Larnlou

Thanks for the support. Hope you all are having a great challenge, too.

So I started the last challenge in February with great goals & intentions & things were good for about 2 weeks until some stuff happened - some of which I knew was coming - that knocked me and I just didn't make it back. Which is why I'm starting again in Recruits. I know I'm a couple of days late again but I feel things are a little bit different as things have changed in a positive way recently which I am hoping to maintain if nothing else. About a month ago I attended a short Krav Maga workshop, which turned out to be the catalyst for some positive change. I almost wasn't going to go but the proceeds were for a charity I support so I decided to just do it. The instructor is someone I'd trained with at a different school ages ago and he has now opened his own school. I really enjoyed his workshop so decided to go to a class and see how I went. It was okay but the next time I stayed for the second High Intensity class. I've just finished my second week of both regular class followed by the high intensity class (2 hours) - on Tues & Thurs - and I'm loving it. The last 2 HI classes I was the only female but that actually only helps me train harder. So now I have a goal. My Main Quest - Continue to improve my health and fitness including relaxation so I can feel good about life again. Quest 1 - Continue with Krav Maga training at least twice a week - doing both the regular class followed by the high intensity class. The instructor is also starting Saturday training in 2 weeks which is free for club members & in a park near my house so really no excuse not to go. There will be a P1 grading this year - not sure if I want to bother with gradings but I think I might at least do P1 for the experience if nothing else. Quest 2 - Continue to reduce the amount of junk food while eating the healthy meals I get each week. Have already halved my junk food intake in the past 2 weeks. Quest 3 - Get more rest. Lights out by 10pm weeknights & midnight weekends. Have made some progress recently, mostly due to staying away from my computer at home, but need to be more consistent. Quest 4 - Practice with my Native American Flute daily - even if only 5 minutes. I received my first NAF this week and have been practicing a little each day. Can only play a couple of different scales at the moment while I get used to correct finger placement & improve breathe control. But I love the sound & vibrations that come from it. This is part of my relaxation. It's documented that NAF playing can have positive effects on anxiety, depression, PTSD & asthma etc. It has been calming to play after I get home from Krav to bring the anxiety down from training. Life Quest - Put my sewing machine to good use & sew more laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts. I currently have 2 waiting to be made on my table at home. Hoping to get them done & in the mail before ANZAC Day. I recently discovered the charity Aussie Hero Quilts and have already made and posted 3 laundry bags + some goodies to defence personnel servicing overseas. This is to be my way of giving back. It has been many years since I was involved with charitable work but this is something I can do and feel great about. My goal is to continue to sew for them as often as I can. Motivation - Krav Maga is my motivation for this challenge. It is only since I started training Krav again that other areas have started to improve. I don't know if it's just the positive effects of exercise or being around other people but it is my motivation to eat better & get to sleep earlier so that I can enjoy the training more because I'm not going in already depleted & exhausted. I have started measuring my week by when my next Krav class is so this to me is awesome. I recruited an old mate from high school to come to training last night & he wants to keep training as well so that will only encourage me even more to continue. It's also really nice to have a friend train with. Motivation is a funny thing... So, I'll see how this challenge goes. This week has gotten off to a good start with 2 Krav sessions already done, eating well with only 2 junk food items so far (massive improvement from the past few months), NAF has been fun & relaxing, sleep time is better but still room for improvement and I'm going home to sew a laundry bag tonight. Hope everyone else has a great challenge, too.

Sorry my post showed up 3 times. My computer didn't show it so I thought it didn't work. I'd delete 2 of them if I knew how.

Love Angel! Also, love your flattery buddy idea. Nothing wrong with swapping some positive reinforcement with a good friend. Sounds like it would be fun and full of laughs. And laughing with a friend is great medicine!

Love Angel! Also, love your flattery buddy idea. Nothing wrong with swapping some positive reinforcement with a good friend. Sounds like it would be fun and full of laughs. And laughing with a friend is great medicine!

Love Angel! Also, love your flattery buddy idea. Nothing wrong with swapping some positive reinforcement with a good friend. Sounds like it would be fun and full of laughs. And laughing with a friend is great medicine!

Love your challenge post. Hope the meditation is helping. I had to look up akrasia as I've never heard it before but now I totally understand since I seem to have a problem with it, too. Mostly with food & exercise but also watching movies that I know will leave me distressed with a weight on my chest like watching American Sniper did on the weekend. Not so great for keeping the anxiety at bay. I assume there must be other people who have this kind of reaction to watching certain things. My family don't really get it but I think it's the Introvert HSP coming out in me. If you don't mind bodywork, you could use massage or reflexology as rewards. If you've never had reflexology I highly recommend it. I find it also helps a bit with my anxiety and it is sooo relaxing. Also have to agree with breebles about the benefit of going for a walk to help with anxiety - although I have forgotten this helpful trick myself lately. Hope you do well in your challenge and accomplish all your goals. Good Luck.

Far North Queenslander checking in. Just started the 6 week challenge. So far so good.

Hi Teirin, thanks for the welcome. I haven't had a chance to get on the forum much but I will try to keep up with the mini challenges. Do I post them in this topic or somewhere else? Definitely interested in dropping by the Monk guild in the future. Once I build up some base strength again I intend to get back into martial arts of some description. My city has grown a lot in the last decade so the options are pretty good. Hopefully the second half of this year if all goes well. Actually went to Tai Chi on Saturday - probably would have let it slide if I hadn't joined this challenge & listed it as a goal. So I'm proud of myself for that. Just had a look at your spreadsheet - do you mind if I copy it? I've been trying to figure out how I was going to track everything and your spreadsheet looks awesome.

I wanted to add more quests but figured I would be better off starting small Dog sledding in AU hadn't even occurred to me.... I've always had Canada in mind whenever I think of it. I've already been there twice - the 2nd time was for a year, including 2 winters - and I never got around to dog sledding. Huskies and Malamutes are the most beautiful animals. Hoping to head over there next year as I've noted in my life quest. I also did gymnastics when I was a kid. It's my favourite sport but I never really progressed very far. One of my high school friends went to level 10 and ended up a coach for several years. Initially, I started with the GymnasticBodies Foundation One & Handstand One courses but I was having some trouble with my shoulders as I have some muscular imbalances that mess up my neck & shoulders. That's when I found GMB. They just released the Elements course recently and it seems to be a better way for me to prepare my body since I'm going from no training for over a year. It seems to be working out so far. Had a couple of shoulder niggles but nothing major yet. Hopefully I will be able to get back to the GymnasticBodies courses soon. Can't wait to be able to do proper handstands etc again. The wrist prep exercises from both courses are really great. I've had problems with my right wrist since high school but since I've started doing these exercises I seem to be having less issues. I highly recommend both GymnasticBodies & GMB for anyone looking for that sort of thing. I've done weights and the like over the years but now that I've found out about gymnastic strength training I don't plan to go back. Hope this helps you out. The elements course doesn't really get into it until about week 3 - the first 2 weeks are getting used the the moves & doing prep work like stretching & mobility - but I'll post more once it picks up. After doing the initial test session I'm pleasantly surprised at my current range of motion and the fact that I can do a full squat - like toddlers do.

Haven't seen Sailor Moon for years. She's an awesome role model! Good luck with your Challenge

Sorry to hear about your crappy year. Your main quest really resonates with me. I've never heard of most of the things listed in your smart goals but since looking them up I'm totally inspired. Especially everything in #2. The Urban Ranger and Walking to Rivendell and Kamana all sound like things that I need to try. Hope this challenge helps you get where you want to go and things keep getting better for you!

Love your goals. Totally agree with HistoryBuff about using a foam roller. They can be really useful. I used to roll out my legs before martial arts training and it made a huge difference to the flexibility of my kicks. Also check out Stretch Therapy / Kit Laughlin http://www.kitlaughlin.com. He has amazing ideas regarding stretching, particularly to do with the fascia. He also recommends 2 stretch sessions a week for certain muscle groups instead of daily because of how the fascia works - it can actually be counter productive to do more rather than less in some cases. He also has lots of videos on youtube that are very detailed. Hope you make some great progress this challenge!

CaptainPenelope, glad you joined the ranks, too! Thanks for the encouragement. This will definitely be an interesting 6 weeks. Hope you have a great challenge, too!

Hi everanything, thanks for your kind words and encouragement. After all the books & blogs I read over the years about positive mental attitudes and the like, I'm finally putting it in to practice - the "playtime" things is something I read somewhere about using different words to help change our attitude about certain things. 'workout' really does seem like work! I hope you get to try parkour. It just looks like so much fun and so effortless watching people who really know what their doing. Same with the stick fighting. After this challenge I will look into checking out a class. The decluttering is something I've been wanting to do for ages but only really started doing something about it towards the end of last year. I'm not really following a program but I'm using some ideas from a book called "Clutter Free" and I'm currently reading "The Joy of Less: a minimalist living guide" by Francine Jay. I follow several minimalism blogs which help to inspire me - my favourite is http://www.theminimalists.com. The anxiety is a bit of a bugger. Hope things are going well for you on that front. I forget that exercise can be so helpful sometimes. I'd like to start walking a lot more but it's so damn hot outside even at 5pm that I use that as an excuse. Now that I have a standing desk at work and I'm walking all day I don't feel quite so bad about it. But that's why I've promised my self to get back to Tai Chi. Have a great time with your challenge. Hope it goes really well

Hi, I'm Larnlou. Today I discovered the NF Rebellion and the 6 Week Challenge. I'm a couple days late but if I don't start now... So obviously it's my first challenge and it's the first thing that has made me feel excited about making a real change in my life. I'm notorious for procrastinating and not doing something just because I don't feel like it. But, if I really want to be healthy I know this has to change - sooner rather than later. I'm 35, fairly quiet HSP. Last year was a bad one filled with vertigo/dizziness, anxiety & my first ever panic attack (which really freaked me out). I allowed the vertigo to stop me from doing things but at the time it seemed justified since I felt like crap. The vertigo is still around - it comes & goes whenever it feels like it but seems to be worse if I don't get enough sleep. I have only had 1 day off work so far this year because of it and my aim is to keep that number as low as possible. My Main Quest is to achieve the necessary Strength / Balance / Mobility / Flexibility to be able participate in any physical activity I want without being scared of hurting myself. Also, I want to lose about 10kg so I can once again fit into my favourite clothes. The physical activities I imagine include but are not limited to; Travel, Krav Maga, Kali or Stick Fighting, Dog Sledding, Parkour, Archery, Trampolining. There's so many things I want to try... Quest 1 - Complete the GMB Elements Course made up of a movement session 6 days a week for 7 weeks. A good place to start after a year of inactivity. Think of it as playtime to rediscover how good it feels to move my body rather than as a workout. (Session 1 completed today!) Quest 2 - Eat more healthy meals instead of takeaways and enjoy each meal without distractions (watching tv, reading etc) Quest 3 - Drink more water and less coffee. Quest 4 - Get more rest. Lights out by 10pm on weeknights & midnight on weekends. No more late nights the turn into early mornings. Quest 5 - Spend some time in silence each day. Quest 6 - Go to Saturday morning Tai Chi. Staying up late Friday is no excuse. It's relaxing and I need it. Life Quest 1 - Continue my endeavour to remove all the unnecessary STUFF I have accumulated over the years that is taking up space in my home but no longer serves any purpose or makes me happy. Donate / recycle / give away or throw out as required. Life Quest 2 - Save as much money as possible this year so I will be able to travel to Canada next year to see my surrogate Newfie family. The most amazing people who took me under their wing from the moment I met them - 11 years is way too long. Motivation - I think I've included most of my motivations in my quest descriptions but to sum it all up I want to be able to move freely and with hesitation, feel good no matter what I'm wearing and seize all the amazing opportunities that have yet to come into my life. No more missing out on experiences because I'm scared or feel like crap and don't want to leave the house. Remember all the cool things I've had the chance to be part of - these more where those came from. Life isn't over yet, I haven't learnt to fight like The Canary (I'm slightly obsessed with the TV show Arrow . Stick fighting & Parkour looks like awesome fun!) Sinceriously looking forward to this challenge!