NeverThatBored: Second Is the Best

[NeverThatBored]

My last challenge actually...went well? I set the very simple goal of walking daily and missed only a handful of days. After a bunch of false starts on coming back to the forums, I actually completed a challenge??

 

Walking was also a catalyst. Even though I didn't set any other goals, I found myself starting to do them anyway. I'd considered a mobility goal...I found myself stretching more often and feel less stiff. I'd considered a studying goal...I found myself restarting WaniKani to study Japanese kanji and feel like I'm starting to jog my memory and work my way back up to where I left off. 

 

So THIS time I'm going to very cautiously move up to a classic 3 goal challenge. I'm still trying to keep the goals small though!

 

Goals:

1. Study SOMETHING for 15 minutes every weekday. 15 minutes is short enough that I could literally do it right before bed, before work, right after work, or in the middle of the day and not have it get in the way of anything. As I go, I'll figure out what the best times of day are to do this work. 
2. Every time I get back from a walk, do a forward fold. Celebrate by singing "foooorward folds are great - come on!" to the tune of Celebrate until it becomes a habit. If I forget to do it right away, do it as soon as possible after I remember.
3. One day a week, don't drink coffee. OR. One day a week, don't have any sweets. I can pick whichever one seems more achievable as I go. 

 

I do still want to keep doing my daily walks too but I don't feel the need to make it part of the challenge.

 

[fleaball]

19 minutes ago, NeverThatBored said:

Every time I get back from a walk, do a forward fold. Celebrate by singing "foooorward folds are great - come on!" to the tune of Celebrate until it becomes a habit.

This is so cheesy and I love it. 

[Teros]

Is the study SOMETHING from a list of options?

[Elastigirl]

Love your idea of matching forward folds to the end of your walking

[Shello]

I'm in.  I like your mobility goal too.  Especially that it's so simple, just 1 stretch but you'll probably end up doing more since you've already started.  

[NeverThatBored]

18 hours ago, fleaball said:

This is so cheesy and I love it. 

 

It works!! I retrained myself to use a cloth towel instead of paper towels to dry my hands in the kitchen. At first I couldn't remember, but then I started singing "Ceeeelebrate clean hands, come on!" every time I remembered and then I started remembering more often. 

 

5 hours ago, Teros said:

Is the study SOMETHING from a list of options?

 

Yeah, Japanese (I was taking classes until covid), some work related books I've accumulated, or some basic math stuff I've been reviewing while I toy very casually with the idea of going to business school. Or a few unfinished online courses I've started. Lots of options!

 

5 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Love your idea of matching forward folds to the end of your walking

 

4 hours ago, Shello said:

I'm in.  I like your mobility goal too.  Especially that it's so simple, just 1 stretch but you'll probably end up doing more since you've already started.  

 

Gotta love those habit chains!

 

Forward folds have the most impact when I've neglected stretching but they're also sort of a gateway drug to remembering all of the other areas I need to stretch. I'm hoping if I just do this one basic stretch it'll help me naturally start doing other mobility too!

 

But even if it didn't, the forward folds will be good for me. 

[Teros]

How goes it?

[NeverThatBored]

On 4/6/2021 at 2:07 PM, Teros said:

How goes it?

 

Thanks for the nudge!

[NeverThatBored]

Challenge Update

 

I think I need to recalibrate my goals. 

 

In the first week, I did study almost every day, usually right before bed. This past week I was exhausted and doing a lot in the evenings, and it didn't happen. I'm changing the goal to 5 minutes per weekday instead of 15 to take the pressure off. At only 5 minutes, I can also stop and do it at the end of the workday before I rush off to do other things. 

 

The forward folds...I just can't get myself to remember? But I've also been walking after work most days instead of the morning walks I'd been taking, which may be throwing me a bit too. Whenever I do remember, I stop and immediately do one! Which is great, but not getting at the habit of tying it to my walk. I'm also going to open up the option of doing it before the walk in addition to after, to see if that helps it stick better.

 

I've done one no dessert day each week, so that goal's ok. Today I finally managed a no caffeine day too! I slept a lot throughout the morning and I also had a headache in the afternoon. I didn't realize until later that it was probably a caffeine headache! Ugh. I hate that that's a thing. 

[Shello]

Is there something you can attach to your workout gear to help you remember forward folds?  Like something on your shoelaces or put in your pocket?

[Infinity.Creates]

Caffine headaches are the absolute worst, but how much do you normally drink? Would it make more sense to just try and cut out a single cup a day?

[NeverThatBored]

16 hours ago, Infinity.Creates said:

Caffine headaches are the absolute worst, but how much do you normally drink? Would it make more sense to just try and cut out a single cup a day?

 

I only drink a cup a day! Occasionally 2. I'm not trying to cut it out entirely. Just maybe 2 days a week where I don't drink it. 

 

On 4/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, Shello said:

Is there something you can attach to your workout gear to help you remember forward folds?  Like something on your shoelaces or put in your pocket?

 

Oooh, this is a really good idea! I'll have to think more about it. 

[NeverThatBored]

So far so good this week! 

 

I've done forward folds in the mornings, which is technically "before my walk" but not quite what I was going for. Today, for the first time this challenge, I actually remembered to do it when I got back from my walk! Once I build the habit of doing a stretch at the end of a walk, I think it'll become easier to attach other good habits to the walks as well. 

 

I've also studied 2 days so far this week, right after work. The 5 minute goal was a good idea. I've done a full 15 minutes both times, but telling myself I just need to do it for 5 minutes has helped me to actually pause and do it before I jump into other activities. I've tried to get myself to do it first thing at the beginning of my work day instead, but every time I've been sucked into work stuff and before I know it most of the morning is over.  

 

I also did a no dessert day yesterday. 

[NeverThatBored]

This week has continued strong! I woke up feeling pretty refreshed on Thursday so I went above and beyond to have a no caffeine day on a weekday! I got another caffeine headache in the afternoon, which maaaay have hurt my productivity at work, but I felt perfectly awake. I woke up today feeling pretty clear headed and fresh. I had coffee today and part of me wonders whether I shouldn't have since I felt fine without it?? We'll see how it carries over into the weekend I guess. But my goal is to just limit coffee to 5 days/week, not to cut it out entirely - unless I start noticing that it's having more side effects on me than I've realized. 

 

Studying is also going well! I've been doing ~15 minutes of work-related reading at the end of the workday and BOY does that require deliberate effort to protect my time. It's like the moment my workday ends around 5, I feel a flood of responsibility for other things. My dog gets a treat at 5 and wants to go outside, or my dad starts texting me telling me he's hungry (I'M NOT IN CHARGE OF FEEDING YOU GRRR), or my sister invites me on a walk (which I want to do but can wait 10 minutes), or I have plans to work out and feel pressure to rush off to get that done. All of these things can wait 15 minutes, but it's legitimately hard for me to take a deep breath and remind myself of that before taking the time to study something first. 

 

Forward folds are going so-so. I'm definitely doing a forward fold every day (yay), but I haven't really attached it to my walks as well as I'd like (boo). As long as they're happening I think it's ok and with time I'll figure out how to build the habit better. This might be a goal I have to carry over into next challenge since it may take longer until it sticks. 

[NeverThatBored]

It's cool that this challenge is actually working. I made simple goals and found them hard to implement, so I made slight tweaks to the goals to make them more manageable, and now I'm doing them! The goals are small enough that they're not a huge burden, but I feel that doing them makes an impact and is helping me to build good habits. I'm really pleased with how this is going. 

 

While the studying is small, that kind of stuff adds up over time. If I do nothing else, I can still feel good about being a person who takes the time to study for a few minutes every day. Eventually that will help put me on the path to being a person who spends even more time doing interesting and engaging things in her free time. 

 

Forward folds and walking still aren't connecting, but I'm thinking about doing forward folds at least daily. And that's progress. Doing a forward fold often makes me think about other ways that I'm stiff, and then I may do other movements to work on that. 

 

I already feel better from a couple of no caffeine days. I skipped caffeine again on Saturday, and I really feel like I'm more clear-headed when I don't drink it every day. Other days that I've had coffee, I've waited and been more thoughtful about it. Instead of drinking it first thing in the morning, I've waited until a little later in the morning to see if I really wanted it that day. 

 

Also....this will come as no surprise to those of you who've been around me for a while...I signed up for GMB's Eating Skills course. I've done stuff like this before and it hasn't gotten me anywhere. After years of getting nowhere with food but mostly hovering around the same weight, I've mostly decided spending too much energy thinking about food is a waste of my time and energy. But. Their program also sounds like it fills some of the gaps in what I've been missing. And if I learn even a few good things from it that I can apply to my eating, it's probably worth it. 

 

I had an interesting insight around me and food. When I have lost weight, I'd say I felt about 15% better physically and mentally. But if it takes 70% of my focus and energy to lose that weight, it isn't worth it or I inevitably snap and stop doing it. But if I could successfully build habits/skills around eating that only require 15% or less of my focus and effort and energy but that still make an impact, I think I could be successful. And GMB's program reminds me a lot of NF challenges in the way it's structured. It makes me think that it might help me see a better way to do it. 

 

Also I make training programs for a living so it's personally just interesting to me to see how programs like this are structured. 

[sarakingdom]

1 hour ago, NeverThatBored said:

It's cool that this challenge is actually working. I made simple goals and found them hard to implement, so I made slight tweaks to the goals to make them more manageable, and now I'm doing them! The goals are small enough that they're not a huge burden, but I feel that doing them makes an impact and is helping me to build good habits. I'm really pleased with how this is going.

 

That is awesome, and I may adopt it this week. I'm not feeling great, and have poor momentum anyway (getting better, but very slowly), but rolling back to simpler goals may help while I'm feeling horrible.

[NeverThatBored]

12 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

That is awesome, and I may adopt it this week. I'm not feeling great, and have poor momentum anyway (getting better, but very slowly), but rolling back to simpler goals may help while I'm feeling horrible.

 

Maybe ask yourself: "What's the smallest task I could do to still feel like I'm doing something for this goal?"

[Shello]

On 4/21/2021 at 3:44 PM, NeverThatBored said:

 

Maybe ask yourself: "What's the smallest task I could do to still feel like I'm doing something for this goal?"

You've just inspired my next challenge! 

[NeverThatBored]

6 hours ago, Shello said:

You've just inspired my next challenge! 

 

Oooh what are you going to work on??

[Shello]

Pretty much my same goals but reframing it from a list of checkboxes to accomplish each day to what can I do today to help me reach my goals in the future.  It feels like a more positive approach. 

[NeverThatBored]

Study Goal

So last week, I did my study goal Monday/Tuesday and then missed the rest of the week. Things got busy, I was stressed and running around, etc. etc. That's the limit with doing it at the end of my workday - it's highly likely that I'll be interrupted. BUT even just the days I've done it this challenge have been great. I'm making progress on a book I've had and not read for literally years now. Slow progress is better than no progress!

 

To dial that in this week, I've reminded myself again I only need 5 minutes. If I can sit down and read a page before I get up and move on with the evening, it's a positive. And I'm 3/3 for the week so far!

 

Forward Folds

This one's going so-so. I'm doing them sometimes, but mainly when I take my dog outside and not as part of my morning walks. That's not BAD exactly. I already have a habit trigger of doing pullup attempts when I take my dog outside, so it's easier for my brain to remember forward folds during that time too. BUT walking is a really good time to attach habits to, and I really want to create those pathways in my brain that get me doing things like stretching when I get back from a walk. I think that's the key to making it a daily routine. So I want to keep trying to find a way to attach it to my walks specifically, not just do it in general.

 

I'm thinking about doing something next challenge involving sitting outside in the sun for a few minutes. There might be an opportunity there to attach a stretching routine. 

 

No Caffeine (or No Sugar) Days

After the first week where I did sugar instead of caffeine, I've really zeroed in on the caffeine, surprisingly! I thought that would be harder. I've had caffeine every day so far this week, and I really do think I get groggier during the day when I drink it every day. 1-2 days off each week agrees with me better. The challenge is those dang caffeine headaches. I got one one day at like 7PM after feeling fine the whole day. I'm wondering if I'll have to do a longer no caffeine week or two to really break the addiction before going back up to having it a few days per week to get rid of the headaches...

 

GMB Eating Skills

I love the program so far! It's really flexible but I feel like their focus on tactical skill practice over just meal composition is exactly the kind of thing that I need. One of their big categories is to fast 4-6 hours between each meal, which has been really interesting to experiment with so far. This isn't a goal, but the way they structure their program is a lot like having a set of food-related goals, so it uses the same bank of energy and feels like I should mention it here. I might incorporate the program into my goals next challenge.

 

 

 

 

[NeverThatBored]

Challenge Summary

I didn't track each of these goals really specifically, but I kept them in mind the whole challenge and worked on them. I feel like I've turned the dial in a positive direction, and I know where I want to keep working on things. I've done a good job of adjusting and pivoting to make them work when I saw that they weren't. I also did a good job of keeping my goals small and focused, while still being highly practical. That's hard for me and is a success all on its own!

 

For next challenge, there are of course tons of things I want to work on. More mobility stuff, more strategic studying, more stress management, moremoremore. But I also feel like I've got a lot of balls in the air right now so I'm trying to resist the rangerbrain urges. 

 

I will likely focus on continuing to do the things I started this challenge until I feel like they've solidified as habits more. I might experiment with the going outside/stress management goal I mentioned above, and I might tweak the existing goals to keep improving on them, but I'm going to avoid adding much more. I might add developing a specific stretching routine for before/after I ride my bike as a goal, because that feels very contained and not like it would be a big burden since I only ride my bike like once a week. TBD. 

[NeverThatBored]

*slinks back in*