I'm about 15 days into a 75 Mostly Hard, I'm still failing on the meal plan part. I can say that I'm 15 days without fake butter, rice cakes, and potatoes. My goal was to also have 8a-8p limit, no mangos, less standing more sitting, ....
We bought a dining room table set, and I've yet to include that in my thinking. I keep saying "tomorrow" or on New Years, or ...
10 years ago I was in a real shitty spot in life. Take a few mins and go back to find that post. As per my usual then, I wasn't mentioning personal life stuff much. I distinctly remember being at my parents, being lost in my head, being afraid to admit to anything and afraid to talk like I needed to. I had a 42 mpw running goal, not sure why. I was having back spasms, might have been the spinal vertebral injury? I mentioned that Monster was gone. I didn't make detailed notes, but I do remember that he was gone for awhile as a christmas goal for myself.
Now 10 years later, everything has changed. St Louis to Michigan to Nashville. Running for ultras to 75 Hard. Monster to No Monster. No marriage to married with 'children'. I do love the stepkids, I rarely call them that to they are 'Lev's kids'.
Regarding Monster - 838 days!! I'd like to say he's gone but damned near every day, especially if stressed, he tries to reactivate. He's latent. A lifelong mental parasite. What's different now is the lack of any desire at all to actually engage with him. Gone, but not forgotten.
Regarding running and biking and 75 Hard - I'm 90 days into 2x45mins, 1 gallon, 10 pages, photo. But only 0 days into a following a meal plan. I've talked about the struggle with this. That the plan makes specific the other points and leaves the meal plan too unspecified for me. It's only as specific as my disciple will make it, it's not the plan's fault. My plan is specific tho: BLE.
1. No sugar - 344 days depending on how measured. Does the dried mango count?
2. No flour - 344 days here, 1 year is Jan 14th
3. Measured - usually good for M1 and M2 during weekdays
4. Meals - super struggle here, again M1 and M2 weekdays are more successful
Then throw in the other 10-some rules I want to include and I come up against this ongoing list of ideals. These really aren't that hard. The sitting/standing rule is really part of #4. 8a-8p is #4 and #3. No Mangos is #1. I'm making this harder than it needs to be.
I'm 2.6 hours away from finishing the 49 hour Gone with the Wind audiobook. I've 95% stopped any Russian practice.
I'm sitting in the very back of our car, supposed to be working, with Nova panting and pacing, everyone else in headphones, hurrying to get to the kennel on time. I've been stomach-upset the last few days - it might be the 2 medjool dates? Hormones? Stress?
I signed the termination papers for my coworker a few days ago. I'm not getting to my art at all lately. My stained glass bench is newly built and my art desk has a new addition. To be fair, the holidays are a tough time to get side stuff like that done! So be kind on that. But I'd like to make progress on painting, so many projects I screen shot and never get to.
To be fair too, I'm doing 90 minutes of exercise a day and if I wanted to I could redirect 45 mins of that to art every day. But I'm stuck on the streak and more stuck on how good it feels to be active and outdoors. That part of 75 Hard has been great for me, I feel relaxed and better after my exercise. Could I do 2x30 mins a day, then 2x15 mins to projects? I'd like to do an actual 75 Hard and get it all right - which means the meal plan too. I want to continue my gallon, 10 pages, photo, and 2x45 over the holidays and into 2025. Then what?
Because honestly it's not the 2x45 that I lose time in. I lose time in Moria. I can forget everything, but I can't forget Moria. I can run late but I'm always spending time in Moria. I'll make sacrifices and not paint and not visit and not talk, but Moria gets those sacrifices.
And therein is my real problem. Moria + Reddit mostly. OK, so stop Reddit. I stopped Daily Mail and Reddit popular right after the elections, DM still stopped but Red/popular creeped back in. No more. Stopped. 15 mins of Reddit art, only.
Then sitting not standing, meals not munch are the next clicks. Don't blame the commute, or the work, or the 2x45. It's the 30+ mins in the evening and 20+ mins in the morning that I lose time. Sick to my stomach. Full. Regret. Regret. Promises and Punishment.
Regret. There's the biggest hurt. Regret each night. Each morning. So much accomplished, yet so much regret.
Make your own Hard Challenge.
108 Hard
1. No sugar no flour
2. Meals, not munches between 8-8. Planned/logged meals between 8-8. Under 1500.
3. Measured
4. Photo
5. Gallon
6. 10 pages of non-fiction on paper
7. 2x45 mins, with 1 outdoors per day and 3 or more times Fitness+
8. 15 minutes Russian
9. 2x15 mins of art, or more, am and pm, away from Moria
10. Something special for Lev and Nova, each day, distinct time
11. (10.8 rounded up, haha) Two fast days of 800. Tues and Thurs?
Tips: do 15 mins Russian in one workout, or on the shuttle home; Do reddit on a walk or the shuttle, but not in Moria or at art desk; read during lunch; art with coffee in the am; art instead of standing in Moria in the pm; sit with nova instead of Moria; be with lev instead of Moria;
12. Just get out of Moria. ? #2
13. Two fast days of 800?
I can think of more, this is the problem
14. Log it all #2
15. Under 1500 #2
So again, these are all in the BLE already
This is an anti Moria and anti Reddit list.
Pro me. Pro Bee. Pro Future. Pro Family.
So when I check the boxes at night, what will mean a purple win?
"follow a meal plan" and "no cheat meals"?
These seem kinda vague. So define them. What is a cheat meal for me? Rice cake and fake butter. Little bowls of stuff stirred together. Pretty much anything made in a coffee mug. Chicken + oil + salt.
"Follow a meal plan". No sugar, no flour, no munching, no standing. BLE, duh.
Make a plan.
What do I do when I'm trying to get out of the house before work, and I'm hungry? Plan that 10 mins into the day, you never do that.
What do I do when I come home hungry, cold, tired, mindless? Have a bowl of warmed soup.
What do I do when I want to eat, but Lev isn't ready? Do something for lev! Go do art! Play with Nova. But wait, because this is a daily problem for you.
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I wrote this Monday in the car. It's now Friday in White's Creek. I keep saying "tomorrow".
Today will be day 94. 28th=95. 29th=96. 30th=97. 31st=98. 1st=99. 2nd=100.
Then I want to do another 100 days.
I'm wasting time thinking. I want to make a tracker spreadsheet. I want to write a meal plan. No, I don't I'm tired of that stuff.
Just start. Just go. Stop planning and start doing.
