Tag Archives: 2022

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!

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.

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.

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.

Halfway Through The Year (or Focusing Again On My 2022 Goals)

Happy July! It’s crazy to think this year is half over. It seems like so much has happened in the past 6 months but also that time has been dragging on. And as always, the start of a new month brings the end to one monthly challenge and the start of another.

In June, I had another challenge about organizing. But this time, I wanted to focus on organizing digital clutter. I’m very happy with how I did with this challenge. I did work on going through my DVR again and reviewing what I have set to record so I could get rid of any series that I am no longer interested in or that I don’t seem to be watching. There wasn’t much to do on my DVR since I had done this when I got a new device during my move, but it was still good to review what I had set up and what I really didn’t need to keep.

And I was really good with getting rid of podcasts I don’t enjoy anymore. There weren’t that many on that list, but it was good to think about what I really want to listen to and what I listen to just because I have been subscribed for so long. But besides unsubscribing from shows I don’t listen to anymore, I also went through individual episodes that I have been holding on to for one reason or another. These are from shows that I do enjoy, but they might have interviewed someone I wasn’t super excited to hear about or it was a subject that I wasn’t interested in. I kept telling myself that I would listen to those episodes eventually, but I know that I would never get to them because there were so many new episodes I would listen to each week. It’s weird to feel a sense of relief from getting rid of those, but they no longer feel like they are things I need to catch up on. I also went through all the shows I was subscribed to and looked and when they did their last episode. There are some shows that haven’t done a new episode in 6 months or longer. Unless I knew the show was taking a hiatus and would be back, I unsubscribed from shows that didn’t seem to be doing new episodes. I can always subscribe again if they start up, but for now, I don’t need that cluttering my podcast app.

And for July, I’m focusing on the fact that this year is half over and I feel a bit behind on my 2022 goals. I had that realization when I was looking at my tracking for my workouts and I wasn’t at quite 100 workouts for the year yet. Normally, I’m ahead of 100 by now. I know I had a setback with my foot so I missed a week of workouts and this wasn’t a huge surprise, but I still didn’t think about it too much until I saw it. And I do normally reflect on my annual goals halfway through the year so when I noticed I was a bit behind I wanted to focus on them for this month.

I’m not behind on all my goals. I am technically all moved into my condo. I might not have everything put away yet, but I am out of my old place. There will be things I can’t put away for a while because I’m saving up money to add furniture, but I am continuing to do what I can to get things put into the places I want them to be and to make my space look less like a moving zone.

I’m not doing great about being mindful of my time or getting out of my house more, but I have been making steps toward improving those. I need to work on these more, but I also know that I have made efforts to both of these goals. But I don’t want to settle and only do the goals halfway if I can help it. And I think remembering that I set a goal to get out of my house more is a good push for me to keep reaching out to friends to see who might want to go do some things this summer. I have been reconnecting with friends who I didn’t see as often, and it’s been so much fun to revive these friendships that may have slipped into acquaintances in the recent past. And I think a lot of people have been doing the same thing, so it’s not weird to be reaching out to people that I haven’t seen in a long time.

And while I have told myself a lot that I want to get my budget set up again, there were always excuses of why I wanted to wait. I need to stop using that as an excuse and really set aside time to buckle down and get to work. I know I don’t need things to be perfect when I set them up, but there are a few things I want to get in order and planned before I set up the new budget. It’s mainly about reevaluating my regular payments and looking at my recent bills to get an idea of what the charges are. Even with the same bills that I used to have, the price I pay is different between my old place and my new place. There’s nothing crazy, but the amounts I’m used to paying might be slightly higher or lower and I want to set up my budget with the new amounts.

I think that I could make some great progress toward most of my goals this month. Obviously, my workout goal is limited to how many days there are in the month so I just have to keep moving along with that one and making the best effort to go 4 times a week. But for my other goals, I think July could be a great month to really get back to these goals and make sure that in 6 months I can share that I have accomplished what I was hoping to do.

A Chill New Year’s Eve (or Getting To Have A Little Celebration)

Most of the time for New Year’s Eve, I’m at a party with friends. I don’t like to go out to big events, but celebrating with my friends is the perfect way to celebrate with others but also have a low-key evening. There is no pressure to dress up, things are casual, and I always have fun. When the pandemic started, I don’t think any of us thought it would last through the end of the year. But it did, and I spend the end of 2020 home by myself and alone. I didn’t like spending a night that is normally a celebration alone, but that’s what needed to happen so everyone could stay safe and healthy.

By the end of 2021, things were better and worse at the same time. There are vaccines and treatment options to help, but the numbers are very high and people are still getting sick and dying. So being at a big party with friends wouldn’t have been a safe or smart choice. Fortunately, I was invited to a very small gathering with friends for New Year’s Eve and this group was all people who take things seriously. For example, one person invited found out they were in close contact with someone who tested positive the day before. Even though they didn’t test positive, they didn’t come because they didn’t want to risk getting everyone sick. Knowing that we all were taking the pandemic that seriously made me feel better about meeting up with a few people.

It was a very low-key night. We hung out and played some silly card games. And of course just talked and enjoyed being with other people. Most of us are staying pretty isolated or with very limited contact with friends in real life, so it was a nice break from that. There was still a sense of needing to be careful and cautious while we were together, but we did relax a bit more than I normally would around other people. And I needed this after not seeing many friends for so long. While the state of the world and pandemic never left my mind, I didn’t think about it as much as I usually do and that was a nice break for me.

However, I was dealing with a lot of pain and nausea over New Year’s Eve, so I wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying at the gathering. I was hoping I would make it until midnight, but I also knew that if I was feeling horrible that I might have to leave sooner. And I also thought that leaving before midnight would probably be safer when thinking about crazy drivers on the road. So I went to see my friends knowing that I might leave early and that’s exactly what I did. I tried to stay as long as I could, but I really wanted to just lay in bed and try to feel better after a few hours. I left just after 11pm and was home in bed when it was midnight and 2022 officially started.

Somehow, having half of a party night and half of a night at home alone seemed perfect to spend this past New Year’s Eve. We are not back to the old normal, but we are not in the same place we were in 2020. We are somewhere in the middle and that’s what my evening was. It was between what my normal is like and what the last year was like. Maybe by the start of 2023, we will be able to have a party the way we normally do. I want to be hopeful and think that, but I’ve also thought that so many times and have been wrong before. But at least things are slowly progressing toward normal and I didn’t have to spend the entire evening alone again.

Finding My Worth (or My Word Of The Year)

With the beginning of the year, it’s also time for me to plan my word for the year. Like I mentioned before, I see the word of the year as a theme for me and I like to pick positive words that can also challenge me.

Last year, my word for the year was patience. I think that was pretty self-explanatory with why I picked it and I think it was a good word to have last year when patience was something I needed to have and remind myself to be better about. But when I was going through ideas for words for 2022, I was really stumped. I do try to find words I can get on a bracelet from MantraBand, but this year I was also considering getting a ring. And since you can customize things too, I knew I didn’t need to pick something they already had. But I still like using their options as inspiration for me.

After looking on their website a few different times, I finally settled on a word that seems perfect but also a bit scary. This year, my word of the year is worthy.

And yes, I made a new computer background for this year with my word on it so I’m always reminded of it.

Being worthy is something I know I haven’t been good about in the past. I have allowed others to treat me in ways I know I didn’t deserve to be treated. I have made myself smaller and not spoken up. I have let others dictate too much about my life and my self-worth. And when I challenged myself to speak up more for myself, part of that idea is also knowing my own worth and that I am worthy of things I want.

In some aspects of my life, I am still figuring out what I want and what I’m worthy of. Or I question what I have believed for a while because it may have been influenced by what others have told me. But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with thinking I’m worth something and then changing my mind. Maybe I think too little of myself and maybe I think too much of myself. But growth and self-improvement are all about recognizing where things need to change. But the most important thing is to stop being scared of asking what I want because I am afraid of how others might react. If they react negatively about something I really feel like I’m worthy of, then that can speak more about them than about me. I have put myself last on the list for too long and I want to work on fixing that.

I don’t know what positive changes will come this year as I remember my worth and remember to not settle, but I know that it will allow me to be more honest with those in my life. And maybe asking for what I want will also bring those things into my life more. I don’t need to waste time putting energy into things I don’t want or that are less than I want. I want to focus on moving forward with the life I want to have and the things and people I want to have in that life.

My 2022 Goals (or Setting Myself Up For Hopefully A Productive Year)

I used to not be a huge fan of setting resolutions for the new year. I felt like those were setting me up for failure more often than not. But for some reason, setting goals for the year doesn’t give me the same feeling. I love setting goals for the year and often they allow me to create a plan for the new year. I’m usually pretty good about setting some goals that I know I can complete or that are easy to measure, so I feel like they are more possible than a general idea. Of course, I do set some more abstract ones too, but I’ve noticed those are the ones I usually struggle to accomplish by the end of the year.

So when I was setting my goals for 2022, I wanted to try to focus a lot on concrete goals that I know will help me make this year great. And I think I’ve found some really good ones.

My first goal for 2022 is a workout goal (as it’s been for the last several years). I want to complete at least 200 workouts. I would say 200 Orangetheory workouts, but I’m worried now that things might shut down again and I won’t be able to go back to the studio. Hopefully that doesn’t happen and all my workouts will be OTF classes, but I had to allow some flexibility in there. This goal should be easy for me to do. As long as I don’t have anything crazy happen to me, doing my regular workout schedule will get me to 200 workouts. I did think about trying to increase this goal, but that would mean having some weeks of 5 workouts a week and I’m not sure if I could do that. At least not yet. So this goal is the one that seems easiest to me, but at least I know I should end this year with at least this goal completed!

My next goal is to move into my condo and get everything set up. I don’t know exactly when I will be moving in, but I hope it will be this spring. And I know when I move in there will be a lot of time needed to get things the way I want them. I will need new furniture and I will probably adjust the stuff I currently own multiple times. But I want my condo to feel like a home to me by the end of this year and feel really settled in. I honestly can’t wait until I start living there. Every time I go over there to do little things, it feels more and more like my home. But I know when my things are there and I’m living there it will feel even more like mine. And knowing it is mine and not just a rental is an awesome feeling that I want to feel more!

Something I write about a lot on here is time management or feeling too busy at times. So my next goal is to be more mindful of my time. I don’t know exactly how to organize my time better, but I want to have my work time set up to be more productive and a better difference between my work time and free time. I do think this might change more when I move because my office space won’t be in the same space that I relax in, so I won’t always feel half working and half relaxing. But I also don’t want to waste my free time and feel like I don’t have the time to do what I want to do. I need to find the time to do what I want and I know I waste time in random ways. Setting up a better schedule for myself will help, but just being mindful of where my time goes is really the goal I have for myself so I can be better about planning my life.

The next goal is something that may or may not be possible. It really depends on the state of the world. But I would like to spend more time out of my house. I spend way too much time inside. I do know that this is partially to keep me safe, but I also know I am using that as an excuse too. I could make more plans out of my house that are safe to do. I also need to be ok doing things alone because I have been saying I don’t go out because so many of my friends moved away since the pandemic. I do still have friends here and I need to reach out to more of them to make plans. But there is plenty I can do outside of my house on my own and I need to start doing that. I think in a way, this goal goes with being mindful of time management because I also say I don’t have time to do things. But if I find the time, I need to find things outside of my house to do.

And my last goal is one I’ve done before. I want to work on my budget. This is something I have done from time to time, but lately I haven’t been good about it. And there are a few things that are still a bit odd that make budgeting hard for me to plan for, but that is also a bit of an excuse. I don’t need my budget to be perfect in order to have one. I can get the general idea going and hopefully get more specific from there. I do still have budgeting software I can use, but I’m looking into alternatives in case there is something that fits my life and how I want to budget a bit better.

I think these are some great goals for 2022 and if I’m able to accomplish just some of them I will have an amazing year! I know some of them are harder for me to accomplish than others, but they are all possible. I just have to make it happen. And hopefully in a year when I come back to my goals, I will have at least tried to get them all done.

My First Challenge of 2022 (or Trying To Get Back To Better Habits)

The past few years I’ve been setting monthly challenges, and I’m going to continue doing that this year. I think it’s good to have daily, weekly, monthly, and annual challenges to help me accomplish quite a bit during a year. And I’ll be going over my goals/challenges for 2022 later this week, but I wanted to start with my January challenge since I think this is something a lot of people are doing.

But first, a quick check about my challenge for December. I challenged myself to speak up more for myself. I knew I needed to do this for so many aspects of my life, and I’m proud to say that I feel so much more confident speaking my mind and not fearing things. I do know there can be consequences for speaking up, but the things I’m speaking up about have consequences that I think are ones I’m willing to accept. Like with dating, speaking up means I might not have a date or a second date because I won’t tolerate specific behavior. And while I am trying to be ok with this idea, I at least can speak up more. I might be sad to not have as many dates because of this, but this is about quality over quantity. I don’t need to put up with someone who says something that is offensive or that doesn’t want similar things to what I want.

Obviously I can’t speak up quite as freely in all aspects of my life, but I am finding ways to make sure my voice is heard even when I have to do it less directly. And it’s reassuring to see positive outcomes when I do speak up so I have less fear each time I have to do it.

My December challenge was a bit more of a mental one, and my challenge for January is a bit more about my physical health (and maybe a bit of my mental health). And it’s also a modification on a challenge I did a few years ago. Several years ago, I challenged myself not to order delivery food for a month. And while I would love to say I won’t order delivery food for a month, with my crazier schedule I know that might not be possible. So I had to add a bit more of a challenge one way to reduce the challenge another way.

So for January, I want to try to limit both my delivery food and take out food as much as possible. This means that I don’t want to do pickup or drive thru options either. Sometimes, if I’m out running errands after work and I see a short line at In-n-Out, it’s just easier to get a hamburger than to go home and see what I can make for myself. But I’m slipping into bad habits again and doing this more often than I would like. I am not doing delivery food too often, but I know I need to cut back on that too.

But I am doing things to make this challenge a bit easier on me. I’m making sure I have easy to make meals at home. Frozen dinners aren’t the best, but they are better (and cheaper) than going out to eat or bringing food home. And this is a way to do a little bit of meal planning without putting too much pressure on this idea.

I do want to work on my eating habits and what types of food I eat, but I know I need to do baby steps because I can revert to old habits easily. And if something doesn’t seem too extreme, it’s a little easier for me to maintain. So that’s why I’m going a bit easier on myself and not saying I have to completely eliminate this from my life. I just want to limit it. And I think that is a good way for me to set myself up for success with this first challenge of 2022.

Wrapping Up My 2021 Workouts (or An End To One Year And A Start To Another)

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is usually weird, as I mentioned in my other post. But the one place things were still normal was with my workouts. I got my usual 4 workouts in for the week, even if they weren’t exactly the usual plan. I had a few classes at different times and the ones in the normal times were not 3 group classes but they were 2 group classes instead. So Monday and Wednesday were my normal times, but 2 group classes. And Friday and Saturday were different from normal times and those also happened to be 2 group classes! So I had a full week without a 3 group class!

Monday’s class was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was themed around practice, perfect, and perform. So on the floor, each block had exercises that worked together.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks and we had done this workout before. The first block had all short intervals at a base pace with increasing inclines. The second block was also short intervals at a base pace but we started at the highest incline and went down each time. And for the last block, we got to decide if we wanted to start at the top or the bottom of the hill. For me, I always pick to start at the top so things get a bit easier each time.

The floor was also 3 blocks and each block started with a 150-meter row. Then we went to the floor and each block had exercises that worked together. The first block had single-leg deadlifts, regular deadlifts, hip hinge swings, and bicycle chest presses. The second block had lunges, lunges with dumbbells, jump lunges, and reciprocal low rows. For this block, I just had to do regular lunges for all the lunges but I did take breaks since doing all of them at once would be a bit too much for me. And the last block had hand-release push-ups, chest presses, power push-ups, and toe touches. I was struggling on the floor with being a bit nauseous, but it wasn’t that bad so besides the lunges, I didn’t have to modify much.

Wednesday’s workout was a strength day and I was feeling miserable that day. I hated how bad I was feeling because I really wanted to try. But it ended up being a day where I just did what I could and I know it wasn’t much.

For cardio, the first block was a mix of push paces at no incline and push paces at an incline. And the push paces with inclines got shorter as the inclines got higher. The second block was all about short intervals and we started at the top of the hill with the highest incline and did base paces with incline and then an all-out at an incline. We worked our way down lowering the incline for each base pace or all-out. I did use the resistance levels on the bike and I did use the levels I would use if I had been feeling ok. I just was pedaling really slowly.

On the floor, the first block was floor exercises. We had single-arm high rows, lunges, plank in and outs, chest presses, burpees, and plank abductions. For the plank work, I used the bench for my hands so I didn’t feel as nauseous. And the second block was timed with the treadmills. When the treadmills had their base paces (which was 2 rounds for 30-seconds each at a time), we had single-arm shoulder raises. When the treadmills were in their 30-second all-outs, we had a 30-second row. Even though I did struggle with the row a bit, I think this block ended up being my best block for the entire workout.

And on Friday, since it was New Year’s Eve and I had the day off of work, I went a little later in the morning than I normally do. This workout was a New Year’s Eve theme with everything being a countdown.

For cardio, we had 1-minute push paces followed by 75-seconds to recover for pretty much the entire block. The inclines started at 10% (I did 9 over my base resistance level on the bike) for each push pace and it went down by 1% each round so we ended at 1% (or for me at my base resistance level). And when we were at that base level, we had a 30-second all-out to finish the cardio for the workout. I was feeling a little better compared to Wednesday, but still not totally myself. So I tried my best to only take breaks during the recovery time. I didn’t always do that, but it was a good goal for me to keep in my head.

And the floor was also one long block with a countdown theme, but the block was split into 4 mini-blocks. With each mini-block, we had 2 exercises that we started at 10 reps and went down by 2 reps each time. After doing 5 rounds we had a row. The first row was 700-meters and that went down 200-meters each time. The mini-blocks were push-ups and pop jacks, upright rows and front raises, squats and bridge rows, and leg raises and toe reaches. I got through the exercises for the 3rd mini-block and was about to start my 300-meter row when the class was done. But I was proud of what I did, especially with my 500-meter row. It wasn’t my best time, but I was able to do it without any breaks which felt huge with how I was feeling.

And that workout ended my workouts for 2021. I was able to do 205 workouts this past year and most of them were back at the studio so I know they weren’t easy ones! And of course, I had to start off 2022 with a workout on New Year’s Day to get started on my next workout goal!

And on Saturday, I actually went to an earlier class than I normally do since I had the day off of work. It wasn’t that early since I wanted to be able to sleep in, but it was nice to get my first workout of 2022 done with lots of time left in my day after.

This workout was an endurance day and the cardio was all about doing 90-second push paces. We had 2 blocks, and each block was all 90-second push paces with either a 45-second or 1-minute base pace between each one. And we ended with a 30-second all-out for each block. I was a bit tired that day and still nauseous, so I was glad that things were pretty consistent for cardio and I didn’t have to think too much about switching the gears on the bike.

For the floor, the first block was half rowing and half floor. We had a 600-meter, 400-meter, and 200-meter row with lunges between each row. Once those were done, we had push-ups, squats, and hip dips. And the second block had weighted front squats, burpees (which I tried to do but had to skip because I was getting too nauseous), leg extensions, and plank leg lifts. It was a tough class, but also the perfect way to kick off 2022!

And now, I get to work toward my workout goals for this year and I think I kicked them off with a great end to 2021 and a perfect start to 2022!