Category Archives: Fun Stuff

My 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats)

Posted on January 3, 2023 | Comments Off on My 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats)

As I have done each year for the last several years, I have set some goals for myself for 2023. I look at goals and resolutions as different things. Goals seem to have more of a concrete idea of what you want to get to versus resolutions that feel more abstract. I still have some goals that don’t have an exact thing to get to, but I still feel like there are better ways to track my results with goals than I do with resolutions. This might just be wording and the idea that resolutions typically are broken, but for me, I think whatever works is good. And for 2023, I have set 4 goals for myself.

The first goal is something I’ve done quite a bit. I want to make sure I do 200 Orangetheory workouts this year. This goal is the one that I feel is almost a guarantee I will be successful unless something crazy happens in my life. And if something does happen in my life that will prevent me from working out for a few weeks, then I’ll probably reevaluate this goal and make sure it’s still something I can get to. 200 workouts means I go 4 times a week for almost all the weeks of the year. I don’t have to go 4 times every week and I could have a few weeks of just going 3 times. But my plan is to go 4 times a week unless something comes up that make that impossible. But that’s why I have a bit of flexibility with having some weeks where I could go 3 times and still make it to my goal. Even though I look at this goal as something that should be accomplished with very little extra effort, I do like to have accountability.

My second goal for the year is to work on getting more sleep every night. I have been getting very little sleep for a while and I know it’s affecting me. I get up pretty early to be able to work out before work, but I haven’t really adjusted what time I go to bed with the earlier wake-up. There have been far too many nights where I get only about 4 hours of sleep, and that’s not something to be proud of. Since I can’t really adjust what time I get up, I need to work on going to bed earlier. That involves a few different things such as actually getting into bed earlier, not reading as late as I have, and not staying up late to catch up on a tv show or something. Nothing that I do late at night couldn’t wait until the next day, so I have to be better about not feeling a need to complete something at night.

My third goal is something similar to what I set for 2022. I want to keep setting up my condo. There aren’t too many things I have to do to get things set up the way I want to, but all of those things involve money. I want to get the furniture I want for my office since that will help move almost everything still in a box out of a box. I also am looking into redoing my closet since it’s not the best use of space for me. For my closet, I’m hoping this could possibly be something I do on my own to save money, but there are a few things that need to be considered first. But my parents and I are going to look into some options soon so hopefully I can have an idea of what that cost will be and when it can be done. I would love to say that by the end of this year, I won’t have anything left in a box, but I’m not sure if that will happen. But it’s something I’m going to work toward and see how close I can get.

And my last goal for the year is something I have talked about several times and just haven’t done it. I want to rebuild my acting life. I still have been pursuing acting and have been submitting myself for projects. And if I get an audition, I do everything I need to do to have the best audition possible. But I know that things aren’t going as great as they could be. Things still aren’t exactly where they were before the pandemic, but they are much closer so I should be at least closer to what they were like before. But I’m just not there. This will involve a few different things such as trying to get back into class or finding a group to work on scripts together, getting new headshots, and maybe looking into if a different agent could be a better fit for me. None of these things will guarantee that I will get more auditions or book work, but I want to do whatever I can that is in my control to feel like I’m not just playing around at being an actor but an active participant in that career. I know for the last few years I have had my focus on other things, but I’m ready to get back to what I love and hopefully see some results from my work.

I debated about doing some other goals this year and there are other things I might set as monthly challenges or just a smaller monthly goal so I can accomplish more this year, but I think for my big year-long goals, these 4 are really things I need and want to focus on and will help me to have a successful year.

And I hope in 12 months when I’m recapping how 2023 went, I will have a lot of success to share with you all!

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Default Thumbnail2014 Goals (or Hoping To Get More Goals Done This Year) Default ThumbnailMy 2016 Goals (or I’ve Got Some Big Ideas This Year) Default Thumbnail2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals) Default ThumbnailWhat I Plan To Do This Year (or 2015 Goals) Default ThumbnailMy 2017 Goals (or I Know This Year Will Be Amazing!) Default ThumbnailMy 2018 Goals (or Pushing Myself And Being Gentle With Myself)

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Posted in Acting, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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Finishing Up My 2022 Workouts (or I Think I Really Ended The Year On A Great Note!)

Posted on January 2, 2023 | Comments Off on Finishing Up My 2022 Workouts (or I Think I Really Ended The Year On A Great Note!)

I think I finished my 2022 workouts pretty well! I had my usual 4 workouts this past week even if they were on a slightly different schedule. But I was able to finish the year making sure I hit my goal number of workouts! I also was testing out doing my injection in a different location which is supposed to help with nausea. I’m not sure if that worked or I just didn’t have really bad side effects this week, but I didn’t have to worry about nausea in any of my workouts!

Monday’s workout happened to be my 200th workout of the year, so that was pretty special. Since Monday was a holiday, I did go to a later class than I normally go to but it was also nice to sleep in. This workout was a 2 group class so we had more time for cardio and the floor than I normally have in a workout.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute base pace with an incline followed by a 1-minute base pace without an incline. Then we had a 2-minute push and a 1-minute push without inclines with a 1-minute base between them. And the block ended with rounds of an all-out at an incline with recovery between each one. The second block was a bit more incline work. We started with a push pace at an incline and then had rounds of push paces to all-out with inclines. I never had to go too crazy with the resistance level on the bike, but it was still a challenge using them and trying to pedal faster.

On the floor, the first block started with a 1-minute all-out row. Then we were on the floor with sumo deadlifts, upright rows, good mornings, and single-arm presses. And the block ended with another 1-minute all-out row. The second block started with a 30-second all-out row before moving onto the floor. We had front raises, lateral lunges, around-the-world raises, and regular lunges before ending the workout with another 30-second all-out row.

Tuesday’s workout was a small group, but we still kept the workout as a 3 group class so we had equal time for cardio, rowing, and the floor.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first block had a 45-second push pace, a 90-second base pace, a 45-second all-out, a recovery, a 45-second push pace, and a 45-second all-out. The second block was the same except the intervals were 30 seconds and not 45 seconds. And the last block was just 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row followed by squats to knee drives. Then we had 2 rounds of a 90-second row with lunges between each row. And the last part of the rowing was 3 rounds of a 1-minute row with squats to calf raises between each row. I didn’t get through all of the 1-minute rows, but I at least got to that second.

For the floor, the first block was supposed to be lunges, jump lunges, and a bridge row. Since I can’t do jump lunges, I just doubled the number of regular lunges we were supposed to do. And I did low rows on the straps instead of bridge rows. And the second block had bicycle presses, push-ups, and hip bridges. It wasn’t a ton of floor work, but it was hard.

I didn’t work out on Wednesday since I was going to work out for New Year’s Eve, so my next workout this past week was on Thursday. Again, this was a small class but we still had the class as a 3 group class so we worked in all 3 sections of the room.

Cardio started with a 3-minute push pace followed by a 30-second base pace. We continued a pattern of a push pace followed by a base pace and the push paces were between 1 minute and 3 minutes. But the base paces were always only 30 seconds long which isn’t a lot of time. In the end, we had a 1-minute base pace followed by a 30-second all-out, but I was really exhausted by that point so I know my all-out wasn’t that great.

On the rower, we started with a 200-meter row. Then we had lunges, single-arm clean to presses, and marching in place with a weight. Then we did the 200-meter row and the exercises again. Then we repeated the pattern with a 150-meter row. The exercises were harder than what I feel we normally have when we do exercises with the rower, so I didn’t get that far into the rows.

And on the floor, we had one long block. We had step-down toe taps (which I was able to do by lowering the bench), lunges with wood choppers, plank single-arm rows, and hollow hold single-arm chest presses. I don’t know if it was from all the work in the other sections of the room or if the floor block was harder than it seemed, but this was a tough day for me and others in the class agreed!

And I had to finish out my workouts by going on New Year’s Eve. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Saturday workout, but I knew that I would be there for the holiday no matter what. This workout was an interesting one because everything was timed together so all sections of the room had 3 blocks that were the same time. The first block was 3 minutes long, the second block was 6 minutes long, and the last block was just under 3 minutes long.

For cardio, in the first block we had 1-minute intervals with a base, push, and all-out. The second block was 3 rounds of a 30-second push, 30-second base, 45-second push, and 30-second base. But in the end, we had an all-out instead of the last push. And the last block had 3 rounds of a 30-second all-out and a 30-second recovery.

On the rower, the 3-minute block was just a 3-minute row for distance. The second block was split into 75-second segments with a 30-second recovery after. For each of the 3 75-second segments, we started with doing 10 squats before getting onto the rower and rowing until the 30-second recovery. The goal was to try to match the distance you got in the first block, and I was able to exceed that. And in the last block, we had the same thing as cardio with the 30-second all-out.

And on the floor, the first block was 1 minute of squats, 1 minute of walkout push-ups, and 1 minute of scissor kicks to crunches. In the second block, we had the same timing as cardio. We had 30 seconds of a single-arm low row on one side, 30 seconds of a single-arm low row on the other side, and 45 seconds of a hammer curl to a bicep curl. Then we had 30 seconds to have a quick break before repeating that again. And in the last block, we had 30-second intervals of doing burpees, which I did using the bench. And for whatever reason, I think my burpees went smoother this time than any other workout that I could remember.

And when Saturday’s workout was done, I was so proud of my total workouts for the year.

I know I say that this is an easy goal for me to accomplish each year, but I still have to work for it. And this year, I had more struggles than normal to deal with in my workouts. But I didn’t let that stop me and I just continued going and trying to do my best. I might not have all the results I was hoping to get in my workouts in 2022, but I still put in work and I know that will pay off in the long run! And now, I’m already working toward my workout goal for 2023 and making sure I hit that goal too!

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Default ThumbnailSome New Year Workouts (or Finishing Out 2019 and Kicking Off 2020) Default ThumbnailWrapping Up My 2021 Workouts (or An End To One Year And A Start To Another) Default ThumbnailFinishing The 12 Days Of Fitness (or Debating If I Like This Workout Schedule) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or I Would Have Ended On A High Note) Default ThumbnailThank Goodness For Feeling Great! (or I Finally Had An All Amazing Week Of Workouts) Default ThumbnailA Full Week Of Christmas Workouts (or Having Some Traditional Workouts)

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Looking Back At My 2022 Goals (or I Don’t Think I Did As Well As I Could Have)

Posted on December 30, 2022 | Comments Off on Looking Back At My 2022 Goals (or I Don’t Think I Did As Well As I Could Have)

It’s my final post of 2022! This year has been a whirlwind in more ways than one and I think I’m ending this year in a very different place than I expected. I think things didn’t entirely turn out the way I wanted them to, but in other ways, things are better than I expected. I don’t think there’s usually a good way to predict how things will go over 12 months, but I try to do what I can that is in my control. And that’s why I’m always setting different goals for myself. It’s important to try to stay on the path you are hoping to go down. Even if you don’t get things completely right, you usually have at least made strides toward that goal.

And that’s how I feel about the goals I had set for this year. I really thought I picked out some great goals for myself and things just didn’t happen how I thought they would so I don’t feel like I’m as successful as I expected to be. But I still had victories even in the failures.

The first goal I had for myself was to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes. This is the goal that I felt very certain I would be able to achieve and I like having one goal that doesn’t feel like a stretch. But there were moments I was worried I wouldn’t make it to that number. After taking a week off after my foot surgery, I knew I had to limit how many rest days I took. I didn’t have that many weeks throughout the year that I only did 3 workouts in the week, so I was able to make up for that missed week in January. And I will be ending this year with 203 workouts after I do my workout tomorrow. Even though this was an easy goal for me to complete, I like having it because it held me accountable. I am in a routine right now, but I also know how easy it can be to get out of a routine and get into bad habits. So I’m glad that I was able to get this done.

My next goal was to move into my condo and get everything set up. I would say that I was almost fully successful with this goal. I am moved in and have nothing left at my old place (which is a big relief at this point), but I don’t feel like I have everything set up just yet. There are a few things that I haven’t bought that will help me complete my place. But some of them need me to save up money and some I just haven’t picked out the right things yet. I don’t want to buy something just to buy it, so I’m taking my time and being picky. But it’s just a matter of time before I can get everything done on my list. But even without having everything set up, I feel very much at home here and that’s probably the most important thing.

The next goal was to be more mindful of my time. This one was a real struggle for me and something that I will be continuing to work on in 2023. I got a bit better at managing my time and allowing myself to make plans outside of my work schedule, but I still had struggles with organizing my work time with completing tasks in the most efficient way. I’m getting better at it, but I know there is a lot of work I still need to do. And I need to be better about my free time because I also know that I’m wasting time there too. But there are other things I want to work on that I think will help with some of my wasted free time and I’ll be doing those in the new year.

One of the goals I didn’t do so well on was getting out of my house more. I was allowing myself to be more social and go out with friends, but I wasn’t being productive at making plans. I was depending a lot on others to ask me to do things and that wasn’t great. But I know I was doing things outside of my house a bit more than the year before even if it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to do. I think there are a lot of reasons why this was a failure for me, but issues with free time and still being cautious with the pandemic are the main ones and I don’t know how I could have changed both of those as much as I needed to. But it’s not a total failure because I did do more, so that’s at least something.

And the final goal I had for this past year was to work on my budget more. This one wasn’t that great either, but it was for some things I wasn’t expecting. I am definitely doing better with my budget than I was before, but my tracking isn’t where it needs to be. I should be able to track better than I do and I’m still trying to find what system will work best for me. I was doing ok with this goal occasionally throughout the year, but then I’d have some sort of change that just brought me back to where I started. Whenever my salary changed or I went from an independent contractor to an employee, things should have been easy to change in my tracking but they just weren’t. I sound like I’m making excuses, but clearly, something in the way I was trying to do this wasn’t working for me and I just need to keep trying to see what will eventually work so I can feel better about my financial situation and start planning on how I can enjoy the money I have and not just survive on it.

Overall, my goals didn’t really go how I wanted them to go, but they also weren’t all failures or a waste of my time. I just ended up having different priorities or thoughts as the year went on that made these goals not the ones I put my time and energy onto. But I still had some progress with them all and I know I’m doing better with these things than I was 12 months ago. And I’ve got some goals figured out for 2023 that I’ll be sharing soon that hopefully will be some good ones that I will reflect back on in a year and feel a bit more successful with.

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Reflecting On My Word For 2022 (or I Think I Proved I’m Worthy)

Posted on December 29, 2022 | Comments Off on Reflecting On My Word For 2022 (or I Think I Proved I’m Worthy)

I can’t believe that this is the second to last blog post for 2022! It feels like this month just started and we are already at the end. And since it’s the end of the year, I’ve been reflecting on the things I declared at the beginning of the year. Tomorrow, I’ll go over the goals I set for the year. But for this post, I just want to look back at my word for the year.

For 2022, I decided the best word for the year would be worthy. I don’t think I realized at the beginning of the year how much I needed this to be the word to use to guide how I got through a few things over the last 12 months. I know that I still am dealing with some confidence issues and standing up for myself, but I also think that I did better at that this past year than I did in the past.

The biggest place I think I used the word worthy was in my dating life. For far too long, I believed that I wasn’t worthy of what I wanted or thought I deserved. I had been told I should be grateful that anyone would consider me in any way, and that I should accept what is presented to me without complaints. I think I started to really rethink this during the start of the pandemic and think about who I was considering having in my life, both as friendships and as dates. I needed to make sure that I put my health and safety first and that meant setting boundaries that I wouldn’t back down from. That was great practice for me to set boundaries for things that weren’t about safety.

It would have been very easy for me to fall into old patterns and try to play cool while dating instead of stating what I wanted. But I also know that if I did that, I would be getting something that doesn’t fulfill me. I think being alone and not dating is a better place to be than being in a situationship that makes me question where I stand or what is going on. And unfortunately, there are guys that I went out with who only wanted what they wanted and didn’t want to consider what I wanted. But I know better now that I am worthy of having the type of relationship that I want and I stood my ground about this. I had to end things after a few dates with different guys because they weren’t looking for the same thing that I was looking for. Or they wanted to keep things casual for a long time and then maybe they would consider something more serious. I know that things can’t be serious right away, but I’m also not going to date someone who might not ever want something serious. If I’m going to date someone, I need to know there is a reason we are dating other than just having someone you can call when you are lonely or bored.

Making sure I knew my worth and being strong about that meant I didn’t date as many people this past year as I did before, but I’m ok with that. I’ve always wanted to find quality over quantity, and this was the first year where I think I really implemented that idea. It was frustrating at times when I was hopeful about someone only to find out they couldn’t meet what I wanted, but I also know it would have been worse if I let things go on for months before saying I needed to end them.

I think I also showed my worth with my job. I have been in a new job position for a while now and getting to that position required me to show the executive team why they should create this position for me. I didn’t have to necessarily prove myself, but I did need to show them where as a company we were lacking and how I was the right person to fix that. I’m not someone who likes to brag about myself, but I had to do it in this case because it was the only way to prove to the team why this was the right move for the company. And I’m so grateful I was able to do that and didn’t just hide in the shadows. The work I’m doing now uses my skill set a lot more now and I’m much happier in my day job than I was before.

And I think the last big place I had to show I was worthy was the condo renovation. I know the contractor wasn’t trying to take advantage of me or anything like that, but there are things that aren’t exactly right and I had to stand up to say that these things needed to be fixed. There are still some things that aren’t perfect and they will need to come back to correct them. In the past, I probably would have accepted something that was less than perfect. But this is my home and we paid them to do this work. And if there are things that don’t seem right, I want them fixed before we sign off saying the project is over. My parents pushed me with making sure I spoke up about these things, and I don’t know how I would have done things without them pushing me. But I know it’s for the best and they are right because a renovation shouldn’t require us to fix things after they are done to make sure the work is perfect.

I’m so glad I picked worthy as my word for 2022. It really was the perfect word to help me have the best year possible this past year. I had to get out of my comfort zone, but it paid off. And I know that just because this year is over it doesn’t mean that I won’t be using this as a guide going forward. It’s just going to continue to help to guide me as I interact with others and make sure that I don’t forget that my worth is considered in decisions.

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Not Quite My Traditional Christmas (or Relaxing And Enjoying My Time Off)

Posted on December 27, 2022 | Comments Off on Not Quite My Traditional Christmas (or Relaxing And Enjoying My Time Off)

I rarely get a long break from work, but I was so lucky that I had almost 4 days off for Christmas. I only had to work in the afternoon for 2 hours on Friday, but I had all of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. And going into the holiday weekend, I didn’t have many plans figured out. I knew I had work on Friday and I’d be going to a workout on Monday, but that’s all I really planned in advance. I didn’t want to make too many plans since I wanted to see how I felt about things, and I knew that if I wanted to do something at the last minute, I probably could figure something out.

It was nice to be able to sleep in later for those 4 days. I still don’t sleep in that late, but even getting the extra hour of sleep made a difference in how I felt. And I know more than ever that I need to work on my sleep schedule because I want to feel like this more often. And since I didn’t have to work until the afternoon on Friday, I enjoyed a nice lazy morning before logging in for work. Being able to do my routine things at a more leisurely pace was a nice change. And even though work was a bit stressful as the last shift before Christmas, it wasn’t too bad. And I think being more relaxed and rested helped me get through some of the craziness.

My normal plan for Christmas is to watch movies (either at home or going out to a movie theater) and ordering in Chinese food. But I had been invited to my friend Erin’s casual Christmas gathering, so I decided to order food on Saturday instead. Ordering on Christmas is usually really busy and crazy, so ordering a day early made it a lot easier to get food. And I still had leftovers so I had some to eat on Christmas Day as well.

On Christmas Day, I went over for a late lunch at Erin’s place. It was a very low-key and relaxed gathering and there weren’t too many people there. It also didn’t feel like a Christmas thing, so it wasn’t as awkward that I don’t celebrate Christmas. It was more like just a regular party where everyone was just enjoying being together and being social. And she made some really great food like lasagna and cheesecake, which was an awesome lunch!

After lunch was done, I went back home and watched some movies on Netflix, so I did still have a little bit of my normal Christmas. But it was a nice change to be around others instead of spending the day alone like I normally do.

And on Monday, I had to work on getting back to a bit of my normal routine so Tuesday wouldn’t be too much of a shock for me after several days of no schedule and nothing needing to be done. I did a lot of things that I usually do on Sundays like getting my house clean and figuring out what I need to plan for during the week. I still had a lot of free time to relax and I spent that time reading since I had downloaded a bunch of books from Kindle Unlimited over the weekend. I think Monday felt the most like a normal weekend day for me, which was probably a good thing.

I do have another odd week coming. The rest of my work week this week is normal since Friday isn’t a holiday and Saturday is a half day at the other job, but Saturdays are already half days so that’s what I’m used to. But I’ll get another Monday off in a week so I’ll have another opportunity to relax before I really have to get back to my normal routine and being busy at work.

But before I get to that craziness, I’m glad I had these past few days to get ready and I’m so happy that I got to mix a bit of my old Christmas tradition with a new plan to have a really amazing holiday weekend.

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Last Regular Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Almost To My Workout Goal)

Posted on December 26, 2022 | Comments Off on Last Regular Workout Week Of The Year (or I’m Almost To My Workout Goal)

This past week of workouts was the last week before I have 2 weeks of weird workout schedules. It was also the second to last week of the year and I’m so grateful that I’m almost to my workout goal for 2022. I was worried I might miss it since I had to take a week off at the beginning of the year, but I guess I made up for that time throughout the year!

I was feeling a bit off on Monday due to some pain issues, but it was much better than the week before. And I didn’t have to worry about how my injection would make me feel since I do that after my workout. So I tried to maximize this workout the best I could since I wasn’t sure how I’d feel the rest of the week.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and they each had a different focus. The first block was all about endurance and had a 2-minute push pace, 1-minute base pace, 2-minute push pace, and 30-second all-out. The second block was about strength and we had 30-second intervals of a base pace at different inclines/resistance levels. And the last block was for power and we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries.

On the rower, we had one long block. We had a 400-meter, 200-meter, and 100-meter row with a medicine ball exercise between each row. And each time we went through those rows, we had a different exercise. The first time we had tricep extensions, the second time we had overhead presses, and the third time we had halos. I didn’t make it to the round with halos because I had to take some breaks during my row.

And on the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was all about doing work with the TRX straps. We had bicep curls, curtsy lunges, and rollouts. The second block was with weights and we had single-arm low rows and goblet squats. And the last block was also with weights and we only had single-arm snatches which was hard to do for the 2 minutes we had to do them.

Tuesday was a small class so our coach decided to make it a 2 group class instead of a 3 group one. So we had a lot less rowing than we normally would have, which was ok with me since I was really nauseous from my shot. But I did what I always do and just tried my best.

We had two blocks for cardio and they were very similar. The first block started with a 75-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 1-minute push pace and 1-minute base pace before doing a 45-second all-out. We had a 90-second recovery and then did rounds of 45-second all-outs and 45-second recoveries. The second block was almost the same except instead of 45-second all-outs and recoveries we had 30-second ones. The first part of each block was harder for me than the second part of each block, but it was manageable.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. Each block started with a 400-meter row, which was the only rowing we had. Then each block had 2 exercises focused on strength and 2 exercises focused on stability. The first block had front squats and chest presses for strength and lunges and bridge hold chest presses for stability. And the second block had scaptions and bicep curls for strength and kneeling scaptions and kneeling single-arm bicep curls for stability. I think I did better with the stability work since I wasn’t feeling ok using my regular heavy weights, but overall I was much happier with the floor work than I expected it to be.

Wednesday was a bit better of a day for me, so I was hoping I would be able to push myself a bit more in the workout than I have for other Wednesdays when I’ve been dealing with medication side effects.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks and they were both distance challenges that we did on our own. For the first block, we had decreasing distances we were supposed to do and between each distance, we had a minute to recover. And the second block had the same distances but in reverse order so we started with the shortest distance. The goal was to try to beat the distance in the second block, which I was able to do.

On the rower, we also had 2 blocks and it was similar to what we had for cardio. In the first block, we started with a 250-meter row and decreased the row by 50 meters each time. Between each row, we had back-and-forth hops. And in the second block, we did the same thing but started with a 100-meter row and went up by 50 meters each time. And again, I was able to beat my distance in the second block. I think I’m usually able to beat my distance when doing these sorts of challenges because I’m stubborn and need to prove to myself that I can do it. But whatever it takes to make myself work hard!

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks and they were all timed for us. Everything was at a 30-second interval and there was not really any rest during the blocks. The first block had tricep extensions, chest flys, and shoulder presses. Then we had 30 seconds to do 4 reverse grip low rows and we could rest for any extra time in those 30 seconds. We repeated that pattern another time before doing the first 3 exercises again and ending the block with 30 seconds of high knees to mountain climbers. The second block was the same idea with lunges, deadlifts, and squats as the main exercises. Then we had 30 seconds to do 4 plank taps. And the last 30 seconds was doing high knees to mountain climbers again.

I was feeling almost completely normal by Thursday, which made me very happy. And I was extra happy because this was my 199th workout of 2022 and it made me really think about how I was able to reach my workout goals this year even with the issues I encountered. And this was a really tough workout to end this week with, but I also enjoyed the challenge.

For cardio, we had 2 blocks with similar patterns. The first block started with a 90-second push pace followed by a 1-minute base pace. Then we had a 1-minute push pace at a slightly higher incline followed by another 1-minute base pace. Then it was a 30-second push pace at an incline with another 1-minute base pace. And the block ended with a 45-second all-out at an incline. The second block was the same idea but we started with a 1-minute push pace instead of a 90-second one and the all-out was 30 seconds instead of 45 seconds.

The rower was also 2 blocks. The first block started with a 300-meter row followed by high knees. Then the row went down by 50 meters and we continued that pattern for the rest of the block. The second block started with a 100-meter all-out row then we could rest. I was able to get one of the highest wattages I’ve gotten on the rower during that row and that was a nice surprise. Then we had a 100-meter row at a base followed by a 150-meter push row. We continued the pattern of a base to a push row and increased the push row by 50 meters each time. I didn’t get that far in the second block because I was a bit gassed out from my crazy 100-meter row at the beginning of the block, but I still did pretty well with everything.

And the floor was also 2 blocks. The first block had single-arm squats to upright rows, speed skater lunges, and wide step knee drives which I had to do as wide step mountain climbers. And the second block had single-arm cleans, jumps to shuffle steps, and knee tucks which I did as regular mountain climbers. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but I really pushed myself through the entire workout and I think that’s what lead to it feeling like one of the harder workouts I’ve had lately.

For the next two weeks, I’m changing up my workout schedule a bit since I want to get in my traditional New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day workouts, but I also don’t want to have 6 workout days in a row. Right now, my plan is to still do 4 workouts each week and I don’t think that will change. But maybe I’ll feel extra motivated and will get in an extra workout either next week or the week after so I can either end a year or start a year with a little bonus.

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A Quick Holiday Post (or I Hope You Are All Up To Fun Things This Weekend)

Posted on December 23, 2022 | Comments Off on A Quick Holiday Post (or I Hope You Are All Up To Fun Things This Weekend)

Even though the holidays don’t start until tomorrow, I know that today is the first day of holiday time off for many people. For me, it’s the first day off from one job, but I still have to work the other. But that is still a break from my usual schedule and craziness. And I’m planning on enjoying that time so this post is going to be something short and quick.

I know that not everyone spends the holidays with their family. I don’t do that since my family doesn’t celebrate Christmas. But I do hope that however you are celebrating the holidays, you are doing what you want to do and are able to have some fun. Even if you have to work for part of this weekend, I hope that there is still some time to relax.

I feel like we all have had a crazy year this year. It’s really been a crazy 3 years if you think about when the pandemic started. And things still aren’t back to what we all consider normal yet. But even with things being not quite normal, there is still a lot for us all to celebrate. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or any holidays this time of year, since we are coming up on the new year it’s a great time to reflect on what we are all grateful for. I know I complain a lot about different things, but I am so lucky in so many ways. And I appreciate getting to celebrate holidays in ways that make me happy.

So for this weekend, I’m planning on doing a lot of nothing and just enjoying some free time to relax. I will probably order Chinese food for Christmas since that’s my tradition. And while I don’t think I will go out to see a movie in theaters, I probably will watch at least one or two movies during my time off. To me, that’s the perfect way to celebrate this time of year!

So Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate and Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate that. And if you don’t celebrate anything this time of year, I hope you still are enjoying your time doing whatever you get to do this long weekend!

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Gearing Up To Wind Down (or I Think I’ll Need These Days Off)

Posted on December 22, 2022 | Comments Off on Gearing Up To Wind Down (or I Think I’ll Need These Days Off)

Because in the past I didn’t always get holidays off, I am always extra grateful when I get an extra day off. So many holidays are on Mondays and my box office job already has Mondays off. And there have also been a few years where Christmas and New Year’s fell on days I already had off so I didn’t feel like I had any real time off, I only had my normal weekend.

With my social media job, I do get holidays off, so that’s already an added bonus. So the Mondays that are holidays finally feel like a day off since I have time off from my Monday-Friday job. Between the two jobs, I do have slightly different holiday schedules and days off, but most of the days overlap so that helps a bit.

But for the first time in a long time, I feel like I have a real break. It’s not a long break, but it’s more than normal. For my social media job, I have Friday-Monday off, so that’s 2 extra days. And for my box office job, I have Saturday off. I will still need to work on Friday for the box office job, but that’s only 2 hours in the afternoon so that’s not too bad. I might actually work a few extra hours depending on how I feel to bank some extra time off I can use in the future. But I don’t have to decide that in advance.

I’m really looking forward to having all this time off. I don’t have any plans, and that’s ok with me. I just want to have time to rest and relax. And I’m honestly so happy I will have so many days in a row that I can sleep in a bit later because I’m still struggling with getting to bed on time. I am going to work on getting to bed earlier on my days off, but at least this way I’ll have the ability to sleep in a bit if I need to, and hopefully I will feel so much more rested by next week.

Because of all the extra time off, things have been extra crazy at both of my jobs this week. I’ve been getting a lot of stuff done so it’s not waiting for me on Tuesday because I know there will be a lot that comes in over the long weekend. I already know next week will likely be just as crazy because I’ll be catching up plus there is still one more holiday to go. For my box office job, this is one of our busiest times since so many people want to get a gift certificate to give as a holiday gift. At least I know that will calm down a bit next week. And for my social media job, I normally have a lot to do at the end of the month so I’ve been trying to get as much of a head start on that work as possible. But I know that since so many things can’t be done until the start of the new month, a lot will just have to wait and I will have my usual busy beginning of the month.

I know having a crazy week this week will probably make me appreciate my extra days off even more. And I’m fully planning on taking advantage of not having to do much for those days and getting myself ready for whatever craziness happens after the holidays.

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Getting Something Checked Off My End Of The Year List (or Mailing Out Some Holiday Cheer)

Posted on December 21, 2022 | Comments Off on Getting Something Checked Off My End Of The Year List (or Mailing Out Some Holiday Cheer)

Growing up, I remembered my family getting so many holiday cards from friends and family. They were always displayed in the living room and I loved looking at the photos that we got from everyone. Some people also sent letters, but I usually just loved looking at all the cards and photos. And of course, my parents sent out cards too. Even though I don’t live at home, I’m still included in the family holiday card (and they send one to me so I can see what they did).

For most of my 20s, I didn’t really get holiday cards from anyone. I think most people think of them as something you do when you have kids. But once I was in my 30s and started to get a few more cards from friends, I realized that they can come from anyone whether it’s from a family or just someone on their own. So I started to send out cards to others.

As the years have gone on, my holiday card list has gotten longer and I’ve been getting more and more cards from others as well. And I still love looking at the cards and the photos of my friends and their families. And now, I have a nice place in my entryway where I can display all the cards that I’ve gotten from people.

Even though most of the cards that I get from people are photo cards, I’ve never done that myself. I started getting cards that I could buy at the store or online because that’s the easiest way to do this. Then, once my holiday card list got longer, I realized doing postcards was a bit more cost-effective. Plus, since I’m not putting a photo on there, it didn’t feel as weird not having an envelope. And there were some cute postcards that I found online that I could buy, but a few years ago I realized I couldn’t find what I wanted and it would just be easier if I could make something myself.

So for the last few years, I’ve made my own postcards to send out for the holidays. They are nothing fancy and I use a template from Canva so I’m not custom-designing them, but I am able to change things up a bit to make them work for me. For example, last year’s card was not only a holiday card but also had my new address on it so I didn’t have to worry that people might mail things to the wrong place. But this year I didn’t do anything too crazy or fancy, I just did a simple design that I found and changed a bit to fit what I would want to send out.

I had gotten a bit stressed when I realized how soon the end of the year when I hadn’t gotten everything done, but the good thing about sending cards that say Happy New Year is that they can arrive a bit after the 1st and it’s still ok. But even if they were just regular holiday cards, I never mind getting them late so I would assume most of my friends feel the same way.

I got them printed through Vista Print, so it wasn’t too expensive to do that. I think between the printing and the stamps, I spent less than $50 to send them all out. That’s not bad considering how many I send and how happy it makes me to do something silly like this. And it didn’t take that long to do this either. I think the longest parts were waiting for the printed postcards to arrive and the line at the post office when I went to get postcard stamps. But once I had everything I needed, it was pretty quick to put all the postcards together so I could mail them out.

I know how much I appreciate not only getting holiday cards but anything in the mail that isn’t a bill or junk. Having something nice in the mail is a rare treat, so if I can make someone smile a bit by getting a postcard from me, that’s awesome!

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I’m So Glad I Pushed Hard This Past Week (or Having A Good Day In A Bad Week)

Posted on December 19, 2022 | Comments Off on I’m So Glad I Pushed Hard This Past Week (or Having A Good Day In A Bad Week)

I knew this past week of workouts was going to be a struggle for me with pain and nausea. But as I had written last week, I just had a lot of different issues that made my week extra difficult. I was getting really frustrated with how I was feeling and what that meant for my workouts. But as always, I pushed through and I was able to end this past week on a really good note.

Monday’s workout was the last workout for the 12 Days Of Fitness, and it was the day that I earned my swag. I was feeling pretty bad that day, but I was hoping that I could do some good work because I knew there was a good chance this would be my best day of the week. But it was a tough day as each section of the room felt like one long block.

For cardio, everything was 90-second intervals. Every 90 seconds, we were supposed to increase either the speed or incline/resistance level. I really tried my best to pedal faster when we were supposed to increase our speed, but that’s something that is hard for me normally and extra hard for me when I was having a bad hip day. But I did my best with it.

On the rower, we did have challenge distance goals but I didn’t focus on those since I knew I’d be struggling on the rower. We also had 90-second intervals just like we did for cardio. But this time we started every 90 seconds off of the rower and did either overhead or front presses with a medicine ball for 15 reps. And then whatever time was left we had for rowing. I usually had about 30 seconds on the rower each time after I was done with the exercise and getting strapped back in, so I didn’t get a lot of rowing done toward the distance.

And on the floor, again everything was in 90-second intervals. We alternated between two groups of exercises. The first group was lateral lunges, single-arm high rows with weights, and then jumping jacks. And the second group was regular lunges, single-arm shoulder presses with weights, and butt kicks. It felt like there was no time to catch your breath and it was a really tough workout. But I wouldn’t expect anything different for the last day of a challenge.

Tuesday was a particularly rough day for me. When things are this bad, sometimes I just have to do my own thing a bit for the workout because that’s all I can manage. And that’s how some of Tuesday went.

For cardio, we focused on a lot of incline work, but I was just doing my regular base, push, and all-out resistance levels and trying to follow along with the intervals with everyone else. I know I wasn’t doing exactly what the workout was supposed to be, but it was better than doing nothing. And I knew that the combination of all the issues I was going through made things a lot harder than I’m used to overcoming.

On the rower, both blocks were focused on 150-meter rows. We rowed that distance and then had an exercise and went back and forth for the entire block. In the first block, we had squats as our exercise and I did do those between each row. In the second block, we were supposed to do front and back steps between each row, but I was more focused on just breathing through my nausea so I just did my rows without the exercise. I didn’t always do the full row without a break, so it was more like I did short bursts of rowing with rest when necessary for that entire block.

I feel like I did a bit better on the floor for this workout, but that’s probably only because the rest was so bad. In the first block, we had deadlifts, upright rows, good mornings, and single-arm shoulder presses. And in the second block, we had front raises, lateral lunges, and regular lunges. I felt so defeated after this workout because of what I couldn’t do, and I know that didn’t help how I was feeling overall and probably made my physical pain worse with mental stress. As much as I tried to remind myself that at least I tried, it’s hard to believe that at times.

Wednesday was still bad, but I felt like I had a bit less nausea that day and my hip pain was significantly better so that helped to make my mood better too. So I knew I could do a bit more and pushed myself to do just that.

For cardio, the first two blocks had the same pattern. We had a push pace, a 90-second base, an all-out, a 1-minute recovery, a push pace, and an all-out. In the first block, the pushes and all-outs were 45 seconds long. And in the second block, the pushes and all-outs were 30 seconds long. And for the last block, we had rounds of 30-second all-outs and 30-second recoveries. This went so much better than earlier in the week went. I think the short intervals and all the recovery time helped me so much.

On the rower, we started with a 3-minute row followed by squats. Then we had 2 rounds of a 90-second row with lunges between each row. The goal for each 90-second row was to do at least half of what we did in the 3-minute row. And the rowing work ended with 3 rounds of a 1-minute row with squats to calf raises between each row. I only made it to one of the 1-minute rows, but I’m glad that I did pretty well with each row and was able to beat the goal distance each time.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block was a bit tough for me because it was supposed to be regular lunges and then jump lunges, but I can’t do jump lunges. So I just combined the number of reps and did regular lunges for both. And we were supposed to do bridge rows on the straps, but I had to do just regular low rows on the straps. In the second block, we had bicycle presses, push-ups, and hip bridges. I didn’t go quite as heavy as I would have liked for the hip bridges, but that’s something that I know I need to work back up to because I’ve lost a bit of my strength.

Thursday was a day I was nervous about. It was the 2000-meter row benchmark, which is one of the hardest benchmarks for me. Not only is it one of the hardest ones for me, but I was also dealing with the pain and nausea so I knew that would be an additional challenge. I knew I would just try and see what would happen.

Because we had a small class, we all started on the rower to do the benchmark first. I knew that I wouldn’t get a PR since my PR was from when I was a lot better at rowing. So I set other goals for myself. I wanted to see if I could get a faster time than my last benchmark, which was very slow. And I wanted to try to take as few breaks in the row as possible. In the past, I’ve tried to only take a break after every 500 meters, which was a good goal, and I decided to try to do it again this time.

We are always told to start the benchmark with about 10 hard pulls on the rower before settling into a pace and intensity that we could ideally continue at for the entire time. I did that and then watched the 500-meter split time to see if I could keep that consistent. I was able to keep it within about 10 seconds for the entire row and I knew that split time would get me to my goal. And by some miracle, I didn’t really have to take any breaks. I did have to stop a few times to tighten my foot straps, but that is different from a break. And at the end for the last 200 meters, I just went as hard as I could knowing I was almost done. I knew it wasn’t a PR, but it was a huge improvement over last time and closer to my PR than I’ve been in a while!

I was shocked that I was under 11 minutes and that I didn’t really take breaks. Neither of those were things I thought would be possible. Maybe I found the perfect pace to row so I didn’t need breaks like I normally do. Or maybe I was just being stubborn and that pushed me through the row. Whatever it was, I was so proud of myself. But I know I overdid it quite a bit on the rower and that affected the rest of my workout.

On the floor, I was exhausted from the row and was a little lightheaded, so I had to go slowly and rest a lot more than I thought I would. The floor had hip hinge swings, woodchoppers, chest presses with straps, plank taps, and superheroes on the floor. I was going a bit lighter with the weights because of how I was feeling, but I still think even with the breaks I had to take and the lighter weights, it was worth it because I knew how well I did on the row.

And we ended with cardio where we did things at our own pace. We had distance challenges and then 1 minute to recover after each distance. For the distance, it was .25-miles for the treadmills which was 1 mile for me. And just like on the floor, I had to take more breaks than I would have liked because I was still recovering from the row. But again like on the floor, I was ok with that because I was still proud of my row time.

I wasn’t expecting to end last week with a workout highlight between how I was feeling and knowing how little I was looking forward to the benchmark. But I’m so happy that I surprised myself so much with how my last workout of the week went. It was nice to end a bad week with a good workout so I could go into my weekend feeling strong. And hopefully, the pain and nausea continue to get better through the beginning of this week so I can have a better workout week and end my year of workouts on some more positive notes!

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