Habits? What are those? [sylph]

[sylph]

Alrighty, last challenge I did some things and made some progress, while also did some things that didn't really progress anywhere and also fought the dual brainweasels of pandemic and relocation.

 

This challenge, hopefully I can build on what worked, strategize about what didn't, and also keep a bit of care for my mental state.

 

Goal One: Cleaning Habits

• I've maintained my dishes habit pretty well from last challenge, so I'd like to continue that. The dishwasher in our apartment is RIDICULOUSLY loud as we discovered shortly after moving in, so I've been doing dishes by hand (and somehow preferring that). So, the goal is to do the dishes each day after lunch and each evening after dinner/before bed. It's just hubs and I. We don't do that much cooking and what we do do is of the 'one pot meal' type generally, so two small bouts of dishwashing each day keeps things very much under control in our little kitchen.
• Two cats in a (relatively) small apartment means scooping the litter is a priority. Ideally, I'd do this every day, but that doesn't always happen. For realistic goals, scoop the litter at least every other day (every day being preferable).

These two things are almost habitual already, so solidifying them into an automatic 'thing I do each day' should be an attainable goal over this challenge.

 

Goal Two: Working Out

• We've retrieved the bench and our variety of adjustable dumbbells from the storage unit and set them up in a nook in our bedroom. Additionally, we ordered a door pull up bar and mounted it in the closet door. I'm at a place in my fitness where this will get me appropriate workout exertion, even for my legs (hubs is not so lucky as he is much stronger than I). With the pandemic on and WFH, I don't have much of an excuse to not workout. In the past, I've found that a Pull/Push/Legs split works very well for me. I'll repeat this split with a rest day between each, ad infinitum. So, pull, rest, push, rest, legs, rest, repeat. It makes for a six day rotation rather than a seven, but since one day is much like the next, this doesn't bother me like it would in 'normal' times. So, making allowances for the occasional two days of rest in a row, three workouts per week for the 5 weeks of the challenge, or 15 workouts. If I truly hit my every-other-day schedule, I'd be at 17 workouts over that time period, so there's a bit of wiggle room there. We'll see how I do.
• Another habit I've built over the past few weeks is a morning walk before work (and sometimes on the weekends). I'll be continuing this, so it almost doesn't count as a goal, but it is something I enjoy, so why not keep track?

 

Goal Three: Food and Drink

• I don't know how many times I've had this as a goal, but alcohol is becoming a problem. I need to drastically reduce my intake. I need a good measure of this at some point for moderate intake, but for now, I think I'm just going to not have any mixed drinks this challenge. Beer is okay, but no more than one per day and I have to have a 'reason' that is beyond 'I want a beer.' *shrug* it is what it is. I'm glad I'm at the point where I can recognize it rather than ignoring it, justifying it, or getting defensive about it.
• Also, something about too many snacks, but I don't know if I have the willpower to tackle both of those issues at once.

[Mad Hatter]

Really solid goals. 

 

2 hours ago, sylph said:

I'm glad I'm at the point where I can recognize it rather than ignoring it, justifying it, or getting defensive about it.

That's a great place to be in. Isn't this half the battle right there?

[WhiteGhost]

11 hours ago, sylph said:

Also, something about too many snacks, but I don't know if I have the willpower to tackle both of those issues at once.

Smart to recognize the risk of overdoing it.  Especially fighting brain weasels on two fronts

[sylph]

Zero Week, Wednesday

 

Had to go to the FL equivalent of the DMV yesterday so my plans got a little wonky. But, for a pre-challenge day, not so bad.

• Cleaning Got dishes washed after lunch, but not after dinner. Whoops. Also did not manage to scoop litter.
• Working Out Had last lifted Tuesday, so yesterday was not a scheduled lifting day. I did walk before work, though.
• Food and Drink No adult beverages, and I am at least conscious of my snacks. Next shopping trip, we will likely not obtain Oreos or ice cream. Sigh. Made some guac yesterday but apparently the avocados were NOT ripe enough, so it was more like shredded avocado + some tomatoes and lime juice. It's wrapped up tight in the fridge to see whether it will improve over time. Likely a bust, though.

 

Plan for today includes dishes x 2, litter, and a leg workout. I got some walking in this morning. Also, I'm exploring all the digital/online options offered by our public library to ensure I'm utilizing all my available routes of entertainment.

 

However, I am exhausted. Our downstairs neighbors have their TV on ALL THE FREAKING TIME and this morning I sprung awake because of it at 3a. We even have an oscillating fan running overnight for white noise and it wasn't able to compensate. So, after about an hour of not getting back to sleep, I just got up and watched some Netflix on the couch. And now the landscapers are here for mowing and hedge maintenance so I'm sure I'm in for a headache. yay.

[sylph]

19 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Really solid goals. 

After all this time, maybe I'm finally to the point where I can make reasonable, manageable goals.

 

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Smart to recognize the risk of overdoing it.  Especially fighting brain weasels on two fronts

Recognizing it and doing anything about it are two different things, especially for me.

[sylph]

Zero Week, Thursday

• Cleaning Did dishes after lunch. We scrounged the fridge for dinner, so there wasn't much by way of dishes afterward. Simple. Scooped Litter.
• Working Out Got a facsimile of a leg workout in--DB Reverse Lunges and some Single-Leg Glute Bridges. If DOMS/soreness is any indication, I did an excellent job of glute targeting. Ouch.
• Food and Drink No alcohol.

[Mad Hatter]

23 hours ago, sylph said:

However, I am exhausted. Our downstairs neighbors have their TV on ALL THE FREAKING TIME and this morning I sprung awake because of it at 3a.

RUDE!

 

9 minutes ago, sylph said:

If DOMS/soreness is any indication, I did an excellent job of glute targeting. Ouch.

Nice   

[raptron]

3 hours ago, sylph said:

Working Out Got a facsimile of a leg workout in--DB Reverse Lunges and some Single-Leg Glute Bridges. If DOMS/soreness is any indication, I did an excellent job of glute targeting. Ouch.

FOR 👏THE 👏 BOOTY 👏

[juliebarkley]

On 7/29/2020 at 11:21 AM, sylph said:

Beer is okay, but no more than one per day and I have to have a 'reason' that is beyond 'I want a beer.'

Forgive me my ignorance; I don't drink at all and never have. What sort of reason might that be?

[KB Girl]

On 7/31/2020 at 2:57 PM, sylph said:

Food and Drink No alcohol.

 

[sylph]

On 7/31/2020 at 9:07 AM, Mad Hatter said:

RUDE!

Seriously. TV or like NPR or something, just loud enough that it's recognizable as voices and my brain strains to figure out what's being said. Sigh.

 

On 7/31/2020 at 12:06 PM, raptron said:

FOR 👏THE 👏 BOOTY 👏

A very good reason to do almost anything.

 

On 8/1/2020 at 6:24 PM, juliebarkley said:

Forgive me my ignorance; I don't drink at all and never have. What sort of reason might that be?

Hmm, for example--a couple weeks ago hubs and I did some very sweaty work, moving things from a non climate controlled storage unit to one that is climate controlled. It was 90+ degrees with 90+% humidity outside and we were pretty wrung out at the end. When we got home, we had a celebratory beer to reward ourselves.

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:44 AM, KB Girl said:

 

Screwed it up on Saturday, but that was pre-challenge, right?

 

[sylph]

Zero Week Catch Up

 

Zero Week, Friday

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter, trash out
• Working Out Scheduled rest day. Got a pre-work walk.
• Food and Drink No alcohol.

 

 

Zero Week, Saturday

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter, laundry
• Working Out Pull! DB Rows, Pull Ups & Reverse DB Flyes. If I can keep my elbows compliant, I think I'm going to make an effort to increase my pull up numbers this challenge. I typically do 3 sets of 3. During this week, I upped my first set to 4 reps. I'll need to move slowly on this to not aggravate the old injury, but I'd like to increase the volume. If I can comfortably get to 3 sets of 5 by the end of the challenge, I'll be SUPER happy with that (not an official goal, though)
• Food and Drink Hubs made drinks while we binged Community. I'm actually okay with this, even though it's outside my challenge 'rules' because (1)it was before the challenge started and (2)it was not my idea and I didn't make them so it was well-controlled and I wasn't tempted to make it stronger or have an extra one. I'm debating finding a low/zero calorie mocktail I can make for variety's sake. I've been drinking a LOT of water over the past week or so and having something tasty and 'fancy' to drink in the evenings could be a good replacement here.

 

 

Zero Week, Sunday

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter, trash out
• Working Out Scheduled rest day. 
• Food and Drink No alcohol.

 

Zero week complete! I think my goals this time are super reasonable and attainable. I'm keeping a tight lid on the voice that is telling me they are too easy and I'm not making enough progress.

[sylph]

Week 1, Monday

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter. (Running out of litter--I'll need to remedy that VERY soon)
• Working Out Push day--DB Bench, DB OHP and DB Flyes. I am awaiting the pec DOMS.
• Food and Drink No alcohol. Also, I am glad(?) to report that ice cream and oreos are no longer a temptation as I finished off the supply of both of them over the weekend/yesterday.  Just have to not replace them with similar snacks and we'll be good to go. heh.

[dancezwithkittehz]

Following and stuff ❤️

[Mike Wazowski]

Attainable goals, love it! Lemme know if you find good mocktail options, I'm in a similar boat of wanting variety in beverages but not really wanting the effects of booze.

[WhiteGhost]

12 hours ago, sylph said:

ice cream and oreos are no longer a temptation

I am VERY good at getting rid of those kinds of temptations around my house

[KB Girl]

19 hours ago, sylph said:

I'm keeping a tight lid on the voice that is telling me they are too easy and I'm not making enough progress.

Good! Because it all seems challenging enough. Giving up something is never easy. 

[sylph]

19 hours ago, dancezwithkittehz said:

Following and stuff ❤️

❤️

 

18 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Attainable goals, love it! Lemme know if you find good mocktail options, I'm in a similar boat of wanting variety in beverages but not really wanting the effects of booze.

My sister is in the middle of brewmaster school, so I'm going to see if she has ideas. I think they do some mixology stuff in there as well, so she could have a good perspective on this.

 

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I am VERY good at getting rid of those kinds of temptations around my house

It's an important service to provide for the rest of your family.

 

2 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Good! Because it all seems challenging enough. Giving up something is never easy. 

Thanks. Currently, I need to succeed at something that seems small rather than fail at something bigger.

[sylph]

Week 1, Tuesday

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter.
• Working Out Yesterday was not a scheduled workout day. I did get a good walk in before work, though. Hubs and I were going to take another in the evening, but it decided to pour down rain, despite the sunny forecast. Boo.
• Food and Drink No alcohol.

After work I need to clean the cat fountain, put in a grocery pick up order for tomorrow, and make guacamole with the avocados that are finally ripe enough to do so. Also, today's scheduled workout is leg day, so I will prepare to be destroyed by the end of the day and walking like an old person tomorrow (presuming I can attain as good muscle targeting as I did last week).

[raptron]

I'm big on kombucha spritzers for the mocktail effect -- some proportion of kombucha (usually ginger) with seltzer and a squeeze of lime. It's also deliciously easy to un-mocktail, haha. 👀

 

GUACAMOLE AND LEG DAY? That sounds like the best Wednesday.

[sylph]

I have no idea how I feel about kombucha 🧐

[sylph]

Week 1, Wednesday

Geez..what didn't I do yesterday?

• Cleaning Dishes x 2, litter, all trash out, laundering of blankets with cat puke on them (poor kitty . she's feeling better today, thankfully.), swept bathroom where the litter box is, and cleaned the cat fountain.
• Working Out Walk in the morning, leg workout in the afternoon. It is officially August in FL. The second I stepped outside yesterday morning (at 7.30a) I was sweaty. Ew. BUT!!! The payoff in January will be so worth it
• Food and Drink No alcohol. As promised, guacamole was made. There's even some still left in the fridge 😍

Also, had several meetings for work, organized a couple more for later this week and next, finished off an important analysis for my boss, wrapped up several other work things and planned for organizing several other projects for the rest of this month, got a grocery pick up order sorted out for later today, did some research on air fryers, ordered cat food, got a shower, read a few chapters in the WoT series, finished a pair of socks I've been knitting, started looking for my next audiobook to listen to during walks and binged some Community with hubs. Whew.

[sylph]

Today I have taken a walk, had several Zoom meetings, planned out some of my required Continuing Education that I need to do to keep my MI veterinary license active (free or very cheap due to COVID budget cutbacks), paid the electric bill, and will pick up groceries later today as well as picking out the next audiobook (so I have something to listen to on the way to get groceries).

 

Tomorrow's plan: Walk, morning meetings, complete some of that CE, wrap up any pre-weekend work stuff that needs to be done, do a Pull workout, figure out if we actually want an air fryer, and do some more research on what I need to do to get my FL veterinary license while also keeping my MI license. 

[Manarelle]

27 minutes ago, sylph said:

did some research on air fryers,

 

If this is because you're debating getting one, I would like to add my voice to the "definitely do it" side. We got one I think two years ago and use it a LOT. It is amazing (and disgusting) how much oil comes out of food when you reheat it, and even if you only ever use it to reheat food, it's so worth it. We also found some great fried chicken recipes that we do at least twice a month. Only thing we haven't figured out how to air fry is hush puppies, but 1 out of LOTS isn't bad. 

 

Oh, and following, of course.

[KB Girl]

Whew indeed! Sounds quite nice tbh