Setbacks

Well, there is nothing like a good old-fashioned cold/flue bug to put a wrench in a 30 day challenge. I have been sick for a week. I have still put up a few new posts on my teaching blog but you may have noticed (ha! I imply I have readers) that there have been no new posts here. I have not been running. So, here is to thinking healthy thoughts! I will start running again in the next day or two. I think I'll have to restart my 30 days of running come January. 

Dry January

I have already picked a 30 Day Challenge for January: 30 Days Dry. A friend of mine posted about a UK campaign for a Dry January on Facebook. I think this will be a great way to aid my weight loss and getting back into shape.

As an update for this months challenges: I have been running on the elliptical consistently - two to three 30 minute runs  mid-week and one hour run on the weekend. Moving into this next week, I am going to add in one or two 3 mile runs on pavement. I have also posted new blog posts 14 out of the last 17 days. Practice makes awesome.
 

To Do List

A lot has happened in the last few years. I feel like it is time to update the old bucket list. You can't get what you want if you don't know what it is that you want. Here is to articulating your dreams!

Travel Goals 

1) Follow the Voyageur Route in the BWCAW
2) Go back to Brazil 

3) Go to Paris
4) Climb Devil's Tower

Professional Goals

1) Write a picture book

2) Deside if I want to continue teaching
    If yes: 1) Get my kindergarten teaching licence

              2) Teach in my own classroom

    If no:  1) Find a new path

Fitness Goals 

1) Run a marathon
2) Be able to climb a 5.8 consistently
3) Skate an inline marathon
4) Practice Yoga Daily  

Financial Goals 

1) Own a house
2) Pay off student loans

Ideal VS Actual

If you can articulate what you want you can get whatever it is. Over the years, Ideal vs Actual lists have helped me figure out what I want on a day by day basis. Keeping track of what actually happens helps improve the next plan. I want to hone in my morning and evening plans.

Ideal Morning	Time	Actual
Wake Up and Snooze	4:45
Get Dressed	5
8 Minutes in the Morning or Yoga	5:15
Drive	5:30
Run	5:45
↓	6
Drive	6:15
Shower	6:30
↓	6:45
Get Dressed	7
Eat Breakfast	7:15
Head to Car	7:30
Drive	7:45
Arrive at Work	8

Ideal Evening	Time	Actual
Arrive at Home and Unwind	4
Nap	4:15
↓	4:30
Watch TV	4:45
↓	5
↓	5:15
Make Dinner	5:30
↓	5:45
Eat	6
↓	6:15
Clean Up Kitchen	6:30
↓	6:45
Craft/ Play Guitar/ Bake/ Knit	7
↓ In General Wiggle Room	7:15
↓	7:30
↓	7:45
Write Blog Post	8
↓	8:15
↓	8:30
↓	8:45
Get Ready for Bed	9
Meditate	9:15
Sudoku or Read a Book	9:30
↓	9:45
Go to Sleep	10

50 Tips

HighExistence is an awesome blog. It was the original inspiration for my 30 Day Challenges and now it is a new source of information. 50 Life Secrets and Tips is a great list of ideas for bettering yourself. I will be picking things to focus on shortly. Stay tuned.  

Long Run

Whew! After a week of running I thought it was time for a long run. Oh, it hurts so good. I'm still on the elliptical, but today I ran for an hour (instead of 30 minutes). I downloaded a movie on to my phone and watching it made the time fly.

Fair?

Is it fair to count my challenge successful so far? So far, between my two blogs, I have written every day. Done, fair, check. I ran Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each of my four runs was 30 minuets on the elliptical. I feel very successful. I had a bad ankle sprain at the end of the summer (while on my 10 day backpacking honeymoon) and I have finally recovered enough from that to really start running again. I am starting my 30 day challenge of running basically from zero and I don't want to re-injure myself (my ankle or any other part of me).

Here I am, elevating my sad sprained ankle on Isle Royal.

 

Can I have recovery days and still count this month as 30 days of running? I am torn. There is part of me that says of course recovery is part of training. However, if I have recovery days then I am not running for 30 days.

Do recovery days count? Does 30 days of running need to be 30 consecutive days of running? Should I take recovery days and add them to the end of the challenge as extra running days (like how extra snow days can get added to the end of the school year)? What do you think?

What a Morning

Wow! What a wonderful morning. I'm only working a half day today, so this morning felt like a Saturday morning. Dave and I slept in. I had a light breakfast (small bowl of yogurt with granola). We went to the gym and hopped back on those elliptical. I did an interval workout and listened to Pomapamoose on Pandora. Dave set his elliptical to fat burner and watched Myth Busters. We got home, showered up, and ate salad for lunch. We made our salads with baby beets, feta and sesame seeds on baby greens and spinach. Now I'm finally at work and I got in right in time for lunch break. (I am a substitute teacher, I never know what kind of a schedule I will be walking into.)

Hope your morning was a good as mine. If you need something to pick up your day check out Pomapamoose on YouTube. Lots of the stuff on the Pandora station could be considered to mellow for a work out, but I think it draws a really happy mix.

Cross Training Ideas

Amanda had some great ideas yesterday. She used to be a runner but she has bad knees. She now swims and uses programs like Body Rock TV and Zuzka Light. I've used a similar (but less intense  program - 8 Minutes in the Morning. These programs that Amanda suggested are free online and hardcore.

I like Zuzka Light better so far for a couple of reasons. First, she does the whole workout and she posts how many reps she was able to do of each move, so you can try to beat her time. Second, the camera angles are more focused on the workout and less on her body.

Body Rock TV posts more frequently (5 days a week as aposed to 3). Don't get me wrong, their workout are great and equally as hard as Zuzka's. Its just the nearly porn-like camera angles bother me.

With all that said, I am dressed for the gym and waiting for Dave. We are going to hop on the elliptical again tonight. I'm going to pocket this idea away for a cross training day.  

www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight
www.bodyrock.tv 

Motivation

The day was a success. In the morning, Dave and I ran for 30 minutes on ellipticals. We cleaned the apartment  Finally in the afternoon, I spent Small Business Saturday shopping with Amanda, a friend from college. As much as I would love to tell about my small business finds they were Christmas gifts and on the off chance that someone I know actually reads this... you'll have to understand my discretion.

While Amanda and I were out shopping, our last stop was the Running Room. I was inspired. If I am able to complete my 30 day challenge to run (or do some other type of exercise), I am going to give myself a shopping spree at a running store. This will be perfect because of the timing. Dave and I have realized that in just over 30 days it will be the New Year. This is when the rest of the world will be making their resolutions and this is when the gym is likely to become crazy busy. If we run on ellipticals - consistently - between now and the New Year we will be ready to run outdoors just when gyms are overrun. It will be the perfect time to get some new winter-friendly running gear.     

Thanksgiving Resolutions

Well folks, its the day after Thanksgiving. My husband and I got to spend time with both of our families yesterday. We ate good food, had good drinks, and we were merry. It was all that the day was supposed to be. We also both pledged to each other that we would be more healthy. Who needs to wait for the New Year? You might have noticed that there are 30 days of the holiday season ahead of us. I feel another 30 day challenge coming on.  

My new and improved 30 day challenge is: to be impressive. I want to challenge myself to be impressive for the next 30 days. A few years ago I created a life mission that all boiled down to one word: action. So, in following my life mission I will be taking action and in following with this blog's inspiration I am going to focus on 30 days of action.  

This time I'm keeping my 30 day challenge small and action oriented. My goals are 1) 30 days of running and 2) 30 days of blogging (on this blog or on pedersenteaching.blogspot.com). That's it. Now in order to have 30 days of blogging I will have to do things to blog about, but that's where the "be impressive" part will come into play.      

Chapter 4 - The New Plan

Hello again. I missed a day. My humblest apologies. It was a wonderful and busy day for me with the Bachelor/ Bachelorette party. The fabulous party was put on by Dave's best man, Billy. Billy set up a blind beer tasting of 12 different beers and ordered amazing pizza, at our apartment. I got to play food critic (and I was critical  After the beer tasting we headed to Sweeny's, a great little bar about a half a mile from our place. 



With all the fun and games yesterday I did still manage to complete several of my challenges. I took my cold shower, read a chapter (I re-read part of "Skinny Bitch" and remembered why I am not on that diet), and watched my documentary ( National Geographic: Nefertiti and the Lost Dynasty). 


Even with all this productivity I am finding that I bit off more than I could chew with all my challenges. So here is the new plan:

• Write someone an I-like-this-about-you note each day. (I will give myself a C for note writing.)

• Take a 30 minute walk each day. (I need to step it up - haha it's punny!)

• Watch a documentary each day. (I have been really enjoying this one.)

• Read a chapter each day. (Sadly I think I'm looking at a solid C in reading right now. However, I am confident this will improve in the next two weeks as I prepare for teacher re-licencing tests.)

• Take a cold shower each day. (I'm doing surprisingly well with this... but it has been really hot... cheating?)

• Keep a journal. (You may be the judge of this.) 

• I am also working on a weight loss/ getting shape for my wedding/ be more healthy challenge. I did not include it in "the list" only because it started well before the Thirty Day Challenge began and I intend for it to go well beyond the challenge. Still, it is all about bettering myself. 

Today's challenge checklist: I have now kept up my journal and taken a cold shower. Being as it is a little before 3 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I think I am in good shape for the rest of my list. 

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Day 2

Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I have spent almost all of today making our apartment shine for the joint Bachelor/ Bachelorette party tomorrow. Whew! It is looking good and I am tired. Admittedly, some of the things I did today did not have to happen before the party (it could be argued that I did not need to organize the cleaning supplies under the sink... but now I know what we have.

But on to the challenges! I have watched my documentary of the day, "6 Days to Air: the Making of South Park." I was trying to get Dave into my 30 day challenge. While he was definitely into the film today, I think it will be a day by day, or more specifically (selection by selection) if he will join the challenge.

Yesterday there were many of my challenges that I did not fulfill. I may end up changing my list. For now, it is 6pm and I have the whole night ahead of me to rock through my challenges. Wish me luck. 

Round 1

Today has been a lazy day. I have had too many lazy days. This is where the challenges come in. I need to take action to be the person I want to be. To begin day of the challenges I have:

1) Picked my challenges.
2) Watched my first day's documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." Its a film about the oldest cave paintings in the world. I was not overly impressed, the experts seemed to go beyond the reach of their expertise and it was frankly a bit boring.
3) Emailed my mom. I would like to upgrade this part of the goal to mailing people notes, but one step at a time.
4) I took a cool (I know, I know, not quite cold, but baby steps).
5) My first journal entry is here - TA DA!
5) I am going to go on a night walk short and I will be bringing my camera.

I have also been watching the cartoon version of "Avatar." It is wonderful! Good characters (not black and white), good plot and good morals. Its the full package - a true family show - good for adults and kids. 

My Challenges

I have been inspired by 30 Challenges for 30 Days. I also have 31 days till my wedding. The timing is perfect. My first step is to pick my challenges.