Suzaqu tries again for 2020

[Suzaqu]

Hello everyone! Count me in for new years respawns! I joined NF in 2015 (wow, that was a while ago!) and was pretty consistent until mid 2018, came back for a bit in spring 2019, and now I'm back again. Back in 2019, we had some major stuff happen at work that kinda swamped everything I was doing, and so I disappeared for a bit to try to keep my head above water. Thankfully that stuff is resolving itself, but it's coming with major unexpected changes this year, and I want to make sure I stay on track with fitness, food, and mindfulness.

 

A bit about me fitness-wise: I did ballet since I was 6 until I graduated high school. I floated around a bit, doing some ballet, yoga, and general gym-y cardio stuff in college and grad school. Once I started working full-time, some coworkers who got me into regular pilates and barre classes. Then I found out my barre teacher was a kettlebell trainer, so I took some lessons and now am a kettlebell lover as well. Currently I'm doing S&S about 3 times a week (happy to say I did manage to step up to the new bells I was working on last time I was here), using our stationary bike 1-2 times per week, and going on long hikes/walks on the weekends. I also just started a 30 day yoga challenge (yoga with Adriene)  for January, as I haven't done yoga in some time.

 

I'm planning on keeping this challenge pretty simple, I want to make sure I don't lose the good base I built over the past year, and work on some bad habits I've been developing at the same time. 

 

1) Eat good food and have fun cooking - I will try (at least) one new recipe per week and share pictures and reviews here. Bonus points if it's plant-centered.

2) Work those feet - I have flexible flat feet and I have been working developing a strengthening routine to help my arches, along the lines of Katy G's instagram series. I want to do this series at least 6 times a week.

3) Meditate for a good long time - I have a good meditation streak going on headspace, but have gotten into the bad habit of just doing the quick 1-3 minute meditations, instead of the longer ones. So my goal for this challenge is to complete the full mindful eating course in headspace. I have the first 10 done, so this will require 20 longer meditation sessions, which I should easily be able to complete in the 5 weeks of the challenge. I also have 3 days left on the focus series, that I also want to finally finish for this challenge.

4) Keep up my current routine - As I said, things will be changing at work, in particular it's all in flux for this month especially. We're having leadership changes, and no one, not even the leadership, knows what it will look like when it all sorts out in both the short-term and long-term. I know from the past that it's this sort of situation and uncertainty that causes my good habits to slip. So I want to keep up with at least 2 S&S sessions (or other kb workout) and 1 round on the stationary bike per week.

5) Keep my options open - Apply for at least 1 job a week, just in case all this work stuff goes horribly wrong.

 

Looking forward to getting this one started!

 

[Defining]

Looks like a great plan to start out the year!

[WhiteGhost]

5 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

not even the leadership, knows what it will look like when it all sorts out in both the short-term and long-term

Yikes, I see how that would make you nervous.  I hope everything doesn't go sideways on you.

 

Following along for your successful respawn

[Mad Hatter]

Welcome back!!!

[@mu]

I remember you from the crow PVP Following for cooking reviews and feet flexibility! Do you have a link to the series you're talking about?

[raptron]

Welcome back.  

[Suzaqu]

On 1/4/2020 at 11:37 PM, Defining said:

Looks like a great plan to start out the year!

Thank you! I'm hoping it is a good kick start

 

On 1/5/2020 at 1:45 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Yikes, I see how that would make you nervous.  I hope everything doesn't go sideways on you.

 

Following along for your successful respawn

So far it's going okay, we're starting to have productive meetings about how we're reshaping the org. I'm hoping the respawn goes well as well as the work situation!

 

On 1/5/2020 at 5:03 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Welcome back!!!

Thank you! I missed this place!

 

On 1/5/2020 at 1:51 PM, @mu said:

I remember you from the crow PVP Following for cooking reviews and feet flexibility! Do you have a link to the series you're talking about?

Yes! I remember you from that fun too  This was today's video. It involved lots of meditation and lying in corpse pose while under a blanket with your head on pillow, highly recommend!

 

On 1/6/2020 at 11:48 AM, raptron said:

Welcome back.  

Thank you!  I've been seeing you and other assassins on instagram and was missing this place!

[Suzaqu]

Ugh, I'm doing the thing I always do when I get overwhelmed and stressed where I build a mental block around doing something easy. In this case, it's posting here. So I'm using the good vibes from cozy yoga this evening to push through and finally update my thread. (This is also the 3rd time I'm typing this because of site issues combined with my own silly mistakes) 

 

Day 1.1

Started off the challenge with a good yoga session, but did a short meditation, so no progress made on that goal yet.

 

Day 1.2

Managed to do yoga and a bike session this day, but totally forgot to do my feet exercises! So the rest of the week I gotta stay on track.

 

Day 1.3

Finally made my new recipe for the week, mushroom bourguignon. I used this recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020738-mushroom-bourguignon, but if you cant access and are interested, this one from smitten kitchen is similar https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/mushroom-bourguignon/. I served it over polenta and it was delicious! It even met my bonus goal of being plant-centered (wasn't vegetarian because i used beef broth I had on hand). Finally managed to do a long meditation and make progress on that goal.

 

Day 1.4

Yoga, meditation, feet exercises, good stuff. Honestly don't really remember details of what happened yesterday, it was a stressful day. We had our first meeting about how we'll move forward today, so yesterday was all about prep and involved some pretty major disagreements with some of my coworkers which soured the evening. But I channeled that into applying for a job.

 

Day 1.5

As I said, yoga was wonderfully cozy and comfy and exactly what I needed. I also finished my focus meditation course, so one goal accomplished! Feels great because this has been hanging over me for a while. And I applied for a bonus job, and found another to apply for tomorrow. 

 

 

Next goal to break the mental block is go out and follow other threads!

 

[Suzaqu]

Getting better at this whole update thing

 

Day 1.6 

Successfully did my yoga in the morning, and then channeled those good vibes into a very successful presentation at work. I had my first relaxing evening in a long time, completely disconnecting from work craziness. My husband and I ordered tacos, made margaritas, and watched A Fistfull of Dollars. It was nice to take the time to watch a movie.

 

Day 1.7

Did yoga in the morning and then went on a long hike with my husband, with a shorter walk in the afternoon, so lots of physical activity. Yoga was all about grounding and having a stable foundation, and being more aware of this made me feel a lot stronger in my yoga poses. I also kicked off the second level of the mindful eating course (I had done level 1 ages ago). 

 

Week 1 summary:

All the goals went really well, in particular the job applying one. My one fail was keeping up my normal workout routine, there were no kettlebells this week. I'm not quite ready to give up on this goal yet, though I realize it might have been a little ridiculous to try to keep that up while adding in a daily yoga practice. This week I'm going to try again, and take advantage of the days when I can fit yoga in before work to do S&S (or other kb workout) in the evening.  I got my first duplicate bell for the holidays, so I can finally do 2 bell exercises, and I should use that excitement to motivate me.

 

Off to week 2!

 

[Mad Hatter]

10 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

I had my first relaxing evening in a long time, completely disconnecting from work craziness.

Amazing! Congrats on the presentation  

[@mu]

Going steady! Thanks for the video. I was looking more specifically for the feet thing, "Katy G's instagram series" because searching for Katy G got me to an endless scrolling place but not necessarily of feet? 😛

[Suzaqu]

On 1/14/2020 at 6:39 PM, @mu said:

Going steady! Thanks for the video. I was looking more specifically for the feet thing, "Katy G's instagram series" because searching for Katy G got me to an endless scrolling place but not necessarily of feet? 😛

Hahah, oops! Reading comprehension fail. Here's the link to the first of the instagram videos: 

 

Sorry for the super late response!

 

 

[Suzaqu]

So...I'm back...Sorry for the major lack of posting. I got overwhelmed with work stuff (both actual work and complications of the nonsense going on) and I barely had mental energy to keep up with challenge activities, so I did what I could, but didn't end up posting here. 

 

So I'll just review what I did on each goal over the whole month, instead of trying to go back now to do week by week updates.

1) Eat good food and have fun cooking: I did a good job at this one! By prioritizing making something new, it definitely was a lot more fun. My two favorites were a curry lentil dish with sweet potato and spinach and red velvet cake pops! I'd never made cake pops before, so though I wouldn't consider them plant-based, they definitely fulfilled the fun part. I will definitely make the lentils again, and probably reserve cake pops for special occasions.

 

 

2) Work those feet: I succeeded at this goal too. I feel like I"m having less foot pain and this was a fun goal to do in conjunction with the yoga challenge, as I could see my balance and foot engagement improving in the yoga work as well.

 

3) Meditation: I kept this one up until the very end. I just missed the end of the mindful eating course by a few days this week, but unfortunately that came from not meditating at all the majority of this week. I hope to finish it up during zero week. I'm still pretty proud of how well I kept up the daily habit during this stressful time.

 

4) Current exercise routine: I managed to complete the 30 days of yoga in 30 days, which I'm super proud of, and honestly didn't expect to do when I started. But my kettlebells and other exercise basically stopped, which I'm semi ok with. I picked the kettlebells up again this week. I think I want to keep up 1-2 yoga practices per week, probably in the mornings, as I found I liked starting my day off with movement like that when I had the time.

 

5) Job apps: This one I did really well on. I have a phone interview tomorrow for a job in the same org, where I could still semi-help with my current department, and possibly would be a step up, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a good fit and I like the position and they like me!

 

On to the next one! (Which WILL include much better updates.)

[@mu]

19 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

Hahah, oops! Reading comprehension fail. Here's the link to the first of the instagram videos: 

 

No worry at all, thank you very much! And yeah for a nicely completed challenge