Sambalina

Just joining in to say - me too! That time of the month has me doing a lot of restorative yoga. It gets so bad on some days that just walking up some stairs (ok, I live on the fourth floor, and on a hill, but still) is exhausting. I say listen to your body, take it easy, and use the time to get in some stretching, some support exercises, or try something new and low-intesity for a day or two (or 4). And, I try to convince myself: rejoice that my cycle is working as it should!

I think that's an awesome step! Tracking calories (or whatever) can be a great learning tool, but it's no way to live (unless you love it). I think that when you stop tracking you can start to really listen to your body. I know for lots of people the numbers can get in the way a bit - they have numerical targets they feel they 'should' reach, rather than targeting that happy place the body wants to get to. Are you going to go cold turkey, or ease out of it?

Steamed broccoli with some sea salt sprinkled over. I love it! I can eat a whole bowl just of broccoli.

I second (third... whatever) all the above suggestions! Yoga has so many great poses for hip opening and tight legs. If you're looking for a routine, I love the 'Hip, Hamstrings, and lower back' session on doyogawithme.com - it has helped me so much!

I love yoga with Adriene! I'm on day 25 of the 30 days of yoga Did you sign up on her website? I've found her daily emails (and the yoga video in my inbox) really fun Roghish - not in 30 days, but totally! This is a great place to start if you want to begin working on your flexibility. I think the Yoga with Adriene 30 day challenge is especially good for toe touching - there's a lot of forward folds and such. I'm actually off to do day 25 right now!

Your Japan pics look awesome! I can totally second that Japan is a great place to go and is very different to any other Asian countries. And the sushi really is amazing. I just WISH Korea could have some decent Japanese food... I know they got screwed over in the war, but c'mon, it's right next door! Anyway. Dom, sorry to hear about your chest. Are you seeing any improvements? Is it a problem is day-to-day life, of only when you try to work out? Either way, that's sucky

Hey Blaidd, your goals for the next month look super SMART, and very do-able. And congratulations on the health check, it's always nice to have things 'confirmed' as a-ok. And twin baby Blaidds? AWESOME! Definitely something to look forward to one day As for your sister - wow. I thought my bro (also 25) was a bit... not quite an adult yet, but your sis sounds like she could have her own reality TV show. It is so hard when it comes time to say 'no' to family requests, but you're right. When they start to really negatively affect your life and the other people you love, it's time to do something about it. I'm sorry you have to go through that, and I hope she can rise out of her stuff gracefully.

Hey guys, checking in for the end of week 5! I'm doing really well this challenge, and I think it's because I set such manageable goals. I will definitely have to remember this for the future. I've just finished with today's swimming and am about to work on a blog post (for posting in a few weeks) about the 'no excuses' fitspo images we see around the internets and what I think they can do for us (or not). So, one week of challenge left, and one week of vacation left. I'm looking forward to both! Let's rock week 6!!

Hey guys! Total lack of updates here - sorry! My parents and I moved to a new apartment complex and the internet's been a bit iffy. It seems to have come right, now though, so here I am The new place is AWESOME! It has a big pool, ocean views, and heaps more space. The pool is salt water and so nice to swim in. Which has made my swimming goal so easy to keep! I'm just going to update on all my progress so far, because I'm in total holiday mode and can barely tell you what day it is, let alone what week we're in for the challenge Ah ok, we're halfway through week 4. So, 1.5 weeks left? Geeze, where does the time go? Main Quest: Get the blog up and running. (www.livethewhole.com) Goal 1: Set up the blog with just the basics for now. - About page - Title - Search function - Blog - Facebook and Pinterest plug-ins - Email All of this is done! The blog is officially up and running! I'm quite proud of it. Link is in my siggy :D Goal 2: Create a posting schedule for the next 6 weeks and stick to it (1 post/week) Yup, so far so good. I have all my content planned until the end of the challenge, and most of it is written up. I've been posting on schedule, and even managed one 'special extra' post last week (it was a book review). Goal 3: Promote content on social media (FB, Pinterest, other blogs) and check out Twitter and Instagram to see if I want to do those. Put these tasks on the planner and do them 3-4 times a week. This one I've been a little less sure about. I've been doing FB and Pinterest, and decided against Twitter and Instagram for now. I do think I need to start doing more promotion and posting comments on other blogs to get my name put there. I don't feel like I have the time right now though - with a new teaching semester starting, I have to prioritise my paying job for a few weeks Side Quest 1: Tackle some weak areas - Complete the 3x 30 day challenges Do yoga 4+ times a week - Swim 5+ times a week, starting with 12 lengths (it's small pool), and increasing by 1 length every second day until I'm doing 24+ lengths These goals are going very well! I've missed a few yoga sessions, but not many. I've been swimming every day and loving it. Side Quest 2: Log those meals I'm on vacation for a couple of months and I want to make sure 'vacation mode' doesn't get out of hand. I've had the past two weeks off but starting today I will - Log every meal using my TwoGrand app. I cancelled this goal. It was more of a hassle than anything because of the slow internet. I love the app, and will continue to use it, but I'll get back into it next challenge. Totally lost interest here, and that's ok. So yeah! I have just over a week left with mum and dad, and I'm loving it. It has been wonderful to spend so much time with them! I'm also excited to get home and get stuck into my job, my coaching course, and my blog. I'm working on building a great 2015!

Hey guys! All is going well! I'm just in for my swimming - I've started just doing it every day because I'm in love with it Being in the water feels so good! I remember when I was 10 and wanted nothing more than to be a mermaid. True story. The blog is going great, I'm right on track and ready to start my health coaching training this week - yay! I'm so excited to get started. A couple of my goals have fallen by the wayside, by conscious choice. I feel like I should replace them with something, but maybe not. - Food logging: thanks to the super slow internet here, it takes forever and I lost interest. I have other things I want to do with my time right now. - 30 day challenges. They started to get a bit ridiculous. It started out all well and good, but then the volume just increased to levels I wasn't comfortable with. So, I'm doing the amount I want + yoga and that feels great. Ok, I'm off to research how to optimise image quality and size for the blog - <3

OMG - I just emailed Steve! I feel like I just reached out to a celebrity. I asked if he had any favourite resources for learning how to write well when blogging. I really admire the style, tone, and personality of the NF blog, and while it's not the same as mine, I'd like to be that good at letting my personality shine through. I so hope he (or someone else on the NF team) replies - I'd be so honoured

Ok, week 2 summary time: Website work: A I finalised the design (for these beginning stages) and got all the plugins set up. Two posts are published, and I'm following my calendar as planned. I've been 'promoting' on social media, but at this point that actually just means posting and pinning so that if and when anyone actually goes to the profiles, it's full of good stuff. I need to decide on when I'm actually going to start pushing it out there. I've looked at instagram and twitter and I don't think I have the time or energy at this point to go there. Maybe in the future. Need to work on: reading other related blogs and posting comments. 30 day challenges: B I did well in the first half of the week, and then skipped a couple of days at the end. Need to work on: not being a lazy bum. Swimming: A 6/7 days (aiming for 5/7). Two of these were in the sea, which was lovely. Max lengths was 20 (160m). My bikini top was a bit unstable, so I felt a bit self-conscious at times. I'm really enjoying swimming, though! So, average for these combined in a B+ And last goal: Meal logging: A I logged all my meals in the TwoGrand app. So, a solid week 2. I'm happy with my website progress, and am really enjoying the research and writing for the blog. I'm currently working on an oh-so-cheery post for Valentine's Day about buying fair trade chocolate - because giving the person you love a product of child labour or slavery isn't cool. Goals for week 3: - Writing. Get the chocolate post done. - Posting. Get my third post up and functioning (+social media) - Do 30 day challenges and swim - Log meals. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ok, and it's Monday! The start of week three. I'm about to go check to see if the rangers guild has any minis up yet. Today I bought a new bikini and tested it out in the pool. It stayed put through handstands, dives, flips, and regular swimming, so I'm feeling more confident about protecting my modesty while in the water now And I've started to think about getting back to lifting when I'm back in Korea. I enjoyed strong lifts, and maybe might start from there again? And I might post a 'WOOT' room post when I release the blog to the public I'm feeling a bit proud of it.

I wanna see Blaidd Tigress! I reckon if you just treat it like that's what you meant to do, you'll rock it

True, Blaidd! I was tricked into thinking it was ok because mum and dad (been here for 18 months) are fine. Seems I am not! I did my swimming in the sea yesterday, too. But, I skipped my 30 day challenge because... lazy. I'll get back to it today.

Woot! Mountain snow planks! Way to get over being distracted by other people - woah! your France adventure looks totally amazing, too.

Well done at the work meeting - those things can be so hard. Poor other guys Are you enjoying the walking? What made you set that particular amount as a goal? (if you said already, I've forgotten). And OMG... authentic crab ramen? I LOVE ramen and it's almost impossible to get proper stuff in Korea. Did you eat it?!

Hey all! this week is going super great - even though most of the time there was a big tropical storm and a ton of rain. Today's been gorgeous and I did my daily swimming in the ocean! The water was so warm and clear, it was a real pleasure. Definitely going to try to get some more sea swimming in during the next few weeks. Weekly report so far: swimming 4/5 days. I'm also going strong on my 3 30 day challenges. I just do sets of squats every time I got to the bathroom, and then I can get them all in without it being overwhelming. The 100 second planks are pretty damn challenging, though. The website/blog is going really well! I have it pretty much up and running how I want it, and have linked it to all my social media accounts. Next week's task is to investigate twitter and instagram, but I'm not sure I need to go there at this early stage. And food logging is on track Soooo... I stopped drinking the tap water here and switched to rain water. The tap water comes from the ground, and the day I switched all my tummy problems cleared up. The rain water tastes way better too, so I'm drinking much more of it. Now... I have to go and find the perfect image for the post I'm putting together for next week. This could take a while!

Hey Ares - I know that the Eat Your Kimchi cafe 'You Are Here' in Hongdae has regular Korean classes run by 'Talk to me in Korean'. I've heard they're pretty helpful. And I've also heard that a lot of the language exchanges here in Seoul are about either learning English or hooking up So, not that great for your purposes. But maybe check out the cafe.

Subbed for your boring adventures And those goals sound pretty good to me - very SMART. Which yeah, I guess means a bit boring because they're not crazy or sensational. Your snowboarding sounds awesome!! You do have some amazing adventures, Dom.

Hey Dom! (Endor) - I am baaaack! Headed over to stalk your challenge now

That sounds like a pretty successful week, Ares. What slip-up did happen, you look like you've learned heaps from them and taken steps to do even better. Don't sell yourself short - great work!

Yeah... interestingly I'm more upset by dead spiders in the pool than the mouse. They are way more stealthy - ewwww. Right, so yesterday was a rest day. Today there's a big rain storm, but I still went out swimming in the rain. Did 20 lengths today! PR! (that's roughly 180m). And I did my planks, squats, and pathetic attempts at pushups. I have 4 weeks left to my goal of doing 'real' pushups before going back to Korea. My blog is on track - I've got the basics all set up and tomorrow's post ready to go. I'm sticking to my schedule so far and am happy with how it's going. I'd like to be a little less formal in my writing, but I think I've just got to settle into it. It's kinda nerve wracking writing posts for an unknown audience. And I got the search function and the 'about' page all done. I've started on Pinterest and FB exposure, very slowly. I've logged all my food, and the results are a severe lack of vegetables! I'll work on it, but eating out a lot, and mum cooking means I'm just grateful and happy with it I forgot to do a week 1 wrap up, so here it is now: Exercise: B- (did it only 3 days because of tummy bug) Blog: A Logging: A

Yay for a mini!!!

Tummy bug is back... this thing sure is long lived. It's not just me though, seems to be this particular bug just hangs around. So, my tummy is sore and bloated (like quite distended) and the LAST thing I feel like doing is putting on my bikini and going swimming. But, right after I post this, I'm going to do it. I sat here for like a minute before I typed that. I'll do it, though. And my 30 day challenges, too. Everything else is on track. Hope it's good for you guys too UPDATE: There was a dead mouse in the pool. I fished it out with the net and still did my swimming - Feeling like a boss.

Sleep well!