Dizzard

So since about May of last year I've been going to an exercise class out of town and that's been great but in the new year a new easily accessible gym has opened up in my own town and I want to start going there. The thing is I keep putting it off because I'm not really sure what I want to do there....or how I'm even supposed to figure that out. I know it's important to have a goal, but I don't feel equipped to even come up with a reasonable goal right now. I feel like I'm in a position where I can start considering strength training more seriously but I don't know where to start. I've definitely become more healthy and fitter by going to the exercise class twice a week, but I wouldn't say I ever had a real plan. (the plan was pretty much "stick with it until it becomes normal and then figure out the rest later") I have noticed that even though I've been getting fitter, there's still two areas in particular I'm not happy with. I still have belly fat that doesn't seem to be going anywhere and I feel like the back of the bottom of my legs have remained kinda chubby. (but then maybe it's supposed to be like that and I'm overthinking it? This is where the "not knowing what I'm doing" comes in)

I've started going to exercise bootcamps in the last 3 weeks. So far I've done 3 of them (for 1 hour) and I plan on doing it twice a week. (on Mondays and Thursdays) They're seriously tough, there's no way I could have worked out at home or even at a gym and pushed myself that hard. In the first class I did 30 pushups in a row. (the most I'd ever done on my own was 10) It's funny, at the time you think that if you go further you'll hurt yourself or make yourself sick but if the bootcamp has taught me anything it's that I'm more physically capable than I gave myself credit for.

Things have been going well so far. Actually I must have missed the start button on my timer yesterday because I must have meditating for 25 minutes before I looked at the timer and noticed it never started. Cool, I can't wait for that game. Actually since you meditate I have a question for you. Do you ever feel like you're getting short of breath? I feel like it becomes harder to breathe through my nose when I start meditating. It's something that's been really distracting me.

Today has gone alright so far. Somebody bought sweets.....so I might have gotten a little carried away. But I had an amazing meditation today. I was mostly focused on my breathing and I was trying to be patient (whenever I thought about the time I tried to set my expectations back by a couple of minutes, and then when I thought the 20 minutes were up I added another 5 minutes. Then when I was at 2 minutes the timer went off. I guess it's not perfect (to be that conscious of the time) but I was still pretty calm and I didn't look at the stopwatch once during the meditation. So it still felt like progress. It felt really good.

Not really. I find it a lot easier to interact with people online than in real life. It was more the challenge itself that intimidated me.

Something happened today that annoyed me so I thought would be a good idea to meditate afterwards. It wasn't. I had an even harder time concentrating today. When you have such a bad session of meditation do you restart it or try again, or do you just let it go? I kinda just want to wait an hour or so and try again.

Actually I've been doing the workout on and off for a while. So I'm not unfamiliar with it. This challenge is moreso because I want to start being more consistent and try to do 3 reps every time.

So I managed to complete my goals for today. Two bottles of water (I'm half way through a third one) I ate a banana. I did 20 minutes of meditation. (Although it didn't turn out the best. I was super antsy today for some reason, it was hard to concentrate and be patient) I did 3 reps of the beginners workout. I felt really wobbly though. I'm like if one of these guys decided to start working out: That said it went quite well in the end. It became easier when I had gotten to the 3rd and final one.

Thanks. Yeah having a water bottle is super useful. At one point I was filling up glasses of water but that's just a hassle after a while. I've already started on my first bottle of water for today.

This is my first challenge here. Some of this stuff I'm already doing, but I want to try to be more consistent with it. I saw some people are giving their challenge a theme so I wanted to give mine an Ace Attorney theme. Cross Examination Start Dizzard: I have very little energy in my life and I don't do much physical activity. Challenge One Fitness Do three reps of the Beginner Body Weight Workout, three times a week. (Mon, Wed, Fri) Dizzard: I'm often dehydrated and I spend a lot of time mindlessly snacking on crisps and biscuits. Challenge Two Diet Drink 2 bottles of water a day. (I guess it should be more but I'll have this as my baseline, it's a pretty big bottle)Eat one piece of fruit a day. (instead of crisps or biscuits) Dizzard: I'm an anxious person who gets down on themselves very easily and gets carried away with negative thoughts. Challenge Three Level Up Your Life Do 20 minutes of meditation every day. Also it's not included in the challenge since it starts in February after the challenge, but I signed up for a free Mindfulness Online Course if anyone else is interested in trying it out: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-performance Is it ok to use gifs? I tried not to go overboard. I thought it might make me more invested and likely to stick with it if I tried to have some fun with setting it up. Now if I fail to keep up with my challenge Phoenix Wright is going to get me a guilty verdict. (This is also a great opportunity to find out who the cool people who like Ace Attorney are)

Can you add something to your challenge that you've already been doing for a few days but you haven't made a habit of it yet? Or does it have to be something you're just starting with on the day you post your challenge thread?

Thanks for the input. I kind of want to stay with 20 minutes though. I have some issues but I don't think they're too major. I checked the timer again today at 6 minutes left but I didn't check it a second time. I've read that you can move while meditating. I found today that it helped a lot being able to move in a calm deliberate way, rather than feeling rigid and stuck to the spot.

For the last three days I've taken up a 20 minute meditation. (usually around 3pm-4pm) Today in particular I was feeling very anxious and down so I meditated an hour earlier than I did the previous two days. I felt today it was a lot harder to meditate and stay focused on my breathing. It wasn't really that I was getting distracted by specific thoughts, it was more like itches became more obvious and my positioning started feeling really weird. (I ended up crossing my legs near the end) I became obsessed with how my head was angled. Also I started feeling a loss of breath. (that in particular was probably what made me the most uncomfortable and impatient) The first two times I meditated I first checked the stopwatch about 17 minutes into the meditation but this time around I ended up first looking at it about 10 minutes into the meditation. Is this to be expected? It felt like my body was working against me trying to be calm.

Ok. I just meditated for 20 minutes non stop. I felt very anxious during it, although I had some periods where I felt peaceful too. I had some distractions too, my mum knocked on my door asking me a question and I ignored her (is that ok? I feel kind of bad but this is important too. I've never been this determined to meditate) I feel very sleepy afterwards and my hands have pins and needles. They're sort of vibrating. Actually my whole body was kind of vibrating, but particularly my hands have gotten pins and needles. Another thing that was interesting was that I felt kind of cold afterwards. It's hard to describe, it wasn't actual coldness. I also felt disorientated. I propped myself on my bed up against the wall, my back felt pretty achey while I was doing it though. I managed to go about 17 minutes before I looked at the timer on my watch. At that point I was getting distracted thinking about making this post... Is that stuff normal?

Is there anything really important I should know in advance going into this challenge? (I don't really know much about it except that it's a challenge....and from what I've gathered from browsing the challenge forum a bit)

That's what I've been doing. I've been attempting to do this excercise: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/ 3 times a week (Mon, Wed and Fri) I feel like I need to get something else for the dumbbell rows though. I don't really have anything suitable in the house so I usually end up just picking up random things that seem kinda heavy.

I think I want to try a challenge for the first time. I was kind of scared over the past year because it seems overwhelming but at this point I think I'd rather try and fail than not try at all.

Just did another workout. The working out conditions aren't really ideal, but I got through it today at least. I fell off the wagon again because of the cold/rainy weather which is really annoying. What's worse is I felt as weak today as I did back when I first started. I was wobbling all over the place again. I did the three reps anyway though, so I guess that's one difference to be happy with. On another note a few weeks ago I had a free consultation over Skype with a life coach. I'm going to ring him up again in the new year to try to arrange a proper consultation. It's pretty expensive (especially since I feel like I have a shopping list full of things wrong in my life)...but at this point I'm desperate and it's not like anyone on the internet can help me in any meaningful way. (or that they'd even want to)

I fell off the wagon again. I was doing alright during the summer and autumn months but as soon as the cold weather (and rainy weather, we've gotten a lot of rain recently) kicked in my workout schedule fell apart because I had always been working out outside. Plus I was drinking a lot of water but it's not as easy to drink so much water when it's cold and you're often feeling groggy. I want to start again today but the weather is terrible and there are people who'll complain if I make too much noise. I don't know what to do. It feels like I'm stuck. The closest gym is this uber posh place that's really expensive. (and it's not really that close...just the closest) If nothing else this has made pretty clear to me what I was doing wasn't really sustainable.

I've been working away quite consistently for the last few weeks. (except one Friday I had to push it back to Saturday instead) I've been working outside though and since it's getting darker earlier I'm going to have to move the workouts to the morning. I have noticed improvements in my strength, particularly when I'm doing push ups. I'm not sure if I should be doing this but I've started taking to randomly doing push ups when I'm bored. I bought some swimming gear to make sure I stay committed to starting up swimming. In the shop there was a sign saying just 30 minutes of swimming could increase your energy. It sounds like it was made for me. Also I tried calculating my body fat percentage using this formula (http://life.gaiam.com/article/how-calculate-your-ideal-body-fat-percentage) but I don't trust the result all that much. It said my body fat percentage is 17.8% which seems kinda low.

I was wondering if this is normal? I've been working out consistently for the last few weeks and I've noticed sometimes when I'm working out, particularly near the end of the workout I start getting these brief sharp jolts in my head. It's like at the top of my head. I can work through it fine, it's not like it's a really terrible debilitating pain but it's pretty unnerving. On another note I'm still quite wobbly while working out. I was wondering if something like Yoga would help me keep a steadier balance?

Would you consider €420 for a years membership to a swimming pool to be good value? At the face of it the price looks pretty scary but then again I'm not sure I have the best perspective on this. I worked it out that if I went every Saturday it would cost €8 for each time. When I think about it that way it does look a lot better. I think it might include free exercise classes but I'm not sure if that's only if you get a full gym membership. (rather than just pool access) On the other hand it's not like I have much choice, I live out in the countryside so it's either this or nothing. I mean I could get a bus somewhere but that opens up another can of worms.

Had another workout today. I'm getting into a rhythm of doing it at 6pm. I had my water with me this time too. (I definitely needed it by the time I got to the third circuit) I managed to do all three circuits today which was really great. I guess there's no excuse for less than 3 each time now. The walking lunges are the hardest part I think, I got pretty shaky on the third circuit.

I managed to do two (and a bit) circuits today. I felt very wobbly afterwards but not as achy as before so I think that's a good thing. Overall I think it was my most consistent workout so far, I managed to push myself a little further than I thought I could go which was really nice. Also I keep forgetting to fill up a bottle of water, I really need to remember that for Wednesday!

I fell off the wagon somewhat (well moreso that I've been unreliably doing it rather than quitting completely) One good thing I've noticed is that I'm a little less wobbly than I was at first. That was a big thing that made it hard to stay motivated, falling all over the place all the time. Talk about spaghetti limbs. Something happened recently though and I've been feeling a lot more motivated (about life in general) so I'm back again but I'm doing some planning first to make sure I stick to it. I've been looking for a good app I could use to track my progress. (and to give me a better sense of accountability) Also I was thinking about taking up swimming. The thing is the nearest swimming pool is over a mile away and I don't have transport. I guess it would be a good idea to walk there although maybe that would be too much too soon? So the plan is more or less the same as before. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are workout days and I want Saturday to be the day I go swimming.