Owlet returns from the mountain and dreams of more

[Owlet]

Late again, but here never-the-less! To be fair, I was busy climbing mountains when this challenge officially started, so I think that's a good excuse for being late  6 days later and my legs are still a little sore lol, so I don't think I would've achieved much last week even if I'd had time. The hike, by the way, was bloody amazing! Reminded me how much I love hiking and made me want to leap straight into another one (that was before my muscles seized up haha). If anyone's curious, photos of epic alpine beauty are up on my first challenge.

 

The only downside was returning to work... really hard and boring. Been trying to dull the pain by planning my next hike and goals for this challenge.

 

The aim is to meet my goals and also find time to enjoy life, through tramping, horse riding, gardening, reading, socialising etc, without getting too stressed or run down. As much as I'd love to keep training hardcore for hikes, I really need to buckle down and do some painting. I need to produce a series of paintings for a show at the start of june, which means doing the bulk now so it has time to dry... I'm stressing out just thinking of it  Years since I put anything in a show so I'm pretty nervous. Ok here goes:

 

Level Up Your Life

• Painting: at least 4 sessions per week, aim to finish 2*  paintings this challenge -> /4 
• Lights out before 11:45pm ->  /7
• 2x meditation daily, 30mins morning and 15mins evening -> /7
• Plan next hike!

* (ideally more like 8 but I'm trying to be realistic here lol)

 

Diet

Decided to scrap vegetarian dinners as a goal this time around, as it was too hard combining with carb-free. I will still aim, unofficially,to have a few vegetarian dinners a week, but not going to stress if I end up eating meat. Vegetables will be present at all times though! I will also make more of a conscious effort to stay away from bread, although I don't eat so much these days anyway. Need to get better at taking lunch to work instead of scrounging for leftover catering or just eating fruit.

• Eat at least 3 carb-free meals a week -> /3
• No ice cream for dessert, limit chocolate intake, try healthy alternatives -> /7
• No bread -> /7

 

Fitness

Ideally I want to maintain my current fitness level. This will be difficult with winter closing in and my shift in focus. I've reduced the number of times I walk each week slightly, as I found it difficult to fit it all in last month and this month I need to focus on other things. An unofficial goal is to sit less! I have a standing desk but too often I find myself sitting and getting sore. 

• Walk to and from work (2.2 km each way) 1x a week -> /2
• Complete the NF bodyweight workout 2x a week -> /4
• Go for 2 lunchtime runs/walks per week ->  /4

 

It's weird, I started following Nerd Fitness because I wanted to improve my fitness. But now I'm using it more for the other aspects of my life and fitness is something I try to fit in around the other stuff... I think I just like the system of forums and challenges, with definable goals and accountability. Usually I just float along in life, vaguely trying to achieve stuff then getting bored or distracted or just plain forgetting ( I have a terrible memory) I guess we'll see how well the system works for creative endeavours in this challenge!

[fleaball]

 

Usually I just float along in life, vaguely trying to achieve stuff then getting bored or distracted or just plain forgetting ( I have a terrible memory)

I feel you on this. Who knows, maybe working on all your other stuff will help you want to work on fitness? Or not at all and you'll realize it's cool, you don't want to focus on that right now.  Journey of self-discovery. Woo!

[Owlet]

 

I feel you on this. Who knows, maybe working on all your other stuff will help you want to work on fitness? Or not at all and you'll realize it's cool, you don't want to focus on that right now.  Journey of self-discovery. Woo!

Oh hi! (I've been lurking on your thread by the way, just haven't had time to post sorry! Enjoying all the kitten gifs though haha)

 

Yeah totally, self-discovery rocks! Seem to be doing a fair bit of that recently, with the realisation that I was good at life when I was a kid and then I got distracted at some point and started working instead of living... ugh. But no more! I mean I still work, but trying to do the other stuff too

[Owlet]

Ok I just need to get something off my chest. 

 

*Don't read this if you're easily grossed-out!*

This doesn't reflect too well on me, but... On sunday I discovered that bag of potatoes I put at the bottom of the pantry and then forgot about... months ago. I don't even know how many months. But there was a pool of brown liquid spreading out around the bag, a lovely smell to accompany it and worst of all, little beings that will one day become flies of some sort :'( I don't even like naming them! Uuughhh. Felt so sick cleaning it up. Potentially never going to buy potatoes again. On the plus side, the entire pantry got the best clean it's ever had (at least while I've been living here) and cleaning the bathroom felt almost pleasant in comparison.

 

*Progress update*

Ok, in other news, let's see... pretty much on track for diet goals, made a nice vegetable stir fry last night and soup tonight (partly 'cause it's dark and rainy outside, mostly because the contents of my fridge didn't leave me with a whole lot of options lol)

Did my lunchtime walk yesterday, but skipped today for various reasons. Well, one reason, I stayed up way too late last night painting. Did make some really good progress though so I'm not unhappy about it overall. Used today's lunch break to go to the art shop and buy more canvases so I can work on another painting while this one dries a bit. Definitely need to get an early night tonight though, since my reaction to a sizable earthquake this morning was 'oh hey, it's an earthquake, zzzzzzzz'. Plus I'm off to a screening of Alien tomorrow, at the observatory, so might be another late night wheee.

[fleaball]

oh god. It's the worst when forgotten food makes itself known. Hooray for handling that and getting some painting done!

[Dawnwings]

My fridge freezes the veggie draw, and I am yet to figure out how to fix it, and I've done the same thing to potatoes. They froze a layer of veggies to the bottom of the draw... Going to keep a more watchful eye on those cheeky things myself

 

So glad you got some painting done though, that's really cool! And very neat that your work is near an art supply, very cool indeed

[Carly Rae Jepsens Warlock]

My fridge freezes the veggie draw, and I am yet to figure out how to fix it, and I've done the same thing to potatoes. They froze a layer of veggies to the bottom of the draw... Going to keep a more watchful eye on those cheeky things myself [emoji6]

 

So glad you got some painting done though, that's really cool! And very neat that your work is near an art supply, very cool indeed [emoji4]

Have you tried wrapping them up in a newspaper? Or maybe reduce the cooling of your freezer?

Oh! It seems that I have written a message! How nice of you, hands

[Dawnwings]

I'll try the newspaper, since if I turn the fridge down other things don't like it and the veggies still freeze

 

Trying to keep fresh veggies in the house can be really hard, especially when your facilities don't cooperate

[Carly Rae Jepsens Warlock]

I'll try the newspaper, since if I turn the fridge down other things don't like it and the veggies still freeze [emoji6]

 

Trying to keep fresh veggies in the house can be really hard, especially when your facilities don't cooperate [emoji6]

That is one cool freezer you got there [emoji41]

Oh! It seems that I have written a message! How nice of you, hands

[Owlet]

oh weird, I didn't get any notifi - ohhh, you have to follow your own thread don't you. I'm an idiot lol. There I was thinking I grossed you guys out so much no one wanted to comment. In other news, there is now a mouse outside the front door, spread quite thinly... thanks neighbourhood cats.

 

 

My fridge freezes the veggie draw, and I am yet to figure out how to fix it, and I've done the same thing to potatoes. They froze a layer of veggies to the bottom of the draw... Going to keep a more watchful eye on those cheeky things myself

 

So glad you got some painting done though, that's really cool! And very neat that your work is near an art supply, very cool indeed

My fridge does this too! Although I can get away with putting vegetables higher up in the fridge and they seem to be fine. Veggie draw is reserved for beer  As for the art shop, it is actually in the middle of town, but my city is so compact nothing is really that far away heh. 

[Owlet]

This week feels like it's dragging. Not in the sense that tie is going slowly, it's already nearly friday, but more that I'm struggling to meet my goals. I guess it doesn't help that I ended up starting a week late (figure I'll just run into the next week-zero and then launch straight into the next challenge) I really need to get some momentum going again though.

 

I keep procrastinating by reading that article about procrastination that Briniel posted. It's actually really good, but it's also not what I'm meant to be doing, which is painting. I had that one good session on monday night but nothing really since then (except prepping new canvases) On tuesday I was too tired to paint, last night was date night with the dude man, and tonight I had to work late. I did at least cook up some chicken casserole when I got home so I don't have to worry about cooking tomorrow night and can hopefully get some painting done (provided I don't drink too much at work drinks  )

 

Been pretty good with diet goals but took a hit yesterday. Ended up eating a burger for dinner cause we were in a rush, and then ice cream because... it looked good and I couldn't face watching the movie without something delicious.... Feel bad about it, but did at least really enjoy seeing Alien projected onto the dome ceiling of the planetarium  

 

Exercise has been sluggish too. Finally got around to doing my bodyweight workout today after about 10 days off, and it felt hard. Still feeling really tired, and knee was a bit tweaky, and didn't manage very many pushups at all. Good to be back in the game though I guess. Will walk to work tomorrow and go for a walk/jog at lunchtime. 

 

In other news, I took some time out of work today to take a painting into town to get prints made and hopefully sell at some point. My dear friend offered me her car, but said she'd have to drive me since it isn't registered at the moment and didn't want to risk parking and getting fined. Poor girl woke up feeling dizzy and nauseated but insisted we do it anyway. Finally got there, and it turned out the painting was too big for their scanner - never mind that I'd told them the exact dimensions via email. So we had to pack the painting back in the car and come home, empty handed so -to-speak. Poor friend jumped straight out of the car and vomited as soon as we got back. The one good thing to come of it was I wrote them a complaint email - probably not very strongly worded by most peoples' standards, but still a big deal for me as I hate making a scene and tend to always think it is my fault anyway. So, yay me, lol. 

 

(@Fleaball, the kittens are taking over...) 

[Owlet]

Another Gross Post

 

OMG guys I had another maggot incident this morning  this week is full of them! Not entirely my fault this time.. two of my flatmates have been away the last few weeks and the remaining flatmate and I didn't make enough rubbish to justify putting a bag out last week for collection. Unfortunately, there must've been something festering in there so by the time I went to grab it this morning, the bottom of the bin was full of them aghhhh. At least they were outside this time I guess. So over it though! I still can't face the dead mouse outside either. Even the TV series I've been watching turns out to be based on ravaging flies - I can't escape the damn things! SAVE ME

[Dawnwings]

Yeah, that is the number one reason the bin goes out here regardless of how much is in it. Which means there is very little, but the decomposing bits are either in there, or my compost trench.

You sound like everything else is going well, bar the minor stupid of the printer place anyway

[fleaball]

 

oh weird, I didn't get any notifi - ohhh, you have to follow your own thread don't you. I'm an idiot lol. There I was thinking I grossed you guys out so much no one wanted to comment. In other news, there is now a mouse outside the front door, spread quite thinly... thanks neighbourhood cats.

Usually it automatically subscribes you to your own threads. You're not an idiot, just chalk it up to a forum hiccup. People have been complaining about being randomly unsubscribed from things. FWIW I haven't gotten any notifications for this thread between the last time I posted and just now. (I went back and checked to make sure I wasn't crazy.)

 

Sorry to hear about the painting place. And the adventures with critters. That's pretty gross. This week seems to be A Week for a lot of people. Is there a full moon going on or something? 

[Owlet]

 

Yeah, that is the number one reason the bin goes out here regardless of how much is in it. Which means there is very little, but the decomposing bits are either in there, or my compost trench.

You sound like everything else is going well, bar the minor stupid of the printer place anyway

Lesson learnt, believe me! We are pretty dedicated to putting vege scraps in the compost but meat scraps go in the bin - not really sure of other alternatives? But will definitely putting it out weekly from this point onwards! Printing drama was ok actually - the kind of thing that I could get really annoyed about but my state of mind is good enough this week that it didn't bother me for long. Finding out how much it will cost to scan though, that is causing me some pain lol.

[Owlet]

 

Usually it automatically subscribes you to your own threads. You're not an idiot, just chalk it up to a forum hiccup. People have been complaining about being randomly unsubscribed from things. FWIW I haven't gotten any notifications for this thread between the last time I posted and just now. (I went back and checked to make sure I wasn't crazy.)

 

Sorry to hear about the painting place. And the adventures with critters. That's pretty gross. This week seems to be A Week for a lot of people. Is there a full moon going on or something? 

Ohhh I see. Yay not an idiot, cheers! Good thing you checked back here to get the latest episode of the Critter Saga then, wouldn't want you missing out  Certainly not the worst week I've had, by any means, but an interesting one never-the-less. Here's hoping the weekend is less drama/critter-filled for everyone! 

[Owlet]

Well, despite the critter incident this morning, today actually turned out ok. Spent the morning feeling pretty stagnant and unenthused about everything, but went for my lunchtime walk like a good girl and thought fuck it, I'll run (slow jog really  ) and ended up running over 3km without feeling particularly tired or puffed! It still really surprises me when this happens - I think in my mind I'm still that kid dreading every school sports day and getting laughed at for tripping over in sprint competitions. And it still surprises me when I not only manage to exercise, but it actually makes me happier?! I know you hear that all the time, endorphins etc blah blah, but I guess it's different experiencing something rather than just believing it.

It got me thinking though, I don't know if I can afford to slack off on my fitness. I thought maybe decreasing the amount I do would give me more time to paint, but I don't want to sacrifice the good feelings and boost in energy it gives me :/ Maybe I just need to get better at managing my time and not spending so much time on facebook and a certain fitness forum... but again, posting here and reading all you guys threads makes me happy and keeps me motivated, so I don't know. It's so unusual to find a community of people who are all actively trying to improve themselves and reach their true potential, it really is inspiring. Maybe we're not all doomed eh

[Owlet]

WTF, just told my flatmate about the rubbish and apparently I did put it out last week?! (the only person I know with worse memory than me is my mum, go figure) so god know why it got so festy so quickly. It hasn't even been warm. Strange...

[fleaball]

I am the last person to talk about making time for exercise because I am terrible at it. But can you plan on like, short workouts? A 10-minute circuit or 3km jog a few days a week? So it's not taking up too much of your time and you can go for longer if you want to? I hear you on spending too much time on facebook though. Ugh.

[Owlet]

 

I am the last person to talk about making time for exercise because I am terrible at it. But can you plan on like, short workouts? A 10-minute circuit or 3km jog a few days a week? So it's not taking up too much of your time and you can go for longer if you want to? I hear you on spending too much time on facebook though. Ugh.

Yeah totally. I mean I thought about it and that's kind of what I do anyway. Most of my workouts happen at lunchtime, or walking to and from work, so it's not actually taking much time out of my day. Maybe it's just because I was focused more on fitness last challenge so it felt like it was taking a lot of time and energy. But when I cut down on the amount of fitness, it starts to feel like I'm not doing enough maybe. We'll see. Going to keep my goals the same for now but just do extra fitness if I feel like I need it. 

 

Time for week 1 roundup (week 2 for everyone else lol) I didn't keep very good track of things so this will be a bit of a memory test...

 

Level Up Your Life

• Painting: at least 4 sessions per week, aim to finish 2*  paintings this challenge -> 3/4 
• Lights out before 11:45pm ->  2/7
• 2x meditation daily, 30mins morning and 15mins evening -> 5.5/7
• Plan next hike!
• total: 10.5/18

Diet

• Eat at least 3 carb-free meals a week -> 3/3
• No ice cream for dessert, limit chocolate intake, try healthy alternatives -> 4/7
• No bread -> 5/7
• total: 12/17

 

Fitness

• Walk to and from work (2.2 km each way) 1x a week -> 2/2
• Complete the NF bodyweight workout 2x a week -> 4/4
• Go for 2 lunchtime runs/walks per week ->  4/4
• total: 10/10

Getting my painting sessions in was the hardest part of the challenge. Started off well on monday and made a really good start on a new painting. Stayed up way too late though and spent the rest of the week struggling to catch up on sleep. Went out a couple of evenings so didn't manage to do more than prime canvases till the weekend, when I squeezed in another 2 sessions. Read a good article though on trying to find the energy to create after working all day, basically recommending to give up the dream of finding that 4 hour window where you can create and instead grab whatever moment you have to chip away at something. I'm just not sure how that's going to work with my painting technique though, which is basically to paint everything while the (oil)paint is still wet. Plus it takes me a decent amount of time painting just to get properly in the zone and start making any decent progress. Hmm...

 

Lights out before 11:45pm suffered big time, yeesh. Room for improvement I guess heh. Other than that, did ok with the goals. Didn't eat much bread except for an emergency burger cause I got stuck in town with the man and a piece of pizza on the weekend because it was too alluring to resist (same goes for the ice cream on wednesday lol)

 

So yeah,going to try to be better with lights out and painting sessions this week. 

[Owlet]

Well so far this week is going pretty well. Went for a run at lunchtime yesterday and bodyweight workout today. Dinner has been carb-free both nights (Dad sent up a massive roast of lamb which I cooked on sunday for the flat and have been living off ever since haha). Put in a pretty decent painting session last night and even managed to stop at a reasonable hour so I could get to bed on time. Re-discovered how much I hate painting backgrounds and clothing. Will work on the face tonight though, so yay. 

 

Watched a whole lot of horsemanship videos today (thanks for the tip @Dawnwings!) initially to send to Dad, but then found myself just generally getting quite interested and even wishing there was an equivalent for humans - and that someone had done some 'groundwork' with me haha. Next thing I know, the guy starts talking about how his wife has anxiety and panic attacks and then goes on to describe how she trained herself to deal with them. Basically she would wait til she was in a calm environment and deliberately think about something slightly stressful - just enough to raise her heart rate - then she would focus on her breathing etc until she felt calm again. Kind of de-sensitising herself. (Full video is here if anyone is interested)

 

I mean I've heard plenty of people talk about how you need to 'ground' yourself during a panic attack (I don't actually get panic attacks, touch wood, but anxiety is still a bitch), but for some reason this resonated more with me. I guess I like the idea of practicing small and working up to where you're able to deal with the worst case scenario, rather than just waiting for it to happen and then expecting to be able to deal with it. 

 

Funnily enough, right after I watched this, I had some shit come my way and the perfect excuse to test out my newly acquired technique. Certainly didn't get rid of the anxiety altogether (I think only resolving the issue will do that) but just being that bit more aware of it seemed to help... Treating it more as an external thing that I need to try and be ok with rather than getting spooked and running off all upset. Or maybe I just needed the horse analogy for it to make sense to me lol. I know full well that a lot of the battle against depression and anxiety is in forming healthy thought patterns and not letting the bad ones run amok, but actually doing that always seems so impossible. Somehow, imaging the thing that is causing me stress as nothing worse than a plastic bag spooking a horse, makes me think I can deal with it. Or maybe I'm crazy haha. 

[Dreamspin]

You're doing great this challenge! Awesome job working on techniques to manage anxiety. I'm listening to Level Up Your Life, and I like the idea of doing something similar that doesn't trigger anxiety and go from there. 

 

For me, I hate making phone calls. I'm not really sure why. I don't like the randomness of not knowing what to expect, not being able to read body language, not being able to properly hear the other person. I think though that inertia makes it worse. If I haven't made a phone call in a month, then I need to make a phone call that is difficult for me (like calling the car shop), I'll balk. But what I'd like to try is making a few less nerve-wracking calls first. My husband (even if he's in the same room). My mom. A restaurant to find out their hours. Something to turn it from terrifying to routine 

[Owlet]

Oh sweet, is Level Up Your Life available as an audiobook? I really need to read more of the blog posts on Nerd Fitness too, I'm sure there's all sorts of stuff in there that would make my life easier. 

 

I feel you on the phone call thing! The only thing that helped me was a job I had a while ago where I was constantly on the phone so I kind of just got used to it. Initially I really wanted to make a good impression and since most of my work came through phone calls I actually looked forward to hearing it ring. After a year the novelty had worn off but I didn't get nervous anymore, (just annoyed haha). I still avoid calling if possible, but don't find it nearly as stressful as I used to. I think that's a great idea to start making regular calls in non-threatening situations, you might even find it's quite rewarding! Taking small, achievable steps is definitely the way forward. Good luck!

[Dreamspin]

Yes, Level Up Your Life is available on audio book! I have a subscription to Audible, so I was able to get it with a credit. If you've never tried Audible, you can try one month for free and get Steve's book for free (or any other audio book), and it's still yours after the trial is over. 

[Owlet]

Coool I should do that. Thanks for the tip off! My job is the kind that demands attention but also leaves a fair amount of brain power free to wander and in need of distraction