UnquietBones (and sidekicks) get SMART

[UnquietBones]

It's been a rough year and every time I think I've got my feet back under me something else happens... but darnit, that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop trying! *rolls up sleeves*

 

• Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
• Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
• Assignable – specify who will do it. (All of these will be ME! )
• Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
• Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved. (Within the 4-week challenge window)

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I will take at least one positive step a day towards permanently changing my diet and document it here. 

Diet is a huge part of weight loss and being healthy. I need to give it priority in my life. I will do this by making small changes each day. Writing down these small wins will help me stay motivated in the long run. (EDIT: At the moment I will accept a 'win' as any time when I chose the healthier of the available options or any time I cook--  regardless of how healthy the resulting meal is.)

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I will take my doggie sidekicks out at least once a day for a dog walk and post a photo.

Both of my dogs (Shiva and Bucket) have a lot of energy and Bucket gets destructive when he gets bored. Taking them on a walk will benefit me as well as them. I believe most days I will be able to accomplish this by going on a longer walk after work with Bucket and then a shorter walk with both of them after dinner. The long term goal with this is to get a two mile walk done every day (regardless of weather).

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

I will do at least one bodyweight exercise a day and log it here.

Goal 1 will reduce my caloric intake, Goal 2 will help with endurance, so Goal 3 will be about building muscle. I have a list of exercises that I've been able to do in past challenges, so I will either pick something from those or I will participate in the mini.

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

I will make some progress each day on my current commitments.

A lot of my stress comes from overcommitting, so I will set aside time each day to work on finishing my current tasks. I have a young adult novel that I am reviewing for someone that is due at the end of September and I have a series of customized model horses that are due by the end of the year. I will make at least some progress towards each and post updates and/or photos here.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

I will do at least one thing a day that counts as adulting, outside of my other goals.

I've been slacking big time while my husband was on summer vacation, now that his school year has started I need to get my butt back into gear helping around the house. So all chores, cleaning, etc. goes into this bucket. This will help reduce stress on both of us and the house will look better to boot!

 

Spoiler

9/11 - Y Y N Y Y

9/12 - Y Y N N N

9/13 - Y Y N N Y

9/14 - Y Y Y Y Y

9/15 - N N N Y Y

(S) 9/16 - Y N Y Y Y

(S) 9/17 - Y N Y N Y (PP0 | PlP0 | YS0 | T1)  (Official challenge start)

9/18 - Y N N N Y (PP5 | PlP2 | YS0 | T3)

9/20 - Y Y Y N Y (PP30 | PlP2 | YS0 | T1)

9/21 - Y N N Y Y (PP0 | PlP2 | YS0 | T2)

9/22 - Y Y Y N Y (PP0 | PlP0 | YS0 | T0) - too late, points don't count

(S) 9/23 - N Y N N Y (PP0 | PlP0 | YS0 | T0) - too late, points don't count

(S) 9/24 - N Y N Y Y (PP0 | MtM60 | Rr1609 | WeC0)

9/25 - Y Y N Y Y (PP0 | MtM20 | Rr1609 | WeC0)

9/26 - N Y N N Y (PP0 | MtM0 | Rr1609 | WeC0)

9/27 - N N N N N (PP0 | MtM0 | Rr0 | WeC0)

9/28 - ? ? ? ? ?

9/29 - ? ? ? ? ?

(S) 9/30 - ? ? ? ? ?

(S) 10/1 - ? ? ? ? ? (Deadline for story edits!)

10/2 - Y N N N Y (PP0 | EF0 | TD0 | S1)

10/3 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/4 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/5 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/6 - ? ? ? ? ?

(S) 10/7 - ? ? ? ? ?

(S) 10/8 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/9 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/10 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/11 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/12 - ? ? ? ? ?

10/13 - ? ? ? ? ?

(S) 10/14 - ? ? ? ? ? (Official challenge end)

 

[Lara]

Good luck!

[UnquietBones]

9/11/2017

I've decided to restart the 'only say positive things' from a previous challenge. I kept writing out 'but' after every good thing I accomplished. *sighs*

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I packed breakfast and lunch for work and cooked dinner!

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I actually took Bucket walking twice. Once was a short walk around the house to practice his heeling and the second was a proper doggie walk at the park.

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

I actually forgot about this. *sighs*

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

I completed editing the notes for Chapter 26.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

I cleaned up all the dinner dishes and did a load of laundry.

 

[Lara]

Looks like a very good start!

[Jonesy]

What sort of food habits are you changing? Do you have a plan or timeline?

[UnquietBones]

On 9/12/2017 at 1:48 PM, zenLara said:

Looks like a very good start!

 

Thanks! I got sick yesterday, so there was a small backslide, but I'm back on the trail today! 

 

18 hours ago, Jonesy said:

What sort of food habits are you changing? Do you have a plan or timeline?

 

At the moment I will accept a 'win' as any time when I chose the healthier of the available options or any time I cook--  regardless of how healthy the resulting meal is. My goal is to do this at least once per day, with a perfect day being all wins. My eating habits are bad enough that I need to take some baby steps towards eating better and some easy wins. Next challenge I am going to ramp it up quite a bit and focus in on eating 'good' food as opposed to eating 'better' food. I'm in the Nerd Fitness Academy so I'd like to get back on track with the food-themed challenges there, but I need to ease into it. 

[UnquietBones]

9/12/2017

It turned out to be an incredibly stressful day at work and I was starting to get sick today, but held in there... in retrospect I should have admitted I was getting sick and pre-planned to be out of work Wednesday. I am stubbornly optimistic on my ability to overcome sickness. *sighs*

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I had oatmeal for breakfast. I skipped dinner because I wasn't hungry (I had a large chunk of calories for lunch), but I'm not sure if this should count. Choosing not to eat seems like it shouldn't count? *ponders*

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I took Bucket out for a walk in the park and we practiced down stays and some heeling. (I wrote healing at first and was then highly amused at the idea of a Bucket Medic. )

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

Forgot again. I need to get better at this before the actual challenge starts! Maybe put up a list of these goals on my bedroom door. *ponders*

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

None

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

None

[UnquietBones]

9/13/2017

I was sick today and was awake maybe 6 hours in total. I slept in until 4pm, but did get up, get a meal in me and make it out to Bucket's training class. I probably could have skipped it, but it's not fair to him to miss a class just because I went belly up!

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I chose baby carrots as one of my snacks when I woke up and I chose to eat Outback instead of KFC as my one meal of the day.

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I took Bucket out to his weekly training class. He's getting a lot better at the concept of staying! GO BUCKET!

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

None

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

None

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

I called out sick instead of going into work and making things worse (and possibly infecting my coworkers). I actually slept instead of playing on the internet in bed. I got up and took Bucket to class.

[Lara]

2 hours ago, UnquietBones said:

Maybe put up a list of these goals on my bedroom door

Reminders at eye height always help, at least to me.

[UnquietBones]

9/14/2017

Made it to work today, but not feeling well enough to get much done (oh well). At least tomorrow's friday!  (I also have the on call phone again this weekend, which limits how much I can do. Boo...)

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I brought lunch and chose to have some iced tea instead of all Diet Coke.

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I took Bucket out for a half hour in a short walk around the neighborhood and practice his heels, stops, stays, etc. Then we came back inside and he practiced his cat manners!

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

Arm circles and lots of moving dirt and carrying bricks because Bucket decided to start digging under the fence. I'll be putting up the radio collar wire this weekend.

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

Edited chapter 28 and worked on chapter 27.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

My new walking shoes came in (woot!). New on the left and the ones on the right are from this February... it's nice to see I'm at least doing damage to them!

 

[UnquietBones]

9/15/2017

Still under the weather, but starting to feel a bit better! Hopefully this will be gone by the weekend because I need to install a radio fence wire because some doggie has decided digging under the fence is fun! *sighs* But we've been through this with another dog and putting in an electric fence on the physical fence and turning it down low is enough to stop that. (At least it was with our old dog). So yay, projects!

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

Yeeeeah, not so much.

 

Goal #2 - Walking

I was actually feeling a bit dizzy when I got home, so no walking.  I did do more cat training though and there is hope that he'll be off-leash with the cat by the end of the year. *crosses fingers*

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

None.

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

Edited 27 and 29! Uploaded 27-29 and then worked a bit on formatting the spell-checking and basic grammar stuff for chapters 30-39.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Laundry!

[Manarelle]

Sorry to hear you got sick; here's to it being gone soon. Love the challenge (and the puppy pictures), the idea of just focusing on each individual better food choice is a good step to take. Following again. 

[UnquietBones]

9/16/2017

I need to get better about making these updates on the weekends!  Amusingly since I hit the max level on the Virgin Pulse program at work (step tracking, meal tracking, etc.) I've stopped checking everything else as well... bad human, no biscuit!  I had the on call phone, so no long doggie walks (alas), but I give it back Monday so we should get back in the groove pretty quickly as long as the rain holds off.

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I have figured out the perfect meal at our weekend breakfast joint, which is a pared-down version of the normal and I stuck to it!  It never seems like enough food when I get it, but I'm always pleasantly full at the end (greek sausage, two eggs, no potatoes/grits, only one slice of rye toast). I also chose to drink something other than Diet Coke at least once in the day.

 

Goal #2 - Walking

No walking because of the on call phone, but lots of hanging out in the yard and playing fetch! Not that great for my step count, but the dogs love it sooooo, win!

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

I did a few random wall pushups, but it was very random. Need to pick a time to do these! Arg!

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

Edited 30 and started working on 31.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Lots of Walmart/Petsmart/Petco adventuring trying to find a PetSafe in ground system so I can encourage Bucket to stop trying to dig under the fence. I was hoping to get it and then start installing it, but it took a lot longer to find than anticipated. (In case anyone is wondering the PetSafe Guardian that WalMart sells is compatible with the PetSafe In-Ground system that Petco and PetSmart sell).

[UnquietBones]

9/17/2017

Today was... Install Doggie Fence day!  Which turned into Cleaning The Shed OMG day because I could no longer see the workbench or find any of my tools. *sighs* But it needed doing and I got some good progress, even if it doesn't look like much yet.

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

I chose to drink something other than Diet Coke and I chose healthier options when we ate out (Subway & Panera's), so all in all, it was a pretty good food day!  

 

Goal #2 - Walking

No dog walks, but lots of work installing the fencing for around the front gate (as a test of the system and of Bucket's reaction). I got just shy of 7k steps doing just that, so win-win.

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

Ladders! And bending and squatting and stapling and removing staples as I tweaked the line run, and running lines, and crawling around in bushes, and, and, and... I need some Advil.

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

None.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Started work on cleaning the shed! Installed a partial dog fence! Laundry!! So Adulting, Very Accomplishments!

[UnquietBones]

12 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Sorry to hear you got sick; here's to it being gone soon. Love the challenge (and the puppy pictures), the idea of just focusing on each individual better food choice is a good step to take. Following again. 

 

I'm getting sick a LOT more often now and it's one of the reasons that's pushing me to start taking all of this more seriously. I keep thinking it's not that bad and then when I start looking at the logs it looks horrible... But I can change, 'cause I ain't dead yet!

 

I'm very happy the current part of the challenge has something for food prep in it (I didn't even check it until today, le sigh) because I need to get back on track for that. Doing small steps this time and I really want to move to BIG steps next challenge. *plans magnificent plans* And the puppy pictures are always a win... can't wait until I can get back to walking both of the dogs at the same time!  

[UnquietBones]

9/18/2017

Today was not a good day. I had all these Grand Plans, but I also had a dental appointment directly after work. It wasn't any worse than normal (sharp temporary pain + terror = never a fun time), but I was exhausted afterwords... and was actually worried about falling asleep on the drive home. I took a three hours naps after that and basically had zero energy to accomplish anything past that point. It really felt like a waste of a day.

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

Bought healthy breakfast from the kiosk at work, had Subway for lunch, and made dinner-- so woot!  Plus I chose to not drink Diet Coke several times, which is a nice bonus round win.

 

Goal #2 - Walking

None

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

None

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

None.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

I went to the dentist. Which is seriously a big thing for me, even though I have the nicest dentists in the world. They really want me to get my wisdom teeth out if I can, so I need to get the 60 seconds of courage and call to schedule the consultation (it's going to require oral surgery and I had a friend die under anesthesia early this year so I'm uber terrified at this point.) ((The friend died from the doctors doing something wrong or a one-in-a-million complication, jury is still out on which)). Also, laundry.

 

Porky Pig  (Misc Training) : --

Pepe le Pew (Socializing) : --

Yosemite Sam (Mobility) : --

Tweety (Cooking) : 1 dinner

[Lara]

8 hours ago, UnquietBones said:

I had a friend die under anesthesia early this year so I'm uber terrified at this point.

omg, that is so sad. And no wonder you are worried. But really, as you say, it's one-in-a-million case.

[UnquietBones]

9/19/2017

Today was a better day!

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

Packed breakfast and lunch and ate leftovers for dinner, so lots of win! *dancedancedance* And I drank something that wasn't Diet Coke more than once... so much adulting!

 

Goal #2 - Walking

Took Shiva and Bucket out for a walk... the two of them actually do fit in the back of a Ford Focus. It was a little chaotic, but it was also sprinkling on and off, so the park was 90% empty.

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

Wall pushups!  Randomly and for counts of seven, because it sounded like a lucky number. I'm trying to get in the habit of doing them whenever I have to stand around for a minute.

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

None.

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Dishes! Laundry! Paying Khol's bills! (It thought I paid it last month, but late fee says no. *sighs*) 

 

Porky Pig  (Misc Training) : 5 minutes (give or take) of random wall pushups throughout the day

Pepe le Pew (Socializing) : Met and chatted with two people during the dog walk

Yosemite Sam (Mobility) : --

Tweety (Cooking) : 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner

[UnquietBones]

I decided today at work that next year I will take on no new commission projects. I'm getting very stressed out about finishing the ones I've taken on for this year and it's not something I want to deal with after this. Now I just have to manage to get this set done! *flails about* Arg!

[Jonesy]

1 hour ago, UnquietBones said:

I decided today at work that next year I will take on no new commission projects. I'm getting very stressed out about finishing the ones I've taken on for this year and it's not something I want to deal with after this. Now I just have to manage to get this set done! *flails about* Arg!

 

I think this is smart. You can always take one or two next year if you change your mind, If you miss doing it and it brings you joy. No room for stress for side projects! 

[Red1263]

It never hurts to take a step back and say No. Especially if you're stressing yourself out!

[UnquietBones]

9/20/2017

Bucket is now in off-leash in-house adventures with the cat! So far he would like to sniff cat butt more than the cat is pleased with, but there have been no aggression/mouthing issues and he stops when we tell him to Leaveit. Taft retaliated by sitting in Bucket's box and drinking his water. *sighs* If they settle down this is going to relieve one of the major stress points in my life right now! *dance*

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

Picked Subway for lunch over fast food, picked iced tea over Diet Coke, had dinner at home instead of going out... yay improvement!

 

Goal #2 - Walking

It was almost 90 out, so no walking... boo. But I did take Bucket to his Bucket Training class, so he got to walk in circles and practice commands for an hour, so that sort of counts?

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

None

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

Finished chapter 31 and started 32!

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Dishes! Some spot cleaning... 

 

Porky Pig  (Misc Training) : 30min of brisk walking from the dog training class (estimated since there is some sit-stay work as well) 

Pepe le Pew (Socializing) : Got to meet two new people at the dog training class and chatted up the old folks that I don't know as well (not counting those).

Yosemite Sam (Mobility) : --

Tweety (Cooking) : 1 dinner

[UnquietBones]

I've decided to try a little harder at the Pepe le Pew sidequest, so here's my tracking for who I've talking to (and who I need to follow up on! )

 

New People: Zardoz, Unlucky_Desperado, 

Folks I Know:

[UnquietBones]

9/21/2017

Due to a miscommunication I didn't have time to go dog walking... so Bucket helpful let me know by removing my kitchen curtains. *sighs*

 

Goal #1 - Eating Healthy

Brought breakfast, lunch, and had dinner a home!  Also chose something other than Diet Coke more than once. I'm definitely going to be ready for a harder food challenge come next four-week! *starts making plans*

 

Goal #2 - Walking

None

 

Goal #3 - Bodyweight Exercises

None

 

Goal #4 - Reducing Commitments

Finished 32 and 33

 

Goal #5 - Adulting

Helped do some work on the old house to get it ready to rent... might actually be ready for market in a few weeks! (FINALLY! *dancedancedance*)

 

Porky Pig  (Misc Training) : None

Pepe le Pew (Socializing) : Talked to two new people on the forums, need to make sure to follow-up!

Yosemite Sam (Mobility) : --

Tweety (Cooking) : 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and hubby cooked dinner (alas!)

[Jonesy]

3 hours ago, UnquietBones said:

Due to a miscommunication I didn't have time to go dog walking... so Bucket helpful let me know by removing my kitchen curtains. *sighs*

 

Oh no! 

 

My grandpa's old dog once ate a 10inch circle of carpet because they forgot to walk him. And i mean ate, not just tore up. That dog had an iron gut filled with keys, LOTS of rocks so many rocks, metal washers from the tool shed and then carpet.