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New challenge time! My goal is to lose 8 pounds for this challenge. It’s ambitious, but I’m ready for a push. Here’s the plan: 1. Giving myself more time a. Putting off scheduling additional doctor visits until next year. I’m in good shape, and nothing is urgent. I need a mental break from physical health checks. b. Saying “no” to social invitations when the time doesn’t work for me. I try to accommodate everyone else’s schedule because I’m a freelancer, but that’s how I get overloaded. I need to be able to say “That week isn’t good for me, how about the week after?” c. Getting Screen time down from 5 hours a day to 3 hours a day. Apple tracks this for me, and if I need to, I can set limits on my phone again so I’m not wasting time staring at puppy videos, which I usually do after I’m burned out from being too busy. d. Take Wednesdays off. No errands, no social calls, no appointments. Wednesdays are a day off. 2. Utilizing the extra time I’ve given myself a. Exercising Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. In the past, I’ve done shorter workouts six days a week but I find I'd rather exercise for a longer session and then wake up the next day and have more time to get other things done. b. Going on more walks and hikes. I’m aiming for 10 5 miles a week. c. Working outdoors and getting the yard to look its best. 😊 I have a short list, so it's not going to be too difficult. It's totally difficult. While the list is short, each item takes a long time, and I'm remembering this now. d. Planning more healthy meals and cooking them. Right now, I just sorta cook whatever we have and I feel like I can do better here. e. Stretching in the mornings and evenings. 3. Keeping up the Energy to use my time wisely a. Sleeping from 11pm-6am. 7am b. Cutting way back on sugar. I’d like to have something sweet once a week, but I’m done with candy, jams, juices, and pastries, and coffee on a regular basis. c. Also cutting back on processed foods like chips and blue boxed macaroni and cheese. d. Drinking loads more water, but not sparkling water. I learned its hard on my teeth, and I must protect my teeth! e. Journaling to process thoughts and feelings that are heavy and overwhelming. I'll track everything in my bullet journal, and post weekly results and reflections.

Winter is the cold and often brutal season of darkness. But like all seasons, winter passes and spring is out there somewhere. And while I cannot stop winter from coming, I can prepare! My “winter” is a combination of things but mostly medical issues plaguing my family. My husband’s tumor has started to grow, which means he is preparing for some form of radiation treatment at MD Anderson in Houston, TX (an 11-hour drive south-east from our home). My oldest spawn is dealing with dysautonomia and we are fighting to get her to doctors (in Denver, CO which is a 7-hour drive north of our home) to verify if she has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. And the we fight to get her the help to deal with the mess of EDS, if that is what she has. My youngest spawn is struggling with my attention on her dad and sister. Not to mention she is dealing with some issues of her own that are not nearly as bad but she is 14 years old and the world revolves around her teenage self. My dad has some “spot” on his kidney that they are watching, but he is recovering nicely from his bladder surgeries. I am still trying to get all of my strength and mobility back in my hip, so I can get back to my normal self. This all is the “winter” that I speak of. So what will I do? I will do what I can! I’ll prepare for the possibilities, manage what I can, accept what I cannot change and take care of myself. Prepare I will do everything I can to be prepared for the next big change of plans. I will have options for whatever comes my way on the table and I will not discount something because if I do that is what will come my way next. I will be prepared to eat healthy, no matter the situation. I will find healthy food options that are portable and easy to store (including food in my car, which can get hot) for me and my family! I will have backup options for exercise on hand. I will have care options for my youngest spawn who had no big doctor visits and needs to be here in school. Manage I will manage the chaos to the best of my ability and take care of everyone, including myself, to the best of my ability! I will not spend $ on things that aren’t needed, because life is gonna get expensive dealing with all the upcoming travel. I will do my best to spend time with my family (one-no-one or all together) when ever I can. I will do my best to balance family, travel to medical facilities and work. But I will take care of the important stuff first (family) and the rest will get what is left of my attention. Accept I will accept that I can not do it all, but I will give it my best shot. I won’t be able to change medical outcomes, people’s attitudes or many other things…. I will accept what I can not change. If I can change it and it needs to change, then let’s do it! Myself In all this mess, I am still valuable and much needed. If I don’t continue to take care of me then it will all fall to hell! I have made good changes this summer so let’s maintain those habits. -Food Smaller breakfasts with no bacon or sausage and smoothies for lunch during the week. Less snacking & desserts. High protein and lower carbs because that is what my body likes. Exercise BJJ and core/conditioning class as much as possible. FitOn app is a great resource for backup exercise classes. And physical therapy twice a week, if I do classes, if not 3-4 times! Walking as much as possible. Hiking with friends. Mental If I am prepared for anything, manage life as it happens and accept the things I cannot change, I should be in good shape. With all the craziness that I expect, gratitude will be a vital part of not going bonkers in the next few months!!! Kindness I will make time to take care of me. I will follow my skin care regime. I will shower and shave my legs. I will color my hair as needed. I will wear pretty clothes and put on makeup. I will take breaks and bask in nature. I will make sure that I don’t lose myself if being the caretaker of everyone. (kidding but not kidding!) At the end of the day... No one is dying, there is a path forward and I can do this all this because it needs to be done. I got this. And I promise myself to ask for help when needed and let others help when they offer!

This challenge was rudely interrupted by a pandemic last year. However, now that we're settling into our post-apocalyptic plaguescape for the long haul, it is yet again time. This challenge, I will endeavour to become the Disc's second greatest lover. "My name's Casanunda," he said. "I'm reputed to be the world's greatest lover. What do you think?" Nanny Ogg looked him up and down or, at least, down and further down. "You're a dwarf," she said. "Size isn't important." This challenge, I'm working my way up the rankings of the world's lovers by leveling up my international playdwarf lifestyle. (Or, as a previous challenge put it, do things with elegance. Strangely, despite years of aikido and years of urban myths about people being told to do things elegantly, I had to re-derive the principle in another way before I realized this was not about aesthetics but about managing to combine mindfulness with emptying the mind.) Some of these may seem like odd choices for a fitness/life level-up (like increasing alcohol consumption, and, I dunno, taking life advice from the worst possible people), but there are three factors at play here: first, this challenge needs to be fun, cuz this us what we do instead of vacations in plague years; second, it's addressing recovery from a certain amount (which is to say, lots) of cutting corners on self-care in the broader day to day living sense and getting by on "acceptable"; and three, it's addressing the (narrative) causality between good habits and seemingly unrelated projects and lifestyle choices. Or, as Vetinari would have it, all the little wheels must spin so the machine can turn. And this is a timely challenge. I've really been struggling with self-care lately. Part I: Casanunda Training There are two first steps to becoming the world's greatest lover: First, yoga warmups with lots of hip openers, for obvious reasons, and, second, get into bed as often as possible. (For sleep, of course. I don't know what you're thinking.) If I'm going to be a soldier of fortune, I need to work on mental stillness and physical prowess. Walking and strength training, to start with, and some meditation. Tasks to be checked off: rewatch Casanova and take notes. Part II: Be a Better Lover Than Lord Rust "It was a Guild of Assassins, after all. Black was what you wore. The night was black and so were you. And black had such style, and an Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug." While Assassin-School-trained, Lord Ronald Rust did not particularly benefit from the lessons on style. So I think I can outdo him here on the things that make an Assassin an Assassin. The projects I will do here include repairing and replacing bits of my wardrobe with a focus on rotating in my higher quality clothes, leveling up my daily grooming from ultra-practical to something attempting a little actual style, and more aperitifs-and-tapas. This will also involve getting back in the habit of making actual things with recipes and planning and cultural connotations, rather than just going with the fastest and most basic form of slapping nutrition onto the table, and managing my pantry better. Also, getting back to my macros and IF schedule. Part III: Be a Better Lover Than Rufus Drumknott "I believe he collects different types of stationery," said Vetinari. "I have sometimes speculated that he might change his life for the better should he meet a young lady willing to dress up as a manila envelope." All this lifestyle-leveling-up requires a certain amount of organization and schedule-wrangling. Being the world's second greatest is demanding. And for me, leveling up the bachelor pad is going to center on organizing: not just finding the right place for everything, but finding the right use for everything, and the most efficient way to organize it all. Where the Lord Rust half of this focuses on making everything I own beautiful, the Drumknott portion involves making it all useful, and also includes recycling things I don't use into things I do. Things will fit into the storage I already have, be more organized, and work better. Also, the habits I use to clean and organise it will be streamlined.

Hi, I'm RisenPhoenix. I'm going to try and be normal here (*snort*) , in an attempt to be somewhat accessible to people who might drop into my thread now that we have merged the guilds. I've been around the block here in some form or another since 2012, so I've gotten lax with how I do challenges. For me, this challenge is definitely about becoming more Normal. Or at least MY normal. Which besides 2020 being 2020 I also mostly had upended in the tail end of the last year after almost nearly keeping it together. Almost very nearly practically together. So, here's to getting back on the normal horse that's probably some giant antlered zebra bear but whatever, it's my horse deal with it. 1) Normal Diet: Paleo-leaning calorie counting My diet is normally pretty paleo-leaning, but the holidays and some quarantine baking turned it a bit carb heavy. Not that it's a BAD thing, but it's hard to quantify my baking sometimes, which makes my consumption hard to track. Ultimately I do best on a higher fat diet with counting my calories. I'm going a slightly lower energy counting method which ignores all my veggies - they aren't calorically dense enough to make the hassle of putting them all in worth it. Slightly will underestimate my carb counts and what not, but that's fine. I'm looking to get into a calorie deficit again more than anything. Since I went to the doctor today, we'll use their clothed, mid morning weigh in that I tried to avoid as the start point: 222 pounds (which is still lower than I was in January 2020 so I'm counting it as a win). Goal is to get back down to closer 200-ish. At the very least to fitting easier into my jeans again. Calories logged should be net 2200 calories or less, when accounting for physical activity. But really I have enough glycogen stores right now that I should be able to fuel quite a few workouts before I need to feed myself more. 2) Normal Body: PT Exercises as dictated, 1 yoga class a week, 1 aikido class a week Part of my derailment at the end of last year was screwing up my back after doing a crappy deadlift pull. And then not paying attention to it as much as I should. And then having a mental breakdown where I tried to do a workout to help with the mental health because I felt physically better-ish but learned shortly thereafter that I am impatient as everything seized up on me. A doctor's appointment today got me a referral for PT and a bottle of muscle relaxers. So I need to 1) set up that appointment, 2) do the damn exercises, 3) I should really work on doing weekly yoga that I pay for and the aikido I don't need to pay for but do anyway. Start small and make sure the last two things don't interfere with the PT things. 3) Normal Brain: Self care Journaling, reading/tech disconnect 1/day I am perpetually an anxious mess, but the last year did enjoy ramping it up to 11. After a breakdown I had late November, I decided to put myself back on some meds. A couple weeks in and things are settling in well it seems, but I've also been on vacation for two weeks, so the rest test of work and life really hasn't taken root yet. In addition to drugs I finally got my butt to therapy and it's.... a thing. Not really sure it's giving me much space to benefit from, but we're still relatively early (4 or 5 sessions in). One thing is that I have used NF for years as a journaling space, which this will probably keep being, but I do want to try and find a guided journal or series of prompts to write for my eyes only in an attempt to not have me self-censor (which I have done before - yes people who've followed me before, that was me censoring myself occasionally). So I need to find a journal or a list of prompts to use. Suggestions welcome. I also really need a tech disconnect once a day, even if it's just reading for 30 minutes. My brain works better having that space. Thankfully I have three books on my kindle in queue, plus two others in hand. So reading material is abound. I'm also trying to get my library/study space up and functional (after a year of the room being a junk room I just tossed things into), which will include a space to do crafts/projects/puzzles/legos. That'll help. That's the gist. Try to be normal, or at least as normal as I can be. (New people will quickly see that normal for me is very much a relative scale....)

COVID-19 has been detected in your saliva sample. Please contact your primary care physician and inform him/her of your test results. That right there is the world's least surprising lab result. There are 5 people in this house, and 3 of them had already tested positive before I went to get my test Monday morning. I've had symptoms since last Wednesday, but if all that wasn't proof enough that i have it, losing my sense of smell last night really sealed the deal. A quick rundown of the cast of characters. I'm Whisper, 36 years old. I work as a maintenance technician in a manufacturing plant. I play the violin at my church, and play with our bell choir. I have narcolepsy and a smattering of mental health issues and am really just trying to figure out this whole "being a functional adult" thing. M is the person that I care more about than anyone else in this world. Lots of people assume we're married; we did date for a time but the columination of both our issues made things really, really bad. She has a lot of physical and psychological struggles, and I try to help as best I can. Lots of people have referred me to books on boundaries when I start venting about her. She also has covid right now, and is alone in her little apartment. I'm trying to keep as close an eye on her as I can. My Old People. I rent a basement room from an elderly couple from my church; I've been here nearly two years. The husband, 83, was the first person to get sick; he tested positive last Tuesday. His wife, 82, just had surgery to get a pacemaker the Friday before that. She's the only person in the house that hasn't gotten a positive test result, but she is sick, and took a turn for the worse today, so we'll be keeping a closer eye on her tomorrow. Their Daughters. They've got like, 7 kids or something, but the most relevant right now are two of their daughters. One works as a "traveling nurse" and lives with us when she has a local assignment. She's been back with us for a couple months. The other daughter lives locally, and basically moved in when their father got sick to help take care of him. They both tested positive for the virus on Saturday. So, I've got the plague, now what? My goal for the last several months has been "don't get my old people sick". That hasn't really worked out, but no one is dead yet, and I'm going to do my best to keep it that way. The daughter's are the point care givers, but I am, by a fair margin, the least sick person in the house. I'm helping out where, and as much, as I can, but if I don't take care of myself, I won't be able to take care of others. So, that is my goal this challenge; take care of myself. I'm not really sure how to measure most of that right now. I'm taking my meds, I'm keeping hydrated, I'm moving around throughout the day. I did notice a few days ago that the souls of my feet were in really bad shape, dried out and painfully cracked. I don't like the feel of lotion, but I've been putting it on my feet twice a day and they're in much better shape, so I'm going to keep doing that too.

Hi there, I am Casbin! I've been with this community on and off, because life you know. Life is still in flux but I want to get back to the way I felt when I was around here. You guys and gals are so inspiring, breathing positivity, trying to help and encouraging that I can't help myself; I just love this place. This will be a partial Challenge and my Respawn point. Time to take things slow and ease back in. And thus are the daily goals (50% for a pass): Nutrition - 1 Proteinshake a day 0.5 extra credit for a second Fitness - Do your PT-exercises, Yoga or some kind of sport every day Life - something creative (knitting, drawing, writing - everything goes) Mind - Keep researching/planning future plans - budgeting, grocerie/meals-plans, hiighschool, alt. admission for ecotrophologie, rehab, etc. Selfcare - close the door and try different things to become more relaxed again This is not exactly the typical Challenge Layout but babysteps towards being a bit more lenient with myself. I'm looking forward to getting in touch with you all. Have a great day and keep hitting away Casbin

Hi So there were some setbacks. I'm trying to deal with them and get back on track. 1. Selfcare - Try talking to friends and not try to handle everything alone - take breaks - DON'T blame yourself 2. Exercise - 3 workouts a week - go to Aikido on Fridays - everything else is a bonus 3. Study - do a little every day - 20 hours a week would be a nice - 5 pages a week would be ideal 4. Snacks no snacks didn't work. I'll try once a week this time 5. Art at least one piece I'm going to post it here:

February 5 until March 11 So I decided to make 2018 my year and stumbled over this inspirational quote: The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. I want to achieve some things this year and change the things, that made me loathe 2017. I've to write a detailed reflection, but let's start for now. Last challenge I got overwhelmed again, by focusing on too many goals at once. So I’ll only track three goals. I’ll still try to stick to my old habits, but I won’t track them actively for now. Goal One: Self-care All work and no play makes Luciana a dull girl It’s important to plan nice things for myself and take breaks. At the end of each day I’ll reflect about this goal. This includes mediation, socializing, gratitude, etc. Pass/fail for reflecting and doing something against stress symptoms, when I notice them. Goal Two: Exercise I’ll try to do some workouts at home again. I’ll start with 20 minute sessions and hopefully I’ll be able to increase them. And I decided to schedule a specific number of exercises at the beginning of each week and for each workout I miss, I’ll put 3€ in my piggy bank. The money will be used for a one year membership, if I don’t get my stuff done regularly. Zero week: I’m scheduling five 20 minute workouts. I don’t have many appointments this week and I want to start this challenge strong as long as I’m motivated. This week I would like to do some sun salutations again and do the 8 brocades at least once. There are no classes for the next few weeks, so I'm following some instruction videos on youtube. Goal Three: Study During my last successful challenge I aimed for 15 hours a week and studied 16,5 hours on average every week. I managed to get the 30 hours in the first two weeks of the last challenge, but then I got overwhelmed. So maybe I shouldn’t aim for 30 hours and instead plan with 20 hours of study time. I’ll track this goal with my paper tracker and at least once a week I want to update my spreadsheet here. My last challenges’ goals were:

Thank you, thank you, thank you, spirits in the machine, humbly we thank thee. This thread will have loads and loads of bujo (bullet journal) pages posted to it. As well as all kinds of gifs and pictures. I am adapting a bit from various Rangers and Rebels, thank you to you wonderful people, these roads we travel, this life we forge, it's better for the company and inspiration shared on these boards here. Talking about inspiration... @Terra You are an inspiration. Always adapting, pushing, improving. Your year of superheroines, I'm copying it - with my own twist: This Challenge I will incorporate Studio Ghibli's Arrietty @Tanktimus the Encourager Sometime, somewhere you mentioned (I hope I remember it right and it was actually you) making the mental leap to do Healthy Person Things because you are leaving behind who you were and are becoming the Health Tank. I am stealing that. Kinda. Also with a twist. I always think "when I grow up, I want to be able to do that too". I'm grown up. I am going to do three specific Badass Person Things each day this challenge. Move: attempt a freelatics workout or on bad days do a Yoga with Adriene quicky. Eat: mindfulness, good choices. Drink: water. I currently drink way, way too little water, so I'm fighting my way back up to a (0,7l) bottle a day, eventually up to 2 per day, increase on consistent success. I am doing self-care in form of daily Sits with Tea sessions to log, sit in my favourite chair and soak up some sunlight (in my living room, still too chilly outside) and enjoy inactivity and absence of schedule related pressures. And lastly I am grading the 15' of FlyLady decluttering / cleaning / whatnot daily. I have a pile of partially incorporated habits that helped me to FLY for a while, but I lost my step, and I am now choosing to go back and at least do something every day. Every. Day. Only with timer counts, conscious choice to work and rest. No stressing about the apartment all day long. Work, rest, breathe. Repeat as energy permits. I'm tracking but not grading classes, 'cause I'll go to all of them, if I'm healthy. No excuses. Running, I'm growing to love running, we run thursdays during class, even though I'm not a huge fan of running in circles indoors. I am aiming for one additional run per week, outdoors. No beating myself up if plague protocols interfere. Weight, daily with trend's moving average and rarara... I'll try to summarize Arrietty briefly. She's tiny, but fierce. Because of her size and upbringing she has a unique perspective on the world surrounding her and her family. Seeing the world differently, is something I think I could really use sometimes. When her life is turned into upheaval she doesn't lament, she confronts the responsible party, whose unasked-for help brings disaster. When her mother is caught, she makes an ally, asks for help, but not like any kind of damsel in distress. When her possible extinction is proposed, she shows some backbone.

This has been the story of my life for the past 6 months... So my life has been a bit hectic. Unemployment, lots of interviews, getting injured, suddenly losing a roommate, losing unemployment insurance, finding a roommate.... I'm really in need of having some stability in my life. Things aren't looking up for the next month, unfortunately, so I need to work at making my own stability. Because as today has been going, the universe is just going to keep lobbing shit at me. 1) Python, 10 minutes a day: I finished my Automate the Boring Stuff python course that @The Most Loathed had pointed out to me a while back the other day. I feel like I can at least look at Python code and understand what it is aiming to do, but not confident enough that I can actually use the code. So I dropped $15 on another udemy course that's a more project based thing, and want to start working my way through that. The 10 minutes is a minimum goal, and I suspect that when I set up I'll do much more coding/learning than that. But figuring it's better this way to keep it small and easily movable in my schedule. Okay, it's not the gif I had imagined using, but Hunk getting eaten still relates to food 2) All about the Food: Okay, this is my most.... questionable goal. I've been eating pretty regularly 2800 calories a day, regardless of workouts. Little more on lifting days, little less on aikido. I'm being pretty stable at 211 pounds, and my gut measurement is also fairly stable. I'm currently torn on if I'm going to be doing a mini cut this challenge. Just two weeks, take measurements and photos, and see how the chips fall. It would be nice to see myself get a tiny bit leaner, as a few of my hallmark "I'm thinning out" traits have been hidden since I started eating more. Of course, I might also just keep eating where I'm at, and try to change my workout plans instead. I'm going to talk to a few people and see what they think I should do or how to best tackle things, physically and mentally. 3) Time to Fight: I'm testing in April. That's 2ish months away. I'm not actually worried about the exam, because I'm definitely well versed enough that I should breeze through it. I seem to be one of the few soon-to-test 2nd kyus who is confident in their ability to have a range of techniques. But that aside, I'm going to do something that scares the crap out of me. I'm going to go ask my various sempai what they want to see me nail on the first kyu exam. A lot of it is going to be answered by "do all of this which is going to take a lifetime," so I need to make sure I ask for semi-reasonable things. I'll report back here and then just keep writing about my aikido classes about how things are going. 4) Go. Be Great (at Adulting): I have more than a few adulting tasks I need to do before the end of the month/challenge. So I may as well keep myself accountable here. Ongoing: 3 "UI" unemployment tasks a week (Job hunt, job applications, networking, interviews, phone calls, etc) Ongoing: 10 minutes of tidying things away before bed (dishes, mail, junk on the counter, etc etc) Ongoing: Remember to take your medicine Get my UI paperwork squared away Send UI paperwork to MassHealth so I can keep MassHealth Coverage Get a new script for my anti-anxiety meds Schedule physical/doctor appointment if needed to get the meds Clear out Basement of junk Clear out Pantry of old items Organize the Pantry Clean apartment before new Roommate moves in Make sure the Landlord doesn't hold up the new roommate moving in Contact all apartment applicants and let them know they weren't selected February 28th: If I didn't get the good job I'm banking on, start applying to bank teller/mover/grocery store positions So. That's the plan for this challenge. Hopefully it keeps me sane. Or at least fills the days with something to do. We all ready for this?

Mmm, I love the smell of a new year and new challenges. So shiny and full of promises... This year's resolution - stop bailing on challenges. I've let this first challenge be inspired by Finnish folklore as I'll be moving there in March! Disclaimer, I know nothing about Finnish folklore except what I just read on wikipedia. Dance like Näkki aka Do all the things! Dance to one song every day. Because I love it and this will become a habit. Do all the things! I've signed up for unlimited classes at my studio and I need to take at least 3 pole, hoop, contortion, acro or dance classes/week to make it worthwhile. Shouldn't be too hard as it's going to be so much fun! Classes don't start until the 16th though, so until then I'll have to do my own practices. Wake Antero Vipunen aka Learn all the things! Study Finnish daily for at least 5 accumulated hours/week. Practice programming and/or read relevant work for my new field for 5 hours/week. Don't let Ajatar find me aka Don't crash and burn Take self care seriously. I have a lot do and a lot to learn and a lot of training to look forward to, but January is not an easy month to do all the things in. Daily self care will be vital! Eat enough food! I'm going to get my butt kicked in class and I'll need all the energy I can get. To make things simple I'm just going to track whether I eat a proper dinner every day. So excited about this I'm going to start straight away. Wheeee!

OUR HERO HAS VANQUISHED THE COLD HARSH WINTER. it's definitely spring. the garden needs gardening and the motorcycle is on the road. and with the changes in season comes a simultaneous CHANGE IN BUSINESS LEVEL. y'all, I'm so glad that the snow is gone but I am starting to feel very threatened by the spring. like, there is SO MUCH GARDENING TO DO. DOES OUR LAWNMOWER EVEN WORK? I am so busy! so I am setting up the most boring challenge ever and you will all just have to keep in mind: all the sparkles come from ME. I have no fancy pictures, I have no flashy gifs. I HAVE NO SHOWER RIGHT NOW IN MY HOUSE. all I have is my list of things that need doing. so what's that list? GOAL 1. KEEP BUSY. (as if there were ever any chance of me not being busy.) it's important to me to stay active and keep doing workouts. last challenge I figured out that I'm pretty comfortable doing 4 workouts a week, plus my tkd Saturday. So! I will keep it up. 5x a week activity. one of those days can be tkd. anything goes: running, bodyweight, stretching or yoga, weights. just. KEEP BUSY. a busy lifestyle is good for you. I really want to keep focusing on getting to my -UPs. I have been having a hard time this last challenge because my elbow got so super sore! (it's still sore! waaaah!) so I am going to dial this back to a more progression oriented approach. I'm going to start with the Start Bodyweight Training - I'll work on progressions #2 and 5, for pull-ups and push-ups. I want to do this 2x a week. maybe I should do it more, but for now 2x a week should give me plenty of time for my elbow to recover (HOPEFULLY). GOAL 2. EAT RIGHT. y'all know I'm a daily weigher and a calorie counter. I think I'm at the point in my weight loss journey where I need to stop eating back my exercise. Last challenge I did a good job of staying within budget INCLUDING eating back exercise. This time, no eating back. * with the exception! of my crazy dojo days, and I can eat back like, 3/4 of my calories from any exercise that is 600 calories or greater. I think that's fair. Honestly, I need so much more protein and fat when I work out a lot. I'm also hoping that spring will bring hiking, and that would be a 600+ calories day too. there is ONE WEEK that I will not worry about this goal -- this week. I will do my best, but my birthday is on wednesday and I'm traveling with friends to Portland OR on Thursday through Monday. I want to eat all the delicious food while I'm away. so, I'll do my best to be smart about my choices and portion sizes. GOAL 3. SELF-CARE = FOSTER SPARKLYNESS Clearly I am running on fumes. I don't have a shower. I have to go to the gym or the office early or my mother in laws every day that I want to get clean. I have work and family commitments. In order to keep myself sparkly and not feeling despondent I need to take care of myself. These are the self-care things I am going to do: * acupuncture - every 3 weeks. this is covered by flexible spending. it's good for me. it will likely really help my elbow, among other things. * chiropractic - at least every 1 1/2 weeks. maybe every week. again. good for me. I've got a sore hip and arm from driving a lot for work. this is my recovery. * massage - one of these during the challenge. again, covered by flexible spending, and good for me. my muscles are a disaster (especially hamstrings and calves) and this has been very helpful for me. * ride the motorcycle as much as possible to work - this is fun for me! I need to do it! I also need to figure out how to do this while also going to the gym. that's part of the challenge. * take a bath in my new bathroom as soon as it's done (I am hoping there's just 2 more weeks on the project!) - there has to be some reward! get some nice smelly bath bombs or something from lush so I can break the tub in properly. * hey read books. no requirement, but hey, read books. LIFE GOAL. KEEP CRAFTING. this went super well last time. I love making things! I need to keep it up. so, as I said last time: weekly crafting is required. I've got knitting and spinning in progress right now. I'll take pictures and share it with you. hopefully this will also lead to me finishing the closet. I made HUGE progress on the closet last time, and I would love to finish it up. so. I need to stay on track, but I also need some space to wrangle a little more peace and order into my life. I know this is a lot of stuff, but the routine of the exercising is important to me, and the eating, well, that's mostly dialed in right now. hopefully goal 3 will be easy and profitable. profitable in SPARKLES.

While I'm sure most people here are pumped and ready to get back into the swing of things...I'm not. I have 3 days of challenge and then I'm off to sun, sand and relaxation in JAMAICA! I'm extremely excited, this is my first hot holiday, and the start to a very travel-exciting 15 months. (January 2015 - Jamaica, Sept 2015 Camp NF!!!, March 2016 -Europe!!) So it's really hard to set challenge goals when the first 2 weeks will kinda be a wash. The other thing that's tough for me is because I'm a fitness instructor, I start up a bunch of my classes in the end of January, and from now until the end of April, my schedule is a bit crazy. So I'm setting out some small goals to try to ease into the new year of challenges (PS. I'll hoping to hit the end of February challenge hard, and be ready for it!) Main Quest - Be a badass who looks killer in a bikini and can do a pull-up (aka, the ultimate in badassery) For those who don't know - I love practicing aerial hoop/lyra and in March, I'll be taking another step towards teaching it! The super cool upside is that I get all the free practice time I want, and 50% off classes at my studio! Yay! So my goals are also to do things that will help me in hoop - the pull up for sure, and also flexibility and mobility is another pretty big goal for me. Goals 1) Drink 3L of water/day - with my trip coming up, it's hard to set a food goal, and I'll have to see how things are when I get back. With that in mind, staying hydrated is definitely a step I can take towards keeping my body in check, so water it is. I find this hard at the best of times, but especially in the winter. While on vacation, this is a bit harder, so the general goal is to stay hydrated, and not be hung over. lol 2) Stretch/fascia rolling daily - I'm really needing to work on my flexibility for hoop and and also focus on self-care a lot more. I really believe in the whole holistic aspect of health and fitness, and with what I've been reading about fascia is just fascinating (yup, I just did that), and so I need to a) finish reading The Role Model (about half way now) and continue to roll, ideally daily. For this, I really plan to instagram daily either a stretch sequence, or rolling, or something related to it for accountability. If you're all instagrammy, follow me and cheer me on @jbean86 AAAAAaaaand 2 goals is going to be it for the physical side. My 2015 mantra is the idea of "doing more with less". Experiences trump stuff, less is more, etc. As part of that I'm trying to purge my house, use up what I have, buy a minimum amount of stuff. This is really inspired by me wanting to move across the country in 2 years. I figure if I start downsizing now, I'll be happier, but also ready to move when the time comes. And who knows, it may been sooner than 2 years, and if the right opportunities come up, I want to be ready. Well...readier. lol Life Goals 1) Clean and purge my house. As part of this, I also want to finish up projects that have been started, including decorating my condo. I want a nice place to live in, but also when it comes time to sell it, I want to have a showing-ready place. Basically, I'm a grown up (without kids) and there's no reason I can't have a nice looking place. lol To make this more trackable, I want to set aside (minimum) an hour per week (with the exception of week 2) to make an effort to do something towards this goal. 2-ish) I've been toying with the idea of journaling again. I did it as a hard hat challenge a while back and by the end of it, I really liked it. Maybe I'll try to add this when I get back from holidays. There you have it folks. Simple, but do-able. Tracking: 1) Water 1/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 2) Stretching 1/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 3) Cleaning 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1