AthenaMM Does What She Wants

[AthenaMM]

Awesome!

I thought so! We're going on vacation on Wednesday and I really hope it's just as easy to return to my routines after that as well.

[Jonesy]

I love how you rock your routine! You are my inspiration.  

[Elastigirl]

Went to check on you after getting back from my vacation. Hope you are having a good vacation! 

[AthenaMM]

We're back now and as of today I'm back to my routines. It's not as easy as I was hoping. I think after a couple of days of doing the routines it will get easier though. I'll update the couple of days before the vacation and the vacation this evening.

[Elastigirl]

Hope you had a good time.I  struggled when I got back from vacation too.

[AthenaMM]

Hope you had a good time.I  struggled when I got back from vacation too.

We had a great time! I got to hug John Barrowman and in September I got to hug Jensen Ackles so I think my life is complete.

I am still having trouble getting back into the swing of things. I was on the computer last night and completely forgot to update my thread. Tonight is our tech free night so I'm going to try to update it sometime this afternoon.

[Jonesy]

3 hours ago, AthenaMM said:

We had a great time! I got to hug John Barrowman and in September I got to hug Jensen Ackles so I think my life is complete.

 

I'm a super jealous! 

[AthenaMM]

1 hour ago, Jonesy said:

 

I'm a super jealous! 

It was definitely awesome!

[AthenaMM]

Okay, it looks like I haven't updated since the Saturday before we left for vacation. That Sunday was a normal day so I'll do a normal update for that.

 

Sunday, October 23, 2016

 

At this point I remember nothing about the week before except that I had one day where I did none of the things that I was supposed to do. I did feel like I handled it well and it didn't negatively impact my journey. I just barely made the steps average at 11,035.

 

I earned 25.25 points this week which definitely puts my "no rules" day into perspective, since that is only 2.5 points less than a perfect week. That puts me at 103 points since the last time I redeemed points. Considering that I bought half a dozen Funko Pops and 3 t-shirts at the con, I'm calling myself rewarded.  

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• 30 minute Beginner Balance yoga routine. This counts as both my yoga and my exercise on Sunday.
• Gratitude and Reflection meditation. I can't remember if I liked it. It was 9 minutes long.

Non-routine stuff

• I finished with 4,374 steps 
• I have no idea how I ate.

[AthenaMM]

We didn't actually leave for vacation until Wednesday the 26th, but my brain went on vacation on Monday the 24th unfortunately. I started off Monday pretty well, doing my yoga/mobility/meditation but then I had to run a bunch of errands to get ready for the trip and the rest of the day just vanished. By the time I was done with stuff I was tired and had no desire to exercise or do any of my routine stuff. Tuesday I didn't even try to do my routine stuff and did laundry, packed and cleaned. Since I was busy anyway I did end up with a decent amount of steps both days but that was completely unnecessary. 

 

The con stuff didn't start until Thursday night, but we always enjoy wandering the riverwalk and we tried to make sure the dog got a lot of activity and running around before the con started since he would spend most of that cooped up in the room. Because of that I got a decent amount of steps on Wednesday and an unprecedented 26,000 steps on Thursday! That's the first time I've gotten over 25,000. Friday was almost as much (over 23,000) but Saturday was less because there was a lot of time spent standing in lines. In the end I averaged 15,235 steps for the week!

 

When I'm on vacation I use the number of active minutes I get according to Fitbit to determine if I've "exercised". I decided to increase the minimum to 60 minutes this time since I seem to get so many now. Even with that I "exercised" every day and I included the Monday and Tuesday before we left as well. I got an insane amount of active minutes too with one day being over 400.

 

We came home on Monday but hubby was off through Tuesday so that was part of the vacation as well. It was nice to have a day to relax together and recuperate! I also took Wednesday to recuperate though. I think I needed an introvert day to be completely alone for a while.

 

As for the con itself, we had a blast! This is the first time we've actually managed to go to the entire three days (and a night if you count preview night). I definitely think this was the biggest crowd they've ever had, probably because of the Doctor Who guests. We met a lot of celebrities and spent an insane amount getting autographs and pictures. We had planned and budgeted for this all year though. We also met a lot of fans and ended up making friends with several that we met up with repeatedly. That's probably one of the best parts of the con's. We even went to the after party on Saturday night which is generally NOT my kind of thing. Hubby really wanted to go and wanted to pay to go VIP because there were going to be some celebrities there and the VIP's and celebrities hung out in the same area. So we did and it was actually pretty fun. Of course the celebrities didn't show up for a couple hours after it started and it was mostly not the celebrities we really wanted to meet. We still had a lot of fun though. We met up with one of the people we'd already made friends with and made several more there. It was "hosted" by Jon Bernthal (the Punisher and Shane on The Walking Dead). Well I hate Shane from The Walking Dead. When we were planning things I kept being difficult about anything that involved Jon Bernthal and hubby kept saying he was going to tell him when we got there. So during the afterparty hubby ends up next to Jon Bernthal at the bar and apparently does just that. So later when he sees hubby and I together he asks me if I'm Michelle (so now you know my real name!) and shakes my hand and is really, really nice to me. That was kind of funny already, but the next day we were getting his autograph and again he calls me by name (don't think he remembered hubby's) and was particularly nice to me. Still hate Shane but I guess I'll stop blaming Jon Bernthal.  The only bad thing was that we got a few photo ops and we were getting the actors to sign them. Our two group photo ops were late on Saturday so there wasn't time to get them signed before Sunday and apparently a lot of the celebrities were leaving early on Sunday so we missed some of the autographs. It wasn't too bad though and all of the photo ops turned out really well. I ended up looking like I was in a relationship with someone (not hubby) in almost all of the photo ops, which was pretty funny.

[AthenaMM]

Thursday, November 3, 2016

 

This was my first day being back to normal. I did all my routines but it was more difficult and took longer. Part of that was because there was still some vacation stuff to deal with (extra laundry, finding homes for souvenirs, etc).

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• Twist & Align yoga routine. 
• Healthy Joints Mobility session
• I did the Cultivating Positive Energy meditation. It's 5 minutes.
• I was going to do the Startbodyweight workout today but since everything was taking so long and was more difficult I decided to just do a 20 minute walk and do the strength workout tomorrow.

Afternoon Routine

• The rest of the home maintenance stuff was done
• I mopped for the daily cleaning

Non-routine stuff

• I finished with 11,543 steps
• I ate like crap and stuck with nothing.
• No tossed or finished produce, but there's nothing in the fridge but potatoes, onions and apples.

[AthenaMM]

Friday, November 4, 2016

 

Today started out well and then fell apart. The strength workout was really, REALLY tough and just left me feeling wrung out. That kind of tanked the rest of the day.

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• Morning Stretches yoga routine
• NF Yoga Touch Your Toes Mobility.
• I did the Overcoming Negative Thoughts meditation again (5 minutes)
• I did the Startbodyweight workout, 3 sets and 2:00 minutes rest between sets. I did the warm-up and cool-down.
  • Box pistol squats onto bench: 7,7,6; I was very shaky on these again, but I did progress as I was supposed to. We'll see how my legs feel tomorrow.
  • Leg Assisted Pull-ups: 6,5,5; Since you adjust the assistance your leg gives you, these weren't tougher than they've been, but I did make sure they were still as tough as they've been.
  • Incline Pike Diamond Push-ups: 7,7,6; I almost couldn't finish these on the last two sets, but I did and progressed as I was supposed to.
  • Hanging Straight Leg Raises: 5,5,4; These were tougher but not as tough as some of the other exercises
  • Straight Leg Bench Dips: 8,8,8; These were very tough and I think I'll stick with this progression next time before I move up to the next exercise.
  • Vertical Pulls with Towel: 8,8,7; A little tougher, but not as bad as most of the others.
  • Side Plank: 40 seconds each side; I almost couldn't hold this. I feel like I'm back where I started on these instead of almost ready to move to 50 seconds.

Afternoon Routine

• Nope, nothing

Non-routine stuff

• I have around 9,000 steps right now, but it's early so I'll probably get over 11,000 before bed.
• Breakfast was healthy and eaten mindfully but the afternoon snack was not. Haven't had dinner yet.
• No tossed or finished produce but I bought a few items of produce today.

[annyshay]

1) Jealous of Con shenanigans

2) Hello Healthy Joints Mobility session!

3) Even your bad days are aspirational for some of us, so keep it up. Very inspiring!

[AthenaMM]

1) Jealous of Con shenanigans

2) Hello Healthy Joints Mobility session!

3) Even your bad days are aspirational for some of us, so keep it up. Very inspiring!

Thank you! I do enjoy that Healthy Joints video.

Definitely not sure there's going to be anything inspiring about today though. Between bad sleep, soreness and stomach issues it isn't going well.

[AthenaMM]

Saturday, November 5, 2016

 

Well I think the best way to describe today is Ugh! I can't take sudafed too close to bedtime or else it keeps me up. I thought I was taking it early enough last night but apparently not. I ended up waking up all night and woke up very tired and cranky this morning. I was also pretty sore today though I think it's going to be worse tomorrow. I gave up before the day even started. By this afternoon I felt crappy and totally sick of myself. After that I took a 20 minute walk and did some stuff around the house and I feel better now. I did meditate this morning though I didn't do any yoga or mobility. I also ate a healthy dinner with plenty of vegetables. I know that all the junk food I've been eating is part of my problem. I get groceries on Monday and I'm working up a menu that has me eating really "clean" next week. I think I need to reset my tastebuds. I'll stick to a pretty strict plan next week and then I'll go back to my usual mostly healthy but not overly strict plan. So here's to a better day tomorrow.

[Elastigirl]

Oh I hate that when you have a stuffy nose and can't sleep and take decogestants that than keep you awake. I hope tomorrow you feel better. Good for you for eating a healthy breakfast.

[annyshay]

Feel better!

[AthenaMM]

Oh I hate that when you have a stuffy nose and can't sleep and take decogestants that than keep you awake. I hope tomorrow you feel better. Good for you for eating a healthy breakfast.

It definitely sucks. Last night was much better.

Feel better!

Thanks!

[AthenaMM]

Sunday, November 6, 2016

 

Half of this week was part of my vacation so not a lot of opportunities for points. I had a little trouble getting back into the swing of things, but by the end I was doing better and at least had a plan. I was less sore today than yesterday so even though Friday's workout really wore me out, it apparently didn't make me as sore as I thought it would. 

 

I earned 11.25 points this week which isn't too bad considering.

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• 30 minute Beginner Flexibility yoga routine. This counts as both my yoga and my exercise on Sunday.
• I discovered that I'd never finished the meditation course in the app I'm using. Apparently there is a Chapter 2 and I only did Chapter 1. This chapter introduces me to the different types of meditation. I did the 10th lesson which was 7 minutes long with an introduction.

Non-routine stuff

• I finished with 3,635 steps 
• I ate better than I have been, but there was a little of the "I'd better finish this off so I can eat better tomorrow".

[AthenaMM]

Monday, November 7, 2016

 

A much better day today. I stuck with my plans and did my strength workout even though it was grocery day and that always makes it tough to come up with the time or energy for the hour long strength workout. Lost progress with my push-ups again. I'm going to come up with two workouts I can alternate when we're on vacation or there's some other reason I can't do my usual strength workout. They'll be really short (2 exercises each) and require nothing but space and my body. I'll do one or the other every day and hopefully stop losing the progress I've made. Shark week also started today which could have derailed things, but I really needed to change so it didn't.

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• Did the 11th lesson in the meditation essentials course. It was called Body Meditation and it was 7 minutes long with intro.

Afternoon Routine

• 10 minute Beginner Balance yoga routine
• NF Yoga Wrist Mobility. Apparently I slept with one of my wrists bent funny and it was sore this morning so I thought this would be a good one. It helped.
• The rest of the home maintenance stuff was done.
• I cleaned glass/screens for the daily cleaning.
• I did the Startbodyweight workout, 3 sets and 2:00 minutes rest between sets. I did the warm-up but skipped the cool-down because it was late.
  • Box pistol squats onto bench: 7,7,7; 
  • Leg Assisted Pull-ups: 6,6,5
  • Incline Pike Diamond Push-ups: 7,7,7
  • Hanging Straight Leg Raises: 6,6,6
  • Push-ups: 3,2,1; I forgot to increase the rest between the first two sets, but it didn't really help when I increased it before the last set.
  • Vertical Pulls with Towel: 8,8,8
  • Side Plank: 40 seconds on the first side, but I seemed to have my shoulder in an odd position on the other side and I only last 35 seconds.

Non-routine stuff

• I have over 15,000 steps right now.
• I stuck with my plan and had a lot of veggies and some fruit and nothing processed. I honestly feel a lot better already.
• I tossed 1/3 of the shredded lettuce and bought more produce. 

[Elastigirl]

Great job at getting it all done. I like the beginner BW workout from NF which is just 

• 20 body weight squats
• 10 push ups
• 20 walking lunges
• 10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)
• 15 second plank
• 30 Jumping Jacks

I skip the rows or just use a suit case or something if it's handy. 

[AthenaMM]

Great job at getting it all done. I like the beginner BW workout from NF which is just 

• 20 body weight squats
• 10 push ups
• 20 walking lunges
• 10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)
• 15 second plank
• 30 Jumping Jacks

I skip the rows or just use a suit case or something if it's handy. 

That's a really good idea! I want it to be something I can do every day so it'll be a habit. So maybe squats, lunges and jumping jacks one day and then push-ups, planks and jumping jacks the next. That should be enough so that I don't lose any progress I've made.

[AthenaMM]

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

 

Another good day. I stuck with everything and I'm still feeling a lot better. The only problem was that I hadn't realized my butt and the backs of my thighs were sore until I started my run today. If I'd realized I'd have put it off. I probably should have put it off once I figured it out, but that felt like giving up so I decided to at least run a mile.

 

Morning Routine

• Morning home maintenance stuff was done
• Warming Stretches yoga routine. 
• NF Yoga Squat Mobility session
• I did the 12th lesson of the meditation essentials course. It's 6 minutes with intro.
• I ran a 1 mile at a 13:20 min/mile pace. 

Non-routine stuff

• I don't quite have 11,000 steps at the moment but I will before bed.
• I stuck with my plans, ate lots of veggies/fruit and nothing processed.
• No tossed or finished produce but I'm making a dent in them.

[Jonesy]

I'm glad you are feeling better now!

[AthenaMM]

I'm glad you are feeling better now!

Thanks!