Thinking of May

I have a few new challenges in mind for May. If my 30 day challenges have taught me anything, it's that I need to pick just one or two challenges to do at a time. What I would like to do is:

1) 30 days of job hunting, sending out 1 application a day. Substitute teaching is almost done and I need to be focused on my next career move.

2) 30 days outside. It finally feels like spring, or maybe even summer. I want to get out and be more aware of the ever changing world around me. Also, 30 days outside would most likely mean 30 days of running/ biking/ roller blading... Two for one!

3) 30 days of creativity. My drawing class at MCAD was so wonderful. It got me feeling creative again and it got me producing again. If I start now, I could still keep the momentum of that class rolling. At this point, I think if I worked on my art for a half hour to an hour each day this challenge would be a success.

So, as previously noted, I think I need to pick. If I bite off more than I can chew, all the challenges may fall apart. On the other hand, it would be very awesome to follow through with these things. I would feel awesome. I have a couple of days to think about it, before May starts. Maybe I'll do a test run and see if there are enough hours in a day to accomplish what I want.

Bonus Challenge: Weather

Well folks, Dave and I declared yesterday a snow day and did not go out for a run. We will make up our run tonight, but we will be at the gym. We have snow in the forecast for Saturday night. All I have to say is they ended Dome running way to early.

The view from my apartment. April showers my butt.

Update

Howdy Folks! I thought it was time for an update on my latest 30 Day Challenges.

Goals	Accomplishments
Write Three Gratitudes Each Night	I have recorded my gratitudes for 11 nights. I could be at 17 if I had remembered EVERY night.
Journal One Positive Thing Each Night	I have recorded 11 positive things (see above).
Exercise	I have continued to run twice a week and go for a long walk or run on the weekend. If you remember from “Dirty 30” I was going to have to transition away from running at the Metro Dome on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well, Tuesday was the last Dome run of the year. It was good while it lasted. The weather is not good today, so today’s run will have to be in the gym.
Meditation	I have not started this yet. I think this will be a May goal.
Random Acts of Kindness	I have not started this yet. I think this will be a May goal.
Dry April	Dry April is going well. Dave and I have only cheated on this diet couple of times when out to eat.
Cleaning Chart	This one also jumps back to my “Dirty 30” entry. It has been more than my 30 days and I have to say, I love this chart. Even if I don’t get to everything on the chart every day, it makes the weekend “big clean” less of an ordeal. It has also helped certain people, who shall remain unnamed, see that they do actually need to be helping more around the apartment. In short the 30 day challenge is complete, but the chart carries on!

A Story from Last August

Its not a 30 day challenge, but it was challenging. And its a good story...

We took the Voyagur II from Grand Portage to Windigo Harbor. After checking in as quickly as possible with the park rangers, we got our camping pass and we were off. For our first day, we planned a nice little 8.6k hike to Feldtman Lake campsite. We had been dreaming about this trip for months and we were finally off. We were newlyweds and we were on our honeymoon.

About 8k into our hike I took a bad step. I’m not sure if I felt or heard my ankle pop, but either way I was down. The pain knocked the wind out of me. I was gasping and crying on the ground. I have ruined our honeymoon – was running on a loop through my head, along with images of being evacuated back to Grand Portage. It was the first day of our honeymoon!

As soon as I could breathe again, Dave helped me move to some nearby shade. We elevated my foot on a pack, pulled out the first aid kit, cracked the snap to use ice pack and planned our next move. Dave would hike to the camp site and then come back for me. I pulled out my book out and waited.

On every backpacking trip I've ever been on, I've brought luxury items. Usually, I pick one or two luxury items. I choose from things such as: a book, a sketch pad, the sling that turns my sleeping pad into a camp chair, or maybe extra gorp. Before this trip we kept saying “bring it, it’s our honeymoon.” We said yes to everything. The percolator coffee pot, the camp chairs, the books, the wine with collapsible wine glasses, the extra gorp, plus all the actual necessities for a 10 day trip in the wilderness. But it was our honeymoon.  This led to our packs being just under 70 pounds each. This led to me being unable to recover from that bad step. Sadly, this was far from our last mistake.  

If you have been to Isle Royal and have hiked to Lake Feldtman you might have already thought to yourself – It is not 8.6k to the camp site, it is 8.6 miles. This is true. This mistake cost us a lot. First, when I fell, we thought we were closer to the campsite than the ranger station. Second, we only had enough water with us for the short hike.

 I had been elevating my foot for about 15 minutes when a couple of day hikers came down the trail. They tried really hard to get me to hike back to the ranger station with them. They did convince me that there was a lot more of the hike left than I originally thought and that if I wanted to reach camp before nightfall I would have to start moving. They gave me a splash of their water (I was already short) and grudgingly headed back to the ranger station without me. 

I wrote a note asking anyone who found my pack to leave it. Strapped the first aid kit, water filter and water bottle to me, picked up my trekking poles and started hobbling along the trail after Dave. The next few hours were spent with Dave leap frogging our packs along the trail. I limped ahead, in an increasingly frantic pace looking for water and a place to camp. A few years ago I had made the mistake of camping at a makeshift campsite without a water source and so knew the problems that came with that. By late afternoon we were out of water. (Yes we were on island on the biggest freshwater lake in the world, out of water.) I would have stopped at any creek, bog or puddle of a pond and called it a fine place to camp, but I wouldn't stop without water. As the sunlight began to slant through the trees I had one thought on my mind –Must get water for Dave.  I was hurting badly, but so was he - he was carrying both our God awful heavy packs. Beyond that, we were torturing ourselves by expecting camp to be just over the next ridge or just around the next corner at every turn.

I finally reached the Lake. I filter one bottle of water and drank it on the spot. I filtered a second bottle and headed back down the trail. After what felt like forever I found one of our packs where Dave had left it in the last leap frog set. He had also left his white running cap. I took the full water bottle and his hat and left them in the middle of the trail. I picked up the pack, sprained ankle and all, and dragged myself back to camp.

By dumb luck I had the pack that had the dinner supplies in it. As soon as I rolled into camp I started a big pot of gado-gado. Then I had my last stress of the day- waiting for Dave. The sun was setting. We had such a long day, with so many unexpected challenges. What if Dave gave up and set up camp wherever he was on the trail. I had thought about doing that. Dave staggered into camp just after the sun set, with the last of the fading daylight. He told me that he had been planning on stopping when he got back to the second pack only to find the pack had disappeared and a full water bottle was in its place. He thought I had found someone to help us. It was enough to get him to walk the last leg of the trail into camp.         

With all the mistakes we made that day, you might think that Dave and I are really green in the woods. We are not. Dave had been hiking and later guiding with the Boys Scouts for most of his life. I had guided backpacking trips on the Superior Hiking Trail and in the Porcupine Mountains. I was a Wilderness First Responder, I had good medical training. None of these mistakes should have happened.   

The truth of it is, mistakes and all, I wouldn't change a moment of that trip. In that one day we had to rely on each other in a way that we didn't have to rely on each other once in the year and a half we had been dating. We had to trust each other and take care of each other. Before we left many people didn't understand why we were going to go backpacking for our honeymoon. They thought that we should be going to a fancy hotel anywhere, sipping margaritas by the pool when we left the room, if we ever left the room. But what we had was so much more. Because of this trip, when we reach the tough times in life I know that Dave will carry my pack and he knows that I will get him water.  

Dry April

It really doesn't have the same ring as "dry January," but I'm running with it anyway. I have been doing a very good job of running 2 to 3 times a week and I'm really noticing some nice changes in how I look and how I feel. I want to boost my wight-loss and be healthier. This challenge really helped me accomplish those things in January. So, dry April starts today. No April fools here! 

Motivation Board

My new and improved pin board is finally completed. Everything on the board was carefully chosen to help motivate me and Dave (but mostly me).

Here it is. I put down wrapping paper for the background, bought some fun push pins, picked the best of my old board, printed what I need for the new one, and voila!

Here are a few details of favorite parts:

A picture of Dave and I from a friends wedding. We both looked at it and said "Oh I need to lose weight," and our weight loss motivation picture was found.

Bryan Jonathan was our wedding photographer. We have promised ourselves to book another photo shot with him if we hit very serious weight loss goals. Oh yeah, and Dave asked me to stick a Nerf dart to the board.

How could this not motivate?

My bib from the Northy Shore Inline Marathon, the year I got my personal best.

My goals for re-training my brain to be happier. Also, for an update, I have been very diligent with journaling my three gratitudes and my positive journaling.

Re-Train Your Brain

I re-watched one of my favorite TED Talks last night. If you haven't seen a TED Talk, you should. There is something for everyone. But as I was saying my favorite talk is by Shawn Achor and his talk is "The Happy Secret to Better Work." TED summarizes this 12 minute talk in two sentences: "We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity."

 

So, reason number one to watch this talk is Achor is hilarious. What better way to improve your happiness than to laugh? Reason number two is it will change how you view happiness and help you feel more in control of your happiness. If it doesn't work for you, don't call me a liar, just know that it worked for me.

 

Shawn Anchor, My Personal Hero

More at GoodThinkInc.

This cite also has information about his book- now on my reading list, book review coming soon.

Anchor states, "If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present then our brain work even more successfully as we are able to work harder, faster and more intelligently." To help people do this, at the end of his talk, he gives concrete examples of how to re-train your brain to be happier and why they work. With such clear steps and with such a wonderful overarching goal, I have my new 30 Day Challenge (conveniently many of these things overlap with my original challenge).  

 

Creating Lasting Positive Change

• Three Gratitudes- Writing down three different things you are grateful for each day for 21 days (I'm sticking to 30) retrains our brains to look for the positive in our lives.
• Journal- Writing down one positive thing that happened in the last 24 hours allows you to relive it.
• Exercise- Teach your brain that your actions matter.
• Meditation- Helps us get over the "cultural ADHD" where we try to do more than one thing at once.  
• Random Acts of Kindness- Write one positive email when you open your email and create ripples of positivity.