Alethea's Challenge

[Alethea]

Reporting back to headquarters after being AWOL for several weeks. Hail, my fellow Rebels!

This challenge I'm getting away from results-oriented goal-setting entirely. I'm focusing on processes, not results. Thus:

Goal 1: Efficiency.

Do my activities in the time it should take to do them. Do NOT wander about trying to find workout clothes, then get distracted, then do a bit of mobility work, then talk to my boyfriend, then go online to just check one thing... Enough. I am a busy woman, I dont have time for that shit.

My weekly activities are:

BW Strength: 3x a week. 1 hour max.

Running/walking: 3x a week. 1 hour max.

Pilates: 1x aweek, 1 hour.

Plyometrics: 1x a week, 45 minutes.

Yoga and Tai Chi: As I do bits and pieces of both of these every day, I will simply say"Get down to business, whatever time you spend", and track on thatbasis.

Goal2: Routine.

Set andmaintain a morning and evening routine. I am still finalizing, but shall reportwhen decided. This routine includes getting up early in the morning, which ismy kryptonite.

Goal 3: Preparation.

Prepare breakfasts and lunches for the upcoming week every weekend. No eating out.

Ta da. Simple, but not easy. Perfect.

I will NOT be posting my diet. I aim aiming for "healthy", being paleo-ish, but the more I stress about it, the worse I eat. I will be posting any gains on a weekly basis, but not every workout.

Here we go!

[Loren Wade]

This is great! Can't wait to see how you do. That is a lot of activities!

[spezzy]

yay! aletheas doing a challenge!

!!!

[smedly]

WELCOME BACK!!!

[nightlight]

yay! welcome back!

[ormaybemidgets]

Yay - glad to see you back!

[LynnyLee]

Count me as another "glad you're back."

[Crooked]

Welcome back! Looking forward to watching you develop your routines and get back on track.

[Brometheus]

Welcome back! Awesome to see you here!

[Alethea]

Yay! Thanks for the love, everyone! It is good to be back!

TUESDAY:

Building a roof most of this week after work, so I dont have much spare time. If I dont complete my full regimen, I am okay with that. 4 hours of labor = better than pilates.

1. 20 min Walk/run in 45 min, including warmup, cooldown and stretches. Vibrams are not working for me right now, my right foot is still kinda messed up and I can't run on my toes for extended periods, which results in heel striking, which results in winces of pain.

Tai Chi: 10 minutes, no pauses. I cannot keep the whole sequence in mind, so ended up restarting from the beginning twice, but that is okay.

2. Morning: Completely failed to get up with my alarm. Fail.

Evening: Got ready for bed, read for what should have been half an hour and was in fact an hour and a half. Bad Alethea. I'll take your books away if you dont follow the rules.

3. Didn't have a breakfast to bring to work, so I starved. Lunch was leftovers.

WEDNESDAY:

Bought shoes so I can progress on running. I hope they work! They worked well during strength at least. Lunges are SO MUCH EASIER with shoes.

1. BW Strength Training in 45 min, including warm up and stretching out. My one-legged overhead deadlifts take by far the most time. I have to concentrate and go slowly to keep the best form I can do. I may switch out this exercise just for efficiency's sake later when I add more arm stuff (long story), but for now am loving the balance and ankle strength it builds.

2. Morning: Slept in again. I'm hoping the shame of typing that every day will get me going on this stupid goal.

Evening: Got ready for bed, stretched out a bit, ended up talking to my love for like 2 hours instead of sleeping. Dammit. So close.

3. no buying food.

[ormaybemidgets]

Lunges are SO MUCH EASIER with shoes.

True story - why is that? I started wearing shoes when I do BWW's even when I'm at home.

[cacodaemonia]

I had to come check out your challenge after seeing your yoga avatar. I'm a yoga addict.

Your goals sound great! I have a similar problem with futzing around doing 10 things when I should be doing something else. Good luck with it! As for waking up early, what's your alarm situation? When does it go off, do you have a snooze, and where in the room is it located?

[LynnyLee]

Lunges are SO MUCH EASIER with shoes.

Really? I've had the opposite experience. Maybe it's because I always buy cheapest shoes available and the soles wear smooth quickly leaving me with no traction. One of these days I might have to buy shoes that don't suck.

[Alethea]

I know, Ormay! I'm definitely tempted, but I can't decide wether shoes make things better/easier, or worse/easier.

Hiya Caco! So pleased to meet you! I am the resident yogaFIEND, but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand. If Sandman ever invites you out to a "fun biking weekend", Do not go, it's a trap! I finally did my 1st downdog in forever yesterday. Ahhhhh, it's been too long. Tell me about your yoga-ing! How much, how long have you been doing it, what's your favorite poses, what do you like, what do you not?

Lynny, I know what you mean! I bought fancy shoes for the first time ever, and I think I'm in love.

So, one thing I did not consider, is that the nature of my challenge makes my updates deadly-boring to read. So... sorry about that, you happy few who follow along.

Still working at what I want my ideal morning to be (other than NOT waking up, throwing on clothes, packing bag and sprinting out the door for the train), but evenings I think are set for now:

9:45. General house tidy. It hasn't made much of an impact yet (my house is a Working House, dammit), but I am confident that someday it'll add up.

10:00. Getting ready for bed, putzing around, chatting with Whatshisname.

10:30. Reading. With a timer, because I am an untrustworthy sneak when it comes to limiting book-time.

11:00 BEDTIME. You dont have to sleep, but your arse is in bed and your eyes are closed.

Thursday:

got up 10 minutes before I had to leave, brought breakfast, Work, brought own lunch, roofing till 8:30 (sunset), cooked dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up after dinner, bedtime routine.

Friday:

got up 10 minutes before I had to leave, brought breakfast, Work, brought own lunch, roofing till 8:30 (sunset), cooked dinner, ate dinner, cleaned up after dinner, bedtime routine. My life is full of excitement, I know.

Saturday:

Got up at decent hour, made breakfast, worked on roof, FINISHED ROOF (thank the gods!), took a loaner-dog out for a run in good time (and ran the little jack russel into the ground, too! Boo ya!), was ready to live it up on saturday night when my dearest lover abandoned me in favor of poker. Tai chi-ed for 30 min, yoga-ed for 30 minutes, ate leftovers , played around with meditation, read until I naturally fell asleep... at 11:00. Ding! A habit is born.

So here is my issue. when my alarm goes off at an ungodly early hour like 6:45am, I instinctively turn it off as fast as I can like the caring, compassionate bed-mate I am so it doesn't disturb my sleeping darling. However, this reflex means I'm not even awake when I turn it off, and promptly go back to sleep. If I put my alarm away from me so I have to get up, and I leave it on a minute or two while I work up the gumption to step out bravely into the cold world, I get sleepy death threats. How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

[catspaw]

So here is my issue. when my alarm goes off at an ungodly early hour like 6:45am, I instinctively turn it off as fast as I can like the caring, compassionate bed-mate I am so it doesn't disturb my sleeping darling. However, this reflex means I'm not even awake when I turn it off, and promptly go back to sleep. If I put my alarm away from me so I have to get up, and I leave it on a minute or two while I work up the gumption to step out bravely into the cold world, I get sleepy death threats. How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

This is going to sound facetious but I don't mean it to be. Why not go to bed earlier? If your schedule is moved back a few hours, you'll be more likely to actually wake up from the alarm.

[Alethea]

Catspaw, that is EXCELLENT advice but completely not possible. I work 2 jobs. Couple that with fitness and general life-maintancence and there aren't enough hours in the day to get enough sleep. going to bed at 11 is pretty awesome to me.. I was averaging about 1am before.

[bananandrea]

11 is about my bedtime as well.

PS. Had to drop by and say hi and give some love to your thread as you did mine! It is so good to see you back! Junglizer and I were just talking about how we hadn't seen you on the boards in a while! :)

[catspaw]

Catspaw, that is EXCELLENT advice but completely not possible.

Ahh, a shame. Well, you could try a gadget like this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432304576371533959675682.html

It's a little pricey but would do the trick. And comes with the advantage of a bunch of sleep stats -- and all nerd fitnessers love their statistics.

[Denny]

Hiya Caco! So pleased to meet you! I am the resident yogaFIEND, but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand. If Sandman ever invites you out to a "fun biking weekend", Do not go, it's a trap!

What did Sandman do to you? Put a stick in your tire or something? :eek:

[cacodaemonia]

Hiya Caco! So pleased to meet you! I am the resident yogaFIEND, but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand. If Sandman ever invites you out to a "fun biking weekend", Do not go, it's a trap! I finally did my 1st downdog in forever yesterday. Ahhhhh, it's been too long. Tell me about your yoga-ing! How much, how long have you been doing it, what's your favorite poses, what do you like, what do you not?

Whoa, yeah, I will keep that in mind! So by "fun biking weekend" I assume he meant "hours spent in the ER", eh? I'm glad you're healing up though! I only started doing yoga regularly last December, and now I can't imagine being unable to do down dog! That pose alone has completely gotten rid of these nasty muscle knots I used to have in my latisimus dorsi. As for favorite pose, it kind of depends on how my body is feeling, ya know? Pigeon is usually the pose that helps me release a lot of muscle tension, but I like standing bow for how challenging it is. Standing head to knee is my nemesis, but one day I will make it my bitch.

How about you?

So here is my issue. when my alarm goes off at an ungodly early hour like 6:45am, I instinctively turn it off as fast as I can like the caring, compassionate bed-mate I am so it doesn't disturb my sleeping darling. However, this reflex means I'm not even awake when I turn it off, and promptly go back to sleep. If I put my alarm away from me so I have to get up, and I leave it on a minute or two while I work up the gumption to step out bravely into the cold world, I get sleepy death threats. How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

I don't suppose your partner could helpfully elbow you or steal the blankets?

[ormaybemidgets]

but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand.

Ah - goodness! I didn't know that's what happened to you last challenge! Glad to hear you're doing better

How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

I have no answers and I haven't mastered it either. I guess actually getting up is the easiest answer? For a little while it'll probably be INCREDIBLY annoying to the boyfriend, but that will motivate you to get up, which eventually you'll be able to do more quickly, which won't annoy boyfriend anymore.

[PrincessZippy]

So here is my issue. when my alarm goes off at an ungodly early hour like 6:45am, I instinctively turn it off as fast as I can like the caring, compassionate bed-mate I am so it doesn't disturb my sleeping darling. However, this reflex means I'm not even awake when I turn it off, and promptly go back to sleep. If I put my alarm away from me so I have to get up, and I leave it on a minute or two while I work up the gumption to step out bravely into the cold world, I get sleepy death threats. How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

Hey, the bed mate needs to knock it off with the sleepy death threats and be more supportive.

Maybe your partner should get up with you.

Works for us and our alarm goes off at 3:30 and yes that is AM.

Veronica

[Colin]

So here is my issue. when my alarm goes off at an ungodly early hour like 6:45am, I instinctively turn it off as fast as I can like the caring, compassionate bed-mate I am so it doesn't disturb my sleeping darling. However, this reflex means I'm not even awake when I turn it off, and promptly go back to sleep. If I put my alarm away from me so I have to get up, and I leave it on a minute or two while I work up the gumption to step out bravely into the cold world, I get sleepy death threats. How do you annoy yourself into getting up when you cant annoy the other person in the room?

My solution has been to use the alarm clock on the cell phone. Turn it to buzz mode and place it under your pillow. Sounds like a frieght train to you, but doesn't bother the other person.

[sandman]

...but have been out for 2 months on account of fracturing 2 elbows and breaking my hand. If Sandman ever invites you out to a "fun biking weekend", Do not go, it's a trap!

Hey hey hey now..

There were warnings read and waivers signed before we got on that chairlift (note my avatar). I am not to blame. Shall I post some pics of you and your modified eating utensils? LOL.

What did Sandman do to you? Put a stick in your tire or something? :eek:

I didn't need to stick anything in her tires - she pulled off her epic endo all by herself - and I have video proof of it to boot.

Whoa, yeah, I will keep that in mind! So by "fun biking weekend" I assume he meant "hours spent in the ER", eh? I'm glad you're healing up though!

Not in the ER... But waiting rooms, maybe.

You forgot to mention Alethea, that you still managed to have a good time, despite the injuries.

[Denny]

We're just messing with you sandman!