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(july 2021) intention - practice discipline; show up for myself. (week 27-week 30) - practice just enough discipline to show up and perform the rituals that sustain my well-being. 1. resistance band workout - 30m 3x week, ≥12 of 28 days (43%) why? 1.) increase confidence, self-esteem, sense of self-efficacy. reconnect with my body. 2.) feeling my body get stronger makes me feel safe being alone. makes the idea of doing Outside Things again less scary. 3.) practice towards "mastery" of a thing also decreases shame that ADHD brings on. 2. read - 40 pg/day, 6x week ⇒ ~240 pgs/week (1 book) why? 1.) purpose, direction, advice. "mentorship" through written word 2.) reading is self-care. reground in present. chill out, racing mind. 3.) have >25 books to re-read and zettel properly. let's gooooo 3. write - 300 words/day, 5x week ⇒ 1,500 words/week why? 1.) bipoc queer/trans homos are dying out here. there is a map to healing. it is scattered across different resources, modalities, disciplines. we need a map. hard to think let alone do research when stuck in trauma loops, cycles of major depression. doesn't have to hurt so much. 2.) i'm a mouthy bitch. got things to say. those who survived our ancient reptile brain can share our learnings. prevent more self-harm. 3.) need to get a rough cut out to community before november holidays. when things start falling apart.

I am currently challenged with working out on a daily basis. I have a long drive to work, so waking up to early can limit my sleep and effect my health. I want to work out when I get home, but I always end up just sitting on the couch. Even worse, some days I can get so tired from work, I pick up food instead of making a healthy meal for my family. My challenge is to work out 6 out of the 7 days of the week and limit eating out to once a week. From looking at other posts, I have decided that logging my journey is the best way to be accountable. Today's goal 1/11 Walk the dog a mile Run for 30 minutes on the tread mill ( Did 1 hour of Zumba instead) Cook a healthy meal for the family. Time to begin..... 1/12 Walk the dog a mile Yoga Healthy meal I ran into a hiccup today, binged on unhealthy snacks on the way home. Tomorrow, try to take water with lime in the car to enjoy on the ride.

In this wild and stressful life, I have a tendency to just drop everything and do nothing. This is not working for me, so I need a routine to make sure I at least stay somewhat active during these periods. I'm recovering from a burnout, so I only work 3 morning a week at the moment. Hopefully this will be more by the end of the challenge, but I genuinely don't know yet. I want to put in place the following routines: Working day routine: after work, make sure to do yoga and either a short walk or bike ride. Non-working weekday routine: walk at least 5 kilometers, starting before 9. Do chores for at least 10 minutes. Morning routine: get dressed, make the bed, eat breakfast, empty dishwasher if applicable. Evening routine: clear kitchen counters, brush teeth and stretch calves. I will test this morning- and evening-routine this week. I'm not in the habit of having these routines, so I might need to do some fiddling later on. Hopefully, I can add on to them in next challenges . Exercise goal: Either climb or run on either Wednesday or Thursday, and either Saturday or Sunday. Let's see if I can conquer my yoga-mat again:

Quick Recap: After trying to juggle saving money, a massively restricted budget, odd working hours, and a rough patch caused by depression and anxiety mixing with the former things, I’ve slowed down so much a snail could outpace me. But I haven’t stopped. Instead I’ve picked out the pieces of the last few challenges that have worked for me, identified the goals that are vital to sustainable success, and put together a deload challenge. No lofty goals, no pressure, no blaming myself if I have to slow the pace even further. And, you know, I’ve done fourteen challenges here on NF (shock, awe!), and not once has it ever occurred to me while searching for a theme that this was an option. So without further ado, I present: iatetheyeti’s Bigfoot Odyssey (bigfoot and yeti used interchangeably despite technically being different creatures because why not?) DAILY MISSIONS The most important part of the challenge and the only part deemed essential. These missions are multi-purpose. On one level, they give me three small yet productive things to accomplish throughout the day which in turn will boost my mood. On another level, posting these missions is a daily task that will keep me at a minimal level of activity on NF, which in turn will make it easier for me to keep up with everyone else (which in turn gives me the warm fuzzies ‘cause there are so many amazing and lovely people here). As such, dailies are unscored. 1. MONSTER HUNTER’S ROUTINE Tracking a yeti day in, day out requires discipline of the highest order lest the hunter grow lazy and let the beast slip away. Building routine is a tricky business, however, and care must be taken in order to do it right. I have both full routines written down, but I know I can’t just jump right into doing them (I tried, I failed). So I’ve broken them down into steps. Morning Routine Step One: Out of bed no more than ten minutes after the alarm has sounded, NFA anti-slouch wall drill before coffee. Evening Routine Step One: Laptop off by 9pm, NFA anti-slouch wall drill before bed. So very, very simple (and yet so very hard to stick to). I think the anti-slouching drills are probably going to trip me up most, but as I am a chronic sloucher, I really need to stick to them. What I really wanted to do was add in step two as an ‘if I do this to the letter for two weeks’ then I progress, but I’ve decided against it. Four weeks. Twenty one days to get the habits ingrained. And then I can think about building up some more. SCORING: Every morning with step one completed gets one point, every evening with step one completed gets one point. Total points up for grabs: 56 2. MOVE LIKE A BEAST A hunter will encounter all manner of obstacles in a mountainous environment, and as such needs to be able to overcome them using nothing but their own physical prowess. It’s simple, it can be done anywhere, and it’s a little less likely to go disastrously wrong if I attempt it when I’m tired or fasted. Yoga Step One: Twice weekly yoga practice using NF Water Series. Bodyweight Step One: Three times weekly using the NFA level four workouts. The bodyweight workouts are relatively short in comparison to what I was doing with the SL5x5 workouts, which will be a bonus on days where I’m working full shifts at awkward times. I’ll wait and see what my weekly shift schedule looks like before making any set plans for when I’ll be doing each session/workout. SCORING: Every yoga session and bodyweight workout gets one point. Total points up for grabs: 20 3. ON AND ON AND ON AND ON Bigfoot uses those big feet all day, every day. He can walk for miles and not tire, no matter the weather or the gradient of the land. Even simpler than yoga and BW exercise and can very easily be moderated to match how I feel when setting out. Feeling drained? Short, slow walk. Feeling energised? Longer, faster walk. Walking Step One: Two non-work commute walks per week. As simple as that. Walking to work gives me a little bit of an edge and collects roughly half an hour of walking five days of the week. My days off, however, range from four or five hours doing laps around Inverness to not moving from the sofa. Time to stabilise that. SCORING: Every walk gets one point. Total points up for grabs: 8 4. CALM IN THE STORM Hunting beasts in a dangerous environment will take a mental toll, and it is vital to not only know how to recover, but how to minimise the damage even before it happens. This one is mostly reinforcing a habit I’m well on the way to setting in stone, but the extra accountability won’t hurt. Meditation Step One: Five minutes every morning, five minutes every evening. I’ll be using the focus-on-nothing-but-breathing-keep-an-empty-mind kind of meditation as right now I think that’s probably the most suitable thing. Of course, that’s not to say extra sessions can’t be added in. Sometimes a rough day can be made a little better by some heavy metal meditation, after all! SCORING: Every meditation session gets one point. Total points up for grabs: 56 This time I’ll even be grading. Much as I’d love a 100% success rate, I do need to remember that I’m not a machine and I will react negatively if I set that as my only acceptable goal and fail to reach it. So I’ve come up with this little rewards system: 80% success rate: A steak dinner (not even joking, a consolation prize still has to be something I actually want to earn!) 90% success rate: Yoga block (probably more comfortable to use than the book I’ve been using…) 100% success rate: Two books from Waterstones (because buy one get one half price is always a thing there) Above all else, the purpose of this challenge is to keep me focused on moving forwards. It isn’t the end of the world if I don’t manage to achieve these goals (though it would be nice to, hence the lure of shiny new things), and it isn’t the end of the world if I don’t complete my dailies. I’ll be successful if I keep on trying.