Gareth's First Challenge

[garethg85]

Hello, I'm Gareth, a 30-year-old male from Victoria, British Columbia. I work at a desk all day and would like to be more active and healthier, so here we go:

 

[Diet] Objective #1: No more sugar in my coffee. It's fine black with milk.

 

[Fitness] Objective #2: Complete the NF Beginning Body Weight Workout once a week. Wednesdays are usually good. (Oh, hey, today is Wednesday!)

 

[Fitness] Objective #3: Complete my physiotherapists' required stretches daily. It'll take 15 minutes, do them right after dinner.

 

[Life] Objective #4: Get out of bed no later then the 1st snooze alarm. Even if it's just to go downstairs and put the news on.

 

And away we go...

[r7rok]

Welcome aboard Gareth.

 

I too have a desk job and share the same goal of wanting to be more active and healthy.

 

Your Diet and life goals are goals that I worked hard to achieve last here so you have my support should you hit any walls with these. Firstly for the coffee, I started to pace out my sugar slowly, I still have half a teaspoon of sugar with my first cup of joe in the morning, and actually I think my coffee's that have no sugar actually taste better now, but it ain't easy.

 

The get out of bed thing was my no1 worst habit outwith smoking for the longest time, I used to purposefully set my alarm at the opposite side of my room, and could get up, turn the alarm off, dive under the covers and then wake up later and not even realise I had missed my alarm. Nowadays I don't set a snooze, am up at 5.45am everyday, most days I am actually up before my alarm goes. Things I found that helped me were:

 

• No Caffeine past 3pm
• Having something to get up to, this would either be a workout, a long walk, or getting up to have a shave, I ditched shaving with cartridges and went to old fashioned safety razor and brush which takes around 20 minutes but turned shaving from something I loathed, to something I actually look forward to, (Shave day tomorrow, Woo!)
• Most Importantly for me I set my alarm for 5.45 even on days off, normally at weekends I would not rise to past 11am, now if I sleep past 7am I feel like my day is ruined before it's began.

 

Hope these help you and good luck with your challenge sir!

[Ultrageek]

Welcome along! First off, best of luck with your goals! I am also bad at the getting up thing so I can sympathise there.

I also had physio to do once upon a time for shoulder pain. Legitimately changed my life. Honestly I can't stress enough how much I'm rooting for you on that one. And don't stop before your doc gives you the nod, but you probably knew that already.

Once again, very best of luck on your first challenge. Keep us posted.

[garethg85]

Thanks for your expressions of support, and your advice on meeting the goals, much appreciated!

[Sagequeen]

Hey Gareth!

 

How's the sleep thing going? I'm also working on that, rather, the 'not sleeping late' thing. Not surprisingly, that's been my biggest challenge.

 

I've avoided doing r7rok's suggestion, moving my alarm to across the room, but it looks like I'm going to have to.  

 

Anyway - just checking in! Hope your challenge is going well!

[Bast]

Hey, Garethg85!

 

Looks like you have a great challenge laid out!  An easy (and healthy) way I eliminated sugar in my coffee was by switching to stevia...it's a natural, calorie free herb that's 300 times sweeter than sugar!  And for me, I am deathly allergic to ALL artificial sweeteners (even those advertise as being made from sugar), but since stevia is a plant, it's safe for me to use!  I've also had a hard time getting up with the alarm...I work on going to bed 8 hours before it's scheduled to go off (makes sure I get enough sleep).  Besides r7rok's suggestion of moving your alarm, I also have a big glass of water before bed...that way, when I get up to turn off the alarm, I have to go straight to the bathroom!

 

It looks like a lot of your goals seem to fit into what the Assassins stand for.  We are a fun loving bunch who often tend to do it all!  You can find some additional info about us here, or visit our Guild page.  You can also go to the Assassin Intitiates page to get to know your fellow Recruits who have similar Assassiny interests!  Please don't feel pressured in anyway.  The great thing about your first Challenge is getting know the different guilds and finding people with similar interests and goals to play with and support!  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

So how did Weeks 1 and 2 go for you?  I hope you're still hanging in there!  We're already half way through...

 

[Bast]

Hey, there!  How's your Challenge going?  Did you do well in Week 3?

 

Hang in there...we're in the home stretch now...

 

[Bast]

I hope your Challenge was successful, even if you didn't post updates.  But if not, no worries...you can always try again!  We'll all be here to cheer you on and help in any way!