July wins

July: 1
Susan: 0
Or, put another way, sometimes life is challenging enough without adding your own challenges just for fun. Here’s a little sampling of what’s being going on with my friends, family and furry acquaintances this month:
Memorial service
Cousin reunion
Three real estate deals (two of them mine)
Medical diagnostic tests and x rays (for several, including humans and animals)
Blown knee ligament and plans for surgery (Charlie)
Preparation for teaching two (!!) classes this Fall
Oh let’s see, there must have been more. Well, maybe that’s enough. It’s been pretty crazy, all in all.
So, I tried to meditate; I mostly did walk Milla 30 minutes a day.

And in fabulous news, fantastic physiotherapist Scott Simpson fixed my persistent plantar fasciitis so now I can actually run (and walk) pain free. This is so awesome.
Challenge for August: hmm. Cleaning up after July? Most certainly, I’ll be spending time packing and unpacking and trying to be graceful under the pressure of moving while getting ready for the Fall semester.
Maybe there’s another challenge in there somewhere, but I haven’t thought of it yet.
Any ideas?

July — eeeep!

Well, isn’t summer fabulous? Truly, I can’t say enough, and summer on Vancouver Island is especially delicious.
There is a LOT going on in my world these days, so apologies for not keeping up. I think about this blog every day. Does that count, at least a little?
I will have some exciting news to report on in about another week, but for now:
First of all, I just discovered this guy, and he is funny and inspiring. Check it out — someone who is doing a challenge with much more flair than I am. He’s actually speaking in Victoria this week, but I’m not able to attend.

HabitStacker

Sigh. Paleo. Well, I gave it an honest try for about two weeks in June. I can say that I felt better, but I certainly didn’t lose weight. Stopping bread/grains was pretty darn easy, and except for the occasional hamburger bun, I’ve mostly kept grains out of my diet. Quitting dairy was virtually impossible. Milk for coffee, cheese for, well, cheese, yogurt, butter for eggs. It seems these are important to my general well-being. Also, I became quite sick of meat. I think nothing would make me a vegetarian faster than a solid month or two of paleo.

After two weeks I had a ‘break’ to attend a couple of parties on the weekend, and since then, it’s been a world full of cookies and ice cream. What can I say?

I need an easy challenge this month. It’s going to be a bit crazy. I have two things in mind: one, I’d like to meditate — even just for five minutes — every day. And two, Milla and I attended some extra training to improve our (her) behaviour on leash. So, I’d like to dedicate 30 minutes a day to a Milla-only walk where we can practice.

Talk soon!

Eight days of paleo

Well, surprisingly, it has been easy to give up grains. No bread, no crackers, no tortillas. Phew. I thought that would be hard. And the bigger surprise — I feel really good. I certainly do have a cracker craving every now and then, but I think that increasing protein has really helped with that.

But, giving up dairy? Well, that’s a bit of a fail so far. Although, I have made progress. No butter at all. No cheese for the last three or four days.

I’m aiming for this Friday because I have a couple of social events over the weekend where I absolutely, definitely intend to enjoy some grains, both solid and liquid!

But after that, back on track we go.

S

June — half way

I’ve been toying with this idea since January, but wasn’t really sure if I wanted to take it on.

I’m going to try the paleo diet for a month. There are two reasons I hesitate.

The first is, it’s pretty tough for me to give up grains, dairy and sugar. Yikes. The second is, I’m not completely convinced this diet is healthy.

So, for reason 1, I have help in the way of a temporary room mate for the month of June. Now, she doesn’t really care if I cheat or not, but she knows about the challenge, so that’s about all the policing I need. For reason 2, well, I can say that when I was on a high protein, low-carb diet, I felt healthier than any other time I can recall. So, it’s got to be worth a try.

Wish me luck!

Already June?

Where does the time go? I knew I missed a week, and then a second, and now I see I have basically missed an entire month of writing blog entries. Bad, bad me. But, the good thing is, it’s because I’ve been busy making major life decisions, challenging myself by learning new skills and, most importantly, perhaps, honouring my commitments.
So the easiest part — doing one hour of exercise a day. This is going pretty well. It’s usually rowing or yoga, or biking though, and almost never running which just tells me it really is time to resolve my sore feet problem. Ouch!
The hardest part this month was making a decision about whether or not to move to Edmonton for a job. When I applied for the job, and when I interviewed for it, I really thought I would move. But when it came right down to it — trading in my life here for a full-time bureaucratic high-pressure life in Edmonton, just wasn’t worth it. I’m staying put. It feels incredible to have made that decision. Other new and interesting things are already starting to happen as a result. But, that’s not what this blog is about, so, enough about that.

June is almost here. Here’s what I’m thinking about: first, I want to make writing the FIRST THING I do every day. Preferably sit and work at it for four hours, but the reality is that’s probably not feasible. Maybe two hours. I feel I really need to make it a priority. I’m also toying with the idea of trying the paleo diet for a month. I’m just curious, really, and also, would like to try to reduce, if not eliminate the amount of dairy and refined carbs that I’m currently consuming. Haven’t quite made a commitment tot that one yet, but we’ll see in a few days.

For coming months, I’m thinking about: in the fall or winter, another 30 day yoga challenge, but this time Bikram! Also, I’d like to do some kind of photography challenge still — sunsets or sunrises every day? Nature pic every day like Didi did? And, I’d like to learn a new word every day. Someone just introduced me to theophany. It’s not often I have to look a word up, and I really liked it.

So there. TTFN.

Whoops

Last Friday was my first ‘miss’ at posting every week.

I’m still walking every day. The weekend was a bit crazy, so I missed posting until Monday, and then I put it off until Tuesday, and then, I thought, well, it’s practically Friday now, so I might as well just wait.  Interesting insight into the mind of a wily procrastinator. Oh sure, I had reasons, but they’re not especially exciting or important.

Here’s hoping I can make 51 out of 52 posts, once a week, for a year!

So yes, the walking went pretty well. I’d give myself about 95 – 98%.  I forgot to track some days, or I would forget to turn my Fitbit off once I’d started it. Some days the dogs and I walked together for 60 minutes. This would be more than one walk because we haven’t got all the way up to a 60 minute walk yet.  The combination of Charlie’s (lack of )energy, Milla’s (abundance of) energy and my lack of patience with those two things put together is the main reason for that.

Plus, it is weirdly difficult for me to carve out a full hour a day when I can get out for a walk. More on that in a minute.  Milla has gotten better at walking on leash, and Charlie has lost weight and is feeling much, much better (not just because of walking, I don’t think,   but we’ll take it).

So this is another challenge that I will try to keep going, although informally.

That means that now, I should be a) walking an hour a day and b) writing an hour a day. Now, that second one needs a serious tune-up. Sigh.

For May… well, the weather is brilliant and I am healthy and lucky to be able to enjoy it.  So this month’s challenge is one hour of exercise a day, not including dog walking.  This, like other challenges, should be easy.  I’m already committed to:

Rowing for 90 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Swimming for 75 minutes on Thursdays and Sundays.

I should also be committed to running but my sore foot issue keeps this from becoming a reality, and I should be committed to  Wednesday morning November project.  My plan is this:

Monday a.m. yoga and/or running; Tuesday night rowing; Wednesday a.m. November Project; Thursday night rowing and swimming; Friday a.m. yoga or running; Saturday biking; Sunday yoga/running.

Here we go!

April, continued

For the most part, walking one hour a day is pretty easy, but I will confess there have been a few days when I would not have done it, were it not for this challenge. On a very happy note, Milla is actually improving. I’m strategically rewarding her in advance of potential barking break-outs when I see fast walkers, runners, bikers, men in hats, or black dogs. If I see them first, then I can get her to sit and focus on me (well on a treat) until they pass. It’s definitely making a difference, even when I don’t have treats.

Carrying on.
S

April update

Walking an hour every day.  Sounds so easy.  I’m getting it done, but having a challenge definitely makes a difference, because some days, I really wouldn’t.  The main thing is, mostly I walk with both dogs. (But I’ve decided that a run, which I do on my own, also counts for this challenge.) So back to the dogs. Milla is having a bit of an issue on-leash.  Half the time, when she sees another dog, and 80% of the time when she sees a person, she wags and wiggles and squirms around and is generally adorable. The rest of the time… she lunges, growls, barks her head off and looks like a vicious vicious creature.  People stare at me.

It’s easy, when this kind of thing happens, to start avoiding walks, or avoiding them at busier times of day. But that would be counter-productive.  So, we’re getting out there every day, treats in hand, patience being tested (mine and hers, I think).

And, I have proof!

PS I’m enjoying Didi’s photos on Instagram. What else is going on?

April challenge

Okay, so writing every day has gone incredibly well. I tend to write all week and then spend one evening transcribing the week’s work onto a computer. I’m already on my second notebook and I’m almost at 20,000 words. Phew.

For April, I’m going to go with walking one hour a day. Now, it doesn’t necessarily have to be all at once and while it will mostly be dog-walking, non-dog walking would also count. I’ve done it for the last two days.

Charlie can’t quite make it for a whole hour yet, so we need to work up to doing it in one go. If he could walk for an hour, we could just about walk to the beach, have a run around and walk home. Charlie and I used to do that all the time and I am not sure who misses it more!

Blast off, April!

Almost April

Writing every day, in a notebook, with a pen, is still going well.  I’m having just a titch of writer’s block… something I used to swear never happened to me.  It is incredibly demotivating.  What happens to me is this: I don’t know what happens next in my story, or, I might know the little pieces that happen next, but I don’t have a good sense of the big point of it all, and that makes me feel very uncertain and unmotivated.  I can always write something, like ‘what if your character gets in a car accident; loses their keys; meets a handsome stranger’ . But, if you don’t know what the whole point is, it seems a bit futile to keep writing random stories hoping they will magically weave themselves together.  However, the discipline of ‘just keep writing’ is definitely, for me, the only way out of this problem, I think.

Still thinking about April challenge.  The one that is the most appealing is to walk at least 60 minutes a day.  I definitely don’t do it now and I wish I did. Plus, it’s achievable measurable. My kind of goal.