Raxie Pats her Head and Rubs her Tummy

[Raxie]

Happy New Year Nerds!!!!

I am so excited about 2016.

2015 was an amazing year for me, I went to Camp Nerd Fitness and it really reshaped the way I view my life, my goals and fitness. I also was luckily enough to join an amazing team of Ranger Ambassador’s on the boards here and get more involved in NF which I am really enjoying. I finally started power lifting, something I’ve been working up to basically since I joined NF via body weights and dumbbells. Real world related, I went to Alaska and got a new cat. I got engaged. My fiancé and I got our own place when our roommates moved out. All in all, a great year.

I am so ready for 2016 to be even more amazing! This year, I decided to set yearly goals, which I have never done before. I’ve admittedly been neglecting my epic quest, not because I haven’t been doing stuff on it (I have been ever so slowly crossing stuff off) but because I’m not sure how to use it. So I’m converting it into an overarching epic quest list AND using it to track my yearly goals as well! Then I can use those yearly goals to work out the details of my 4-week challenges.

My epic quest/yearly goals link is in my signature but I’m also adding them here for reference:

2016 GOALS

>>Read 30 books

>>Squat my body weight

>>Deadlift 200lb

>>Apply to join Big Brother Big Sisters of America

>>Climb Mt. Washington

>>Climb Mt. Marcy

>>Climb Mt. Katahdin

>>Make Borderlands Cosplay

>>Pay off Discover Card

>>Create a will & a living will

Now this may seem contradictory to everything I just wrote, but the majority of my specific missions this challenge are not going to be directly correlated with my 2016 goals. Winter break was tough for me, I had some personal headspace stuff to deal with in addition to redoing EVERYTHING in the apartment. This still isn’t quite done actually. So I am going to use January as a mental and physical cleanse month, so I can have a clean plate to start out on and really start building towards my goals in February. I need to clear my brain clutter as well as some physical clutter (which is directly contributing to my brain clutter) and I also need to detox my body of some of the holiday crap I just kept shoveling into my face (and I can only use “winter bulk†goals to excuse a very small portion of that). Seriously, this was me the last week of 2015:

And I can feel my body being really sad about it. Time to get my energy back!

I struggled with a while to decide on a theme for this challenge. I had about 5 different ones that I wrote up complex scoring systems for, utilizing variations on the boss system I did last challenge (which I LOVED), and one where it was really writing based since I had a ton of fun writing up my story last challenge as well, but decided that since my goal for this challenge is cleansing and simplicity… I am going to go with no theme. Just me, myself and my goals

[Raxie]

So, onto my goals! As the title of my challenge suggests, I am patting my head and rubbing my tummy. Those are the two main areas I'll be focusing on.

 

 

 

RAXIE PATS HER HEAD

 

1. Meditate Every Damn Day

 

I've been losing my consistency with meditation and I need to get back into it.  Whenever I make it not a goal of every day I put it off until the last minute of the week and end up trying to squeeze it in and that totally takes away from the purpose of meditation.  

 

Mission: Meditate using the Headspace app every day, seven days a week for 4 weeks.

 

2. Declutter My Space

 

One thing I've noticed on my fitness journey is that if my surroundings aren't organized and clean, both my headspace and my fitness suffers.  I let it get out of control way too easily and I need to work on this.  I've tried FlyLady a few times, but each time I just jump right in and don't do her 30 day baby steps.  I think this is why it doesn't ever "stick" and I always feel overwhelmed.  There are certain parts of the program I don't feel I need to do either and I think starting from the ground up is a good way to figure out exactly what those things are.  Additionally, my roommates are finally in their own place so I have complete control over the cleaning in the apartment so this will definitely help as well.  To be fair, we haven't completely finished reorganizing the apartment yet (we literally changed every room around, and even moved entire rooms like what was the living room is now the office, etc) so some of it is just still lingering from that.  But I think this will definitely help the newly arranged space stay nice and clean.

 

Mission: Complete the 31 day baby steps of FlyLady (this will start today, Sunday, and extend into the couple days break between challenges in order to complete it)

 

3. Read

 

One of my goals this year is to read 30 books.  This does include audio books, which I listen to while I commute and while I clean, but I'm aiming for at least 12 of these to be real books. 

 

Mission: Finish one real book by the end of the challenge.

 

4. Destress

 

One of the things I realized about myself over winter break was that I am way more of a stressed individual than I ever really noticed.  Meditating certainly does help with this, but I want to find other outlets for this.  A friend of mine introduced me to adult colouring books over the break and I fell in love.  To the point that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! So I went ahead and ordered myself The Lost Ocean and some pencils.  No goal on how much to colour or completing anything, but every week I will share a picture of my progress here

 

Mission: Colour at least 3x/week and share 1 photo here of my progress.

 

 

RAXIE RUBS HER TUMMY

 

And for the physical cleansing portion of this challenge...

 

1. No dairy!

 

Pretty self explanatory.  No dairy based products for the whole 4 weeks will enter my belly!

 

Mission: 7 days/week of dairy free goodness.

 

2. No booze!

 

I will also not be drinking for the next 4 weeks.  I did this last year for an entire 6 weeks and it was really great.  I'm excited to do this again and help kick start the year on the right track!

 

Mission: 7 days/week no alcohol.

 

3. Water water everywhere.

 

I need to get back in the habit of drinking more water as well. I usually do pretty well with this, but I feel like I need a kick in the butt to start paying more attention to it.

 

Mission: 90oz of water a day every day.

 

4. Core Work.

 

This was a day 2 addition to the challenge after wise words from a fellow rebel.  I need to work on my core strength to improve my lifting and help avoid more hip pain that I've been experiencing.

 

Mission: Do a core-focused workout once a week.

 

 

GRADING

 

Grading will be based on pure percentages of what I've completed out of my goals listed above.

 

0-50%: F

51-70%: C

71%-90%: B

91%-100%: A

[Raxie]

Reserved for challenge summary

[Elastigirl]

Looks like a great way to start the new year.

[Endor]

Mountain climbing sounds pretty challenging!

 

We'll be dry buddies this month I find the first 28 days the hardest

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Those are great goals, I'll be following along.

[Raxie]

Just did the first baby step of Fly Lady before bed tonight: shined my sink.

My alarms all set for early in the AM so I can get morning mediation in

Good night nerds! So excited for challenge day tomorrow!

Sent by TARDIS delivery service. Apologies for typos caused by interactions with the time vortex.

[Marauder]

Oh man, I totally want YOUR challenge!  I need your challenge!  I absolutely love it.  I think the no theme was the right choice for exactly the reasons you said.  

 

I have done Flylady off and on for many many years and it can be overwhelming even if you do the baby steps.  It's interesting how some things stick and just work though.  I don't really use her system any more (but a modified version), but I still make my bed and shine my sink every day, without fail.  It just stuck with me.  

 

It sounds like a wonderfully therapeutic challenge!

[obax]

A fine set of goals to start off the year. Much simpler than your last challenge, but that's not a bad thing, as you say. I'll be following along, can't wait to see how it goes!

[ladylydia]

Good move planning out the year's goals along with the month's.

[Big_Show]

Happy New Year! Good challenge goals, I'm also spending the beginning of this year tidying up loose ends and decluttering. Think of it as preparing a solid foundation for future awesomeness.

[Mad Hatter]

This challenge seems like a great way to start the year! Best of luck!  

[DarK_RaideR]

Good call on keeping it simple and theme-free, I'm guessing the shift to 4 Week Challenges can be a trap for people setting up huge themes (like the one you did yourself last challenge) to be played out in a really short amount of time, there's really less time to let it all play out and feel like it was worth putting in all that thematic effort. Plus, you know, it lets you focus on your goals better instead of worrying about typing the next wall of story

[Raxie]

Looks like a great way to start the new year.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it.

 

 

Mountain climbing sounds pretty challenging!

 

We'll be dry buddies this month I find the first 28 days the hardest

Yeah, the ones I have on the list for this year are pretty small and only really require hiking/scrambling skills. I did Ben Nevis last year and fell in love with the feeling, even though that guys pretty small too. Eventually I want to take a mountaineering class and do some serious stuff like Denali and eventually Mt. Kilomanjaro but that'll be a long while off

We can do this! Dry January woot woot!

 

 

Those are great goals, I'll be following along.

 

Hooray glad to have you

 

Oh man, I totally want YOUR challenge!  I need your challenge!  I absolutely love it.  I think the no theme was the right choice for exactly the reasons you said.  

 

I have done Flylady off and on for many many years and it can be overwhelming even if you do the baby steps.  It's interesting how some things stick and just work though.  I don't really use her system any more (but a modified version), but I still make my bed and shine my sink every day, without fail.  It just stuck with me.  

 

It sounds like a wonderfully therapeutic challenge!

 

I've actually been afraid to do a super relaxing cleansing challenge because six weeks is such a long time to feel like I'm doing "nothing" (even though it's definitely not nothing... but you know how Rangerbrain works...) so the four week change helped push me to do this which I think I *definitely* need to do.

Yeah I don't think I'll end up completely sticking with the actual program after a few months of doing it, but I want to stick to it long enough to be able to have my own daily and weekly cleaning practice engrained into my brain.

 

A fine set of goals to start off the year. Much simpler than your last challenge, but that's not a bad thing, as you say. I'll be following along, can't wait to see how it goes!

 

Thanks!

 

Good move planning out the year's goals along with the month's.

 

I think it'll really help get me to my goals!

 

Happy New Year! Good challenge goals, I'm also spending the beginning of this year tidying up loose ends and decluttering. Think of it as preparing a solid foundation for future awesomeness.

 

Yeah, my book reading goal is actually originally based on a goal of not allowing myself to buy any more books until I finish all the ones I have... so that's definitely a loose end for sure haha. The book I'm currently reading I've had since 2006! Ridiculousness. 

This challenge seems like a great way to start the year! Best of luck!

 

Thanks1 

Good call on keeping it simple and theme-free, I'm guessing the shift to 4 Week Challenges can be a trap for people setting up huge themes (like the one you did yourself last challenge) to be played out in a really short amount of time, there's really less time to let it all play out and feel like it was worth putting in all that thematic effort. Plus, you know, it lets you focus on your goals better instead of worrying about typing the next wall of story

That's a really good point that I actually hadn't thought of. I did have a big theme planned for the next challenge, but that makes me rethink it, not rethink doing it, but rethink making it for just one challenge. A giant multi-challenge theme may come out of this line of thinking...

[Raxie]

Week 1 Day 1

 
So last night I had a huge bout of insomnia, couldn't fall asleep until 1:30AM. Considering my bed time is usually ~9/930 this was tough for me.  I think it's because of all the holiday sleeping in and eating poorly and my body just being like NO I DON'T WANT TO HAVE A SCHEDULE AGAIN.  I very nearly did not get up this morning for my morning routine (at 4:30) and was going to just get up and rush around for work around 5:45 (I leave my house at 6) but I decided to say screw it.  I was going to be massively tired to matter what, and I would feel way better about myself mentally and have a better time waking up if I just sucked it up and got it done.  So I did! I woke up, did a Water A NF Yoga session, and Headspace meditated.  I went back to the foundation series again because it's been a while.  Yes, I'm exhausted now, but I would be anyway.  And I feel a lot better than I think I would have had I snoozed for an hour and just laid in bed vaguely stressing over my lack of sleep and likely not getting any extra z's any way.  The good thing is that tonight I will definitely sleep like a rock
 
I brought baked salmon with roasted garlic and tomatoes and a side of broccoli for lunch today.  I'm really excited to eat it! I also have already drank 20oz of water before leaving the apartment this morning.
 
Going grocery shopping tonight for a week full of noms. I think scallops might be in the cards.
 
I've also decided that while I'm grading my overall challenge on whether or not I finish my book, I'll be tracking it weekly by making sure I read at least 6 days a week.
 
My colouring book comes in Wednesday. I can hardly wait!!  
 
Progress as of 8 hours into the challenge:

Meditate 1/7
Flylady 1/8 (counting first Sunday for the first week)
Read 0/6
Colour 0/3
Dairy Free 0/7
Booze Free 0/7
90oz water 0/7

[Big Adam]

Hey Raxie! Looks like a great challenge!  I love your book goal!  Books are the best!  Let us know what you're reading!  I always like recommendations.

[Raxie]

Hey Raxie! Looks like a great challenge! I love your book goal! Books are the best! Let us know what you're reading! I always like recommendations.

I'm actually currently reading "The Years Best Science Fiction" from 2005. It's a compilation of the 30 best short stories published in science fiction magazines from 2005. I've had the book forever and never gotten around to reading it haha. The stories are hit or miss so far, but two of them were really excellent I might check out more of what those authors have to offer in terms of novels and stuff.

Sent by TARDIS delivery service. Apologies for typos caused by interactions with the time vortex.

[goodbye_farewell]

Happy New Year Nerds!!!!

 

Real world related, I went to Alaska and got a new cat.

 

This seems really far to go to get a cat

 

 

Oh and nice goals something something...

[Charlie_Quinn]

Happy New year Raxie! Looking forward to seeing how you progress over the next 4 weeks.

[RuthixCube]

This is an awesome challenge, Raxie! I'm excited to follow along with you

[Big_Show]

Trust me, I feel you on the lack of sleep! I spent most of yesterday alternating between wanting to sit in the corner and cry due to all the tired, and wanting to crazy-murder the next person who came near me just to get some peace...

[Rurik Harrgath]

Slept rotten myself last night.  Dragged ass in the gym today because of it.  But tonight is chance to catch up on some sleep debt and tomorrow is another day, right?

[Wild Wolf]

Awesome challenge opening up 2016, Raxie!! Sorry about the late night you had...those are rough, especially when the bed time was significantly later than your usual. I'm sending a tank of my reserve supply of energy for you!

 

 

Wolf

[IamDoll]

You have had quite an epic year! That is awesome! How was the NF camp? I have been eyeballing it but I am such an introvert but sooooo curious.

 

I love how you have laid out this challenge. Colouring is wonderful for destressing and personally, knitting/crochet keeps me from killing everyone. Great job looking at your needs and working on them. It is cool to see a challenge focused on the aspects of personal wellness. 

 

♡ following ♡

[Raxie]

This seems really far to go to get a cat

 

 

Oh and nice goals something something...

 

Hahah, Alaska cats are all the rage these days...

 

 

Happy New year Raxie! Looking forward to seeing how you progress over the next 4 weeks.

 

Thanks!

 

This is an awesome challenge, Raxie! I'm excited to follow along with you

 

Yay glad you're here

 

Trust me, I feel you on the lack of sleep! I spent most of yesterday alternating between wanting to sit in the corner and cry due to all the tired, and wanting to crazy-murder the next person who came near me just to get some peace...

 

That was me today.  I also drank way too much tea. But I've made it, and am going to be passing the hell out shortly...

 

Slept rotten myself last night.  Dragged ass in the gym today because of it.  But tonight is chance to catch up on some sleep debt and tomorrow is another day, right?

 

Nothing like working out on a tired brain.  Definitely kicked my butt but I'll be sleeping all the better for it!

 

Awesome challenge opening up 2016, Raxie!! Sorry about the late night you had...those are rough, especially when the bed time was significantly later than your usual. I'm sending a tank of my reserve supply of energy for you!

 

 

Wolf

 

Thanks Wolf! It must have reached me because I made it through the day without sleeping at my desk somehow haha

 

You have had quite an epic year! That is awesome! How was the NF camp? I have been eyeballing it but I am such an introvert but sooooo curious.

 

I love how you have laid out this challenge. Colouring is wonderful for destressing and personally, knitting/crochet keeps me from killing everyone. Great job looking at your needs and working on them. It is cool to see a challenge focused on the aspects of personal wellness. 

 

♡ following ♡

 

Camp was *amazing*.  Honestly, nearly everyone I met there are similarly introverted, it's a camp for nerds who mostly met on the internet.  Introvert central.  There's plenty of opportunities to be on your own of the social aspect gets overwhelming as well but overall it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was so nervous I almost backed out at the last second too.  But if you're eyeballing it and it's within your budget and you have the vacation time I seriously could not recommend it more! It's seriously life changing

 

I have been wanting to do a challenge like this for some time but doing it for six weeks seemed a bit of a waste of doing all that kinda stuff so I'm kind of glad it's four weeks now so I have a chance for some fitness R&R.  Thanks for stopping in!