LittleTurtle: Goldilocks Challenge

[LittleTurtle]

 

I have discovered my two biggest obstacles that I face when I want to exercise:

1. "If I would have just started exercising when I started thinking about exercising; I'd be done by now."

2. "OH!  A little bit feels good, so I bet a shit ton more must feel better!!!"  (Me after not exercising AT ALL for a couple of months)

 

Not too little.  Not too much.  Just right.

For 4 weeks, I will do no more and no less than the following:

Walk:  20 minutes/3 times per week

Yoga: 20 minutes/3 times per week 

 

I feel like this will help get me back into the habit without over doing it and burning out.

 

Accountability Chart

 

As a side challenge (that has no real plan of action as of yet) - I am going to try to incorporate more positivity into my life and become more centered.  

 

 

[Jupiter]

Those are great goals! Good luck!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following. I hope you hit that Baby Bear sweet spot on the first try.

[LittleTurtle]

I'm doing it again.  I'm sitting here thinking about exercising instead of just getting off my lazy ass and doing it.  Seriously.  I think about it for about 2 hours.  Two hours of contemplation for 20 minutes of something SUPER SIMPLE!!  And I KNOW that if I just peel myself off the couch and start that I'm going to feel AMAZING and I won't want to stop!!

 

Okay.  Here is my to do list for the night:

1. Go to the grocery store

2. 20 minutes of yoga

3. Iron my pants for work tomorrow

4. Read one of the multiple play scripts I have to read that have been sitting in my drawer for two weeks.

 

I think that's it for tonight...

 

And as far as positivity for the day: 

I brought my "happy lamp" to work today and played my favorite music and treated myself to a Juniper Latte while decorating my office for Christmas.  That made me feel pretty happy - I'm not gonna lie.  Even thinking about it now warms my icy little turtle heart.    

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, LittleTurtle said:

I'm doing it again.  I'm sitting here thinking about exercising instead of just getting off my lazy ass and doing it.  Seriously.  I think about it for about 2 hours.  Two hours of contemplation for 20 minutes of something SUPER SIMPLE!!  And I KNOW that if I just peel myself off the couch and start that I'm going to feel AMAZING and I won't want to stop!!

That's a difficult rut to be stuck in, I have suffered from the same thing. I wish I had some fancy words of advice to offer that will make it easy to overcome.

[LittleTurtle]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

That's a difficult rut to be stuck in, I have suffered from the same thing. I wish I had some fancy words of advice to offer that will make it easy to overcome.

I don't believe there are fancy words of advice to offer to anyone in this rut.  However, sometimes watching this helps:

 

[LittleTurtle]

Yay me!  I did not procrastinate my exercise this evening.  I got home from work, sat for about half and hour, ate dinner, and then immediately got on the treadmill and finished with 20 minutes of a Yoga for Beginners DVD.   

 

Also - I accomplished my entire "to do" list from last night AND washed the dishes.

 

Now I think I'm off to read another theatre script.  Gotta read about four by December 11th.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Looks like a Shia LeBouf gif was all you needed. Good job doing the thing.

[LittleTurtle]

Ugh.  I had my annual health assessment blood draw earlier this week and it looks like my thyroid is totally out of whack again.  I haven't been feeling too good the past couple of months but chalked it up to work and home stress.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Thyroids can be a pain in the neck. I hope yours straightens out easily and quickly.

[LittleTurtle]

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Thyroids can be a pain in the neck.

 

 

But yeah.  It's true.  I've been trying to get it figured out for several years now.  I did find a Naturopath that I like, so...silver lining?

[Heidi]

Hi, @LittleTurtle

I believe in you!!

 

So good to see you again.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

15 hours ago, LittleTurtle said:

 

 

But yeah.  It's true.  I've been trying to get it figured out for several years now.  I did find a Naturopath that I like, so...silver lining?

We don't know each other well yet, but trust me, it was totally intentional.

[LittleTurtle]

16 hours ago, Heidi said:

Hi, @LittleTurtle

I believe in you!!

 

So good to see you again.

Heidi!!  I've missed you!  

[Jupiter]

On 11/28/2018 at 8:07 PM, LittleTurtle said:

Yay me!  I did not procrastinate my exercise this evening.  I got home from work, sat for about half and hour, ate dinner, and then immediately got on the treadmill and finished with 20 minutes of a Yoga for Beginners DVD.   

 

Also - I accomplished my entire "to do" list from last night AND washed the dishes.

 

Now I think I'm off to read another theatre script.  Gotta read about four by December 11th.

 

Nice job!

 

[LittleTurtle]

Week 1 Review:

100%

 

For a moment, I thought that maybe I made this challenge too easy for myself.  But then I figured that meant that I made it just right!  If I make it too challenging, I'll quit before I get started...especially when I'm just getting back into the swings of things.

 

Tomorrow, I have one of (what I'm sure will be) many doctor's visits.  Hashimoto's is a bitch, but I think that maybe my immune system has forgotten that I'm a warrior and will not be beaten!  

 

[Heidi]

5 hours ago, LittleTurtle said:

I'm a warrior and will not be beaten!  

 



Hells, yeah.

That's my girl.

[LittleTurtle]

Well, yesterday I felt like death.  Not sick or anything, just this completely debilitating fatigue that about makes me want to cry.  I came home from work, immediately changed into my pajamas, ate a quick slice of pizza, and fell promptly asleep until 8:00 pm.  Upon waking after my two and a half hour nap, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus.  I was going to use the waste of an evening as an excuse not to do yoga, but...I'm a warrior damn it, so I powered through one of my 20 minute DVD sessions.  I only felt a minuscule bit better, but I'm glad I pushed through.  Too many times I use my fatigue as an excuse to not do anything.  Sometimes I think it's just an ugly cycle:  I'm too tired to exercise, but the lack of exercise makes me even more tired.  And repeat.  Yuck.

 

Anyways...I had difficultly falling asleep at bedtime after the ridiculously long nap, but somehow felt a little better today.  I will not nap this evening.  My plan for the evening is to eat dinner, walk on my treadmill for 20 minutes, follow that with another 20 minute session of yoga, read my last play script, and call it a night.

 

This afternoon was my second doctor's appointment of the week in regards to my thyroid woes.  My Naturopath would like me to go ahead and double my dose of Synthroid and have my TSH re-checked in 8 weeks.  She's fairly certain that I will be feeling better in no time with the dose adjustment.     

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Not being as familiar with your story, I was wondering about the fatigue till you mentioned Thyroid issues. I hope the Synthroid doubling works.

[Heidi]

1 hour ago, LittleTurtle said:

Sometimes I think it's just an ugly cycle:  I'm too tired to exercise, but the lack of exercise makes me even more tired.  And repeat.  Yuck.

I agree. This is one of the hardest pieces of Chronic Fatigue for me: once it gets set in (which is far easier than it ought to be), I seem to have a mountain to climb to break the inertia factor. Screw inertia; it's more like a tractor beam.

 

Good for you for breaking it into small slices and then going to bed early. 

I feel as though this is a very solid approach that honors both the need for movement and a schedule and also the need for rest.

[LittleTurtle]

I need to write this down somewhere lest I forget:

 

Being on the treadmill is the highlight of my entire day.

 

No matter what kind of day I've had; I can just put in my earbuds, blast my favorite music, set the pace, and get lost in absolute happiness.

 

This is a fairly accurate depiction of me on my treadmill:

I mean...you know...like if I were a dude and hot like Brad Pitt, but you get the idea...

 

Anyways.  I really, REALLY want to start going a bit longer than 20 minutes, but I promise myself that I just need to go 2 more weeks (6 more times) and then I'll up my time by 10 minutes.  It sounds silly.  "Why not just walk longer now if you want?"  Trust me...there is a method to my madness.  

 

 

[LittleTurtle]

Diet.  This is on my mind today.

 

tl;dr

My diet is garbage lately, and I'm okay with it for right now.

 

 

 

 

Right before I was was diagnosed with Hashimoto's, I tried EVERYTHING to make myself feel better.  I went almost completely Paleo/Primal for awhile.  I did a Whole30.  I once gave up sugar completely for like...60 consecutive days (which at first was about the most miserable thing that ever happened to me, but eventually it didn't seem so hard.)  Finally, after being diagnosed, my Naturopath outlined a detailed elimination diet for me that I worked on for quite some time. 

 

Nothing helped.  I felt like crap all the time, I was unable to lose weight at all, and there were issues with my cholesterol and protein levels (no matter how much freaking protein I added to my diet).

 

So awhile back, when nothing proved helpful, my Naturopath gave me a green light in regards to my diet.  She basically told me that she was giving me permission to stop worrying about it and eat whatever the hell I wanted for awhile.  

 

Soooooo...I'm not gonna lie.  My diet is not very clean as of late.   In fact, whenever I eat a piece of fruit now, my stomach revolts against me.  I imagine it's thinking...This is not a chicken McNugget you fool!  I must expel this foreign food immediately and painfully!!!  

 

But the weird thing is - other than my TSH being ridiculously high...everything else in my labs came back beautifully!  My cholesterol is probably the lowest it's ever been and my doctors are very happy with my overall health.  I DIDN'T HAVE THE HEART TO TELL THEM THAT I EAT MCDONALD'S ABOUT ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK NOW.

 

So, I dunno.  Maybe the fact that I let go of the stress of trying eat perfectly is what actually helped, but I do know that at some point - I need to start cleaning it up a bit again.  

 

HOLY SHIT!  As I type this, it just dawned on me that my diet needs to be more Goldilocks themed too!!!!  Not too strict, not too lax!!!

 

Welp....I just figured out what my next four week challenge is going to be.

[Heidi]

Embrace the balance

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

On 12/8/2018 at 1:29 PM, LittleTurtle said:

I DIDN'T HAVE THE HEART TO TELL THEM THAT I EAT MCDONALD'S ABOUT ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK NOW.

Once or twice a week at McDonalds is not going to kill you. It's only when you try and recreate Supersize Me that you run into problems. I am very glad your labs are coming back better with letting yourself eat what you want, that's awesome.

[LittleTurtle]

Week 2 Review:

100%

 

On 12/8/2018 at 2:05 PM, Heidi said:

Embrace the balance

I bet there is even balance within balance!  

 

6 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Once or twice a week at McDonalds is not going to kill you. It's only when you try and recreate Supersize Me that you run into problems. I am very glad your labs are coming back better with letting yourself eat what you want, that's awesome.

You're absolutely right.  I think I'm still a little of the mindset that fast food is evil.  But I never supersize anything, I never order soda, and Chicken McNuggets are too damn delicious to pass up every once in awhile.