wrap-up Druids, Report!

[Heidi]

Druids, how was your January?

Pull up a cushion, grab a mug of tea, and tell us how the challenge went.

What were your successes?

What caused stumbles?

What surprises did you find along the way?

And of course, please share your insights. What did you learn?

Will you be carrying pieces from January into February's challenge?

Will you be with the Druids next round or will you visit a different guild, and why?

Feel free to link to your February challenge in your reply.

[Heidi]

Holy cow - it's the last day of the challenge.

That happened fast!

Successes

+Gym membership

+Gym integration - went nearly every day. One day missed for a cold and three days missed because it was closed. I am seeing some real definition, so this is definitely the right plan for me.

+I made bagels from scratch

+I did a pull up. Then a couple days later, I did three of them. In a row.

+Old tuition balance cleared

+Registration for Spring term complete

Insights

The gym with my partner is my sanity zone. I need it, every day, sometimes twice a day. Surprise: I can do a pull up!

I absolutely cannot return to IT.

I need an income, something reliable and within my power to maintain, but the upside is that I don't actually need very much.

Separate from income, I need a job, a sense of purposeful activity.

Graduation is looming large. For most people, graduation is a good thing, even a great thing. Hell, it's the whole point, right? Wrong. For me, the point was being a student, especially at my home university. My undergraduate graduation was nearly the death of me. I've carefully crafted and rearranged my graduate studies over the last several years to be patchwork, specifically to avoid graduation. I love working on papers. I love seminar classes. I love being at Hollins.

Graduating feels like becoming homeless.

It doesn't have to make sense.

May 22 2016 feels as though it should have R.I.P. next to it.

I will need to learn on my support system a lot in the coming month, and that's really difficult for me emotionally. I look forward to sharing another month with the Druids.

February challenge:

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/77510-heidi-201602/

[Rihor]

This was my first challenge and I started without a clear idea of what I wanted to do or needed to do. I kept it simple with meditation, yoga and tai chi without any really expectations of it. While I didn't meet 100% adherence to the quantity, I am okay with that. In fact, I'm happy with what I got out of it...bouncing back from anxiety a whooooooooole lot quicker and really just paying more attention to myself.

 

So, continuing on while adding some additions:

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/77573-a-wind-rises-for-rihor/

[Silverwitch]

In general, I feel good about the challenge because for once I've set myself manageable goals instead of overwhelming myself with too much ambition. The last two weeks I had a nasty cold, but managed to at least do part of it (mainly because it involved selfcare, which is easier when you only hang around between bed and sofa…).

I have to say I love the 4-week format!

 

February will definitely be my next challenge. Wait a second - that is today! Yikes!!!

[Eirlys]

The most insight I found was over bedtime routine - doing all the mandatory housework for the day as soon as I had the chance (generally right after I'd had dinner) definitely helps improve things.

 

I think it's worth building on that and pushing all the necessary pre-bedtime things (e.g. cleaning teeth, getting dressed for bed) much earlier in the evening so that when I notice I'm tired, or that it's late, I can just go straight to bed.

 

I'll have to figure out what knock-on effects that has for those items' pre-requisites (e.g. leaving half an hour after eating before teeth cleaning, not having sugary food as last bite to eat) in order for that to be successful.

 

 

I'll definitely be transferring a number of things from Jan to Feb.

 

Also, despite eating very badly during the day (e.g. biscuits and chocolate bars for lunch, snacking on crisps in the afternoon etc), I seem to have lost weight.  Yay!  Now down to 133 lbs (from about 137-ish - although was 161 lbs full term with baby & 150 a few weeks after giving birth) and fitting a lot better into some leggings I ordered in the New Year Sales.  Would like to get that number back to around 126.