Search the Community

NEW CHALLENGE!!! Last month, I stretched, I cleaned out my closet, stretched daily, took care of my feet, drank more water and defeated a really hard art deadline. During February, I also started doing body weight exercises consistently, and the results from that and the challenge were great. It feels really good to celebrate non-scale victories. It became clear to me that in 2015, I focused too much on restrictions, and becoming smaller. But my world became small, and I found that I felt smaller on the inside while my waistline became bigger. So I put away the scale, and I put away the measuring tape, and I took away all the restrictions and all the judgments. Well, most of the judgments. That's a daily battle. So for this challenge, I'm adding MORE in addition to maintaining the good habits I started last month.. 1. MORE vegetables On a mindful day, I eat 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit. But I'm not always so mindful, and there are days when I eat okay, but I didn't eat any vegetables! So my goal is to eat more vegetables. It doesn't matter how many. Just more. 1 serving, 2 servings, 6 servings. The goal is to make vegetables a habit. 2. MORE cardio ! I have a really nice schedule of bodyweight and dumb bell exercises going on. However, I have really been awesome at making excuses not to do more cardio. It's cold, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm sore, I'm bored. Whatever. I'm going to say 20 minutes of sweaty cardio a day. MORE is awesome! But at least 20 minutes to start. 3. MORE mindfulness and balance. There's a lot I want to accomplish, and I tend to be a completist. So if I start a knitting project, everything else stops until the knitting is done. If I read a book, I stay up until 3am finishing it (actually, sometimes that's just fun) if I have an art project, I just draw 10 hours a day. If I'm cleaning the house, I will spend the whole day until I'm too tired to pick up a bucket. So instead, I'm going to take some time in the morning, plan my day, and then stick to that plan. So maybe in the morning it's clean, workout, emails, and the afternoon is work, cook dinner, and the evenings are read or knit. No more all or nothing. No more obsessive binging on an activity. Balance, mindfulness, and MORE fun too! This is a pretty BIG challenge that may keep popping up, but it's okay. I'm working towards a healthy lifestyle. Side Quest: Art exploration. In the last challenge, I expressed frustration with my art, and felt like my work wasn't authentic. Not that I'm copying other people's work, but in the sense that it's not true to me. It doesn't reflect me as an artist. I've lost my way, and I've lost my voice. This month, I'm going on a non-judgmental art exploration to rediscover what I love and reconnect with my art.