Friday 5: Confession, progressive overload, quotes and more

1- Let’s start with the confession.

I announced so excitedly that I was going to start IF (intermittent fasting) on 1/15, and my goal was to try it for at least 4 weeks. Well. I didn’t make it 4 weeks. I made it 6 days. 🙂 It’s not that I really couldn’t keep going (the days I did it, it went fine). But I just basically didn’t want to!!! It might not have been the smartest time to try it just as I was getting back into my going to the gym routine. That sort of occupied some mental energy on its own (and made me sore), so adding in the IF thing just felt like too much. I don’t know. I also realized that some of my favorite times in the day to eat are actually when I’m alone, during the day/morning, and IF took that away from me. Plus, if I’m being honest, I’m just TERRIBLE at restricting my diet in any way. I resent it quickly….We’ll see. Maybe I’ll try again at some point. I was very intrigued by it and the health benefits sounded so compelling!! #failure…. 🙂

2- Progressive Overload

Speaking of the gym, it dawned on me the other day that one thing I really missed about strength training was the focus on progressive overload.

If you aren’t aware, progressive overload = doing more over time. This can be increasing reps, weight, sets, training frequency or even decreasing rest between sets. It’s well known in the strength training world that this is THE BEST, most important way to improve strength.

I take a little notebook with me and record my weight & reps and then the next time I go, I find a way to increase/ improve something. It’s so fun! I love seeing myself get stronger, or eek out one more rep than last week. I do a 4 week cycle of exercises (enough time to improve over those weeks), and then switch to a new batch the following month.

(Example- last week I did 10# rear delt fly 12 reps, 4 sets. This week I pushed it to 15 reps, 4 sets! Next week I’ll maybe increase the weight to 12#. Sometimes, the improvement is minor, like on my Shoulder Press. On those, I did 15, 12, 10, 10, 10 (reps x5 sets)last week, but this week did 15, 12, 12, 10, 10.) Tiny improvements add up.

3- Family Book List done!

We finally sorted through all of the books in our house and made a master list of any book we want to read together, plus separate ones for E/A. I’m excited! I think this list will help us actually get to some books that end up buried in the pile. We now have books upcoming about Thomas Edison, Moby Dick, The Wright Brothers, The Battle at Gettysburg, Stonehenge and more. 🙂 (plus some very fun novels!).

4- Accomplishments

This has not been my most productive week. Not sure why, but I’ve felt a little off my game. But, yesterday/ last night I finally got to several items that have literally been moving across my “to do list” section at the bottom of my planner with a little arrow every.single.day since last weekend.

I finally took 5 minutes to pay the eye doctor bill + another doctor visit bill that were sitting around, I finally washed our bed blankets (not the sheets, I had been wanting to wash our big blankets for a long time), and made the above mentioned book list. And I made a new recipe!

5- Quotes

Two awesome quotes to end the post.

#1 is from 5amJoel’s email yesterday: “Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor” – Rumi

(Expect good things! Look for good things! Believe that the Universe is on your side!)

#2 is from a new book I’m reading a short chapter from each morning. It was a Christmas gift from my Mom and it’s enchanting. I have been reading it each day this week and it’s a beautiful way to start my day. “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for an early bedtime last night.