Creating a plan

On By CeciliaIn Nerd Fitness AcademyLeave a comment

I love creating plans and getting organized! Colored pens, stickers, scissors etc are so fun to work with and allows for a fun and detailed planning process. The difficult part with planning is sticking to it. 😉

When it comes to my work I have no issues with following through of the plans and tasks set up in order to successfully reach a project milestone. So why is it so hard to do it with my everyday life?

I’ve decided to start thinking about my NFA journey as a project. I have point A and point B so I know my direction and where I want to be in the end. I have set up my goals and quests so all of my milestones are set.

In order to have a better view of my health and fitness schedule I have printed out a calendar and will have the upcoming two months hanging in a place where I always see it and remind me of the upcoming weeks. Each type of activity have it’s own colored post-it flag. Having a post-it instead of writing directly on the paper will allow me to switch in case I need to reschedule something for another day. So far I’ve divided them into:

  • gym class (orange)
  • Meditation/yoga class (pink)
  • meetings with my physiotherapist (yellow)
  • 20 seconds of courage-activates (purple)
  • other fitness activities (blue)

I will add on my activities and a corresponding color when I start doing more exercises. Currently I think it is enough with sticking to gym class, meditation and my power walks. The daily power walks I’ve not included in the calendar though.) I will add on the workouts part of the NFA program in a few months. I’m scheduled to start working again (part time) as of September so I don’t want to plan in too many things right away but rather start slow and add on activities when I feel ready for it. I can’t overwhelm my body as I’m still not feeling 100%.

I’ve also purchased a “training calendar” where I will write down how much I walk and what type of exercises I do daily. The calendar also have a “weekly summary section” which I hope will be useful and a way to easily see how a week has been. I bought a calendar that is small enough so I always can have it in my purse. That way I can update it no matter where I am.

My last items is a journal that I will keep for motivation and tracking of my progress. I’ve written down some of the different mindset quests, measurements, goals etc and will put it in a spot where I always see it.

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Decide. Commit. Succeed.

 

 

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Crawfish heaven

On By CeciliaIn FoodLeave a comment

Right now we are in the season of eating crawfish here in Sweden. I love crawfish parties and I’m so eager to eat the first crawfish every year in the beginning of August. So far we’ve actually managed to have two crawfish parties already within the past 5 days. 🙂

The only disadvantages with crawfish is that I’m having huge issues trying to peel them. Depending on how hard they are I might manage a little but for some of them I just have to give up because my fingers will start hurting otherwise. Thankfully I have a loving hubby who don’t mind helping me peel so I can enjoy my craving for crawfish anyways. I so wish I were able to peel crawfish myself so I’ve decided to put it on my bucket list! I guess I need to start doing some hand exercises together with the NFA workouts because otherwise it will never happen. 😉

While on the subject of bucket list… I’ve actually put it up as a separate page accessible from my blog’s menu. The list is far from done and I will update with more when I think of items. Of course I will also update and strikethrough a goal when I’ve done it.

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Food tracking

On By CeciliaIn Food, Nerd Fitness AcademyLeave a comment

There are three modules part of the Nerd Fitness Academy (NFA): Mindset, Nutrition and Workouts. The mindset module I’ve done several quests for already and the workouts I’m just starting to take a look at this week. The Nutrition module feels like the easiest one for me. I mean, I know what is good to eat and what is not. I’m fully aware of calories in/out, portion sizes etc. I also know what food my body do not appreciate and limiting those makes both my stomach and my joints happier.

The food tracking quests are all related to keeping a daily food log and writing down or taking pictures of everything you eat. Two of the quests I finished quickly as it only required keeping a log for 3 and then 7 days. As of August 1st I’m now working on the 30 day log. I’m writing everything on a piece of paper, the most convenient would be to have an app on my phone but all apps I’ve found turns to counting calories… 😦  I’ve done that before, several years ago, and I don’t like that kind of tracking. Yes, I did loose weight and it’s a good way to start when trying to be aware of what you eat, but at this point in my life I’m not interested in counting every single calorie I put in my mouth.

As I’m a person who love taking photos of food and sharing on Instagram I’m really looking forward to the next food tracking quest which is sharing a daily food log for 14 days. I don’t want to work on too many quests at the same time so that quest will have to wait until the 30 day quest is over. 🙂 Obviously I’m still going to post food pics on Instagram… I can’t help myself… 😉 If I eat something good, or visit a restaurant, or just figure out a nice way to present a meal in a photo I will share it not matter a quest or not!

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Yesterday’s food: Egg, bacon and avocado (breakfast); Salmon sushi (lunch); crawfish and Västerbotten cheese pie (dinner). 

20 seconds of courage – August edition

On By CeciliaIn Nerd Fitness AcademyLeave a comment

One of the mindset quests part of Nerd Fitness Academy is “20 seconds of courage”. The quest calls for doing one thing you’ve always wanted to do but been too scared of doing. I quickly decided to create a larger goal out of this quest and do one new activity once a month for the next six months. The first quest was easy… Segway ride! I’ve thought about it so many times but always chickened out because my balance is crappy. Last week in the subway I saw an ad that they rented out Segways in Hagaparken in Stockholm and thought it was perfect timing. It’s a huge park around Haga Palace and I figured that would be better than renting one in town.

Today is my husband’s birthday and late yesterday we decided to do the Segway ride today.  Good as I didn’t have too much time to get nervous… 😉 We rented the Segway for one hour and headed out into the park. It was much easier to find the balance than I thought. Going downhill was the most scary as the Segway quickly got higher speed and it felt awkward to lean back to apply the breaks as I felt like I would fall backwards. The hour passed by too quickly and suddenly it was time to return it. I had a fantastic time though and will definitely do it again in the future.

The first of the six activities – Done! Ready for the next one, I think… 😉

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Our Segways
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The proof – me on the Segway! 🙂

Hello world!

On By CeciliaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Time to officially kick this blog off!

I’ve been blogging for 10 years, but wanted to change direction and decided to start a new blog where the main focus is my health, nutrition, and other fun (and sometimes not so fun) areas of my life.

I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis  (RA for short) in the summer of 2009 and since then my life has been totally different than what I had planned for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy and live a good life and have a fantastic husband as of 15 years ago but getting a chronic illness and needing constant medication does cause some life changes.

For seven years now I’ve gone through countless of medications and treatments, I’ve experimented with food-elimination and exercises (power walks, strength training, swimming…) and nothing has of yet worked in that way that I feel strong and powerful. My joints and the pain have full control of my body. But now I have decided to once and for all change that…

Two weeks ago I joined Nerd Fitness Academy (my husband joined last year already so I’m a little familiar with it) in order to get help in starting my journey. The Academy not only helps with nutrition and workouts but also the oh so important part of the mindset. I think that is my biggest obstacle, because when I do have a bad day with my RA I might pretend and look totally fine and be as positive as always but inside I totally HATE it.

It is time to once and for all get Fit for RA!