November Goals

I'm a bit behind posting this because I've been a bit distracted with the end of the Whole Life Challenge. If you have a few minutes, please do take a moment and read my final post on my experience on the challenge this year.

I'm really happy with the progress I made over the past 8 weeks. I had one goal for this challenge: break through the weight plateau that I've been stuck on (I've been +/- 2 kg) for the past 8 months. It's been so frustrating, but I was determined to use this challenge to help me break through it -- and it did!

I'm super-pleased that I finished the challenge with a tied ranking in 1st place. I didn't use any of my bonus points, so I completed it with a perfect score :)

The tough part starts now -- how do I keep up the motivation while not having the challenge to provide parameters for myself? It's strange because it's a virtual challenge anyway. I mean, technically, I could cheat (though I'd just be cheating myself so I don't see any reason to cheat), but I didn't because I wanted to be honest when I logged in my scores. Shouldn't I be able to do the same now? Just because I don't have to log in my scores doesn't mean that I 'need' to break all the rules ...

I guess it comes down to discipline and vigilance now -- along with the answer to 'How bad do I want it?' burning inside me.

Another thing is to focus on goals. October was a bit of a disaster for me in terms of tracking and working towards my goals. I mean, overall I think I had a really successful month. However, it didn't really go according to plan.

I want to be a bit more disciplined for these next two months. Although I don't think I can drop the next 7 kg (15 lb) to hit my goal weight by the end of the year, I will, of course, keep working towards it. Again, my main aim is to end each month lighter than when I started.

November should go relatively smoothly. We've got out of town visitors coming again, but they're only here for a short visit. I've also got a short trip out of Kuwait planned (though not confirmed yet). Aside from that, I should be able to stick to my plans.

My Kajukenbo training restarts from Sunday. It'll be nice to have that anchored in my schedule again. However, my Jiujitsu training schedule is up in the air, so I'm going to have to deal with that uncertainty.

Something else I did in October that I didn't think I could do was that I completed all the quizzes for my Personal Trainer Certification (scoring 100% in all of them -- I'm a nerd; I have to gloat). I've even finished the first part of the final exam. There is one more multiple-choice part as well as 6 essay questions. I definitely need to make some good headway with those.

So, my goals for November are:

1) Weight loss: End the month lighter than what I started
2) Exercise: Complete 35 workouts + 3 yoga long yoga sessions
3) Personal trainer studies: complete part 2 of my final exam + 3 essays
4) Post 2-3 recipes
5) Academic: Work on 1 academic journal article (complete 2,000 words)
6) Home organization: Clear out storage room & organize donation boxes
7) Daily tracking of food, fitness, and finances
8) Sleep: Get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep each night
9) Yoga/STretching: Do at least 15 minutes of yoga/stretching everyday
10) Water intake: 3.5 L daily

I've been bad at linking up with Rebecca's 13 in 13 challenge. This month we're focusing on kindness. I think it's a perfect theme with Thanksgiving approaching! Be kind to others -- and definitely be kind to yourself :)

13 in 13 Post #7: September Plans

September is here! Summer is over, and the new semester has begun. It's time to really push forward and make sure the last 4 months of this year are awesome. The last thing I want is to look at my New Years resolutions on Dec. 31st and see that I haven't accomplished them.

Today has been great so far. Although I did have to go to work today, I won't have to go in on Sundays for pretty much most of the rest of the semester. With that in mind, I've decided to make Sundays the day when I try to hit my 1 rep max on a particular lift plus a long cardio session.

Attempting this today has made me realize how my lazy month of August has really caught up on me. I felt weak and slow. It's alright. I set a few benchmarks today, and I look forward to beating them!

I focused on Push Presses for my 1 rep max. I basically did 8 sets (reps: 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1). I maxed out at 42.5 kg (93.5 lbs). I think that's the max I reached several months ago. It was disappointed that I couldn't hit 45 kg (I tried, but couldn't get it over my head. I think if I had felt a bit more secure - had a spotter with me - perhaps I would have made it. Again, so much of all of this is in my bloody mind). Anyway. It's a starting point.

I wanted to do 1 hr 15 min of cardio on the treadmill, but 60 minutes is the maximum allotted time that you can input into the machine. So I decided to just stick to an hour (instead of doing an hour and then going again for 15 min) and work on improving my speed each time. I jogged for a total of 17 minutes and did a total of 6.46 km (4 miles) within that hour. I really need to improve that distance. I know I can do better.

The last few weeks of August were rough. I just couldn't pull out of my funk. Everything I did was just about going through the motions. I know that at times you just have to push through, but this was different. I was just emotionally somewhere else. Plus the evening Kajukenbo seminars really took up a lot of time. Still, I learned a lot, and it really was a great experience.

The Kajukenbo girls with the Grand Masters

Anyway. Enough of that. Today is a new day - the start of a new month; the beginning of a new term. Let's make the most of it!

My checklist for August didn't really workout well for me. I know that I accomplished quite a lot, but I stopped keeping track after a few days. I'm redoing my plan for September.

Here's a list of my goals for this month:

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: Try 1 new recipe and post 1 new recipe
5) Academic: Start writing the first draft of my chapter (word target: 3,000)
6) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130
7) Yoga/Stretching: Do yoga every morning & a minimum of 15 minutes of deep stretching daily _ at least 3 yoga/balance/pilates classes this month
8) Keep a food, fitness, and finances journal: track daily and monitor progress/adjust accordingly
9) Sleep: Get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep each night
10) Home organization: Go through my CDs; organize room for A; de-clutter the kitchen

There's lots to be done, but I feel ready.

My menu is ready:

Plus I'm starting a new journal to track my food, fitness, and finances. Writing it down is so much easier than typing it out for me.

Here's to a great September! 

Let's Get Re-Started

I've been back home for a few days now. It's taking some time to adjust. First of all, jet lag is such a pain! NYC is 7 hours behind Kuwait, so my wake/sleep patterns are quite messed up. I'm slowly readjusting, but the process has not been fun. We've also been celebrating Eid here in Kuwait (marking the end of the month of Ramadan) so there hasn't really been much of a schedule, especially since D has been home. Even though the holiday is over from today, I am still on vacation until the 1st of September so I've been trying to work out a schedule that will see me to until the start of my new semester.

Let's get the big news over and done with. My goal when I left Kuwait at the end of June was to come back from my 6-week vacation 5 lb lighter than when I left. I know that I worked out quite a lot while I was away, but I also ate quite a lot (and not always on plan). So my final result is ... I lost 4.5 lbs. It's not the 5 I was hoping for, but it's better than coming back having gained weight. I'm really regretting eating hummus last night with dinner - should have known better than to eat something that I know bloats me before weighing in! I'm also regretting pretty much sleeping and not getting much movement at all since being back. I'm sure that hasn't helped with my weight. I haven't been completely sedentary though. D and I came back with some awesome Dollamur mats which are perfect for practicing Jiujitsu. We've been training for about 3 hours each day for the past 4 days. As intense as Jiujitsu can be, you really don't work up as much of a sweat or burn as many calories as doing some focused cardio. Anyway.

Today is the start of a new week. For this semester my work week will start on Mondays (not Sundays as they did last semester) so I'm more in sync with most bloggers in terms of their weekend/work week & weigh in day. I hope that will help me keep focused as well.

Even though I'm still on holiday, I'm going to try and get into a proper schedule so that readjusting to my work week won't be too difficult. I really need to take advantage of the extra time I have to get some more work on my Personal Trainer Certification done. Once the semester begins, things will get hectic.

I sat down to try to figure out my schedule -- it was insane. Conceptually I had filled up my 24 hours. Practically, I knew I would need something like 36 hours to complete everything I had to do. For me, finding chunks of time to complete my tasks is difficult. Like I may have 3 hours throughout my day to study, but what I really need is 3 consecutive hours in order to make any real progress.

Instead of an hour-by-hour schedule, I'm back to the checklists that worked so well for me at the beginning of the year. So, I've set up my checklist of things I want to accomplish by the end of the month. I'm also rejoining my 13 in 13 updates. For this month the goal is to get outdoors in August. Ironically this might be the toughest one as the 125 degree F weather (mid-50s C) makes the outdoors so unappealing, but I'll think of something!

I've done my best to read and comment on blogs that are on my reading list over the past few days. It has taken quite some time. I think I got to everyone's blog, but if I didn't get to yours, then I apologize. The oversight was definitely not intentional.

My specific August goals: 

1) Weight loss: End the month lighter than what I started
2) Exercise: Complete 30 workouts including at least 4 45-minute long yoga sessions
3) Personal Trainer studies: Complete 4 quizzes
4) Cooking: Try 1 new recipe & Post 1 new recipe
5) Academic: Work on my chapter outline (still, ugh)
6) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130 (boy do I have a long way to go!)
7) Home organization: Reorganize my bookshelf; rearrange my office furniture; fix up jiujitsu room
8) Yoga/Stretching: Do yoga/deep stretching for at least 15 minutes daily
9) Food journaling: Begin food journaling daily
10) Blogging: 5 posts a week + regular reading/commenting

That's it! My goals are down in writing - let's get to work! 

Back in Kuwait & Ready for a Routine 

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)

Quick April Review

Quick, quick, quick post - review of April

The Good Stuff
1) I completed my Fitness Nutritionist course and did really well on the final exam!
2) I wanted to complete 40 workouts this month & I completed 45!

The Okay Stuff
1) My weight goal was to end each month lighter than the previous one: I did, but I am disappointed with only a 1/2 kg (1 lb) loss for the month
2) My overall eating habits have been good, and I feel much more confident around food. However, I obviously still need to tweak my eating habits because with the amount I'm working out, it just doesn't seem to add up.

The Bad Stuff
1) I've been feeling really stressed out, which is affecting my sleep.
2) I've felt really disorganized and overwhelmed; I need to work on my time management and planning.


That's my basic post April review.

My May goals and plan for the month will be posted this weekend. I just need to survive the next 3 days.

13 in 13 Post #4: March Review and February Goals

March has been quite a crazy month for me. My main struggle this month was an emotional/mental one.  I seem to have hit some kind of wall and I was having trouble pushing past it. I still went through the motions of daily exercise and healthy eating, but I felt empty while doing it. It was, as I said, just going through the motions. While continuing with good habits may keep me physically lighter, it weighs heavy on my heart and mind and thus the happiness and excitement I was getting from improving my life just wasn't there. I felt empty and heavy at the same time.

Anyway. That was then ... right now, I feel much better and I can say that overall March was a good month for me. I kept up with my checklist - it's working quite well - though because of a change in my routine (again) plus travel, I wasn't as diligent keeping track in the middle of the month.

One of the major changes this month was the lack of MMA training because my trainer has left Kuwait (he went on vacation and never came back!! I have yet to find a trainer to work with. In the meantime I'm practicing on my own though it's not the same ...).

A second change is that I've restarted CrossFit and have been going to spinning class regularly. I've now established a routine, but I am still eager to find a way to incorporate MMA training into my plan. How ironic that it's actually the only thing I really, really want to do yet the one thing that I can't seem to move forward with. Oh well, in the meantime I'm going to just stick to what I've got.

My routine for April kinda looks like this:
- Cardio: RPM, treadmill, rowing machine, outdoor track (5-6 times a week)
- Weights: New Rules of Lifting (3 times a week)
- CrossFit: strength, endurance, HIIT, skills (3 times a week)
- Flexibility: Body Balance and yoga (2 times a week)
- MMA training: mostly working on technique and trying to incorporate some sparring (2-3 times a week)

Here's where I stand:

March Targets	Accomplishment
Lose weight each month, no matter how much	1.4 kg (3 lbs) lost this month 1.5% loss of body fat 4.4 inches lost total
Burpees: 20,130 by the end of the year	625 completed this month 2,665 completed total
Daily stretching of 15 min/day	31/31 days completed
2 outdoor runs	3 completed
Week 7 of C25K	2 days completed; 1 day left
4 body balance/Pilates/yoga classes	4 completed
10 cardio sessions	15 completed
10 weight training sessions	10 completed
10 MMA training sessions	3 completed
ISSA Final exam	started but haven’t completed
4 recipes – post	---
1 chapters & 4 articles to read	only 2 articles read
AAAL Paper	done & presented
Organize bookshelf & cubbies	No! Room is in a bigger disaster!

Despite my schedule disruption, I had planned for about 40 workouts for the month and I managed to get in 45. This is not even including those days when I just did the bare minimum for the Whole Life Challenge (10 min stretching/10 min active recovery per day). I'm pretty pleased with that.

Our task for the month of March was to try something new -- I think for me it would be headstand practice! I'm getting much better at doing it; I can get into a full headstand position on my own - and slowly, not just shooting up; the control feels great - and I can hold myself up for a second or two, but I am eager to really establish my full balance on my own!

I need to organize my time better so that I can work towards my other targets as well. Sometimes I feel like I'm so busy working out that I don't have time to do anything else.

I have to remember it's all about balance. That's definitely going to be my focus this month.

Our task for the month of April is about money - thinking about money & how we spend it. I think I'll write up a separate post for that as there are definitely a few spending habits that I have changed along with the other lifestyle changes I've been making lately.

Again, most of my goals for April are quite similar to those of the previous months. This month instead of breaking down my workouts into a specific type, I'm just going to put a general target of how many workouts I want to do this month and on the side list any specific targets (e.g. C25K).

April 2013 Goals

1) Weight loss: End the month lighter than what I started
2) Exercise: Complete 40 workouts this month
3) Nutrition Studies: Complete the final exam (the deadline is April 12th so I don't have a choice)
4) Cooking: Post my recipes!!!
5) Academic: Work on chapter abstract; get some reading done
6) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130
7) Yoga/Stretching: Reintroduce yoga in the morning & do a minimum of 15 minutes of deep stretching daily
8) Other: Get my room organized; de-clutter; and catch up on emails

Lots to do, so let's get it done!!

I'll leave you with my favorite pix from March :)

 Front squat sequence (3 sets/10 reps; 50 kg/110 lbs)

Boxing practice with my new UFC gloves

13 in 13 Post#3: February Review & March Goals

Overall I think February went quite well for me. The two things that kinda threw me off guard this month were coming down with the flu (so tired of getting sick!) and the 10 day holiday over which I still worked out but not in my regular routine.

Of course the biggest change for me this month has to do with starting the Whole Life Challenge. You can read about my progress in my other blog that's just dedicated to my WLC progress here.

Due to the holiday there were a number of cancellations in my MMA training classes & I didn't go to the gym as often as I had liked but resorted to either working out at home or going to the outdoor track to work on my running so I didn't hit all my targets for the month. However, I do think I did a good job in some areas.

I'm glad the weight loss goal I set for myself for this year was to end each month lighter than what I started. My weight fluctuates through the month, especially right around the time I'm getting my period. However, things tend to normalize for me by the end of the month which is why that's the number I'm going by. Given the ups and downs on the scale it felt like I had lost quite a bit of weight this month, but actually in comparison to how things started off on February 1st, my weight loss has actually not been that much. Still, my aim is to make steady progress towards reaching my goal & not moving backwards at all.

Here's where I stand:

February Targets	Accomplishment
Lose weight each month, no matter how much	1 kg (2.2 lbs) lost this month 1% loss of body fat 3.5 inches lost total
Burpees: 20,130 by the end of the year	1,040 completed this month 2,040 completed total
Daily stretching of 15 min/day	25/28 days completed
2 outdoor runs	3 completed
Week 7 of C25K	--
4 body balance/Pilates/yoga classes	4 completed
10 cardio sessions	8 completed
10 weight training sessions	8 completed
15 MMA training sessions	13 completed
3 nutrition studies quizzes	5 completed
2 new recipes	2 completed, none posted
3 chapters & 4 articles to read	--
AAAL Paper	¼ done
Organize bookshelf & cubbies	Bookshelf almost done

Losing a total of 1 kg for the month is frustrating to see, but it's ok. My body is changing, and I'm happy with the progress that I'm making. I just have to keep working at it.

I'm really pleased with my exercise for this month. I completed a total of 34 workouts, not including any days when I did a workout at home or did 100 burpees as my exercise for the day. I haven't worked out a 'category' to put those exercises in! I'll include something in this month's checklist. Of course C25K has still been an utter fail. I really need to put my fear and apprehension aside and just bloody well do it!

The checklist idea, by the way, has been terrific. It's so simple yet so effective. It's on my desk and at the end of each day I fill it in. I've got an immediate visual reminder of what I've accomplished and how much more I need to do to get to where I want to be.

The part where I struggled the most was with my extra academic stuff. I think I was caught off guard with the amount of grading that I had to do - that plus good old-fashioned procrastination has been my downfall. I have to get a move on with my work! This is something that I said last month ... I can't have myself repeating this at the beginning of April as well!

I am pleased, however, with the progress I made with my nutrition studies. The quizzes are all out of the way now it's just down to taking the final exam, which is 45 pages long! It's really detailed, mostly multiple-choice but also includes a case study and an essay portion. I definitely need to set aside a chunk of time to finish that off.

Our task this month is to try something new. I haven't decided what it is that I'll be trying. I have something in mind ... but I want to wait a little before I announce it. Many of my goals for this month are the same as last month, with a few modifications:

March 2013 Goals

1) Cardio Focus: 10 sessions [including 2 outdoor runs & Week 7 of C25K]
2) MMA Training: 10 sessions
3) Weight Training: 8 sessions
4) Flexibility Sessions: 4 [minimum 45 minutes each]
5) General Workouts: 5 [any other type of workout e.g. Core Domination; home workouts etc.]
6) Nutrition Studies: Complete the final exam
7) Cooking: No new recipes - but post the previously tried recipes on the blog
8) Academic: Complete the paper for the March conference; complete the outline for next month's writing task; read 1 chapter and 4 articles; continue research interviews
9) Organization: Organize the bookshelves, box shelves, and new storage units
10) Weight loss: End the month lighter than I started
11) Burpees: Continue working towards the ultimate goal of 20,130
12) Yoga/Stretching: Reintroduce yoga in the morning/complete a minimum of 15 minutes of stretching every day regardless of other exercises


My biggest challenge for the month will be fitting in those MMA training sessions since my trainer is on vacation and dealing with my trip to Dallas later this month. Not only will the travel disrupt my routine, but the jet lag also wreaks havoc with my sleep as well as energy levels.

I'm also nervous about how I'll manage to stay on track with the Whole Life Challenge while I travel. I will be out of my element and have no control over what I can eat since I'll be staying in a hotel (and I obviously can't pack food from Kuwait and carry it with me for a week!). I guess it'll be an interesting test to see how healthy I can remain while being away. I know that last year when I went to Germany, I managed to stay completely Whole Life Challenge compliant except for the wedding dinner - if I could do it then, hopefully I'll be able to do it now!