deborahjade aims for consistency

[deborahjade]

I've started getting back into the NF challenges this year and managed to complete the first one in the Scouts. Now that I'm delaying starting running until next year, I thought I might visit the Ranger's for this challenge.

 

My Main Quest

To run a sub-30 min 5k by the end of the year May 2018

 

I've altered my main quest to delay running until well after my second baby arrives in April 2017 to allow time for my core and pelvic floor to recover. I know I went too fast too soon after my son was born, so this time I want to deliberately go slow and ensure I build a good strength base that will allow me to start running fast in 2018! 

 

There are so many different things I want to focus on this year.. but for now I will focus on what is most important to getting through the next month.

 

1. Declutter house for move 5x weekly

This is the last thing I would rather do, which has been on my to-do list since early December... because.. we are moving house in around 4-6 weeks time. And given the baby is due in 11 weeks time(!!!!), I need to get all that miscellaneous stuff in the house decluttered and packed while I still have the energy and time to do it. I've been spending time this last week shredding old bills from 8 years ago (procrastination much!) because they need to be gone already! Setting this as my #1 goal will help me keep focused on what I need to be doing most this month with the positive result of me being a much less stressed person.

 

2. Cut out the dairy

For a while, I have sensed that yoghurt and cheese might be behind some digestive issues... and food tracking for the last month has confirmed pizza, custard and yoghurt as the most likely suspects. So, for the greater good of my body, I will aim to give up 95%+ of dairy products this month. While it will be tough due to my deep love of melted cheese, the chance of a happier digestive system is totally worth. Dietary-wise, it won't be too challenging as I grew up vegetarian and only started regularly consuming dairy in my mid-20s. The hardest part of all this is that there are 5 large leftover pieces of lasagna in the fridge containing lots of white sauce, mozarella and parmesan cheese. And after dealing with the results of eating one of them for lunch a couple of days ago, I am sadly going to have to leave the rest to my husband. Did I mention how much I LOVE melted cheese and white sauce and lasagna?

I'll be continuing journalling what I am eating each day to ensure that I am staying on track.

 

3. Strength workout 2x weekly

I smashed this goal in the first four week challenge, but am still in the habit-forming stage as I have technically only exercised 8 times. I'll attempt to continue the trend by getting back on the wagon after skipping it all for Week Zero. I'm following a free four week program by Jessie Mundell which is pregnancy and pelvic floor friendly.

 

4. Meet step goal 5x weekly

With everything happening, I've lost momentum around moving more. So I am going to start from where I am and try and increase my average by 500 steps a week. That way I'll be able to build some solid habits to get me moving more regularly, while balancing it with keeping the goals achievable.

Week 1 - 7,000 steps

Week 2 - 7,5000 steps

Week 3 - 8,000 steps

Week 4 - 8,500 steps

 

Mini-challenge

• Wk 1 - Distance Feat:  I will walk around outside at least once per day 5 times this week to help keep my step count up and to improve my Vitamin D... you can't take the skies from me!
• Strength Feat:  I will complete one extra strength exercise session this week... at 30 weeks pregnant, I feel finding the motivation for this will be enough of a challenge!
• Ranger Feat:   I will read several pages from The Histories by Herodotus every day this week. I started out strong in January, but lost momentum and barely looked at it since the middle of January. It is time to defeat this 900 page beastie (143 pages down so far)!
• Recovery Feat:  I will do stretches in the evenings 5 times this week.... I should totally watch Netflix while doing this (8 episodes into Stargate Atlantis S3 so far).. I've tried reading books but it can be hard to hold them in some stretch positions.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the Ranger Corps! This looks like a good set of goals. I'll be following along.

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 1-2

 

Declutter: While I didn't declutter in the first two days, I did spend Sunday evening deep-cleaning/bleaching our ensuite shower to death to make sure all the mould was dead! It is one of those tasks I avoid as long as I can, so it was a big win to actually do it! I also spent Monday night prep-cooking 2 meals for the week (creamy chicken rice and sausage rolls) so had no energy left after that. But I'm planning to donate some bags of stuff tomorrow morning and do some decluttering.  0/5

Cut out the dairy: 2 days of success down! Last night, I was slicing some cheddar cheese for my son and put a small piece in my mouth without thinking. Fortunately I realised in time and spat it out.. whew!!  2/7

Strength workout: Planned for tomorrow night. 0/2

Step goal:  Sunday evening, I spent probably 15 or more minutes walking around reading a book before bed just to get my steps up to 7,000, and Monday evening, all that cooking helped get my steps up.  2/5

Distance feat: Only started on Day 3.

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 3

I am going to attempt to post these daily to help stay on track.

 

Declutter: Dropped off bags of books and random stuff waiting to be donated! Cleared the floor of the packing zone (also known as the guest room) and vacuumed it. Decluttered the laundry shelves. Threw some old rice out that didn't have a date, but was probably 4 or more years old and smelly a bit funky.  Also ran a couple of loads of washing and ran the dishwasher. Massively productive day!!  1/5

Cut out the dairy: Check!  3/7

Strength workout: Did a glutes-focussed strength routine while watching Stargate Atlantis. 1/2

Step goal:  Smashed this goal with around 8,000 steps.. although weirdly my Garmin Vivofit 2 didn't track it. I think I must have accidentally put it in sleep mode or something around lunchtime and then it didn't record until the next morning. It has happened once before but I did check it before going to sleep so I know what it had broken 8,000 steps!  3/5

Distance feat: After picking up my son from daycare, we went to the park and played on the play equipment for a while = step wins + getting outside win! 1/5

[The Spider]

Sounds like you're keeping busy despite your pregnancy!  Following!  I can see a pregnancy being an easy excuse to not move sometimes, but that's such a far cry from when our ancestors were all farmers.   I'll pop in from time to time and offer encouragement.

[Emerald Eagle]

Nice job! Looks like you've started with some great momentum  I like your declutter challenge a lot, something I definitely need more of in my life!

 

Do you read the Girls Gone Strong blog as well? 

[deborahjade]

21 hours ago, The Spider said:

Sounds like you're keeping busy despite your pregnancy!  Following!  I can see a pregnancy being an easy excuse to not move sometimes, but that's such a far cry from when our ancestors were all farmers.   I'll pop in from time to time and offer encouragement.

 

Thanks, I am definitely feeling better for being more active in the last month.. and it helps to focus on long term goals of getting back into running and knowing that putting in effort now will pay off later. Early on when I didn't feel well, I completely stopped being active, but once my energy came back, I started missing running. 

It is amazing what the amount of physical activity pregnant women did at times which was considered perfectly normal. I'm reminded of the lead female character in The Good Earth who is out mattocking a field with her husband, heads back to the house, has the baby and then comes back out and keeps mattocking the field!!!!

 

20 hours ago, EmeraldEagle said:

Nice job! Looks like you've started with some great momentum  I like your declutter challenge a lot, something I definitely need more of in my life!

 

Do you read the Girls Gone Strong blog as well? 

 

Thanks! My mind is feeling so much lighter after working through 90% of the old bill/paper stacks in the house and making shred-recycle-keep decisions! I hadn't realised how much it was mentally weighing me down.

And yes, I do read the Girls Gone Strong blog too. It helped motivate me in getting active again, especially through pregnancy, by highlighting the benefits of strength exercise. That's how I stumbled over Jessie Mundell and her blog/program

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 4

 

Declutter: Ran out of steam a bit but for the sake of this challenge, I dug out another box of paper/bills and sorted through them. The end is in sight! Only one box to go after I finish shredding this pile (I have a cheap shredder that overheats after say 15 mins so I have to do it in blocks).  2/5

Cut out the dairy: Check!  4/7

Strength workout: No workout today, although I'm feeling the muscles a bit from yesterday. 1/2

Step goal:  Broke 9,000 steps today after doing my distance feat. When I set this goal, I had this mental fear that I was not capable of getting near 10,000 steps. Clearly it is more about priorities and time pressures than actual physical ability.  4/5

Distance feat: Walked to the library and back to pick up some books (only a 5-7 minute walk from work) 2/5

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 5

 

Declutter: Had a busy evening with some Age of Empires playing planned, so spent 5-10 minutes in the morning shredded some of the current to-shred pile.  3/5

Cut out the dairy: I think this was a win.. I recorded it, although now I need to check the sweet chilli chicken tender ingredients when I get home because I didn't think of checking there!  5/7

Strength workout: Workout day is tomorrow.. although I did some stretching and used a tennis ball on my some muscles due to tightness/soreness. 1/2

Step goal:  No win here with 6,189 steps.. between not doing much distance-wise and having a hot day outside (35 Celsius). 4/5

Distance feat: Realised I was running out of time for this one so I went out into the backyard while dinner was cooking and walked some laps for ~7 mins or so. Totally counts!! 3/5

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 6

 

Declutter: Shredded some more paper in the morning for this challenge.  4/5

Cut out the dairy: Didn't eat dairy.. but ate more jelly lollies than I should have.  6/7

Strength workout: Waaay overtired from staying up late and feeling worn out so decided to go to bed early instead ... .sadly turned into staying up until 11:30pm finishing Scholar by L.E. Modesitt Jr.. But I still have tomorrow to complete it! 1/2

Step goal:  7,258 after walking around the house for 15 minutes to get my steps up.. goal met!!! 5/5

Distance feat: I technically didn't do any more outside walking than I had already planned to do... so not counting today sadly. 3/5

[The Spider]

The sleep cycle is so fragile. If I stay up one night, I'm staying up the rest of the week. Is a given. Possibly one of the most serious lessons in responsibility and diligence I've ever had.

[deborahjade]

On 2/19/2017 at 11:57 AM, The Spider said:

The sleep cycle is so fragile. If I stay up one night, I'm staying up the rest of the week. Is a given. Possibly one of the most serious lessons in responsibility and diligence I've ever had.

 

Yes, it is! I totally get that.. it is so hard to build the good habits and so easy to break them. And then once I'm tired, my good-decision making ability suffers.. and I end up being overtired and sleep deprived and still staying up late.

[deborahjade]

Week One - Day 7

 

Declutter: Got through most of my shredding pile but wasn't feeling very motivated due to tiredness!  5/5

Cut out the dairy: Avoided the dairy again and even bought some dairy free dark chocolate as I have missed it so much this week.  7/7

Strength workout: Exhausted overtired after all the late nights, so skipped exercise, researched beds from Ikea and then went to bed by 10:30pm 1/2

Step goal:  I thought I missed out, but I just managed to break 7,000 steps!! 6/5

Distance feat: Didn't really do anything active for this... tiredness again. 3/5

[deborahjade]

Week One - Summary

Declutter: Lots of good progress. Have almost finished all the shredding + organised some trouble-spots I've been avoiding  5/5 = 100%

Cut out the dairy: Stayed on track with this and will hopefully see positive results over next couple of weeks.  7/7 = 100%

Strength workout: Struggled with this due to tiredness from staying up late reading. Pregnant me cannot keep cutting corners on sleep. 1/2  = 50%

Step goal: I found it is much more motivating to aim for 5 days instead of 7 as it helps me be more active in general and not beat myself up over tough days where I don't move enough. It's all about the trend!  6/5 = 100%

Distance feat: Started it two days after the challenge started so aiming for a perfect 5 days was probably a bar too high 3/5 = 60%

 

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Day 1

 

Declutter: Had a mega-decluttering day where I finished my shred pile, built another one and then decluttered a large dress with 6 drawers down to 3 empty drawers and 3 organised/read-to-pack drawers. Making good progress!  1/5

Cut out the dairy: Avoided the morning tea at church due to likely dairy in everything. And avoided all the cheese I would normally eat with sausages and toasties.  1/7

Strength workout: I was going to do this.. but I've been avoiding cleaning the main bathroom/shower for the last 2 weeks? So I buckled down and scrubbed it clean!! And then I was so tired and sore that I had an early night and decided to do it tomorrow. 0/2

Step goal:  Almost 9,000 steps!! all that decluttering and cleaning!! 1/5

Distance feat: Not sure when we swap to next weeks - For now, went to the park with my son and had fun wandering around and playing on slide & swings . 4/5

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Day 2-3

 

Declutter: I honestly can't remember what I did on Monday... I'll assume nothing (aside from watching 3 episodes of Stargate Atlantis on Netflix). And on Tuesday, I piled up all the baby/child related clothes and miscellaneous stuff on the guest room floor for sorting.  2/5

Cut out the dairy: I have been avoiding the dairy (woohoo for lamingtons not containing milk) but crashed at recording the food so far. I need to either develop a strong habit for this, or find a different way of recording (currently use Google drive doc on my phone) 3/7

Strength workout: I've been struggling with motivation for this one.. and I'm being undermined by my sleep debt.. which means I am too physically exhausted/sore/achy in the evenings to do this and validly using pregnancy as a reason to not overdo this... so .. I will workout this week if I am physically up to it, but in the meantime, I need to have some early nights to clear my sleep debt & I need to get back to drinking 2.5L water per day instead of 1.5L (it really does make a difference!). Even if I don't attain this goal this week, I will build a strong base to get back on track next week! 0/2

Step goal:  What steps? Again... tired and unmotivated (although apparently had 6,988 on Mon and 7,010 on Tue!!).. time to start having regular breaks at my desk at work and walking around and putting in the effort.. because I really have NO excuse for not getting 7,500 steps per day.  1/5

Distance feat: Nothing on Monday, but on Tuesday, I got out in the backyard with my son and I kicked a soccer ball around for 5-10 mins while he played with a spray bottle and then we played with our very cool Super Soaker gun. I have to help with this one as the trigger is too hard for my son to push properly.. but I will swap over to doing the Ranger feat from (Wed - Tue)... time to get reading the Histories again! 4/5

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Day 4

Back on track!!

 

Declutter: I de-prioritised this and instead drank around 2.5L water! yes!  2/5

Cut out the dairy: Avoided the dairy again. I've been trying out different milks... trying soy milk and almond milk this week. 4/7

Strength workout: And I did my strength workout! While watching Special Forces: Ultimate Hell Week - S2 Ep3. It made my workout seem so much easier!! 1/2

Step goal:  I walked around at home reading the Histories last night to get an extra 1,000 steps to achieve 7,500 steps before bed!!  2/5

Ranger feat: Read 25 pages of the Histories... if I can do that for the next week, that will get me through 175 pages! And admittedly it is an interesting read. I'm working through the section on Ancient Egypt and their various customs. 1/7

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Day 5

 

Declutter: Didn't declutter and struggled to drink enough water.  2/5

Cut out the dairy: Avoided the dairy. 5/7

Strength workout: No planned workout. 1/2

Step goal:  Only around 5,600 steps today... didn't find the energy to walk to the library to get them up  2/5

Ranger feat: Read ~40 pages of the Histories and finished off Book 2... 2/7

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Day 6-7

 

Declutter: Nothing on Friday but decluttered my son's room + his stuffed toy collection on Saturday.  3/5

Cut out the dairy: Did good on Friday, but made scrambled eggs with cow's milk on Saturday as I didn't have any other substitutes. 6/7

Strength workout: Due to tiredness and getting early nights, only one day of workouts this week. 1/2

Step goal:  7,700 steps and 8,000 steps. I wasn't sure whether I was ready to aim for 8,000 next week, but I think I am!  4/5

Ranger feat: Read ~75 pages of the Histories over the two days and completed Book Three. 4/7

[deborahjade]

Week Two - Summary

 

Declutter: Slowed down a lot after a strong start but have kept small bits of momentum going.   3/5 = 60%

Cut out the dairy: Another strong week and the minor amount of milk I consumed in scrambled eggs shouldn't be an issue. 6/7 = 85%

Strength workout: Struggling with this but I'm content with the fact that it is currently not my highest priority. I will do it when I can. 1/2 = 50%

Step goal:  I slacked off on this one and need to be more deliberate on getting outside to get extra steps  4/5 = 80%

Ranger feat: The Histories is a good read and I'm learning lots about the ancient civilisations of the time.  4/7 = 58% (100% as 4/4 so far)

[deborahjade]

Week Three - Day 1-2

 

Declutter: On Sunday, I replaced a dead plant in the garden in preparation for the move (totally counts).. and decluttered something else that I have now forgotten. Did nothing on Monday.  1/5

Cut out the dairy: After Saturday, I resisted the urge to have any more scrambled eggs so the last two days are a success. 2/7

Strength workout: Nothing so far... maybe tomorrow night. Feeling much better from more water and more sleep. 0/2

Step goal:  Smashed out ~11,000 steps on Sunday and my legs were wrecked that night! However, had an unwell child home today and so have barely gotten 6,000.  1/5

Ranger feat: Read some more of The Histories... these civilisations are rather bloodthirsty (reading about Scythians). 6/7

[deborahjade]

Week Three - Day 3

 

Declutter: Organised and sorted through half of the pile of kids clothes and was rather excited to find some that will fit my son this winter.  2/5

Cut out the dairy: Another no dairy win! (of course, I have been eating tons of every sweet thing that doesn't have dairy so in some ways, not a healthy choice win :P). 3/7

Strength workout: Planning to do this tomorrow night. 0/2

Step goal:  Got 8,300 steps by deliberately taking a short walk during the day.  2/5

Ranger feat: Read 28 pages to finish off Book Four of the Histories. So in total, I read 224 pages which puts me 23.1% closer to finishing the book!! A big win for my Ranger feat . 7/7

[deborahjade]

Week Three - Day 4-7

 

Declutter: On Saturday, I finally sorted through most of the kids clothes, added several bags to the donate pile and packed it all for the move.  3/5

Cut out the dairy: Made it through the rest of the week without any dairy!! 7/7

Strength workout: I was just too tired in the evenings to do this. 0/2

Step goal:  I got close to 8,000 steps on Thu and Fri but wasn't paying attention so didn't do extra steps and then did around 8,300 on Sat.  3/5

Strength feat: This did not happen given it was supposed to be doing an extra day of strength workouts!. 0/1

[deborahjade]

Week Three - Summary

 

Declutter: I managed to keep doing some more decluttering and got through the kids clothes. I'm pretty happy with my progress on this as I am consistently remembering to spend some time doing it = less stress with the final packing in 5 weeks time.  3/5 = 60%

Cut out the dairy: I'm finding my groove with this one and am not missing dairy too much. 7/7 = 100%

Strength workout: I am ok with this as I understand that it is happening as I am simply TOO TIRED both mentally and physically in the evenings. So, going into week 4, I have decided that I will move these workouts to days where I can do them in the morning.. for now that is Tuesday and Saturday. Doing strength exercise is a priority for me, so I MUST schedule it earlier in the day. And in this particular case, I'm going to get up 30 minutes earlier and get it done before breakfast. 0/2 = 0%

Step goal: Aiming for 5 days per week is doing well as it does not feel as much of a failure if I'm not achieving it every day. And on most days that I miss out, I can see that I was quite active and generally doing 7,000+ steps. 3/5 = 60%

Strength feat: Nothing happened here, unsurprisingly.  0/1 = 0%

[deborahjade]

Week Four - Day 1

 

Declutter: Decluttered the bathroom cupboards and did a surface clean, as well as removing the sticky child locks from one set of bathroom cabinets.  1/5

Cut out the dairy: I went to a high tea on Sunday so I did have some dairy. I successfully resisted having cream with the scones and only had jam, but then I forgot to ask for dairy-free milk with my tea. I also tried making dairy-free icecream. A fun experiment but too coconuty so I'll try it next time without coconut. 0/7

Strength workout: Planned for Tue morning at 6:30am. 0/2

Step goal: I had a low activity day on Sunday with around 5,500 steps. 0/5

Recovery feat: Looks like I'll be aiming to do stretches 5 evenings per week for this one 0/5