kyuuei
Emperor/Dictator
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2008
- Messages
- 13,964
- MBTI Type
- enfp
- Enneagram
- 8
Howdy Everyone! It's close to 2018, and time to start thinking about how we want to shape the new year. If you've been doing these you know the drill, but for those who are new:
This is a year long, no strings attached self-motivated and self-driven challenge where you post your goals for the year at the beginning of the year and try to honestly evaluate them, tweak them, and write your progress down. It's a very casual environment, and there are very few rules.
The rules:
- Make your goals SMART. Simple, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. This isn't always so easy to do, and this casual environment allows one to figure out what is truly realistic for one's self or not. For example, you're setting yourself up for failure if you say "Im going to work out for an hour everyday without fail!" if you have never worked out before. Make something you can maintain throughout the year no matter what, and make sure you can measure it in your own way. Measuring doesn't have to mean counting calories, but it can instead mean, "I want to feel good after eating each meal and write down the times I don't because I overate or made a choice I wasn't happy with after." This is more doable and doesn't put pass/fail contraints on the goal.
- DO NOT be critical of other peoples' goals, lifestyles, and body types. If they want to do crossfit and that's not your thing, don't come in here with that negative energy. Positive energy and support for others, if you disagree you can take it elsewhere this is NOT the place for debate. You can of course ask questions, "what made you choose this exercise style?" but if you say much more than, "That didn't work for me, but hey to each their own." it'll be removed from the thread. If you say negative things about weight goals, eating styles you disagree with, etc. they will be removed. This is not the place to push your paleo agenda, though you can speak of it working for you and doing well for you. The key here is yourself. If someone is asking for advice, feel free to give it ONCE but do not push the idea over and over onto others. Everyone is working at their own pace.
- Do NOT make goals that foster unhealthy behaviors and post them to here. If you're admitting anorexic behavior and using this as a vehicle to calorie count and limit your food intake, it will be removed. If you're going to beat yourself up and flaggulate yourself over missing a goal, it is not welcome here. If you use this place to further unhealthy agendas of any sort (like telling people desiring to lose weight or gain weight what's best for them, pushing pseudo-science onto others, etc.) they will be removed and I may even put in a request to ban you from participating further in the thread. I take this sort of thing very serious.. It's okay to fail, and it's okay to not feel good about it, but do not put unhealthy concepts into this space.
That's it! Pretty simple rule, just don't be a jerk, be nice to yourself and others, and make sensible goals to post. Easy peasy.
While we're at it, this is healthy HABITS and goals. We're hoping to foster long term things here. Food and exercise are not the only things that make a person healthy. If you're trying to get more organized in your life, read more books, listen to more educational podcasts or go back to school, become more financially healthy, etc. they are all welcome here. It doesn't matter how big or small that goal is.. as long as it lasts the whole year you'll be on the right track.
Some things that can help folks get started if they don't know where to start:
For health:
- Fitness blender is free online: Fitness Blender they also have sensible recipes and nutrition advice.
- Several yoga schools are free online, here's one example: YouTube
- Some material on calories, general self-love stuff, and eating: Go Kaleo | Sanity in health and fitness.
For Financial health:
- The Personal Finance sub reddit is one of the best built reddits out there with an amazing guide tool for how to proceed with your money.
Personal Finance
https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png
For being cleaner and more organized:
- For personal hygiene: https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/guide-to-good-hygiene.aspx
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/p...nt-l-ch3~ohp-enhealth-manual-atsi-cnt-l-ch3.7
https://lifehacker.com/an-adults-guide-to-hygiene-for-those-who-werent-taught-1689160558
- For cleaning the house: https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/30-Day-Cleaning-Challenge-Printable-34444842
https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Chang...ing-Organizing/dp/1607747308?sa-no-redirect=1
~~
Last year I set out some specific goals, and this year I'm tweaking it up.. I liked the goals set by sections of my life though, so I'll continue that.
Fitness:
- I want to get stronger. This year was easily my laziest year ever fitness wise. I did SOME stuff, but I did not train consistently and it shows. Now that I am part time, I feel like I have the time to actually stick to a 5 day routine without work interfering with it. My goal is to work out on different levels 5 days a week. A simple 10-20 minute burn out today for my arms and legs 2 days a week, a cardio and abs work out 35min-1hr 2 days a week, and trying out a new video/work out style one day a week... parkour, yoga, football training, dance training, running/sprinting, etc. This is on TOP of any HEMA training that I do.. I love HEMA and I want to last longer doing it, and I won't get there 'counting' it as training alone.
- I want to become more flexible. For a while I was really getting there, this year I've totally botched it. I have a goal to complete a 30 day beginner yoga challenge and a 90 day yoga challenge with modifications since I cannot do all of the poses with my bad hips. There is a 3 day challenge fitness blender does that I enjoy, so I'll be trying to incorporate those into my after-work-out routines.. If I could fit in one day each week I'd be plenty happy with that... I will at LEAST pick one extra cool down routine if I cannot find time though... and I'd like to try to take the time to do a 5 minute bed stretch routine before I go to bed on my work days.
- Continue going to at least 2 HEMA classes a week. More the merrier.
- Go to all of my doctor appointments... I missed one from not hearing my new alarm clock and now I have to wait until March to go to it! So, hell or high water, tired and frustrated or no, I'm going to every single one.
All said and done fitness 5 days a week should not take more than 1 hour overall.
Food:
- Last year I had a goal of cooking more asian cuisine. I think this year I'd like to focus more on eating appropriate portions, getting adequate protein, reigning in snacking, experimenting more with my cooking. I'm very much so stuck in 'free food' mentality, and there's lots of it to be had at work and at events. I'm going to put better effort into making snacks vs buying them which I think naturally cuts down on the amount I eat and what things I am eating, putting more fish into my meals now that I have a good supply of fish here. I'm going to use smaller plates and go for seconds vs putting food on a larger plate because I find myself noticing I'm good sometimes on the smaller plates... when I'm out to eat, I'm just going to ask for a to-go box and box half of it away immediately. I want to experiment with some Indian style cooking, Chinese cooking, and some European plate styles as well... so I'll be cooking Japanese food 2x a week, and adding another dish of some sort in as well for a third meal. I'll stick with my simple breakfasts (cereals, oats, fruit/bread puddings, or sandwiches). I read a lot about intermittent fasting and I think that's something I'm going to experiment with as well... It seems to be in line with what I'm naturally doing anyways.. so I might just have 2 meals and 2 snacks a day vs 3 meals and 1-2 snacks a day. I'm going to incorporate more protein into my diet as well, as I think I need it.
- My water intake at work is excellent, but I'm only at work 2 days a week on average right now... I think it'd be far better for me to establish a routine here at home too. The winter is being nice to me with hot teas on the menu constantly.. but I need to really keep that habit up.. at least having a small cup of water and a hot tea of some sort with each meal, and a cup of water when I first wake up. I didn't do so well with that last year, but I think if 'when I first wake up' means when I actually get up out of bed I just stop by the water tank before I do anything else it might work better. We'll see how it goes!
I think I eat well when I make food for myself... but since I go some weeks hardly cooking a thing because of events or other such things I need to be more aware of what I'm bringing to the table that isn't made by myself. Free food doesn't mean I need it anymore nor that it's good for me... I need to break the "im so poor I need free food" habit.
General cleaning/organizing:
- I've been sort of starting to clean up 5 minutes a day on my own, and it's working out really well.. I'd like to make that a good habit that sticks better. Just sweeping the floors, washing the dishes, or dusting can really mean not rushing around if we impromptu invite people over.
- I'm going to take some time to deep clean the house this year. I'll pick a project, a room, something, and spend the whole month on it.. a little at a time. I think I'm going to start with organizing paperwork in January since it's easy but tedious and can be done inside. I can scan and document and save items that I don't need physical copies of, and make it a good habit to write down what I've done and do it right then vs putting it aside and waiting. I already went through some of my older books and donated them to make room on my shelves.. It wasn't a thorough going-through, but still made a big difference.
Financial:
- I want to max out my IRA this year, my emergency fund as well in a high interest savings account, finance the rest of my HEMA equipment, and truly get started in investing. I've been holding onto my savings right now because of some big picture stuff coming up in the near future, but soon I'll have answers and by the end of the year I'll know what to do with it all. I created a budget I rather like, and I'm going to do my best to stick to it.
Hobbies:
- I had a goal to play 5 songs.. I think I'm going to change that goal to 'work through the first 20 lessons'. There are 2 song books and 20 lessons online, and I'm going to take the first half of the year to work on the first 10 lessons, practicing a lot. I'm on lesson 5 (when everything starts to count) so I'm going to work on lesson 5/6 in Jan, 7 in Feb, 8 in Mar, 9 in April, 10 in May.. The song book 1 in June and July. I'll adjust as I get through these lessons, but I have lots of practice to do.
- HEMA is going well. I want to score a winning round in SiS, compete at all in Queen's Gambit, create my leather jacket and put my patches on it, Go to Okoberfecht again, get myself a complete set of useable gear that I can travel with and fight in without any loaner equipment, and memorize at least half of the montante rule sets. I also aim to enroll in Sword Carolina Online and start practicing at home a little... even if I just watch the videos it'll be of use.
- I'd like to go snowboarding once this year if it snows again.. if not, travel somewhere with snow. It's been too long since I touched that board.
- I'm going to try to make 1 hash a month. It'll count as a run day for fitness too, so bonus.
- Japanese study is going well, I hope to by the end of this year finish book 1 and be on book 2. I've got a new phone now, and am going to start working more with anki and getting in shape with the vocabulary. I aim to watch 1 show in Japanese a week... I don't care if it's anime, morning matsune, a video on netflix.. at LEAST one a week. And one podcast a week, even if it's a small short one.
I think that wraps it up for me, that's enough haha!
This is a year long, no strings attached self-motivated and self-driven challenge where you post your goals for the year at the beginning of the year and try to honestly evaluate them, tweak them, and write your progress down. It's a very casual environment, and there are very few rules.
The rules:
- Make your goals SMART. Simple, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. This isn't always so easy to do, and this casual environment allows one to figure out what is truly realistic for one's self or not. For example, you're setting yourself up for failure if you say "Im going to work out for an hour everyday without fail!" if you have never worked out before. Make something you can maintain throughout the year no matter what, and make sure you can measure it in your own way. Measuring doesn't have to mean counting calories, but it can instead mean, "I want to feel good after eating each meal and write down the times I don't because I overate or made a choice I wasn't happy with after." This is more doable and doesn't put pass/fail contraints on the goal.
- DO NOT be critical of other peoples' goals, lifestyles, and body types. If they want to do crossfit and that's not your thing, don't come in here with that negative energy. Positive energy and support for others, if you disagree you can take it elsewhere this is NOT the place for debate. You can of course ask questions, "what made you choose this exercise style?" but if you say much more than, "That didn't work for me, but hey to each their own." it'll be removed from the thread. If you say negative things about weight goals, eating styles you disagree with, etc. they will be removed. This is not the place to push your paleo agenda, though you can speak of it working for you and doing well for you. The key here is yourself. If someone is asking for advice, feel free to give it ONCE but do not push the idea over and over onto others. Everyone is working at their own pace.
- Do NOT make goals that foster unhealthy behaviors and post them to here. If you're admitting anorexic behavior and using this as a vehicle to calorie count and limit your food intake, it will be removed. If you're going to beat yourself up and flaggulate yourself over missing a goal, it is not welcome here. If you use this place to further unhealthy agendas of any sort (like telling people desiring to lose weight or gain weight what's best for them, pushing pseudo-science onto others, etc.) they will be removed and I may even put in a request to ban you from participating further in the thread. I take this sort of thing very serious.. It's okay to fail, and it's okay to not feel good about it, but do not put unhealthy concepts into this space.
That's it! Pretty simple rule, just don't be a jerk, be nice to yourself and others, and make sensible goals to post. Easy peasy.
While we're at it, this is healthy HABITS and goals. We're hoping to foster long term things here. Food and exercise are not the only things that make a person healthy. If you're trying to get more organized in your life, read more books, listen to more educational podcasts or go back to school, become more financially healthy, etc. they are all welcome here. It doesn't matter how big or small that goal is.. as long as it lasts the whole year you'll be on the right track.
Some things that can help folks get started if they don't know where to start:
For health:
- Fitness blender is free online: Fitness Blender they also have sensible recipes and nutrition advice.
- Several yoga schools are free online, here's one example: YouTube
- Some material on calories, general self-love stuff, and eating: Go Kaleo | Sanity in health and fitness.
For Financial health:
- The Personal Finance sub reddit is one of the best built reddits out there with an amazing guide tool for how to proceed with your money.
Personal Finance
https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png
For being cleaner and more organized:
- For personal hygiene: https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/guide-to-good-hygiene.aspx
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/p...nt-l-ch3~ohp-enhealth-manual-atsi-cnt-l-ch3.7
https://lifehacker.com/an-adults-guide-to-hygiene-for-those-who-werent-taught-1689160558
- For cleaning the house: https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/30-Day-Cleaning-Challenge-Printable-34444842
https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Chang...ing-Organizing/dp/1607747308?sa-no-redirect=1
~~
Last year I set out some specific goals, and this year I'm tweaking it up.. I liked the goals set by sections of my life though, so I'll continue that.
Fitness:
- I want to get stronger. This year was easily my laziest year ever fitness wise. I did SOME stuff, but I did not train consistently and it shows. Now that I am part time, I feel like I have the time to actually stick to a 5 day routine without work interfering with it. My goal is to work out on different levels 5 days a week. A simple 10-20 minute burn out today for my arms and legs 2 days a week, a cardio and abs work out 35min-1hr 2 days a week, and trying out a new video/work out style one day a week... parkour, yoga, football training, dance training, running/sprinting, etc. This is on TOP of any HEMA training that I do.. I love HEMA and I want to last longer doing it, and I won't get there 'counting' it as training alone.
- I want to become more flexible. For a while I was really getting there, this year I've totally botched it. I have a goal to complete a 30 day beginner yoga challenge and a 90 day yoga challenge with modifications since I cannot do all of the poses with my bad hips. There is a 3 day challenge fitness blender does that I enjoy, so I'll be trying to incorporate those into my after-work-out routines.. If I could fit in one day each week I'd be plenty happy with that... I will at LEAST pick one extra cool down routine if I cannot find time though... and I'd like to try to take the time to do a 5 minute bed stretch routine before I go to bed on my work days.
- Continue going to at least 2 HEMA classes a week. More the merrier.
- Go to all of my doctor appointments... I missed one from not hearing my new alarm clock and now I have to wait until March to go to it! So, hell or high water, tired and frustrated or no, I'm going to every single one.
All said and done fitness 5 days a week should not take more than 1 hour overall.
Food:
- Last year I had a goal of cooking more asian cuisine. I think this year I'd like to focus more on eating appropriate portions, getting adequate protein, reigning in snacking, experimenting more with my cooking. I'm very much so stuck in 'free food' mentality, and there's lots of it to be had at work and at events. I'm going to put better effort into making snacks vs buying them which I think naturally cuts down on the amount I eat and what things I am eating, putting more fish into my meals now that I have a good supply of fish here. I'm going to use smaller plates and go for seconds vs putting food on a larger plate because I find myself noticing I'm good sometimes on the smaller plates... when I'm out to eat, I'm just going to ask for a to-go box and box half of it away immediately. I want to experiment with some Indian style cooking, Chinese cooking, and some European plate styles as well... so I'll be cooking Japanese food 2x a week, and adding another dish of some sort in as well for a third meal. I'll stick with my simple breakfasts (cereals, oats, fruit/bread puddings, or sandwiches). I read a lot about intermittent fasting and I think that's something I'm going to experiment with as well... It seems to be in line with what I'm naturally doing anyways.. so I might just have 2 meals and 2 snacks a day vs 3 meals and 1-2 snacks a day. I'm going to incorporate more protein into my diet as well, as I think I need it.
- My water intake at work is excellent, but I'm only at work 2 days a week on average right now... I think it'd be far better for me to establish a routine here at home too. The winter is being nice to me with hot teas on the menu constantly.. but I need to really keep that habit up.. at least having a small cup of water and a hot tea of some sort with each meal, and a cup of water when I first wake up. I didn't do so well with that last year, but I think if 'when I first wake up' means when I actually get up out of bed I just stop by the water tank before I do anything else it might work better. We'll see how it goes!
I think I eat well when I make food for myself... but since I go some weeks hardly cooking a thing because of events or other such things I need to be more aware of what I'm bringing to the table that isn't made by myself. Free food doesn't mean I need it anymore nor that it's good for me... I need to break the "im so poor I need free food" habit.
General cleaning/organizing:
- I've been sort of starting to clean up 5 minutes a day on my own, and it's working out really well.. I'd like to make that a good habit that sticks better. Just sweeping the floors, washing the dishes, or dusting can really mean not rushing around if we impromptu invite people over.
- I'm going to take some time to deep clean the house this year. I'll pick a project, a room, something, and spend the whole month on it.. a little at a time. I think I'm going to start with organizing paperwork in January since it's easy but tedious and can be done inside. I can scan and document and save items that I don't need physical copies of, and make it a good habit to write down what I've done and do it right then vs putting it aside and waiting. I already went through some of my older books and donated them to make room on my shelves.. It wasn't a thorough going-through, but still made a big difference.
Financial:
- I want to max out my IRA this year, my emergency fund as well in a high interest savings account, finance the rest of my HEMA equipment, and truly get started in investing. I've been holding onto my savings right now because of some big picture stuff coming up in the near future, but soon I'll have answers and by the end of the year I'll know what to do with it all. I created a budget I rather like, and I'm going to do my best to stick to it.
Hobbies:
- I had a goal to play 5 songs.. I think I'm going to change that goal to 'work through the first 20 lessons'. There are 2 song books and 20 lessons online, and I'm going to take the first half of the year to work on the first 10 lessons, practicing a lot. I'm on lesson 5 (when everything starts to count) so I'm going to work on lesson 5/6 in Jan, 7 in Feb, 8 in Mar, 9 in April, 10 in May.. The song book 1 in June and July. I'll adjust as I get through these lessons, but I have lots of practice to do.
- HEMA is going well. I want to score a winning round in SiS, compete at all in Queen's Gambit, create my leather jacket and put my patches on it, Go to Okoberfecht again, get myself a complete set of useable gear that I can travel with and fight in without any loaner equipment, and memorize at least half of the montante rule sets. I also aim to enroll in Sword Carolina Online and start practicing at home a little... even if I just watch the videos it'll be of use.
- I'd like to go snowboarding once this year if it snows again.. if not, travel somewhere with snow. It's been too long since I touched that board.
- I'm going to try to make 1 hash a month. It'll count as a run day for fitness too, so bonus.
- Japanese study is going well, I hope to by the end of this year finish book 1 and be on book 2. I've got a new phone now, and am going to start working more with anki and getting in shape with the vocabulary. I aim to watch 1 show in Japanese a week... I don't care if it's anime, morning matsune, a video on netflix.. at LEAST one a week. And one podcast a week, even if it's a small short one.
I think that wraps it up for me, that's enough haha!