SnowOwl - The Rooster Challenge

[SnowOwl]

I decided my challenge needed a totem animal this month. 

 

So I chose my biggest rooster. 

 

 

According to the infinite knowledge of the internet, the Rooster represents a number of positive traits like:

• never giving up
• beginnings
• self-expression
• time keeper
• wake-up call
• sun energy
• lack of fear 
• time management
• the opposite of depression and lack of energy 

These seem like great things for me to focus on right now.

 

Quest 1: Flapping my Wings

Develop a daily yoga practice. 

Most days this will be a 20 minute relaxing/stretching online yoga before bed. I will also continue my Wednesday evening strength and balance yoga class.

 

Quest 2: Kitchen Scraps

Create a meal plan and then update it daily based on what needs to be eaten in the fridge.

I just started reading a book on reducing food waste and how much water and land is wasted by growing food that is not eaten. I’m going to use this extra environmental motivation (and the tips in the book) to help me stick with my meal plans, save money, and eat healthier.

 

Quest 3: Greet the Sun

Get up at 7am daily.

I’m going to try this out for a few days and then evaluate and modify. The sun isn’t up until after 7:30am right now so I may change this to get up with the sun if getting up in the dark is not helpful, either way I really want to get up early and take full advantage of my days!

 

Quest 4: Crow!

Earn 30 xp daily on duolingo.

I have started and stopped my Spanish studying many times over the years. I want to really make some progress and learn this language! I may occasionally sub in other activities that still move me towards fluency like watching a Spanish movie or perhaps dinner out with a native speaker (if I get really brave! Although “conversation†at this point may be me listening and smiling and nodding).

 

In addition to my Rooster challenge, I will be keeping up my routines from last month:

• drink at least 9 glasses of water each day
• walk with my dog every morning
• strength train daily (5/7)

 

Note: I will be going on vacation from the 5th to the 13th. I will post quest adjustments before I go.

[peelout]

I'm here.

[Grayspeed]

Awesome quests! Also, that rooster is all kinds of hench.

 

 

hench

hɛn(t)ʃ/

adjective

BRITISHinformal

 

1. (of a man) strong, fit, and having well-developed muscles.

   "there's nothing funnier than seeing a really hench guy walking a tiny dog"

[StoneMonkey]

Nice challenge! I dig your totem animal.

Old legends say that afro-brazilian slaves watched the rooster fight and realized how versatile it's attacking skills were even despite it's lack of claw or tooth. They drew inspiration from the brutal kicks and pecks of the bird and, despite their hands being bound and useless, hid the movements of the rooster and a variety of other animals in a dance to develop the martial art Capoeira.

 

I have no idea whether that's true or not, it's just something my teacher told me a long while back.

 

Best of luck!

[SnowOwl]

If there were Capoeira anywhere within 60 miles of me I would so add that to this challenge!

[Maeghaan]

Your rooster is handsome! heh. I always enjoy how I feel after I do my yoga, so much so that I don't know how it's still such a struggle to get myself to do it. But a good stretch feel sooo nice. I can't wait until the sun is rising earlier again, I get up at 6am on weekdays for work and it's so much easier when it's not dark out like this. Even with a dawn alarm clock.

[Moros]

Following along - roosters are kind of cool.

 

[zeroh13]

Good luck!

[SnowOwl]

Rough start to my challenge, one of my chickens died today.  

 

Trying to stay on track though.

 

Day 1, Monday:

Flapping my Wings

Off to do my evening yoga as soon as I post this.

 

Kitchen Scraps

Meal plan created yesterday, but not followed today due to afore mentioned circumstances, went for quick and easy instead.

Tomorrow's meals are planned around some things in the fridge that need to be eaten soon.

 

Greet the Sun

I actually woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off! I hope that keeps up. And it's not dark at 7am. The sun isn't up, but it's light is and I heard my big rooster crowing just after I got up.

 

Crow!

Did my 30 xp. I'm doing mostly review right now because many of the words haven't stuck yet. Also, planned a trip to visit my cousin at the end of the month and her husband is Mexican so I'm hoping to get some practice in (listening at least).

 

Routines from last month:

drank my water

walked with my dog

squats for the mini (40/40/12 - because my knee started crackling and my husband thought I better not keep doing that)

[SaffronTurtle]

Sorry to hear about your chicken It's really hard not to get attached to them when they have such unique personalities. 

[Maeghaan]

I'm sorry, that really sucks

[Moros]

Rough start to my challenge, one of my chickens died today.  

 

Trying to stay on track though.

 

 

Doh - sorry to hear of it

[SnowOwl]

Day 2 - Tuesday:

Flapping my Wings

Will do this just before bed.

 

Kitchen Scraps

Followed my meal plan today and created my plan for tomorrow.

 

Greet the Sun

I was up, I wasn't happy about it, but I was up! 

 

Crow!

Did my Spanish studying.

 

Routines from last month:

drank my water

walked with my dog

did hanging knee raises for the mini

 

This morning was foggy and I was tired, but a bit later it got sunny and nice out! I was feeling good and being productive. 

Then this evening hit and I'm not sure what happened but I'm in a bad mood and grumpy.  

Good thing I made my first gif today.

[Grayspeed]

Nice, I'm pretty sure making your own gif is an Assassin Guild right of passage 

[SnowOwl]

Flapping my Wings

Went to yoga class. (Helped my mood improve a bit.)

 

Kitchen Scraps

Followed meal plan today, Still in a pretty foul mood so making tomorrow easy - having leftovers for dinner, egg sandwich for breakfast, and pb&j for lunch. I am also going to make cookies to snack on and to take on our long drive. (I think cookies will have to put me in a better mood.)

 

Greet the Sun

Up at 7am - perhaps tiredness is contributing to my mood? Really I think I just need a vacation - one more day!

 

Crow!

Practiced my Spanish.

 

Routines from last month:

water - good

Walked with my dog

did AMRAP of push-ups for the mini (push-ups today and core yesterday makes for some sore abs!)

[SnowOwl]

Day 4, Thursday

 

Flapping my Wings

Scheduled for right before bed. (Don't want to have to edit this tomorrow to a fail, so I'm pretty sure I'll do it!)

 

Kitchen Scraps

Mostly followed my meal plan, did switch my lunch to soup to save the last of the bread for sandwiches in the car tomorrow. No meal plan tomorrow except for sandwiches and cookies in the car and dinner out - whatever we can find near the hotel. 

 

Greet the Sun

I'm counting this a pass, but I overslept by 8 minutes. I turned my phone to silent during yoga class last night and forgot to turn it back on, so the alarm was silently going off, which is not helpful. I woke up on my own only 8 minutes late! (Actually earlier, but it took me 8 minutes to realize that it looked awfully light out already...)

 

Crow!

Spanish done. I think I could do better on this earlier in the day. I'm so tired by the time I do it that I keep making typing errors and then I have to do even more practicing (if you get it wrong you get more quizzing). May need to work on that.

 

Routines from last month:

didn't count today, I think I did ok though

dog walked

Attempted top half pull-ups for the mini. I was within an inch with a bit of a kip, but I just couldn't get there. I'm going to try once more before bed, if I can't get there I'll do jumping pull-ups in the morning instead.

*I'm starting my rep in the up position and then lowering and trying to get back up. Does anyone know if it matters which way you start?

[SnowOwl]

Oh, and here are my quest modifications for vacation:

 

Flapping my Wings: Any stretching done for at least 10 minutes counts for yoga for the day.

 

Kitchen Scraps: All food this week (except traveling days) will be custom catered for me by an amazing team of chefs who have been testing recipes and creating menus for weeks in preparation of our visit (my dad and his wife), I will not be doing any meal planning this week. 

*I’m excited to see the new mini that went up today! I’m sure there will be some great new recipes I can steal from my dad this week!

 

Greet the Sun: Alarms are not allowed on vacation

 

Crow!: Spanish learning is still required. 

 

Water - really needed in the cold, high elevation so this is still a focus

Dog - n/a (We’ll be doing plenty of outdoor recreating each day.)

Strength - anything active counts for strength-training for the day - cross-country skiing, yoga class, bouldering, sledding, etc.

[Maeghaan]

Have fun on your vacation!

[ixaera]

Enjoy~!

[WhiteBeltBrowncoat]

I miss having chickens. Though our neighbors do not miss our rooster...

[SnowOwl]

Day 5 - Friday

Today was a traveling day. Normally when we go to see my dad we drive straight through. This time we decided to take it easy and stop for the night halfway. I don't think that is a decision I would make again unless we were camping in the summer. Also, I need to remember that travel days are off days.

Motel - the best out of the three we checked out, but no way am I exercising/stretching/etc in here on this floor. I think is is mostly clean, but not enough for me to go touching things that can't be sanitized.

Dinner - well we tried a place that looked good, brew pups are usually decent, but not so much this one. How do you mess up fish and chips and a burger? We are having a good trip so far even though things weren't great this evening, excited to get to my dad's tomorrow! 

 

Flapping my Wings

I did stretch for a few minutes after my turn as the driver, but not a lot.

 

Kitchen Scraps

Out to dinner ate the only item available for me on the menu, not great and pretty greasy. Went to a grocery store after and grabbed a bag of popcorn to snack on. (Ate my whole dinner and still needed a snack...)

 

Greet the Sun

Vacation! 

 

Crow!

Did my spanish 

 

Routines from last month:

water - FAIL, I just can't drink much when on a long drive through rural Oregon - I have to pee too often and I only brought one bottle with me, but I should have had at least double what I did. Had some beer with dinner, not helpful when already low on water, waitress never refilled our water so only one glass with dinner. Must travel with more water. Will try the hotel water this evening... (I'm a water snob...not helpful.)

 

Walked with my dog before we left this am, plus took him for a walk along a trail near the hotel when we got here. (He was so mad at the long drive only to end at a hotel with nothing fun happening that when my husband tried to put him back in the car after a short break/walk he sat down in the road and refused to move - he's never done that before, lol.)

 

I did a top half pull-up!!! I tried again this morning before we left and I did one! I couldn't do a second, but I am so excited to have done one! I won't be able to practice pull-ups until we get back home, but then I'm really going to try to build up to a more solid top half pull-up. Right now I can only do it if my arms are totally fresh and rested.

[SnowOwl]

Traveling day - not going to get anything done and I am happy with that, may try for Spanish later if I can stay awake...

 

We arrived and my dad's wife taught me how to make a yummy vegan curry for dinner so I could use it for the mini. Tomorrow my dad is going to teach me portobello mushroom burgers. Being on vacation with two excellent cooks is making this cooking mini easy and fun! Plus, we really needed some new recipes at home - food has been very boring lately.

 

I posted the recipe here if anyone is interested:

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/78201-assassin-force-academy-lightsaber-power-cell/?p=1806500http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/78201-assassin-force-academy-lightsaber-power-cell/?p=1806500

[SnowOwl]

Seriously, I was not kidding about the cooking - look at my dessert tonight! That's homemade coconut milk vanilla ice cream my dad made so I could have dairy-free ice cream with my lava cake. I so needed this week and my dad is awesome.

 

[Jayniana Jones]

What a great dad you have! It looks delicious!

 

I have a possible suggestion for water when you travel. When we're on the road, we frequently buy gallon jugs of water from a grocery store. It functions as a nice stretch break and gives a palatable option for beverages. It won't cure the trouble of the bathroom breaks, but does help at the scary hotels. We've stayed in a few where I didn't want to put my bare feet on the floor or use the shower but the price was right.

 

I hope you had a good trip.

[SnowOwl]

 

Getting back on track with my daily yoga. After two days in the car and lots of sitting around I decided I had to do my online yoga this morning. It was so hard! I can't believe how stiff and tight I got in just a few days. It was really good motivation for me to make it more of a priority when traveling.

 

Not doing very well on my goals on vacation, but I did use my 20 seconds of courage and went to a free public skate skiing lesson where I was the only beginner and there were a bunch of people watching us. I almost got the hang of it by the end and everyone was (of course) very nice and supportive.