Fireandlight Begins Again

[fireandlight]

Hey y’all, I’m back!

 

I intentionally took the last challenge of 2017 off, and since then have been giving myself a bit of a break. However, all breaks must come to an end, and I always appreciate that “fresh start” feeling that comes with the new year - so I’m back!!

 

Some takeaways from last year that I hope to carry with me into 2018:

• Stay focused on my goals. I have a tendency to get distracted trying to do all the things, instead of the specific goals I pick for a challenge. It stresses me out, and doesn’t do me any favors.
• Keep an eye on the prize. Last year I was all over the place with where I wanted to go. I did a poor job of filling out the challeng planning worksheet, and it really showed in my goal setting and in my progress.
• Don’t be afraid to change my approach. Last year I kept trying at the same goals over multiple challenges, not recognizing that they weren’t working for me - not because I wasn’t trying (although I did) but rather, because it wasn’t the right way for me to approach the problem and be successful. If I fail at a challenge, it’s not because I’m a bad person, just that I haven’t found the right way to do it yet.

 

If you followed me on previous challenges, you might notice that I’ve dropped some of my goals way back in difficulty. It’s a deliberate choice to drive home the idea that I’m starting fresh for 2018, and setting myself up for success - really getting at that “A” (Attainable) in my SMART goals.

 

Since I have plans for the next few days (leading up to 1/2) I’ll officially be starting on 1/2.

 

So without further adieu - my top 4 goals for 2018:

1. Feel good about my body
2. Get in shape
3. Get married
4. Become more physically flexible

 

Breaking these down into the actual quests for this challenge:

 

QUEST 1:  Love thyself, Part I

• CRITERIA: Meditate for 5 minutes each day
• LOOT QUALIFIER:
  • Small prize: End with a 5 minute average per day
  • Large prize: End with 7 minute average or more per day
• LOOT:
  • Small prize: Full body massage
  • Large prize: New wireless headphones

QUEST 2: Round is not the shape I want to be, Part I

• CRITERIA: Hit the gym every Monday for a minimum of 20 minutes
• LOOT QUALIFIER:
  • Small prize: Complete 5 out of 5 Monday workouts
  • Large prize: Complete 5 out of 5 Monday workouts, +8 extra workouts from other days
• LOOT:
  • Small prize: A new pair of workout pants
  • Large prize:  3 new pairs of workout pants YETI Water Bottle

QUEST 3: Let’s get hitched, Part I

• CRITERIA: Complete the following tasks by the end of the challenge
  • Book block of hotel rooms
  • Research decorations
  • Go to Men’s Warehouse with C by January 30
  • Setup gift registry
• LOOT QUALIFIER: None
• LOOT: None

QUEST 4: Better to bend than break, Part I

• CRITERIA: Complete 3 yoga sessions per week (5-10 minutes per session)
• LOOT QUALIFIER: Complete 15 yoga sessions total
• LOOT: Asana Rebel Subscription (Annual) 

 

New challenge tracker for 2018 is here.

 

 

 

[fleaball]

Woooooo glad to see you back! You got this.

[fireandlight]

Woooooo glad to see you back! You got this. [emoji4]

Good to be back!


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[Bean Sidhe]

Welcome back. I think your goals look really good and I love how they all have a loot except the wedding one. I guess you could say the wedding itself (and the gifts from guests in a way) is its own loot.

[zeroh13]

Welcome back!

 

On 12/29/2017 at 9:44 PM, fireandlight said:

It’s a deliberate choice to drive home the idea that I’m starting fresh for 2018, and setting myself up for success - really getting at that “A” (Attainable) in my SMART goals.

You're being smart about your SMART goals.

[fireandlight]

Boy howdy, did 2018 start off with a bang! I'm glad I elected to start on today instead, because I would have failed miserably yesterday.

 

Poor diet meant that I was up all night with stomach aches on 12/31-1/1. Then came the cramps. Then a double trip to the mall to pick up a new phone - because C forgot his ID for the pickup the first time around. Then comes the whopper of a migraine, worst I've had in 2 years, and it was all topped off by C chipping his tooth... 

 

BUT! That was yesterday, and today is well... today. No better day than to start fresh. Because of the migraine (which I ended up napping off at 8pm) I didn't get to sleep on time, so I was a bit slow to start. No yoga or meditation yet, but I've already planned gym around what life has to throw at us. C was able to pick up a last minute appointment with the dentist, so after he drops me back home after work I'll be hitting the fitness center at the complex. I don't like going there usually - it has very little to offer - but it has a treadmill. Plan to do about 10 minute walk/jog (we'll see how I'm feeling as I go) and will wrap up with a 10 minute yoga session back at the condo. Meditation will either have to be after that, or before bed... depending upon how long his appointment takes.

 

As for tasks - I got part of the hotel rooms taken care of before the challenge started, but I need to follow up with the office again because they still haven't sent me the contract to sign to make it official.

[Bean Sidhe]

I Hope yesterday went better. And sometimes, just knocking a task off the list is a huge step, so great job. Hopefully they get back to you soon.

[fireandlight]

Yesterday finished off well enough.

Quest 1: Got about 11 minutes of meditation done (day 7 of the 30 day pack for "Self Esteem" in Headspace). Was pleasantly reminded of how good I feel when I actually take the time to do it.

 

Quest 2: Between yoga and gym I managed 28 minutes (huzzah!). I was a little disappointed by the fact that I probably could have pushed myself a bit harder, but both treadmills at the complex fitness center were taken. The only choice I had left was stationary bike and I always feel like a bum when I do cardio that way (righted this feeling with Meditation after the workout)

 

Quest 3: As luck would have it, the hotel reached back out before I had to call, but I noticed a mistake in the contract. Contacted them to get it corrected and I can finish this one off today! Now... I need to find a time to drag the future hubby into Men's Warehouse...

 

Quest 4: Yoga accomplished! Polished off a 5 minute "daily goal" session in Asana Rebel. thought I'd go for broke and started a 15 minute session for core strength. I got 3 minutes into it before it got to be too much and I called it a night.

 

So far, so good. The 5 pm meeting that someone had scheduled for tonight got rescheduled... so I'm waffling on if I want to do another gym session, or if I'm just going to keep it to Yoga tonight. We shall see!

[fireandlight]

So yeah...I sucked at yesterday. Forgot everything goal worthy, including the meditation. Grrrr...

I can’t do the yoga today for various reasons, so Friday and Saturday will have to be my remaining 2 sessions for the week.

Will need to take care of the hotel rooms after this doctor’s appointment, and Meditation needs to wait until after work. Determined to not fuck up 2 days in a row


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[Bean Sidhe]

18 hours ago, fireandlight said:

So yeah...I sucked at yesterday. Forgot everything goal worthy, including the meditation. Grrrr...

 

It happens to us all. Sometimes a good day then a bad day reminds us we are still learning/creating the habits. If it was easy to do it all at once, it would never be a problem.

 

 

18 hours ago, fireandlight said:

I can’t do the yoga today for various reasons, so Friday and Saturday will have to be my remaining 2 sessions for the week.

Will need to take care of the hotel rooms after this doctor’s appointment, and Meditation needs to wait until after work. Determined to not fuck up 2 days in a row
 

 

Did yesterday go better?

 

[fireandlight]

It did actually! Hotel rooms [emoji736] even got ahold of the florist and confirmed the package and request their staging services.

I also remembered meditation, and once again was reminded how amazing I feel afterward.

I’m going to have to be really diligent about the yoga tonight because we have tickets to a play that we got for Christmas, which I kept forgetting all week.

Hooray!


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[fireandlight]

Yoga [emoji736]
Meditation [emoji736]


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[fireandlight]

Spent a good portion of the morning on Pinterest and the web in general looking at wedding decorations. Starting to feel like I have a solid plan together, which is great. Now to find a way to make it the most cost effective.

Later in the afternoon I made time for yoga whilst C watched the end of the Sharks game (what a sorry disappoint that was), and then polished that off with a solid Yoga session.

Feeling really good about today, but starting to get disappointed that I have to go back to work tomorrow. Boo.


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[fireandlight]

Observation of the day: when I actually go to the gym I actually feel thinner... I will never understand the mysteries of the human mind.


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[Bean Sidhe]

10 hours ago, fireandlight said:

Observation of the day: when I actually go to the gym I actually feel thinner... I will never understand the mysteries of the human mind.
 

 

That is motivation in itself to go. Although your right, the human mind is a thing no one has yet to understand, and I doubt they ever will.

[Wobbegong]

17 hours ago, fireandlight said:

Observation of the day: when I actually go to the gym I actually feel thinner... I will never understand the mysteries of the human mind.

I heard of someone who took pictures of herself every morning and recorded how she felt about herself in a journal. Like, "Today I feel like a fat slob" and "Today I feel drop-dead gorgeous," just a quick note. Then after a month or so she matched up the notes to the pictures and determined that it didn't make a goddamn difference what she actually looked like as long as she felt good. 

 

So if going to the gym makes you feel good, who cares if you're actually getting thinner or not? Generally speaking, in terms of health, I tend to think "nutrition for weight loss, exercise for self esteem." 

 

You've got some great goals going this challenge! I'm being very slow about visiting people but I'll try to poke my head in more often and cheer for you. You got this!

[fireandlight]

Made plans with C to hit up Men’s warehouse on the 20th, so I’ll be able to check that off the list soon.

Meditation has been keeping up, and the Monday workout was actually great for a number of reason. Want to try getting at least one more of those before the week is out.

Today didn’t get much done simply because most of the Day was wasted on the commute. Otherwise things are right on track!


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[Bean Sidhe]

On 1/10/2018 at 8:45 PM, fireandlight said:

Made plans with C to hit up Men’s warehouse on the 20th, so I’ll be able to check that off the list soon.

Meditation has been keeping up, and the Monday workout was actually great for a number of reason. Want to try getting at least one more of those before the week is out.

Today didn’t get much done simply because most of the Day was wasted on the commute. Otherwise things are right on track!
 

 

How is it going? Sounds like you got some things done. Have you continued to cross things off the list?

[fireandlight]

9 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

How is it going? Sounds like you got some things done. Have you continued to cross things off the list?

Oy vey, where has the time gone? Thanks for checking in on me

 

I've actually made some decent progress toward a bunch of stuff on the wedding. The hotel arrangements are now posted to the wedding website, which was a big step. The nerd that I am, I built the wedding website from scratch and while I was in there adding the hotel info I futzed around a bit and added picture galleries. (Yay! Coding is fun!). Technically these things aren't actual things on the list, but I still get a sense of accomplishment out of checking them off, so there's that.

 

Quick rundown of quest status to date:

Quest 1: Rocking a solid 9m average for meditation, and I'm really feeling great about it lately. 

 

Quest 2: So far so good, with one caveat. I completely missed yesterday. We volunteered for the MLK Jr Holiday, and spent the entire day doing physical labor as part of an elementary school beautification project. We were out of the house by around 8, and by the time we got home at 3 the muscles were already sore and there was no way I was going to push them to do more. I'm trying to decide how to categorize this - I feel the 4 or so hours of physical labor might be enough to call a workout, but logging 4 whole hours seems...excessive? Alternatively, we're about to hit the gym for yoga today (get some flexibility back into these aching muscles) and maybe I'll just log that? Open to suggestions.

 

Quest 3: I still have 2 tasks left to do. Taking C to the Men's Warehouse this weekend to start trying to figure out what he'll be wearing. Still can't seem to find the right combination of our wedding colors online, but holding out hope that it won't be so bad when we get in there. Barring completion of that task I also need to get back online to set up a honeymoon registry. I need to remind myself of what the different fees are so I can finally pick one to use.

 

Quest 4: Doing well, and finding that this is easier if I consider it  part of my workouts as opposed to being "on top" of them. Plus... I'm amazed at how much it can work my muscles some days. Rocking a 14m average per session.

[Wobbegong]

4 hours ago, fireandlight said:

I feel the 4 or so hours of physical labor might be enough to call a workout, but logging 4 whole hours seems...excessive? Alternatively, we're about to hit the gym for yoga today (get some flexibility back into these aching muscles) and maybe I'll just log that? Open to suggestions.

Aren't you just counting "workouts of 20 minutes or longer" for that goal? I thought your aim was more to get the regularity than the long periods spent working. So count it as one workout, right? Am I totally missing how you're counting? 

[Bean Sidhe]

12 hours ago, fireandlight said:

Oy vey, where has the time gone? Thanks for checking in on me

 

Not a problem. If you figure out where time keeps running off too, let me know.

 

12 hours ago, fireandlight said:

I've actually made some decent progress toward a bunch of stuff on the wedding. The hotel arrangements are now posted to the wedding website, which was a big step. The nerd that I am, I built the wedding website from scratch and while I was in there adding the hotel info I futzed around a bit and added picture galleries. (Yay! Coding is fun!). Technically these things aren't actual things on the list, but I still get a sense of accomplishment out of checking them off, so there's that.

 

Looks good, you are seriously knocking some things off. And as far as knocking off the things that aren't on the list, I admit my list is fluid so I add things as I go or come up. So if you look at my updated list now vs the first of the challenge, I have extra stuff on it in purple that may or may not be crossed off depending on where I am. The purple is the stuff that has come up since the start of challenge.

 

12 hours ago, fireandlight said:

Quest 2: So far so good, with one caveat. I completely missed yesterday. We volunteered for the MLK Jr Holiday, and spent the entire day doing physical labor as part of an elementary school beautification project. We were out of the house by around 8, and by the time we got home at 3 the muscles were already sore and there was no way I was going to push them to do more. I'm trying to decide how to categorize this - I feel the 4 or so hours of physical labor might be enough to call a workout, but logging 4 whole hours seems...excessive? Alternatively, we're about to hit the gym for yoga today (get some flexibility back into these aching muscles) and maybe I'll just log that? Open to suggestions.

 

Okay, your goal was to work out every Monday and I think the physical labor is a fairly decent workout. However, if you don't feel that is in the spirit of the goal, then I would say considering your day its okay to have it be the going to the yoga session the next day. I guess what I am saying is, what was the intent of the goal? If it was "go to the gym and do stuff" then you may not of made it, but you may also need to allow for some wiggle room due to life. If it was to get you moving more, then I think your fine. And I would say, if the 4 hours seems excessive, how long do you think you took for water and things as the day went on? Maybe subtract that time from the 4 hour and use that time.

[fireandlight]

Aren't you just counting "workouts of 20 minutes or longer" for that goal? I thought your aim was more to get the regularity than the long periods spent working. So count it as one workout, right? Am I totally missing how you're counting? 

No you’re right, the challenge is just about tracking a minimum of 20 minutes, but I do like to still keep track of how long I “worked out”. Plus the 4 hours wasn’t moving the entire time.

I decided to go with the number of minutes of exercise my watch tracked that day, which seemed fair. (It was 28 minutes).


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[fireandlight]

Completely unrelated to anything at all- pet peeve #5: if you require me to provide my name when joining your conference call, don’t then ask me to announce my name again when you start your call 6 minutes late. Use the roll call feature like a flipping adult.

Kthxbai


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[Bean Sidhe]

That would annoy me too. Granted, one upside to my job is no conference calls or well meetings in general. However, the dirt factor of my job may make that less appealing.

 

[fireandlight]

That would annoy me too. Granted, one upside to my job is no conference calls or well meetings in general. However, the dirt factor of my job may make that less appealing.

 

But dirt is so much fun!


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