My coach suggested that Week 6 in the Challenge was a great time to recommit and really focus on completing the last two weeks in the strongest way. I am not sure I have recommitted this week. I don’t know that I have really taken it any more seriously this week than others. What I have been experiencing feels more like widening my perspective rather than honing in with laser focus, finding my pace rather than sprinting to the finish, using the right tools to fix things in my life rather than busting out a sledge hammer to demolish old bad habits. I am trying to figure out how to make these positive Challenge changes permanent within my life.

What have I learned this week in the Challenge?

Why I am doing the WLC

I am doing the WLC to make long term positive change in my life. I have thought for years and years about becoming healthier. Running. Yoga. Losing Weight. Moderating my food and alcohol consumption. My husband and I have set goal after goal. Made training plans and training plans and training plans. Talked and talked and talked. We even set goals before our wedding and missed those, too. (I know we are not the only people to miss our marks.) The WLC is a framework to act on the words that have been spoken, to fulfill the pacts that that have been made, to simply live more fully. Having just started to understand the WLC, I will finish this round strong and doing it again in January.

Weekends and the WLC

We were asked by our coach which do we find harder? Weekends or weekdays? Definitely weekends. Weekends are tough on the WLC. I lose all kinds of points. I don’t stick to my exercise plan. I don’t drink all my water. I drink too much wine. Etc. There is a routine and a rhythm to the week that does not cross over to the weekend, and that makes weekends difficult. Right now, weekends are an experiment in moderation, presence, and balance. Figuring out how to have fun (as a foodie and wine lover) and be successful on the Challenge is an ongoing process. I am definitely more aware of my choices today than I was before the Challenge.

Doing Nothing

This week’s lifestyle challenge has been hard. It has actually been difficult to do nothing. I have tried to do it right when I wake up, right when I go to sleep, and at the end of a yoga class. Doing nothing feels amazing, but has been harder to do than the other lifestyle habits that have been part of the Challenge. I have landed on taking time to do nothing right when I wake up in the morning, a deep breath before the day fully begins, which I did unintentionally before the Challenge.

Inches Of Progress

Three weeks in to a reinvigorated yoga practice, I am seeing progress in my strength, focus, and breath. The progress has not been major. It has been quiet and tiny and small and fierce and strong and deep. The tears that flowed my first day back on my mat have dried. Early this week, one of my teachers reminded me that the point of the practice is joy. I love that idea. Practicing joy. Remembering my breath. Stretching and bending in a flow that is part dance, part meditation, part exertion, and part relaxation. Being able to see inches of progress, and know the value in each inch, is a gift of yoga, and the WLC.

Dopey Doc Training Week 2

Greg and I are training for Disney Marathon weekend. Disney Marathon weekend, January 3-7, includes a 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon. Greg will be participating in each race (which is called “The Dopey.”) I will be participating in every race but the full marathon (which Greg and I call “The Doc.”) We are completing our second week on the 12 week Dopey Doc training schedule we have developed. The WLC has served as a launch pad for our Dopey Doc Training. Keeping the basic WLC principles through the races will help us compete at our best and then be ready to participate in the January WLC.