Finding New Ways To Accomplish Old Goals (or Feeling Good About Some Challenges)

Posted on February 7, 2024 | Comments Off on Finding New Ways To Accomplish Old Goals (or Feeling Good About Some Challenges)

To kick off 2024, I wanted to work on budgeting again. I’ve done this so many times in the past, but it’s still something I struggle with. I’ve heard a lot of people say they are making the most money they’ve ever made right now but also feel the poorest they’ve ever been. I totally related to that feeling. So working on budgeting for my January challenge seemed like the right thing to do.

Things didn’t go the way I expected them to go last month, but I still feel like I accomplished my goal. I still don’t necessarily have a budget created for myself to track my money, but I’m a lot better about how I’ve been spending money. And a big part of that is working on using coupons and deals a lot more. I have been pretty good about using coupons at places like CVS that make them really easy to use, but I haven’t been as good about doing that at the grocery store. And honestly, it’s silly that I haven’t been doing that. But I’m now working on being a lot more mindful about what I buy each week at the store and trying to make sure I look up any coupons ahead of time so I can make the best choices.

I also signed up for a rebate app that does money back on top of coupons I might find online. I know there are a bunch of rebate apps out there, but I went with iBotta. That one seemed to be mentioned a lot and was pretty user-friendly. I know that I can do a lot more with that app than I’m doing now, but I’m starting off doing what I can and I’ve already gotten just over $20 back from the past month. I know that’s not a huge amount, but it’s still $20 I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t do it.

Once I’m better with doing these things, I do want to figure out about how much I spend in a month for groceries so I can use that to help me work on making a budget. I don’t think a super strict budget will ever end up being the right thing for me, but saving money where I can and being aware of how I’m spending it is something I know I need to continue to be better about.

And being mindful of things connects a bit to my challenge for February. This challenge will be a little harder to see if I’m successful or not, but I want to work on listening to my body more this month. I’ve had a lot of things that affect my body in crazy ways and I’ve just been working on going with the flow. But that’s not working for me anymore. Especially with side effects from medication, I’m tired of letting those things control my life as much as it has. I know I can’t be fully in control, but I can be a lot more aware of how things will affect me based on different factors. Maybe if I eat differently at different times of the day, things will be better. I’m sure I need to continue to get more sleep, but finding the right amount of sleep would be good too. I know that when I can sleep in, if I sleep too much I feel tired just like I do with a little too little sleep. I also want to focus on the hip pains I’ve been having lately so I can see what I can do to make that a little easier to deal with. So much is out of my control with pain and side effects, but there are still things I can do to try to make things better for me. I’m not willing to just give up and accept how often I have bad days anymore. I need to work on making things work for me again.

Just like so many other challenges I’ve done, this one will likely last more than just a month. But I’ve already been noting things about how different medications are affecting me and finding small changes I can try to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m hopeful that I’ll have at least a few new routines that work for me by the end of February!

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Default ThumbnailFinding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue) Default ThumbnailUnexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month) Default ThumbnailFinding New Money Issues (or Looking At Doing A Fresh Budget) Default ThumbnailStruggling To Figure Out A Monthly Challenge (or Finding Myself Again) Default ThumbnailFinding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing) Default ThumbnailI’m Picking Some Good Challenges For Myself (or Being Ok Not Being Perfect)

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I Got My Good Workout Week (or Beating My Expectations)

Posted on February 5, 2024 | Comments Off on I Got My Good Workout Week (or Beating My Expectations)

When I wrote my last workout recap post, I said I hoped that this past week would be a good week for me. I can always hope for a good week but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen. But I had a few different things potentially working in my favor so I was really optimistic.

I recently did some new medical testing and discovered I have an iron issue, so this past week I was finally going to start doing something about that. I know that probably won’t affect my workouts too much, but I wasn’t sure how adding iron pills might make me feel. I’m always worried about side effects from medications, even just vitamins, but I was hoping that since I don’t take my medications until after my workout I wouldn’t have many side effects in the morning.

Monday through Wednesday, I had pretty good workouts. I had some of my usual issues like being lightheaded (which probably isn’t due to my iron issue but my low blood sugar), but that wasn’t affecting my workout too much. I also had a little bit of weakness after having a bad week, but that just pushed me to work a little harder in the weight room. I might not have been using heavier weights, but I was doing my best to make every rep count. And I really felt that in my muscles after each workout.

But I really want to talk about my workout on Thursday. We had a benchmark that morning, the 500-meter row. I’m very competitive with myself for all the benchmarks. And we were warned that the 500-meter row is always a bit of an odd one since it’s not a sprint and it’s not a long row that you have time to make up speed if you slow down. I know in the past, I have burned out very quickly on this benchmark because I go too hard at first and then can’t make up for it when I’m exhausted. I didn’t want that to happen, so I put my focus on just being steady and not stressing about beating my past time. I never have gotten this benchmark below 2 minutes, and as much as I wanted to do that I knew that it wouldn’t be the right thing to focus on.

When it was time to do the benchmark, I made my focus on the 500-meter split time on the monitor. I know that I usually get slower as the row goes on, so I wanted the split time to be below 2 minutes for at least the first half of the row so that when I slowed down, I would still be close to 2 minutes by the end. I took a deep breath before I started and got a couple of really hard pulls in first to start the row.

I was shocked at how low my split time was at the start of the row. I was close to 1:45, which I knew was not going to be sustainable. But it was a great way to start the row knowing that I would slow down. But I was able to maintain that pace for a lot longer than I thought. My split time wasn’t getting above 2 minutes once I was halfway through the row. But I was starting to get really tired. I struggled to catch my breath, but I also didn’t want to stop because I knew I had less than a  minute to go.

I did end up burning myself out for the last 40 or so meters. My split time jumped a lot higher and I was really struggling to row. But I kept moving, even though I was going really slow. And once I was done, all the hard work I did for most of the row paid off because I PRed by a huge margin!

I was not only below 2 minutes but I beat my last PR by 7 seconds! I would have been thrilled to get a PR by a fraction of a second, but 7 seconds is unbelievable to me! If I hadn’t burned out, I probably would have been closer to 1:50, but I’m not upset at all. If I hadn’t gotten below 2 minutes, I might have been upset by the end of my row. And I’m glad that didn’t happen so I could have this awesome win to end my week!

I seriously needed this PR. I didn’t realize how much I needed it until it happened. But it was the reassurance I needed after my bad week that I wasn’t weak or having major setbacks. One week might not be as strong or as good as the other, but I’m still making improvements over time. And this row proved it to me so much!

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A Social Weekend (or Spending Time With Friends)

Posted on January 31, 2024 | Comments Off on A Social Weekend (or Spending Time With Friends)

I’ve said many times that I need to work on being more social and leaving my house. And I finally had a nice and social weekend this past weekend. I didn’t plan to have back-to-back friend hangouts, but having a few opportunities to see friends and not be as isolated at home after work was nice.

I had my traditional cheesecake hangout on Friday with my birthday twin, Joanna. It was a bit later in the month than we normally do (in the past, we had it much closer to New Year’s), but we also had to coordinate when it would work for both of our schedules. And it might have worked out nicely to go later in January because when we got there we didn’t have to wait for a table! We’ve had times in the past when we’ve had to wait an hour or two, but this was the first time I remember that we could be seated right away.

And we had our usual hangout that we get to do twice a year. We caught up on each other’s news and the craziness of life. I got to tell her about finding a new agent and the new headshots that I took recently. She was telling me about the trip that she was planning with her boyfriend. We both talked about random industry news that we’ve been hearing since the strike ended. It was a really nice and chill dinner and that’s exactly what I want these hangouts to be. And of course, we got cheesecake to share between us. It was an indulgent meal, but totally worth it and something I had been looking forward to all month.

Then the next day, my friend Robert and his boyfriend had a party to celebrate their new apartment. They just moved in together into a really great new place. I had been helping Robert look for apartments when they were searching and sent him so many links to different places. But this place is the perfect one for them. It doesn’t have as much square footage as they were originally looking for, but the layout makes it feel so much bigger. The apartment is brand new with great appliances and a washer and dryer, so I think those are better things to have than more space. And I learned from my last place that the technical square footage doesn’t necessarily represent how big or small a space feels. Nobody seemed to believe me when they found out my last place was only about 400 square feet because the layout and how I put my furniture made it feel much bigger.

I had only seen photos and videos of their new apartment, so I was excited to see it in person. And it was a nice party too. A lot of people who were there were people I knew, so I didn’t feel like I was surrounded by strangers. But there were also some new people I got to meet. But all of us just hung out and had a nice time talking about all the randomness of life. It was very chill and low-pressure, which is exactly how I like parties to be. I am an extrovert, but also a bit of an introvert when things get too overwhelming. But I never felt that way at this party so that was perfect.

I did have a bit of an extrovert hangover the next morning, which is probably something I should have expected since I don’t usually have social events 2 days in a row. I know I used to live life like that, but I’m out of practice. In a perfect world, I think I would have one party or friend hang out a week just so I could be more social. But it’s ok when they are back-to-back every so often since I really don’t get to do these that often.

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Another Hard Week With A Challenge (or Hoping For A Better Week This Week)

Posted on January 29, 2024 | Comments Off on Another Hard Week With A Challenge (or Hoping For A Better Week This Week)

I had another really tough week this past week in my workouts. I was expecting this and I was mentally prepared for it. But no matter how mentally prepared I am, I always struggle when I’m in the workouts. I want to push myself to do better than I am, and I know that doing that can cause issues. But I still have a stubbornness that makes me want to always do better. And that feeling is even stronger when we have a challenge within the workout.

This past week, we had the mile benchmark. This has been a benchmark that I’ve really enjoyed challenging myself with and I’ve been able to surprise myself with how well I could do. But when we had the benchmark this past week, I knew it wasn’t going to be my best time. I honestly went into it thinking that I wasn’t going to try to push myself too hard because my pain and nausea were really bad that morning. I set the resistance level on the bike to be what I normally do the benchmark at and I had a goal to try to do it with as few breaks as possible. But I also knew that if I got to the point that I needed to leave class to be sick, then I would have to do that. Staying in the workout when I feel like that isn’t worth the risk. When I finished the benchmark, it wasn’t that close to my PR, which is what I expected. But I also didn’t do as badly as I expected, so that made me happy.

We are going to have the mile benchmark again in about 2 months because right now, Orangetheory is doing the Transformation Challenge. I’m not participating in the Transformation Challenge this year due to various health things I’ve been dealing with and I didn’t need to worry about what may or may not happen in my workouts. But I do like that we started the 8 weeks of the challenge with a benchmark and we will be doing it again at the end. I’m just hoping that when we have it again, I’ll be having a much better day.

The rest of my workout week this past week was a big struggle. I did my best, but I got very frustrated with what my best ended up being. I was lucky that my nausea wasn’t that bad for most of the week. I was worried it would be horrible for the entire week, but it really only affected me on Monday when we had the benchmark. And I think I didn’t have the added nausea from my medication, which was a win. But the pain and cramps I had throughout the week made things really difficult for me. I was worried about lifting heavy weights because if a cramp hit me, I wanted to be able to put the weights down quickly without worrying about hurting myself. I also had to take a lot of breaks in all sections of the room when the pain hit because sometimes it’s a very sharp pain. When I had to stop my workout on the floor, I tried to use that time to stretch a bit so I would still be moving. But I know stretching isn’t the same as weightlifting so I wasn’t getting exactly the same workout. But at least I was still moving a bit and that’s better than just sitting or standing still.

This week, I’m hoping it will be a better week. I had 2 really bad weeks back to back and this week shouldn’t be as horrible. But it also depends on how my medication affects me this week since that can make any week a bad week. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I finally get a bit of a break and I can fully enjoy my workouts again!

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Feeling Like Things Are Picking Up (or I’ve Missed This Productivity)

Posted on January 24, 2024 | Comments Off on Feeling Like Things Are Picking Up (or I’ve Missed This Productivity)

When I worked at getting as ready as possible with things for my acting career, I knew that a lot of it was out of my hands. I took control of whatever I could, but there’s only so much I can do. I got a new agent, which was huge and the biggest thing I was worried about. And after that, I could start the ball rolling on a few other things that I was putting off.

I got new headshots done, which I had been putting off for a while. I would love to have my weight lower before taking photos, but I need something for now. And I was lucky that I got to work with someone I have known for a while and he was able to give me a good deal so the new photos weren’t quite as much as they could have been. It’s always fun getting to work with a new photographer because every photographer has their methods for helping you get the best shots possible. I think the photos I got in this shoot came out so good and I’ve already gotten the selects back from my new agent so I can get them posted on the different casting sites as soon as I get the retouched images back. Having new and fresh photos should be helpful, plus I feel like these have a bit more personality than the ones I’ve had up for a while. I can’t guarantee that I will get a ton of auditions because of the new photos, but I feel really good about how these represent me and the characters that I might be cast as.

But even before my new photos got onto the casting sites, I had my first audition through my new agent! It’s been a while since I’ve had an audition. Between the strike and then having my last agent close their agency, there weren’t many opportunities for me. I was still doing submissions on my own, but those are much more limited than what an agent sees. I was thrilled to get the email about the audition and was ready to get back into the swing of things.

This audition was a bit different from many that I’ve had. Before the pandemic, most of my auditions were in-person. Since the pandemic, all my auditions have been self-tapes. But this audition was on Zoom, so it was a mix of what I’m used to. I was able to audition from home so I could be comfortable, but I had casting watching me as I performed. I do prefer having casting watching me so I can make adjustments as needed, so I was excited to do a Zoom audition. But I did discover while getting everything set up that I don’t have the best set-up for a Zoom audition. I have a tripod for my phone to do self-tapes, but I didn’t have a stand for my laptop since I knew it would be better to use that for Zoom. But I was able to make things work with a big stack of books and using my desktop ring lamp.

I am looking at finding a stand for my laptop to add to my home audition equipment just so I have something ready if I need it. It also might be a good thing to have for self-tape auditions if I have a reader over Zoom instead of in person. But I wasn’t going to buy a bunch of stuff right away, so I made it work with what I had.

I felt so good after this audition. I have no idea if I will book the part or not, but it felt so good to perform. I know some people, including myself, question from time to time if this is still the career we want to pursue. I know my life would probably be a lot easier if I didn’t want to be an actor. But every audition and chance to perform proves to me that this is what makes me happy and this career is what I want to do if I’m lucky enough to have that opportunity. I also loved feeling like I was actually doing something for my career and not just waiting for things to happen. I obviously will have to wait for the next audition to come, but I know that I have been doing the work that got me ready for this audition and will have me ready when the next one comes my way.

I really hope that with all these things I’ve been doing recently, things will get busier for me. I know I might get stressed out with having to balance everything, but it will also be worth it because I know how much happier I was in general after my audition. I crave performing and I know that getting to do it feeds my soul. And I just want to have more chances to have that feeling because I know how awesome it is!

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Getting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself)

Posted on January 22, 2024 | Comments Off on Getting Through Another Bad Week (or Being Ok With Not Pushing Myself)

I was prepared for this past week of workouts to be a bit of a bad week, and I was right. I was hoping that I would have at least one good day since Mondays tend to be ok for me, but I really struggled every day. With the nausea I deal with every week, Mondays are the day I don’t usually have it since I do my shot after my workout. But since this past week was also my other type of nausea, it doesn’t follow the pattern that I deal with each week. I still felt better on Monday than I did the rest of the week, but it wasn’t that great of a day for me.

But I am grateful that my workout coaches all know me well enough to understand that when I’m having a bad week, I just have to do what I can. They don’t push my to do more even when they know I probably could do more. When I have to leave the room to be sick, they will check in with me when I come back but they don’t make a big deal about it and just let me continue with what I can do. I’m so lucky that I’m able to have coaches like this. I can’t imagine what it would be like if they made me feel bad about showing up when I can’t do my best. I probably wouldn’t continue with my workouts if that was the case. It’s the same way they handle my hip issues when I’m in pain, and I’ve experienced other workout places where they tried to make my pain a big deal and it really ruined the workout for me. Of course, I wish I didn’t have to deal with any of this, especially since it’s a very regular occurrence. But I also know that I’m in the best situation that I can be for my workouts.

Even with my gratitude for my coaches, it doesn’t make the workouts any easier when I’m having a bad week. And when I’m feeling as nauseous as I did this past week, it’s a fine balance between just doing what I can do and testing my limits. And I had a real challenge with that this past week because one of our workouts was a signature workout. We had Inferno, which is a workout I’ve done a few times before. It’s always a good challenge to do, but when I’m dealing with nausea, it’s almost impossible for me to do what we have to do. The main part of the workout involves getting on and off the rower and doing hops between each row. Getting on and off the rower is hard for me with my hips even on my best days. But doing that plus hopping is impossible when I’m nauseous. As much as I wanted to challenge myself and see how far I could get on the rower, I knew it wouldn’t be a good choice for me to make. So I had to accept that I just couldn’t do it. During the row block, I just rowed as much as I could and then rested when I needed to do so. Since I wasn’t doing the challenge the correct way, I didn’t put my distance in the tracker and I didn’t compare it to how I did with Inferno in the past.

This week, it’s very possible it’s going to be another really bad week for me. I never know in advance with either type of nausea that I have, so maybe I’ll be surprised and it won’t be as bad. And sometimes, when the week before is really horrible for me, the next week isn’t as extreme. But I’m mentally preparing myself for another struggle in my workouts and just doing what I’m able to do. And I’m not going to feel guilty about not having my best week or having to modify things so that I can get through the workout.

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Dinner And A Show (or Back To Seeing Musicals)

Posted on January 17, 2024 | Comments Off on Dinner And A Show (or Back To Seeing Musicals)

When the last season of musicals ended, it felt like it would take so long before the next season would start. But as I’ve said before, time has flown by and it was the new year before we knew it! This current season of musicals is pretty much one show a month through the summer, so I’m really excited about having a lot of fun nights out for over half of the year! I don’t know when the season after this one will start, but maybe that will fill out the rest of the year for us!

And with the start of a new musical season, of course we had to go out for dinner before the show! I was so sad last year when I noticed that Wood & Vine had closed down because that was the perfect place to have dinner before the show. But I was thrilled to see that a new restaurant opened in that space. Now, it’s called RDen and there are a few people from Wood & Vine who are still there. And of course, that’s where we had to go for dinner.

The menu has a lot of new things on it, but there were also a lot of familiar favorites. And as always, the food was gorgeous and delicious!

It was the perfect way to start off the evening and felt like a return to something that makes me so happy! We were so full and stuffed by the time we walked across the street to the theater, but I’m so glad we are able to go back to our favorite spot for a pre-show dinner again.

With every season of musicals that I see, there are some shows I’m more excited about seeing than others. And the first one for this season was one I was a bit more hesitant about.

We saw “MJ The Musical”, which is about Michael Jackson’s life and features his music. I’m not really a Michael Jackson fan. I know he has some amazing songs and he did incredible things for the music industry, but he also was a very problematic person and I can’t ignore some of the things that people said he did. But I always try to go into a show with an open mindset and that’s what I did this time.

And I’m glad I kept an open mind because the show was really good. It didn’t cover a lot of the problems that he had and it did gloss over some things that maybe should have either been discussed or completely skipped over, but overall the show was so well done. And I loved how the show ended. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was just really good and made me happy with how they were able to wrap everything up.

We also had a very unique experience at the show. Our season tickets this season are in the orchestra, and we don’t plan on moving seats around much if we can help it. But there was an issue with our seats for this show and it was very uncomfortable to be sitting where we were. So during the intermission, we went to the audience services booth to see if they could move us to different seats for the second act. I was joking to my friend that maybe we would be upgraded to better seats, but I expected to be seated in a similar level of seats as our season tickets. To my surprise, my joke came true and we got to watch the second act from the center of the orchestra only about 15 rows back! We could never afford these seats for our season tickets, but now we are tempted to do maybe one level above our current one when we renew our tickets for the next season. I almost hate how much nicer it was to watch the show from the center orchestra and be that close up, but it was a very nice and special treat for us to kick off this season.

As I said, we pretty much have a show every month for the next several months, so we’ll be back before we know it to continue this musical season. And I’m so excited to see the rest of the shows we have coming up, even if they are shows that I’m still a bit unsure of. I proved to myself with this one that I can be very pleasantly surprised and I hope that will happen again!

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Still Working Out With Side Effects (or I’m Hoping This Will Be Better Soon)

Posted on January 15, 2024 | Comments Off on Still Working Out With Side Effects (or I’m Hoping This Will Be Better Soon)

The biggest struggle I had during this past week of workouts was the side effects I have been experiencing from increasing the dosage of my medication. Unfortunately, this past week was worse for me than the week before and I really had to work around feeling horrible. But as always, I tried my best and made the most of each workout I had.

My Monday workouts shouldn’t really be affected by the medication since I don’t take it until after my workout on Mondays. I know sometimes I might still be feeling it from the dosage the week before, but I’m expecting Mondays to not be too bad for me. And that’s how this past Monday went. Because I was expecting things to be this way, I tried to make the most of that workout since I wasn’t sure how the rest of the week would go for me. On Monday, the workout focus was all about doing push paces with a surge before returning to a base pace. I did my push pace resistance level during the surges but increased my pedaling speed to try to make things just a little harder for me. I did struggle a little during the row block since we were getting on and off the rower and that is always hard for my hips, but I did better than I have been doing recently and I was grateful that I was not taking too much time to do that.

The worst day of this past week was on Tuesday. I was feeling pretty horrible overnight the night before, but I was feeling much better by the morning so I thought maybe I was over the worst of it. Unfortunately, my nausea really hit me hard and I had to leave the workout multiple times to be sick in the bathroom. This is still a rare thing for me to experience, so I’m grateful for that. But because the nausea was so bad and it happened multiple times, it was a lot worse than I’ve experienced in class. And without being too gross, I had been sick enough that there wasn’t anything left in my stomach, so being sick was starting to be a bit more painful. I didn’t leave class early, but I really was struggling to keep going. Toward the end of class, I was really hesitant to do different exercises because I wasn’t sure what would trigger the nausea again and I was scared to be sick.

Wednesday was slightly better than Tuesday, but it was still not a great day. But I wanted to pull myself together for Thursday because we had a signature workout. This time, we had The Chipper. I’ve done this signature workout before, but the last time I did it was about a year and a half ago so it’s been a while. The idea of The Chipper is that you chip away at the workout as you go. For cardio, that means every push pace got 30 seconds shorter each time. For rowing, we had squat jumps and rowing and every interval got shorter and we had less time to get the work done. And on the floor, we had 7 main exercises and each one had 5 fewer reps than the one before. I was pretty happy with what I was able to do on the bike for the cardio block. For the rowing, I never really was able to finish all the work before the next interval started, but I think that had more to do with how long it takes me to do squats with calf raises compared to squat jumps. That little extra time adds up and I know I was always the last person to sit down on the rower. And on the floor, we were supposed to do an anchor exercise between each of the main exercises. The anchor exercise was doing front-to-back hops, and I just ended up skipping those because I knew I couldn’t do them. Because I skipped those exercises, I was able to get through all the other exercises in the floor block.

I’m hoping that this week of workouts will go a little better for me, but it’s impossible for me to know how my medication will affect me. Maybe I won’t have as extreme side effects or maybe it will be worse. I’m hoping that it will get better as my body gets used to the new dosage. I also have the possibility that I might be dealing with my monthly pain and nausea next week, so that could affect things. I’m really ready to have another good week of workouts and I’m worried that it might not happen for a little while. But all I can do is keep going and doing the best that I can each week. I know it’s better than doing nothing and eventually things will be better for me.

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Ending The Year With A Very Productive Challenge (or Starting Off 2024 With Another Repeat)

Posted on January 10, 2024 | 2 comments

My monthly challenge for December was one that I knew I needed to do. I wanted to get myself as ready as possible for 2024 with my acting career. This was something that had really taken a backseat in my life over the past few years. I was still pursuing acting, but I knew I wasn’t doing things the best way I could. Things haven’t been what we all considered normal for the industry between the pandemic and the strike. But that’s also just an excuse because things have been happening since the pandemic, and commercials weren’t affected during the strike so there was still a possibility for me to audition. However, I discovered that I no longer had an agent during the strike. That was the kick in the butt that I needed to get back in gear.

I knew I needed new headshots, but I wanted to see if I could get a new agent first since that agent would likely have an opinion on those headshots and I didn’t want to do a shoot only to need to do another one after that. It’s been over a decade since I’ve had to look for an agent, so I wasn’t sure how things worked now. So I decided to start with people I knew since that would be the easiest way to start and I would love to be represented by someone who really knows me and doesn’t just see me as another actor on their roster. My first submission was to someone I have known since I was in college. We did improv together when I was in my 20s so we’ve known each other for over 2 decades. She transitioned to being an agent and I knew that her agency represented actors both theatrically (for film and tv) and commercially. It seemed like it could be the ideal situation for me and I was hoping she would think the same. And fortunately, that’s exactly how she felt and I was signed to her agency when we met! I know I’m insanely lucky how easy it was for me to get a new agent and this isn’t how it is for most people. And I’m also grateful that I have stayed in touch with people I’ve been in classes with for this long so I would still have this connection.

Getting a new agent was a huge win for my challenge and technically that was the only thing I got done during December. I did shoot new headshots last week after discussing what looks my new agent wanted to see. That shoot was in January, but I think it still can count as a win for my December challenge since it only was delayed because of the holidays. And now, I feel like I’m really back to acting and I hope that the combination of the new agent and new headshots will result in some amazing auditions and some bookings!

I know that not all challenges can go as well as my December one did. I didn’t even expect it to go that well and was thinking I might still be submitting to agencies and trying to get meetings through the next month or two. But it was a great way to end 2023 and I’m hoping that my challenges in 2024 will be close to that successful.

For my first challenge of 2024, I’m doing a bit of a repeat again. But I’m modifying it so hopefully I can be a bit more successful at it. I’ve tried multiple times to create a budget for myself and get on top of my finances. I’m doing much better with it now than I did before, but I’m still not great at having a budget. So this month, my challenge is to find the parts of my life that I can create a budget for. I might not be able to budget for everything, but I can try to budget for certain categories so I can be more mindful of my spending. I think that creating a budget for meals (both groceries and going out) would be a smart one to have. Also, I’d like to have some sort of entertainment budget. I don’t go out that much right now, but budgeting to go out and do things would be smart as I try to be out and social more. I also want to look more carefully at regular or recurring expenses to make sure there aren’t things I don’t use anymore that I’m paying for.

Maybe by budgeting for a few categories, I can ease into creating a larger budget for myself. I have some unplanned expenses right now that I don’t have the funds for and I need to save up. Knowing where all my money is going will help me save for what I need to do now and what might come up in the future. I know that I don’t make a lot of money, but finding any extra money right now would be so helpful. I don’t expect everything to be perfect, but I’d like them to be better than they are now so I can continue to get things in order as I have more things in my life that cost me money.

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A New Year Of Workouts (or Another Short Workout Week)

Posted on January 8, 2024 | Comments Off on A New Year Of Workouts (or Another Short Workout Week)

After completing my goal of at least 200 workouts in 2023, I immediately started on my workout goals for 2024! I got in 3 workouts this past week, which isn’t necessarily my normal workout week, but it’s what worked best for me. I have my tradition of working out on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and because of the NYE workout, I only did 3 workouts for the first week of the year since I didn’t want to do 5 workouts in a week. I know I could have done it, but it didn’t feel right. I also worried about how I would feel this week, and I didn’t want to push it.

My New Year’s Day workout was a 2 group class since I didn’t go at my normal workout time. I thought maybe it would still be a 3 group class since the classes at the beginning of the year can be pretty full, but I think it was still a bit early for the crowd so it wasn’t a packed class. It’s always a nice change for me when I get a 2 group class in my schedule since I rarely take them. Typically, they only happen on holidays since I have that day off of work and don’t have to wake up as early to get to my workout. And I think it was a nice class to ease into the week with because it focused a lot on base pace so I wasn’t going too crazy. I also didn’t get that much sleep the night before since I was out, so even with sleeping in, I didn’t have as much sleep as I would have liked.

I wasn’t worried about how I was going to feel in Monday’s class, other than being tired. But I was worried about how I would feel on Tuesday and Wednesday. I increased my injectable medication this past week. This was the first increase I’ve had in over a year, and I know that every time I’ve increased it, the side effects got worse for a bit. I still have been having side effects at the old dosage, but they can vary from week to week. I think it just depends on the exact spot I do the injection. Sometimes I get it in the right spot and things aren’t as bad. But it’s hard for me to predict how I will feel. But I had a good idea that I would feel pretty off after the new dosage. I didn’t do my injection until after my Monday class since I wasn’t sure if I’d have an immediate reaction. And throughout the day on Monday, I was feeling some side effects. They weren’t as bad as they have been at times, but it was a weird queasy and uneasy feeling. I don’t know how to explain the different types of nausea I experience, but this was different from any other type I have dealt with. The only good thing was that I wasn’t getting physically ill on Monday, so I had high hopes about how I would feel in my workouts.

Unfortunately, something in my workouts must have triggered something in my system because on both days I had to leave class for a break to be sick in the bathroom. This is something that rarely happens to me, but it’s happened before and I know what I need to do so that I can be ok to be back in the workout. I’m sure it sounds crazy to come back to work out after being sick, but it’s something I’ve gotten used to from other nausea I experienced. If I know what exercise triggered it, I just make modifications so that I don’t have to go through that again. And I usually avoid exercises that have me in a plank or face down since I know those can make me feel really nauseous.

But even with being sick in both of my other workouts this past week, I feel really good about the workouts I did. I focused on what I could do without feeling worse and tried to go harder on those to make up for what I wasn’t able to do. I also was grateful that I wasn’t feeling worse because I have experienced much more extreme side effects in the past. I know that worse side effects can hit me any week and just because this past week wasn’t as bad as expected I’m in the clear. But it was nice that I was able to start 2024 with some good workouts, even if they weren’t the best that I could do.

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