An Elemental Fitness Challenge

This challenge was cancelled, but was revived just in time! Yay!
Im talking about Get Off Your Broom. This challenge is called Spring Into Fitness and to be truly pagan-oriented the goals are based on the Elements.

So here are mine.

Earth
I personally associated Earth with food, because most food grows. If you eat meat, you are usually eating herbivores as well, so the earth in my mind is pretty relevant to our dining. So my earth goals are to pay more attention to my eating habits, and get an adequate ammount of protien. The second one is not usually a problem for most popl bt my body dosnt digest most protien sorces well at all so it is an issue for me.

Air
Exercise the mind. I couldn't find a good association in my mind for air, besides say, cardio, but exercise in general seems to fit under fire for me, so this is it. A reminder to not focus on one thing to the exclusion off all others, a significant struggle for me.

Water
Drink water, but not too much.
I'm restricting myself to drink only water for the duration of the challenge, with two exceptions. I can have one caffinated drink each day, and sports drink to balance my electrolytes, since I am very prone to fainting all summer long.

Fire
Bike for 30 minutes at least three times a week, excluding my commute.
Follow a strength training routine.
Pretty straightforward, I guess. The more mundane fitness stuff youd expect from any other challenge. I'm excluding my commutes to class and theatre geeky goodness because due to my town laws, the fact that my trips around are multi-stop, and not wanting to die, there's a lot of walking, stopping, and waiting at red lights. I need 30 minutes of actual bike time.

Spirit
Complete the Be A Goddess book I have already started.
Meditate daily.
Walk barefoot daily.
None of these things seem particularly fitness related at the surface, but we need to be entire people, not just focused in one area. In my mind anyway. Being barefoot for me is deeply connecting and centering. My bendiness has called the quits on running for now, so I think its important to get in touch some other way.

I am sure many people have integrated their Pagan beliefs into the challenge far better than I have, so what are your goals in the challenge?

Um.. Yeah. GOYB week 3

So, I totally flaked this week. I normally run/walk around my friends neighborhood, and I haven't been able to go over there. Its cold and I hate cold weather, etc. I just had every excuse this week. Next week I will do better. I got a work friend to drive me home, and I found my flash drive so I no longer have to drag my laptop with me. All of the books are technically supposed to go back and forth but there is an extra set there, so I can run or walk (depending on the day) to work every day, and catch a ride home. Wish me luck!

GOYB Week 2 or.. someone stole my tags!

I am not much of an emotional eater, but I can be really bad about snacking when bored. Something that often helps me is chewing gum, since often I want the sensory input of chewing and taste. A slightly less age appropriate is silicone wrist bands.. If I am wearing one and I find myself to be "hungry" I usually stick it into my mouth and chew on it. (Isn't that an image!) Something else that helps is a food log. I'm much less likely to make repetitive trips to the kitchen if I am holding myself accountable for what I eat, as long as my sensory needs are met. A food log also reduces my problem of forgetting to eat all day and then eating like Cheech and Chong.

I'm not going to log my fitness, even though today was my week to start running. Someone stole my plates, so I have been walking to and from work, about 45 minutes each way. If I were just walking that I would feel fine running after, but walking that with about 7 kilograms in my back pack, plus I have a physicalish job.. not gonna happen lol. Got my new plates yesterday so better luck next week.
I did do my strength routine on the proper days at least.

GOYB: Week One Mini-Challenges and Check In.

What is Get Off Your Broom?  Clicky and find out.
This week there are 3 mini-challenges.
1. Take a before picture. I'm not going to post it until the end, but I did take one.
2. Weight and measurements. Well I have to say I'm probably the only American female who doesn't own a scale. So unless i can find one at the gym, I guess that will be a mystery. As for measurements, I am also going to post them at the end of the thing.
3. Plan.
Brisk walking or other cardio exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes 6 times a week for the first week (this week.)
Follow the c25k program, starting October 9.
Run a 1k fun run on November 24th.
Run a 5k on December 25th.


Sunday: Cardio
Walked 15 minutes at a very brisk pace.
Jogged 2 minutes.
Walked 12 minutes at very brisk pace.
Great workout.. walking that fast with an added jog was interesting. Had "walking subluxations" of both ankles towards the end. Not fun. The rain made traction a bit scary, I wasn't barefoot but in a pair of homemade "minimalist" shoes (chuck taylors with the insoles ripped out. I warmed up after about 5 minutes, came inside and can't stop shivering!

Monday: Strength/Cardio
Squats 2 sets of 12 reps
Lunges 2 sets of 12 reps
Calf raises 2 sets of 12 reps
Tricep dips 2 sets of 12 reps
Knee push ups 2 sets of 12 reps
Swimmers 2 sets of 12 reps
Crunches 2 sets of 12 reps
Walked 40 minutes at very brisk pace.
Okay, it was a bad idea to walk after strength training.. my legs were like "stop, stop, stop!" the whole time.. especially my lower calves! Other than that I felt good and kept the intensity up the whole time.

Tuesday: Cardio
Walked 40 minutes at very brisk pace.
Only 3 days in its already getting easier. I had some pain in my ankles, but nothing that said I had better stop that instant. On Sunday I felt like it was never going to end, today when the chime for the cool down went off I felt like it had just flown by.

Wednesday: Strength/Cardio
45 minute very brisk walk. Seemed really hard today, felt like I only barely survived. I wasn't out of breath or anything, I just felt exhausted. I guess its just normal fluctuation. Same strength training plan as Monday, this time after the walk.

Thursday: Rest Day
Mystery of walking misery solved, I have food poisoning. So I stayed home.

Friday: Rest.
Same as Thursday.

 Saturday: Cardio
Walked 25 minutes at brisk pace. Not my usual time, but I'm still getting back to human. Better luck next week.

First post goodness.

I'm Starre.
I used to blog, but I deleted my account a while ago. I felt like I had boxed myself in to my blog, and then by fixing it I felt like I had locked myself out of it. Then after about a year of not blogging I felt like I wanted to blog again so I started over.
I am on the autism spectrum, with sensory processing disorder, cluttered speech, and word retrieval/substitution issues. I have a few funny stories about it that I may share in another post.
I have JHS or EDS with a Beighton of 8/9.
I'm a Pagan with strong Wiccan leanings. Right now I am working on reconnecting to the "bottom" of my faith.. Meditation, prayer, journaling, etc. I have found myself becoming too ritual-oriented, without enough connection.
I'm trying to start running. Bad idea? Maybe.. Going to give it a try though. I've heard of a few EDS runners so whats the worst that can happen? (rhetorical question!) I'm going to use the C25k program, run a 1k on November 24th, and hopefully a 5k on December 25th.