Week 13 of 15 Review

Assignments take priority over blog posts. Which is why this "Monday" post is being written on a Wednesday. It also means there will be a second post today; the 26th of the month is when I do my birthday challenge review. 

What I Am Doing?

• Wake Up by 6:00 am
• Begin morning with Lectio 365, Journal Writing, Thankfulness, and a devotional with Alex, XBX workout, Duolingo lesson and morning stretching
• Drink 4 "little mermaid" cups worth of water (about a half gallon)
• 8,000 Steps
• Meet the Noom food budget without going over the red foods and reading the daily Noom articles
• CHANGE: 20 minutes reading of required reading for each of my three classes
• Ten minutes of dance
• Reflect on victories at the end of each day
• End day with Lectio 365
• On Mondays take a progress photo and post an update on this blog.

Week Thirteen Review:

Ugh, last weeks was hard. Just when I was feeling like I had a handle on this challenge and all my new habits everything changed. The change was my own doing and choice, going back to school, and it has been an adjustment. Most of the struggle was making space for all the new assignments and required reading while keeping up with all the good habits. There were good days and days almost everything was sacrificed to get a paper finished. I think the biggest "success" was not taking any missed habits as a failure in my character. I did struggle with the fact that it means my progress feels like it has plateaued. 

I want to end with a celebration of a minor achievement. I have been basing my daily workouts on the RCAF's XBX routines (with a few adjustments). The goal was to make it to my recommended level of Chart 2, Level 22, which I did this week!

Looking Ahead:

Since before classes began I felt like I was already behind and was struggling to catch up. Last week this feeling could be summed up in the song Surface Pressure for the Disney movie Encanto. The movie and song are great but the feeling of being under growing pressure was not enjoyable. I am finding ways through the feelings, one of the ways is making small adjustments to my reading goal. Another is letting myself do what I can and when the day ends it is time for bed. I am putting my studies first. But I am still making time for the healthy habits when I can. The little I can do is better than giving up and doing nothing. I might not be making 8,000 steps but my focus on trying gets me between 3,000-,5000 steps. When walking isn't a priority I average 500-2,000. Keeping on where I can is better than stopping. 

A friend likes to remind me, "Cs get degrees." The same is true for my health challenge and goals. I am moving forward...I am still moving. My pace has slowed but I am still moving forward. It makes me think, what I am going to do after the 15 Weeks Challenge is over? There are only two weeks left. I don't have an answer yet but ideas are percolating in the back of my mind.