Search the Community

Hi there! Names Ba'sini'on, but you can call me Bas if you'd like ?! I've decided to join in on the challenge because I'm sick and tired of being overwhelmed by the holidays! I'd love to be able to lose 60 pounds because my excessive weight has led to my joints always aching, and causing havoc with my hormones. I'm already doing a lot with working at home, homeschooling my kids, caring for our home, etc. But I know I can fit in a workout if I put my phone down once in a while. I'm determined to get out of the habit of always stressing and retreating into my phone to block it all out. Also working out creates a calm head space for myself and ever since I stopped my habit of walking, I've been nothing but a big butterball of stress and anxiety. My goals aren't just for me, my kids and husband really need me to be present and not hiding away. I'd also like to get my stash of yarn down to where it all fits in ONE tote. Not the 4 it currently is bursting out of ? (Not my yarn! I'm not that organized!) GOALS Workout 60 min. 5 days a week - I'm going to focus on my cardio heath by walking and getting my 10,000 steps in. Weight training is my fun time, so I will be putting a lot of effort into hitting a PR by the end of this challenge! Practice Stretching or Yoga - I'm really stiff with a lot of aches and pains. I know stretching will really help with relieving the tightness I'm feeling. Limit My Phone Time to 2 Hours a Day - It seriously is a big problem ? Complete 3 Crochet Projects - It seems like a lot to finish these all by the end of the challenge. But these are Christmas gifts that were supposed to be finished LAST YEAR! So they need to get done. There was so much I wanted to make a goal but, I only have so much time in a day. Hopefully I will succeed!

Let me try and work out how to add files... I am here.

The air temperature hovered just above freezing and a steady rain was falling, beading off my oilskin cloak and moistening the short blonde hair that escaped from my hood. It had been dark for four hours and I felt vaguely angry trudging through heavy piles of wet leaves and straggling up slippery wet hills. I wanted to be home by my own fire, not out in the woods on a rainy December night. Start a fire, my subconscious begged. Please, it's getting late. Can't we rest for the night? Try harder tomorrow? "Nope," I answered myself, leaning on my bow to pull myself up a steep hillside. "Rested too long at the inn at dinner. We've got ten miles to go yet tonight and we won't get there by making camp." The winter holidays were the time of rest for many in the kingdom, but not for the archers of the Movement. This year, my assignment would take me far across the country to the Golden Sea, where the legends said it never rained or snowed; but before I could embark, I had to complete the tasks I had left undone before my journey home to Middle Earth just a week before. The next month would be grueling and I would rarely be home. The hours of bouncing for hours on a public coach or sitting cramped with dozens of others on a boat would wear on my body; the days of conducting my business with strangers and deferring rest and recuperation would wear on my mind. The coming weeks would be a test of my endurance in every way. I shook myself as I reached the top of the hill and extended one hand, generating a burst of yellow light to illuminate the rocky path down. The balance between my shadowy ice powers and warm healing powers was unpredictable, but for now, the light was winning out. It was time to make as much progress as I could before the ice overtook me.

Goal: Don't have a Crappy Holiday Motivation: Don't lose momentum over the holidays. Keep on track with paleo, continue working out. Do. Not. Binge. It just makes me feel awful. Eat like crap, feel like crap, look like crap. Don't have a crappy holiday! Plan: Eat mostly paleo, try a few days of Whole30. Leniency on Christmas and NYE. Run 3x/week, strength train 3x/week, do some extra cardio of walking or elliptical if I want to. Go to OA meetings if I feel it will be helpful. Points: Keep it simple. Follow the plan I lay out for myself. If I follow the plan, I get a point, if I don't, no point! Since there's no leveling up or attributes for this challenge, I'm making my own incentives. If I get the first 7 points, then I can buy new black boots (which I really need anyway). If I complete the full challenge, then I can buy a sunrise alarm clock!!!

I love that saying: "to pull yourself out of poverty, you have to work like a horse, and live like a saint." So true ! For me - thankfully - it's not poverty that I'm stuck in but just a work-related rut, and I have to work extra hard for three weeks to get myself out of it. So my main quest is actually my life goal: A I have to finish a paper by August 12th. It's something that I should have done months ago, but you know how it goes. It's not part of my current job, but lots of good things will happen if I manage to finish it, and lots of not-so-nice things and hard-to-repair difficulties will follow if I don't. So to do this, I will get up at 6 in the morning and work on it for three quarters of an hour every day (except Sunday). That should actually do the trick. I've been doing that for three days now and it works a treat. (BTW I think I should mention that this is actually an major effort for me, since I will of course continue to work full time, and be a mum-of-two full time, the rest of the time, at the same time. So this will be on top of everthing else that need to be done each day. Hence, work like a horse. I wouldn't want to be doing this for more than 3 weeks. ) B I'm doing a half-marathon in September and I'd like to improve my pace A LOT. Right now I can only just do a 10.30 min/mile pace on a 10K, which is kind of pitiful. I'd like to scrape at least 1.5 min (.5 min for this challenge) off my pace in the long run. To achieve this, I will keep to my running plan go running with the club twice a week do speed training on Saturdays (tempo runs one week / intervals the next) get my miles in on Sunday for the half continue my BW training - slimmed down a bit - with push-ups, planks, squats, and pull-up progressions in lieu of strength/cross training lose a bit of mass eating mostly paleo (with some dairy and beans) As you may have noticed my main quest / life goal is only three weeks away and I'll go on a (hopefully well-deserved) holiday after that - so I've decided to treat myself to surfing lessons if I achieve goal A. Obviously I won't go running with the club while I'm away, but I'll try and get my miles in anyway. So that's it ! Only two easy goals ! Yay for simplicity ! EDIT: I have adjusted this a little ... Everybody's cutting this challenge so why can't I, right ? Join in the misery ! Let's see how this goes. Stats: Weight 73kg / 159 lbs Waist 73 cm