Tag Archives: challenge

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

Posted on July 1, 2022 | Comments Off

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.

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Tagged 2022, challenge, goals, planning, volt planner

Finding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing)

Posted on June 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy June! As always, a new month brings a new monthly challenge for me. I feel like so many of my challenges so far this year have been about moving, and I have a feeling that trend may continue through this year a bit more.

Last month, I set my challenge to work on consolidating the boxes I still have left. And I think I did an ok job with this challenge. I had some setbacks with moving things out of boxes that I didn’t expect, so I do have a few more boxes than I would like. But I have gotten everything down to only a handful of boxes that are all in my office. I don’t have boxes everywhere, and that has helped me a lot. I do still want to work through the boxes I have in my office and see what can be combined. And I know that if I really worked more on it, I could probably put away a few more things. I would also like to get more boxes into my closet and off of the main room in my office, but I need to work on that still. But compared to how things were at the beginning of the month, this is a huge improvement and I know that it has made me feel more at home.

Even though consolidating boxes isn’t exactly organizing, it feels like it is. And this month, I’m working on a different type of organization. And I think that this was inspired by my move as well.

I want to work on my digital entertainment and organize that as well. And what I mean by that is to go through the podcasts I’m subscribed to and the shows I have set on my DVR and see what I really want to keep. For my DVR, this was something I had to do because of my move. Getting a new DVR means setting up all my series recordings again. So I really thought about all the shows I was recording and started to get rid of things that I know I don’t really enjoy much anymore. Most of these things were news or reality tv since I tend to finish out scripted shows that I watch. But I might want to start seeing which shows I record that I don’t really look forward to watching anymore.

And as I’ve been paying attention to what I’m entertaining myself with, I’ve noticed there are a lot of podcasts that have been piling up in my podcast app. Sometimes I have to be in a specific mood to watch something, but there are some podcasts that I’m not really enjoying anymore or I feel differently about. For example, I used to listen to true crime podcasts a lot, but I feel like those aren’t always done with the best intentions or with the permission of the families involved so I’m not listening to them anymore. And there are some interview-style podcasts that don’t have guests I want to hear from, so I’m always skipping episodes. I have so many podcasts that I’m subscribed to that I haven’t listened to in quite a while, and it’s time to just move on and unsubscribe.

I haven’t decided if this digital organizing is going to extend to going through the apps I have on my phone, but it might. I have found that as I started clearing out things I’m not interested in, it snowballs and I seem to feel more motivated to continue doing that. So I just want to see what happens this month as I work on being a bit more selective about what digital clutter I have.

And maybe, I’ll start the second half of this year in a much less cluttered setup between the physical space and the digital spaces I have.

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Tagged challenge, clean, organization, volt planner

A Week Of Mayhem (or Completing Another Fitness Challenge)

Posted on May 30, 2022 | Comments Off

This past week’s workouts were a part of Mayhem! I have done Mayhem before, and it’s similar to Hell Week. This year, I knew I’d get enough workouts in to complete it and get the swag, but I didn’t officially sign up for it. They were giving away a water bottle, which I would love, but I also know I don’t need it. If it was a shirt, I probably would have paid just to get it. But this year I just got my 4 workouts in and get the bragging rights.

Monday’s workout was called Distance Distortion. And it was a switch template so we had 2 blocks at each section of the room, but we switched after each block. So I did cardio, rowing, floor, cardio, rowing, and floor. That’s a change from what we normally do with back-to-back blocks within the same section of the room.

For cardio, the first block started with 1 minute between a base and push pace. Because of what was coming up, I kept it at my base resistance level on the bike. Every minute, I was supposed to increase the resistance level by 1. Because this block was over 6 minutes long, I got the resistance higher than what I normally do for my all-out. And when I got back to the bike for the second block, we started at what we ended with in the first block and every minute I decreased the resistance level by 1. We were supposed to track the distance to see if we could beat it in the second block, but I forgot to look after the first so I’m not sure if I did that.

The first block on the rower started with a 500-meter row. Then we had some knees to elbows followed by 3 rounds of a 100-meter row. After completing the last 100-meter row, we had squats until the end of the block. And in the second block, we had 3 rounds of a 100-meter row followed by both exercises and just keep repeating that. I only got to my 4th 100-meter row when the block ended.

And on the floor, the first block started with sumo squats and then we had froggers. For the sumo squats, we had a rep count, but for the froggers, we were supposed to do as many as we could until we needed to rest. And after 2 rounds of the exercises, we had double crunches until the end of the block. And the second block had low rows with weights for a set number of reps and low rows on the straps until we needed a rest. And after 2 rounds of those, we had bicycle crunches for the rest of the block.

I did have one small incident on the floor. I have had a lot of klutzy moments over the years at Orangetheory, but I always seem to have more. And this time, I dropped the weight I was using for my double crunches on my head because it slipped. It was totally my fault and I’m fine, but I did get a nice bruise from it. I’ve always worried about dropping a weight, and now I know to make sure I have a better grip on my weights when I’m starting to get tired.

Wednesday’s workout was called Base-ically Upside Down. For this workout, each section of the room had 3 blocks that were 4 minutes each.

For cardio, each block had the same pattern. We had a 90-second base pace at an incline, a 1-minute push pace at the same incline, a 45-second walking recovery, and a 45-second all-out. Each block the incline went up. The way it was set for me with the resistance levels, the first block I was at my push pace level the entire time, the second block was between my push and all-out, and the last was at my all-out. And I really made an effort to increase how fast I was pedaling between the base and push paces at the incline. It was really tough in the last block because that was a long time to be at what is normally my all-out level, but I feel like I did a pretty good job with it.

On the rower, we also had a similar pattern for all the blocks. Each block had a row for a specific distance. then we had front jacks and power jacks with a medicine ball, which I modified to be front presses and overhead presses. And then we rowed until the block was done. The goal was to try to get the same distance for each block. In the first block, the first row was 400-meters. The second block was 300-meters. And the last block was 200-meters. I tried to match my distance each time, but I didn’t quite make it for the second block.

And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises that had a load and explode format. The first block had bench tap squats, bench tap front squats, and bench tap jump squats. I did calf raises instead of the jump for the jump squats. The second block had push-ups, chest presses with weights, and power push-ups. This was one of the first times in a long time that I really tried to do the power push-ups. It wasn’t easy and I had to go slow, but I managed to do most of them as power push-ups each time. And the last block had mountain climbers, plank pull-throughs, and plank jacks. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job with the exercises and making sure I really tried to make the last exercise in each block an explosive move.

Thursday’s workout was called (De)construct Your Reality. I was a bit tired from not sleeping well plus I was a bit sore from Wednesday, but I knew I could at least do better than how I do when I’m dealing with nausea. Just like on Wednesday, each section of the room had 3 blocks that were 4 minutes each.

For cardio, every block we had a push pace to an all-out. That was the entire block. The first block had a 3-minute push pace to a 1-minute all-out. The second block had a 3.25-minute push pace to a 45-second all-out. And the last block had a 3.5-minute push pace to a 30-second all-out. We normally don’t have a push pace that is more than 3-minutes, so that added to how tough each block was. Plus, not having a break during the entire 4 minutes was a challenge. But it was a good challenge and I really enjoyed it.

On the rower, for the first block, we started with a 45-second push row followed by a 30-second all-out row. Then we had 30 seconds to rest before we had a 45-second all-out row. And we ended that block with another 30 seconds to rest and then a 1-minute all-out row. After finishing that block, we looked at our distance on the rower because we would use that for the next block. For the second block, we did half the distance we did in the first block. Then we took 30 seconds to rest and did a base pace row until we did a 45-second all-out row at the end of that block. And for the last block, we did a similar pattern as the first block. But we had the 1-minute all-out row first and we ended with the 30-second all-out row.

And on the floor, each block had 3 exercises that either constructed or deconstructed an exercise. For the first block, we had squats, alternating shoulder presses, and neutral full thrusters. For the second block, we had straight leg raise to crunches (which I did as double crunches), weighted crunches, and straight leg raises. And for the last block, we had high rows on the straps, triceps on the straps, and pull-ups on the straps (which I did as low rows instead). Even though it wasn’t a ton of different exercises and not a lot of work with weights, I really felt the floor work when we were done with the workout.

Friday’s workout was called All Out Darkness. And as it sounds, it was all about all-outs or feeling like you are in an all-out in the workout. Each section of the room was one long block, so we didn’t have a lot of rest time during the workout.

For cardio, we repeated the same pattern for the entire block. We had a 90-second push pace, a 30-second push pace at an incline, and then a recovery. Doing a push pace at an incline is basically the same as doing an all-out. But because the incline/resistance level increased each time, that got harder and harder each time. That’s different from a regular all-out where it can feel the same the entire time. And because of how many times we repeated the pattern, I was using resistance levels much higher than I normally use in the workout. I felt like my legs weren’t moving at the end, but I was also using a level that I think I’ve only used once or twice before.

On the rower, we followed the same timed pattern as cardio. For the 90-second segment, we had squats and then a 150-meter row. The squats started at 25 reps and went down each round. Any time in the 90-seconds we had left after the row we could rest. But I didn’t have extra time until the 4th round. Then in the 30-second segment, we had an all-out row. And we also had the 45-second recovery.

And on the floor, we had drop set work. For the drop sets, we had deadlifts, double crunches, lunges, and tricep extensions. And we also had regular reps with skater lunges, running man, and lunges. I did have to skip the drop sets for the lunges and just did regular lunges for both lunge reps. But I was able to do all the rest of the exercises, even though I was exhausted at the end of the workout.

These workouts were definitely hard, but they were such a good challenge. And even though I didn’t get the water bottle for completing the challenge, I still completed it and I’m proud of myself! And I’m so grateful that this week happened on a good week for me because it would have been so frustrating to be limited with what I could do. So I’m glad I really could push myself and feel so accomplished!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, fitness, Mayhem Week, Orangetheory, workout

I Really Did Give Myself An Easy Monthly Challenge (or This Month Will Possibly Be Easy As Well)

Posted on May 3, 2022 | Comments Off

For my monthly challenge in April, I set it to be something that I had no choice but to accomplish. The challenge was to be completely out of my old place by the end of the month. Because the last month of my lease was April, I had to be out by the end of the month. Of course, I wanted it to be a bit easier than just rushing at the end of the month to get it done. And most of my things were out about a week before the end of the month. I did have a few last things I had to move or give away within the last few days, but on the last day of April, I did turn in my keys and officially said goodbye to my old home for the last time.

I know it was an easy challenge for me to set, but I wanted to make it an easy one since I was preparing for the month to be stressful and didn’t want to add any extra stress that I could avoid. Of course, I wasn’t fully prepared for how stressful moving would be. So I’m extra grateful that the challenge I set for April didn’t add to that stress and make things worse for me.

And my challenge this month is also connected to moving and hopefully will be a bit of an easy one as well. My challenge for May is to get most of my things out of boxes or into consolidated boxes. I know it won’t be possible to get everything out of the boxes by the end of the month because I still need to buy some furniture that will hold my things. And right now, I’m pulling a temporary hold on buying more stuff due to some things in the condo still needing to be worked on (more about that coming later). So things like my books will need to stay in boxes for a bit longer.

But I can get a lot of things out of boxes by the end of this month. And for what I can’t get out of boxes, I can get into boxes for each section of my house. For example, right now in my office, I have about 5 boxes with different things in them. Some of the boxes have things that won’t be going into my office and some of the things going into my office are in boxes in other parts of the condo. So if I could get all my office stuff into a few boxes in my office, that will make things easier when I do have the pieces I need to put things away.

Even though I got rid of a lot of things while I was packing up my house, I’m sure I will find things in these boxes that I might not want to keep. So organizing what is not put away will also help me make sure I don’t keep things just to have them. But I don’t think there will be too much that I find that I need to get rid of. It will be more about planning where I want to put things now that I have so much more space. So things that I had to put in one place because it’s the only place they fit before could be put somewhere else now that I have some options. Decorating this new space should be a fun process and I’m finally getting close to enjoying that part of my new home.

I would love it if most of the boxes were out of my condo by the end of the month, but I don’t know how possible that will be. So I just want to see how much I can get it down to and how much I can organize all the things that I haven’t put away just yet. And hopefully by doing that, I will feel even more at home by the end of May.

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Tagged challenge, moving, organization, planning, volt planner

Another Week Of Weekday Workout (or Getting Used To This Plan)

Posted on April 11, 2022 | Comments Off

The workouts this past week continued with the new theme for Orangetheory workouts with all the workouts being a mix of endurance, strength, and power. There were some days where it was a bit clearer which section of the room was which, but on other days it just felt like each section was a mix of all three. And it was another week where I only worked out on weekdays instead of having a workout on a Saturday. I am glad to have this extra time on Saturdays, but I’m still debating if I would keep up this schedule regularly after I’m done moving.

Monday’s workout was one where it felt like things were a bit mixed for all sections of the room.

For cardio, we started with a 4-minute push pace followed by a 90-second walking recovery after. I can’t remember any time where we had a walking recovery after a push pace instead of an all-out. But it was to allow us to really focus on our push pace and not worry too much about getting back to a base pace after. We also had a 3-minute, 2-minute, and 90-second push pace with the same recovery after each one and then we ended with a 30-second all-out.

On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row with a round of squats after the row. We then rowed again and decreased the row each time. After doing the 100-meter row and the squats, we did the 100-meter row again but had good mornings between each row instead of squats and then increased the row each time.

And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had close-grip chest presses, lunges, and skier swings. And the second block had hop-overs (which I was able to do by lowering the bench to the lowest setting) and push-ups. The second block was definitely more challenging for me than the first, but it wasn’t too horrible and I was happy with what I was able to do.

Wednesday’s workout was all about constructing and deconstructing. And it was a tough workout even though I know I’ve done similar workouts to this one. Each section of the room had 3 blocks.

For cardio, the first block was a 1-minute base pace, 1-minute between a base and push pace, 1-minute push pace, and a 1-minute all-out. The second block was the first block in reverse so starting with the 1-minute all-out and ending with the 1-minute base pace. And for the last block, we got to choose if we wanted to repeat block 1 or block 2 and I decided to do the second block.

The rower was the same idea as cardio with the first block starting at a base row and ending at an all-out row, the second block starting at an all-out row and ending at a base row, and the third block was our choice. I did try to increase the wattage on the rower to have a difference for each minute, but I really struggled with doing that and for the last block I just did a 4-minute row without worrying about switching things each minute.

And on the floor, we had 4 exercises and did each one for 1-minute. The first block was seated torso rotations, alternating shoulder presses, squats, and squats to upward rotations. The second block started with the squats to upward rotations and ended with the torso rotations. And for the third block, we got to choose which one to do and I started with the torso rotations because I was already on the floor. There were so few changes to rest and catch your breath and the workout felt so tough. I was exhausted at the end of the class and I don’t even think I went that hard during the class!

Because I’m skipping Saturday workouts for now, I also went to a Thursday workout. I was pretty tired from not sleeping well and a little sore from the Wednesday workout, but I was going into this workout and hoping for the best.

We had 2 blocks for each section of the room. For cardio, the first block had a 90-second push pace, 1-minute push pace, and 30-second push pace with a 1-minute base pace between each one. And we ended that block with a 1-minute all-out. For the second block, the push paces were all 45-seconds and the base paces were 90-seconds, 1-minute, and 30-seconds with the 30-second all-out at the end.

On the rower, the first block started with a 250-meter row with medicine ball squats to overhead presses after the row. The row went down by 50 meters each round and the medicine ball exercises stayed the same each time. And in the second block, the row was always 150-meters but the medicine ball exercises started at 25 reps and went down by 5 reps each round.

And on the floor, the first block had lunges to step-ups (which I had to do as just lunges), alternating close-grip chest presses, and single-arm low rows on the straps. The second block had lunges, chest flies, and single-leg lifts using the straps. I felt better about this workout than I did about Wednesday’s, but I know I was going a bit easier since I was going to be going to another workout the next day.

For Friday’s workout, we had 2 blocks for each section of the room and we switched between blocks so we had 2 rotations around the room. Switching between blocks doesn’t really happen much now (they stopped during the pandemic), so this was something different from what I have been used to. This workout was about load and explode, so we worked out similar muscle groups but had some exercises that were more steady and others that had more explosive movements.

For cardio, the 2 blocks were very similar. We did almost the entire block at a base pace, but we used inclines. We had 3 hills per block and each hill had 3 inclines. Each hill was 90-seconds long and each incline was for 30-seconds. And between each hill, we had 45-seconds at a base pace without incline. And on the last hill, the last incline was supposed to be an all-out, so it was the highest incline and we were also supposed to increase our speed. I used all the resistance levels I should have been using on the bike and I tried to focus on keeping my speed on the bike somewhat steady the entire time. I did struggle to keep up my speed with some of the higher inclines, but I was closer than I would have been if I wasn’t focused on that.

For the rower, we had 3 rounds of 90-seconds of work each block. We had a 30-second base pace, 30-second push pace, and 30-second all-out. And after that, we had 45-seconds to do a recovery row, so we were still rowing but we could go as slow as we needed to go. I was able to get my wattage up a bit on the rower each time, but it wasn’t as much as I know we should be doing.

And on the floor, the first block had weighted squats, squat jumps, and plank low rows. I did squats with calf raises instead of squat jumps, but I tried to do them with more power to fit into the theme of an explosive movement. And the second block had chest presses, power push-ups, and lateral lunges with balance. For the lateral lunges, we were supposed to use weights, but I wanted to try to do the balance work so I did them without weights because I wanted my hands free if I needed to balance myself. The balance work was tough (as it always is for me with my hips), but I did find a way to make them work so that was a good accomplishment for me.

This was definitely a good week for me with my workouts. I have been liking the new way the workouts are planned so that we get endurance, strength, and power in each class. And even though doing 3 workouts in a row isn’t the easiest thing for me, I’m glad that I’m able to do that without too many issues. Especially since it looks like at least the few weeks will continue to be this same plan so I have as much time as possible on Saturdays to get things done with my move.

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Tagged challenge, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

A Few Delays With My Monthly Challenge (or This Month, I Will Be Moving)

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Comments Off

When I set my monthly challenge last month, I said that I thought I would be either moving or close to moving during March. And that’s why I wanted to set my challenge to be about getting back onto a cleaning schedule. As I have started to pack things up in my house, it has also been getting messier. There are a lot of things making cleaning tough, but I also know I was using that as an excuse. So I wanted to try to clean things as much as I could.

And I think I did a good job with getting back to doing speed cleans every day. Some days I was able to do more than one speed clean in a day. Even though my house is getting crowded with boxes and things all over the place, I am still trying to pick things up when I can and try to keep the craziness as organized as I can. I am also still anxious because my house feels messy with the clutter, but at least doing some of my regular cleanings helps with that feeling a bit. I was hoping that this past month would somehow help me feel like the boxes all over weren’t making it as messy as it felt, but that was just a feeling I couldn’t get over.

This month, I am for sure moving! I submitted my 30-day notice to my landlord so I will have to be out of my current place by the end of the month. I’m also working on scheduling cleaners (I want to clean the condo before I move in because of all the renovation dust) and movers. I think I’ll be able to move in around the middle of the month, so I’ll have time to clean up my current place after everything is moved out before my landlord takes my keys.

And because this month is going to be busy with packing, moving, and cleaning; I’m going to make the monthly challenge one that isn’t really too hard for me. My challenge for April is going to be to move out of my home for over 12 years into my new condo. Obviously, this is going to have to happen because of the notice I gave. But it’s going to be a challenge no matter what. I’ve been going through things that I have and seeing what I really want to move with me. It’s hard to pick through 12 years of a place and really consider if I need it. I’ve held on to a lot of things over the years, and I don’t need to take stuff that will just be put into a drawer and never needed.

I am hiring movers to help me with some of my big furniture, but I also plan on moving a lot of things myself. I don’t have a ton of boxes, but I have a few and I also bought some moving bags that are similar to Ikea shopping bags. If I pack up all the boxes and bags I have, I can drive over to the new place, unpack them without necessarily organizing everything, and then drive back and pack them up again and do more than one carload in a day. I will have to be flexible with how I move, but my idea is to do 2-3 carloads one day after work and then the next day not bring anything else over and just put away everything that I moved the day before. I have no clue if this method will work or make things more stressful, so I’ll just have to see how it goes.

When I have the movers, I will be moving all the big things and then I will probably be living over at the condo more than in my current place. But I will have some flexibility because I am selling the bed I have now and already purchased a new one for the condo. So if I moved all my furniture but for some reason needed to not stay there for a night or two, I will be ok doing that. It won’t be convenient, but it’s an option. But that’s why I want to move as much as I can as soon as I can so my things are over there by the time my furniture is.

I can’t be sure that I will have everything put away and organized by the end of this month, but I’m going to try my best. I know how stressed I am living in a disorganized space, and I don’t want to extend that more than I need to. But I do know that I will have to complete this challenge because there is no other option for me. I will be moved to the condo by the end of the month and I will need to clean my current place as much as I can so my landlord doesn’t deduct cleaning fees from my deposit.

I can’t wait to be in my condo and I can’t believe that I’m almost living there. This has felt like it has taken so long since I knew my current place was going to be sold back in August. I know that it really hasn’t been that long considering everything, but I’m ready to be done with this in-between time and onto the next phase of my life in LA!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, condo, home, moving, volt planner

A Dri-Tri Sunday (or I Didn’t Realize This Was A Milestone)

Posted on March 22, 2022 | Comments Off

I’ve done the Dri–Tri at Orangetheory multiple times before. I’ve done the regular one in the studios, I’ve done 1 relay, and I did the at-home Dri-Tri when the studios were still shut down. It’s always a challenge, but it’s also something I look forward to. I might be nervous and sometimes question why I’m doing it before starting or in the middle of the event, but I’m always proud of myself when I’m done and I have never really regretted doing one after. I am always proud of what I can do, even if I’m disappointed in not getting a PR or having a big improvement from my last one. And it’s a great way for me to prove to myself that I am strong and I can do a fitness challenge as hard as the Dri-Tri is.

But they don’t always go smoothly for me. I’ve had some not-so-great luck with a few of the ones in the past. I’ve had one that was after a night that I wasn’t able to sleep so I was exhausted and really didn’t feel ready. My first post-shutdown Dri-Tri seemed to have multiple issues such as me having the wrong time written down so I almost missed it plus I was dealing with a burst blood vessel in my eye. And when the Dri-Tri this time was announced, I realized right after signing up that it was going to be on what would likely be one of the worst pain and nausea days for me. That’s just how it happened and there was no way I could have prevented that.

But I’ve done workouts while I’m hurting and I figured this would be another challenge for me. I also knew that since it was a bit later than my typical morning classes, I could take some pain and anti-nausea meds a few hours before it started so they would have time to kick in. I wasn’t going to go into the Dri-Tri with any super crazy goals. I really just wanted to finish in under an hour (if possible) and I didn’t want to have to leave to be sick. I also had a real stretch goal of finishing in under 55 minutes, but I knew that was going to be very difficult since I haven’t done that for my most recent ones.

The 2000-meter row is always first, and I think that might be what worries me the most each time. That’s a really long row and I have learned from Dri-Tris in the past that I can’t go too hard or I will be too tired for the rest of it. So making sure I pace myself is important but also I need to try to push myself a bit and not go as easy as I might for a regular workout. I knew I would need some breaks during the row and some would be out of my control (if I get too nauseous, I have to stop or it will get much worse). But I wanted to limit the breaks that weren’t necessary so I could get off the rower as fast as I could. I only ended up taking 3 breaks total. 2 of those breaks were ones that I picked and 1 was due to being nauseous. And I didn’t take my first break until I had done over 1000-meters, so that was a big accomplishment for me. I was able to do the row in just over 11 minutes, which was much better than I expected. I had a goal in my head of trying to be under 15 minutes.

The floor was extra tough this time because there are a few exercises that are face down and those make me extra nauseous. I just took my time with those and modified things where I could so I didn’t get too sick. I know we aren’t supposed to modify much, but my studio and the coaches there are really good about being ok with me having to make those changes so I can manage things. The one tough thing each time with the floor is that you do the exercises twice. So you always know when you are halfway through and sometimes it feels like I have so much more to do. This time felt like that, but I was focused a bit more on not feeling sick so that, in a weird way, was a nice distraction.

And the last part is the 5K run, which is 12.4 miles on the bike. I’ve done the bike for the last few Dri-Tris and I think I’m getting better on the bike each time. I do still need to make improvements with how fast I pedal. I probably need to put the resistance level lower than I’m used to so I can keep going fast and not get too tired. I did try to do a few small bursts of sprints so I could pedal really fast and then went back to a consistent pace. That helped a lot with getting a lot of distance quickly on the bike.

When I got on the bike, I knew I could make a guess for how long it would take before I was done. I know approximately how long that part will take, but the variable is how often I might need to rest or drink water. So I had a good feeling that I probably would finish in under an hour, but I wasn’t sure how close to that hour mark I would be. I think those sprints helped me a lot because I ended up finishing in 55:24, which was 27 seconds faster than my last Dri-Tri! I wasn’t expecting to beat my last one, especially with how I was feeling. I guess this is a sign of how much stronger I am than I was back then. I’m still over 6 minutes away from my PR, but I know it’s going to take time to get close to that old time again. But I’m so thrilled with a 27-second improvement!

I was celebrating my improvement while I hung out at the studio to cheer on the next group of people working on the Dri-Tri. I didn’t stay the entire time for the next group because I was starting to feel really nauseous and wanted to get home, but I was there until most of them got onto their treadmills.

And then when I got home, I figured out something else I could celebrate. This was technically my 10th Dri-Tri! I have now done 8 full in-studio, 1 relay, and 1 at-home. I don’t know if I want to necessarily count the relay and at-home ones, but a friend told me they should count since I did a fitness challenge no matter which one I did. So I’m going to celebrate that and then celebrate doing 10 in-studio ones after completing 2 more.

I really went into the Dri-Tri this past weekend worried I wouldn’t do ok and that I might feel like I missed a chance to prove to myself I could do it. Instead, I went above and beyond what I thought I could do and I proved to myself even more than ever that I am an athlete who can take on challenges like this!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, dri-tri, fitness, Orangetheory, workout

Having Things Organized And Clean (or Not Slacking Off Because Of My Upcoming Move)

Posted on March 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy March! I’m hoping this will be an exciting month for me. I will either be moving this month or be very close to moving by the end of the month. Things with the pandemic seem to be getting better. And while this might not be able to happen, I might have a trip later this month (it’s very likely to not happen, but I’m still hopeful). And of course, I’m also starting a new monthly challenge.

For February, my challenge was all about working on to-do and task lists. I knew I needed to be more organized with my time, especially as I took on new projects at work. And I was hoping I could work on planning what I would be doing after work so I could be better about my free time. Well, I did do pretty well about making lists for work. I still have a running list of tasks and projects I’m working on and for some of them I have the due dates listed as well. But for my free time, I didn’t plan too much. I think this had more to do with not having much to do after work this past month and not as much about not wanting to do it. If I had an errand or a bunch of errands I needed to do after work, I did write things out and plan the order I wanted to do them in. Even without doing all the lists I was hoping I would do, I did feel more in control with my time than I did before so that was a positive result.

And this month, my challenge is something that I feel like I have to add in because I have noticed myself slipping. I am pretty clean and usually have a clean house. I’m not perfect and sometimes things build up, but I’ve been good in the past with having a regular cleaning routine and making sure I don’t slack off too much. But for the past two months, I have used the excuse of my upcoming move as a reason to not clean. Like not dusting because I’ll just be putting things into a box soon. Or not stressing that my floors haven’t been mopped because I am dragging something out of my house soon so I can clean after that. But what I think is the messiest thing lately is having piles of things I’m still sorting through and saying it’s ok to leave it and deal with it later.

But having a messy house is affecting me and despite me thinking it’s ok to put things off, it’s not good for me. So I want to get back to my regular cleaning routine as much as possible and to continue things as if I wasn’t going to be moving soon. There are some things that I can’t exactly do because of prepping for a move (some boxes are around and I can’t put things away since they are going to the new place soon), but those are the exceptions and not the rule. I know I could do a lot more with my cleaning and making my space feel more comfortable for me. I will still have some discomfort with how my place is coming apart and being put into boxes, but I shouldn’t be adding more stress to it when I can help it.

In the past, I have done speed cleaning every day and I kept that up for a while. But I stopped doing it when I got into a better routine and had regular days to do different tasks. But I think I need to get back into my daily speed clean just to make sure I’m not ignoring something that I am telling myself I can put off until later. And when I move, I will probably need to have a new routine so getting back into the groove with speed cleans will probably help me when figuring that out when I move.

I know I won’t be perfect with this challenge since as the month goes on I will have more obstacles to cleaning the way I want to. But I don’t want to use that as an excuse to not do the things I know I can get done now.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, clean, planning, scheduling, volt planner

Unexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month)

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy February! I feel like January took a very long time and it was an overwhelming month. But I’m glad to be on to a fresh month with what feels like a fresh start! And that also means time for a new monthly challenge.

In January, I challenged myself to limit how often I ordered delivery food. I knew I was getting back into bad habits and wanted to break them before things got more out of control for me. I really hoped I would only order food maybe once a week if that. I would have loved to have had a month with no delivery food and I had tried to plan my grocery shopping around this idea.

And for a good portion of the month, I was doing ok with this challenge. I was ordering in once a week but I had planned for that. And I was really working on focusing on what I got at the grocery store so I felt like I had more than enough options at home. But this planning came to a halt after my recent doctor appointment. I had planned on going to the grocery store after that appointment, and because I was leaving the appointment on crutches that didn’t happen. I ordered in delivery food that night and I felt like I had earned it. But then the next day I forgot to order groceries to be delivered so I ordered in again. I finally got back on track over the weekend, but I hate that I ended the month having the worst time with my challenge. But I guess that is life, especially when you have unexpected things come up.

For this month, I want to try to plan for the unexpected a bit more. I want to work on task lists and to-do lists. I have done a similar challenge before, but the main idea is to have a running list of things I need to make sure I get done. If I need to reach out to someone or I need to remember to get something at the store, I want to have a list going so I don’t forget about it until it’s too late in the day. For example, right now I have to call some utility companies about setting things up in my condo. I have to work around certain business hours so I don’t want to forget to do that. I also know later this week I have to order something so it arrives on time. Again, I want this list next to me during the day so I see it and can do things when I have a break in my day.

I think besides making sure I don’t forget to do things, this list will help me feel like I have more free time in my day. Instead of remembering I need to do something in my free time so it is split up and not as relaxing, I will get the things done from my list before I get into a free time mindset. I know this won’t be perfect and there will still be things I forget, but this will hopefully help.

And I’m going pretty low-tech with my challenge. I know I could do a list on my phone or computer, but I just put scrap paper next to my computer (since most things involve being online at some point) so I can add things as I remember them and cross them off as I get them done.

Hopefully, doing this will help me be as productive as possible in February. It has the potential to be a crazy month with a lot of things happening, so I want to make sure I stay on top of as much as I can.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged challenge, planning, scheduling, volt planner

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

Posted on January 4, 2022 | Comments Off

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.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged 2022, challenge, food, meal planning, meals, volt planner

Tag Archives: challenge

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

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Finding More Ways To Clean Up (or Now Doing Some Digital Organizing)

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A Week Of Mayhem (or Completing Another Fitness Challenge)

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I Really Did Give Myself An Easy Monthly Challenge (or This Month Will Possibly Be Easy As Well)

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Another Week Of Weekday Workout (or Getting Used To This Plan)

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A Few Delays With My Monthly Challenge (or This Month, I Will Be Moving)

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A Dri-Tri Sunday (or I Didn’t Realize This Was A Milestone)

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Having Things Organized And Clean (or Not Slacking Off Because Of My Upcoming Move)

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Unexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month)

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

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