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So, I am choosing one habit per challenge this year and focusing specifically on developing and exploring that one habit. Then each challenge, I am maintaining the old habits while tackling a new one. At the end of the year, if all goes well, I will have TEN GREAT HABITS. Challenge 1: Walking daily (aiming for 16 miles per week) Challenge 2: Morning routine Challenge 3.... It's food time. Here are some misc. things about me and food: So, that's me and food in a nutshell. What works for me seems to be limiting my food enough that it's a little boring, and getting plenty of fiber/vegetables. It's a challenge because food is also such a hobby for me that I don't want to limit it in that way. So I think what I need to do is somehow find a balance. And I want to avoid setting excessive rules or tracking overly much, because even when it works, I don't think it's totally sustainable. And I want healthy eating to become something I do on autopilot, just like exercise is. So. I think for this challenge, I'm going to experiment with a hypothesis. The blog nomeatathlete mentions this concept at one point: I think there's something to this. Although I'll add protein to the salads because I'm not aiming for no meat. So, I want to experiment. If I have a smoothie every morning and a salad for lunch every day, then eat whatever I feel like for snacks and dinner, will that balance me out? Details The smoothies and salads can vary, obviously. I have a basic green smoothie formula I use a lot, but I can also just tinker with other options. I have a roasted veggie salad recipe and a cobb salad recipe I really like. I'll need more variety than that to keep salads interesting, so please do share if you have any favorite salads! I do want to experiment with black bean pasta salad, but loaded with lots of veggies. Oh, and there's that Mediterranean salad I like too. So that's 4. And thai steak salad with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. I think I'll use the term "salad" loosely here. Like, if I make a ton of ratatouille or something, that's a large pile of vegetables, which is basically a salad. I can also make an omelette and chop it up on top of a salad. I just need enough variety that I'm not like "ughh, salad" after a few days of this. I like craisins on a salad. And caesar with avocado. And so on and so on. Mark over at MDA also eats a big ass salad for lunch every day, and swears by it, so there's another basis for this to work. The other thing I kind of want to do is build up my salad database. When I have a tasty salad somewhere, I want to figure out how to recreate it at home. I've had two at the cafe where they hold a gaming meetup that I really liked - a spinach bacon salad with tomatoes, creamy balsamic, and sunflower seeds, and a caprese salad with tomato and mozz and balsamic glaze on greens. I haven't quite figured out a good creamy balsamic dressing yet. Or a balsamic glaze. Dressing is going to be the key to success here. Other good ones I've had...there's one I don't remember that well, but I think it had arugula and goat cheese and some sort of crispy topping that didn't feel super unhealthy. Hrm. And there was one at a pub with figs, portobello mushrooms, and either feta or goat cheese, which was also amazing. Planning There are a few things I need to prepare for. What if I don't want breakfast one day? Does skipping the smoothie and just having a banana mid-morning count against me? I don't think it should. That will be allowed. And also, I think there will be times when I just really want some eggs or some pancakes. Or get a chance to go out for breakfast and have something other than a smoothie. And I think for now I'll just observe what happens without judgement if it does. I'll see how often this variance actually happens, and then adjust from there if I need to. There's also travel. It's harder to make a smoothie when I'm staying with friends or the boyfriend. I guess I can do it at the boyfriend's. Although sometimes we don't eat breakfast and lunch is our first meal of the day. I'm not worried about the time with friends. It's not so common that it's an issue. The time with the boyfriend will need some care though. We both like eating out as a hobby, so it's hard to say I'm just going to have a salad, especially when there are so many salads I don't really like at restaurants. So, I'm not sure. I don't want this to turn into deprivation or forcing myself to eat a mediocre salad when there's something else amazing in front of me. It might be dangerous, but I kind of want to play this by ear too. Maybe have a salad for at least one meal out of every three days I'm with him? Or maybe focus on just getting a certain quantity of vegetables in general? Or on eating paleoish? I don't know yet. There will probably also be times when I end up having something other than the planned salad for lunch. In those cases, I think I'll just try to adjust by having it for dinner instead. I don't like eating salad for dinner unless it's amazing, so I won't plan for this to happen. I'll just be prepared to adapt when it does. Other Stuff So none of this is a specific goal, but I have other ongoing habits / fitness stuff that I'll often report on here: Yoga 3 workouts / week 2 runs / week Meditation Shopping ban running Jan - March (and maybe longer) - no eating out unless travelling or socially, no shopping unless I need to replace something that runs out Aikido

It is time... For the much talked about CAT TAKEOVER CHALLENGE!!!* *Can you tell I'm excited? Alright here goes. The goals: (warning, many gifs to follow) Eat: Cat's gotta eat after all. Breakfast - don't skip it. Can be fruit and veges and nuts from work or oatmeal with fruit and nuts (weekends) occasional treat breakfast (croissant) Lunch should be filling and healthy. Ideally leftovers from home. Cook most nights and cook extra. Avoid refined carbs (bread, pasta, etc) as much as possible (cats don't eat carbs duh) exceptions allowed when out with friends etc and only limited options are available. Purr: Things that make me happy. Chant everyday - definitely morning, bonus for evening. Paint/art 2x per week. Plan holiday, lock in dates, apply for leave. Activity/movement - physio, standing, bbw workouts? walks, runs? yoga? stretching? Haven't quite decided yet. Sleep: This is actually the goal I'm most interested in and will probably find the hardest. But I think if I can crack the sleep game it will help me do better in literally all other areas of my life. Morning routine - wake early, drink a glass of lemon water, chant 30 minutes, get ready for work. Evening routine - no laptop after 10m, bed by 10:30, lights out 11:30. Sweet dreams. Offerings of cat tax gladly accepted!

Adventhur kitteh reportin 4 duty! So, one again I have a challenge without any planned travel currently. What I do have is a lot of errands planned. As in a lot planned for me. I don't know about other people. But here is a list of the errands I must do or would be very good if I did: (EDIT: BOLD MEANS DONE) Real estate agent meeting (Mar 14) Hair dyeing (Mar 15) Second real estate agent meeting (Mar 15) Private showing (Mar 16) Insurance visit (Mar 17) Rest of electrician visit Fix the leak visit Get grass load to recycle station Re-schedule tattoo Vaccination appointment Contraception appointment I have a lot things planned for this challenge, so like everyone who's followed me knows, that means something will implode and I have a sneaking suspicion I might have to delay everything for a couple of weeks depending on how fast I work... (I'll get to that below my plan.) Oh, who am I and why amz I an advenchur kitteh? Because I'm currently hurling myself towards becoming nomadic. This means I have a large host of things to do: Declutter like a kitteh from hell. I need to reduce my belongs down to a backpack and perhaps a suitcase, plus a couple of boxes of stuff I hope to leave with my parents and another couple of boxes of books I can leave with a friend. Do appointments like a boss. Everything from appointments I need for travel (vaccinations), selling my house, telling family about my plans, bank visits to fix with finances, and having contractors come and fix broken things in the home I am selling. Do a lot of other prep for travel such as reading books, distilling info from books, making lists for that info and other. Eventually I will also need to decide on my first stops and research them for the different things I need. Basically, my list of stuff to do is huge, at the same time I don't want to completely quite my self-improvement challenge goals (or objectives as I call them). However, I'm starting to see I am between a rock and a hard place. More on that below my plans. Kitteh haz 100% rulez! Some person I am right now too lazy to look up said: "100% is a breeze. 99% is a bitch." What the saying means is that it is much easier if you commit 100% to something. If you will do it with no or few exceptions, then the change will be easier than if you try for moderation or part effort. For example: if you decide to quit sugar eventually, you will fight yourself every day when you try to decide how much sugar you can have that day and you will constantly use will power. If you on the other hand decide to quit fully with no exceptions or very easy to define exceptions, then there is no choice and therefore no will power drain; you do the thing. So here are my 100% rules this challenge and I'll admit most of them are new and I am currently breaking one of them, although I meant to follow them during zero week. (I need to stop staying up until oh-dark o-clock, because sleep deprivation certainly makes me very willing to be lax with my rules.) Morning alarm at 8 every morning. (With the intent on getting up at that hour, with some leeway especially early in the challenge, say zero week or so) Nourishment every day, preferably in the morning. (If I hit it right before bed, I'll be somewhat irritated at myself, but the point is to not miss.) No internet before lunch. (This is the one I am currently breaking. This will be more of a "working towards getting this to 100%". My brain needs a lot of new habits to make it work.) Deal with some dish washing while cooking lunch. (Unless I have no time to spare while cooking lunch as in I'm doing something with cooking for the full cooking duration.) Oh... I forgot the two I've been following for a while now: Buy no soda. Buy max 1 sweet per grocery shopping trip (or any other time I can shop sweets). Edit: Another 100% rule As long as there is no ice on the sidewalks and road: Movement every day. (Walking is my favorite which is why this goal disappears if the ice streets come back.) Kitteh haz daily needz! Now over to my objectives. These would be more like my typical challenge goals, but since I put so many new 100% rules in place (new format for me) these are reduced. Plus I have more below... Daily intentional movement Daily nourishment Daily journaling about a space/setting Daily writing, minimum ~250 words The two in italics I just realized I can't start yet. Perhaps I can start them during Week 1, but it depends on what the next few days look like and if I'll go with a certain plan that is starting in my brain... Kitteh improovez evrywhere! So during Nourish Yourself, a course from Kate Marolt (I usually link but you can easily find it through her website or googling (I'm assuming)), I learned that there is a more granular way to divide up your life than body, mind, and soul. Although I like that three part, for me it lacks the external things that affect us and that we need to deal with. Basically, while we need to care for yourself, we also have to deal with the outside world, so I always found "body, mind, soul" lacking in that. The eight areas are: physical (body), mental, emotional, spiritual, environment (not as in being as green as possible (necessarily), but the environment you spend time in), finances, creativity, and relationships. So below are projects I have in each of those areas that I want to hit this challenge. Some of them are directly related to things I've already mentioned about, some are not. Finances Sell a specific stock (didn't sell, so need to try again (asked for too high a price)) Buy a specific stock Write/re-draft/choose story to send to WotF Submissions (WotF and potentially more) Work on Submissions sheets Do taxes Finish off Financial plan v 1.0, March 31 Send X logo reminder email Send X email asking for review links for book Send Y email about copyediting, choose a story for her to do Take picture with me and book a, and share on fb (use in blog post later on) Book b will release, March 31. Do something? (Release date was moved by almost a month) Take action on book a blog post and update of website? Transcribe notes from Master class on file structure Spirituality Read about all tarot cards, March 31 Chase down missing deck (either fully done yesterday or partly done depending on if I decide to try more, plus I need to make sure I do get the refund) Physical Cook one paleo meal Mental Finish Nourish Yourself Call vaccination clinic about appointment to discuss what I need and what I have and what I need to boost Call (9:00-9:30) for contraceptive appointment plus examination, plus potentially STD check Can I reschedule tattoo appointment? How much healing did it need before I can swim in pool/ocean (min 2 weeks)? What do I need to do to retake depth workshop in June/July? Schedule what I need to do to retake depth in June/July If I have time, start organization lecture during challenge Get bankkort Visa from bank OR other travel card — Tried this last day of the challenge but the online application form isn't working for me Creativity Create start-writing-ritual Write New validation on Price of Magic Cut walk-to-story some way in Family Is… Environment Finish reflection tasks from to-do list Take a load to charity Recycle cardboard from side room Read a book from the “maybe keep” pile Emotional Watch 1-3 new things Read 1 new book Finish The Big Leap Work on stuff from The Big Leap Relations Call 2-4 people (1/2-4) Finish call list Expand email list (anthology people) Email M (about house sitting) and L (about talking to her daughter about website design) Call K *bold means I've done them Kitteh ned 2 rest! I have two full rest days planned. This is to make sure I WILL take those rest days beyond any rest I take when I feel I need it or really want it. The dates are: March 28 and April 7. Those are evenly spread in the middle of the challenge (discounting zero week). I don't remember how I decided on two days, but after I did I then basically divided up four weeks into three blocks as evenly as possible. Kitteh attackz challenge! ~*~*~*~*~*~ HERE COMEZ THE POSSIBLE DISRUPTION. Today in a few hours, a real estate agent will come and we'll talk about selling my house. I realized that if I want to show the house, I have a crapton to do. I'm a sloooooow mover, so I still have a heck of a lot of boxes still unpacked from moving in here in Dec 2015. I have also started my decluttering efforts, so my stuff are more everywhere than before and in ways that aren't so easy to conceal or hide away. So... If I want to show my house asap and actually give a good enough impression that I could get some good money for it... I need to deal with my stuff. Because there are already things I can't deal with that will lessen the impression (an out of shape garden, broken gate, broken lawn due to heating system change, and more). And to mitigate the bad impression, I need to make sure the interior looks as well as possible despite changes in one basement room (washing room plus the place with the heating system). So... I just realized I might need to disband any challenge goals or much of anything but taking care of my mess of stuff until I can show this home off to a pretty enough degree. This will take more than a weekend of fixing. Part of it I can just fix enough to look good or hide the worst offenders in storage places in the basement. But I have to do a lot because there are areas and things I can't fix myself. So I might have to spend up to two weeks doing this, and that is only if I do it in a focused way and don't let myself get distracted with other things. Advenchur kitteh out.

WARNING: Cats have overrun Nerd Fitness! ^ Actual picture of me Cataleya's 2017 Roadmap A bunch of us are doing cat-themed challenges this month. I wanted to do one based off my favorite anime cat, Chi! If you've never seen Chi's Sweet Home or Chi's New Address, you're really missing out. Seriously. Like, go watch it. Now. It's a bunch of 3-minute episodes that make me the happiest person ever when I'm feeling down. So what do cats do? THEY DO NONE ALL OF THE THINGS. SLEEP LIKE A CAT Sleep during the day, then run around like a crazy person at night. Sleep at least 7 hours a night. I need sleep. It's really as simple as that. STRETCH LIKE A CAT Lay on top of everything and shed like there's no tomorrow. Yoga 2x/week This went well last challenge, so I'm going to do it again this challenge. EAT LIKE A CAT Be super picky about everything. 90g protein daily. Limit sugar. MyFitnessPal Eat things that are good for me! Limit sugar intake to one serving a day. Try not to eat out. 90g protein daily, might increase if the next goal goes well: KNOCK SHIT OVER LIKE A CAT KNOCK ALL THE THINGS OVER. Weights 3x/week Cats increase their strength by knocking shit over. I'm sure of it. I should lift things up so I can help them get back to the floor. I'm happy if you'll follow along with me this month!