Out With A Whimper
And so ends November and, with it, NaBloPoMo and the Threeway Challenge of Awesomeness. And while I managed to post a blog posting every single day in November as per the NaBloPoMo requirements, I completely and utterly dropped the ball on T.C.A. I was going strong up until 6 days ago, when I completely forget to do any exercise. And that was all it took to throw me off my game1! Now, it also happened to coincide with crunch time vis-a-vis a huge Econ assignment, a huge Stats assignment, and studying for an Econ quiz, so I pretty much just fell back into my pattern of work all day, homework and various other Important Things I Needed To Get Done all night.
Rather than getting too down on myself, I think it’s probably better to learn from the situation. First off, I did manage to do some appreciable physical activity on 24 of 30 days this month. That’s 80% – not terrible. Drilling down into the type of activity, I did:
- 385 minutes of hockey
- 345 minutes of yoga/stretching
- 12.53 km of walking
- 23.44 km of biking2
Of that, I would have done the hockey regardless, and I probably would have done the walking. But without the Threeway Challenge of Awesomeness, I definitely would not have done the 345 minutes of yoga/stretching or the 23.44 km of biking. I think that’s a pretty decent outcome for the Challenge.
The day that started the fail, as I mentioned previously, occurred when I got lax with scheduling in my physical activity. And though I quickly scheduled in some physical activity for the remaining days, I did it hastily, without thinking through whether I’d actually be likely to follow through with these hastily laid plans. Lesson here: I need to not only schedule my physical activity, but I need to do so thoughtful. I think I need to reinstitute my Sunday night prep for the upcoming week routine I used to have: pick my outfits for the week, plan the week’s meals, check out my calendar to make sure I have all my ducks in a row schedule-wise. The good thing about doing this on Sunday is that even on weekends that I have class, by Sunday night my brain has reached it’s limited for schoolwork, so a simple thing like planning my week will totally be possible3.
As well, on the days that I did go to my yoga class, I really liked the convincing of going right after work, so that I’m done my yogaing by 6:30 pm. I think this is something that I’ll try to do more of in the upcoming month, as I still have many of my Groupon-paid classes left4. I’ve even scheduled in the next few weeks worth of classes that I want to attend.
For biking on the stationary bike, I brought either a book to read or my laptop to watch shows. This works exceptionally well for me so long as (a) my homework involves reading rather than typing, or (b) I am not so swamped with homework that I can justify watching a show. The good thing is that each of our MBA modules are only 2 weeks5 and then after the exam ends, we get a full two weeks off where we don’t have homework. During those times, I will schedule in more stationary biking and watching shows!
Anyhoo, I’m really exhausted – had Econ class tonight, including a quiz – so you’ll have to excuse the fact that I’m not even going to proofread this before I post it! It’s off to bed for me now – I have more Econ class tomorrow morning at 8 am!
See you in December!
- Other than my hockey game last Sunday [↩]
- on the stationary bike in the exercise room of my building [↩]
- I just need to remember to schedule it into my calendar so I don’t forget to do it! [↩]
- Once this Groupon at the current studio is done, I can activate another Groupon for another yoga studio near my house. I’m very excited about that one because (a) it’s hot yoga and (b) they have 6 am classes, so I can do pre-work yoga. I love starting my day off with a hot yoga class! [↩]
- or 1 weekend for the courses I’m going to take from the EMBA program [↩]
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Although the last 6 days didn’t go as planned, the whole reason was to get our fitness levels up… and without a doubt, we definitely did this. We’re all winners in my eyes!! And learning from the situation is the way to go: I have also realized that scheduling activity and the Sunday night planning are key for a successful week :).
[…] was a challenge in there. The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness. To recall, friends Dan, Beth and I, after realizing that we were quite lazy throughout the month of October, decided we would do […]