Honeybee's "Time Flies" Challenge

[Honeybee]

Has it really been more five years since I did a NF challenge? Where did life go? In the past couple years, I've undergone a lot of change in my life and I've been neglecting my health through all of it. I got into the best shape of my life while doing challenges on NF in the past and I hope returning can help me get some of that momentum back. I had gotten into a very good routine before COVID-19 hit and then everything went to hell! I've been tracking my food and working out fairly regularly for a month now, so I feel like it's time to get creative and really ramp it up. 

 

Overarching Goal: Be the me I can be proud of

My body and my mind need care and love. I want to treat my body well, accept my emotions, and strive to be better without beating myself up over past failures. 

 

Fitness Goal: Stretch at least 6 days per week [#/5]

When I was doing NF challenges years ago, I did a lot of yoga and got pretty flexible. Now, I can't even touch my toes! There's no reason why I can't take 10 minutes to hold some deep stretches each day - and I know it would do me a lot of good. 

 

Health Goal: Reduce alcohol consumption, with at least 1 dry day per week [#/5]

I know I use alcohol to cover up my emotions and deal with stress, but I've done a decent job cutting back to 1-2 drinks per evening during the week. I'm hoping that by mixing in some alcohol-free nights, I'll realize I don't need it at all. Baby steps! I've also been logging food + alcohol for over a month now, so I'll be comparing my weekly average over the last five weeks to my weekly average during the challenge. 

 

Life Goal: Journal or meditate at least 6 days per week [#/5]

I need to do a better job being okay with my feelings rather than trying to bury them and distract myself. I think journaling and meditation could both really help me be more accepting of my mental state. 

 

And that's that! It feels good to be back. 

 

Stats

Starting Weight - 131 lbs

Starting Measurements - Arm: 10.5", Waist: 27", Hips: 37", Thigh: 21.5", Calve: 14"

[First Mate Davy]

These sound like great goals. I can relate to one's mental state getting wonky during stressful times o_O

 

Do you like to do anything specifically instead of alcohol on dry days? When I initially started drinking less often, I'd sometimes make tea or seltzer flavored with a little juice to still have the "special drinks" feeling.

[Honeybee]

Good question! I'm thinking I'll have some of my regular drinks but without the alcohol - so diet tonic + lime, or seltzer + lime. I stocked up on LaCroix too. I've been trying to get in the habit of having one drink with alcohol then one of the same drinks without to "trick" myself, so I'm planning on a continuation of that. Tonight will be my first no-alcohol night of the challenge, so we'll see how it goes! 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome back.

[Xena]

Sounds like a great plan!

 

[Open Fracture]

On 6/21/2020 at 8:26 PM, Honeybee said:

Fitness Goal: Stretch at least 6 days per week [#/5]

When I was doing NF challenges years ago, I did a lot of yoga and got pretty flexible. Now, I can't even touch my toes! There's no reason why I can't take 10 minutes to hold some deep stretches each day - and I know it would do me a lot of good.

 

Do you have a stretching routine for beginners that you follow?  I am horrible non-flexible.  I would be interested in your stretching routine to consider for my next challenge.  

[Honeybee]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! 

 

8 hours ago, Open Fracture said:

 

Do you have a stretching routine for beginners that you follow?  I am horrible non-flexible.  I would be interested in your stretching routine to consider for my next challenge.  

 

Honestly I'm currently just doing the first five stretches in this image held for 1 min each / 1 min each side. I'd love to get splits someday but I'm verrrry far away. It's helped though - I can already touch my toes! 

 

 

Day 2 Update

 

Day 1 was a disaster but Day 2 went well. I managed 20 mins of deep stretches, 25 mins of yoga, and 30 mins of an apartment friendly (no jumping!) cardio workout. I also did 5 mins of meditation and did not have any alcohol. It felt so nice to be able to eat whatever I wanted (pizza! chinese takeout!) and not worry about saving the calories for alcohol. Going to try again tonight. I did some cardio and a 30 min walk this morning but I still need to get in a meditation session and some stretching, but that should be no problem. 

[First Mate Davy]

Woohoo, good job! 

[Honeybee]

Thanks, Davy!

 

Day 3 and 4 Update

 

More good days! I meditated each day for 10-15 minutes, didn't drink any alcohol, stayed within my calorie limit, did my stretches and extra exercise. Last night, I was feeling so exhausted but I did this 45-minute deep stretching video (Yoga with Adriene!) and fell asleep so peacefully afterwards. Despite all the good days, I've been feeling extra exhausted and super hungry this week. I have a feeling this is partly due to the lack of alcohol, so I'm trying to take it easy at work this week and not be too hard on myself as long as the "big stuff" is getting accomplished. 

[Xena]

11 hours ago, Honeybee said:

so I'm trying to take it easy at work this week and not be too hard on myself as long as the "big stuff" is getting accomplished. 

This is great!

[Honeybee]

Week 1 Summary

 

I think I did pretty well! Unfortunately I only meditated 5 days out of 7, so I didn't achieve that goal. I did manage to stretch every day (yay!) and I abstained from alcohol 4 days last week. I'm hoping to bring that momentum into this week, particularly with the alcohol part of the challenge.

 

Aside from my goals, I've managed to stay pretty active. I've started doing strong curves using dumbbells and I've kept up my newish habit of doing a daily 30-minute walk or jog every morning. I'm also doing longer yoga classes online, as well as some apartment-friendly calisthenics videos when I don't have a yoga class. 

 

Food wise, I'm logging everything but I am eating back about half of my estimated calories I burn from exercise just to stay sane. I stayed within my goal caloric intake 4/7 days in week one, and I never went more than 300 calories over my goal (and that increase should be covered by exercise anyway). I do need some improvement on listening to my body and feeding it properly. On the weekend, I found myself "saving up" my calories for dinner and drinks by having a tiny lunch. On both days, it led to small binges (and a lot of bad feelings!) in the evenings. 

[Xena]

My opinion...calorie counting is mostly useful as a tool to realize how much you are eating and how you are "spending" your calories. In my experience, doing it for a while helps me to figure out some good strategies. But it's a learning process. Don't expect yourself to figure it out all at once.