kyuuei
Emperor/Dictator
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2008
- Messages
- 13,964
- MBTI Type
- enfp
- Enneagram
- 8
Howdy Everyone! It's pretty much 2019, and time to start thinking about how we want to shape the upcoming 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 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 as possible. 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. Similarly, saying "I'm going to eat better for 2019" can be too vague. Make something you can maintain, create baby steps as you go, 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 but rather creates awareness and understanding of the goal's purpose.
- DO NOT be critical of other peoples' goals, lifestyles, and body types. Nothing will get you banished from this challenge except this. If they want to do crossfit and that's not your thing, don't come in here with that negative energy. If people want to do a particular diet but you believe Keto is going to save the world, keep it to yourself. Positive energy and support for others is your ONLY role in this thread besides working on yourself; if you disagree with the person you can take it elsewhere as 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 requested for removal 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 personal agenda, though you can speak of a concept 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 and Only after specifically requested from the group but do not push the idea over and over onto others. Everyone is working at their own pace and with their own cultural backgrounds, ideas, etc.
- 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. It is okay to be disappointed with not meeting a goal, but please refrain from bringing toxic self-talk into the space. You are welcome to request support from others because of disappointments or frustrations, but not to beat one's self up in here.
Similarly, 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, telling people they ought to lose more weight, pushing pseudo-science diets and fads like MLM weight loss solutions onto others, etc.) they will be reported for removal 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 rules, just don't be a jerk, be kind to yourself and others, and make sensible goals to post. Easy peasy.
While we're at it, this is healthy HABITS we're challenging. 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.. if you have one for 2019 and want a place to blog about it and get some support in the process, post it up here.
That being said, my own goals for 2019:
Health-wise:
I've been going pretty well with this 'layers of health' thing I've created. So I'm going to try to continue that and tweak it as I need to for 2019.
- Layer 1: Intermittent fasting. Noon - 10pm has been more reasonable than the 8 hour fasts I tried in 2018, and sustainable whether it's dayshift or nightshift. I also relax the hours depending on whats going on. If I have to leave the house by 11am, I'll go ahead and eat before I go and bump the last hour down as well. Or if I wake up later (usually 2pm-3pm) after nightshift work, I'll also eat until later. I also allow for low calorie snacks--cucumbers, celery, sugar free jello, tea, and milk. I usually don't need these, but it's an option if I'm just craving munching on something. In general a 10 hour window of "hey you're fine you actually don't need to eat riiight now" makes sense for me and helps me curb boredom snacking, oddball cravings, etc. I also lug a tupperware with me to work, if free food pops up I'll take a share of it home for the next day. I do IF every single day I possibly can.
- Layer 2: Substitution cooking. In general, baking things vs frying them, using low sodium broths and cutting salt intake, cooking with less oil and butter, and using filling but healthy ingredients in recipes such as veggies in my rice, tofu in mousses and fillings, more fruit in oatmeal than sugar, etc. etc. helps keep things filling and healthy while keeping some excessive calories out of the mix. I've been cooking this way for a long time now, and I'm fairly adjusted to it. Still, all these years doing this, it does take active effort to say, "Hey, steam these veggies and add them in while we're at it." I do this anytime I am cooking at home.
- Layer 3: Health-minded days. This is bleeding over with my other goal, but I have more health-centric days where I focus on my body and what I'm eating. While it's impossible to avoid holiday food and such, it is much easier to say, "Hey, 3x a week I'm going to be really mindful." So I have planned meals, cooking, etc. on those 3 days. I pick the days out a week in advance, so I'm fairly certain what's coming up and that I'll be able to adjust. It's little things, like checking calorie counts, drinking water with my meals as well, and cooking in the dietary fashion my tummy is most adjusted to which is a Japanese/pan-asian style diet. I also work out on these days. These are days I'm more likely to cook a real meal for myself, gather ingredients for a healthy soup, whip up a smoothie, or try out a new ingredient. I do this 3x a week.
Goal-centric weeks and days:
The other major thing I've got going on is that I have many 'spheres' in which I have goals. Like wanting to be better at playing instruments, working out, physical therapy on my hips, creating costumes for Halloween and Cosplay, etc. There are many areas I want to improve in, and I've split these areas up into color-coded days. The concept is this:
- I have a plannar that has color-coded days. Pink days, blue days, green days, and black days. I have 3 pink days a week, 2 blue days a week, 1 green day (haha), and 1 black day each week. These colors are arbitrary based on the pens I own. Pink days are my power days -- I work on health, fitness, my martial art, language learning, helping others, and improving my space and cleaning up. Blue days are work days -- I work night shift and so I practice music on those days before I leave to work, do anki flash cards, clean up emails, catch up on some online activity, file and organize some papers online, and read. Things I can easily do in my spare time at work or before I even leave to work. Green days are project days... working on gear building, learning to do things, painting, cosplay making, and general art stuff. Black days are chill days... I ensure I have a day set aside where even if I go play at my martial arts school a couple hours, most of that day is dedicated to my partner, hanging out, doing whatever, and generally relaxing.. if I can, I try to watch some TV/anime on these black days. I try to ensure each task is broken into time-sensitive segments. For example, if I'm language working, I focus for 30 min. at a time, or watch a single video and take notes. I might re-visit those notes later and review, and do the work book practice in 20-30 min segments that next time. But I don't say "Chapter 2." because that might take me 2-3 hours to fully comprehend. I'd rather spend an entire week on chapter 2.
- I record a week or two in advance depending on what's on my calendar which days are what. None of these days take up my entire day. Pink days are the most involved and can take 5-7 hours to complete everything. Each other day only requests a couple of hours of my time. If life happens, and I have to adjust, I don't take it out on these days or beat myself up. I tackle the task, and move on with my time as if it never happened. A pink day get totally eaten up by family issues and drama? That's okay. Tomorrow is my blue day, so I'll move forward with that. All I do is add a frowny-face to my calendar that I didn't get to complete that day is all. This helps me keep on track and ensure that even if I didn't get to work on costume building that week, or missed a work out, overall I am marching forward towards my goals.
- I'll break down some smaller goals into these days via my panda plannar I was gifted. For example, I have work out "days" pre-written up and planned on a google doc, so I'll write "day 6" in the plannar. I also have a goal for solo practicing HEMA, so I'll write what drills I want to do and accomplish. I might pick music to try to play on a blue day. Stuff like that. I usually journal this stuff out at work where I'm more likely to stop and think about it during my lunch breaks, and then I'll refer to it throughout the week and check things off I accomplished.
- My time is my own outside of these tasks. Once I complete a pink day, if it's only 3pm, I have plenty of time to do whatever tf I want. I don't try to get more done. I don't try to get more ambitious and make the days feel longer. I'll happily do something to passively obtain my goals--watch HEMA videos on youtube, or a show in Japanese... but anything I do ought to be fun.
That's plenty for me, and that's it! What are you goals, motivations, and how do you plan to get there?
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 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 as possible. 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. Similarly, saying "I'm going to eat better for 2019" can be too vague. Make something you can maintain, create baby steps as you go, 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 but rather creates awareness and understanding of the goal's purpose.
- DO NOT be critical of other peoples' goals, lifestyles, and body types. Nothing will get you banished from this challenge except this. If they want to do crossfit and that's not your thing, don't come in here with that negative energy. If people want to do a particular diet but you believe Keto is going to save the world, keep it to yourself. Positive energy and support for others is your ONLY role in this thread besides working on yourself; if you disagree with the person you can take it elsewhere as 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 requested for removal 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 personal agenda, though you can speak of a concept 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 and Only after specifically requested from the group but do not push the idea over and over onto others. Everyone is working at their own pace and with their own cultural backgrounds, ideas, etc.
- 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. It is okay to be disappointed with not meeting a goal, but please refrain from bringing toxic self-talk into the space. You are welcome to request support from others because of disappointments or frustrations, but not to beat one's self up in here.
Similarly, 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, telling people they ought to lose more weight, pushing pseudo-science diets and fads like MLM weight loss solutions onto others, etc.) they will be reported for removal 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 rules, just don't be a jerk, be kind to yourself and others, and make sensible goals to post. Easy peasy.
While we're at it, this is healthy HABITS we're challenging. 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.. if you have one for 2019 and want a place to blog about it and get some support in the process, post it up here.
That being said, my own goals for 2019:
Health-wise:
I've been going pretty well with this 'layers of health' thing I've created. So I'm going to try to continue that and tweak it as I need to for 2019.
- Layer 1: Intermittent fasting. Noon - 10pm has been more reasonable than the 8 hour fasts I tried in 2018, and sustainable whether it's dayshift or nightshift. I also relax the hours depending on whats going on. If I have to leave the house by 11am, I'll go ahead and eat before I go and bump the last hour down as well. Or if I wake up later (usually 2pm-3pm) after nightshift work, I'll also eat until later. I also allow for low calorie snacks--cucumbers, celery, sugar free jello, tea, and milk. I usually don't need these, but it's an option if I'm just craving munching on something. In general a 10 hour window of "hey you're fine you actually don't need to eat riiight now" makes sense for me and helps me curb boredom snacking, oddball cravings, etc. I also lug a tupperware with me to work, if free food pops up I'll take a share of it home for the next day. I do IF every single day I possibly can.
- Layer 2: Substitution cooking. In general, baking things vs frying them, using low sodium broths and cutting salt intake, cooking with less oil and butter, and using filling but healthy ingredients in recipes such as veggies in my rice, tofu in mousses and fillings, more fruit in oatmeal than sugar, etc. etc. helps keep things filling and healthy while keeping some excessive calories out of the mix. I've been cooking this way for a long time now, and I'm fairly adjusted to it. Still, all these years doing this, it does take active effort to say, "Hey, steam these veggies and add them in while we're at it." I do this anytime I am cooking at home.
- Layer 3: Health-minded days. This is bleeding over with my other goal, but I have more health-centric days where I focus on my body and what I'm eating. While it's impossible to avoid holiday food and such, it is much easier to say, "Hey, 3x a week I'm going to be really mindful." So I have planned meals, cooking, etc. on those 3 days. I pick the days out a week in advance, so I'm fairly certain what's coming up and that I'll be able to adjust. It's little things, like checking calorie counts, drinking water with my meals as well, and cooking in the dietary fashion my tummy is most adjusted to which is a Japanese/pan-asian style diet. I also work out on these days. These are days I'm more likely to cook a real meal for myself, gather ingredients for a healthy soup, whip up a smoothie, or try out a new ingredient. I do this 3x a week.
Goal-centric weeks and days:
The other major thing I've got going on is that I have many 'spheres' in which I have goals. Like wanting to be better at playing instruments, working out, physical therapy on my hips, creating costumes for Halloween and Cosplay, etc. There are many areas I want to improve in, and I've split these areas up into color-coded days. The concept is this:
- I have a plannar that has color-coded days. Pink days, blue days, green days, and black days. I have 3 pink days a week, 2 blue days a week, 1 green day (haha), and 1 black day each week. These colors are arbitrary based on the pens I own. Pink days are my power days -- I work on health, fitness, my martial art, language learning, helping others, and improving my space and cleaning up. Blue days are work days -- I work night shift and so I practice music on those days before I leave to work, do anki flash cards, clean up emails, catch up on some online activity, file and organize some papers online, and read. Things I can easily do in my spare time at work or before I even leave to work. Green days are project days... working on gear building, learning to do things, painting, cosplay making, and general art stuff. Black days are chill days... I ensure I have a day set aside where even if I go play at my martial arts school a couple hours, most of that day is dedicated to my partner, hanging out, doing whatever, and generally relaxing.. if I can, I try to watch some TV/anime on these black days. I try to ensure each task is broken into time-sensitive segments. For example, if I'm language working, I focus for 30 min. at a time, or watch a single video and take notes. I might re-visit those notes later and review, and do the work book practice in 20-30 min segments that next time. But I don't say "Chapter 2." because that might take me 2-3 hours to fully comprehend. I'd rather spend an entire week on chapter 2.
- I record a week or two in advance depending on what's on my calendar which days are what. None of these days take up my entire day. Pink days are the most involved and can take 5-7 hours to complete everything. Each other day only requests a couple of hours of my time. If life happens, and I have to adjust, I don't take it out on these days or beat myself up. I tackle the task, and move on with my time as if it never happened. A pink day get totally eaten up by family issues and drama? That's okay. Tomorrow is my blue day, so I'll move forward with that. All I do is add a frowny-face to my calendar that I didn't get to complete that day is all. This helps me keep on track and ensure that even if I didn't get to work on costume building that week, or missed a work out, overall I am marching forward towards my goals.
- I'll break down some smaller goals into these days via my panda plannar I was gifted. For example, I have work out "days" pre-written up and planned on a google doc, so I'll write "day 6" in the plannar. I also have a goal for solo practicing HEMA, so I'll write what drills I want to do and accomplish. I might pick music to try to play on a blue day. Stuff like that. I usually journal this stuff out at work where I'm more likely to stop and think about it during my lunch breaks, and then I'll refer to it throughout the week and check things off I accomplished.
- My time is my own outside of these tasks. Once I complete a pink day, if it's only 3pm, I have plenty of time to do whatever tf I want. I don't try to get more done. I don't try to get more ambitious and make the days feel longer. I'll happily do something to passively obtain my goals--watch HEMA videos on youtube, or a show in Japanese... but anything I do ought to be fun.
That's plenty for me, and that's it! What are you goals, motivations, and how do you plan to get there?
