Ambitions, concrete plans, and what I can do right now

I've made a decision. I'm going to start training for my RYT 200 certification next fall. It's been a "someday" for awhile, but now it's a concrete plan with a date. By then I imagine Declan will be done nursing, or at least not NEED to nurse throughout the day.  It also gives us time to come up with the money, which is a whole other blog post. 

Obviously I have shorter term goals and plans, and I've been thinking about how to begin working toward being ready for training by reviving my yoga practice even while I continue to pursue and reach those goals. It's given me a new look at my fitness journey, and even answered some long standing questions. 

Two years ago, between pregnancies, when I'd finished the weight loss focused part of my journey, I felt a little lost as to where to go next. This is the answer. Obviously I want to continue to develop

Overall fitness and strength and endurance, but instead of HIIT being the core of what I do (as it is right now, while I'm trying to become healthy and fit and lean and burn all the calories while building muscle, yoga will be the core and HIIT and cycle will complement that.

Here's how I see that transition going over the next 15 mos or so: 

Now: 

JMBR 4x a week

30 min cycle 4-6x a week

20+ min yoga 4-6x a week

After I finish BR until I reach fat loss goal: 

HIIT 4x a week (Jillian DVD)

30 min cycle 4-5x a week

60 min cycle once a week (for endurance)

20+ min yoga 4-6x a week

Once I hit fat loss goal : 

HIIT 2x a week 

60m cycle 2x a week

30(on HIIT days)-60m yoga 6x per week 

Hopefully this will get me to a place in my practice where I feel confident going into teacher training. I'm so excited to be moving toward this training, because it's such a lifelong dream of helping others find balance and strength in who God has made them. 

LMAL: week 1 reflections

So, it's been about a week since I put these changes into practice to increase QUIET (mostly virtual) in my life. While I haven't been perfect at sticking to it-i checked my email before I got up this morning-i really like the changes in seeing in my attitude and my ability to be present. 

Some thoughts:

The social media free weekend was amazing. I did habitually go to check stuff or post something, but since I deleted the apps, I didn't break my fast. This is definitely going to continue. When I put them back on Monday, I found that I didn't need to photo dump or status flood or anything like that. Maybe some Mondays I will, but I'm pretty excited at the outcome of that. 

I've also just been posting less in general and checking less, partly because of the time limits I'm setting and keeping my phone not at hand, and that's been really good too. 

The anxiety triggers have definitely been fewer, and when I see a source, I'm quick to take action to hide or unfollow. I keep thinking "I'll say a prayer for you but I gotta protect my mind!"

I've been coloring! It sounds silly, but I get immense satisfaction and relaxation out of this-as long as I have a tv show or music or something else on to occupy my mind, because dang if the devil doesn't wanna use thenquietbto slip some nasty intrusive thoughts in. 

I won't be able to do this weekly, or even monthly, but yesterday Scott stayed home and gave me a full on rest day. Like, I literally hung out in bed all day long. I slept in till 9, I watched a movie, I colored, I did yoga (ok that part wasn't in bed), he and I snuggled and watched tv while the kids napped, it was glorious. It was like a day of really good postpartum recovery 1( months in-and if you know anything about how my postpartum with D was, it was much needed, even after all this time-because I didn't get it back then. 

Another thing that has come out of clearing some noise has been some clarity on pursuing some dreams and goals and making them more concrete. I wrote about this separately, but it's related-I'm going to pursue my RYT 200, and I'm really excited about it. I'm excited about the training, about setting a tangible thing to accomplish, and doing it, and I'm excited to make my yoga practice a priority again. Yoga is, for me, one of the best tools to quiet my mind and my heart, bring me into the moment, and show me the beauty and strength within myself as well as all around me. 

One new "rule" I've done better but not great at so far is keeping off my phone during time with Scott-it was a pager week so neither of us was perfectly present, but I'm going to do better. 

I'm going to keep these new practices going (and get better at them!) as I read and implement the next chapter of the experiment. This has already been so very good for me. 

Ambitions, concrete plans, and what I can do right now

I've made a decision. I'm going to start training for my RYT 200 certification next fall. It's been a "someday" for awhile, but now it's a concrete plan with a date. By then I imagine Declan will be done nursing, or at least not NEED to nurse throughout the day.  It also gives us time to come up with the money, which is a whole other blog post. 

Obviously I have shorter term goals and plans, and I've been thinking about how to begin working toward being ready for training by reviving my yoga practice even while I continue to pursue and reach those goals. It's given me a new look at my fitness journey, and even answered some long standing questions. 

Two years ago, between pregnancies, when I'd finished the weight loss focused part of my journey, I felt a little lost as to where to go next. This is the answer. Obviously I want to continue to develop

Overall fitness and strength and endurance, but instead of HIIT being the core of what I do (as it is right now, while I'm trying to become healthy and fit and lean and burn all the calories while building muscle, yoga will be the core and HIIT and cycle will complement that.

Here's how I see that transition going over the next 15 mos or so: 

Now: 

JMBR 4x a week

30 min cycle 4-6x a week

20+ min yoga 4-6x a week

After I finish BR until I reach fat loss goal: 

HIIT 4x a week (Jillian DVD)

30 min cycle 4-5x a week

60 min cycle once a week (for endurance)

20+ min yoga 4-6x a week

Once I hit fat loss goal : 

HIIT 2x a week 

60m cycle 2x a week

30(on HIIT days)-60m yoga 6x per week 

Hopefully this will get me to a place in my practice where I feel confident going into teacher training. I'm so excited to be moving toward this training, because it's such a lifelong dream of helping others find balance and strength in who God has made them.