10/31

Because I’m so good at challenges

I have heard of NaNoWriMo, but NaBloPoMo? Brandy, over at Fresh Sugar Photography, posted about NaBloPoMo today and it was impeccable timing. I was just thinking that I hadn’t posted in awhile and I was annoyed with myself.

Annoyed because I like blogging, but don’t seem to make the time for it.

Annoyed because when I do make the time for it, I sit staring at my laptop, with my fingers on the keys waiting for inspiration to strike…but it rarely does. Maybe it’s because I don’t post often enough that I feel whenever I do post, it should be something worth reading or something really interesting. Sadly, my life is not that interesting. In my busy time, I’m running errands or cleaning, in my down time (most of the time) I’m surfing the internet, reading about essential oils, making lists of things I need to get done, making lists of things I want to get done, binge watching SOA, catching up on my weekly shows. In a nutshell, I’m really good at wasting time and planning to do things. 😛

Anywho, back on topic! (I’m also really good at getting distracted!)

NaBloPoMo {National Blog Post Month} – Blog every day in November!!

I’m so good at challenges…um, not really…but, challenge accepted anyways!! 😛

Forewarning, my posts may not be super exciting and they will quite possibly be just a photo or a quote some days, but I’m going to really try to write more. Even if it’s just what I did that day.

Over the course of the month I hope to get better at…

scheduling posts instead of flying by the seat of my pants
more real writing…talking TO you, instead of sometimes talking at you
writing posts faster
posting more often…duh

K. Now, don’t be a party pooper and join in on the fun with me! You can go to BlogHer to get your nifty NaBloPoMo badge and add your name to the blogroll.

If you decide to participate, please leave a comment so I can make sure I’m following you!

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, NaBloPoMo Tagged: nablopomo

11/26

30 day Challenge Wrap-Up

Okay, so it’s fess up time. You may have noticed a little radio silence lately. No excuses really. I could tell you that I was stressed, I had other things on my mind, I pulled something in my neck, etc. All true things, but it is what it is.

I was doing SO well too. Even after a couple of hiccups, I was able to pull it back together, but once I pulled a muscle in my neck (last Monday), I fell and didn’t get back up…just laid on the road and let the wagon ride off without me.

Time to call the wagon back though. No, not another challenge. With the holidays afoot, I know I won’t stick to it.

But it’s about balance.

I’m going to continue making water a priority and try to get a workout in 3-4 days a week (hopefully more).

I realized that being active is good for me. I would be in a horrible mood, but once I got my workout in, I felt so much better. Even if I hated it while I was doing it, I was happy that I made it happen. I did realize that some days I felt like my 30 min weren’t very productive, even though I was technically doing something. Which goes against everything I believe in and part of the reason that I slacked off. If you bust your butt for 15 min, you can burn more calories in that short workout than you would walking for 30 min and even though it’s not all about calories, I think the 15 min busting your butt should count as exercise for the day. I think a better goal to have set for myself would have just been to “sweat every day” or maybe 6 out of 7 days. My brain needed a rest. I kept wanting a day “off” that I didn’t have to think about it.

Live and learn, eh? Now it’s on to Thanksgiving and Christmas! Did you know Christmas is only 28 days away?! I haven’t even started my shopping yet and as fast as the days have been flying by, 28 days is going to pass in no time!

But for now, I’m just concentrating on Thanksgiving. One holiday at a time for me!

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! My kids are out of school as of tomorrow, we are celebrating turkey day with extended family, and on Friday, it’s our annual visit to a holiday craft show downtown. Fun times!! 🙂

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, My life Tagged: 30 day challenge, finding balance, thanksgiving

11/11

Week 2, complete…sorta :: checking in

Soooo,

my week two wasn’t so awesome.

I didn’t give up on my goal, but I sure as heck slashed the other 3 tires this weekend.

Things were going pretty poorly throughout the week because I hadn’t planned my meals/workouts, but over the weekend, I really fell apart.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail! ~ Benjamin Franklin

The only thing I consistently did was to get my water in. I drank at least 48oz of water a day.

I was following through on my exercise daily, but on Saturday I spent over half the day out of the house, the place was a mess, I ate horribly, we were all a tad on the cranky side and all I wanted to do was curl up in my sweats and be a couch potato for the rest of the night. Sunday was better feeling wise, but we were again, out of the house for a better part of the day and I just didn’t have the energy to work out when we got back. I should have done it earlier in the day, but I was in a groove of getting dishes & laundry done and I didn’t want to lose my momentum.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way. I’m getting up and brushing myself off! On to week 3!

I am not off to a good start…tile demolition this morning in the master bath, no water this morning due to the tile demo, hubby with a headache and kids home from school…but I’m determined to do better this week! I’m going to get some kind of plan together tonight hopefully so that I’m not winging it every day.

My exercise totals for last week were 5 days, 226 min and 1514 calories burned.

Upside, I burned 1500 calories…downside, I probably ate a surplus of 1500 calories!

*sigh* C’est la vie, I suppose.

*Cheers* to a better week!

posted by katiehigg 3 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Monday Motivation Tagged: 30 day challenge, failure to plan is planning to fail, polar beat

11/04

7 days and counting…

Woot! We made it through week 1!

Giving myself a virtual pat on the back because I…

drank 48-72oz of pure water per day
kept track of what I was putting in my mouth with the exception of Sunday (my free day). They weren’t always good choices and I had several days this week that made me want to throw healthy eating out the window, but I did practice a little self control
made 3 dinners at home, only had breakfast out once (Sunday) and ate lunch at home several days
did some form of exercise every.single.day giving me a weekly total of 309 min of physical activity and 2,067 calories burned

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar

Need to do better…

cleaning up my messes in the kitchen. When it’s a mess already, it’s hard to get motivated to make it a bigger mess.
planning and sticking to it. I plan out my days, but then I don’t follow the schedule and I end up cramming exercise in where I can and many daily chores fall through the cracks.

homemade chicken salad with greek yogurt :: easy way to keep track of my water intake :: cauliflower pizza crust with a bottle of hard cider :: Polar Beat history log

A few observations from the week…

going from not enough water to a good amount, flushed mucho toxins out via my pores. On day 3 I started breaking out like crazy on my face and considering I had eaten pretty well at that point I was sure that it was all the water I was drinking. People online say they’ve had the same reaction.

cooking dinner (and breakfast/lunch) creates a huge mess that seems to be never ending. As soon as I make a dent, I create more mess and my sink is even fuller than it was!

Not eating out or pre-packaged foods makes it hard to count calories. I’m not too focused on a specific caloric goal per day, but I am trying to be more cognizant of what is going in my mouth and making your own meals from scratch makes it take even longer to input your calories. Thankfully myfitnesspal has a nifty little recipe calculator that helps ease my pain slightly.

Remember in my first post about the challenge, I mentioned I was going to use the Lift app. Well, not having used it before and only hearing about it from my hubby, I mistakenly thought it was just a workout app. It’s actually an app to help you create good, healthy/productive habits, break unhealthy habits or just anything you want to remember to do on a daily basis. There are a tone of different goals you can “check-in” with every day such as, taking a vitamin, brushing your teeth (not sure who needs an app to remember that one, but whatevs), getting up on time, inbox zero, spend time with my kids, etc. Other people can “like” your check-in’s and the app will tell you how long of a streak you have going each day. If checking in and getting “props” for your check-in’s isn’t enough motivation, you could even promise yourself a reward when you hit a 30 day streak or if it’s something really challenging, a 7 day streak. My hubs is currently on his 89th day of exercising every day. On day 100, he’s going to celebrate with a work friend by going out to lunch! How fun is that?!

________________________________________

Your turn! Feel free to check in with your weekly accomplishments and what (if anything) you’d like to improve on. You can comment, message me or just make a note to yourself.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, but be real. Give yourself props for doing the things you did well and acknowledge what you fell short on, but then brush yourself off and get ready for week 2!

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Inspiration, Monday Motivation, My life Tagged: 30 day challenge, cauliflower pizza crust, drink more water, eating at home is messy

10/30

Day 3 of 30 :: Checking in

Not gonna lie. It’s day 3 and I already wanna tell this 30 day challenge to SUCK IT!

I’m tired of thinking about my calories/what’s going in my mouth…I just want an unsweet tea (I remedied this one, but I’ll get to that later)…I don’t want to exercise…I don’t want to care about what’s for dinner and make sure it’s healthy/calorie countable…

I have other crap to do!

I’m a horrible multi-tasker apparently. When I’m thinking about family dinners and exercising, everything else goes to the crapper. My laundry is taking over and I don’t want to think about how I’m going to sweat today.

Wah..wah…wah!

I wrote out 5 days of workouts & meals (one off day b/c of Halloween), but I’ve already skipped a dinner and while I’ve been active for at least 30 min for the past two days, it wasn’t what I planned on doing.

Blaaahhhhhhh!

Okay, I’m done whining for now…I think. Sometimes you just gotta vent (or how my husband lovingly refers to it..whine ;)). Regardless of my less than stellar execution so far, I’ve stuck to the guidelines I set for myself.

More water…check!
72 oz Monday & Tuesday

At least 30 min of exercise…check!
Walking on Monday, C25K training & a 7-min workout on Tuesday

Tracking food intake…check!
you can see my log on myfitnesspal.com (username: katiehigg)

(clockwise) water, almond dream yogurt, smoothie, spaghetti squash alfredo

Remember in the beginning I told you I remedied my unsweet tea problem? Well, see, there’s a school of thought that says if it’s unsweet, it counts towards your fluid intake for the day and you just need to be concerned with how much caffeine you’re taking in. And while all of my water logged has been straight water, yesterday I decided I needed an amendment to my rules pertaining unsweet tea.

Amendment: As long as 48oz of pure water is drank per day, I’m allowed unsweet tea. Preferably decaf, but not a must.

What I wanted to accomplish in these 30 days was to drink more water and less caffeine. I had gotten into a habit of nursing a large unsweet tea in the morning with breakfast and then not drinking anything else until dinnertime. Hence probably only getting in about 24oz of un-caffeinated beverage a day. With my new amendment, I will have to drink 48oz before rewarding myself with some tea. 😉

Moving forward I need to…

plan my day better
plan breakfast better
get at least one load of laundry done per day
not be so hard on myself

How about you? How’s your 30 days going so far?

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Inspiration Tagged: 30 day challenge, drink more water, fitness, meal planning, myfitnesspal, waterlogged

10/27

30 day challenge

I’ve gotten a little too comfortable being sedentary lately. Sure I got back on the workout wagon recently, but like always, I get distracted and workouts fall by the wayside.

My eating has also been horrible. So bad that I can count the number of meals I eat at home during the week…on one hand. Yikes. That is no bueno! So, I thought a 30 day challenge might help me get back on track. *the image below is just for the image, I’m not following that 30 day challenge. My challenge is outlined underneath.*

img source

30 days of moving :: Instead of aiming for 3-4 workouts a week, I want to be doing something everyday. Walking, running, weight training, dancing, rock climbing, yoga…anything goes! At least 30 min of fitness a day!

30 days of tracking my calories :: This one is harder than the first. It’s just a pain in the buttocks to weigh your food, look up calories and input them. But, I know that it works to keep me accountable and it’s a great tool for seeing how much you’re actually eating. I’m going to give myself up to 4 freebie days. That is approximately 1 each week. I don’t want to use them, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I know that it’s hard to keep track of calories and sometimes you eat something that you have no idea what calories are in it.

30 days of more water, less caffeine :: I have been drinking far too little water lately. I rely mostly on coffee in the a.m. and then unsweet tea with water coming in last. My goal is to get at least 60 oz of water a day.

I want to challenge myself, but I want to be realistic too. I know I won’t eat at home every meal, but I’m shooting for at least 3-4 dinners a week at home and less breakfast trips to Panera (their roasted tomato & feta souffle is SO delicious!). I’m not really going to berate myself too much if I don’t stick to this as long as I can count my calories and stay around goal, I’ll call it a win.

I’m starting tomorrow (no time like the present!), October 28th. Which as it so happens, is exactly 31 days before Thanksgiving so I can get through my 30 days and then eat my little heart out the next day. It couldn’t have lined up any more perfect for my little OCD/perfectionist mind!

I desperately NEED some accountability, which I’m hoping to get just by blogging about it, but I’d also love to have some company during this 30 days! Either in spirit, or by sending me a message or leaving a comment and letting me know you are joining. Even if you start late, you can still join in!

*We all have different things we need to work on. This is my personal 30 day challenge. Joining me doesn’t mean you have to follow my same challenge. You can choose only part of what I’m doing or completely make up your own! Doesn’t matter what you follow for 30 days, we can still be each others accountability partner! 🙂

source

Tools to keep me on track…

myfitnesspal :: an online tool and also a mobile app to track calories. If you haven’t used this site, I highly recommend it. Makes counting calories a little less painful.

lift :: an iphone app and online community to track how many days in a row that you work out and offer support in reaching your goals

Waterlogged or Plant Nanny :: iphone apps that helps you track your water intake. Waterlogged is a clean/simple design and it’s free in the app store, but if you’re looking for a cute/whimsical way to keep track of your water, Plant Nanny ($.99) may be the way to go.

Polar HR monitor & Polar Beat app :: I love seeing how many calories I’m burning. Nothing like instant gratification! If you don’t have an iphone, there are many other Polar HR monitors that work with their watches to keep track of your calories burned.

C25K & Sign up for a race :: I started the Couch-to-5k challenge again when I got back on my workout wagon, but since I need some accountability to keep me on my C25K schedule I am going to sign up for a 5k or 10k (depending on how far out the race is and what the local race schedule looks like).

Meal/Workout planning :: I’m not a huge fan of planning, but I know that when I schedule something, I usually get it done. So, much to my dismay, I’m going to plan my workouts for the week on Sunday and plan at least a few days of dinners. Of course, I know that I won’t always be able to stick with the plan and sometimes I’ll have to improvise, but at least I’ll have an idea of what I’m doing most of the time and I can schedule the rest of my day with fitness included instead of my workouts being an afterthought. I plan on using something similar to this to schedule my workouts/dinners. Simple is best. I just need something to write what’s for diner and what my workout is going to be.

Hmm. I think that’s all the apps/tools I’ll be using, but I’ll add to the list if I think of more. Sorry that they are mostly iphone apps. I’m an iphone user so those are the apps I use, but I’m sure there are similar ones on other platforms.

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Inspiration Tagged: 30 day challenge, drink more water, get more active, get off the couch