Monthly Archives: July 2019

A Mid-Point Check In (or Some Slacking and Some Progress)

Posted on July 3, 2019 | Comments Off on A Mid-Point Check In (or Some Slacking and Some Progress)

Since it is halfway through the year, I wanted to do a check in with my goals for 2019. I’ll be doing a separate check in with the goals I have for Orangetheory, this post is just about the personal goals I set for myself this year.

The first goal I have for the year technically is an Orangetheory goal. And that is to do 200 workouts this year. This goal is the one that I was worried the least about. I felt very confident when I set this goal for myself and I still feel confident. I have already done over 100 workouts so I’m making great progress toward this goal. It almost felt like a bit of a cheat goal because I don’t feel like it’s that hard for me to do it. But I am going to 4 workouts a week which I guess can count as hard work. But because that is almost a routine for me, I don’t have to work hard to get my workouts in. I shouldn’t be discounting this goal and making it seem like I’m not trying, but that’s how I feel especially when compared to my other goals.

The next goal I have for this year is to find a new job. When I wrote my goals post, I didn’t have my temporary job that just ended. And that temporary job did pay better than my past few contracts that ran for a full year. So hopefully with some smart budgeting, I should be ok this year. But I want to be better than just ok. I want to feel secure with my money and not have this feeling that I constantly need to find my next job. I know I’ve been slacking on the job hunt because of the hours I put in with the temporary job, but I still would love to have a new job situation before the year is over.

The next goal I have is to reduce recurring spending. This is one I feel like I am making a little progress on. I have canceled all my magazine subscriptions which helped. I was almost done with all the magazines I was getting, but some of them still showed up and I discovered that I had auto-pay set for them. So I made sure to cancel them all and that was one of the specific things I wanted to work on. The other recurring spending has been a bit tough to get rid of, but I’ve been working on finding products that are either reusable or that work for more than one thing so I don’t have to shop as often. And I’m still looking at what I throw out regularly so I can see if there is an alternative to what I’ve been using.

Next, I said I want to work on living a more minimalistic life. This one I’m a bit unsure if I’ve made progress or not on. Some of the things that have helped have been the reusable things I have been buying to help with my spending. And I haven’t done much clothing shopping even though I do plan on doing that and working through the clothes I have. But as far as random clutter, I do think I have gotten better at not buying things and that has helped. But I know that I need to do more work on getting rid of things.

I also want to work on spending my free time in a better way. And this one is still one that I need to really start working on. I have been doing some more productive things between customers like working, but there’s still a lot of time that I spend doing mindless things and I need to work on making this better. I don’t know what I should be doing, but I have been looking into finding some hobbies to help fill my free time. I don’t have a lot of hobbies outside of reading and I’d love to find something that feels a bit creative or leads me to create something physical so I see the end result of my work. But I don’t know what that is yet and I don’t want to do a lot of things that cost money just to figure out what I like.

And the last goal I have for this year is to bring my blog and social media to the next level. This one I don’t feel like I’ve made any progress toward. The only thing that can count a bit is the work I’ve been doing on social media for my union slate because that has helped me learn some new tricks. But I haven’t been applying them to my personal social media much and I do need to work on that. And the blog is still in the same place it has always been and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be ok with that. My motivation to step things up isn’t where it was before and I have other things I’d prefer to put my time and energy toward right now. So I might just give up on this goal until I feel the push to do it again.

Overall, I really wish I was in a better place with the goals I have for this year. I have made progress with some of them, but I feel like I should be further along with most of them. I know that I’ve had a bit of a rough beginning to the year with a lot of things on my plate, but I can’t use that as an excuse for not working toward things that I want to do. I just need to step it up more for this second half of the year so my recap at the end of the year is a bit better.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAn Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals) Default ThumbnailLooking Back At My 2019 Goals (or I Might Have Forgotten To Work On Some Of These) Default ThumbnailOne More Mid-Year Check-In (or Preparing For The Second Half Of The Year At Orangetheory) Default ThumbnailAnother Therapy Check In (or Someone Sees Progress) Default ThumbnailA Mid-Week Realization (or Forcing Myself To Run) Default ThumbnailHow Is This Year Almost Over? (or Doing A Check In On My Goals)

Comments Off on A Mid-Point Check In (or Some Slacking and Some Progress)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged ,

I’ve Been Slacking (or I Need An Easy Challenge This Month)

Posted on July 2, 2019 | Comments Off on I’ve Been Slacking (or I Need An Easy Challenge This Month)

I think it’s clear that I’m not exactly as enthusiastic about my monthly challenges as I was when I started. It’s been harder to find challenges to do and I’ve been failing at them more often. I think it’s because I have done so many of these, but I should be able to find something that motivates me again. But right now, that’s not happening.

Last month, I wanted to work on digital organizing to maximize what I could do with my various tech devices. I picked this challenge because it seemed easy enough and it was something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I know that I don’t use my phone or iPad as much as I could and I wanted to see what new things I could do that would make my life so much better. I was excited to see what would happen.

And then I didn’t really do it at all. I did a little bit of organizing when I downloaded a few new apps. I made sure I put them in the folders I wanted them in and when I was looking in those folders I did delete some old apps. But the goal was to do so much more than that and I just didn’t do it.

I did have some things last month that made it tough on me. I had a lot of work I had to do and it took more time than expected. When I thought I might be able to do some of the organizing between customers at work, I had to use that time for other work. I’m not upset about that because work does take priority. But I guess I just thought I would have the time and when I didn’t I wondered what happened. The days were flying by and I couldn’t believe how little free time I had.

But even though I didn’t do the organizing that I was planning on doing, I did use my iPad more than I have in the recent past. I have been trying to use it more often to do some work-related things when I don’t have to be sitting at my computer. And that is more often than I thought in the past.

Because of my lack of enthusiasm for these challenges and how lost I have felt a bit with getting them done, I wanted to make things easier on me by using a challenge that I technically already have been doing.

For July, I wanted to make sure I am following the Brain Over Binge online course every day. I’m in the 3rd week of the course and I have struggled to keep up a bit because of the time issues I’ve been having. But I want to devote this month to catching up on what I missed and making sure I do the lessons every day as they come out. I want to also work on some of the extra work that can be done with the course that I haven’t been doing.

I know that this is a bit of a cheat for my monthly challenge, but because I have already fallen a bit behind I don’t want to add something else to my plate. I want to give myself the ability to focus on this because it is important to me. I don’t know if it will work to help get me into recovery, but I won’t know if it will unless I try and follow the class. So that’s exactly what I plan to do this month.

The class does go until August, so I will be doing this challenge beyond July. But I want to have the good habits built up this month so the last 2 weeks of the class are easy to complete. I know that if I put my focus on this, I will be able to catch up and get all the work done. And being able to accomplish that will mean so much to me so I want to put a lot of effort into it.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Birthday Month Challenge (or Education And Celebration) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailTime For Some Planning (or Trying A Challenge Again This Month) Default ThumbnailA New/Old Challenge (or Using An Idea From Therapy This Month) Default ThumbnailFailing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month)

Comments Off on I’ve Been Slacking (or I Need An Easy Challenge This Month)

Posted in Health

Tagged , , , ,

Making It Through The Week (or Going From Feeling Horrible To Feeling Normal)

Posted on July 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Making It Through The Week (or Going From Feeling Horrible To Feeling Normal)

This past week of workouts covered the full spectrum of how I feel each month. I had some workouts with horrible pain and nausea, some workouts with other health issues, and some workouts feeling ok. It really did change a lot from day to day this past week and I wasn’t sure what to expect each morning when I woke up. Fortunately, I’ve been dealing with this long enough that I’m prepared for almost anything. But it still messed with me a bit when I wasn’t sure how I’d react to different aspects of the workouts.

Monday’s workout was a strength day. I was feeling pretty horrible but I was determined to make the best out of it. Besides my normal pain and nausea, I was also dealing with a new issue. Because I wasn’t eating much (and things weren’t staying in my stomach), I was extremely hungry while working out. I don’t normally eat before my morning workouts because I find that I work better on an empty stomach, but this was a much emptier stomach feeling than I’m used to.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Even though one block was 8 minutes and the other was 4 minutes, they had the same idea. We were supposed to decrease the incline/resistance levels at specific intervals. But I was not feeling like I could do those resistance levels based on how I was feeling and the lack of focus I was experiencing. So I just did both blocks at the level between my base and push paces the entire time. It wasn’t the best cardio workout, but it was more than doing nothing which is something I have to remind myself of when I have days like this one.

On the rower, we started with a 4 minute row for distance. After that row we had exercises but I modified them to be regular squats and pulsing half squats. Then we had a 2 minute row with more exercises (I did my squats again) and then a 1 minute row and 30 second row. I wasn’t rowing as hard as I usually do so my distances weren’t that great. And even with doing squats as my modification I was still much slower than I thought I’d be between each row. Again, I had to have the mindset that it was better than nothing.

The floor had 2 blocks and I felt like I did the best with those blocks. The first block was drop sets with low rows with weights and overhead triceps. Drop sets are when you do a heavy weight for a low rep count immediately followed by a lighter weight and higher rep count. I wasn’t going as heavy as I have done in the past with the weights, but they were still heavier than I was using last year. That first block also had v-up sit-ups and I had to modify those a little to keep my balance. And the second block had side hip dips and side to side crunches, both of which I was able to do fine so I ended my workout on a good note.

Wednesday’s workout was another strength day, but I was feeling a little better than I was on Monday. I was still struggling a bit, but it was much more manageable and I felt like I could make the workout a little closer to my normal. We had 2 blocks at each section of the room and we rotated after each block which helped to break things up a bit.

For cardio, we had the same block both times we were there. It was a push pace for distance followed by a base pace for distance. And each time we did the push pace the incline or resistance level was supposed to go up by 1. I started doing my push paces at my normal push pace level and was able to do the increases I was supposed to. Since the block wasn’t super long, I was finishing both blocks with a push pace at the resistance level I usually use for my all out, which seemed very fitting and right.

The rower had similar blocks for both blocks. We started with a 250 meter row and then had medicine ball exercises. Then a 200 meter row and more exercises. Each row went down 50 meters. Both times I was working on my 150 meter row when the block ended. The first block was supposed to be lunges with overhead triceps for the exercise, but I modified it to be squats with triceps. And the second block had squats with side rotations which I was able to do normally.

And on the floor, we had a good mix of upper body and lower body work with a little bit of core work. The first block had lunges while holding a weight goblet style under the chin, plank work, and hollow hold single arm chest presses. I had to modify the plank work due to my nausea since I can’t do normal planks when I feel like I did. We were supposed to do plank pull throughs with a weight, but I did plank shoulder taps using the bench so I wasn’t totally face down. The second block needed a bit more modification for me. We were supposed to have back extensions and half get-ups with weights. I could do the half get-ups, but back extensions are definitely out when I am nauseous. I did low rows on the straps instead since that exercise works the back muscles, but I did feel a bit disappointed that I didn’t feel the same stretch that I get when I do back extensions.

Friday’s workout was a signature workout: the Everest Challenge. I’ve done this challenge a few times in the past so I know what I’m in for. But even though I knew what the workout would be I still never know how well I’ll do with it. I was feeling a bit less nauseous going into the workout, but my cramps and pain had gotten much worse. The pain reminded me of the pain I had before my hip surgery. My vision would go white when I had a cramp sometimes and I just had to stop whatever I was doing to let it pass. I hate that I have dealt with this type of pain enough that I know what to do, but I guess I should also be grateful for that.

For the Everest Challenge for a 3 group class, we have 14 minutes of work. Every minute for the first 7 minutes the incline on the treadmill or the resistance level on the bike goes up by 1. And for the last 7 minutes, every minute we go down by 1 so we end exactly where we started. I know the resistance levels on the bike that I’m comfortable with plus I had to take into account how I was feeling. So I started lower than I normally use as my base pace level. The highest resistance I got to was 2 levels above what I use for my all out, but it’s a level I use for incline work from time to time so it wasn’t horribly hard. I tried my best to not take breaks while doing the challenge, but sometimes the pain required me to. But when it was done, I was happy with what I did. It wasn’t the best attempt I’ve had with the challenge, but it was a good attempt.

On the rower, we started with a 100 meter row and then we were supposed to do squats and lunges with the medicine ball. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do the lunges so I just did the squats to start. But then the squats started making me nauseous so I had to do the medicine ball work on its own. Each round we had on the rower increased by 100 meters and the reps with the medicine ball went down by 2.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had chest presses, hammer curls, and bicycle crunches. And the second block had bench plank work (which meant I didn’t have to modify it), tricep extensions with weights, and leg raises. I was feeling a bit more normal by the time I was on the floor, but it was still challenging to get through things and it was frustrating how often I had to take breaks.

By some miracle, I was feeling like myself by Saturday’s workout. The only thing I was dealing with was a little soreness from the Everest Challenge, but I was very happy to deal with than and not nausea and cramps. I was a little weak from issues related to nausea, but it was still nothing like how I feel when I’m in the middle of the worst days. This workout was a power day and it was the perfect way to end my week and to feel back to normal.

The cardio workout had 2 blocks. The first block was repeating push pace, base pace, all out, and walking recovery 3 times. Each time we did it, the base pace got a little longer. It was a great block for me on the bike and I felt so strong because I had time to recovery so often. The second block was 3 rounds of 30 second all outs with recovery between them. Again, I felt like I was flying and pedaling so quickly because I had a lot of recovery time. It was the best boost to my confidence.

On the rower, it was all about having powerful strokes. We started with doing 20 power strokes. You were supposed to go slowly with these because you wanted to be able to explode backwards each stroke. Then we were supposed to do lunges with medicine ball tricep work. Since it’s tough for me to get in and out of the rower, I did squats instead. Each round on the rower went down 2 stokes but we were supposed to maintain the power we got each round.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. But these blocks took a bit of modification to make it work for me. The first block was single arm hip swings, lunges with power steps, plank work, and v-ups. I couldn’t do the lunges the way we were supposed to and I didn’t want to just do regular lunges. So I did the movement while standing on the bench and holding on to the straps. It was a good balance challenge for me. And the second block was supposed to be lunges using the bench and squat jacks. I did regular lunges and regular squats instead.

This past week of workouts marked half way through the year and as I mentioned last week I’m over half way to my goal for my workouts this year. It wasn’t the best week of workouts to mark it, but I still did my 4 workouts a week. Next week is a holiday week and I’m still debating if I should change up my workouts a bit. But I know for sure I should be getting in my 4 next week since I don’t want to slack off and miss my goal when December 31st is here!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailFinally Getting Back To Feeling Like Me (or A Transitional Workout Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Mixed Workout Week (or Biking More Than Normal) Default ThumbnailFinally A Normal Workout Week (or I Love Having Nothing Crazy) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailAnother Normal Workout Week (or Getting Back To Everything Feeling Routine)

Comments Off on Making It Through The Week (or Going From Feeling Horrible To Feeling Normal)

Posted in Fitness

Tagged , ,