Tags
12-week challenge, challenge, exercise, habits, health, mystudylife.com, resolutions, update, weekplan.net, workout plan
I always do this. Every January I get so caught up in whatever I want or need to do that I make a whole heap of resolutions and goals, and forget that planning your life from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep seldom go well. Besides, some of them are really unnecessary.
For example, do I really need a resolution about going to dance class once per week? I’m helping out as an instructor; it’s not like I can randomly stay home from the Thursday classes anyway. Also, do I really need to specify how many times to do what per week? Some weeks I have the energy and time to do more, some weeks are the opposite, and some weeks are so hectic that I won’t have a chance following my resolutions. Having goals that I cannot meet is really just a recipe for failure.
Then there’s of course the point that if I combine the resolutions from this blog, my art/writing blog AND my book blog, there are far too many to even remember. Hardly very productive. So here are the revised resolutions:
- Quit drinking soda (change: no fixed deadline)
- Work out at least 200 days this year. This should include running, dancing, stretching and strength.
- Be under my calorie limit in MyFitnessPal at least 200 days this year.
- Keep weekends free for creative pursuits, working out or simply relaxing, with the exception of some housework.
- Blog once a week.
So, down from 10 to 5! Could probably be less, but at least it’s an improvement. I have started using weekplan.net and mystudylife.com in order to make sure that I stay on top of everything that needs to get done, and get things done so that I can have the weekend completely off without feeling stressed about it.
I’m only half a week into that particular project, but it’s going well. I managed to not overdo it – for example I have a multi-step housework task for every Saturday (which can be completed earlier if I want), but I’ve realised that I don’t have to do the full shebang every week as long as the garbage is emptied, clothes and utensils are cleaned and the clutter is kept at bay. The task is very flexible with regards to when I do it, and small enough that it’s not overwhelming.
I also enter when I’m going to read a particular chapter in my textbook, but also work-related tasks (so I don’t have to try to remember them until I get to work again) and blog-related tasks so that I don’t neglect my blogs. I have a thousand topics swirling around in my head at all times, but I frequently simply forget to actually write them.
Anyway! I will probably update a little along the way.
12-week challenge
So, to the other main topic of this post. Because I couldn’t just have made two separate posts, apparently… I follow Kathryn Morgan’s ballet blog and videos – I’ve taken some of her classes on Powhow as well, and have purchased a few of the lessons – and recently she started a 12-week challenge.
I always like a challenge, and this can be easily customised to my own goals. For example, she doesn’t have specific workouts for each day, nor a specific time frame, just general types of exercise. For example, this first week there was barre/center on Monday, cardio on Tuesday, barre/center again on Wednesday, yoga on Thursday, barre/center on Friday, and leg workout and cardio on Saturday. Every day there’s an additional, optional workout. Today there was an option to do a stretching routine, for example, which I really needed after the leg workout yesterday.
I have to say that I feel really good today. I’ve followed the plan – on the barre/centre days I use the first 30 minutes of a Powhow beginner’s class (they feel the most useful to me), except on Friday when I had time to do the whole class. On Thursday I had very little time, so I just did a 15-minute yoga for dancers youtube video. Yesterday I did Kathryn’s leg workout video plus a Les Mills Combat video for the cardio part. I forgot that there’s quite a bit of kicking in that particular video, so I think I ended up with double the leg workout really… My legs barely worked afterwards!
I might have to adjust it a little bit now that dance classes start again. The Monday classes will have to substitute the barre/center part, as I don’t have time for more. I guess I’ll just focus as much on my technique as possible during class.
Thursdays are yoga days, which I sorely need, but also the insane double dance class day (4 hours usually). I’m not sure it’s smart to do even more than that when the muscles are so exhausted. Perhaps I’ll do a short yoga routine at the end of barre/center the day before, or I’ll just have to skip it altogether.
Aaaanyway, this post has become far too long now, so I’ll stop now. Hope you all have a good week ahead!