First Time Challenger: Ellywick

[Ellywick]

Hello everyone! I just joined the Nerd Fitness rebellion last week.  I am a 32 y.o. mother of 3 (ages 13, 8, & 7).  My husband and I have been married for 10 years. We are both tabletop RPG gamers, and we host the Just One More Fix podcast. Though rpgs are my favorite, I also enjoy board games and occasionally video games too.  I am an emergency room nurse and recent college graduate. I am looking to start my first job as a family nurse practitioner very soon.  I was a very healthy eater and exercised on a semi-regular basis before I started back to school. I am looking to lose the extra weight I found during my master's program and get back into shape.  I want to look and feel healthier and be a good role model for my children. 

 

My larger goals that I am focusing on include losing 20 lbs, establishing a meditation practice, and blogging for our podcast. To help achieve these, my SMART goals for this 4 week challenge include:

1) Do a 30 minute cardio workout at least 3 times each week

2) Make a complete menu and shopping list each week

3) Meditate for at least 5 minutes at least 3 times each week

4) Spend 10 minutes each day reading other RPG blogs and establish a list of 5 favorites by the end of the challenge  

 

I look forward to interacting with all of you during the next 4 weeks. Best of luck on each of your own challenges!

[motely]

These sound like great goals. The hardest one for me would be the menu/shopping list.  I need to get better at planning my meals for the week.

 

 

[Ellywick]

I agree 100%. I absolutely hate doing it. I actually got halfway through it yesterday, and then did my cardio workout just so I could stop doing it  I did go back and finish it though, and I managed to go to the grocery store and buy everything.  But at least now I don't have to do it for one whole week.

 

[Ellywick]

Day 1 went really well. I did a 37 minute cardio workout from Fitness Blender on youtube. I had been doing the beginner body weight circuit last week, but my shoulder is super sore so I picked this to avoid the dumbbell rows. I substituted a lot of the jumping jacks and planks for jogging or dancing because of the arm. But I figure the goal was to get the heart rate pumping, so mission accomplished. I used the Headspace app for my 5 minute meditation. Not sure that I love the app, but I will give it until the rest of the week to see. Menu, shopping list, and actual shopping got done yesterday too.  Everything even got put away   I spent 10 minutes reading the Basic Red ttrpg blog. It was pretty good, but I am not sure it will make the top 5.

[motely]

sounds like you are off to a good start

[Eira]

Good job on completing your challenges for the first day! Keep it going! And LOL working out to procrastinate, I do this too.

[Ellywick]

I have managed to meditate for 5 minutes every day for the past 5 days. I definitely feel better afterwards. The headspace app is growing on me.

I've done 2/3 cardio workouts for the week. I reinstalled the couch to 5K app. We will see what the weather is like tomorrow. February in the Midwest is not usually ideal for existing outside. I've been sticking to my menu pretty well, but there was gooey butter cake at work today.

Getting ready to do day 5 of RPG blogging right now.

[Scaly Freak]

I found meditation was very challenging when I first started, but gradually it became easier.There was never an aha!-moment, it quietly snuck up on me and one day I just realized that I was feeling so much better than I had, and I realized it was because of meditation.

[Eira]

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 7:35 PM, Ellywick said:

I have managed to meditate for 5 minutes every day for the past 5 days. I definitely feel better afterwards.

Good job! Keep it going! *high 5*

 

On ‎2‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 7:35 PM, Ellywick said:

February in the Midwest is not usually ideal for existing outside.

Can you use treadmill for your training?

[RES]

On 2/10/2019 at 10:56 PM, Ellywick said:

Make a complete menu and shopping list each week

I do this every payday, it really helps me keep on track!

 

Welcome to the rebellion!

 

[Ellywick]

On 2/16/2019 at 11:41 PM, Eira said:

Good job! Keep it going! *high 5*

 

Can you use treadmill for your training?

Thanks Eira! No treadmill at home and I cant afford that or a gym membership. I've been alright though. I've been outside to jog 3 times since we started, and I've done fitness videos when the weather has been crappy. I am just so ready for spring

[Waanie]

How are things going? I love your goals, they seem very sustainable on a long term basis. A few years we started with the week-plan for food and grocery shopping once a week, and now that I'm used to it I do not want to go back to shopping (almost) daily. It saves so much time and mindspace to not have to choose your meals every day .

[Ellywick]

Quick check in and update.

The menu planning still sucks. I've done it every week, but it has been a day later each week. Bonus benefit is that we have thrown out and wasted much less food. 

I have meditated nearly every day. Week 1 was 7 days, Week 2 was 4 days, and Week 3 was 6 days. 

I'm on Week 3 of Couch to 5k, but unfortunately back to you tube fitness videos this week because snow :/

Either way I've done 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week for the past 3 weeks.

There was one day on week 2 where I missed the blog reading. Overall, I've read 23 different blogs since we started. I have favorites picked out, and I will probably have to narrow down further to get my 5 favorites.

[Waanie]

You're going strong!

 

Do you know what makes it difficult for you to meal-plan? Is it finding the time, to make a plan and get the groceries all at once, or is it a lack of inspiration? In any case, it is very nice that you are now wasting less food than before .

[Toshimi]

21 hours ago, Ellywick said:

The menu planning still sucks.

 

It's not something I've ever loved, but I've found things that make it easier. I keep a pintrest board of food I want to try and things we've liked. I also have found some go to sites that have pretty consistently good recipes (nomnom paleo, Steph Gaudreau) That I have liked basically everything I've ever made from them. I also save on the menus so if I'm feeling really lazy I'll just pull one from last year and make the same things again. 

[Ellywick]

I just really don't ever want to do it. It seems tedious. I don't have any trouble finding recipes or anything. It is also a pain because I try to coordinate cooking times, crockpot vs traditional cooking and such around my kids' activities.

[Waanie]

It IS tedious, especially in the beginning. We have started cooking with the ingredients on sale in order to limit the number of things we can make ("carrots are on sale this week, please name two carrot recipes), and weekday meals have to be under 30 minutes. Then there usually are leftover vegetables/meat/cheese from such a meal, so we can start with that ingredient for the next recipe. Usually we have a meal to get rid of all leftover ingredients at the end of the week; this can be a curry, stir-fry, pasta or burritos, depending on what's leftover.  

 

All in all, planning your meals usually means that you have to have a rough idea of the planning of the rest of the activities as well. This is tough, but I think it is well worth it.

[Ellywick]

Final check in: Luckily I am much better at tracking the SMART goals and completing them than I am at posting in the forum

Goal 1: Do a cardio workout 3x per week

I completed 3 workouts each of the first 3 weeks but only 2 the last week. All total that is 11 of the 12 workouts, or 92%.

Goal 2: Meditate for at least 5 minutes 3x per week. I did this 7x the first week, 4x the second week, 6x the third week, and 4x the fourth week. Some of these were for longer than 5 minutes, but most were 5 minutes. So 100% here.

Goal 3: Make a complete menu and shopping list each week. This was like pulling teeth, and it got one day later every week. But I did it every single week, so 100%.

Goal 4: Spend 10 minutes every day reading RPG blogs and establish 5 favorites. Week 2 and 4 I only did 6x per week. That makes a total of 26 out of 28, or 93%. My 5 favorite blogs were Failure Tolerated, A Blog Full of Demons, Indie RPG Shelf, Roleplaying Tips, and Dyson Logos blog. 

 

My overall score for the challenge was 96%! I am super pumped, and I think I will probably participate in the one starting on the 18th too