NeuroRain

Well, I did not hit every goal.... AND I am OK with that. I feel confident in my morning routine. I started using an app “Down Dog” for my yoga. It has been great. Nice directions, fluid motions between moves, and a variety of movement order! I am accepting that the evening routines are a little messy still and it will just take more time to find the right balance as I have with the morning routine. The last four weeks have helped me keep curious about why certain times and activities are challenging and I think a routine will settle in the coming month. My daily routine is going well. The kids and I have a decent balance. So, as long as we are having fun together (and independently) I consider that a win! The kids have not been interested in taking walks with me, but they have enjoyed speed walking and chasing me around the apartment (in rather creative ways - we have a small-ish apartment). Hits my goal of 10 minutes of walking, and my goal of spending more meaningful time with my kids. Not too shabby! I have successfully increased my water intake. Going outside the home is still and challenge as my oldest keeps taking my water bottle so I lose track of how much I drink while out. Not a terrible problem to have though. Over the last 4 weeks I have really taken the time to observe how I interact with and care for my body. I have made a few adjustments and I am seeing the difference in my energy levels, my strength (more my “I feel strong”, than a “I can lift heavier items” strong). And I have shed a few pounds so I know that my body is reacting to what I am doing. I am excited to continue to build and tweak my new routines and continue to care for me! Thanks for the ride! I look forward to participating in another challenge in the future!

Oh my - I am clearly not giving myself enough downtime.... Porter you hit the nail on the head - mental tasks take energy too! So I will start with my goals and then go into what happened. Morning routine did great until the weekend. It was my youngest's birthday, so instead of stretching I set-up a few things (we made a large cookiewich for his cake for example). Sunday I also did not stretch. Showering got all muddled too. I mean, two days off schedule isn't the end of the world, and I'm right back at it again today. But I am disappointed that I got distracted (no matter the reason - because the truth is, I slept in because I didn't get to bed at a good hour - but more on that later). Here I am recommitting to my mornings, and that is half the battle. The night routine - oh what a mess. As I mentioned above - this week I did not do well with the getting to bed. The kids were up late several nights, dinner was late... I haven't found a nice routine yet. That is OK. It will just take longer than I want it to (that is nothing new :P). I learned more, so at some point I know I will find a good fit with my evening routine like I have with the morning. I kicked the walking goal's butt! I did not walk with my oldest though. Totally not at all interested. My youngest though... waiting for the bus we would run around while we waited. I was able to get 15-20 minutes most days. This week this will be harder - no bus for three weeks.... I may pace around the apartment... Water goal was also crushed. The Fitbit has me pushing into this goal a little. I have set a 60 oz "water" goal on the Fitbit. Before this challenge, I would drink about 24-30 oz of tea each day and another 16 oz of almond milk. So this challenge increased my total liquid intake to about 60 oz with the 2 glasses of water goal which is about 24 oz. Saturday I did not hit 60 oz. But all other days I hit or exceeded 60 oz. The days I exceeded the 60 oz goal I drank more water. Nothing wrong with that! Creating the day routine.... it is almost like I created a daytime routine and I am still creating a night routine.... kinda. I had a great wake-up until 2/3 pm routine. Everything sort of fell apart after that (dinner prep and bedtime are such areas of struggle for me). My oldest son has made some goals for the summer. We spent some time playing together. My daily goals have been organizing our living spaces (again). I have done rather well with that.... except it has lead to some late nights which lead to not enough sleep... I was feeling great when I was getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. This week I dropped to 5-6 hours a night and man... by the end of the week I was having headaches and my body was more fatigued.... I want a routine, and I am not enjoying balancing all the moving parts. It feels like nothing is stable. This whole challenge is showing me that the systems I am putting into place are helping, and I need to work to maintain them. I can't just create a mail sorting system and then hope the mail magically sorts itself. I have to, each day, sort the mail into the system. I have to USE the calendar I created to track tasks.... *sigh* I watched a few videos on Will Smith's Instagram. He talked about self-discipline is really self-love. "Discipline is forgoing immediate pleasure for the exchange of long-term self-respect". "Choose actions that are in your own best interest" and "you cannot win the war against the world if you cannot win the war against your own mind." These quotes have stuck with me. I have spent the last year and a half becoming more aware of myself and how I respond. It has become easier to create pause and decide - is this what is best for me, is this what I want? I have not been committed to myself often. I grab the easy sugary snack more frequently than a handful of nuts or an apple. They are all available. This last week I have been adding a pause and more frequently choosing to make healthier choices. I see I am wearing myself down with the organizing and then I am more likely to say - I don't care about what is best long-term I want that thing right now. I justify it because I am worn down because I am pushing myself setting up new organization systems and that set-up is only temporary. Where that statement is true I am also not supporting myself while creating these systems. Not just with the food I am eating, but also with the sleep I am getting, and the lack of downtime I am adding in. I have accomplished a lot this week. I am proud of that AND what was the cost to myself to do all that? I had to let go of my morning routine. I have been short tempered. There is a huge difference in my steps according to the Fitbit. Is this method of creating order serving me? In the end, I think I can live in the chaos a few extra days to make sure I create systems that support both myself and my family without so that I do not fall apart or feel the urge to hibernate through a weekend. I will check-in Wednesday or Thursday to help me stay on target with my routines. Walking will be difficult now that both kids are home for three weeks. Need to be more creative about getting the walking in! Here is the Will Smith videos: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17904317689138098/

Week two check-in time! Morning has continued strong with stretching/yoga each morning. The last two mornings I have not gotten out of bed at the expected time. I need to spend some time deciding what I want to do about nights I cannot go to sleep at my bedtime. Do I cut something out of my morning routine to catch a few extra sleep? Some days I can push through my morning routine and other mornings I really do need the rest. We are not at a place at home where I can say - nuts to you child, who is having a hard night, I need to sleep! Perhaps I can come up with a few guidelines to follow... I just picked up a Fitbit that does sleep tracking, so maybe that feature will be helpful in seeing my sleep patterns and figuring out what will help me in these weird sleep cycles. I did create a nightly routine. It is huge. It starts at 3:30 and ends at 9:30. 6 hours! Yikes! So, this week I will pick a few of the major tasks (tub time for the kids, dinner, clean kitchen, and bedtimes) to stick to. The other activities we will add-in as the major tasks feel less frantic (something about new routines always feels crazy and on top of itself...). So, depending on how we do with the nighttime routine I might hold off on a daily routine implementation. The goal is for successful implementation of routines, not creating a chaotic mess that makes me want to cry! I walked for at least 10 minutes 4 days this week. So I am ready for this week's walks with my son. I will be OK if I am pacing in a playground while he is playing on it if need be. Flexibility is key with kids in tow! I again did not write my blog posts. I am distracted by other issues and tasks. I did most of the guided mind mapping. I do not have any blog goals this week, so I will try to finish up the mind map. I will be happy with a few post outlines. The mind mapping really helped me focus my message - so although I am not where I want to be, I am not standing still or going backward. I trust that this is temporary and I will figure out the balance. It just might not happen in this 4-week challenge. Drinking water - I am amazed at how easy it has been to meet this goal. So I started this challenge starting my morning with a cup of hot tea (English Breakfast with a hit enough, but II wasn't doing too poorly either. Now I have added a cup of water between cups of tea. It has helped break up the *ugh* water feel. Week one I was peeing all the time. SO MUCH PEE! This week I found that I was drinking most of my tea and water in the morning without any effort. I no longer feel like I am peeing every 5 minutes. It is a nice balance. It is harder to keep this up when I am out and about. So I will need to dust off a water bottle and be sure to have it handy so I can meet my hydration needs no matter where I am!

!!! Thank you for that article. That is immensely helpful! I have all these topics, and this method will help create the order I have been lacking! It will be so much easier to focus when I have someplace to park all the other thoughts that pop into my head as I write. This way, I can decide if the thoughts that are stringing together really fit within the article I am presently writing, or if it is another article and move on. I may get an article written this week after all! I will focus on creating this mindful mind map with what is running around my head so I can get some peace internally before I start writing again! I am so excited!

Ah journaling... I have sort of a love/hate relationship with journaling. I like journal prompts.... otherwise it just ends up being a void of whatever pops into my head and that gets... disjointed and weird. I mean I don't mind it so much, I suppose. I just don't find it organizing, more supporting the disorder. I think the disorder in my life and head is interfering with the writing. I am allowing emails and phone calls to pull my focus. AND if I don't let the email and phone calls to pull my focus when they do, they will be added to my forgotten to-do list. I think that is why this challenge was so appealing. I am at a point where everything I need to do feels so big. If I don't do it now it will never get done, or it will grow. I am using this challenge to create a more stable foundation to my life. Letting go and trusting that the rest will catch up, and it will be OK in the long run is so hard! Yesterday I did a pilates workout and today I have a satisfying ache in my core. I could drop my goals and start working out. Strike while the iron is hot! However, if I do that I know that as soon as I hit a bump in the road and I will stop working out AGAIN. Because I do not have the supports in place right now. In the end THIS is what I want to write a post about. AND my chaos and my horrible inner voice saying "who the hell cares what you have to say" is stopping me. And today it will end. Thanks TheDitz for your thoughts. They have helped me sort my own! And you are welcome for the link! Enjoy!

Weekly check-in: Morning routine - I did well and hit all my goals, some days were easier than others to wake-up. I think some of those days it was because I didn't get enough sleep. I did not slow down the family's morning routine, but I was not dressed until later than I anticipated. So, clothes for the day in the bathroom the night before would help me with that (I don't really like getting out of the shower and putting on my PJs....). Some things to keep in mind as I create a new nighttime routine this week. I used an app Swork-it for the stretches. That worked well. I tried the pilates routine this morning and it is more intense for what I am looking for in this morning routine. So Yoga will be added next week not, pilates. I walked for at least 10 minutes. I did not track the time beyond 10 minutes. I think tracking things is a good thing to start doing after this challenge (so many moving pieces and routines with this challenge. Getting a good foundation is really my focus now). No blog posts written (boooo) Drank 2 glasses of water every day, so I think I drank enough liquid every day for the whole week! Crazy! I am looking forward to week two. I am giving myself a bit more time for the blog posts. As long as I write 4 posts over the challenge I'll be happy. This week I keep up what I am doing, alternate stretching with yoga, add another day with a 10-minute walk, and start solidifying my nighttime routines. This week is kind of crazy because it is the last week of school for my oldest. There are always "weird" events (like on Wednesday, June 6th the school is opening super early so the kids can gather together, eat breakfast and watch the next group of austronauts rocket up to the International Space Station. For all you nerds the launch is at 7:12 AM EST - watch it live: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html) Anywhoo - Week two! W00t!

I agree - The writing isn't bad... Just not the post I want to post yet. It is a bunch of disjointed posts... I think the text can be used someday... I just keep getting off the topic. Just means I don't have a clear vision of what I am writing yet. That's OK. Maybe I will adjust my goal to be 4 posts by the end of the four weeks instead of two posts this week and next week....

With age comes wisdom! And by age I mean last year just trying to change things, 6 months ago I started to notice things but not track or record information, and this week I am writing some of it down. Maybe in the future, I will track it.... baby steps! I am already feeling more confident with my morning routine. I probably helped that I am not trying to wake up earlier than I have been for the past year, just committing to wake-up at the same (evil early) time every day, and I have created a more clear to-do list (and so many alarms so I don't lose track of time). This morning I was much more distracted. But I was able to catch myself derailing. I think that is part of changing things. I am committing to this change and change takes effort. I got through it. I think by week 3 it will feel easier because I will have a few steps in the night time routine to better support my morning routine (like picking out my clothes the night before which I currently think about when I am getting dressed) My biggest hurdle thus far is writing my blog posts.... I have written things, but I am not liking it. I think I need to spend more time creating a process - free write, outline, draft, final, sort of thing. Also, naps.

Thanks, CanisLatrans! I had a very overwhelmed afternoon/evening. So I decided that I would come here and record some of the patterns I noticed yesterday during my chaos in hopes that when I am creating routines or goals in the future these observations will be helpful! Observations: I have an afternoon slump (20 min cat nap would be helpful, but should be required some days) When I get overwhelmed and I do not know what to do next I turn to quick snacks - particular snacks - maybe there is a pattern? Sometimes gummy, yesterday was sweet/salty. I wake up with dry eyes, that makes it hard to get out of bed (keeping eyes closed helps my eyes not feel dry, and I fall back asleep) Sometimes I need "flavor" in my drink. Tea and water are enough most days. Lemon/lime juice added to water seems to cause migraines. To-do list tracking system is needed. Current system is not working.

Porter! I enjoyed reading about you and your goals! You made it through your first fast for this week! And you got your walking in! (I forgot to do mine this morning (adding new things into an old routine is hard!), so I am going to do that before lunch instead.) I am glad to read that you took breaks as you needed them. Listening to your body is a surefire way to better know your body. You will learn when you can push and when you are approaching a limit. Which will all support you with that body confidence you want to gain! I am rooting for you!

Thanks Porter! I am writing about rediscovering my self in hopes to support others to do the same. Like most people, I wear a lot of hats - friend, mom, wife, employee, citizen of the world, nerd... one day I realized I was really mad that "no one" was there for me. I became resentful in many ways... I slowly realized that "me" wasn't one of my hats. If "me" wasn't a hat I carried with me, why on earth did I expect it to be a hat someone else carried? Additionally, my children had struggles and diagnosis and complications and I felt alone, isolated, and overwhelmed. So I want to write about learning to make space for me while continuing to keep my other hats (because I do love my other hats too!). And I want to write about what I have learned about support systems in the US for special needs/special education children because that part of my journey has helped me better understand myself (I was a student in the special education system way back when and I had no idea what that meant). I hope to provide insight into an often broken system and how to navigate it or better understand how to include your child so the right supports are identified and advocated for. It is a baby site and I am working out some kinks, and still playing with how I want to provide information, so things are moving around a lot, but feel free to check it out: ReclaimingSelfdom.com

Hi! I have been stumbling through this year trying to make changes, and I think I have been trying to change too much all at once. So when I found NF I felt less rush and more support around life changes. And in the end that is what I want. I don't want to keep things the way they are. It is time for growth! My big life goals are to: - Spend more purposeful time with my kids - Loose fat & fatigue and gain strength, stamina, and agility - Get my blog up and running I hope to get more specific in these big life goals as I sit with them longer. For now, I start my walk toward them. At the end of this challenge I will have changed my life in the following ways: - consistent sleep and self-care schedule (8 hours of sleep and 10 minutes of mindful yoga/pilates each day, meditation/journaling 3-4 times a week) - increased physical activity (at least 10 minutes of walking 4 times a week, gym work out 3-4 times a week) - new summer schedule that supports both time for playing with the kids and work - drink more water Over the next 4 weeks, my family and I head into the summer transition. My goal is to implement something new, tweak something, and think/write up something new each week. So I am phasing in my changes and spreading them out over the course of the week. I will check in and update my progress on Sunday. My weekly targets for each week are below: Week 1 goals: Commit to my new morning routine: - Wake up at the same time every morning - Stretch mindfully for 10 minutes - Shower every other day - Be ready to jump into the day as everyone is just waking up. Walk for at least 10 minutes twice this week Write 2 blog post this week Drink 2 glasses of water a day Week 2 goals: Tweak morning stretches & start adding in yoga or pilates type moves/routine Create a new nightly routine for me and see what feels good Walk for at least 10 minutes 3 times this week Write 2 blog posts this week Drink 2 glasses of water a day Week 3 goals: Keep up the morning! Commit to the new night routine Walk for at least 10 minutes 4 times this week with my oldest child. Create new daytime schedule/routine: add in time for the gym 3-4 times a week, at least 10 hours for work, 1 hour for family schedule maintenance, and children input. Drink 2 glasses of water a day Week 4 goals: Tweak morning stretch - 10 minutes of yoga/pilates Keep up new night routine Walk for at least 10 minutes 4 times this week with both my children. Implement new daytime schedule Drink 2 glasses of water a day