at 3-4 days a week, but the days I miss usually end up with me sipping a protein shake in the car between jobs. Not my favorite. Goal 2: participate in the CrossFit Open. I am so beyond excited for this, I even signed up in the Rx division. I'm also running a half marathon in April, so I'll be starting that training regimen during this challenge as well. Goal 3: finish the first Outlander book. I really need an escape from work life/something to keep me sane. Life goal: complete my Primal Blueprint Certification course. This one rolls over from the last challenge, but this time my goal is to FINISH the course. All of the above ultimately contribute to me not only surviving the next 4 weeks, but absolutely thriving in the challenge. What more could I ask for? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So, first challenge in the books! I have to say that with everything that could've gone wrong during this challenge, so many things went right. I'm headed in for a DEXA Scan this week, and I'm pretty excited to see the numbers. I've been doing them for the last couple years, and my progress has been really great to see, especially when the scale doesn't necessarily reflect it. I'll give myself a B+ on the daily walking, as some days it just didn't happen. Long runs get a B+ as well, which I think is okay considering the half marathon isn't for another 6 weeks. Lunches get a solid A, I'm bringing my lunch every day now, which is a huge improvement. Life goal has seen some progress too, I'm over halfway through the certification, and working more regularly on it. Overall I'm feeling pretty great, and it's only going to get better! I'll be working 2 jobs during the next month, but I've got the CrossFit Open coming up in two weeks that is sure to motivate me to push through. It's gonna be a crazy few weeks, but this challenge was exactly what I needed to set up a foundation of great habits for me. Thanks to everyone who read and commented, y'all kept me accountable and I hope your challenges went well too! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I know I've been MIA for a little while, but I promise I'm still keeping up on everything! I bought lunch an extra time last week, but I'm not too worried about it. Everything else is going great! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Annnnnd we're back! After 2 weeks in paradise I am back and feeling great! So many activities and things to see in Hawaii that I think I met every one of my goals, and had a blast in the meantime! I even found a CrossFit box to try out while I was in Kauai and now that I'm back to real life, I am so rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of this challenge! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk