UnquietBones

Made an okay dent in the Circle of Doom (about half a bag of vines/overgrowth) and picked up/dug out six bricks. This is... going to take a while. 😂 (That was probably a 20th of the work that needs doing) Really nice workout for my arms and bending my back, so win!

I had origonally planned on doing Yoga or Bodyweight exercises, but determined that it would work better for me if the movement had a purpose (beyond just movement). So yardwork and decluttering the house it is! 😁 Heading out in a moment to get a 'before' photo of the giant Circle Of Doom that I'm planning on doing away with in the backyard and then poking about a bit inside to see where I could setup to do yoga (which I may or may not get to this challenge).

So, a pebble at a time raises the water level... and instead of dumping in a boulder, I'm going to keep my old pebbles and add some new ones. 😁 New Daily Habit (do one or more of the following) 30min of yardwork (exercise!) 30min of studying (brain exercise!) 30min of decluttering/organizing/cleaning (also exercise!) setup somewhere I can yoga Existing habits Daily dog walks 8hrs of sleep (give or take) Drawing down caffeine (was: No Diet Coke, is now: Less Caffeined Tea) Going Up and Down Stairs

Just as a quick sum-up conculsion for this challenge-- I consider it a complete success! 😁 I acomplished both my Sleep and Doggie Walks goals and am feeling quite a bit better in general than I did at the start. So, now to up the diffucultly a bit! 🎉

So looking forward to the next challenge... Cleaning/Decluttering - this is something I need to do anyway and it would be good mild exercise. Bonus points would be that the house would have less stuff in it and less 'things that need doing that my brain refuses to actually do'... in theory. Body weight - Lift Heavy Things is something that's recommended in general, so maybe a swing at the Beginner workout again? Yoga - I've been much mroe achy during weather changes, so maybe the Beginner yoga routine would help lighten that a bit... To keep my spirits up, so far I'va accomplished: Daily Diet Coke intake is down to 8oz a day I can now do stairs without issues for most days. Sometimes even two flights in a row! I am now sleeping eight hours most nights on a decently consistant schedule. (Daylight savings changes will throw that off... but hopefully not too badly)

Quite well, thankfully! 😁 I had one day this week where I could have gone out but was 'no, I am in a bad mood, let the world burn!' but other than that I've been getting out every day that I can. Sleep patterns are MUCH improved, although I'm not looking forward to the daylight savings time change. Why did they have to do this the last week of the challenge! ARG. 🤬 But so far things look like solid enough wins (and habits) that I can look to up my game for next challenge. (I'm still lousy at posting updates! 😅)

Things are going rather well this challenge, both in terms of new gains and keeping old ones. Although I'm still not being more sociable in the forums so... sorry y'all? 😅 There have been a few days so far when I didn't doggie walk, but that was due to other things preventing it (contractors working on the house, needing to work through lunch, sickness/injury, etc.) We went on a long doggie walk on 2/12 that gave me really nasty blisters and gave the dog a leg/hip ache, so we didn't really start up the walking again until 2/16. But since then, we've walked 5 of the 7 possible days, which is pretty nifty! I'm gearing up to take him out again today and the weather looks nice for tomorrow (and most of next week), so I'm hoping to keep things rolling. On the sleep side of things... I've added Sleepytime tea to my nightly routine and while I haven't mastered the 10:30 bedtime yet, it really helps me fall asleep (and stay alseep)! Not sure how much of that is placebo effect, but I'll take it. 😂 It has made getting up in the mornings much harder, but I'm also working on cutting back on the Diet Coke, so the one I have in the morning has a lot more of a kick to it. Right now my daily drinks are: 8oz Diet Coke, 32oz Black Tea (made with only two teabags), 32oz Green Tea (two teabags), and 32oz Sleepytime (two teabags). So the sugar intake from the tea has gone up a bit-- but I'm winnowing myself back on that as well. So, progress has been made! I am totally going to grab McD's for lunch after the doggo walk (I share a medium nuggets and fries with Bucket), so maybe not as much progress as I should. 😂

Thank you!! And right now, no. We do go play kickball with him in the backyard, but he's as much as a sofa hound as I am so we're both easing into this. 😁

I don't have a coat for him and he's a little bit of a scardy-dog, so I don't know how well one would go over... but I suppose it couldn't hurt to give it a try!

Bucket would like you to know that he approved of both goals... since he loves naps and doggie walks! 😂 (He's actually been awesome motivation as he starts getting antsy around lunch if it's not raining.)

Whelp... I bit off a little more than I could chew last challenge, so this time: TWO goals! 😁 1. Sleep 2. Doggie walks Not-really-a-goal: Be more mindful about how I spend my day and what I'm doing with my time (and why)! No specific goal here just 'do this more'. 😂 Sleep I will aim to get eight hours of sleep a night from roughly 10:30-7:30. Right now I fluctuate wildly, although it's settled a bit thanks to the last challenge. I've been getting up and downstairs prior to 8am seems to slowly become more ingrained. (My alarm has been going off at 7:15 each morning for a while now and it's getting easier to get to sleep before midnight.) I had a more concrete plan for improvement last challenge, but that didn't seem to help, so I'm going to focus more on Mindfullness and force myself to evaluate how the night went each morning before work. (Which hopefully will also end with me being a little more social here as a side bonus! 😅) Doggie Walks I did pretty well with this last challenge! I really don't do well in the cold, so I went into hibernate mode when the snow moved in... but it looks like we're on the track to warm up a bit. And rain. Lots and lots of rain. Sigh. So the challenge this time is that if it's over 35 and not raining, then I WILL take the dog on a doggie walk for lunch. If it's lightly raining and it's over 40... then I will give it a try and see how miserable it is. (Our lunch walk is 1 mile and takes us roughtly 25 min, but that might be too much cold/damp for the doggo.) I will think Mindful thoughts whilst walking. I will also take him out on a longer walk on the weekends, trying to take him to a few different walking trails so he can smell the good smells!

So, it's been an odd sort of challenge, I think it's a combination between biting off a bit more than I could chew (three things was a bit much), forgetting that cold weather ko's me, and not understanding that changing sleep schedules is much harder than you'd think. On a good note, January had 31 days and I went on nine dogs walks, which is just shy of twice a week and that is a LOT more dog walking than I'd been doing. Hoping to keep that streak up! 😁 I'm trying to think about how I want to handle the last challenge week and decided to just... roll with it. I'm going to continue going out for dog walks whenever the weather permits, I'm going to try and get more general chores/clearning done around the house, and I'm going to keep looking for some sort of 'fun' non-walking exercise that I can do. All in all, not my best response to a challenge, but certainly not my worst! 😂

GAH! It was such a week! 😅 I swear I basically turned into a Martha burrito and didn't move for 10 days... stupid cold, stupid storms... oh well. But I did a monthly layout for Jan that tracked all my walks and treadmills and I'm crazy happy with the progress! I've been out a LOT more and BucketDog really loves it so... motiviation! 😁

I'm glad you've found them useful! 😁 I still haven't quite found a layout that works 100% for me, but I'm getting closer... I'm really happy about the way the disc-bound planner and hole punch are working out! It's been a blast working out my own tracking methods instead of relying on somone else's layouts.

I fell off the wagon hard last week, due to a cold front, a storm, and the corresponding aches and migrane (woo?). But I'm back on track for this week, although I've fallen back to the Week 3 goals for now. ☃️ I tweaked the weekly tracking log so I can do all three goals at once (it was too much hassel to flip back and forth between the single pages): https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1OYBbUZyX8ULN6rL4FlbZh3esllcD5_R7NMPWPhGmdAU/edit?usp=sharing I've also changed my shoulder goal to be a 'movement' goal and will be trying to focus on being active around the house (cleaning, laundry/aka stairs, etc.) I'll circle back around to specific movement types next challenge. Mostly just using this week to rev my goal-chasing self back up. Thankfully the wagon's always there to hop on again, so I just have to keep moving forward! 😁

It's 15min minutes earlier. Not an hour or two hours or... WHY IS IT SO HARD TO FALL ALSEEP!?! ...10:45 is kickin my butt in a way 11:00 didn't even come close to. Darnit. Time to revamp the strategies! (On a good note, my 'randomly streach arms upwards' is going quite well. Win some, lose some I guess. 😂)

Nope, just 'I sort of wish my shoulders didn't hurt as much and I could move them more'... which is not particularly enthralling. After much thought (and some experimentation) I've decided this week's goal will simple be 'hold you arms straight up for a count of 30 and streach up as high as you can go for the last 10.' I can do this any time I want, instead of having to set aside actually time to follow the videos, and it's a challenging thing so as I get better I'll notice! 😁 Next week I'll add something else to go with that, but I'm trying to pick things that I can do quickly and I can do anywhere. That way as I remember 'hey, I was doing the thing!' I can just stop and do it. As I head through the challenge I may end up with something less random, but it seemed to work yesterday (and this morning), so I'm rolling with it for now...

So... yeah. Not the best first week, but not as horrible as I thought it might be. I ended up getting sick (not covid, thankfully!) on Friday and that rolled through the weekend. So, adjusting plans a smidge going into next week. 1. Get to bed earlier Zero issues with this (in fact due to not feeling well I went to be earlier some nights). Staying with the set goal for Week 2 of Bed 9, Lights Out 1045, Awake 730 2. Take more daily steps I did two days of dog walking (Sun, Thurs) and two days of treadmill (Tues, Wends) to get 4/7 wins for the week and got VERY lucky and managed the 3k average that I was aiming for. It was crazy cold Monday due to the snow storm and my joints were not up to walking-- and Friday and Saturday I was napping in bed sick. I've been feeling better as the day goes on today, so I'll probably jump on the treadmill for a bit to see if I can hit 3.5k. Staying with the set goal for Week 2 of 3.5k steps average. (So far the dog is loving this challenge! 😂) 3. Work on shoulder flexibility and being able to keep arm raised (without weights) This one was a complete fail. I found some videos I could follow along with, gave them one try... and then tossed this habit to the side without thinking about it again. 🤦‍♀️ So. Time to really re-evaluate this. I'm going to spend some time tonight brain-dumping on why I don't want to do it, why I'm forgetting that I'm supposed to be doing it, etc. It may be because I was too vauge, I may need to do something as simple as write down a specific number of reps of X and then put a post-it on the wall so I remember to do them before bed. Dunno, but I'm going to be stubborn and not give up on this one! Revised goal for Week 2: do something with my shoulders once a day.

Prep for tomorrow... I need to set all the reminder alarms on the fitbit and the phone for various things throughout the day. I need to set my wake-up alarm for the week I need to reset my fitbit goal I need to figure out how I'm going to track which shoulder exercises I find and which ones are a go/no-go Right now it looks like the 3k steps goal is about where I'm at right now (with sufficent dog walking days). It's supposed to be rotten weather for at least part of next week so it will be interesting to see if I can keep it up.

I'm hoping it will turn out easier that way... but the fuzzy idiots have woken me up at 7am twice in a row, so the 'get up earlier' part of the timeline might get co-oped by the cat (who goes an wakes up the dog if I ignore him in the mornings). 🤦‍♀️😂

Tis the first challenge of the year and thanks to the December Mini, I'm raring to go! 😁 1. Get to bed earlier I am really really horrid at this right now, so this is going to be my hard goal for the challenge. I think this might have more of an impact than anything else, but it will be interesting to see. I will also be trying out a few things to see if it helps me get to sleep and stay asleep, so it will be a little more complex than just 'change the time on the alarms'. Week 1 - Bed 9, Lights Out 11, Awake 745 Week 2 - Bed 9, Lights Out 1045, Awake 730 Week 3 - Bed 9, Lights Out 1030, Awake 715 Week 4 - Bed 9, Lights Out 1015, Awake 700 Week 5 - Bed 9, Lights Out 10, Awake 645 2. Take more daily steps I am at 2k average right now, but I'm not trying at all and on dog walk days it gets up to 6k... so I'm hoping this one will be a medium-easy win. I have a treadmill for rainy days, but I'm hoping to get most of the steps via cleaning/decluttering the house and dog walking (when it's not raining). Week 1 - 3k steps average Week 2 - 3.5k steps average Week 3 - 4k steps average Week 4 - 4.5k steps average Week 5 - 5k steps average 3. Work on shoulder flexibility and being able to keep arm raised (without weights) This one is my 'not sure about' goal. It's not something I can really fix in a single challenge, so this time around I am just going to look up a bunch of various streaches and bodyweight excercises. I'll get a baseline for where I'm at and what I can do... and then update the goals as needed. I meant to get it done before the challenge kicked off, but, err... life happened. 😅 Week 1 - Experiment with a bunch of things Week 2 - ??? Week 3 - ??? Week 4 - ??? Week 5 - ??? ----------------------------------------- Other things I will also be doing and probably commenting on: Artwork, Writing, Cleaning, Decluttering, Cooking, etc. ----------------------------------------- I used the following BuJo/Planner printables (may be tweaked as the challenge goes along): 2022 Overview - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1zlf3E_RJRhHap1errir22Zp5RjHutsA8a3rnMVeriAo/edit?usp=sharing Goal Brainstorming - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1bKbZ9C2_u3-8uofp5BNnm3i8W7i9qs-ga016a2KOLFk/edit?usp=sharing 5-week planning page - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1JRvBceRfOeKqEFE8shiEVGG5x1Nj1b7hqsRh4uZAD4A/edit?usp=sharing 1-week tracking page - https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/18hTMHjX3ufmUCMxDh6z1sEnPefCpMKsImpASB6BqK4w/edit?usp=sharing

I really really really wanted to like stevia when it came out, but for me it has a very unpleasent aftertaste so I avoid it, unfortunetly. I ended up swapping away from Bubly Bounce Triple Berry after a few months because it started having an odd metallic taste, but I haven't had any issues with the non-caffinated flavors. So what I do now is take pills with the normal bubbly and then wander downstairs and make some tea. Now that the worst of the fall allergy season is over, I'm much more coordinated in the mornings! 😂

It's still been crazy warm here, but I did break out the coat for a winter's walk with dad! (...sadly because one of the eight people at Christmass dinner tested positive for covid a few days after. No one else has popped positive yet, but we canceled all indoor plans as soon as the news was passed around. So outdoor events, gogogo! 😂😅) I have a whole bunch of BuJo pages that let me PLAN BIG PLANS for 2022 (so much fun!) and I have a nice solid handle on my first challenge of the year, so I'm about to go start up that thread! So I would consider this challenge a solid win and I'm looking forward to the next one. 😁

I think just being able to go hiking without worrying about injury. 🤔 Am going to have to give it some thought next year when I try out various forms of 'moving about'. And yes, functional is my jam right now! 😂 I spent a good bit of my Christmass visit up to Mom's to plan out things and it was a lot of fun coloring in various options and plans. Can't wait to see what the BuJu looks like by the end of next year!

Sorry to hear about the ankle, enforced 'relaxation' tends to be a frustrating condradiction. I hope you get to enjoy some good books and some sedinatry creativity! Your cosplays always look wonderful from my end, but I am a tad biased in that I am always impressed by how folks can managed to take fabiric and foam and sculpt real-life versions of fantasy out of them. I've spent a lot of hours on YouTube just watching folks carve and apaint and sew... and it's still magic to me! 😂 I hope the fabric store trip is awesome-- it sounds like one of those places you could get happily lost in for hours! (like bookstores, art stores, and hardware stores 😂) I am trying to resist my Mom's textile art leanings, but some of the yarn stories just make me want to get in into kitting so I can be part of the drama. 😉