I am sorry that I have delayed this for so long, but it has been a pretty hectic week. Without further delay here is the recap of my March Challenge and insight into what I am trying for April.
The March Challenge was to do yoga every day. It seemed like a very simple and straightforward task, but I feel like I didn’t do it justice. I did perform at least a few yoga moves each day, but I didn’t get as into it as I would have liked.
For the first few weeks I would wake up early and do a few progressions or try a new lesson from yogaglo.com. I really enjoyed it and feel like it was great motivation to get up early and greet the day (salute the sun even). When I left on vacation I was thrown for a bit of a loop because my schedule changed and I wasn’t in the same routine. I also think that I was self conscious about doing yoga around my friends, which is weird because they have all seen me in much more compromising positions. I still did a few poses but it wasn’t as effective. Once I got home I tried to get back into my morning routine, but I just couldn’t do it. In the end I wound up doing really well for the first few weeks but phoning it in for the rest of the month. I am kind of disappointed in myself.
As I transition back to a job in retail I am anticipating a lot of pain, especially in my feet, legs, and back. I hope that setting up a quick and easy yoga and stretching routine for each morning will help me to reduce that pain. I also plan on developing a more in depth routine for my days off. I will be starting couch25k again next week so stretching will become mandatory, and yoga is a great way to stretch. I hope that eventually I can overcome my self consciousness and actually try a yoga class.
April Challenge
Even though I haven’t written about it I have been doing this month’s challenge since the 1st. In an attempt to better regulate my food intake and add some structure to my time off I have renewed my focus on meal planning.
The Challenge: Plan all meals in advance.
- Why: I find myself on my days off making decisions on the fly. While I love living without that structure I recognize that those freeform days always lead me to astray in the past. It is great to occasionally play a day by ear, but if when I do it frequently I become a little off kilter.
- The Benefits: I love goals and schedules and having things set up helps to keep me on track. When I have days off I tend to fall into a type of vacation mode where I think that I can eat anything that I want which obviously doesn’t help with my diet. Hopefully by planning all my meals in advance I can save money and help stick to a healthier diet.
- The System: The system is pretty straightforward, just write things down. I recently bought a bunch of white boards that I use to track the food in my fridge and freezers so that things don’t go to waste. Each Sunday I use one of them to map out my week and adjust it as the week progresses. Simply having an idea of what I am going to eat each day takes a number of decisions off my mind. It also helps to record what I have eaten for the day, I have been using MyFitnessPal.com for a few months now and have found it to be very beneficial. I also have started storing my leftovers, which is a new thing for me. I bought a chest freezer and have been making pre packaged meals that I can bring to work, which further eliminates decisions.
Meal planning has always been a big weakness for me and I hope to improve on it. Even if I change the plan as I go along it is nice to actually have a plan to start with. I hope that this challenge will keep things moving in the right direction and help to regiment my days and get some results.
Owen Foley 