Elk - On a Quest to Master Airbending!

[Elk]

Ack, new challenge started and I haven't set mine up yet! D: I'll make this spiffy later I guess.

 

QUEST: Eat a balanced vegetarian diet, get a decent amount of exercise, do yoga, and generally focus on keeping a clear mind and becoming integrated.

 

Goal 1: Vegetarianism

If you've watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, you'll know that airbenders are vegetarians. So, uh... me too. :}

To achieve this, I'm going to order produce from the local community centre, watch vegan/vegetarian YouTube videos for inspiration, and occasionally track my nutrition to make sure I'm getting enough iron (but not every day, because calorie counting turned into disordered eating once upon a time, so I don't want to enter that unpleasant little spiral again). I'm also going to read Intuitive Eating, to cultivate a healthy relationship with food.

Yay. ^,^

 

Goal 2: Yoga

It's hard for me to do yoga when I'm not in a good place mentally and emotionally. Sometimes forcing myself isn't good, but I'm going to aim to do yoga multiple times a week, since, generally, it does help clear my mind. Good stuff for computer desk jockeys. x.x

To achieve this: select a video a day in advance and do it. If I find that I just don't got the energy to next day, I'll do a minimum of 5 minutes of meditation instead.

 

Goal 3: Other exercisey stuff.

I developed Achilles tendinitis in December, so I've got to take it easy and find alternatives to the exercises I used to do. :[ At least I still have biking! 

So: one day/week, I'll try a new workout on YouTube!

 

Life goal: Music 

I wanna learn to make electronic music, so I'm going to practice that every day. Again, laying out a plan in advance = bueno thingy. So tomorrow, gonna make one cool drum loop. Wahoo.

[Elk]

~reserved~

[acfourni]

Hey! Good luck with these!

I've been a veg for about a year. I had lots of vegetarian friends to cheer me on, but the best advice I got was that I had to eat the things I loved. At first, I thought that was ridiculous (all my favourite foods had meat in them!), but pretty soon I found myself turning to my favourite go-to veg meals/snacks whenever I was craving meat (for me, a cheese bagel with cream cheese.... yummmm). I started fighting off meat cravings with yummy food, and after a while, my meat cravings went away and vegetarianism became a no-brainer. 

I think your yoga goal, and the alternative option, is a great goal! Good luck!

[Eirlys]

Hope your stepping towards vegetarianism works a treat.  I've been veggie for 30 years now (oops, wrote 20 then did a mental recalculation!) and vegan for about 10 of those, and there's a lot more food choices out there for veggies now than there was a couple of decades ago.  It's also easy to be an unhealthy veggie and even vegan as well, so I hope you set a good standard for yourself (unlike me ;-) )

 

I think acfourni has a point in surrounding yourself with like-minded supporters if you are making a big diet change.

 

Good luck!

[Elk]

Thanks, you two! It's encouraging to hear about other vegetarians' experiences. I'll be sure to check out your challenges!

 

Today: very little music and exercise, unfortunately. I went to Costco with my sister, and didn't feel any compulsion to eat free meat samples at all. I also did some reading about body image, and a lot of personal reflection. So while it wasn't a great day for physical fitness, it was an overall win for wellbeing. :>

[Elk]

Good couple of days. ^.^ Five minutes of meditation yesterday, and ~hot yoga~ on Friday night!

 

I really loved going to hot yoga. One of the local studios has a karma class on Fridays from 8-9, which is the perfect time for me. I'm going to make attending it a habit. I think it really gets the weekend off to a good start. Actually,  would like to buy a pass, but since the pass doesn't apply to the karma class, it almost doesn't seem like it would be worth it! 

 

Started taking a multivitamin, which hopefully will help with some of the iron deficiency problems I've been having. I lose more iron than, uh, the average woman, so that was a challenge even before going vegetarian. 

 

Also - music? Going well! Going for "a little bit every day." It builds my confident and adds up. ^.^

 

Well, on to the next week!

 

[Eirlys]

Wellbeing is worth it!  Glad week 1 went well for you.  What is a karma class?

 

Hoping that week 2 is as successful

[Elk]

Wellbeing is worth it!  Glad week 1 went well for you.  What is a karma class?

 

Hoping that week 2 is as successful

A karma class, at this studio at least, is a drop-in class with a reduced fee. The proceeds go to a charity instead of the studio, so you can pay more if you want. It's really nice!

 

Thanks! I do as well, haha!

[Elk]

Today was okay. No meditation today, but a lot of digging into some uncomfortable feelings, so I guess that counts. I didn't get much done otherwise, though, since I was feeling so down about it. :/

 

I didn't do a new YouTube workout last week, so I'm planning to do one tomorrow. If I'm up for something exciting, I might try some pilates. Or, if I'm not, I think I'll start small to shape the behaviour. Eight minutes buns will do for that. So much cheesy goodness! ;D

 

[Elk]

This challenge isn't going as expected. 

 

It's possible to set plans and goals, and it's good to remind myself occasionally of what those are. But usually, once I start working on my goals, things develop in an intuitive way, and begin to diverge from the original plan. Sometimes I have to trust my internal compass, instead of imposing pre-determined goals upon myself. At least, that's how I see it.

 

The yoga goal has shifted to: 

-Sign up for hot yoga, and recognize how much stronger and more open my body and mind feel when I do yoga. Use this feeling as a source of encouragement to keep at it.

 

The exercise goal has shifted to: 

-Do new exercises when I feel brave enough to. Anxiety whaaaaat

 

The eating goal has shifted to: 

-Make sure I'm getting enough iron, and work on my tendency to emotional eat.

 

And the music goal has stayed the same.

I also want to do some professional development reading in my spare time~ wahoo. 

[Elk]

Went for a run today; tried a pilates workout yesterday.

 

Back to eating meat, sadly. I've tried many times to go vegetarian, but my body just doesn't take to it. Despite taking a multivitamin, checking to make sure I'm eating enough iron, B12, omega-3s, protein, I feel weak and tired all of the time. My mom says she had the same experience trying to go vegetarian when she was my age. So I had some sushi today and chicken yesterday.

 

Still have to sign up for hot yoga.

 

Continuing to learn about music, and have been practicing singing a lot. Yay.