Jules Andromeda

Hello, fellow challenge-goers.  I had a great run of setting and following healthy habits across 2021-2022, and then . . . things fell apart.  It happens.  I’ve come to realize that re-booting and re-booting again is just a part of being healthy.  Nothing works forever, life changes, and we all need regular re-sets.  But I need some accountability to make this happen, so here I am, after a 2-year hiatus from these forums.  Hello again!

For this 5-week challenge, my goals are all about nutrition and exercise.  Sometimes I focus on sleep habits, but at the moment, I’m doing all right in that area.  

Nutrition:

1. Intermittent fasting, where my eating window is 12-8 - at least 5 days out of 7 
   • Why: IF has been really helpful for me in cutting down on mindless grazing.  So, I want to re-up my focus on this strategy.
2. Planning what I eat, and eating what I plan - at least 5 days out of 7
   • Why: Planning things out in advance has also been really helpful for me in the past, in many areas of my life.  If I can make thoughtful, realistic decisions in advance, I can take a lot of pressure off myself to make good decisions in the thick of the moment.  I’ve not been too rigid about this, but at this point I’m so loosey-goosey that the plan is largely getting ignored, so I’d like to return to planning and using the plan.
3. Cutting down (mostly avoiding) grazing / mindless snacking - at least 5 graze-free days out of 7
   • If I manage to do items 1) and 2) above, this should take care of itself.  But in general, I’d be okay with sometimes breaking the IF schedule or eating off-plan as long it’s not just mindless grazing.  I live with grazers who leave snacks out all the time, and it is just very easy to walk by the kitchen counter and starting picking up food out of sheer boredom.  I’m also working from home more in the next 5 weeks, so refrigerator-as-work-break is also a temptation. 

Exercise:

1. Strength train twice a week.  

• This one has just *not* been happening.  I fit in running, walking, and bicycling regularly, but I skip the strength training all the time.  I have a new schedule, which should help. 

I’m also going to be tracking on PAPER, so my partner can also see how I’m doing and support me.  I’ll be following others who are working on sleep and habit formation, so I’d love to support your journeys, too!

Andromeda

8 hours ago, kcaleece said:

Also I'm third-ing the admiration for your journal and its insanely useful tracking chart!

Yes, I am a nerd who uses a paper planner.  I do use Google calendar for work stuff, but I like paper for personal.  This is a Leuchtturm1917 planner, which has several features I like.  So far, not quite enough check marks to make me happy, though!

On 1/5/2022 at 9:50 AM, Rookie said:

But sneaking back to bed after the alarm is so satisfying! (Okay it is something I have a lot of trouble with nowadays lol)

ME TOOOO.  Especially when it's cold outside and warm in my little cocoon.  But regaining those quiet morning minutes is SO SATISFYING when I actually do it.

After taking a break from the forum challenges, I'm back!  This first month of January is all about solidifying good habits, after a period of habit disruption due to holidays and travel.  So, here are my 5 goals:

1. Morning routine - get up when alarm goes off at 6:00 and don't sneak back into bed, follow my morning routine list.

2. Bedtime routine - begin prep when my alarm goes off at 10:00, follow my bedtime routine list, and lights out by 10:30.   (This one is the hardest for me to do consistently, and is the one I'm tracking for my participation in the NF January group "resolution rescue challenge.)

3. Reading - 20 pages daily (minimum)

4. Journal - daily (1-3 bullet points) -- this is part of the bedtime routine

5. Nutrition - no snacking between meals / planned snacks

This time, I'm just going to be using the "Project Plan" tracker built into my handy-dandy planner to keep this as simple as possible.  Updating my tracker is part of the bedtime routine.  

I also am going to try to keep these updates very short, since I have trouble making myself do them if they feel too time conuming.  So, the goal is a once weekly check-in here, with a snapshot of my tracking page.  

Good luck, everyone, and I'll see you in the forums!

So - week 5 of the challenge.   The short update:  this challenge was a serious crash and burn.  Not only did I not make progress on my primary goals, but I also lost consistency on some of my baseline good habits.

I am going to step back, regroup, and see if I can't get started again with strength training, sleep training, and meal prepping.  Ugh. 

Two weeks+ in!  So, here's the data:

1) Begin bedtime routine on time - 10 pm - 8 successes; 8 failures

2) Lights out on time - 10:30 pm - 8 successes; 8 failures

3) Morning routine - get up on time (6:15-6:30 am) - 14 successes; 2 failures

My mornings are a go!  But bedtimes are clearly not there.  But the data, presented this way, muddles the story.  So far, this looks like a 50% success rate.  But if you look at my actual tracking sheet, you'll see 3 days of good consistency, a little wobble, and then a huge fall, then a return to consistency.  So, to me at least, this pattern is more hopeful than it looks when I just post numbers).

On the one hand, the challenge is going fairly well, with the exception of that period of falling off the wagon.  On the other hand, I recently went back to school, got overwhelmed in my classes, and I am starting to see some slippage in my habits.  In particular, improving my sleep habits seems to be the *only* thing I am prioritizing.  Making room for strength training isn't happening, and my nutrition habits, so carefully built over the past year, are getting inconsistent.  I am realizing I need to find ways to carve out a little more time for health and personal goals.  This means either getting more efficient at my classwork or just dropping some things.  Because I feel like I am walking a tightrope and barely getting everything done every day before getting up to start all over again.  And that's a scenario where, in the past, I've been tempted to "time-turn" by just staying up later.  Which . . . I am seriously committed to not doing.  

Hello, fellow challenge-goers!

In this challenge, I’m again working on my bedtime routine and sleep habits.  I have a long-ingrained habit of trying to squeeze extra time out of every day, and in fact, of  imagining that I can somehow make time magically appear by ignoring the clock.  I am such the Hermione Granger in this way!  Unlike Hermione, however, I don't have a magical grandfatherly wizard to give me a time-turner.  In reality, my attempts at time-turning have led to sleep deprivation and schedule disruptions, and that, in turn, causes problems for me in terms of fitness, brainpower, mood regulation, interpersonal relationships - you name it.  But these bad habits go all the way back to childhood, so they’ve been particularly hard to break.

In my last challenge, I made some progress in discovering a workable bedtime routine and getting more consistent at it. But I’m still pretty inconsistent, and right now I really want to challenge myself to build a more solid foundation.

So, this time, my goals are:

• Start my bedtime routine on time each evening .
• Turn out my lights on time each evening .
• Get up on time each morning.

I’m also going to be tracking on PAPER, since logging in to the forums isn’t my strong suit.  

On the side -- but not officially a part of my challenge goals -- I’m going to be trying to build up to some longer distances in my weekly runs.  I’m hoping to do a half-marathon this winter, but summer heat has made running almost unbearable in central Texas, so my mileage has gone way down.  So you may hear me occasionally reporting on running.  We’ll see.  Running is one of the things I often can’t fit into the day if I don’t follow my sleep routine, so the two are closely related.

I’ll be following others who are working on sleep and habit formation, so I’d love to support your journeys, too!

Andromeda
 

On 7/11/2021 at 1:11 PM, sarakingdom said:

 

Have you noticed one of them is check in here regularly?

 

So, this challenge is over and done with, but since I stopped posting well before the end of it, I feel I need to write a short post-mortem.  We left for a gargantuan 3-week road trip about a week after my last post.  I spent almost 3 solid days driving interstate, got tired, overcaffeinated, couldn't fall asleep at night at the hotel, then rinse and repeat the next day.  My sleep habits got completely out of whack before we even arrived at my sister-in-law's house.  Once there, I did fairly well with exercising when I could, but it was mostly walking, running, and hiking.  I couldn't easily figure out a private space for strength training, and I hate doing it in front of other people.   This long trip was just really exhausting -- though good! -- and not great for sleep rhythms.  And I completely stopped posting.  As SaraKingdom notes, posting / checking the forums is already not my strongest skill. 

But I wouldn't say this challenge was a crash and burn.  I accomplished a few things:

1) I figured out a bedtime and morning routine that work fairly well for me, and I got to the point where I was following the routine about half the time.

2) I got to experience the benefits of better sleep -- in terms of both sleep quality and quantity -- which upped my motivation to continue. 

3. I started the NF push-up challenge in the journey app, so I feel that I at least have a plan for upper-body strength.  I also am continuing with the NF Journey app bodyweight workout series.

I'm not doing the current challenge.  Instead, I'm just trying to track a set of goals on my own, on paper.  But I'd like to rejoin for the next challenge starting in mid-September.  See you all there, perhaps!

JULY 11 UPDATE

1. GO TO BED - going better!  I'm still not consistent, but I have been increasing the number of nights and mornings that I follow my go-to-bed routine and my wake-up routine.  I feel like I've found routines that can work for me, and now the main thing is to keep increasing the frequency at which I follow through with these routines.  The more I do, the more I find myself naturally tired at the right time.  Shortening the whole routine definitely made it more feasible for me, so that was good to figure out.

2.  GET STRONGER - Ugh.  My strength routines have really fallen apart in the past several weeks.  I've been consistent about running and biking, but not about strength workouts.  So - instead of just pushing harder, I'm trying to retweak my routines, cutting back on the biking to make more time for the strength workouts.  We'll see if that helps.  These really don't take that long, and I think that's actually part of the problem for me.  I keep thinking I can just squeeze one in at random times during the day, but then they get pushed aside by more urgent things,.

3. MAINTAIN GOOD HABITS -  Yes, multiple goals packed into one here.  But most of these already have a lot of good momentum, so maintaining them isn't nearly as hard as starting new routines.  The main thing I am noticing here is a tendency to be sloppy about unplanned snacking.  I'm really trying to focus on intentional eating, and this works best if I do meal planning and prep and have plenty of delicious options as part of the meal plan.  So, I made some yummy stuff this week, and it has made it easier for me to just wait for the next planned meal or snack rather than grabbing something in between times.  

The next challenge is that I leave for 3 weeks of traveling, mostly staying with family members, starting in one week, and that makes me really nervous.  I'm not sure how much I'll be able to control what or when I eat or when I fit in exercise, so I'm trying to do some advance planning / thinking this week about how to manage that.  

- Andromeda

Progress report:

-Sleep routine did not happen, for various reasons.  Besides just trying again, this morning I outlined a new, shorter routine - breaking up all the stuff I was doing in the 80-minute routine into two modules.  If I mess up the first half, I can still salvage the second half.  That’s the idea, at least.  
 

- I did do my strength workout last night, in spite of feeling unmotivated and tired. Yay!  Also, I added the push-up challenge to my current quests in the NF Journey app.  Starting that one tomorrow. 

UPDATE: Monday, June 28 - Week 1

Go to Bed goal

• How'd I do?   3/7 nights I followed a routine.  So, I have a ways to go on this one.  I've found some other folks here who are doing sleep-related challenges, and following along is helping me think through my own strategies.  I've got two main ideas for how to improve this coming week. 
• Strategies for this week:
  • First, I wrote out a routine that includes 80 minutes of lead time before lights out, and includes reading.  Whether including reading in my bedtime routine is a good idea or not is unclear to me, but right now, since I've been craving more reading time, it's the lure that will get me to start the bedtime routine and to see it as something other than a negative loss of time.  So, we're giving that a try.  
  • Second, I am going to try checking in here every day (not how I usually operate) to report on my bedtime routines and how they went.  We'll see if increased accountability and conversation helps.

Get Stronger goal;

• How'd I do?   Only 1 strength session happened last week.   However, I was struggling with a stomach virus for the first half of the week and missed all of my workouts.  And then I had a very different set of schedule challenges last week, so last week was fairly a-typical for me. 
• Strategies for this week:  This week, I am aiming to get in at least 2 strength workouts, and I'd like to get to a place where I'm doing a strength workout 3-4 times a week.  I also want to spend some time looking at supplemental upper body routines to add to my regular strength workout.   So, even if I haven't started a new routine, the goal this week is just to identify one.

Maintain Good Habits:

• Healthy Eating:  I've had a few slips with intermittent fasting this past week, so I want to keep my eye on really treating the start and stop times as hard limits (12-8 for me).  I did get meal prepping done, and am really enjoying the Buddha Bowls recipe from No Meat Athlete, the bean and carrot salad recipe from Healthy Latin Cooking, and another beet and carrot salad recipe from Cooking Light.   I also am enjoying the marinated tempeh recipe, also from No Meat Athlete.  Still not quite hitting my protein goals but the tempeh helps a lot.
• Fitness:  Workouts got completely messed up by the stomach bug, but I had a great 9-mile run yesterday morning and think I can get back on track for this week.  Now that monsoon season in central Texas seems to be over, I want to get back out on the trails for my weekend long runs.  That always makes me really happy.
• Community support: I've found some interesting folks to follow for this challenge and look forward to getting on the forums more regularly this week.

On 6/19/2021 at 10:53 AM, Alanna said:

I'm at a transition point where some chapters of my life (including a PhD) are coming to a close soon, with more life changes on the horizon. Right now I'm recovering from the last particularly stressful last month, catching up on other things that were set aside, and re-focusing on my health and fitness. Most excitingly, I decided to get inline skates as a reward for finishing my thesis!

Congrats on finishing the thesis!  I completed my Ph.D. more than 15 years ago, so . . . uh, it's been a while . . . but it was a HUGE turning point in my life.  It's not just having the thing done.  It's moving out of apprentice mode that feels so transformative.  Excited for you.

On 6/19/2021 at 10:53 AM, Alanna said:

 

GOALS

 

Sleep routine

• Start getting ready for bed by 11 pm (10:30 pm if I still need to shower), in bed by 11:30 pm, and lights off by 12 am. In my most recent challenges I've only focused on my bedtime, and now I want to start working on a bedtime routine as well. As in my last challenge, I'll be tracking how close I am to these times rather than a binary yes/no of whether I met each deadline.
• Bonus points if I manage to wind everything back by a half hour by the end of the challenge (10:30/11/11:30 pm).

I really love your attention to the wind-down routine, and it sounds like that's been helping you.  I'm curious about your thoughts on reading in bed and how reading fits with the wind-down.  Is that part of your routine, and if so, are you able to close the book on time?

Following!  "Go to bed" is my number one goal for this challenge, too, and I know that sleep routines are key,  but am still not sure how to set them up. Or rather . ..  I have sleep routines.  They're just bad ones.  So, I need to figure out how to REPLACE them with new routines. 

I think for me, because I'm someone who always wants to be working through more, doing more, reading more, I have to think of this not just as a cessation of activity, but there needs to be some element of the go-to-bed routine that I actually look forward to.  Not sure what that would be.  Listening to music once I'm actually in bed?  Some relaxing stretching that feels good?  An end-of-day, non-caffeinated cup of tea?  No clue, but I'm rooting for you and looking forward to your journey.

On 6/23/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alanna said:

Following! I'm also working on sleep and strength goals this challenge.

 

Pull-up and push-up wise: it took me a lot longer to get my first pull-up than my first push-up, but your rate of progress will depend a lot on your starting point, proportions, bodyweight, diet/recovery, etc. It's not unrealistic, though, especially if building upper body strength is one of your top priorities over the next few months!

Great!  I'll follow back.  I'm currently able to do partial full push-ups.  That is, I can do a full-body push-up about half-way down.  I do about 5 of those, then switch over to do another 10 knee push-ups.  I think this approach is working, but I need to up the frequency of my strength workouts, I think, and maybe the intensity.  I just skip them far too often, not out of laziness but just because they don't fit into my schedule the way I've managed to make my runs and bike rides fit.  I just have to figure out the rhythm for when I do these, and then make it more habitual.

For both the push-ups and pull-ups, I'm basically just trying to work through the NerdFitness Journey apps bodyweight workouts, but I've been stuck at level 4 for ages due to upper body strength limitations.  So, I think I may need to layer on a push-up challenge or something that specifically targets these goals.  I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any!

Sleep.  Ugh.  It's been my toughest issue since I was in college (a while ago), so this one goes deep. But I'm just trying to habit-build the way I've managed to shift habits in other areas of my life, like eating and exercise.  We'll see!

Hello fellow challenge-goers! 

After taking a bit of a challenge break, I am returning for this new summer 5-week challenge.  And this time, I am going to actually follow the instructions and limit myself to 3 goals.    After having achieved some of my previous goals (wahoo!), these are next-level for me.  I'm excited to be at a place where I get to focus on these, but they are also some things that have been pretty hard for me, especially the sleep habits, so we'll see how this goes.  

GOALS

1.  GO TO BED!  And in general, improve my sleep habits, including going to bed on time (goal: 11 pm), getting up on time (goal: 6:30 am), averaging at least 7.5 hrs per night, edging towards 8 if I can possibly make that happen, and keeping electronics out of the bedroom.

2. GET STRONGER -- In particular, I want to build upper body strength, and I have a goal by the end of the summer of being able to do 5 full-body push-ups and 5 pull-ups.  (Is this impossible?  I hope not).  But I'd also like to just get better about prioritizing strength training.  It's easy for me, as a runner, to be far too cardio focused, 

3.  MAINTAIN GOOD HABITS -- I have worked hard to build habits that have been serving me very well, and I want to keep them going.  In particular, 

• Healthy eating - including intermittent fasting (16/8), meal prepping, and food journaling + trying (still trying!) to increase protein intake to about 90-100g daily
• Fitness - including running and biking 4-6x/week (averaging about 20 miles of running, 15-25 miles of biking), with at least one rest day weekly
• Community support seeking - including checking into the NerdFitness forums and the Discord convos regularly

I look forward to following others' journeys and tracking my own.  See you on the road. 

DEATH STAR BLOWN UP?!?  MAYBE?!?

Okay, I realize I am REALLY OVERDUE for the final update on this challenge.  I'm in a period of re-adjustment for rhythms and focus now in several big ways, as my son is finally back in school and I am now down to my last 2 weeks at this job that has been draining my soul for years.  

But finally, after lots of fits and starts, I seem to have completely eliminated the bad habit I was trying to eliminate!  We'll see how this goes as I move forward.  But for now, I was able to adapt some of the mental strategies I'd picked up from intermittent fasting and apply it to temptations in this realm, and it's . . . worked.   I've got a streak going and am getting some traction with the new replacement habits and that feels *really* empowering.

I am opting out of the current challenge happening right now.  I have so many adjustments happening in my own life that I really just want to focus on holding course with the good habits I have.  I've slipped in strength training, for example, and my sleep schedule has been a little weird.  So, no new goals for now.  But I think I'll rejoin the NEXT challenge.  So, see yall on the other side!

On 4/25/2021 at 10:17 PM, Terra said:

Hip surgery was on the 16th.  I'm not in a lot of pain, but I have to be careful while the bone heals and my ligaments recover from being stretched out so much during surgery.  I'm trying to keep only 50% weight bering on my right side (ie: I'm on crutches for a month) and no movement beyond a 90 degree flex at my hip joint.  The struggle of being good while I really don't hurt much is very real!!!  And to contrast PT is actually exhausting.  Its such a weird place physically.  The hardest part about all of this is that my kids are in actual school, hubby is working at home and I will not be allowed to work at all till Thursday.  Oh and I can't drive for a few more weeks.  So my poor hubby is uber, nurse, cook and house keeper all at the same time.  He is going nuts.  For example: tomorrow afternoon Youngest Spawn gets out of school at 3pm, Eldest Spawn will be at school till 3:15 and I have my covid vaccination at 3:30.  Good thing we live in a small town and my vaccination is at the high school.  

Congrats on having the kids back in in-person school!  I hope they are adjusting to it and the panic attacks are levelling out.  My 4th-grade son went back this past Monday.  He has been sO excited to be around other kids again, after 409 days (yes, I counted) at home with me all the time.  But he's also exhausted.  Here's hoping your husband can hang in there and keep the ship afloat.   Maybe this will help him develop more empathy for what you do all the time.

Good luck with the recovery!  And great about the continued progress with food tracking.

CONGRATULATIONS with finishing uni!    And the essay, too, of course.  

Things are mostly good!  Though obviously I haven't been good about posting here.  But giving notice at work has been weird.  My boss doesn't want to upset people and so isn't telling anyone that I'm leaving . . . .   And won't for another two weeks. Which puts me in a weird limbo.

I am still really struggling with the current challenge.  I'm doing better, but still haven't established a successful alternate routine to  old habits.  I keep adjusting my strategies, however.   My son went back to in-person elementary school this week and that may also really change things, since I suddenly can get more done each day and hope to feel more in control over a lot of my life.  Constantly supervising him with remote schooling was hard and left me so exhausted at the end of long days.  

So - I'm at about 50% in terms of adhering to these strategies.   Which, now that I think about it, IS an improvement, even if the death star hasn't technically been blown up. 

My whole current challenge is focused around a particular kind of screen time challenge, and I'm struggling, too.  So much mixed up with how we use screens for work, socially, as distractions, as hard-wired habits.  Like you, I've been trying to switch everything I can to paper, so I have a paper calendar for my personal life (though I have to use a Google calendar at work in order to share calendars with colleagues), a paper based tracking system for nutrition and daily task lists, and I've tried to doing some journaling on paper, as well.  Although I track my miles and weight and other stuff in a spreadsheet, I've de-linked Google Drive from my phone, so I have to use the laptop for that, not the phone.  . . .   Also trying to just physically remove my biggest distractions from me at the times of day when they're most tempting.  

Good luck as you keep going!

I like the mini-challenge strategy!  Sometimes, for some goals, I think I need longer challenge time periods, and others, shorter.  My current challenge, for example, would probably work best on a week-by-week basis.  

I'm so impressed with all you're doing even while you can't run.  I've some athletes slip into pretty bad funks when cut off from sports they love, but you're staying focused on healing and making progress in other areas.  Hope it continues to go well!

Did a TV night last night.  Yay!  Husband immediately fell asleep just as the Russians started torturing the ice cream scoop kids in Stranger Things Season 3.  Eh.   So, he can't stay awake when we hang out together, but it's still better than my death star routine.

Other successes:  I had a great 7 mile run  for my Saturday long run that was actually a little too easy.  I could easily up my pace or add distance, and I'll be working on doing both.  I can't tell you how this makes me feel.  So powerful, so strong.  I haven't been able to *easily* run 7 miles in more than 5 years, so I just am riding so high on this.  Meal planning, meal prepping, intermittent fasting, and strength training are also continuing to go well for me.  As a result, my weight has been slowly coming down, and I've had to take down some boxes of old clothes in the attic because my current set doesn't fit any more.  That's felt weird, but good -- like revisiting a past self and trying parts of her on again.  

To be perfectly honest, all of this momentum on the nutrition and exercise?  It didn't just magically emerge from will power.  I've been pretty unhappy for the past several years with my work life, and have felt VERY stuck.  I finally worked out a plan to get myself out of this rut and onto a new path.  It took a while, but I have been accepted to the program I wanted into, and I am giving notice at work this week (though I won't leave for another 6 weeks).    IT is THIS -- this feeling that things can be better  -- that has shifted my energy levels, my sense of self, my motivation levels, etc.  And now I see my health and weight trending back towards where I was when I was less unhappy.   Which I knew, sort of -- I knew that my constant low-grade depression and overwork was affecting my health.  But now it is REALLY CLEAR how closely intertwined these are for me.

Still.  I've got work to do on this particular habit . Here's where we are at the end of week 2:

Update - 4/8/21

So far, this challenge isn’t going so well.  --I mean, I’m still doing  well with the basic health habits I set up in previous challenges: meal prepping, intermittent fasting, running and strength training.  That’s solid, and I’m healthier in many ways than I was this time last year. So - the Force is with me much of the time!  -- But work and remote schooling and whatnot have gotten harder lately, my evenings have been more chaotic and less predictable, and my evening rhythms just are not getting set into a predictable pattern the way I’d like.

So - question: what can I tweak that might make this work a little better?  Here are 3 ideas:

• Check into the forums more frequently for more inspiration and supporting others.  Things have been busy lately.  But I’d like to check in here a bit more often.  This helps keep my goals front and center in my mind.

• Since the husband has been ill and camping out on the couch with a huge mess of snacks and blankets and TV tuned into poker matches, my reading nook on the couch has been out.  But we do have a futon sofa in our office / spare room, and if I could get the husband to clean up his work stuff from that space, that could be my evening area that is NOT MY BEDROOM for finishing up work tasks on the computer before I shift into R&R mode at 9:30.  

•  Try watching a TV show 5 days in a row during my R&R time with the husband.  We never finished Stranger Things season 3, so maybe I can get the husband to watch an episode a night with me from 9:30 - 10:15, before I start prepping for bed.


OK.  I have a rough game plan.  Going to take another pass at the death star!
 

I love all the good advice!  

On 3/22/2021 at 4:31 PM, sarakingdom said:

Since stretching and mindful sitting (as opposed to endless mindless lounging) are both on your ideal evening routine, I'm gonna suggest becoming a floor sitter. I find most comfortable positions for sitting on the floor are light stretches, you tend to naturally work through several of them, and it's difficult to mindlessly lounge around on the floor, so you can get two for one there. Honestly, it's pretty great for keeping the legs and core limber.

Great idea!  Actually, this could help for evenings where I really want to go into my room and close the door, but I don't want to get into bed yet.  This would give me an option for privacy, when I'm not quite up for being out on the couch and socializing with my family, without just completely collapsing into lounge mode.  I like it.  

On 3/24/2021 at 11:09 PM, Terra said:

 Evenings are such a hard time to find willpower as it is all gone by 9pm.  

YES.  That is exactly my problem.  And I just want to curl up into a ball and do something familiar and comforting.  That's why I feel like, while I'm trying to blow up this bad habit with laser-like focus, I also have a lot of compassion for how I got into this rut.   I need another habit that is still workable for my energy levels and needs at that time of evening. 

On 3/26/2021 at 8:38 PM, juliebarkley said:

It sounds like your trigger for your old (bad) habit is opening up your laptop, so maybe you should avoid any computer-based tasks for your 8:45-9:30 slot at first. Pick one task beforehand (maybe while you are putting your son to bed?). Then you have a goal already picked out when you finish that task. Leave your computer somewhere out of sight preferably too.

 

9:30-10:30 could also benefit from having an activity picked out in advance, but you could also try engineering your environment by having a cozy reading nook with your book all picked out and ready for you, for example. Husband could help too perhaps if you are hoping to do something together. Ask him to pick out a show or a board game or something.

 

10:30-11:00 might take care of itself because it will feel like a reward after getting the first ones done maybe? If not, I'm the wrong person to get suggestions from on this one. But keeping your computer and phone away from your bed area will surely help.

It's funny, but you're so right.  One of my goals (this sounds ridiculous I realize) but one of my goals is to watch more TV.    I'm an introvert, and so is my husband, and so once the kiddo is in bed we both have a tendency to crawl back into our shells.  But we only have one TV, and it's out in the living room - so I have to leave my room/shell, sit on the couch, potentially interact and chat with him, while watching something that is time-limited -- 30-50 minutes for most episodes.  It's about right for the amount of time I have, and once I get into a series, the desire to see the next episode helps.  So - that's good.  I'm also thinking about your reading ideas -- not trying to tackle more challenging reading right now, but lighter fare -- detective novels,  fantasy, etc.  -- and sitting in my favorite corner of the couch with a cup of tea.  Any of these routines, if I enjoy them even a few times in a row, can become their own little addiction.

I decided not to track zero week, so here we are

THANKS FOR ALL THE ENCOURAGEMENT.   Targeting systems, powering on.

Cheers, fellow nerds!  This is my third challenge - this year, and over here on the NF boards.  I’m slowly getting more comfortable with the format, though logging in regularly is still a challenge for me.  


My first two challenges ranged pretty widely across categories - some nutrition goals, some exercise goals, some mindset and sleep goals.   


Not this time!  Nope, this time, I’m like Luke Skywalker piloting into a narrow canyon hoping to hit a tiny target to blow up the Death Star.  This time, I’m going to turn my attention 100% to a 2-hour window every day when my healthy habits always fall apart:  the period of time between 8:45/9:00 and 10:45 - midnight.  As a working parent with a more-than-full-time job (and also now the homeschooling / remote schooling second job I never wanted), this is usually the first time all day when I have almost any discretion over my time.  And this is the witching hour for me.  

After I get my son to bed, usually by about 8:45, here is what I SHOULD do.  
    •    8:45 - 9:30 - I SHOULD finish some tasks (kitchen clean up, personal email responses, bill paying, etc, or maybe work a tiny bit more).  

    •    9:30 - 10:15/10:30 - I SHOULD carve out some non-internet R&R time to wind down after a day of going hard at work and parenting: watch a little TV with my husband, read a book or newspaper, etc.  

    •    10:30 - 11:00 I SHOULD prep for bed, journal a bit, and then LIGHTS OUT.  



Reality ? Instead, this is the time almost every day when I collapse into a heap on my bed, open up my laptop, and fall into my favorite internet black hole.  Which then blows my evening habits to smithereens. 



This is not a productive or particularly restful use of my time, and even worse, I tend to get sucked in to what I’m looking at and then I stay up late, and then I don’t get enough sleep or I can’t get up in time to exercise, and then I’m cranky and I make bad choices and I lose patience with my son when he acts up and EVERYTHING GOES HAYWIRE.  Truly, so much about my wellbeing is better when I have a healthy late evening routine and then get the lights out on time.  


So, that’s the goal..  That’s it.  Establish a healthy late evening routine and get the lights out on time.  That’s my whole challenge.  Simple enough?



Problem is, I’ve tried to fix this before.  And failed.  9:00 pm is the WORST time for me to try to exert even a little willpower to alter ingrained bad habits.  It’s just my energy low point each day.  



So, what I need are some new strategies.  Here’s what I’ve got for the how of this challenge, but I reserve the right to change tactics if these aren’t working.


8:45 Big sigh.  Whew!  Sit down anywhere - truly, anywhere - that is not my bed.  Aim for: couch?  R&R - TV or reading time
9:30    Transition -- into tasks if you need to get these squared away
10:15 stretch, bed prep, journal
10:45   LIGHTS OUT

This seems super-easy, right?  But . . . so far I have mostly failed at it.

But!  Confidence booster!  Running in the back ground of this mission is to MAINTAIN good habits built in previous challenges.  I've made real progress on these.  Nutrition: meal prepping, intermittent fasting, and food tracking / journaling have made enormous shifts in my eating and general health.  Exercise:  I'm running about 20 miles a week, biking 15-20, and getting in 2-3 strength workouts.  My goal this challenge will be to MAINTAIN these good habits.  So, I won't be tracking these here, but in my own spreadsheet I'll keep tabs, and I may comment occasionally about how these are going.   But my confidence in shifting these habits is giving me confidence that I can do other things.

Still: the Evening Routine Death Star is my major target.   Here we go.  May the force be with me.