nighsparrow

Thanks, I didn't really fall off the face of the earth. I think I just underestimated what a tough time of year this is for me, so I've had to scale back what I'm actually capable of getting done right now. I have no reasonable excuse, but I just think I need to try to make smaller, more manageable changes.My goals are still relevant, but the way my priorities have shifted, maybe I need to reframe them. I am still keeping them in mind, but I'm trying to tackle them piece by piece.

Sounds like your making good progress. Good luck with your essay! What are you studying?

Good luck with your trip to your mom's and the chores. You might have a good idea about using a storage facility with your next move. I used one for a few months when I had to downsize from a big 1 bedroom apartment to a tiny studio. I think I had to get rid of 2/3rds of my stuff in the matter of a month. So I kept some of it in a storage facility for about 3 months while I tried to figure out what to get rid of and what to keep. If you keep them too long, though, they're just a waste of money, and you're better off getting rid of the contents and buying new when you need it. Be careful of those well-stocked thrift stores, though. I go in those and always end up coming out with things I don't need!

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! Yesterday was a struggle, but I got through my yoga and meditation. In some ways going for a walk is easier. I can just put my feet on autopilot and I don't have my brain going "I'm tired... this is boring... I just wanna check my phone...." etc. I tried one of the Yoga with Adriene videos and liked it a lot. She's easy to follow, and I like how she encourages you to do as much as you can do and offers different modifications. Today will probably be another walking day. This has been a tiring week. I think the worst of it was losing an hour of sleep to hockey playoffs and triple OT. No work tomorrow, but my greyhound accountabilibuddy has an early morning appt at the vet. I'm going to have to make time for my activity hour in the morning, though, because my afternoon and evening will be booked up. The reading challenge is going well. I'll try to post a pic this weekend with my progress on my shelf.

I checked out Yoga with Adriene yesterday and really liked her! She like her relaxed attitude and how flexible her practice is. I do kind of wish she had the video length posted on her videos, though. How are things going with your goals?

Sorry to hear about your husband's wonky military schedule. That sounds super frustrating to deal with. Good luck with your decluttering. When I have an area that gets too bad, I usually try to break it down to something like "put away all the loose items on the shelf" or "throw away 20 things." Looking at a whole room or house that's a mess is too overwhelming, but sometimes it's easier if you can work on it for 7 minutes.

This week is going well so far. I got almost 10k steps yesterday. (I thought about walking around the house to get that last 500, but I decided a needed sleep more.) I don't think I will be walking much this afternoon, though, because the weather just looks awful. I'll put in my hour doing yoga and meditating. Honestly it has been a while since I had a long yoga session, and today looks like a good day to do it. Tonight is a good night to read, too, and hopefully clear out a book or two from the shelf. My husband works late on Tuesdays and won't be home until after 11, and I don't think there's much of interest on the DVR anyway. One thing I started last week but didn't mention in my challenge specs is I stopped keeping snacks in my desk drawer at work. I mostly kept nuts, which aren't all that unhealthy, but I probably just don't need to snack while I'm at work. Last week I felt hungry all the time, but this week wasn't bad, I didn't really notice it. Better habits.

It sounds like you have a lot on your plate but that you're accomplishing a lot. Keep at it! Also, your meal descriptions sound delicious!

Cool, glad to hear it has basic amenities, at least. I visited England twice, years ago, and the houses I stayed with friends weren't all that old. The historical buildings I saw weren't actually being lived in, they were mostly museums or set up for display. But it's cool that some places that old are actually being lived in. I just figured out how to post a picture here today. Go to "My Content" then "Albums." You can create a new album and upload pictures there. Then you add the pic to your post with the "My Media" button.

I like your goals. As simple as they are, they really feel essential to building good habits. What kind of meal plan do you have? I confess I've never had much luck with one, because looking at it makes me want to make changes, then if I'm changing everything, I feel like I'm missing the point. LOL How are things going with your meal plan? What does your family think about the meals?

"15th century, grade 2 listed thatched cottage made of wattle and daub walls"??? That sounds incredibly cool but then I think how could you live in that??? Sorry, do I sound like a naive American? LOL Good luck with the insurance, I see how it could be a challenge. I'd love to see pics. Is it uncommon to live in a home that historical?

I hope you had a great birthday! I find weekends to be tough to stick to a routine too. My work week is filled with obligations, and then I just want to take some time to be irresponsible. I confess that the intention you are working on really struck me through the heart. I don't feel "whole" for specific, personal reasons. Maybe I should reflect on this too. Does everyone feel this? Maybe... this might be the reason we try to fill ourselves up with things--food, shopping, relationships, etc. But it feels like everyone else is "whole" and we aren't, thinking about the thing we want and everyone else seems to have. Which is essentially childish and self-centered, thinking no one else has problems. Whoa, this feels really deep and philosophical. I'm going to think about this more.

Thanks, deepdarkgreen! I don't know if the "hour" was super helpful this weekend, though it has been on days when I get home from work. I didn't meet my goal on Saturday, for no other reason than general laziness. I procrastinated until I had other obligations, and then it just didn't get done. Would it have been helpful to plan a day off in my goal structure? Oh, probably. But I'm trying to create a daily habit, and if it's going to be daily, I need to work out how that is going to happen. I guess I'll be thinking about this over the next few days. The upcoming weekend is a 3 day weekend for me, so I need to sort out that schedule. Then Sunday I will have family obligations most likely from 8am til 10pm. Am I going to create for myself a "get-out-of-habit-free card" 1 day a week? Or is this a habit I only want to keep on workdays? Book Decluttering Update! Here's a pic of my shelf I'm planning on emptying. Is that Shonen Jumps from 2011 and 2012??? Why yes, I think that is! They don't even put those out in print anymore! Still, I can't seem to let go of them without actually reading them, so this is my chance to do so. Otherwise, almost all of the books are ones I started reading previously and couldn't really get into. I need to either get to the good part or decide they're not for me. The book I grabbed off the shelf last night to read before bed was Boneshaker. I'm probably a good third of the way into this book but it hasn't grabbed me. I like steampunk, but something about this isn't really doing it for me. Maybe I'm not connecting with the characters, or maybe the characters' decisions just seem really ill-advised to me. They're in a bad situation, and I can't figure out why they're doing things to make it worse. I want to like it, but I can't find a way to do it!

I like your compliment challenge too. It's an important part of mindfulness to be grateful for those who are close to us. I've been trying to practice uncluttering lately too. I can't tell you how many things I've thrown out in the last few months that I thought, "I could have thrown this away 10 years ago!" or "I haven't used this since the 90's!" Good luck in your upcoming move.

Day 3: Good! My activity hour was delayed by having to get in a phone call before 5pm, but I still got it in. I'm feeling better, more focused, even though part of me still wants to just sit on the couch at the end of a long day. My step count hasn't been very awesome so far: Day 1: 7163 Day 2: 6578 Day 3: 6586 Part of that is in the rotation of duties at work, so I'm stuck sitting on my butt in front of my PC all day. In May and June, I'll be walking around a lot more. Hoping the weather will be good enough after work to take a longer walk.

For sure, finding good vegan products is tough. My favorite veggie burger contains cheese, so it's meatless, but definitely not vegan. Other than cheese, my biggest hurdle is yogurt. I take a Fage to work every day for lunch, and I would definitely miss it. I keep trying to make vegan or at least meatless choices, to have a smaller ecological footprint. I haven't read "Bright Lights, Big City," but I've heard it's good. I'm reading "Ancillary Sword," which I'm really enjoying. I have it on Kindle, so even when I'm at work I sneak off and read it for 5 minutes. I really like the sutra you're using as your mantra. So many of my habits are not even conscious decisions, just a repeated act. (Like taking yogurt for lunch???)

Day 2: Less walking, more yoga! I'm finding the DoYouYoga.com videos surprisingly challenging. The transitions between the poses are very fast. I think I'm used to holding a pose a lot longer and focusing on breathing. I keep telling myself I need to practice poses I "don't like" as well as ones I "like," because it will make my practice better. Even just doing it for a few days, I can tell I'm improving. Keeping up with my journaling is still a challenge. Maybe I will have to add that to the end of my activity hour, so then it will be done. I end up forgetting about it as the evening goes on.

Hi Belle! I like your goals. They're similar to mine, but I don't have the vegan componant. I've tried doing vegan, but I feel like I'm not disciplined enough. I'm doing yoga too. I did it in the past with classes, but I'm so out of practice, I feel like I need to do it some on my own to get back into the swing of things. What books are you reading?

I like your goals. Destressing is important! How do you like the "Yoga with Adriene' website you mention? I've been looking for a good source of yoga routine videos (I need guidance! LOL), but I haven't found any I really love yet.

Yesterday was good. The weather was perfect to walk. I met my goals, even if I had to scramble out of bed before I went to sleep, to get something scribbled in my journal. I have to remember to write earlier. I think the dog was more worn out than I was--she loves walks, but greyhounds are sprinters not marathoners, and she has spent most of the winter cooped up inside. I'm thinking about my bookshelf. Thinking that right now I'm too interested in 1) the book I'm reading on my Kindle and 2) the book I have checked out from the library to look at those books that need to be cleared out. Which is why they need to get cleared out, and how they end up sitting on that shelf for literally years. So, I've decided that on May 25, I'm going to throw out, sell, or give away everything on that shelf, read or not. Book decluttering!

Hey, I'm still alive! I know I sort of dropped off the face of the interwebs, like, 2 months ago. But I'm getting my act together to participate in the next challenge. I'm going to be with the Druids this time around, because I'll be focusing on yoga, meditation, and walking. Here's my link! Anyway, for anyone curious about how my February projects went, we completed the bathroom remodel. Yay! It looks cool, all white and black marble. But there was a mind-boggling amount of drama with the contractors. It was supposed to take 10 days max, and it ended up taking a month. But at least it's done now. Also, my husband and I completed our required classes to become foster parents. We have all our paperwork in, and now we're just waiting for the state to process the license, which should be another 2-4 weeks. There was drama with that too--we ended up switching agencies, which I'm sure slowed down the process, but I think we ended up with one that will be a better fit for us. So right now we're just waiting for the agency to call and tell us they have a kid that needs us. Part of me knows that if they call in the next 6 weeks, all the habits I'm trying to build with this challenge will go right out the window. But I need something else to focus on right now, and in reality it could be months before they call us. So if we get incredibly lucky and this challenge is interrupted by a kid, I'll rethink and restructure, and I'll do what I can. Anyway, thank you all for hanging with me last challenge. You're all awesome, and I hope we'll be able to hang together for this next one!

Since my last challenge self-immolated in a spectacular manner, I'm going to approach this one a little differently. I recognize that a checklist isn't going to do anything for me, so I'm going to have take a chunk of time, and whatever I accomplish during that time will be what I accomplish. I'm pledging the hour between 5 and 6pm (when I get home from work) to be dedicated for working towards my goals. The challenges with this slice of time will be that I'll be tired after work, and meal-planning. I'm going to have to figure out some quick and easy recipes that are also healthy, because no way am I going to be able to spend an hour in the kitchen at the end of the day. Another difficulty will be how my time is accounted for on my days off. I don't know if I'll be able to take that same time slot on the weekends because of family obligations, but I may try to take my activity hour 1st thing in the morning. Goal 1: Walk! My dog Fresca will be my accountabilibuddy on this one, because once she starts expecting a walk when I get home from work, she will bounce off the walls until I take her. The biggest challenge to this might be the weather. I won't walk in severe weather (thunderstorms, tornado warnings), so if the weather is too bad, I'll spend my activity hour doing things inside. Goal 2: Yoga! I am in serious need of leveling-up my balance (both physical and mental). My biggest challenge is that I need a routine, but I am no good at creating and following one. I think I'm going to start with a video or a website or something. Maybe DoYouYoga.com? Any comments or recommendations? I actually have been curious about trying tai chi, but for some reason I find it incredibly intimidating. Maybe I'll have to work up 20 seconds of courage sometime in the next 6 weeks and go to a class somewhere. Goal 3: Meditate! Part of that mental balance thing. I have a timer, and I know how to use it. Life Goal 1: Journal daily. I have a 5-year journal I have been trying to keep. The more chaotic my life has been, the harder it is to write a couple sentences about my day. I'm going to do that before bed. Life Goal 2: Clear out my "currently reading" bookshelf. It is generally my habit to read several books at once, but when I don't care for one, I often end up setting it aside and never going back to it. Sometimes I just need to read a bit more to get into it, sometimes I just need to decide I'm going to pass on it and move on. I have 13 books and 6 volumes of manga I am going to clear out, one way or another, in the next 6 weeks. Measure: This is a daily goal. Either I use my hour or I don't. If something else keeps me busy from 5-6pm (OT at work, etc.), I still have to do something that night. Reward: If I meet my goal 14 days in a row, I get to buy a new book! If I meet my goal all 42 days, I get to buy an audiobook on top of that! I love listening audiobooks (especially on long drives), but they feel so expensive to me. This will be a real treat!

Aw, thanks! Glad you like the Pokemon Walk! I assume you can save it from Google Docs onto your own PC. Can't check ATM because Google Docs is blocked where I work. But you're welcome to change or modify it however you like. 16, huh? I didn't include any legendaries, and I felt weird about including any that were available only by gift or trade within the game. That's cool if you want to add them, though. Maybe they could be available after the 8th gym? I'm hesitant to make anything "after the Elite Four" because I'm thinking after you reach that goal, you move on to the game and its set of gyms and Pokemon! You could keep walking in one game with the goal of completing the Pokedex, but personally I'd like to move on. I'm imagining you could take 1 or 2 of your favorite Pokemon with you as you move on to the next continent, like Ash does in the TV show. The idea of including trainers and your rival is cool, but what would it be, other than more steps? You could incorporate different workouts as different types of trainers. But it might be one of those things that's a fine line between cool and complicated... or maybe you'd just add it for your "mega hard" version.

Haven't been around a ton, but I still think about my challenges. Tally for last week: 10 floors: 6/7 (I was 2 floors short on 1 day, so I had 68/70) Daily yoga pose: 7/7 (This was not so much because I was doing it daily, but because I was doing a longer session every other day. Hrm, need to rethink this) Veggies: 11/7 (Great start, anyway! Still thinking about going back to taking vegan lunches. The hardest thing would be giving up yogurt. Me love some Fage) It's Wednesday--I know it's the middle of the week, but I'm upping my floors goal to 12/day. I feel like I'm getting lackadaisical, and I need to challenge myself more. I'm walking more, but I could be doing more than I am. Still, it's just something I think about, not a focused goal at this point.

Tough day to stay on track. Had a party at some friends' house. Besides there being a lot of junk food and beer, the party lasted basically 8 hours, so it more or less took up the whole day. I did bring veggies and hummus, so it wasn't all junk, and breakfast was eggs and zucchini. I'm off tomorrow, so I hope to have some time to walk.