NeverThatBored Sits and Thinks

[NeverThatBored]

We had a plaque in my house growing up with the quote “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.†It kind of fits with the theme of this challenge. Essentially, I’m taking my ongoing goals and adding a thread of mindfulness throughout them to try to overcome some of my problem areas (cougheatingcough).

 

Goal 1: Maintain Fitness Routine

• 3x/week workout - this is usually 1 hour-long bootcamp class and 2 bodyweight exercise workouts based on a mix of starting bodyweight and the bbww circuit.
• 1 run/week (goal is generally to increase from 2.6 miles to 5K, so I'm pretty close now!)
• 1 pushup AMRAP/week
• Walk 16 miles/week - 64 miles total

Goal 2: Movement Focus - Deep Squat Holds

• Squat daily, and try to squat whenever I think about it at random times throughout the day.
• Focus on learning better form and increasing mobility over holding for a specific length of time
• Goal is eventually 5 minutes/day
• The purpose of this is to do it daily, so no making it up if I miss a day

Goal 3: Conscious Eating

Essentially, I want to think of Future NTB when I make decisions about food. Right Now NTB wants to have a treat for one reason or another, but how will that affect future NTB? Maybe it will be a happy memory for her and won’t have many bad effects. But maybe it could make her cravings worse for the food again in the future. Or maybe it could upset her stomach. Or maybe it could set back her weight goals, or put unhealthy junk into her body that will make her feel bad or harm her overall health, or just make her feel guilty and frustrated.

 

So. For every food I eat, I want to weigh that choice. I want to be nice to Future NTB and care about her wellbeing. I want to follow these general guidelines about eating, but I can go outside of that if it makes sense for a particular situation. And if I’m about to sell out my future self, I want to recognize and acknowledge it.

• Don’t eat after 8pm (or within 3 hours of bedtime)
• Avoid grains and refined sugar
• Eat when hungry, and take some time to think about whether I’m actually hungry before eating (unless it’s obvious)
• Try to eat veggies with every meal
• Try to limit excessive dairy, but eat yogurt weekly for digestion
•  (NEW) Try to take a few deep breaths each time I'm about to start a meal or snack. I'm hoping to establish this as a trigger for mindful eating to help the habit stick.

Last challenge I had a 20 burpee penalty for breaking the rules. I might incorporate that into this challenge somehow still, but I'm not sure where it fits yet.

 

Goal 3: Life goal - journaling

• I don’t write much these days and I’ve been thinking that I want to keep this skill sharp. So I plan to write every day of this challenge on 750words.com. If I succeed, and if I decide this is a worthwhile thing that I want to stick with, I can reward myself with the Day One journaling app.
• I think this will also be useful for my food goal – it might help with reflection and thinking about Future NTB.
• I am also starting a bullet journal this month, so that's semi-related.

Bonus Quests:

• 4 yoga videos/classes OR 75 minutes/week = 1 point available per week
• Ankle alphabets every day (aim for at least 2 sets) = 1 point available per week
• Meditate 7x/week for any length of time = 1 bonus point available per week
• Hold legs-into-chest pose for several minutes per day = 1 point available per week (this is to support my squat goal)

 

[Kilyra]

Love the goals! The idea of taking deep breaths to be mindful of what you're about to eat is a really neat idea! I'm super curious to know if this works well

[fleaball]

Woooo challenge

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following.

[petefeet]

Following along since you always support me!

[IamDoll]

Your goals sound great, especially the mindful eating. I read am article on it a few years ago and honestly it made a huge difference. Taking the time to think and then actually spend time experiencing what I am eating was super useful with binge eating issues.

 

I wish you all the lucl and am definitely following.

[Lara]

If you're going to take care of your future-self, maybe you want to take a look at this for some ideas:

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/77374-���-willpower-challenge-����/?p=1820803

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/77374-���-willpower-challenge-����/?p=1820807

(just in case it helps)

 

I do squats along the day too. Every time I have to pick something from the floor, or reach out at something in the lower drawers, or to lace my shoes... Everything is an excuse to squat. I also try to squat while cleaning my teeth or to take a rest from sitting/standing (well, I must say I found the squat a comfortable position to be in). At the beginnig, before I made it a habit, just to assure myself I would remember, I put it on my habits list in habitica (I remember you had an account, am I right?). Maybe you can do a "squat and think" challenge?

 

Good luck with your goals!!

[Briniel]

Squeeeeeee new challenge! Good luck with your new/old goals. Following!

Also yay for bullet journals!! Do we get to see pictures?

[NeverThatBored]

Squeeeeeee new challenge! Good luck with your new/old goals. Following!

Also yay for bullet journals!! Do we get to see pictures?

 

Mine is probably going to be pretty plain, since I'm not much of a creative type! But I can post some pictures if you want.  

[RES]

Love the conscious eating goal...and those squats! following!

[NeverThatBored]

Hey all, I feel like I'm frantically scrambling to catch up on everything after getting home yesterday evening, so I'll resume your regularly scheduled updates tomorrow.

 

In the meantime, I'm running around trying to follow everyone and remember new challenge goals and figure out how to find time to do basic things like cook while also doing my usual challenge stuff. I definitely need to go for a run tomorrow. 

[tei_]

i completely forgot about 750words! I might steal that particular portion of your challenge! 

[Cataleya]

I love all of your goals but goal 3 is my favorite. I'll be following along!

[spooky]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the mindful eating portion of your challenge, I'm going to do some deep breathing before I eat too, and try to think of the future me Thanks for the inspiration, and following along for all the awesome

[Briniel]

Mine is probably going to be pretty plain, since I'm not much of a creative type! But I can post some pictures if you want.

 

Pretty please!

 

Hey all, I feel like I'm frantically scrambling to catch up on everything after getting home yesterday evening, so I'll resume your regularly scheduled updates tomorrow.

 

In the meantime, I'm running around trying to follow everyone and remember new challenge goals and figure out how to find time to do basic things like cook while also doing my usual challenge stuff. I definitely need to go for a run tomorrow. 

 

I feel you. There's so much stuff to do. But do go on that run. You don't want to be someone who skips their runs!!

[Shello]

Following along

[NeverThatBored]

Hello hello! Today has been quite the day, so this is just going to be a brain dump. My Frugal February challenge is finally over, so I ordered the notebook for my bullet journal. I wanted to buy Fire Emblem, but apparently it's sold out everywhere so I had to order it online and now I have to wait a whole 'nother week for it. Life is hard, you guys.

 

I have a lot of the little things for this challenge mashed up together into morning and evening routines. In the morning, I've been doing yoga, meditation, squats, and ankle alphabets. In the evening I've been doing knees-in holds and journaling. I'm still trying to figure out where to put journaling in my day. 750 words is a lot?? I mean, I did it in 15 minutes yesterday by just rambletyping everything that came to mind, but it might be better to do earlier in the day. It's a barrier between me and bedtime if I wait until later.

 

Also - after saying that headspace subscription rates are ridiculous only 1 week ago, I decided to subscribe for a month to see how I feel about their meditations. Whoops.

 

Yoga is amazing! I'm feeling so much more limber since I've been ramping up the yoga lately. 

 

On the workout front, I did my run at lunch today! I ran 2.8 miles (and turned very bright red and got a lot of funny looks), and I'm planning to run a full 5K next week! This has been a 2 year process involving a whole gamut of leg injuries, so I'm very excited. But also, mentally facing the idea of running 3+ miles seems like a lot. And my mind is all worked up about what I'll do next after I hit my goal, so it was trying to talk me into taking another week before actually doing the full 5K distance. Silly brain. 

 

I ALSO had bootcamp tonight. We did a boxing workout, so I got to hit things. Needless to say, I was very tired after all of that. I went to pick up something from the grocery store on the way home, and I actually deliberately tried to find a snack food of some sort (I know, bad). But I walked up and down the junk food aisles and the bakery area and the candy shelves, and I could not find a single thing that I actually wanted to eat. It was weird and amazing. Also amazing? These apple cider pork chops I made for dinner. Sososo yummy, though a bit too many sweeteners. 

 

I haven't remembered to do the breathing before eating trigger very well, so I think I need to stick some post its around to help remind myself. I've been so-so on the conscious eating so far. One good thing I've been doing is not eating breakfast if I'm not actually hungry, and listening to my body about what it wants. But I also need to work on waiting to feel if I'm really full after a meal. I ate 2 pork chops for dinner, but I easily could have eaten all 4 of them. This is a completely new kind of food challenge for me, so I'm still figuring out how to work with it.

[Briniel]

Wow, sounds like a really active and successfull day

I'm currently a big fan of doing most of the daily stuff in the morning. It's done, you don't have any excuses (tired, too late, blablabla) and it will motivate the heck out of you to have already been uber productive at a time where you'd normally crawl out of bed. It's a MIRACLE. Just saying (I'm also only half kidding on this, it is really really nice)

I love these moments when something that I craved before but isn't good for me has somehow lost all its appeal. Feel sooooo good. I also think listening to your body to see whether it's hungry or full is a really good idea

[NeverThatBored]

What is with this idea in meditation/yoga that the natural way to breathe is in and out your nose? Is that really how everyone breathes? If I try to breathe with only my nose, I feel like I'm not getting enough air. I can do it sometimes, but it's definitely not natural. 

[Cataleya]

I generally breathe through my mouth just because that's what I do. I can't do it while working out though. I think it might be a way to help people control their breathing? If you feel like you might not be getting enough air, you might have narrow nasal passages, which I didn't know was a thing until a friend of mine had to get surgery to fix hers. I've wondered occasionally if maybe I have a milder form of that when I see everyone talking about how they breathe while they run and such and I'm like, there's no way I'm breathing through my nose then.

[Briniel]

What is with this idea in meditation/yoga that the natural way to breathe is in and out your nose? Is that really how everyone breathes?

um... yes? I only breathe through my mouth when singing, exercising or having a cold. At least I think, I do... I never really paid any attention to it... damn, now I'm super self-conscious of how I breathe

Edit: and when doing yoga! I also breathe through my mouth then (on sun salutations, mostly).

[NeverThatBored]

I generally breathe through my mouth just because that's what I do. I can't do it while working out though. I think it might be a way to help people control their breathing? If you feel like you might not be getting enough air, you might have narrow nasal passages, which I didn't know was a thing until a friend of mine had to get surgery to fix hers. I've wondered occasionally if maybe I have a milder form of that when I see everyone talking about how they breathe while they run and such and I'm like, there's no way I'm breathing through my nose then.

 

um... yes? I only breathe through my mouth when singing, exercising or having a cold. At least I think, I do... I never really paid any attention to it... damn, now I'm super self-conscious of how I breathe

Edit: and when doing yoga! I also breathe through my mouth then (on sun salutations, mostly).

 

Fascinating. Two conflicting answers. The mystery deepens! Now I'm going to be obsessed with reading about nasal passages, because my situation is a lot like Cataleya's. The idea that you're sometimes encouraged to run at a moderate pace where you can still talk has always confused me, since I end up out of breath very easily when I try it.

[NeverThatBored]

So, I have been crazy tired today for some reason. I'm thinking maybe bad feuling yesterday in combination with all the workouts? But I felt like I ate enough, so I'm not sure.

 

I was dead tired by the end of the workday, and my mind was once again going "I want snacks! I don't want to cook! Let's hunt for snacks!" So, off I went to different stores to run errands, and also hunted for snacks. AGAIN even though I was deliberately looking for things, my gut was imagining how it would feel if I ate things, and none of the junk sounded appealing. I think a lot of this is a meal planning issue, since I didn't have time to cook on Sunday and it threw off my week. My body really wanted carbs and I am feeling super groggy and low energy, so in the end I did get pizza. I would have loved to just eat some sweet potato, but I didn't want to take the time for it to cook before I ate.

 

I guess that's largely a failure rather than a success? But I'm not really sure how to measure success with this conscious eating challenge. I definitely DID think about future me when I rejected all those foods, and I knew that future me would probably be frustrated (as I am) about the pizza later on. Present me was exhausted and on a mission to try to fix it, so present me just happened to win this round against future me. 

 

Like, I went home and passed out for 2 hours. And I just woke up and I'm still super groggy and just want to go back to sleep. I was planning to cook and do chores today, but I don't see that happening.

[Sylvaa]

You realized that meal planning / batch cooking is imperative to your success. That should be a win. 

 

Next step: If something throws off your weekend and meal planning isn't an option, what can you do for the week to not deal with being hungry and having to cook?  FWIW, I view conscious eating as a mindset more than a pass / fail eating plan.

[Kilyra]

I hate those sort of days, it's frustrating. But I think it at least illustrated things you need to focus on from here in. It might not feel like a big win, but mindset is hugely important. So, it is a win of sorts