Search the Community

Alright, so the last challenge did not go according to plan. Or, more accurately, according to hope. I'm kinda, no, no kinda about it, I'm disappointed in my ability to get my strength training in. I feel like I have lost all my gains from the fall between an injury in December and my inability to properly schedule the time during the last challenge. So, what's a person to do? Try something different, or try the same thing as last time? I think I'm gonna follow Steve's advice and try something different this time. My goal's weren't New Year's Resolutions, but rather an attempt to pick up where I left off pre-injury. Here's the thing about that, a lot has changed since then: I get less sleep thanks to the 3 month old puppy now living in my house combined with the inability of any of the other 4 members of my family to get up and let her out in the middle of the night. The weather has gotten ridiculously cold for this time of year...and stayed there. We haven't had the oodles of snow to shovel (we're tracking to about average snowfall in these parts), but we're averaging 20-30 degrees colder than normal temps. It's frightened me inside most mornings. When the temps and windchill have frostbite setting in at the 15 minute mark, I tend not to go outside. Despite the cold, I'm getting the itch to run more. The time for dedicating serious amounts of time to weight training is slipping away. Lent is here. So? Well, I like to spend more time focusing on my spiritual health this time of year. Leaving less time for other things. My daughter's club volleyball, violin and forensics schedules and my son's basketball, cub scouts, chess club and violin schedules are in full gear. That means my nights (the part of the night where I'm awake, we've already established the puppy owns the part where I'm asleep) and weekends are no longer my own. Lastly, my mother's health as she continues to battle cancer is a roller coaster ride. She went from doing great, to a week in the hospital, back to great. It tends to throw wrenches into my planned schedule regularly.So, how to get around all this stuff and move forward when I don't know what's coming next to derail me? I'm going small. Small pieces of work in the margins of my day, hoping they add up to something tangible by Easter. How's this sound? Goal #1: 10 Each per Day. 10 pull-ups, 10 chin-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 BW squats, 10 burpees, 10 lunges. Any order, combination, etc. If the exercises are met during the day, they get rolled over into the next days goals. If this starts getting easy as I find more time in between stuff to get things done, I will increase the number of reps. But, honestly, I think this will take time to get used to fitting things in. Goal #2: Get more sleep. As I try to fit more things in my day, I either stay up later, get up earlier or both. Which is no good for my long term health. During the last challenge I managed to move from 5 1/2 hours of sleep a night to 6 2/3 hours of sleep. A marked improvement, but not enough. My goal is to get over the 7 hour mark on average. So, I need to be in bed by 10:30 PM each night. That's it. Simple goal. 10:30 = in bed. Goal #3: Avoid sugar. So, I did marginally okay avoiding sugar in my drinks last challenge and I made it a year long goal. So, I'm keeping it here, but adding to it each week. Each week I will add something new that I'm avoiding in my diet. I will post them here with weekly updates. First week, no sugar in the drinks. Goal #4: Be Accountable. I did a crappy job updating my thread last challenge. In the past, I've always had better success with more frequent updates. It's the peer pressure of coming here and telling people my failings that keeps me working at it. If I don't have to fess up to failures, it becomes easier and easier to just ignore them. But, I also know that stuff will get in the way from posting updates on some days. So, at least 5 updates a week. Side goal: If the weather warms up, I'm going to try to get more miles in. So far, I'm getting in about one 3-4 mile run/week when the winds are light. If it warms up enough, I'll try to fit in a few more.