Posted onJanuary 7, 2021|Comments Off on How I Ended 2020 (or A Night Alone At Home)
Most of the time, I spend New Year’s Eve with friends. I usually will go to a party where things tend to be pretty casual. I’m not a big fan of elaborate plans for New Year’s because things can be overpriced and very crowded. I like just having a relaxed night with friends where we celebrate but everything is pretty low-key.
When the pandemic started, I never thought we’d still be dealing with it by New Year’s Eve. I really thought things would be safe again by the 4th of July. Then maybe by Halloween. I fully expected to be able to spend New Year’s Eve with my friends at a party and didn’t think too much about things.
But as it got closer and closer to the end of the year, reality set in and I knew there was no way that there would be any party or gathering with friends. Even trying to figure out a way to be safe with one friend didn’t seem to be possible. I know that I have pretty much been in quarantine for a while, but most of my friends don’t have that same luxury. So it just wouldn’t be safe to try to meet up with even one friend. So my New Year’s Eve was spent the way I have spent so much of 2020. Alone in my house.
It wasn’t the worst thing to be alone for New Year’s Eve, but it was still sad. It was sad to think about how things didn’t have to be this way with the pandemic. It was sad to think that there are people who I know aren’t dealing with the isolation as well as many of us are. It was sad to think that things were looking up because of the vaccine but they were still not looking that great.
My night was not really that exciting. I spent a lot of time watching tv and catching up on my DVR and streaming shows. I made some dinner. I sat around and texted with a few friends. And I was in bed by 11 pm. I did stay up until midnight, but I spent the last hour of 2020 reading in bed. And pretty soon after midnight, I went to sleep.
This wasn’t how I wanted to spend my New Year’s Eve. This wasn’t how I liked to spend my night. But it was how I needed to spend my night to stay safe and healthy and to do the right thing.
In some ways, it did seem fitting to end the year the way I spent so much of it. But at the same time, I would have loved to have ended the year in a happier and more fun way. I hope that this will be the only New Year’s Eve that I have to spend this way. I might choose to spend one like it, but I want it to be my choice. This was not what I wanted, but it was the only option I could have without taking a lot of risks that I’m not ok with taking.
Posted onDecember 31, 2020|Comments Off on Looking Back At My 2020 Goals (or Some Wins and Some Not Wins)
We are finally at the end of 2020! I know that things won’t magically change tomorrow because it’s a new year, but the new year brings hope that we’ve all been needing. I fully believe that I will be able to get the vaccine in 2021 and that some sense of normalcy will be returning. It may not be until the end of 2021, but it’s still something to look forward to.
And as I do at the end of every year, it’s time for me to look back at the goals that I set for 2020. Obviously, the pandemic changed a lot in my life and about 75% of my year was spent isolating at home. But I’m happy that I was able to get a few of my goals done, even if they weren’t the way I expected them to happen. And I’ll take a look at each goal on its own.
My first goal was to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes. As I am writing this post, I haven’t done my last workout for the year. But when I do, I will have done 204 workouts for the year. These workouts were not the way I planned on doing them. I was only in the studio until mid-March and then every other workout was done at home. I’ve built a nice little home gym setup, something that I never expected to have. I’ve been able to motivate myself when nobody is holding me accountable. I might not have done as tough of workouts as I’m used to, but I still did over 200 workouts this year.
My next goal was to cook more often. And that definitely happened. I might have ordered more delivery food than I would have liked, but I didn’t really go out to any restaurants this year. So I think it probably balanced out. I found some new easy recipes that I can make with minimal effort. I still don’t love cooking the way that I want to, but I’m getting much closer. This is one goal that I think the pandemic helped me with because I was forced into it.
The next goal was to work on my home organization. If only I knew then how often I’d be working on organizing and cleaning my house this year. A lot of organizing was more about staying busy and having something to do that day. But I still got myself more organized. I have more projects that I want to work on, but those have been figured out as I work with new systems in my house and seeing what I’m missing or needing. Having limited space does make things tough, but I’m looking at new options for storage that will help me keep all the new organization I’ve done.
The next goal was to work on job hunting and my budget. I think this one was a bit of a fail, but not a total fail. I’ve already written about my lack of budgeting work this year. It was hard to feel motivated to budget when I wasn’t working. And I wasn’t planning on job hunting to be during a tie when so many people were out of work. But I did continue to apply for work and hope for the best. And I did get a new job this year, but it wasn’t from my job hunting efforts. But it was because I was being open about needing work and continuing to build skill sets. I hope that I will be able to get my budget in order soon again, but not doing it for the majority of 2020 really did set me back a bit.
Next is a goal that almost makes me laugh. It was to be more social and have more fun. I actually wrote about how being home was something I do too much of and need to not do as often. Again, if only I knew then that I’d basically be trapped at home for the year. I don’t know if I can say I was more social. I did create new virtual social opportunities like the Movie Club I run twice a week. And I’ve become really good friends with many of the women in that group. Many of us agree that our becoming friends has been the one good part of this year. But my goal was to get out more and I clearly couldn’t do that.
And my final goal was to be more active in union service and working on my acting career more. I think I have become more active in union service. Just creating the You Are The Union live-stream has made me more involved. And I’ve had a lot more time to be involved and stay informed. So that’s good. But as far as my acting career goes, besides getting better at doing self-tape auditions, I haven’t done much. But I’m hopeful that soon I’ll be able to do more as things become safer again.
Considering this past year, I am proud of what I did. So many of the goals I didn’t do were out of my control. And I did find ways to make some of these goals happen when the original way I planned no longer was a possibility. Also, the goals I set for myself are not requirements for the year. Failing to accomplish one or two is ok. But overall, I’m happy with what I did and how I didn’t allow this crazy and challenging year to stop me from trying my best.
Posted onDecember 28, 2020|Comments Off on Christmas Week Workouts (or Hitting Milestones and Missing Traditions)
This past week of workouts was my last full week of workouts for 2020. Christmas week has always been fun for me at Orangetheory because of some of the traditional things that happen during those workouts. Sadly, since we are all doing the workouts at home, some of those traditions couldn’t happen this year.
For example, I love the Christmas Eve workouts and the Naughty or Nice stockings. I have always enjoyed the workouts that are luck of the draw and the Naughty or Nice ones are so fun. They can be really tough and sometimes that makes me feel a bit crazy during the workout, but after the workout is done I’m always happy.
And along with the workout on Christmas Eve, I have a tradition of taking a photo with one of my coaches. This would have been the 7th Christmas Eve that I was at Orangetheory, and we’ve only missed one photo together. But sadly, that photo had no way to happen this year and we’ll just have to make up for it next year. But I will probably add something funny to our collage to represent this year.
And this year, I didn’t even work out on Christmas Eve. I always have before because Orangetheory is closed on Christmas. It’s the only day the studios are closed. So if Christmas falls on a day I normally work out, I make sure I go on Christmas Eve instead. This year, if things were normal, I would have done that. But because all the workouts are online, I decided to keep my normal workout schedule. So I worked out on Christmas this year. And in a year that has so much that doesn’t feel normal, keeping my normal workout schedule was a good thing.
But there was one tradition that I didn’t miss. Almost every year, I have hit my workout goal. And this year, there was a brief moment when I thought the time I took off when I was sick with vertigo would ruin my chances of doing that. Fortunately for me, my math was just very off and I was still on track for getting to my goal before the end of the year. And I did exactly that this past week.
I still have a few more workouts this year, so I will be over 200 workouts by the time the year is done. And yes, over 75% of my workouts were done at home and not in the studio. But I think that it should still count. I do hope that I have more workouts in the studio next year, but we have no idea when it will be safe for the studios to reopen. So at least I know that I can hit my goals while working out at home so I won’t let that be an excuse for me.
As far as the workouts went, this past week was pretty good. I had a few things that made it tough on me (like being in a lot of pain for a few reasons), but I was in a much better mood than I had been in recently so I was able to push through. I had a few moments of working out hard enough to feel sore, which still makes me happy.
All of my workouts were online videos. It’s actually been this way for a while now. Sadly, because of my schedule with my new job, I can’t do the Zoom workouts anymore. I do miss my Zoom workouts and how those felt so different from the online videos. But I have to prioritize my work schedule, especially when there are other options for doing the workouts at home. And maybe another one of my coaches will do Zoom workouts that fit into my schedule. But for now, it’s just the online videos for me.
This week will close out my workouts for 2020 and kick off my workouts for 2021. I still need to think about some workout related goals to set for myself. But I will be setting them with the assumption that at least a portion of my workouts will be at home. I need to find goals that will work for both home and studio workouts. But I feel like I’m kicking off the end of this year on a good note and proud of what I’ve done so far. And that’s an amazing feeling.
Posted onDecember 18, 2020|Comments Off on This Doesn’t Feel Like Almost The End Of The Year (or Time Feels Frozen)
I was working on my planning for what blog posts I want to write in the near future, and it almost shocked me how close we are to the end of the year. This year has been the weirdest one of my life for sure. It has felt endless and like we have been stuck on the same day. I’ve said how this feels like the year that never happened, and that feeling still describes how I think about 2020.
I’ve had some moments of feeling low and like I almost lost a year of my life since I couldn’t do much. I’ve said how I feel like I have nothing that could be an accomplishment or an achievement this year. I know that isn’t true, but it’s hard not to feel like that. If someone asked me what I did in August, I honestly don’t know if I could share something productive that I did. I know that staying home and staying safe is a big accomplishment and something to be proud of, but it’s hard when I am very goal-focused and my goals have been not what I would expect them to be.
Even my monthly challenges have been tough for me. So many of them have been about just dealing with what we are all going through. I want to make the challenges about doing something that I can be proud of or feel like I have bettered my life in some way. Again, just like with general goals, I know that challenging myself to be ok with staying home and not being around others was likely the most important thing I have done. But it’s hard to celebrate avoiding things or a lack of progress even though that is what was best for me.
I know I’m not alone in my feelings. Many people have said similar things about this year not counting. Funny enough, as I was writing this post, I was listening to a podcast and they joked that none of our birthdays should have counted this year because it was a year we couldn’t really go out and live. I feel like once we can be together again, so many of us will share how we felt this past year and we will feel better about our own feelings. It’s not easy to not feel alone when you aren’t really able to share with others.
I’m continuing to try to be gentle with myself with what I’m doing these days. I will still do a recap of my year on here and cover the goals I had because it is important to recognize what I was able to do even under these circumstances. And I’m trying to focus on what goals I can set for next year. I am cautious about my goals for next year because I don’t know when I will be able to do things again. Even after I get the vaccine, I don’t know if it will be totally safe to be out and about. And who knows when different things will finally start reopening. But I can still set goals for myself that are somewhat under my control. And having a few goals that I might not be able to do because of the pandemic isn’t the worst thing. I will have to remind myself that not everything can be controlled and not reaching a goal isn’t a sign of failure. I am doing the best that I can and I have to be ok with that.
I don’t know when it will feel like it’s the end of the year. It might not. It might not even feel like a new year is here when it’s January. But eventually, I know it will feel like time is moving forward again. And I will appreciate that feeling even more when it’s back.
Posted onDecember 1, 2020|Comments Off on Another Thing Vertigo Screwed Up For Me (or Wrapping Up My 2020 Challenges)
I can’t believe 2020 is almost over. This was the year that none of us were expecting. I went into the year really hopeful about what I could get done. And so many things just couldn’t happen because of the pandemic. It’s been hard to not be down about this, but I’m trying.
And November almost felt like a mini-2020 with how tough the month was for me. I started the month strong and then only a few days in I was brought down by extreme vertigo. I’m almost completely recovered from vertigo, but it’s still a little bit there. But a majority of the month was affected by it. And that includes my monthly challenge.
I really wanted to get a lot done on the new book that I wanted to write. I had an idea that I wanted to put to paper and I was so excited to see what I could do. And before I was hit with vertigo, I was doing great. I was hitting all my writing targets and I thought I would at least get to the final word target for the month (I didn’t think that would necessarily be the full book, but a great milestone no matter what).
As soon as I got sick, I had to stop writing. I wasn’t able to sit up, let alone sit at a computer. And once that happened, I got out of the groove of writing. It sucked and I tried to get back into it and it just wasn’t happening. I don’t know if I stopped being interested in writing the book or if I just was in a funk. Either way, I just didn’t do much more than what I did before I had vertigo.
But it wasn’t a complete fail. I did start the book. I did get quite a few chapters done. I wrote character bios for many of the characters in the book. I created an outline of chapters going forward. I have a plan for when I am ready to get back into writing it. Just because I didn’t get to my goal last month doesn’t mean I can’t go back to it and write. Maybe I’ll be inspired in a week or two. Maybe it won’t be for a while. But it’s there for me when I’m ready to get back to it.
To close out 2020, I wasn’t sure what I wanted my challenge to be. I know I’m in a bit of a funk still. This year wasn’t my year. This year felt stagnant and I don’t know what I could have done to change that and still feel safe. And I’m ready for next year to be here because I want to believe it will be better. I know just a new year won’t change everything, but I’m hopeful there will be a vaccine that works and is available to all in 2021, and that will allow us to start doing things again.
So my challenge for December is to get myself ready for 2021. I want to believe it will be a much better year than this year was. I want to make sure that I am in a good place to enjoy life again when I can. I want my house to feel organized for when I need to find things so I can leave. I want to work harder in my workouts to get ready for when I can be back in the studio. I want to feel ready to live my life again and not be trapped in my house.
Just like many challenges this year, this one is a bit abstract. But I just want to feel like I’m ending one year and starting another both mentally and physically. I think a lot of people feel this way too. And I just have to find the ways that it can be done for me.
I do think this challenge will be good for me because it will keep me in a mindset of moving forward and planning ahead. I will be thinking of a post-pandemic world and what I want to do. I need to keep thinking that way and not focusing on what I’m only doing now.
And hopefully, with however I prep for 2021, I am ready for the new year and what things it may bring to me.
Posted onJanuary 7, 2020|Comments Off on A Very Low-Key NYE (or I’m Glad I Don’t Have To Impress My Friends)
I have written severalposts about how I’m so excited to start a new year and what I think the new year will bring. And I am excited about it being a new year and feeling like there is a fresh start (even though that fresh start isn’t really real). I love the idea of a clean slate and feeling like I have a new chance to do something amazing.
But despite all those things I love about a new year, I’m really not the biggest fan of going out for New Year’s Eve.
I might have been a bit more excited about NYE when I was younger. And even in more recent years, I think I was a bit more enthusiastic about it. Maybe having my car die on NYE has made things a bit more serious for me. I don’t worry about my car breaking down on my drive home, but I am reminded about it each year. It’s hard to forget when it was a pretty big deal.
But there are other factors that make me not as excited about NYE. I don’t want to go out somewhere that is going to be really crowded and will be very expensive to go to. If you go out to dinner, it is overpriced and they seem like they want to rush you so they can get to the next seating. I don’t want to be out late because I don’t want to be on the road when people are leaving bars. Hopefully, people wouldn’t be driving drunk (especially with all the rideshare options in LA), but it’s still something I worry about. And I usually don’t sleep in on New Year’s Day because I have a lot to get done.
I’m lucky that I’ve got a group of friends that usually get together for NYE that I can hang out with. And it’s nothing fancy or extravagant so I don’t have to feel like it’s a big deal. And hanging out with my friends is exactly what I did this year.
It was a smaller group than normal because my friends have a dog that is a bit skittish. So it was mainly people that they knew their dog was familiar with. But it was still a good-sized crowd. And there were some people who did dress up, but that wasn’t necessary and there were plenty of people who didn’t dress fancy. I was one of the people who dressed pretty casually. I figured if I was going to be out late, I might as well be comfortable. And I know my friends don’t necessarily care how I dress so I didn’t feel like I had to impress them or meet a certain standard.
I didn’t take any pictures at the party, but that was deliberate. I wanted to focus on being with my friends and not trying to take photos or make sure I have things I can post on social media. But also, I didn’t do anything too crazy. I spent a lot of time hanging outside in the backyard with my friends just chatting about lots of random things. And when it got too cold for me, I went inside and hung out on a couch with other friends.
I usually don’t stay up too late, so I had to do something to keep me awake and alert. I thought it was close to midnight at one point and then looked at my watch only to discover that it was only about 10 pm. I think a lot of us were starting to feel that way, but we didn’t want to leave before midnight since we did want to celebrate together. We decided to play a game and we went with Cards Against Humanity. We started with a small group, but as people were coming inside to get out of the cold more would join us. It was a pretty fluid game with the group size changing often, but we were just playing for fun and we weren’t going to figure out an overall winner when we were done.
Finally, it was almost midnight and everyone was in the living room with us for the countdown to midnight. And once it was the new year, we all celebrated together. Everyone usually goes around to make sure they hug everyone to say happy new year. It’s a nice tradition because you don’t feel left out if you don’t have someone to kiss at midnight or to celebrate with. Everyone celebrates together and I like that.
And right after midnight, I went around to say my goodbyes to my friends. I was so tired and I really wanted to get home before it got too late. I think my friend group understands me wanting to leave early since I have one of the longer drives back. And since everyone was gathered in the living room, it was pretty fast to say goodbye to everyone and to get into my car to head home.
I was home and in bed before 1 am and that was perfect. I did get to celebrate the new year, but I didn’t have to do anything fancy or crazy. Nobody cared that I was dressed in comfortable clothes or that I left so quickly after midnight. And I love that nobody cared about those things because getting together was more about being with friends and not impressing anyone. Plus, we realized that the Oscars are coming up really soon so we’ll all be together again before we know it.
Honestly, it was the perfect way for me to ring in 2020 and I couldn’t have asked for anything else.
Posted onJanuary 6, 2020|Comments Off on Some New Year Workouts (or Finishing Out 2019 and Kicking Off 2020)
The past week of workouts included my last few workouts of 2019 and my first few workouts of 2020. It was a good way to end and start a year and it was exactly what I wanted to do. Because I wanted to keep my regular workout schedule as much as possible but I also wanted to work out on New Year’s Eve, I ended up having a 5 workout week. But somehow that seemed really fitting for me.
Monday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it had a lot of switching around. It was a good workout to start off a week with 3 workouts in a row and a total of 5 workouts (which I rarely do). The first part of class switched between the floor and the rower and the second part of class had one longer cardio block and one longer floor block.
For the first part of class, everything was 3 minutes long. On the rower, we had 2 different 3-minute rows for distance. The goal was to be able to go further on the second row than we did on the first, but I didn’t realize we were going to have 2 rounds of it and I probably went a little too hard on the first attempt. I still did better than I expected with both rows, but I wish I had been able to do better on the second row. And on the floor, the first time we were there we had plank rotations and bicycle crunches. And the second time we had bench hop overs and seated knee tucks.
For the long floor block, we had squats to calf raises, lateral lunges, plank low rows, plank side toe taps, and sit-ups to squats. It was a long floor block with a lot of work, and I was already a bit tired after the other work we did. But I was grateful that the switches were different from how they normally are and I had the long floor block before my cardio block. So I had a bit more energy even though I was tired. For all the exercises we had with weights, I didn’t go too heavy with them, but I did try to switch them up when I felt like they might be too easy.
And for cardio, we had 4 rounds of a 2-minute run/bike for distance. Each time we finished the distance challenge, we got a bit more recovery. After the first one, we only had 60 seconds and before the last one, we had 2 minutes. I kept my resistance level on the bike the same the entire time and just focused on speed work. 2 minutes is a good amount of time for a challenge because it’s a bit harder than most of the all outs we have to do, but it’s not too long that I can’t recover after. Plus, since all we had were the distance challenges, I didn’t have to worry about going back to my base speed after it. It did feel a bit weird to end on the bike since I rarely do that, but I felt like I had done the entire workout even if in my head I felt like I still had to do some more floor work.
I also worked out on Tuesday for my traditional New Year’s Eve workout. This class had a countdown theme and it was a 2 group class so there wasn’t a lot of switching around.
For cardio, we had a very long hill workout. We had 10 rounds of 1 minute at an incline (going down 1% each round) and between each round, we had 75-seconds to recover. Because I can’t do too high with the resistance levels on the bike, I decided to double up each level. So I did level 16 for the first 2 rounds, level 15 for the next 2, and so on. For reference, level 10 is my regular level and what I set it at for the recovery time. It was a lot of hill work, but fortunately, the minute went by quickly and we had a good amount of recovery time before having to get back to hill work.
On the floor, we started with a 700-meter row. Then we had countdown work with push-ups and pop jacks. We started with 10 push-ups and 9 pop jacks. Then 8 push-ups and 7 pop jacks. We worked all the way down to 1 and then it was back on the rower for a 500-meter row. Then countdown reps with lunges for the even number rep counts and lateral flys with weights for the odd number rep counts. Then back to the rower for a 300-meter row and squats for the even number rep counts and low rows on the straps for the odd number rep counts. And finally, on the rower for a 100-meter row and leg lifts for the even number rep counts and toe reaches for the odd number rep counts. It was a lot of work and a lot of reps for each exercise, but I think it didn’t feel as bad as it could have because we were constantly changing what exercise we were doing.
My goal for 2019 was to be able to do at least 200 workouts, and after my New Year’s Eve class, the total for the year was 207. That was pretty amazing to see.
Even though it meant I worked out 3 days in a row, I was also in class for Wednesday to kick off the new year. I didn’t go as early as I usually do, so it was a 2 group class instead of a 3 group class. But it was a good workout to start off my 2020 workouts.
For cardio, we had rounds of push to all outs. We started with a 1-minute push pace with a 1-minute all out. After a recovery, we had a 2-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. Then it was a 3-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. And we ended with a 4-minute progressive push to a 1-minute all out. I kept the bike resistance level the same the entire time and I really had to focus on my wattage and speed during the progressive push to make sure I was increasing them every minute. It’s not as easy to do that as it is to increase the resistance, but I really like keeping the resistance steady unless we are doing hill work.
On the floor, we had exercises plus a little bit of rowing. The first block had lunges to upright rows, regular lunges, and side planks with leg lifts. After doing one round of all the exercises, we had a 400-meter row. Then we just worked on the exercises for the rest of the block. The second block had step-ups (which I modified to be squats) and planks with leg lifts. Just like with the first block, we did one round of the exercises and then a 400-meter row. And after the row, it was only the exercises until the class was done. I did have some hip issues during the floor work, but that could have been because it was my 3rd workout in a row.
I was back to my normal class schedule by Friday. And it was an extra special class because my friend Jesse was in town (she lives back east now) and she took class with our group of friends. We were missing one person from the group, but it was still so much fun to have her back for one class.
This class was made up of 4-minute blocks and the cardio and rower switched every 4 minutes. Since I started on the bike, my workout went bike, rower, bike, rower, bike, rower (my bike time had 2 blocks on the bike and 1 on the rower and the rower time had 2 rower blocks and 1 bike one). Every time we were doing cardio or rowing, we had the same thing. For cardio, it was doing .25 miles (1 mile for the bike) and then we had a 30-second recovery before doing 30-second intervals of all outs and recovery. And on the row, it was a 500-meter row and then after that it was lunges until the 4 minutes were done. I did the lunges for most of the rowing blocks, but I switched to squats toward the end.
And on the floor, we also had 4-minute blocks. Each block had 2 exercises and most of them were Bosu exercises. The first block had pullovers with weights and side to side push-ups, both using the Bosu. The second block had kneeling lateral raises with weights and plank spiderman. They were both supposed to be on the Bosu but I didn’t use it for the plank work and put my hands on the floor instead. And the last block had hip hinge low rows with weights and plank jacks. The plank jacks were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I skipped that because I knew I couldn’t guarantee my feet would be stable enough on it (which is the point, but it’s a risk with my hips).
And since it was a special class with Jesse there, we had to take a group photo when we were done!
Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was also supposed to be a workout where we added to our base pace. While I do want to work on increasing my base resistance on the bike this year, I also knew that this wasn’t going to be the workout for me to do it. Doing 5 workouts in a week is tough for me and I was feeling sore. So I had to take this workout as a bit of a recovery day.
For cardio, it was a mix of push and base paces to start. Then it was a mix of base paces with incline and base paces at no incline. This was to test if the new base pace was the right one. For me, I just kept the bike resistance level at my normal level for most of the work and increased it for the incline work. I didn’t go as fast as I normally do, but that’s to be expected with a recovery day. Most of the intervals were 1-minute, but in the end we started to have 30-second push paces instead which made it easier for me.
On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row. Then we had medicine ball squats after the row before doing another 400-meter row. After that row, it was a different medicine ball squat exercise. Then we repeated that pattern with a 300-meter row twice and 200-meter rows twice. I didn’t get past the 200-meter rows because my squats took a bit longer than normal, but at least my rowing was still good.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks of work. The first block had suitcase squats with holding a weight in one hand, sumo squats, and step-ups (which I did as lunges). The second block had goblet squats and bench tap squats. And the last block had seated shoulder presses to stands (which I had to split into 2 exercises) and single-leg v-ups. It was a lot of lower body work and a lot of work that involved my hips, so I was feeling a bit sore after class was done. But it was my normal soreness and nothing too extreme which was good.
I’m so happy that I was able to end 2019 with awesome workouts and beating my goal number of workouts for the year. And I started 2020 off with 3 workouts even though it was only half the week, so that’s a good start for my goal for this year. It’s crazy to me that it’s only been a few years that I’ve been ending and starting years with workouts because it feels so perfect and routine to me now. And now I’ve got an entire year that will be filled with workouts before I get to end and start a year this way again.
Posted onJanuary 2, 2020|Comments Off on Finding Balance (or My Word For 2020)
I’ve been enjoying setting a word for the year over the past few years. They seem to work well as an idea for a theme for the year and they usually help me discover new things about myself. But these words also seem to be decided as a reaction to the past year’s word. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but it’s the way that it’s been happening. And my word for 2020 was chosen because of how I feel after my word for 2019.
My word for 2020 is balance.
I picked this word for so many reasons. First, I liked the idea of how the year 2020 looks balanced to me and it seemed like a fitting word. That’s not the main reason I picked it, but it did help me when I was narrowing some options down.
The most important reason why I picked balance as my word for the year is it is something I have struggled to find in so many aspects of my life and I need to work on figuring out. I have struggled to find balance both physically and mentally. I feel like I write about having highs and lows so often and it usually is about how I’m not balanced in my life.
I want my schedule to be more balanced. I go through phases of being overscheduled and overwhelmed and then those lead to times of being bored and feeling isolated. I need to figure out a healthy balance of being an extrovert and an introvert so that I don’t have those swings back and forth.
I want my finances to be more balanced. This is related to my goals of working on my budget and job-hunting, but I can also do things besides that. I need to work on being more aware of exactly how much money I am making and what it needs to go toward every month. I don’t want to have to stress out about paying for things, but I also know that I can’t do everything I want to do. I don’t have that much financial freedom, but I have more freedom than I have had before and I want to make sure I don’t mess that up.
I want my physical self to be more balanced. I know my eating disorder is not necessarily something I can control, but I can find more areas where I can control it. I feel like my workouts have been a huge tool in finding balance, but I can find ways to include food into that too.
And the reason why I originally thought of having balance as my word for 2020 is because of how I felt after having trust as my word last year. I wrote how I might have trusted people too much and that led to me being hurt. I need to find the balance between being open and allowing others into my life but also not giving people trust they haven’t earned yet. This isn’t easy to do because in order to allow for relationships to grow I have to take a leap of faith and give them trust. I can’t only trust someone when they have shown they deserve it. But I also can be a bit more cautious and wait a bit before trusting someone as much as I have in the past. Hopefully, I won’t be putting trust in people that don’t deserve it as much this year as I did last year, but I think being able to know when to give trust has to come from finding a balance in the relationship.
I’m excited about this being my word for the year. Whenever I choose a word, I have an idea of what it will mean for the year and what will come from it. But then at the end of the year, I’m always surprised by what growth I have made in my life because of it. Right now, I think of balance as one thing. By December 31st, I will probably think of it as something different. And the lessons that I learn because I focus on finding balance will be things that I can’t imagine just yet. But I know they will be good and I can’t wait to share in a year what happened.
Posted onJanuary 1, 2020|Comments Off on 2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)
Happy New Year! Even though I know that the start of a new year (or a new month or week) doesn’t have to mean a lot, I like the idea of a fresh start and kicking off the time with something new. And that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do for the past few years.
And just like the last several years, I’m going to be using a Volt Planner to do my goal tracking and monthly challenges. They are really beautiful planners and they are laid out perfectly for what I want to. They do keep me organized and I spent some time this past week working on what I wanted my goals to be for 2020. Some of them are new ones, but there are several that I feel like I have tried to do multiple times. But just because I didn’t accomplish a goal in the past doesn’t mean I can’t get it done this year.
My first goal shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I want to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes this year. This goal is one I have been setting each year (or at least I would have a target number of classes I wanted to get to) and it’s a goal that I know I don’t have to think about much. I typically go to 4 classes a week which will easily get me to 200 classes. It also allows for a bit of flexibility if there are a few weeks that I can’t do 4 classes. Of course, something could come up that would prevent me from working out, but I’m not expecting anything to do that so this goal should be one that in a year I can say I was able to do.
My next goal is that I want to cook more often. I have had this goal several times and the reasons for it have always been the same. I know that it is healthier for me to cook at home plus it is a good way to save money. I have the ability to cook, I just don’t have the motivation. I need to work on finding the motivation because I know that it’s the main thing holding me back. I also want to work on finding recipes that inspire me and can become something I cook regularly.
The next goal is one I already have started. I want to continue to work on my home organization and be able to maintain it. I have slowly been going through my house and seeing what I really need and what I might be able to get rid of or donate. I’m also getting things that help me organize what I do keep. For example, my bathroom is tiny and there is no storage space. But I finally found a little basket I can use to keep my cleaning supplies together so they don’t look as cluttered. It’s not necessarily organized, but it looks that way. My big challenge will be organizing my desk, but I’m giving myself plenty of time to work on it.
Next is a bit of a combo goal. I want to get back to my job hunting as well as working on my budget. I’ve been doing ok with my budgeting work. The app that I use has made huge changes and I finally had to switch to the new system. There is a bit of a learning curve with it, but that’s why I want to make budgeting one of my goals. I can see how easy it would be to let this slip, and I don’t want to do that. I do not want to get back into credit card debt and the best way to do that will be to budget carefully. And along those lines, budgeting would be easier if I had more income. And that’s why I need to get back to my job hunting. I am so lucky I have the job I have right now, but it’s not enough. It’s never made me enough money and I can’t keep ignoring that fact.
Another combo goal is to be more social and to have more fun. I have a tendency to be a bit of a homebody. And even though that is something I choose to do, I get a bit lonely when I do that and I crave going out. I need to be more productive in making plans with friends and seeking new ways to go out and have fun. And part of this may be working on expanding my circle of friends and finding different groups to be a part of. It’s not easy making friends at my age, but it’s not impossible either. And I can’t make an excuse to not do it because it might be difficult.
And the last two go together even though I consider them very separate goals. I want to be more active in union service and I want to focus more on my acting career. I have gotten very involved in union service and it has been an amazing addition to my life. I love what I have been able to be a part of and how much more I understand my union. But I know there is so much more I can do and I want to work toward that. I have more ways to be involved and I want to get more people involved. And along with that, I need to focus on my acting career. That is my goal in life and I need to get things back in order because I didn’t prioritize them enough in the past year. Some of the things I need to do cost money and that was holding me back, but I need to find ways to make it happen because my career is important to me and I don’t want to waste time not doing it.
I think I have a good variety of goals for 2020. Some of them I know will be easier to do than others, but they cover a variety of areas in my life. And even if I only get half of them done this year, my life is going to be so much better with them accomplished.
Posted onDecember 31, 2019|Comments Off on Looking Back At My 2019 Goals (or I Might Have Forgotten To Work On Some Of These)
I can’t believe that it’s the last day of 2019! I know I’ve been saying this for a few weeks already, but it’s true. Every year seems to be flying by faster than the year before and I still am in shock that this year is over. And part of that shock is the fact that I might have forgotten to work on my goals as much as I usually do. But I did try my best with many of these goals and it’s time to look back at what I set out to do and what I actually accomplished.
I had 2 categories for my goals this year. My normal goals and my Orangetheorygoals. Even though I had separate posts for each category, I’m going to do my end of the year wrap up in just one post.
For my normal goals, I wanted to do 200 Orangetheory classes, find a new job, reduce and eliminate recurring spending, work toward living a more minimalistic life, spend my free time in a better way, and take my blog and social media to the next level. I feel like I was 50/50 on these goals.
I will have done 207 Orangetheory classes this year (my last class will be after this post goes up). This was the easiest goal for me and I didn’t question that I would be able to get it done. I also was able to eliminate some of my recurring spending and looked more carefully at what recurring charges I had in my life. There weren’t a lot of things I eliminated, but there were a few things like magazine subscriptions that I wasn’t aware was charging me that I was able to cancel. And I didn’t exactly get into a more minimalistic lifestyle, but I took a lot of steps toward it and I feel so much better about my home and how things are organized here.
While I did do some job hunting, I wasn’t successful in finding a new job. And over the past few months, I haven’t really been working on it the way that I know I need to. My contract for my data entry job did get extended for a few more months, so I do still have a bit of a buffer. But I know that I can’t keep putting this off and I need to get more serious about my job hunting. As far as spending my free time in a better way, I don’t think I really accomplished this. I did end up having less free time this year due to new responsibilities in my life, but I don’t feel like that counts as doing better with my free time. But I have been figuring out better things to do with my time and I hope I can start implementing those soon. And as far as taking my blog and social media to the next level, I took some tiny steps toward this and I know the next big steps I need to do for my social media. But those big steps require some more prep time and I just haven’t been able to do them. But I have found that I might not want to take my blog to the next level the way I used to. It’s something I’m still looking into, but for now, I think taking this year to try to do that made me realize how I don’t necessarily want to.
And for my Orangetheory goals, I wanted to do 200 workouts, use the bike more than the treadmill, get a new PR on the rower, track my work on the floor like I do for cardio and rowing, and bring more friends to class with me. These goals are not quite 50/50, but I actually feel like I was more successful with them.
As I wrote above, I did over 200 classes and it wasn’t that hard for me to do that. I’m still impressed that I have been able to maintain the schedule that I have set for myself. And I can’t believe that a few months ago I did my 1,000th class! And I only used the bike for my cardio work this year. I never stepped on a treadmill and I’m so happy about that. I honestly don’t think I will use the treadmill anymore because I have found I can do much better work on the bike. It’s no longer something I do because I’m nauseous. It’s something that I put energy into doing better with and that is exactly the mindset I wanted to get to when I set this goal.
But for the rest of my Orangetheory goals, I really didn’t accomplish them. I didn’t get any new PRs on the rower, although I did come close. And I only tracked a few of my floor workouts, but I discovered that it just wasn’t easy for me to do it since there is so much variation with what we do on the floor. And while I have talked to so many friends about coming with me to a class, I haven’t quite gotten them to join me. But I know they will soon. But one of the things I wanted to get out of having more friends come to class is to have more friends in a workout with me. While I didn’t get friends into class, I have made more friends in my class. I have more friends in all of my classes so I am working out with more of my friends. But they are friends I made at Orangetheory and not friends I brought into Orangetheory. Technically I didn’t accomplish the goal, but I did accomplish the result I wanted.
Even though I wasn’t really successful in accomplishing about half my goals, I feel like I did way better than that. I think I had set new goals for myself that weren’t ones I set in January, so I’ve been thinking about revamping my annual goals more often. But I’m still debating on that. I’m so proud of what I was able to get done and what I learned when I wasn’t able to get other goals done. And I think all of that will be helping me with my goals I will be setting for myself in 2020!
New Year’s Eve In PJs (or I Think This Is Finally My Last NYE Post)
