Fitness Project - Week 8

Many times throughout my Fitness Project, I've expressed my doubts about my flexibility. I've felt that perhaps I expected too much of my body in the time given. At the end of this project, I think that that has been an accurate assessment. From the beginning of the project until the end, I've certainly become more flexible, but I haven't reached the percentile rank I had originally envisioned.

It's a good thing, then, that life provides me with much more time then just 8 weeks to get my body in shape! If I continue to stretch, and I imagine I will, I will most definitely reach my original goal, but only with time. Still, it's better to participate in healthy activities then not at all, hmm?

Wellness Project - Week 8

Throughout this past week, I've been able to continue going to bed at around 11PM, with two exceptions, and getting up at 8:30AM. I haven't yet tried getting up earlier, but maybe I'll do that soon. Of course, anything that I do now in regard to my Wellness Project will be on my own time, but I'm thinking I'll be able to continue following through with it now.

Wellness Project - Week 7

Well, nothing really notable in my sleeping schedule happened this week. I've mostly been going to bed at 11:30PM, which I know is still too late, but if I get up at 8:30AM and I'm not tired enough to just fall in my bed at 11:00PM, maybe my body can handle going to bed a half hour late every night. Or I should try getting up earlier by 15 minutes. Maybe I'll try that one time and see how it goes, although I have to say I do get pretty tired in the middle of the day as it is. Overall, I've been pretty successful so far in keeping with my original goals.

As an addendum to my Fitness Project post last week, I will briefly go over the results of the “Meeting My Fitness Goals” activity on page 29. Basically, I am unable to meet my goals because my muscles apparently need more time to become as elastic as my final goal would have required. I've no doubt improved my flexibility, but not by as much as I had thought I would. So in an effort to make my final goal more reachable, I'll be lowering my expected percentile rank from 80 to 60; however, it very well may be possible for me to end up between the 60th and 70th percentile.

Fitness Project - Week 6

Not much has happened with my fitness project. I'm still progressing, but I haven't always been meeting my goals. My legs are getting better (less jerky), but I still sometimes have trouble. It's usually either that I can't hold the stretch for as long as I'd like to, or I can't stretch as far as I'd like to. It's one or the other; I can't do both at the same time, when I technically should be able to. I've actually been able to just about touch my nose to my knees for 20 seconds during the sit-and-reach stretch, though. I suppose that's an accomplishment.

Wellness Project - Week 6

This week I've been getting up and going to bed at various odd times. Initially, I simply tried to maintain my wake-up time of 8:45AM. On Tuesday, I experimented with getting up at 8:30AM, but ended up sleeping another half hour because I was too tired. Of course, it didn't help that I hadn't gone to bed around 11PM the previous night. The next morning, I tried again to wake up at 8:30AM, but I slept an additional 15 minutes. On Thursday, I woke up at 7AM to take my little sister to school, slept for a half hour after getting back, woke up again to get ready for my IV treatment appointment.

During this appointment, I slept a lot when I could, so I guess you could count this as the first time I've taken a nap during this project. Technically, there wasn't a whole lot else I could do, though. And that night, I finally went to bed at 11PM and woke up this morning at 8:30AM, without sleeping in longer :) Hopefully I can keep this up.

Wellness Project - Week 5

I know that I didn't officially change the time I get up every morning, but I decided to experiment a little this week. Starting Tuesday morning, I've been getting up 15 minutes earlier than usual, at 8:45AM. Surprisingly, this small change has been somewhat more difficult to adjust to than the previous changes in my waking time. I've had to ensure that I'm doing things that will keep me up—but even then, I have felt really tired. I'm hoping that this fatigue will go away, but at the same time, I'm not sure I'll be able to wake up any earlier.

This change has kind of forced me to go to bed a little earlier, though, so I'm getting to bed closer to 11PM than I used to last week. That's of course good, so I hope that I'll be able to keep getting up at 8:45AM for the remainder of this project.

Fitness Project - Week 4

I've been making steady progress since two weeks ago. It may not be much progress, but progress nonetheless. My legs are certainly more stretchy than they used to be. Although it probably doesn't count for much, I'm able to kick pretty high now. I can't keep my legs up yet—probably because the leg muscles aren't strong enough—and when I try to move my legs in a circle, my movement is jerky. I'm not sure if that's because my legs still aren't stretchy enough to do that or not.

So, half of this project is over. I'm not sure I'd say I'm quite half way toward my goal, however. I still feel slight pain when I try to stretch as far as I should have been able to by now. I'm not sure I'll make my original goal by the end of the remaining four weeks, but I'll stick to it for now. I'm not ready to adjust the goal just yet.