J3nn stays the course

[J3NN]

Quick intro, for any newbies. I'm 45 years old, live in Southern California, I've been in the forums since Jan. 2017, I work a desk job, I'm a Star Wars and Supernatural fan (among a million others), I draw some, I hate exercising, I have lymphedema which has challenged me for exercise and weight loss, I am married, have three cats, and our adult daughter still lives at home with us and we are okay with that.

 

I'm doing marginally better, but I still want to focus on small improvements. The only big change is that I've joined weight watchers for 6 months (that takes me up to our summer vacation) and so I'm adding in that for my nutrition.

 

• Reflection
  • The theme of the challenge with the 10 year anniversary seems to be reflection, so I'll be doing that, for my time in Nerd Fitness, but also in my life in general. I'm doing two devotionals daily which I journal about to get some reflection time in. I'm also adding in journaling prompts for the times the reflection runs short. Goal is to write 750 words each day.
• Nutrition = Weight Watchers - I’m just starting, so this is my getting used to it period, my goal for now is to just start the tracking and start using their recipes. Ultimately the goal will be to start losing weight, but for now I’m not going to focus on that until I’ve set up the new habits of tracking
  • Track Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner daily
  • Track Weight daily
  • Track Activity - figure out how/if I can connect my Huawei tracker through an intermediary
• Fitness
  • Focus on Plantar Fasciitis stretches to heal from this flare up and get to where being active isn’t painful
    • Achilles stretches 3 x 30s
    • Wall push-up 2 x 10s
    • Stair stretch 2 x 6 reps
    • Dynamic stretch 4 x 20 if pain allows 3 x 10 otherwise
• Meditation - Real Happiness
  • read book
  • complete exercises as outlined 
  • and/or use Insight Timer for meditations of same length
  • Reflections as outlined
  • Goal is to increase meditation from 3x/week to daily
• Level up your life goals to do list (~4 a week)
  • I have four goals this year, see the last challenge for details, these are my small actionable steps to keep me going
  • Carryover
    • Book Paint Sesh for V and I
    • Get out stones and organize by correspondences
    • Use Anya’s journal prompts for daily dialogue
    • Learn more in the Spiral Path of Days about the astrological influence on life
    • Write out rituals in BuJo/Grimoire so they aren’t stuck in Kindle
    • Create new moon and full moon rituals
  • This challenge
    • Learn more about healthy habits for energy and health/avoiding illness
    • Empty everything from gym/craft room area into a box
    • Put back only the things you use for the time period in gym/craft room 
    • Schedule time for C and H families to hang out - barbecue
    • Organize the items in the gym/craft room area in a way that is most efficient
    • Release items from gym/craft room area you no longer use
    • Commit to activity that counts as fitness to try it out (Use a Nerd Fitness challenge to try out a new fitness activity)
    • Pick one daily area to focus on (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually, annually)
    • Empty everything for that focus area into a box
    • Put back only the things you use for the time period in your focus area
    • Learn more about nutrition for energy and health/avoiding illness
    • Create art based on correspondences
    • Put back only the things you use for the time period in your focus area
    • Organize the items in my focus area in a way that is most efficient
    • Create opportunities to share common interests
    • Release items in my focus area you no longer use
  • Habits
    • Same as before, adding in
      • Monitor phone screen time to set goal for next challenge
      • Sleep tracking

[Rookie]

Following along! 

[Waanie]

Following .

[J3NN]

Updates

 

I have been in an off place this week, not bad, not good, just not present. So My updates are not going to be thrilling. I need to reflect on this, I feel like this happens more and more.

• Reflection
  • Today's devotion was talking about an authentic dig, into who you used to be and what used to make you happy. I didn't have the ability to dig out photo albums or old playlists to trigger any memories, but I took some time over breakfast to really think about different time periods in my life and what used to make me happy. What I found, on the surface, was that I'm doing the things that made me happy throughout my life, they are my staple, go-to happy items, and I am pretty good about getting them in. Now I need to dig beneath the surface and see what's there that I'm missing.
• Nutrition = Weight Watchers
  • So far, so good, doing my tracking daily, this week has been better. I planned meals better this week and snacks too, so I've been doing so more happily.
• Fitness
  • I only remember to do the dynamic stretch, I have been horrible about this. The pain isn't horrible right now though so I'm not reminded. Gotta get better at this.
• Meditation - Real Happiness
  • I haven't meditated since Friday, or earlier, I definitely feel missing that. But I have been doing a morning routine with some affirmations which is kind of prayer and kind of meditation, so maybe that's been helping me carry on.
• Level up your life goals to do list (~4 a week)
  • I haven't done anything yet this week. Tonight's gonna be busy I guess.

Here's to better tomorrow.

[Tateman]

1 hour ago, J3NN said:

I have been in an off place this week, not bad, not good, just not present. So My updates are not going to be thrilling. I need to reflect on this, I feel like this happens more and more.

Yeah, I know that feeling all too well. Been pretty similar feeling this week.

 

Hopefully, tomorrow is better!

[Waanie]

10 hours ago, J3NN said:

I have been in an off place this week, not bad, not good, just not present. So My updates are not going to be thrilling. I need to reflect on this, I feel like this happens more and more.

Yeah, the slump is always a first signal for me that things are going the wrong way. It's not so bad in itself, but over time it can become a monster. You still have 3 days, so plenty of opportunity to get something going .

[J3NN]

And I missed another report, yesterday was crazy though, and although it did start with a migraine, I took my meds, powered through and got life done, so I'll call it okay. Since I'm in this funk, my goal is going to be modified, to make sure I don't skip twice, so I'll give myself some flexibility, but I want to keep the momentum. So I can skip... but not two.

 

So here's my update:

• Reflection
  • I have been honoring the don't skip twice here, but I have been missing and every other isn't giving me the same satisfaction so my goal next week is to get back in the habits of January which were so good.
  • My devotional is leading me through an authentic dig, like an anthropological dig of my former selves (kid, teenager, college student, newlywed, etc.) to dig out the things I loved, to remind my self of my own authentic preferences as opposed to what I prefer because society has influenced me to prefer.
  • So just random things that have come up: Danielle Steele novels, sunbathing, animals, writing for emotional release (poetry), journaling with incense and native American music, the sound of water running, and some more. My husband was cleaning out the garage today and he found a box that had my mom's hope chest items... there are pictures of her from high school, her diploma, pictures from her first wedding (she never talked about it, I didn't even know until late in her life, my Grandmother is the one that told me), my baby book, my baby blankets and clothes and dolls my grandmother made me, and a box of letters my mom had. It's definitely taking me down memory lane. This will be good for the dig, and for the reflection theme of this month.
• Nutrition = Weight Watchers
  • Track Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner daily & Track Weight daily
    • I need to create a tracker for me to record these things so I don't forget and it's easy to look back and see what I did, but so far I've been better about this, I did forget my weight tracking yesterday, but I did weigh in.
• Fitness
  • Focus on Plantar Fasciitis stretches to heal from this flare up and get to where being active isn’t painful
    • Achilles stretches 3 x 30s
      • I've been remembering these, but not consistently and none of the others, so I need to get on this and work it into my don't skip twice plan
• Meditation - Real Happiness
  • Reflections as outlined
    • I finally did the week 1 reflection. It took me three weeks to finish week 1, but I did it, so I'm going to count tomorrow as starting week 2 and see how it goes
• Level up your life goals to do list (~4 a week) - hit doing four this week, yay for that.
  • Carryover
    • Book Paint Sesh for V and I
    • Learn more in the Spiral Path of Days about the astrological influence on life
    • Write out rituals in BuJo/Grimoire so they aren’t stuck in Kindle
    • Create new moon and full moon rituals
    • Correspondences
      • I'm working on this, it's proving harder than I pictured. I'm still fighting with what I want to create so this is ongoing
    • Anya's journal prompts
      • I've done one, there are 6 or 7 more
  • This challenge
    • Learn more about healthy habits for energy and health/avoiding illness
      • I started listening to talks on depression and I can see that I definitely have some symptoms, I think I'll keep on this, I've learned some things, but don't want to stop, so I won't count this done yet
  • Habits
    • Phone screen time - definitely all over the place, this will be interesting
    • Sleep tracking - I think I'm finally figuring out my sleep number mattress settings and am starting to see scores in the 80s and I feel better too

Other random things:

• I time traveled back to the beginning of February and I finally did my February check in
• I did my new moon abundance check and journal spread
• I started reading my next book for book club, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison - we're reading it because a local school district just banned it

So I'm feeling better. And hoping to be more on track this week. Here's to a fresh start!

[J3NN]

Today's update, because I'm having a good day, not just because if I don't I'll miss two in a row.

 

 

• Reflection
  • I'm still digging in with my authentic dig, and I'm starting to blow the dust off some things. I'm not sure how I'll be able to use them yet, the picture is still blurry, but I'm going to keep digging. This is my third time going through this devotional but the first time I feel like I'm connecting and putting the time in to get the results, so I don't want to lose that.
  • I had a breakthrough today, I think I've pinpointed one of the items that has been causing me to be so down lately. I wrote about it in my writing today and I'm even more convinced. It's taking a load off and making me feel better in a lot of ways. I'll keep digging into this as well.
• Nutrition = Weight Watchers
  • Tracked all four today (breakfast, lunch, dinner and weight)
• Fitness
  • I did all the stretches today, for the first time all month. Here's to a new habit and not skipping twice.
• Meditation - Real Happiness
  • I'm on a three day streak for doing short (10 min or less meditations), this week I'm supposed to four 20 min meditations, one of which is a walking meditation, so we'll see if I can keep this up. 
  • I have to do the reading for this week so once I'm done here, I'm going to do that next.
• Level up your life goals to do list (~4 a week)
  • This morning, I did a meditation that had you face depression head on. This is where I had my revelation. I think I'm doing good on learning more about healthy habits, so I'm going to count that as still in progress, but making good progress.

[J3NN]

Today's update.

 

• Achilles stretches - done
• Wall push-ups - done
• Stair stretch - done
• Dynamic stretches - not yet
• Meditation - real happiness - I did a 20 minute body scan, but I used Insight timer, not the one in the book
• Meditation - insight timer
• Daily dialog/reflection - done, doing Anya's prompts this time
• Track breakfast - done
• Track lunch - done
• Track dinner - done
• Track weight - done
• To do list
  • Use Anya’s journal prompts for daily dialogue - did two more
  • Learn more about healthy habits for energy and health/avoiding illness
    • A TedX I listened to for work about small wins was impactful, so while not intentionally discovered for this, I'm going to take some of the resources and use them as good habits period.
  • Hoping to do still:
    • Set up monthly review bujo spread
    • Make bracelet (this is a new add, I got some awesome beads and want to start wearing them)

Lesson: Last night we didn't unwind and watch tv, we were just putzing and doing stuff... result - it took me three times as long to get to sleep last night, I couldn't get my mind to slow down and I was uncomfortable and itchy and miserable. New plan - make time to unwind, don't work right up until bed

[Bean Sidhe]

20 hours ago, J3NN said:

Lesson: Last night we didn't unwind and watch tv, we were just putzing and doing stuff... result - it took me three times as long to get to sleep last night, I couldn't get my mind to slow down and I was uncomfortable and itchy and miserable. New plan - make time to unwind, don't work right up until bed

 

This I have had happen too. Hopefully you can find a good routine that makes the whole going to bed thing easier.

[Doe]

20 hours ago, J3NN said:

Lesson: Last night we didn't unwind and watch tv, we were just putzing and doing stuff... result - it took me three times as long to get to sleep last night, I couldn't get my mind to slow down and I was uncomfortable and itchy and miserable. New plan - make time to unwind, don't work right up until bed

 

I've found that making time to unwind really has helped my night routine, used to try to work when I couldn't fall asleep right away. Was counter productive it turned out. 

[J3NN]

Update, don't skip two...

• Achilles stretches - done
• Wall push-ups - done
• Stair stretch - done
• Dynamic stretches - don't
• Meditation - real happiness - not yet, found a sound mediation to do when I'm in bed
• Meditation - insight timer nope
• Daily dialog/reflection - done, worked in remembering high school
• Track breakfast - done
• Track lunch - done
• Track dinner - done
• Track weight - done
• To do list
• Not today

Yesterday was horrible at work, I did a lot of stuff, but not posting... went for a 2 mile walk, and I was exhausted last night. Woke with a migraine so did half day at work. Slightly better at work, only barely. Had lunch with my dad and he was taking me stories about our old houses and the one time I disappeared from the house after being put in bed. Turns out I was in my closet, fast asleep with all my stuffed animals. 🙂

[Chesire]

Just swinging through here to see how your challenge progresses, and glad I did just in time to see disappearing J3NN story.   Love it when people share all those "and then the time this happened" stories.

 

Also making sure to tell you that you inspired me.  A few challenges ago you were working on a crochet sweater and got me thinking about trying my first shaped piece.  It is... progressing.  Thanks for the motivation!

[J3NN]

7 hours ago, Chesire said:

Just swinging through here to see how your challenge progresses, and glad I did just in time to see disappearing J3NN story.   Love it when people share all those "and then the time this happened" stories.

It's nice to get to hear the stories, I should write them down so I don't forget as my memory fades... it feels like that happens faster and faster these days.

 

7 hours ago, Chesire said:

Also making sure to tell you that you inspired me.  A few challenges ago you were working on a crochet sweater and got me thinking about trying my first shaped piece.  It is... progressing.  Thanks for the motivation!

Aw, I'm so glad! Thank you. I haven't crocheted in months, but I keep wanting to, I just have been struggling with all things creative and the active project I have is kind of boring and long so I just haven' been able to convince myself to do it. But I need to just do it. Maybe I'll make a part of my March goals to do a row a day and just get back into the habit. Thank YOU for the motivation!

[J3NN]

Happy Leap Day!

 

Update, don't skip two... this is the Friday update:

• Achilles stretches - done
• Wall push-ups - done
• Stair stretch - done
• Dynamic stretches - done
• Meditation - real happiness - Nope, work, groceries, hockey, exhausted, so no meditation
• Meditation - insight timer nope
• Daily dialog/reflection - done, worked on planning my dream house
• Track breakfast - done
• Track lunch - done
• Track dinner - done
• Track weight - done
• To do list
  • Nope

So, It was a better day... work was productive and nothing crashed, so that was a good thing.

 

Hockey, we won, finally! Going back tonight hopefully they keep it up.

[Waanie]

18 hours ago, J3NN said:

So, It was a better day... work was productive and nothing crashed, so that was a good thing.

Yay for nothing crashing! 

 

Anyway, glad to see that you're doing so many of the good things .

[J3NN]

Since it's a new month and I'm setting up trackers in my bujo for monthly tracking, I'm going to mix it up a bit, but these still align with my challenge, it'll just make it easier for me to do my updates.

 

In my new tracker this is what I'm tracking, my goal is to not skip twice for each of these (to do list excluded). Tracking for Sunday, March 1:

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done
• Track weight (Nutrition) done
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) done
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) done
• Stair stretch (Fitness) done
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) done
• Meditation (Spiritual Path) done
• Crochet (just because) done
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) done
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) didn't do
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • Commit to activity that counts as fitness to try it out (Use a Nerd Fitness challenge to try out a new fitness activity) (selected Hula Hoop)
  • Create opportunities to share common interests (scheduled dinner with a friend and lunch to do a book review and a couples game night)
  • Get out stones and organize by correspondences
    • I'm chipping away at this. They're all out and organized, now I need to write up cards for what each is best for
  • Use Anya’s journal prompts for daily dialogue (completed, I'm debating whether to use these again, I'll review the next batch at Spring Equinox, but not committing to them yet.)

My devotional is focusing on simplicity for the next month or two... it starts off with meditation and creating a sacred space. So I may shift my focus area from my gym to my sacred space so I can meditate better.

[Rookie]

17 hours ago, J3NN said:

My devotional is focusing on simplicity for the next month or two... it starts off with meditation and creating a sacred space. So I may shift my focus area from my gym to my sacred space so I can meditate better.

Simplicity is amazing ❤️ I am also aiming for more of this in my life

[J3NN]

Tracking for Monday/Tuesday, March 2/3:

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done
• Track weight (Nutrition) done
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) done
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) done
• Stair stretch (Fitness) done
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) done
• Meditation (Spiritual Path) done on Tuesday, but did two 10 minute meditations
• Crochet (just because) done on Tuesday
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) done
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) Did on Monday, it was ridiculous. How does a body forget how to hula hoop? Mine did. This is going to take some effort.
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • Didn't make any progress

[J3NN]

Tracking for Wednesday, March 4:

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done
• Track weight (Nutrition) done
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) done
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) done
• Stair stretch (Fitness) done
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) done
• Meditation (Spiritual Path) Nope
• Crochet (just because) Nope
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) done
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) Didn't do it, but did walk 2.29 miles so going to count that as activity for the day
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • Didn't make any progress

Last two days has been crazy at work ramping up to deal with Coronavirus Covid-19 now that it's been reported in California. Hoping we can get in a rhythm and it will start to seem normal soon.

[Rookie]

Apparently our Costcos are starting to look like doomsday preparation centers. I guess I will see for myself tomorrow. 

 

 

You should hula hoop to the hula hoop song

[J3NN]

On 3/6/2020 at 6:15 AM, Rookie said:

Apparently our Costcos are starting to look like doomsday preparation centers. I guess I will see for myself tomorrow.

I've heard that for here too, I haven't been to the Costco, but the other stores have all been fairly normal. Hand Sanitizer, soap with antibacterial and wipes are the things that seem to be hit the hardest, but nowhere has been completely out.

 

On 3/6/2020 at 6:15 AM, Rookie said:

You should hula hoop to the hula hoop song

I've never heard this song. It would be good to find some songs though, great idea!

 

Tracking for Thursday/Friday, March 5/6:

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done x2
• Track weight (Nutrition) done Thursday, weighed but forgot to track on Friday. This week I've gained weight
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done x2 saved a lot of points for a special dinner tonight
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) missed both days
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) missed both days
• Stair stretch (Fitness) missed both days
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) only Thursday Meditation (Spiritual Path) Nope
• Crochet (just because) Nope
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) done
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) Didn't do it, but did walk 2.29 miles so going to count that as activity for the day
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • Didn't make any progress

[J3NN]

Here's a picture of my Crystal box. 🙂

[J3NN]

Tracking for Saturday/Sunday, March 7/8

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done x2
• Track weight (Nutrition) done Saturday weighed but forgot to track on Sunday.
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done x2 
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) done x2
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) done x2
• Stair stretch (Fitness) done x2
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) done x2
• Meditation (Spiritual Path) done x2
• Crochet (just because) Saturday
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) done Saturday
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) done x2. Did some research, my hula hoop is way too small so I ordered a larger one and found some workouts to try when I get it
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • Finished my Crystal correspondence box

Going into 9 days of rain forecast. Not going to lie I'm kind of terrified what this will due to my mood since I'm so sensitive to lack of sunlight. 😢

[J3NN]

Tracking for Monday/Tuesday, March 9/10,

• Daily Dialog (Reflection) done Tuesday
• Track weight (Nutrition) done x2
• Track breakfast(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Lunch(Nutrition) done x2
• Track Dinner(Nutrition) done x2 
• Achilles stretches (Fitness) done Tuesday
• Wall push-ups (Fitness) done Tuesday
• Stair stretch (Fitness) Did not do
• Dynamic stretch (Fitness) done Tuesday
• Meditation (Spiritual Path) Did not do
• Crochet (just because) Done Monday
• Spiritual (Spiritual Path) donex2
• Hula Hoop (Fitness) Have not done. Waiting for new hula hoop to arrive.
• Level up your life goals to do list
  • No progress

Work is kicking my butt... I'm barely keeping up and staying healthy, so I'm seeing more of these things slip. But so far, I'm largely doing every other day at least. I'm not sure how this is going to work, if I have to take a break to deal with the work challenges if I will have to.