Tag: weekly planning

Categories
Health

One step in front of the other

Learn to Run
(all over again)

#RedleafWalking

So one of the little things I thought I would start on Monday 29 August was a learn to run program again. My plan was to start slow and do each training day twice for the first month just to see how I, and my knee, held up. And then that fell apart a couple of weeks in when Toby went to BC for a couple of weeks and then Q and I went to PEI and then Edgar got neutered and THEN Q got COVID…. and well, it’s really never ending.

And recognizing that it’s never ending means I have to pick a new start date and stick to it. Something will always come up.

Thinking: We take Edgar back to the vet mid-November to remove the stitches. Then I will ask about starting him with the learn to run with me. He walks really well on a leash and the running at the start is a minute or two long only. I dunno. We’ll see.

Either way – and because I love winter – I am re-starting Monday November 14. Weeks start on Monday for me. It’s as good a day as any. (Note that the first draft had this at November 28. I couldn’t think of why so I bumped it to November 21, then to November 14. And now I’m wondering why I don’t just start on November 7?)

So the PLAN: I am following a 10K runner app.

Week 1 Day 1 (W1D1)

5 minute warm up

1 min run; 1.5 min walk x 6

5 minute cool down

W1D2

5 minute warm up

1 min run; 1.5 min walk x 8

5 minute cool down

W1D3

same as W1D2

Week 2 will be a little different: 1.5 minute runs and 2 minute walks get added to the mix. I might do Week 1 x 2 and then move to Week 2. It depends on how it all goes.

My plan is to walk/run on Mondays, Thursdays (while Q is in dance I can go run!), and Saturdays.

AND if I cannot run – which will be dependent only on the actual physical ability of my knee – then I will switch it to “walk with purpose; recovery walk” but I will still do it.

GETTING TO PEI

One of the things I did years ago when I started running was pretend I was running to PEI. I had so much fun with that that I am going to do it again.

My start, as I did in 2013, is Nathan Phillips Square, the home of Toronto City Hall:

Selfie with the Toronto sign in early October

So some fun facts: Nathan Phillips was the first Jewish mayor of Toronto. He was a lawyer, born in Brockville Ontario.

You can really tell the place was designed in the 1960s. Though I think it’s still awesome. It’s also been used a lot in movies so obviously I’m not the only one who thinks so.

from the other side of the sign

And then the ending spot:

Charlottetown city hall.

It took a year to build this “romanesque revival” style building from 1887 to 1888. It’s a National Historic Site of Canada as well.

From wikipedia.

I will add up the distance of my walk/runs every so often and we’ll see how far I get. The tag for this one is #RedleafWalking – it’s a long story but some of you will understand.

Every week seems silly at the start. We’re talking a few KMs of distance focused on the app (I am not including just the walking the dog KMs) maybe every 2 weeks to start? or 4? I dunno yet.

Categories
Around the house Family Finance Health

Setting up for #MoneyMasterclass

I shared the link last time for the twitter achieve of the money masterclass but here it is again.

Some items are required at the start:

• 2 notebooks

• 5 jars for T and I and 4 jars for Q

• a month at a glance calendar

• 500 things (beads, buttons, toothpicks, poker chips, beans, whatever you can gather)

• 2 highlighters – different colours

• Construction paper

and a box to hold everything in.

I have no idea what to use for the 500 of something that I am not gonna mind having around somewhere. I’m going to wait until they are actually explained to figure them out.

Next the first actual task: list your core values.

WHY does this come up so much?!?! lol

So here’s the link again to my August 2021 blog post. This time I’m going to print out the damn list of values and post it near my computer.

Task 2 – List all the things you want or need to do in the next few years. The idea is to empty out your brain: everything you have been planning to do/wish you had done and then label them:

A = top priority; then B; everything else = C

Key for me is “next few years” there’s really only so much I can do in that time frame (retirement ain’t in the cards just yet)

So here’s my list – I think maybe I have too many A priorities but oh well!

A – improve my health

A – do things together as a family more

A – pay down debt

A – set up an emergency fund of 3 – 6 months of expenses!!

A – stop accumulating stuff

B – travel more

B – contribute more to our RRSPs / TSFAs (retirement savings)

B – create more (stitch, paint, play piano)

B – read more / learn more

C – move to a smaller place (still walkable; with some outside room; dog friendly)

Some more stuff to think about:
WHY do I want to do this?
By WHEN do I want to get it done?
WHAT are the steps I have to take?
WHO can I ask for help?

Categories
Around the house Health

Getting better

I posted on facebook that I feel like I should be better at some things than I am and so I am going to focus and do my best – said for perhaps the 47 hundredth time….

First up: a daily schedule that builds in some mindfulness skills to help me accept me more. I’m actually going to a weekly class right now to help me learn some skills around being able to step back from stressful situations and not go into my own little spirals all the time.

Also some general medical stuff: Since Edgar joined us I’m definitely walking more every day which is great. I also need to follow up on a referral for a sleep study as well as putting some thought to some more focused activities than “walking the dog.”

Also important: thinking about what I need to do to decrease the stress I put on myself (and yes, I know I put it on myself). So one of the things is money, obviously. So I went back and found the #MoneyMasterClass that Gail Vaz-Oxlade did on twitter back in 2020. I’ll be doing that as I can – so sometimes more than one task in a day and other times skipping a few days in between.

Another is the house – I like our house but it’s so much to keep on top of and clean and stuff. So I have a household planner that I’m going to try and stick to as well.

I guess it’s a sort of “fuck I’m turning 50 soon” level of motivation.

Wish me luck!

Categories
Health

It all starts with a single step

Getting Healthy 001

A few years ago (2016) I signed up for NerdFitness. It looks all different now but I signed up for a lifetime plan so I still have access to the basics that I want, and need, right now.

I don’t know if these posts will make it on the blog or not but I definitely needed a place to also type out what I was doing, along with my little notebook.

So here’s the plan: on Sunday 27 August I will step on a scale and I will take all sorts of measurements. I have a chart in my notebook for both. Measurements will be redone every two-ish months. Weight will be redone every two weeks. I’ll see how that goes.

The chart for measurements is complete – it’s just boxes to fill in.

The chart for weight is gonna be a dot graph. So the X axis represents the dates – every two weeks from 28/8 to 29/1 fits on a single page of my notebook (this is gonna change though; I want a big enough notebook for 1 month of lines on a page so I will have a longer time scale for this graph too; I’m gonna pick up a new notebook as soon as we’re home). The Y axis is gonna be the weight.

Petty annoyance: I prefer thinking in KG but my scale is in pounds BUT now I figured out how to switch it to KG. So now the petty annoyance is just going to be that it seems like everyone else in the world thinks in pounds for weight. I’m still gonna stick to KG. So I’ll fill in the Y axis with whatever I weigh on the 28th and then each line will either be 0.5 of a kg or a kg – knowing I can put the damn dot for the weight anywhere in there.

yellow tailors tape

The next is supposed to be finding my “Big Why” – I’m supposed to find the motivator for changing what I’m doing. The idea is that articulating the reason(s) will help when you get stuck: “Those who have a ‘why’ can bear with almost any ‘how.” The more personal, the more “deep” the better or something. So not just “It’s good to be healthy” – of course it is, we all know that but it’s not enough to have had me change up till now so it’s definitely not gonna be enough going forward.

And then I’m supposed to share the big why(s). I’ll have to think about how best to do that. I have a lovely group of online friends I’ve known, heck for over fourteen years now, and I have shared my start with them. We’ll see if I get around to sharing that part publicly or not. But for now, I guess it’ll suffice to say I’ve come up with a couple of Big Whys and shared them with Toby and a small group of friends.

Then my plan for the week from a health perspective:

– find time for mindfulness every day

– move a little bit more than yesterday

– drink water and take my iron & vit d

I did write all that up there before August 27, 2022.

And I started off well.

And then life happened and Toby went to BC for a couple of weeks and I just did my best to get the basics done while he was gone.

So now he’s back and I’m gonna re-start and so I am going to post this now as a way to help keep me accountable. By Sunday October 2 I want to re-read my notes from back in August and see how I can plan out a re-fresh starting on October 11 – yes, a Tuesday but that’s when I will be back from almost a week in PEI!

Categories
Around the house Health

September 2022

September! … It has warmth, depth, and colour. It glows like old amber.

– Patience Strong

Well, even in my very late 40s there’s something about September that makes me think of new starts, new beginnings, new possibilities. And, even for me, it’s been a while since September meant I started a new academic year. It’s fun though now to see how excited Q is for a new school year to begin! So even though it’s still August, today’s post is dedicated to September.

September written on a plain background surrounded by fall leaves

September also reminds me that rest is as important as activity to growth – the trees are starting to drop their leaves, animals foraging in earnest, the sun seems less strong.

I took most of the summer off from everything really – my folks were away a lot, #PandaCat died, we got a new puppy, house stuff was happening etc. – and so I was content to just coast really through July and August and now towards the end of August my brain is getting excited about structure and schedule and habit-forming.

So habits – the last time I did this was in June when I tried to think of a theme to work around. I had all these grand plans but only kept a few going. And in reviewing them now, a couple are still important and so I’m going to start again with them in mind.

SELF focus for September:

❶ schedule – a day

❷ mindfulness – being present

❸ health – menopause

Schedule: I am going figure out what I would like “a day” to look like. Three different days actually: in-office work day, WFH work day, non-work day.

Mindfulness – just something I’m always working on; whether it’s a bit of reading about stoicism, the Calm app, yoga. Something.

Health – read the damn menopause book. That time is creeping up slowly but surely and I really want to be sure I have some sort of idea about what’s going on. We don’t talk about this stuff enough and I need to learn.

Also for health – I had an appointment with a specialist clinic for weight management and my own doc as well. I am waiting for a referral to a sleep study and in the meantime I’m going to start walking more in general and focusing more on my health.

HOME focus for September:

❶ minimalism – organize/declutter

❷ mindfulness – being present – family-sized 😉

We live in a fairly large house. The problem with this of course is that we acquire enough stuff to fill the large house. And then some. This will really probably be the focus every month for HOME but key tasks for September for decluttering:

① Lisa’s Stuff – organize jewellery; what do I want to keep; offer the rest to family / friends and then sell / donate what’s left

② Q’s Stuff – this was going to hopefully be done over the summer but we never quite got there. So we’re still going to work on getting everything out of Q’s rooms and really clean and maybe repaint them etc. We’ll continue to do a bit every day and then hopefully over one of the weekends between now and Thanksgiving we’ll get the big stuff done.

③ Art – hang more of the art I love and offer up the stuff we no longer adore.

And a mindfulness focus too. I’m going to try and encourage us to each pick an activity to do sometime in September together – whether it’s walk in the park or a movie night with popcorn on the pull-out bed. Sort of like a “family date.” Wish me luck 😉

Sunset in part of toronto skyline
A photo from my balcony in early September 2021.