Saturday, May 4, 2013

13 in 13 Post #5: May Plans

The past ten days involved a lot of stress, a lot of work, a lot of tears and tension ... it has been rough. When I hit my breaking point on Tuesday night I decided to step back a little and just figure out how I was going to make it through the next four days without completely collapsing.

I haven't worked out since Tuesday. Any down time I had since then (which wasn't much) I used to rest/sleep. I made a conscious decision to just try to relax and sleep until Sunday. Dealing with the stress of my dad's hospital visits and of course our continued arguments over food, my brother's paperwork crisis, and everything else was just too, too much.

I really thought that I would be able to handle the stress much better, but I didn't. As I said, there were lots of stress-induced tears this past week ... but now it's over.

So on to more positive things:

  • My menu for the week is up on the whiteboard. I've got the basic groceries to get started and I'll do a bigger shop during the week
  • I finished my last batch of grading for the semester (and now only 12 days left until summer vacation starts!!)
  • My dad has returned home so I've got my house and space back - what a relief
  • All the junk food that entered the house while he was here has been put in a bag that I'm going to give to my housekeeper so that there is no temptation around 
  • My exercise plan for the week has been written down, and I'm going to do my very best to stick to it

I didn't do a proper review of how I did in April, but you can read my summary of how the month went here.

So now, my specific May goals -- actually, these goals are for May 5 - June 5 (I travel for summer vacation on June 6th)

1) Weight loss: End the month lighter than what I started
2) Exercise: Complete 35 workouts this month
3) Personal Trainer studies: Complete 3 quizzes
4) Cooking: Post my recipes!
5) Academic: Work on my chapter outline
6) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130
7) Squats: Start the 30 squat challenge (I started this in April but then got distracted by other stuff so I'm restarting from May 5)
8) Yoga/Stretching: Do yoga in the morning daily & a minimum of 15 minutes of deep stretching daily + at least 4 yoga/balance/pilates classes this month
9) Food journaling: Food journaling daily - both in writing and in pictures
10) Other: Spring cleaning - get my office sorted & Vacation planning - get all hotels etc. booked!

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I wasn't going to exercise today, but when I saw how behind I was on my burpee count for the year I went ahead and did 100 burpees. They're still tough, but I've found that controlling my breathing in a particular way helps me get through them without feeling like I'm about to completely collapse!

Burpee count to date: 
January - April: 3,385
Today: 100 (total: 3,485/20,130)





4 comments:

  1. You totally inspire me, you are awesome, well done for stepping back and chilling.

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  2. I find you inspiring, too. I like the way you stepped back and took time to come up with a plan.

    Hoping May turns out to be a great month!

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  3. I think stepping back is so important, till the last month when all hell broke in my life I always thought I should always push myself to stick to my routine but soon realised stepping back, giving time to calm down and relax is very important.It was a very important lesson for me..I hope May goes well for both of us, so we are summer ready ;)

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  4. Great plan! I know personally I have fallen completely off the rails on too many fronts, so taking control and laying out a plan makes perfect sense. Good luck with May!

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Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! I can use all the support I can get :)