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Hello friends and thank you for being here. It’s the start of a brand new Calendar Turn, and whilst I do set Year Goals, I am determined to be part of the minority, those brave and incredible souls, who actually achieve them. Past years have been… well, not good. Still not written a novel, as 20 year old me was certain we would have by now. BUT I am super close to getting my Masters, so I am many steps closer to the academic dream than I was before I had that goal. Hold on to your hats, it's a long one! SO, I sat and thought about that for a bit. New Year’s Resolutions or goals are ‘failed’ so often it’s the object of humour. It’s a meme – crowded gym in January, empty gym in February. And I think I know why I am close to completing this goal and have failed on many others. I made it this far – to get a Masters in History – and not the novel (or losing weight, learning to cook better etc.) for one simple reason – I had to! Well, okay, I could have dropped out of the programme and lost the money I’d paid I suppose. But once enrolled, I had deadlines to meet and supervisors who expected me to meet them. It was something that could be gently laid aside when events demanded it – For which I am forever grateful to my supervisors for being so supportive in the event of my mental health crisis – but ultimately it had to be picked up. It was – and still is for another month or so – part of my life. It wasn’t quite easier to do it than NOT do it, but there would have been real world consequences for not doing it. I’d have failed the course or had to pay a lot of money to get an extension for another year. I would have let down two people I have come to greatly respect. So I had deadlines in my calendar, I set time aside to work on it regularly, I had regularly scheduled meetings with my supervisors to talk, get advice, to correct my course. In contrast, writing a novel was a dream – one that no one would be on my case about when I didn’t write for a day, a week, a year. There were no stakes. And it didn't get written. So, I want to apply that wisdom going forward. I know what works for me: Accountability. Deadlines. Real world consequences for not doing it. Making it part of my routine and daily life. Having a Strong Why. I love History, and I love research. I know I want to follow this path, career-wise. Even when it was frustrating and hard and I didn’t have a damn clue what to write, I loved it. I never wanted to quit, even if I doubted my ability. I have Strong Whys for the Goals I want to hit in 2024 too. How I am going to make sure it happens is with my BUJO. A book I will post pages of here and please do call me out when I don’t. I am going to carry this book around with me everywhere – home, work, outings. Holidays. This book is going to my accountability. Well, hopefully these forums will to. That is step one. Step two is phone alarms and calendar notifications. The plan is to integrate my new habits so well into my life that when I look back in December 2024, I need the early pages to remind myself what my life was like before this year. Still reading? I appreciate you! Here – as promised – are my Bujo pages I am working with. Things like the bookshelf will get filled whenever I finish a book, new or old. The year of workouts gets filled daily. Ideally, at the end of each month I will set up the monthly and weekly pages for the coming month. Weekly/daily pages get filled in on a weekly and daily basis. My 2024 Goals: I started with my biggest flaws, the things I most want to work on and went from there to build goals that feel both important to me and specific. I know what I looked like at 75kg, and how much healthier that is for me. It's also realistic - under 10kg for the whole year. Similarly, a PhD is a dream goal of mine, but it won't be easy. Having this goal keeps me on track - what are the steps I need to take? Proposals, planning and applications come first. Hence, that's what I make my goal. The Spartan and 10km? To force myself not to neglect my training with something I enjoy - but enjoy a heck of a lot more when I am fitter. Reading - obvious! I am a reader, but tend to be drawn to familiar favorites instead of branching out. Then my Fitness Goals have their pages: By requiring monthly and daily check-ins, I keep the goals fresh in my mind. They become part of my daily existence: My Future Log for remembering stuff long term: (sized smaller because less interesting) My January Set up: The monthly log and it's month-specific goals: And my weekly spreads that I will update and refer to daily: Oh, and Challenge Specific Goals? Just One – Be here. Weekly a minimum, more than that if I can. Updates can be long or short, but they must be done. It will prompt me to be accountable, if only to myself.

Well. I have begun to look at traineeships and job offers based on my studies so I guess one can say I am finally on my way to leave the Training Zone. Today (8 Sep.) I made a first attempt to find a topic for my second thesis. Technical difficulties prevented me from doing so, so I did some other things instead. Tbf I gave up a little easy. Working on that. At the beginning of the 2019/20 academic year, I had this lovely plan of having a job right out of my studies but when lockdown hit I still had not started looking at job offers seriously. My family kept telling me "I have a whole life to work ahead of me and I should enjoy being a student for as long as I can". I gave in - obviously I needed an INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF CONVINCING, struggling to make sense of what was/is happening around the world etc. - and took advantage of my privileged position (and overall economic spending and socialising habits). Finished the year's subjects. Finished my first thesis. Laid back for a while. Saw family. Treated my body and mind better than I had been these past 3 years. Played on the beach, swam, breathed in a bit of sea air. Finished an online novel. Read random articles on the www. Read a non-fic book off an on. Reorganised my room/the house/my head. Swam in a swimming pool and enjoyed that so much I overexerted my foot. Decided I don't want to swim in that swimming pool anymore for other reasons. Started a bullet journal. Started tracking my cash flow on paper instead of trying to get back to my digital method (program). Helping my mom with getting back on track after years of dealing with... Life stuff & spending quality time with my sis (5 y.o.) and helping her with her bilinguality.(*) (Did I mention she started to freely use any Dutch words she can think of with her teacher and class mates, and any kids she encounters at all? ) Anyway. The scoreboard is as follows: Notarial law: one course left (February-April 2021) 🤩 Corporate law: one master thesis left (whenever I finish it) 🤪 ________________ (*)Well, she understands a bit of english too and uses English words here and there so she is on her way on becoming trilingual, I think. ________________ As my current focus lies with doing inner work, breath, finding my center (gravity wise and values wise), simplifying, mobility, flexibility, unplugging and all that jazz, even more than it did during my first challenge with the Druids, I believe I will stay right here. All I know about the goals I will set this challenge (beginning): After some brainstorming, I came to the following SMART-ish goals (15 September): * Mobility exercises for wrists, shoulders/neck, and the fysio exercises for my feet. Every day, whatever I can get done in 10 to 35 minutes (depends on how much I have slept in). * Posture practice. Every day. * Procedure "cut the umbillical cord between me and my phone". I really feel tons better when I do not stare at screens a lot but especially so since I have started staring at a SMALL screen less. Every day: If I DO want to browse on phone w/o purpose: *sort gallery *sort Evernote inbox (50% of non-upgrade upload space used, delete old stuff esp) * Mindful eating / eating intuitively (NOT I.E. but using the principles/reading up on them). Every day. * Journal. That is a big part of the Carreer coaching. Also my personal self-reliance project. In that vein, I am also trying to be TRULY alone more and get comfy with myself again. Sidenote: Alternatively, read resources provided by carreer coaching... thing. * Clean between teeth every day. And have at least 1 hour between snacks or sugary drinks, use a straw etc. Moreover, I will be using MFP and Zero and looking at yoga videos to try, trying AM and PM routines and whatnot, but they will not be goals. These are the goals that get priority right now.

Welcome back to aisle4b's Life Marathon 2016! I’ve made it through the opening miles, now it’s time to stick it out and keep a steady pace; this is the tricky part where it’s easy to get cocky and take on too much too fast, so this challenge is all about keeping up my good habits while slowly adding a couple more. Goals for this challenge: Focus on improving my diet by eating at home more than out, and reducing the variability of my caloric intake We all know the sayings around how much more important diet is than exercise, and I'm just now admitting it and really starting to work on my diet - it's so much easier to run for an hour than to hold off on my cravings for the other 23! I’m starting to look at exercise more as helping my mental health and physical strength/endurance, while diet increases my overall health and weight loss. For this challenge I’ll being coming back to my Kitchen Karate account and doing meal prep once a week. Data: ate only items from home/the office (I also count anything I bought at least 24 hours before that has hung out at my house to avoid binge eating huge portions when I do go out) ate under calorie goal plus 1/2 exercise calories Build my utility belt Yes, I’m mixing my marathon metaphor with my personal character metaphor of Laura Croft. Up until this point, food has been my single coping/celebratory tool; if I’m feeling sad/angry/happy/tired/stressed out/have a headache/whatever, food was what I used. If you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail... Over the last couple of challenges I’ve found a couple of new, handy tools. But now, the data nerd in me wants to know: do these actually help? We don’t know until we track! So as part of my journaling, I’ll be including a breakdown of any tools I used that day, in response to what emotions/events, and whether I felt like it helped (0=no change, 1= some change but I’m not back to 100% and 2= worked like a charm!). so, by the end of this challenge I should have a pretty good map of what tools help with different situations; because yes, a knife is great for stabbing an enemy, but it’s also pretty damn helpful for a lot of cutting tasks. Data Track effect on mood in excel doc at least every other day (and in nightly journal on days I'm not near my computer) Complete SAVERS every morning (I can't find the Druid thread I found this on, but thank you fellow Rebel!!) Track my goals consistently and honestly Oh well, I ate a lot of salty food last night, I'll just...wait until tomorrow to weight myself... Yeah, I've been making a lot of excuses recently, and it shows! Data: Enter final calorie intake and FitBit TDEE into MFP/FitLegit/HappyScale daily And that's about it for this challenge! Like I said, slow and steady this time around!

Okay, so like my title implies, it's been a lot of half-assed (or less) challenges lately. Also to note, I think this is the latest I've ever posted a challenge, wheird. Anyway, this challenge is going to be 100% commitment. If you want to see changes, you need to make changes! I'm really trying to put myself, and my health and fitness goals first. I live by myself and don't have kids, so right now it's quite realistic to do. I know that in my last challenge I talked about trying AIP (autoimmune paleo protocol) but I spend a weekend ago prepping for it, and I don't think I can do it (right now anyway), especially because there is no "real" reason I really need to. That being said, here's what I'm looking at this challenge: Goals 1) Whole30+ - For where I am right now, I think a whole30 is what I need. It's strict (which I need) but not over the top (aka AIP). I've completed one good whoel30, and my second one was a bust! I do like how good I feel when I do it, and losing weight that I feel like I never can. 2) Exercise 3x per week - I teach fitness classes and therefore have a hard time working out for myself, but also the exercise I get in by teaching isn't very intense (because ya know, I have to demonstrate with great form, and be able to talk the whole time). So I want to work out three times a week for myself doing quick, high intensity workouts, for me! 3) Journalling - I made this a hard hat challenge a while ago, and by the end I really liked it. Especially the crap that I'm working through right now, I think this is really what I need! (more on my crazy-ish situation later...I have to run off and teach soon!). 4) Prioritizing to work towards my career goals - this one is a bit more vauge and unmeasurable, but what I would really like to accomplish within this is completing my paperwork to get my P. Eng, finishing up my dad's estate crap (aka compile 3 or 4 years of taxes and take it to my accountant), and continue to purge crap I don't need in my house and paint the walls. Basically i'm going to be moving across the country this fall to pursue my actual career goals. It's scary as hell because I'm finally doing it, and not just thinking about it. Other stuff that I would like to do here, but not quite as high on the list is: look into entrepreneurial schools where I'm moving, talk to people here doing what I want to do in another city, and looking for jobs in fitness that I could apply on when I move (ie. scouting out gyms and other centres to teach at). ...more to come later, but I've got to go kick some butts now! Tracking: 1) Whole30: 7/7 7/7 7/7 7/7 4/7 2/7 = 34/42 (81% A-) 2) Workouts: 3/3 1/3 1/3 0/3 0/3 0/3 = 5/18 (28% F-) 3) Journaling: 7/7 4/7 5/7 5/7 5/7 5/7 = 31/42 (74%B )

Overarching Theme/2015 Manifesto/TL;DR get healthy, get organized, get happy 2014 kind of sucked and I’m happy to see it gone. I don’t feel like I really accomplished any of my goals- I feel very stuck in my personal and professional life, and I feel unhealthier than I’ve ever been. But one important thing to have come from 2014 is that some events, both good and bad, really crystallized in my mind what I want and need for the upcoming year. So, broadly: -By the end of this year, I want to be healthier than I’ve ever been. Lose weight, eat well, sleep well, drink all the water. At the drop of a hat, I’d like to be invited to join a hike, a 5k, a yoga class, a Crossfit class, a pickup softball game, or a lifting session and be able to hold my own. I’ve never been particularly athletic, but I want to get to the point at which I’m comfortable in my own body and feel confident in its abilities. That, and it really kills me how much I can squat or deadlift but I still can’t do a damned pushup, let alone a pull-up. -By the end of this year, I want to be more intentional in my actions. I want to be more purposeful in my actions at home and at work. I want to create a system for keeping up with errands so they don’t get put off until they overwhelm me. I want to work somewhere I don’t hate or otherwise do something to drastically change my attitude here. In conjunction with this, I want to really think about and write out a 5 year plan because I feel like I’ve been spinning my wheels with no real plans and just thinking about how much time I’ve wasted is giving me little panic attacks. Related to this, I need to include in a discussion with my husband and his own 5 year plan, and a financial plan beyond just saving. I want to go to work feeling satisfied and challenged and come home to a calm, clean space that doesn’t stress me out. -By the end of this year, I want to be much happier than I am now. This is likely a summation of working on the above external factors, but it’s also going to be an internal trial. I spend a lot of time in my head, thinking, planning, worrying, analyzing- and not really doing. I want to spend this year being more mindful, grateful, in the moment, taking advantage of opportunities instead of thinking about them to death. For me, pursuing happiness will include meditating, writing, meaningful reading (books, not Wikipedia on my phone at 3am), and making time for myself (girly beauty stuff) and hobbies (learning German, cooking, woodworking, I’m sure other stuff will strike my fancy). Instead of tackling all of this at once, which has led to a lot of past failures, I’m going to try to focus on smaller goals each month. With any luck, I’ll end the year with at least 12 good habits, instead of a pathway to Nerdfitness Hell, paved with good intentions and enthusiasm that petered out by Valentine’s Day. January’s primary focus is getting back in the habit of cooking most meals and eating Paleo. Main Quests: Eat Paleo. More like, pretty much eat Whole30 but without worrying about butter and trace bad stuff. I’ve done Whole30, I understand the purpose of extremely strict clean eating, but I’m not going to sweat it when I smother my 4th chicken breast in two days with Secret Aardvark sauce. That said, avoid dairy, legumes, grains, sugar, processed foods, alcohol, and try to stick to 3 square meals a day, Whole30 meal template style. 90% compliance 2 CON 2 STA. Drink water. Lots! Let’s say a gallon a day. 38 gallons gets my bladder 2 STR 2 DEX. Buy and consume 1 of those big boxes salad each week. If I make a goal about just vegetable servings, I’ll only eat the yummy starchy ones, if my goal is a salad a day I’ll be kinda sad, but this seems doable. Pass/fail 3 CHA. Side-Quest: Journal at least three times a week. This is my way of keeping all the other above goals still swimming in my head without losing the January food focus. 4 WIS.