FlyingJen's first challenge!

[lucky fire dragon]

And I am totally jealous on your pull ups 

Keep rocking!

[FlyingJen]

 

You're doing great on many things and fine tuning is always the trickier part for longer term. I think the bathtub meditation would be a delicious thing to do and maybe it would relax your evenings in general. Good sleep makes such a difference!

Yayyy on the hula hoop!! Have you played some more with it? Without terrifying your cute parrot

I have yet to actually do the bathtub meditation. Think I will try it tonight. 

 

I haven't done the hula hoop since the day I got it because I felt so bad about the parrot freaking out. I've been doing my exercising in my office where usually if I'm there she's there, or in the living room where her cage is. I don't want to do it where she can see me and risk scaring her again. However, I am going to start working on getting in the habit of doing all my exercising in the basement since that's where my weights are and I want to start working with those. I can hula hoop there too without worrying about her!

[FlyingJen]

Monday April 11. Missed a couple of days - spent a lot of time on Saturday preparing for an art/craft show, and then Sunday being at the show. Mixed bag those days- did try to keep up with habits. Did meditation/yoga Saturday morning but not Sunday. Ate potato chips on Sunday with lunch because my mom bought them and I lack enough will power. I did deliberately not get a soda though as I knew I would be eating chips so maybe that's something at least. At the show there was a guy playing accordion and I got my mom to dance with me for a minute for my dance party! My parents gave me a Fitbit Alta for an early birthday present, which I'm pretty excited about. Today was my first full day wearing it and it definitely motivated me to get moving today. Since the weekend was a bit hectic I took today off, which meant a lot of reading/sleeping on the sofa. I would have liked to be slightly more productive, but I think being at these art shows takes a lot out of me. I always feel a bit drained and like I need a day to recover from being around so many people and having to be more friendly and extroverted than I usually am! There is no middle ground- either I'm super productive or I'm a zombie! Still managed to get 10,000 steps even with lying around most of the day!

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] find new healthy things to eat.  Blueberry muffin. Very sugary. Have oats soaking now for tomorrow which I'm happy about.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Ate a very large piece of pizza which was way too much. 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Leftover pasta, not too much.
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  No salties today!

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Fitbit helped a lot with this today! Walk/run to the pharmacy to pick up prescription and dish soap (30mins total) and because I was still under my 10,000 step goal in the evening I went for another 30min walk around the neighborhood (partner came along which was nice although I had a podcast lined up to listen to if he didn't want to.)
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Nothing today. Did 3x last week which I'm happy about. Planning NF bodyweight for tomorrow.
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a few handstands with wall assist in kitchen while microwaving food. 
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  N/A, wasn't really on the computer today.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  This is blue because I am allowing myself one day per week of napping. Was pretty lazy today and slept a lot in between periods of reading. It was nice and I guess I needed to turn off.
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day. Success last night, I was super tired and was asleep by midnight!

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.  Not today. Stayed off my computer until now.
• Limit checking social media Didn't even have the energy to deal with social media today!
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Forced myself to do 5 mins of each before going back to sleep on the sofa. 
• Add evening meditation 10mins.  My only goal for tonight is to make this happen!
• Have a one-song dance party each day  "Lazarus" by David Bowie. I want to re-do my old trapeze act (which was originally a Blade Runner-inspired routine, and then I re-did it as Death for Halloween) to this song so I was playing around with some movements. 

[FlyingJen]

Tuesday April 12. A more normal day, hooray! And all green except for my crappy lunch.

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Overnight steelcut oats with soymilk and strawberries. Yum and filling.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Ate two small lunches, but one was pasta and the other was french fries and onion rings (frozen, wanted to get them out of the freezer to make space. Made me feel kind of ill. Won't be buying again!) 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Three seitan and veggie tacos. This was a normal amount for me to eat but I definitely felt too full once I got to circus class.
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  French fries and onion rings. Blergh.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. 11,000 steps on the Fitbit as of 10:15pm. Run/walk to the grocery store (1mi each way) to buy broccoli, avocado, pistachios, and green pepper.
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Circus night- Performance prep class and strength and range of motion class. Pullups- Day 2 of the 25 pullups plan. This is still super easy for me (2/2/1/1/1)
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a few handstands with wall assist in kitchen while microwaving food. 
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Did good with this today. 

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  No nap today!
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day. Lights out at 12:30. Fitbit says I only actually slept just under 5h and the rest was "restless." 

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Entered receipts from Sunday's show into Quickbooks.
• Limit checking social media Logging out of FB on my phone seems to be helping.
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Did this. Meditation was hard because I was very sleepy.
• Add evening meditation 10mins.  Did bathtub 10min meditation last night. It was weird. The light is really bright in the bathroom and my brain is so buzzy at night. Going to keep trying it though. 
• Have a one-song dance party each day  "Paris" by Scratch Massive. I really love this new habit because one of the things that has bothered me about my circus performances is just a general feeling of awkwardness and not really knowing what to do with my body beyond the necessary movements to execute a trick. I think it's interesting/helpful to let myself just move to music. 

[sylph]

That's a helluva lot of green! Nice work.

[FlyingJen]

Wednesday April 13. 

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Overnight steelcut oats with soymilk and apples. 
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Ate one big lunch of leftover tacos. For some reason the oats didn't stick with me today and I was super hungry by noon. 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Small bowl of roasted cauliflower/sweet potato soup. Didn't want to eat too much before circus practice.
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Popcorn in the evening. But not as much as usual.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. 10,040 steps on the Fitbit as of 11pm. Didn't go for a walk during the day today, did go in the evening to make sure I got those steps in. Fitbit seems to be working well as motivation so far, which surprises me as I've always been skeptical about it!
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Circus night- Open practice, ran trapeze act twice plus work on individual pieces of it (1h). Pullups- Day 3 of the 25 pullups plan. (2/1/1/1/2). 
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did one handstand in the kitchen. Better than nothing I guess. 
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  I suck at this if I have a lot of work that I just want to get done!

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  No nap today! 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day. Lights out at 12:30. Fitbit says I got 5h 46 min sleep with 1h 47 min restless. Seems about right. No wonder I wake up tired in the morning!

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Sent out some invoices.
• Limit checking social media Checked into FB more times than I'd like but didn't really spend much time there.
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Done.
• Add evening meditation 10mins.  Done! (In bed right before falling asleep, which I think I like better than bath)
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Done! Don't even remember which song I did today.

[Dreamspin]

Look at all that green! Great job, keep it up!! :-)

[lucky fire dragon]

sooooo much green, you are utterly amazing 

Aw man, I don't know if I am more jealous of you saying the pull ups so far are so easy for you or inspired by it  Anyway keep rocking them, you star!

 

 

• Have a one-song dance party each day  "Paris" by Scratch Massive. I really love this new habit because one of the things that has bothered me about my circus performances is just a general feeling of awkwardness and not really knowing what to do with my body beyond the necessary movements to execute a trick. I think it's interesting/helpful to let myself just move to music. 

 

Excellent point! Let us know how it translates into your circus performance. I have a similar thing with pole and funny enough when I dance just like that I am fine, but as soon as I approach the pole all kinds of expectations pop up and I tense up and get all technical and into my head... would love to hear if this helps! Maybe I'll do 5 min dance parties on the pole next challenge  

 

Congrats to the fitbit, curious to see how it will help you. Surely it will need some more data to compare with before it can tell you which of your sleep is restful and which not - don't we all act differently when we sleep?

[FlyingJen]

 

sooooo much green, you are utterly amazing 

Aw man, I don't know if I am more jealous of you saying the pull ups so far are so easy for you or inspired by it  Anyway keep rocking them, you star!

 

 

Excellent point! Let us know how it translates into your circus performance. I have a similar thing with pole and funny enough when I dance just like that I am fine, but as soon as I approach the pole all kinds of expectations pop up and I tense up and get all technical and into my head... would love to hear if this helps! Maybe I'll do 5 min dance parties on the pole next challenge  

 

Congrats to the fitbit, curious to see how it will help you. Surely it will need some more data to compare with before it can tell you which of your sleep is restful and which not - don't we all act differently when we sleep?

The only reason I can do pullups is they made us start training them pretty much right away at the circus school I go to, even in the beginner level classes. They had us start out doing them with one person supporting each leg and assisting, which I think is the best way to learn. There seem to be a lot of specific muscle things involved that make it hard to do pullups if you can't do pullups. I don't like a lot of the gym machines, but the pullup assist machine helped me a lot too! 

 

I think I'm going to start doing one-song dance party actually on the trapeze whenever I do open practice!

 

I think the fitbit just tracks motion for the sleep vs restless states, but I'm not sure. 

[FlyingJen]

Thursday April 14. 

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Baguette and jam and strawberries. Maybe a bit carby and sugary but not too bad I guess.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Small serving chinese veggie dumplings lunch 1, Multigrain Wasa bread with chive cashew cheese lunch 2.
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Leftover roasted cauliflower/sweet potato soup, with seitan ham, caramelized shallots, and pickled habanero pepper. Ate way too much! 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nothing.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. 10,171 steps on the Fitbit as of 11pm. Walked randomly around the neighborhood. 
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. NF bodyweight level 1, hula hoop, Pullups- skipped ahead on the plan to what I guess is the actual Week 1, Day 1 vs some sort of prequel (?) Did 4/3/2/4/5, but spaced out through a couple of hours vs just leaving 2 min in between.
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a couple of handstands in the kitchen. Realized I'm actually more comfortable being a little further away from the wall which is good I guess. 
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Troubleshooting this: I was using a timer for a 5min break every 20mins to make sure I wasn't getting stuck in a weird position that was putting a strain on my shoulder. But a lot of the time I just ignored/reset the timer because it was annoying to feel interrupted in the middle of a task. Today I tried taking a 5min break after every time I completed a task, which seemed to work much better. I found myself thinking of stretching as a little reward for getting something done instead of an annoyance.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  Ate dinner by myself tonight while watching TV as my partner was out seeing a movie. Fell asleep for about 45 mins. Oh well. 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Lights out at 12:30.  Fell asleep pretty quickly. Fitbit says 5h12m asleep, 2h7m restless.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Almost bought something silly but didn't.
• Limit checking social media Was kind of awful about this today. Posted a new profile pic and some art and felt really compelled to check for likes which is kind of sad. 
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Done.
• Add evening meditation 10mins.  Aargh, why is this so hard to remember to do?!
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Done! Bjork, Hyperballad

[RogueLibrarian]

I like your red/yellow/green grading scale. I'm hesitant to assign too many numbers to my regimen so this appeals to me a lot.

[sylph]

 

I think I'm going to start doing one-song dance party actually on the trapeze whenever I do open practice!

 

I love this idea!

[FlyingJen]

Missed posting on Friday.  Kept track of stuff on my spreadsheet though. Circus class for exercise. Didn't carry out my trapeze dance party idea but did figure out some stuff for the act I'm working on. The bad part was eating a giant bowl of mac&"cheese" for lunch and then zonking out on the sofa. Oh well. I still got my 10,000+ steps, but my back and arms were hurting from circus so I didn't do anything else.

 

Saturday April 16. 

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Needed a large, filling breakfast because we were going to be out and about a lot today. Made a scramble with seitan ham, potatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and the best part- kale from the garden that somehow survived the winter all on it's own!
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Didn't actually eat two lunches because we were running around. Ate a very late lunch at a coffee shop, a sandwich with seitan and lots of veggies. Healthy but I was definitely overfull. 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Stir fry with soy curls, onion, snow peas, thai red curry. Quick-pickled cucumbers. Corn fritters. Corn fritters fried and not very healthy but I didn't eat too much. 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nothing.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Didn't actually go for a walk today but still got in 10,729 steps. Spent hours outside working on the yard/garden which fulfills my purpose with this goal of being outdoors and moving around.
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Next week I need to be better about fitting this into my schedule. It's hard because I'm doing circus stuff 3x week right now and don't want to do too much extra exercise on top of that so I'm tired for it. But really it's not like Bodyweight 1 is super challenging for me so that's just an excuse! Did do pullups today 4/3/2/4/5. 
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did not do any handstands today, but I did do a whole bunch of free-balancing attempts on Friday at circus school. Got a few good balances.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Haven't really been on the computer today.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  After doing yard work in the morning, driving around most of the afternoon and then doing more yard work, I was tired! Slept for about an hour. 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Stayed up later last night, 1am. Trouble falling asleep because of afternoon nap. Also weekend, on which I like to give myself a little more leeway to stay up later (so it's orange not red).

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Sending out tax payment checks, paying bills <sigh>.
• Limit checking social media Was pretty good about this. Went on FB for specific purpose and didn't spend a lot of time mindlessly scrolling.
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Could have made time for this in the morning but didn't. 
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Trouble falling asleep, did meditation/breathing/relaxation exercise in bed which helped.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Tears for Fears, "Shout"

[lucky fire dragon]

yay on the evening meditation helping! And on the hand balances at circus school!

I hear you on not wanting to add too many other bodyweight workouts to your circus training even if on its own it would be things that are easy for you. Maybe you could narrow it down to 2x/ week? That way you'd still have a progress to watch yet might have enough complete rest days between your circus training?

 

Love that song by Tears of Fears, perfect for dancing. Might want to add it to my training playlist, thanks

 

Have a great start into week 3!

[FlyingJen]

 

I hear you on not wanting to add too many other bodyweight workouts to your circus training even if on its own it would be things that are easy for you. Maybe you could narrow it down to 2x/ week? That way you'd still have a progress to watch yet might have enough complete rest days between your circus training?

 

That's a good idea! At least while I'm doing the extra circus practice for the student showcase performance in May.  

[FlyingJen]

Sunday April 17.

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Pancakes and maple syrup. Breakfast junk food but so yummy. Thankfully I only really eat things like this on weekends.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Didn't even eat lunch until 3pm because we were out walking around. Basically had a Luna bar and a Rita's water ice for lunch. Lunch was ramen from a packet which is like the worst thing ever health-wise (my partner and I actually refer to it as "terrible noodle soup"). 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Thai curry with tofu, sweet potato, zucchini, onion, green beans, peppers, coconut milk, peanuts. Not too much. 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Marking this red because of the ramen for lunch which is like a little salt bomb. I love ramen even though I know it is horrible for me, and I have put it in the same mental category as potato chips so I can try to stop eating it.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Went for a very long walk at a local park and got in my 10,000 steps quite early in the day. 17,348 steps as of 10pm! (7.21mi). 
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Nothing today because I did so much walking. Also just being lazy in the evening. 
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a couple of wall balances in the kitchen. Nothing great but better than nothing.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Haven't really been on the computer today.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  Napped for about an hour after getting home from the long walk and grocery shopping. 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Haha, not even close last night. Wide awake until 1:30am. 

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Anxiety. Wrote some big checks today. Ugh.
• Limit checking social media Pretty good about this. Checked FB a couple of times but spent very little time there. 
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Could have made time for this in the morning but didn't. 
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Did meditation/breathing/relaxation exercise in bed which helped.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Warpaint, "Love is to Die"

[FlyingJen]

Monday April 18. So I have basically realized that if I want to be sure something will happen on any given day I have to do it in the morning. Otherwise excuse-making sets in. So today I did 10 mins stretching/10 mins meditation and then NF Bodyweight Level 1 Workout A. I felt good getting the exercise done in the morning and knowing I had already accomplished some good stuff for the day, especially since I have a lot of project deadlines right now and I knew I'd be spending a lot of time on the computer.

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Bagel and vegan cream cheese. Which is not that great, but I'm giving myself green because I drank a protein shake after my morning exercise. It's taken me a long time to find protein shake mix that I find at all tolerable, and I finally have! (Aloha). It's a bit gritty of course, but I drank the whole thing in some soymilk and it was fine.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. I really think this is so key to not having an energy crash in the afternoon. Ate three leftover falafels and a multigrain wasa bread with cashew cheese. Later ate a couple of mandarins. 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Pasta with sundried tomatoes, shallots, garlic, zucchini, green beans, mushrooms, parsley, white wine brothy sauce, and homemade herb foccaccia. I don't think I'll ever be able to give up my carbs entirely, but at least I didn't eat too much!
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nada!

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Jogged to the mailbox around the corner to send out a bill payment. Only at 7,629 steps at 10:10pm so I'll be going out for a walk as soon as I'm done here to get the rest of those steps. I can't believe I'm so motivated by this fitbit! 
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. NF Bodyweight Level 1 A. Also pullups. 
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a couple of wall balances in the kitchen. Nothing great but better than nothing.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Took lots of breaks but didn't really stretch. My fitbit prompts me to complete 250 steps per hour if I haven't done so, so that's what I was focusing on. Also did minor household tasks like vacuuming during these breaks, which is a good way to get away from the computer and also get stuff done. I'm not super worried about stretching since my shoulder isn't actively painful anymore but it's a good habit to have anyway.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  No time for a nap!
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Hah, nope. Reading in bed until 1am.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Logged a small incoming payment.
• Limit checking social media Not great but not awful. Probably spent more time scrolling than I'd like.
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Reduced this to 10/10 to make time to do bodyweight exercises, which I think might be my new strategy.
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Did meditation/breathing/relaxation exercise in bed which helped.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Bonnie McKee, "Bombastic"

[FlyingJen]

Tuesday April 19. Ugh, annoying day because I had workers here all day doing masonry work on my house. Noisy + I couldn't really leave to go for a walk or anything. Anxiety level super ++ because of the noise and just having people around all day. Whine whine, I had to wear a bra all day because of dudes being around. They'll be back tomorrow and possibly the day after too (sigh).

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Bagel and vegan cream cheese.  
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Only one lunch (leftover pasta and veggies) but it was small.
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Chickpea curry and indian spiced roasted cauliflower. Very small portion as I was heading off to circus.
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nada!

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. 8350 steps right now. Going to go out for a walk even though I don't really want to! Last night I went out for my walk to get my steps and decided to see if I could run for 5mins. (I suck at running, I hate it and also have borderline asthma issues.) And I did 5mins!!! Walked some more and did another 5!!! 
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. No workout but I did do circus class tonight.
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a lone wall balance.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Really bad at taking breaks today. 

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  No time for a nap!
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Hah, nope. Reading in bed until 1am.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Checked in on account status.
• Limit checking social media Pretty good about this today. Facebook is the potato chip of the mind!
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Nothing because of the masons arriving at 7:30am which is when I normally get up.
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Bed meditation, my new favorite friend.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Car dance party while driving to circus! Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"

[FlyingJen]

Sunday April 24. Oops! Was Tuesday really the last time I posted here? Thought I posted on Wednesday at least but I guess something went wrong. Weird. Anyway, the end of the week was busy with work and cleaning the house in advance of some weekend guests. And a busy but fun weekend. Mixed bag on every goal over the past few days. Not going to try to catch up. Just an update for today. 

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Waffles, blueberries, maple syrup. Yummy, but honestly it just made me crash and feel tired afterwards.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Only one lunch (black bean soup and small quesadilla). 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Fettucini, shallow cashew cream sauce, and grilled ramps and tomatoes. Did not eat too much. 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Was tempted by chips at the store but got habanero crispy chickpeas instead. Also ate a few corn chips with hummus but corn chips are something I can eat just a few of unlike potato chips.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Walked 1hour round trip to the grocery store instead of driving. 13,715 steps as of 10:50pm.
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. No workouts over the weekend at all. Back on that horse tomorrow!
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Haven't been doing handstands at home the past few days. 
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Haven't been on the computer much.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  Napped a bit between 11am-noon. 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Actually managed to go to sleep by 12:40 last night, which is pretty good considering that I was playing Cards Against Humanity with friends until midnight and then wasn't really tired and had to read for a bit to get sleepy.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Nothing really for this today.
• Limit checking social media Aargh!
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Nope. This is hard to remember to do on the weekends. Definitely could have done it today after the guests left.
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Did not do this last night.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Forgot about this until just now! King Dude, "Devil Eyes."

[FlyingJen]

Monday April 25.  Busy work day with a crappy project due today. Still did pretty well on exercise and other goals!

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Baguette, strawberry jam, coffee. Not very filling.
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Yes. Leftover pasta (small), chinese dumplings (small)
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Eggplant/tofu/cabbage/shiitake mushroom stirfry, small portion. 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nothing.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Walked 1hour around the neighborhood. Tried to run but after 4mins was totally wheezing. Stupid allergies/asthma. 
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. The new NF benchmark test put me at Level 4 in bodyweight (I was doing level 1 even though I thought it was too easy just to get in the habit). Did Bodyweight Level 4A. Felt good. Also did pullups Week 1/Day 2 again: 4/3/3/4/5. 
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did one balance earlier, will do a couple more later.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Had a big project deadline today and just kind of plowed through it without many breaks. Did walk around away from the computer a bit thanks to Fitbit prompts, but did not really stretch. 

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  Napped between 4 and 5. The big project is kind of an exhausting brain drain and I needed to reset for the evening. Hopefully no more naps for the rest of the week! 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]. Got really tired by 11pm which is weird. Was in bed by 11:30 but played solitaire and chess on my kindle for almost an hour.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Checked the balance on one of my secondary accounts, sent some invoices.
• Limit checking social media Aargh! This is THE WORST. Honestly, I love the NF Ladies Facebook group so much and it has definitely increased my interest in Facebook. Which is good because it's awesome to have such a supportive online community, but bad because I literally just spent an hour when I was supposed to be making art messing around online. 
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  10/10 because of the big project being due but better than nothing.
• Add evening meditation 10mins [last night].  Did not do this last night.
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Sleigh Bells, "Rill Rill" and "Crown on the Ground" with parrot on my head.

[Dreamspin]

You're doing awesome! I was thrown off a bit by the changes to the Academy workouts, I figure I'll stick to my current workout for the rest of the week and then try a Level 3 workout and go from there. I notice they made the workouts a lot simpler and with fewer reps, so I might graduate to a higher level quickly. I like though that it seems more geared toward people like me who need to work up to a full set of strict push-ups. 

[FlyingJen]

On 4/26/2016 at 9:48 AM, Dreamspin said:

You're doing awesome! I was thrown off a bit by the changes to the Academy workouts, I figure I'll stick to my current workout for the rest of the week and then try a Level 3 workout and go from there. I notice they made the workouts a lot simpler and with fewer reps, so I might graduate to a higher level quickly. I like though that it seems more geared toward people like me who need to work up to a full set of strict push-ups. 

Thanks! I'm glad I wasn't very far into the Academy workouts so the change isn't a big deal. I had just started with Level 1 Bodyweight, but I did the Benchmark test and it put me at Level 4 so that's what I'm doing. I do like that the push-ups are more incremental! So far I like the changes and especially that the relevant videos are all right there. 

[FlyingJen]

Skipped posting on Tuesday due to computer fatigue! 

 

Wednesday April 27.   

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Aloha chocolate protein shake with soymilk and banana. Should have put some greens in there but forgot! 
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Only one little lunch of leftover veggie stirfry. 
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Well, dinner hasn't happened yet but I won't eat too much as I have circus practice and there is nothing worse than being upside down with an overly full stomach! 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nope. Did eat some popcorn last night though. Can't really kick popcorn, but at least it's better than chips.

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Should have gone for a walk earlier today but didn't because it's grey and chilly and blah. Will probably go after circus class. I didn't make my 10,000 steps yesterday and I don't want to miss two days in a row!
  • Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. The completionist in me made me go back and do the Academy Boss Battles for Levels 1, 2, and 3, so that was today's workout. Plus 20 Pushups Week 1 Day 3- 4/4/4/3/max(7). I was amazed that I was able to do 7 after doing all the other sets!
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did one balance earlier, will do a couple more later.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Wasn't GREAT about this today, but did take a couple of stretch breaks with with foam roller.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  30 minute nap between 3 and 3:30. At least I'm not sleeping for 2+ hours like I used to? I was thinking about it, and this past month when I was really trying not to nap has also so far been the worst month this year as far as my mood goes. I've been pretty irritable/anxious/depressed. Maybe naps in moderation are a good thing? I want to figure out how to track my mood and sleep and see if there is a correlation! 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]/evening meditation. Lights out by 12:20! Meditated/deep breathing until I fell asleep.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Checked the balance on primary account (eeek!)
• Limit checking social media Giving myself a green on this today because I posted some new art which usually leads to obsessive checking for likes, but I only checked a couple of times and did not get sucked into mindless scrolling. 
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  10/10 because of doing my workout in the morning. Was going to meditate for 15 but my partner texted and interrupted me. 
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Flock of Seagulls, "Space Age Love Song"

[FlyingJen]

Aargh, seem to be only posting every other day! Went to see a movie Thursday evening and got home too late to post. 

 

Friday April 29. 

 

Diet 

• [breakfast] healthy! Belvita biscuits and coffee before circus class, clif bar after. 
• [lunch] two smaller lunches. Tiny dish of veggie stirfry, then a protein shake after workout.
• [dinner] Portion sizes/satiety. Wonton soup, spring rolls, veggie bun. Stopped eating before I was full. 
• [general] NO POTATO CHIPS/other unhealthy salty snacks. *my personal kryptonite!*  Nope. Resisted the urge to buy potato chips or similar in two separate stores when I was hungry, which I consider to be a good sign!

 Fitness

• Go for a walk/run every day, even if just around the block. Will be going out after I am done here and Miss Parrot goes to bed.
• Complete a full bodyweight or free weights workout 3/x week. Proud of myself today- usually I end up eating too much food and falling asleep on the sofa when I get home from circus class at 12:30. Today I ate a tiny lunch, did Academy Gym Workout 4A, and then had a protein shake and did some work!
• Train handstands at home every day, just for a few minutes. Did a few free balance attempts at circus. Not too successful and I can tell I've been slacking off on this.
• Take frequent breaks from computer and do stretching or foam roller.  Wasn't on the computer much today.

Sleep

• Kick the nap habit.  Super proud of myself for not napping today! 
• Try to be in bed by 12:30 am each day [last night]/evening meditation. Lights out at 12:40, meditated. Close enough.

Other

• Daily financial check-in/accounting/mindfulness.   Nothing.
• Limit checking social media Bad, bad, bad...
• Continue morning yoga/meditation (15 mins of each).  Nothing today because of having to get out the door to circus class. 
• Have a one-song dance party each day  Alt-J, "Intro" I even did a video of myself dancing to this in an effort to get myself to realize that I'm not as awkward as I think I am. Not sure if it worked. :/ 

[FlyingJen]

Lessons learned from this past challenge: 

1. I think I took on too much and got bored with posting here. A lot of these things were things that I have been doing anyway and am tracking in my own spreadsheet, so it felt redundant to also post here. I think for the next round I'll just pick fewer things. 

 

2. The thing I failed most at was limit checking social media. I plan to continue trying to get better at this. I've installed blocks on both my desktop and my phone and plan to limit myself to checking once a day (probably in the evening and only after I've gotten everything else done that needs to get done). 

 

3. I plan to continue trying to eat less in general, and also smaller meals spaced more evenly through the day. I think this does help with my energy level. 

 

4. Naps. I spent all of April trying to kick my afternoon nap habit. Mostly I was pretty good about it, but I don't feel that I was THAT much more productive for it. Also I think not napping has negatively impacted my mental health- my mood has been significantly worse for the past month. So I think I'm going to re-introduce naps but try to be more mindful of not sleeping for too long because then I run into trouble getting to sleep at night. 

 

5. I have been pretty successful at starting to develop a home workout routine, but I need to get a weight bench! I've actually done more exercise in the past month than I have all year which is great. I'm still trying to figure out when is the best time to do my workouts.