Have you ever set goals and then everybody wonders where you've gone? That's what happened to me. I had made the 2016 Personal Challenge post way back in January and ignored it slightly for a while. I mean, I did stuff, but I didn't attack it and report on it. Even though my blog appears to have been dormant for a while, I can assure you that I have recently been attacking the goals I set. Did you see the list of books being updated on a continuing basis? I've been reading the heck out of some books (goal #1). The movie list (goal #4)) was also updated; I just have to put together a post to give those movies away, if people even WANT those movies. I might just be better off dropping them at the library! We'll see...
I have a great trip coming up soon, and I think it will present a great number of opportunities to take excellent photos. I checked out one of the Great Courses on Photography (goal #25) from the library, so I'm going to try to get through that one. If I can hack it before the trip, I'll jam through the second course, too! These courses involve sitting in front of the TV and watching hours and hours of instruction. I don't know if anybody knows me, but I can't sit still for very long. I wander or my mind wanders. The plan is to watch a lesson, go outside and practice everything at least twice...or maybe three times. I'll try to post my lesson results as I go along. I'm sure you'll all be amazed. Pretty dang sure. Oh, also, if anyone lives near me and you have something amazing that needs my camera near it, let me know.
I've also been doing things NOT on my challenge list. They are things I've been interested in, but I just didn't have the gumption to start learning them on my own. Soldering, LED clothing, RGB lighting, Arduino, etc. I left my nerdy roots for a while but I'm embracing them again. Oooo, I can't wait to program a motion-activated Halloween spider and an automated hydroponics garden!!
Since I'm not able to do my three hour workouts this month, I've decided to tackle some of the 2016 Personal Challenges. This one was pretty awesome.
I decided that I needed some pretty binders for several things: kitchen appliance instruction manuals (I have a few), to-go/restaurant menus, household management folders, etc. I put this project off for a while because I thought for sure that I needed to match the decor of our new house...which will be accomplished this year (fingers crossed). At one point, I just turned all valley-girl and said, What. Ever! I decided to just pick some patterns with some colors I liked and go for it. Boom.
Here's what you need:
Binder, 1/2 yard fabric, paper/card stock to match, spray adhesive, scissors, tape measure, E6000, binder clips (or paper clips, if you're in a bind).
Get it? People, I crack myself up!
The first thing I did was to put the fabric pattern-side down on my table.
Measure out from the binder about 1 1/2 inches. Isn't that the cutest tape measure?
Mark it or just eyeball your cut line. Cut.
Go outside (yes, please) to spray adhesive all over the outside of the binder. Try to keep the spray even and don't make pools of it. It'll soak through!
Come inside and CAREFULLY place the binder on the awaiting fabric. Pick it up and make sure there aren't weird ridges or bubbles in the fabric. Fix what you can. Most spray adhesive is pretty forgiving for a few minutes.
Once you have done that, start applying the E6000 to the edges of the binder and work quickly to get the fabric in place. I went under the metal binder piece, so try to do that, if you can. Makes things perty. PERTY, I say!
Leave the sides and corners for last. This is where the magic happens! Lot of magic around here, people.
I did hospital corners on my binders.
Just look at that!
Once you finish with the gluing, use your clips to hold everything in place. I left mine overnight because I simply hate getting glue on weird stuff.
This binder is weird since it has a HUGE middle area (room for all my kitchen appliance manuals!), and I had some leftover fabric, so I covered the area with it. E6000, baby! More clips.
Here's where it all comes together. The paper. Measure it and cut it to fit where you like. I sprayed the paper (outside), brought it inside, placed it perfectly and smooshed it down. You can smoosh, too. It's fun!
And here are the two I completed. Aren't they fab?
If you remember my 2016 Personal Challenge post, you'll note that I have some Pinterest project to complete. I've done a few of them, but have yet to post them...until now. Exciting, isn't it?
Number 24 on the list includes Pearl Hairpins. If you check it out, it looks reeeeaaaallly easy. Let me be the first to tell you that making these is a real lesson in patience and determination. I had hopes of doing five today and finishing up with 20 little pearl ones tomorrow. Well, completing one was the beginning of the end. I'm lucky I got the second one done.
I took plenty of pictures up front...but I gave up the illusion that this is a quick how-to as soon as I had to start wrapping wire around stuff. Maybe my wire was too thick. Maybe I am clumsy. Maybe I'm making it easy for you to drop this project from your list. LOL
Anyway, I started with all kinds of hope and supplies, including beads, wire, wire cutters/needle nose pliers, super glue, bobby pins.
I thought I could just string wire through each bead and wrap, but that didn't work. The bead kept slipping to the wrong side and was just too jiggly.
I ended up bending the wire in half, crimping it and then gluing it into a bead. Make sure you let everything dry.
*Magic happens*
along with some
*Magic Words*
Final product.
Wasn't that great? I have another one (one of the green ones, in honor of St. Patrick's Day), but at this point, you'll just have to imagine its beauty. I threw everything in a bag and don't want to see it for at least four days.
My cousin was under the impression that I had soldered the beads onto the bobby pin...and I think that sounds fabulous. Has anyone tried that? Oh, well. I'll try it. Why not?
By the way, if anyone has tried this and found it to be easy, reveal your secrets. Now.
Late again, and I have such a good excuse: a cold. When I get a cold, I get a cough, and if I have a cough and laugh, well, the result is too much coughing. See, when you laugh at your own hilarity every other minute, wellllll.... You can see why I would avoid writing.
'Cuz I'm hilarious. You know? A side-splitter. Yes, indeedy. Mkay. Onward!
Tell me all of your foodie secrets, my friend!
Photo courtesy of l4red0
This one is going to HURT, people. This is you, coming face-to-face with the reality of your intake. Self-denial is real, and I think all of us, at one time or another, have wondered how in the heck we were gaining weight without giving a thought to those liquid calories or 'healthy' protein bars.
I've seen some protein bars with calories in the 300 range, and if you are limited to 1200 calories a day, that's a quarter of your total calories for the day. For me, I'm just not satisfied for long after one of those. I snarf it down, and then I'm, like...NEXT!
Basically, in order for this change to work, you have to document everything. Don't omit the birthday cake you ate at work. It counts. Even if you only ate half a tiny cupcake, write it down. With this, you are being accountable to YOU. Why lie to yourself? It's not healthy.
So, there will be more to it than just keeping track of food and drink. Also included will be your appetite and your physical and emotional status.
Food and drink: include EVERYTHING. Write these down or use an app. I use MyFitnessPal for this. They have portion sizes and calorie counts for lots of things, but you might have to add some of your more obscure snacks. Be sure to accurately assign portion size. If you drink an entire 20 ounce soda, you'll have to be faced with the reality of having had 2.5 servings! If it's a full-sugar soda, that's almost 400 calories. *sad trombone*
Appetite: This is you evaluating, on a scale from 0 to 5, your appetite. If you are extremely hunger, put a 0 down. If you are extremely full, put a 5 down. Brett recommends to strive for staying within the 1-4 range. I have been a 0 before and that's when I get a bag of fast 'whatever' because I'm too starved to go home and make something healthy. I've been a 5 before, too, and that's just pure misery. Remember when eating raw cookie dough was a thing? I ate some after hiking for two weeks once and still, to this day, won't eat raw cookie dough. It was a hard lesson in self-control and stomach shrinkage.
Physical and Emotional Status: This one might be tough, for me, at least. Yes, yes, sometimes I eat when I'm bored, but there are times when I eat because I smelled bacon. It's my trigger. Also, cinnamon rolls. There's no need for a full sentence there. Anywho, this is the how, why, what and when of food. It's also the before, during and after of consumption. Keep track of all of this information and you might find that you eat EVERY time you smell bacon or EVERY time you watch Doctor Who. You might find a food allergy. You might find you have no control at parties. If you bought the book, there's a Food Journal Template in the back.
I love you, Cinnamon Rolls.
Photo courtesy of LuisSolis
Included in the book are some False Hunger Triggers (FHT). These include:
- Lack of Nutrient Balance (drop in blood sugar?)
- Emotional Hunger (bored, fearful, stressed, lonely)
- Hunger Due to Sleepiness
- Hunger Due to Thirst
Keeping this journal may help you identify times when FHTs hit and you can deal with them before attacking a bag of marshmallows.
Be sure to journal all day long so you don't forget about those little snacks. I'll try to report back with my journal entries. It might not be pretty. My saving grace? No cookies in the house. Yay!
How refreshing is a mini-vacation? To take a week and just chill? I won't say that's what happened to that missing week, because that was no vacation! School wasn't in session for two regular school days, so that translated into one thing: this girl got lazy. Yep. On the very week I was supposed to keep off the couch, I planted myself there and decided not to be a hypocrite. It was my week to whine and complain, because I had things to complain about...namely a headache that almost rivaled the infamous DC headache of 2011* (?! I'm very bad with dates) and local traffic. Oh, and how cold it was. I think it was 53 degrees one morning! Imagine this!
So, now that I'm back to semi-normal, which is my normal, I can continue with small changes. Hooray!
I could live on a couch...like a cat. Photo by chriz
Just as the title says, this is the week to start staying off the couch. I dig couches, because if I'm a bit chilly (usual occurrence), I can snuggle under a blanket and encounter bliss. Bliss comes in many forms, such as comfortable reading, comfortable TV watching and, most beloved, comfortable nap-taking. I swear. Me and naps? We're best friends.
BUT! Since I'm obviously working on getting more sleep during actual sleeping hours, I probably won't be best friends with naps much longer...and that will help me stay off the couch.
Brett, in her book, gives a road-map for success that includes walking/taking the stairs as often as possible, taking an active lunch, taking breaks often if you sit at work and activating your TV watching (by doing all kinds of things instead of only sitting). Have you seen those exercise plans you do based on what happens during a TV show? Perhaps something like this:
At Penny’s door: (knock, knock, knock) Penny. (knock, knock, knock) Penny. (knock, knock, knock) Penny.
Any nerds around to verify the authenticity of this scene? I thought so. Anyway, if this should happen as you watch TV, you would do a squat for each knock and a push-up for each utterance of the name Penny. Can you imagine how buff you'd be after a Big Bang Theory marathon? As it stands, there are tons of TV show workouts available (just do a search for your favorite show(s) and workout or challenge), and how cool is this: it's a mind-workout, too, since you have to be on your game to recognize an exercise trigger! An added bonus? You aren't just mindlessly stuffing your face with snacks as you sit there. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Other helpful bits of advice are to do your own cleaning and chores, stand more often, become more active during the week and get away from the technology for a while. As extra credit, Brett advises you to get a pedometer, or these days, a fitbit, a fitness app, or something similar that counts your steps, and try to take 10,000 steps a day. Apply these changes liberally to your life and you'll probably have no problem sleeping at night. Even though I took a week off from blogging, I actually started walking with a group of friends every day. When I walk 3-4 miles with them and a mile each time I walk the dog, getting to 10,000 steps is easier than plopping on a couch.
Okay, I lied. I'm a liar. It's not that easy, but since sitting down for hours on end is a thing of the past, it will become easy.
Best of Luck!
Heather
* This headache made the words in my book do waves and it didn't hit full force until AFTER we'd paid for parking, so I'm mad at that headache. Rilly, rilly mad.
How did everybody do with getting enough water? Did you do anything not mentioned that helped you? Well, keep up the good work! Now, it's time to add the second small change.
This is going to be hard for me. Week Two is all about getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night. I fully admit that this change is not going to be small for me. I have tried getting eight hours, and sometimes, it just doesn't happen. That's why...
I LOVE NAPS!
There are times when I have hit the sack at 9 p.m. and found myself wide awake at 4 a.m. Yes, that's seven hours, and I probably should have mathed a little better, but I thought for sure I could get an extra hour and be bubbly and full of energy the next day. No dice. I was a slug. So, recently, my experiments include getting four hours here, two hours there, a couple of half-hour accidental snoozes and a few 'zone-outs' in the middle of the frozen section of the grocery store.
These accidental naps are the worst! My husband has prodded me after he found me sideways on the couch, or folded forward over my butterfly legs. I've felt the Sahara on my tongue from in-the-chair, open-mouthed siestas. Once or twice (yes, once or twice), I was alarmed by a snort! It was me.
Anyway! Enough discussing my sleeping habits. On to what will make getting sleep easier...and yes, I'm paying attention.
1. Make where you sleep good for sleeping. Lighting, sound, what you wear, your sheets, the temperature and the humidity all need to be considered.
2. Experiment with a sleep schedule. If you can't sleep more than four hours at a time, figure out something that works for you. We're all different, so we'll all have different needs. Do this gradually.
3. Don't exercise too close to bedtime. You need cool-off and wind-down time before hitting the hay.
4. Create a routine before bed. Make it something you enjoy doing that you know relaxes you. This should not include looking at a computer, phone or electronic game, reading a can't-put-it-down book or drinking Jolt (although those with ADHD might be able to do the last thing and still conk out easily).
5. Avoid sugar and caffeine*.
6. Don't drink too many spirits before bed. It messes with REM! Also: Dry Mouth. The Sahara. Xerostomia. Look it up.
7. Try to drop the smoking. This was news to me: The body starts going into nicotine withdrawal in three to four hours, so smokers tend to wake up after three to four hours. Wow!
8. Finish eating two hours before bedtime. It's not pleasant to awake in the middle of the night and deal with heartburn! I can attest, my friends. I thought I was a dragon once.
9. Stop drinking two or three hours before bed. I hate having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The bright lights assaulting my eyeballs, the cold floor making me whine, the foot-shuffling...it's all stuff that makes me feel like I'm three years old.
Okay, that's it. Report back, and yes, this was not posted on Friday. I fell asleep. :-)
Two birds with one stone is what I'm going to accomplish with this challenge. One is to actually complete (and incorporate) the challenges, and the other is to blog about it. That's a realistic goal, right? Please say yes.
I found a book a couple of years ago and thought it was great. So, I read it and smiled and put it aside. I'm awesome like that. The book is called 52 Small Changes by Brett Blumenthal. You make one change per week for a year and, at the end, you will at least be on the path to being more healthy and more happy (could I actually BE more happy?!). Although I probably already practice many of the changes in my life at present, I feel as though challenging myself to take note of 'the why' of each for a week is a good thing. Brett has been kind enough to make this journey a little more interesting. Check it out: http://www.sheerbalance.com/52-small-changes-assessment/ I highly recommend taking the assessment...and be honest with yourself. You don't have to share with anyone. Also, the tools and forms from the book are provided there. Pure awesome.
If you want to get the book, I can make that easy for you! As of today (Jan. 3, 2015), the Kindle version of this book is only $3.99 on Amazon. If you like paper, that's only $7.99.
My goal in blogging about this is to present the challenge on Friday so that you, if partaking in the challenge, have the weekend to come to terms with it. For example, one challenge is to make breakfast and prepare lunches at home six days a week, and to cook dinner at home at least five days a week. You must have 'stuff' for that to happen, thus the heads-up. See how utterly amazing I am to think of these things?
Just in case you are interested in knowing the areas of change, they are as follows:
Diet and Nutrition
Fitness and Prevention
Mental Well-Being
Green Living
As it is, I'll need all the mental well-being I can get, as we'll probably be building a house at some point this year (and, seeing as how it's taken half a year to get the deed to our land, perhaps next year, as well).
With all that being said, I present the first change: Drink Up!
There is such a thing as too much water, so don't think you'll get extra credit for going too far over your goal. You do, however, need to take into consideration personal factors, such as whether or not you exercise, drink alcohol, travel, live in an arid area, are breast-feeding or are pregnant. If you answer yes to any of those, up your intake.
Brett gives great hints as to how to reach your water goal every day, including spacing it out, drinking before you eat and setting reminders.
I've seen people wear eight or more bracelets on one arm, then drink a glass of water and move a bracelet to the other arm.
I've seen people mark their water bottles with times they should begin drinking, then continue the next hour until empty, then refill and begin again in the afternoon.
If you are having trouble, check the internet for a way that might make it easier for you!
Now, I realize it isn't Friday, but since you probably have some water around your living quarters, hardly any prep is required, but from here on out...Friday!
Dudes. And dudettes. I don't know what happened to my motor-vation...but it left for a few weeks. That, and I feel like sleepy bear up there. I also feel dumpy and a little busy with a lazy Thanksgiving and pre-Messiah details. Ooooh, man. The excuses. They're coming quick, aren't they? My apologies.
I'm going to re-use the arms challenge from way back when! I promise to exercise every day this week...except the day I'm told to chill...by me. I will even exercise before I participate in the turkey challenge.
Week one (starting over):
(B)icep, (T)ricep, (S)houlder, (F)orearm
Friday (Shoulders): 2 circuits
10 each side Plank Press (S)
Rest 30 seconds between each side
12 Front Raise (S)
Rest 30 seconds
12 Standing Row (S)
Rest 60 seconds
Saturday (Fat-burning):
30 Second Wide-Leg, Straight-Arm Plank
Rest 30 seconds
30 Second Wide-Leg, Straight-Arm Plank
Rest 30 seconds
Begin Tabata Interval (from video)
The arms challenge continues! I did every day of the challenge last week. Did anybody reading this do that? Well, it's here if you decide to do it on your own timeline. So, without further ado, here are the exercises for this week, starting with tonight! I should plan better, I guess, so the exercises are ready for you if you workout in the morning...or we could keep Monday's routine as-is. Yes.
Friday (Shoulders): 2 circuits
10 each side Plank Press (S)
Rest 30 seconds between each side
12 Front Raise (S)
Rest 30 seconds
12 Standing Row (S)
Rest 60 seconds
Saturday (Fat-burning):
30 Second Wide-Leg, Straight-Arm Plank
Rest 30 seconds
30 Second Wide-Leg, Straight-Arm Plank
Rest 30 seconds
Begin Tabata Interval (from video)
Sorry for the long absence! I haven't been feeling all that special, and this blog is the first thing to suffer in times like that. However, I'm back with a bang, and I want you to join me.
I am starting a 30 day challenge. You can go along with me, if you'd like, and do everything I'm doing, just in the comfort of your own environment. Don't start unless you get your doctor's okay, though, especially if you are of the older, more mature variety. :-)
This will be an arms challenge. I'm providing a before picture of my poor, neglected arm muscles. At the end of 30 days, I'll do a side-by-side comparison and, hopefully, we'll all bug our eyes out and hang our mouths open for several seconds. It's a wish I have...
So, without further ado, here's my arm:
Great Googly Moogly! Ten inches of pure bicep monster!
Throughout this challenge, I'll update weekly with different things to do. I want to confuse your muscles with, like, math and stuff. I'll work the biceps, triceps, shoulders and forearms. You'll need some equipment, like hand weights of various sizes, a yoga mat, a chair on 'concentration' day and proper outfits. No workouts in cocktail dresses! I also want your body to become familiar with one of my faves: Tabata Intervals.
Tuesday (Shoulders, Fat-burning): -- Still recovering. Tabata is no joke.
12 Standing Row (S)
Rest 30 seconds
12 Lateral Raise (S)
Rest 30 seconds
Begin Tabata Interval (from video above)
Wednesday: Rest -- This is good, since I can't move my arms.
Slowly stretch the muscles you worked after each workout. That should do it. Are your arms hurting already? If you aren't familiar with some of the exercises, let me know...or check out the internet search engine of your choice. There are great videos on youtube on how to do these exercises in a safe way. Just remember to keep things tight (don't flail about as you handle hand weights) and always, always check your form. Also, if you feel the need to stop because you are about to puke (thank you, Tabata!), do so...but try to finish after you recover. Concentrate, y'all. It's your temple you're dealing with here!
If you do this, measure your arms, take pictures, whatever. Slow and steady wins this arms race.
