Our.Lady.Of.Ashes [Going Zen]

[our.lady.of.ashes]

First challenge as a druid. I'm looking at deepening my yoga practice and trying to build meditation into my daily practice. 

 

Main Goal: Working toward 140 lbs. I'm weighing in at 149 lbs. So 9 lbs to go.

 

Goal 1: Running

I'm going to complete the Z5K during this challenge and then I'm going to continue working on running three days a week until the end of the challenge.

A 12 or more (Sta +2)

B 6 - 11 (Sta +1)

C Less than 6 (Sta +.5)

 

Goal 2: Yoga

Three days a week I will do my yoga practice.

A 12 or more (Dex +2)

B 6 - 11 (Dex +1)

C Less than 6 (Dex +.5)

 

Goal 3: Meditation

Daily goal to meditate for five minutes at some point throughout the day.

A 28 - 42 (Wis +2)

B 14 - 27 (Wis +1)

C Less than 14 (Wis +.5)

 

Life Quest: Prepare a second book for publication. Six weeks of editing and working on "Dark King Rising". Must get 20 points to get an A. 

Read Through 5pts

Full Synopsis 5pts

Rewrite plot synopsis 5pts

Prepare manuscript for CreateSpace 5pts

Commission Cover 5pts

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Weighed in at 152 for the first of the interim weeks. Also I went to a yoga class on Thursday and completed 3 runs for the week. Not too shabby. Need to work on my home practice and get started on incorporating meditation into my daily routine. Here's to week 2.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

I love your goals. Good luck on your book!

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Thanks. I will also be tracking food, but it's not a goal thus time.

[Lightning]

I am trying to decide if I want to add a life goal. I have some self-published meditation books (coloring meditation) that I'd like to repackage and promote as a download. Not sure what is holding me back, Way to go on the book! Love that goal.

I'm building up to a running 5K also. Didn't add it to the challenge because I want strength to be the focus. Still hope to be ready for the run in 6 weeks.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

I am trying to decide if I want to add a life goal. I have some self-published meditation books (coloring meditation) that I'd like to repackage and promote as a download. Not sure what is holding me back, Way to go on the book! Love that goal.

I'm building up to a running 5K also. Didn't add it to the challenge because I want strength to be the focus. Still hope to be ready for the run in 6 weeks.

What's coloring meditation?

[Lightning]

What's coloring meditation?

It's a form of active meditation where you use a simple movement as a way to help you maintain focus while meditating. I chose coloring because everyone can do it and its fun. I don't want to hijack this thread and could talk about it for pages. . If you want to message me I can find a way to send some color pages to you with some instructions.

[Sunmage]

Welcome to the Druids!

 

You published a book? A real one we can buy in the store?

Awesome!

 

I like your goals =)

Have lots of fun here...

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Day One weigh in: 150lbs Gonna see how far I can bring that down in the next six weeks while working on increasing my flexibility and taking care of myself.

Goals for today: yoga or run and five minutes of meditation. Bonus getting in a good number of calories without eating bread.

[our.lady.of.ashes]

So Day One:

 

Had a hamburger with bun, so I flubbed the no bread. And I didn't get enough calories. I did however get my run in. I'm on week 6 workout 1. I managed it. My best time is still just about 50 minutes. I need to work on bringing that down, but I'm just glad I can get through the workouts without passing out. I've come a long way from the woman who couldn't run for more than 15 seconds. Still not running for multiple minutes, but I can get up to 1 minute without too much trouble. That's good. I didn't get the meditation in, not for lack of time, but simply because I forgot about it. I worry that is going to be the hallmark of this challenge, I'm not going to get to it because I've forgotten about it in my not so hectic day. But then again, it's day one. I can't get down on myself yet. I haven't flubbed an entire week or something, just one day. Let's not be too hard on ourselves. 

 

Today, Day Two, I am starting on my Life quest. Gotta do a read through and outline a book. It shouldn't be too hard. I'm not going to get it all finished today, but I can make a decent dent in it if I try. So Today: At least 30 minutes of yoga, five minutes of meditation, and start working on the book. Shouldn't be too hard to get this all in today. Tally ho!

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Recap Day Two

All I ate was a banana and Chinese food, definitely not enough calories. I will be more intentional about eating today. Got my yoga and my meditation in but didn't get very far in working on the book. I let myself get distracted. Not the best way to get work done. Gonna try to get more done today and since I'm up super early, I have more time than usual. This could be a good or bad thing because I'm still highly distractable.

I've been reading more about diet and running. Maybe I should say diet in general. I have been following a reduced carb, or trying to, diet with an emphasis on protein, though I still struggle to get the recommended amount on any given day. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe this isn't the right way to go about it. My weight has plateaued at what I once considered a fairly healthy weight, though it is still overweight for my body size, and I want to make more gains in strength and weight loss. However, I can't do both at the same time so I think I'm going to focus on the weight loss first and then try to come up with some strength gains. Which means overhauling how I work my diet.

So far I've been following the paleo principle of no dairy. However, as I picked up from a friend (LadyShello), dairy is a good way to nickel and dime your way to higher protein values. So I may go back to eating dairy to make up my protein deficit. I now know that carbs are not the enemy, so I'm going to stop worrying about whether or not I have bread or pasta ands concentrate on making sure I get enough calories and focus on whole food. I may even go back to eating breakfast, I haven't noticed any significant changes due to doing IF, so it may also be something that simply doesn't work for me and I can ditch it.

Goals for today: 1460 calories or thereabouts, a run, five minutes of meditation, and work on the book. Here we go.

[Lightning]

Here is the obligatory YMMV post. I couldn't run for more than a couple of minutes at the start of this year. Then I tried speed walking and worked on endurance. Once a week I did a really long walk (think double your usual walk). This helped me a lot. If you can walk 6 miles its mentally easier to make the jump to believing you can jog for 1.

I have absolutely plateaued with weight loss. I'm trying carb cycling still following paleo guidelines. On two of my weight training days I'm going to double my carbs and increase my calories to see if that helps shake up my metabolism and boost my muscles a bit. If it works you know I will let everyone know!

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Here is the obligatory YMMV post. I couldn't run for more than a couple of minutes at the start of this year. Then I tried speed walking and worked on endurance. Once a week I did a really long walk (think double your usual walk). This helped me a lot. If you can walk 6 miles its mentally easier to make the jump to believing you can jog for 1.

I have absolutely plateaued with weight loss. I'm trying carb cycling still following paleo guidelines. On two of my weight training days I'm going to double my carbs and increase my calories to see if that helps shake up my metabolism and boost my muscles a bit. If it works you know I will let everyone know!

A six mile walk would be awesome. I could only do it once a week due to time constraints, but maybe I'll give that a shot. I'm doing a little better but there is still a long way to go before November when I've selected to do my first 5k.

Day three recap

Didn't get my meditation in. I've got to find some way to get that a reminder so I will do it. Yoga and running are easy because I do them right after I walk the dog. So there has to be a way to work my meditation into my schedule somehow. So far I have done it once this week. I think I may set a silent alarm on my fitbit to remind me to get it done. I can pretty much do it anywhere sitting down because the app is on my phone which is attached to my hip.

Woke up super early yesterday so I had run and done my yoga by 9 am. That was kind of interesting. Even though I said I was going to be more intentional about food, I totally failed at that. I had one meal yesterday and it was lunch. So there is room for improvement there as well. Need to be more careful about getting enough food in to make sure I'm not under feeding myself.

On the book front I'm reading a book called writing the breakout novel while I do my read through. I know the book is going to need an overhaul, I just have to learn the skills to be able to do it.

Goals for today (Day 4): Yoga, five minutes of meditation, and a combined hour of reading.

[Shello]

Glad you were able to get something useful from my food log.  I never thought about that before about the dairy but I do get a lot of that.  I just couldn't give it up.  It's one of the reasons that my fat macro goes over most of the time.  I don't care so much about that though.  I don't notice any super weight fluctuations when fat is high - unless calories are over.  On the other hand, if carbs are high and calories are still under my goal, I tend to stall a little in the weight loss.  

 

I like your challenge goals.  You're still tracking food but focused your goals elsewhere.  Good strategy.  

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Glad you were able to get something useful from my food log. I never thought about that before about the dairy but I do get a lot of that. I just couldn't give it up. It's one of the reasons that my fat macro goes over most of the time. I don't care so much about that though. I don't notice any super weight fluctuations when fat is high - unless calories are over. On the other hand, if carbs are high and calories are still under my goal, I tend to stall a little in the weight loss.

I like your challenge goals. You're still tracking food but focused your goals elsewhere. Good strategy.

It was actually one of the first things I noticed especially given that I've been off real diary since the beginning of the year. Lots of almond milk, but very little cheese and milk.which has been a little bit of a bummer because I ADORE cheese. I have missed cheese, but I think I will try to be selective about it. Good cheese is one thing. Cheese just for the sake of having cheese is another.

I am still using MFP but I'm not stressing over the numbers this challenge. My primary goal is eat enough to be satisfied. That's usually between 1000 and 1200 calories. After that it's try to get enough protein and try to get in vegetables and fruit. Just gonna work on those habits and that will be good.

Day 4 Recap: got in a 1000 calories, didn't do so well on vegetables. There really aren't any in the house so that makes things a little problematic. Went out and bought so good Greek yogurt to help supplement my protein and calcium. I'm taking a multivitamin so I'm not super worried about my nutrient values but it can't hurt to have more. I went to my favored yoga class, Gentle Integral, yesterday in the rain. Got a little wet getting there but it was ok. Found out that lizard pose is a little hard for me to rest in. I'm not flexible enough in the hips I think. It's a pose I will have to work on. Got my meditation in, so that's three times this week and I still have a few days left so I'm making progress.

Day 5: I've already done my run for today. Got up early so I could polish it off. I weighed in and think I'm down to 145, which means I dropped five pounds since last week. I don't quite believe that and the analog scale we have it's hard to read the numbers so I could be very wrong. Either way, I have lost at least a couple of pounds which is a good thing. Steadily working toward my interim goal of 140. So now I just need to get my meditation in and maybe even do some yoga this afternoon. I've been mostly using the site, Do Yoga With Me, which has given me a number of videos to use, but I think I may try out Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior this afternoon. It will probably kick my butt but trying is half the fun.

[Shello]

It was actually one of the first things I noticed especially given that I've been off real diary since the beginning of the year. Lots of almond milk, but very little cheese and milk.which has been a little bit of a bummer because I ADORE cheese. I have missed cheese, but I think I will try to be selective about it. Good cheese is one thing. Cheese just for the sake of having cheese is another.

 

 

That is true in general for dairy.  The chocolate milk I drink is real cow's milk but is somehow 'ultra-filtered' so it has less sugar and way more protein.  That really helps give me a protein boost.  The same for yogurt - I really like those flavored greek yogurts where you dump one side of topping into the yogurt but those have so much more sugar and not enough protein.  I try to check the ratio and use those really good ones as treats. 

 

Great job getting your run in the morning.  That certainly doesn't leave much room for failure.  I keep thinking I should do that... and then I hit the snooze button.

[our.lady.of.ashes]

That is true in general for dairy.  The chocolate milk I drink is real cow's milk but is somehow 'ultra-filtered' so it has less sugar and way more protein.  That really helps give me a protein boost.  The same for yogurt - I really like those flavored greek yogurts where you dump one side of topping into the yogurt but those have so much more sugar and not enough protein.  I try to check the ratio and use those really good ones as treats. 

 

Great job getting your run in the morning.  That certainly doesn't leave much room for failure.  I keep thinking I should do that... and then I hit the snooze button.

Still managed to fail at getting my meditation in because I'm struggling with that as a habit.

Day Five recap: Went way over on the calories yesterday because I was craving pizza and thus made some poor decisions. Either way gotta live with that. Got my run in early but didn't manage to get my meditation in because I'm having a hard time just making myself stop and do it. My brain keeps coming up with other things I could be doing with that five minutes, which honestly isn't a lot but it's distracting and I fail at making this a habit.

Day six so far: Ate more pizza. In fact polished off what there was left.still not the best life choice, but I did it. I've spent a lot of time shopping but didn't buy more than a cup off coffee. Mostly just watched other people buy things. Still gotta go grocery shopping because the lack of food in the house is kind of depressing and leads to me making bad choices. Like pizza.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

If you like pizza, you should try to make zucchini pizza bites. It doesn't take long to make them and it only takes 6 minutes for them to bake. I could post my recipe here if you'd like. Here's what it looks like (although you might not want to use as much cheese as I did):

[our.lady.of.ashes]

If you like pizza, you should try to make zucchini pizza bites. It doesn't take long to make them and it only takes 6 minutes for them to bake. I could post my recipe here if you'd like. Here's what it looks like (although you might not want to use as much cheese as I did):

I'm a huge fan of cheese so there would be significant cheese used. Thanks for the idea.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

Here's a rundown of my recipe: 

 

1 Zucchini
1 Jar of Tomato-based Pasta Sauce
1 Package of Pepperoni
1 Bag of Cheese
1 Baking Pan
Cooking Oil Spray
Salt
Pepper
Garlic

 

1. Set oven to broil on high. Slice zucchini into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices. Spray both sides of the zucchini with cooking oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic on both sides of the zucchini. Put the zucchini on the baking pan and put it in the oven for 2 minutes.

2. Take the pan out of the oven and flip zucchini. Bake for 2 more minutes.

3. Take the pan out of the oven and top with pasta sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Put the pan back in the oven for two more minutes or until the cheese has melted. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool.

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Here's a rundown of my recipe: 

 

1 Zucchini1 Jar of Tomato-based Pasta Sauce1 Package of Pepperoni1 Bag of Cheese1 Baking PanCooking Oil SpraySaltPepperGarlic

 

1. Set oven to broil on high. Slice zucchini into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices. Spray both sides of the zucchini with cooking oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic on both sides of the zucchini. Put the zucchini on the baking pan and put it in the oven for 2 minutes.

2. Take the pan out of the oven and flip zucchini. Bake for 2 more minutes.

3. Take the pan out of the oven and top with pasta sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Put the pan back in the oven for two more minutes or until the cheese has melted. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool.

Thanks!

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Goals for day 7: Church. Yoga. Meditation. Read through. Here we go on a beautiful Sunday morning.

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Day 6 Recap: Went grocery shopping late, did a lot of shopping, but didn't really buy much. Still didn't get my meditation in. 

 

Day 7 Recap: Okay, so I didn't manage to get my yoga in today, but I should be able to get my meditation in before I go to bed. 

 

Week One Recap:

Meditation: 4/7 Not bad, but not great. I can do better and will try to next week. B

Yoga: Tues, Wed, Thurs so 3/3.A

Run: Mon, Wed, Fri 3/3 A

 

In short, not a bad week. 2 A's and a B. 

 

Life Quest: Didn't get a lot done on this during the week, but I did read another book to help me work on creating a better novel, so I don't count the time wasted. Now to get on with working on the novel. First the read through, then the synopsis/outline.

[our.lady.of.ashes]

Week 2: Day 1

Got my meditation out of the way early, so I no longer have that to worry about today. Still need to either run or do yoga and work on my novel read through. Those are my goals for today. I took the weekend off which was good but need to get back in gear.

[Shello]

That's a pretty good week.  And it seems you are off a to good start with the meditation for week 2.  

 

oh - and those zucchini pizza bites look amazeballs...  does the zucchini get crunchy?