Another month in the books and man, the past four weeks went by faster than the Flash. This article tees up my December 2020 Challenge and recaps my November 2020 challenge. Let’s get into it.
Overall Thoughts on November 2020 Challenge
November 2020 Tracker
I have no clue where this month went. I was walking the little guy around the neighborhood in his parrot costume on Halloween then I turned around and I’m here on the couch punching the keyboard on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
I’ll get into the specifics of each habit below. However overall, I felt good doing these habits. It was challenging but nothing super overbearing. This was good because I had a heck of a busy month during my 9-5 (which is more like 7-5 then 830-9 most days). Early December looks equally as hectic. These habits though kept me focused on these small things I can do each day to improve my health and side business. I’m eager and excited to continue this journey one month at a time, one day at a time.
Habit #1: Drink 30oz of Water Everyday
Total Water Consumed in November: 840 Ounces (+24oz from October)
October’s debacle of pushing myself to 36oz had me skeptical of how increasing from 24oz to 30oz would go. It was, despite my hesitations, not nearly as tough as I thought it would be. I kept to the plan of having a glass first thing in the morning, a glass around lunchtime, then slamming down the remaining 6oz of water sometime in the early afternoon. My body seems to be adjusting too as the middle-of-the-night wake-ups were kept to usually one time.
For December I’m going to dive into the deep end and increase to 36oz. 30oz to 36oz is a lot more attainable for me than 24oz to 36oz. In preparation for the jump, the past couple of days I’ve been doing glass #2 earlier in the day (11:00 AM-ish) so glass #3 can take place in the early afternoon. Let’s see how this goes…
Total Time Stretched in November: 182 Minutes (+62 Minutes from October)
From October to November I increased from 10 minutes 3x a week to 15 minutes 3x a week. This seemed to be my most difficult task to accomplish in October. However in November it oddly became my favorite task.
October’s stretching routine, despite it being such a small amount of time, got me out of feeling like the Tin Man. While I’m no Cirque du Soleil acrobat, I feel much more loose and limber than before. I came across a YouTube yoga instructor, Yoga With Bird, and 5 of the 12 stretching sessions were following her videos. I got a much better stretch following her routines than me sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching House Hunters International stretching whatever the heck I felt like.
I also stumbled upon the Flexibility Subreddit. This gave me some new stretches, ideas, and motivation for continuing with this habit.
For December I’m going to ramp it up to 15 minute stretching sessions 4x a week instead of 3x a week. Even with the limited time I feel like I have I think the fun I’m having with it will see me through with completing this task.
Habit #3: Walk or Run 1 Mile or 15 Minute Workout 4x a Week
Total Miles Walked/Ran in November: 17.84 Miles (-9.04 Miles from October) Total Minutes Worked Out in November: 90 Minutes (+90 Minutes from October)
I didn’t need Punxsutawney Phil to tell me it was going to get cold this month. As predicted, the afternoon walks with my son were sparse. So my walk/ran mileage was down but if those workouts would have been walks I’m fairly certain the miles would have been equal to or slightly more than October.
My basement workouts were tough and, honestly, boring. My equipment is minimal (bands, kettlebell, jump rope). I know there are countless exercises I can do with these and pure bodyweight exercises. They’re still boring to me though. I wrote out a list of 30 or so exercises I can switch between but this list needs to be much bigger and I probably should plan it out better than “whatever I feel like at the moment”. But 90 minutes pushing myself is better than 0 minutes so I’m still proud of this accomplishment.
December will likely see an uptick in basement workouts so maybe I will get around to that expanded list and more of a plan. But for now I’m going to continue to trudge my way through these.
At least I’m almost caught up on The Mandalorian because of these…
Habits #4 and #5: Create 1 New Blog Post and 1 New YouTube Video for EVF a Week
Total Number of New Blog Posts and YouTube Videos in November: 4 Posts and 4 Videos
As mentioned last month, these are habits I was already striving towards. I missed in October and I think part of the reason was because they weren’t listed here. For November I hit exactly the number I was looking for. No more but no less.
December I’ll aim for the same thing.
Thoughts on the Upcoming December 2020 Challenge
Here comes December
Well it looks like I have some work cut out for me. One change for the December 2020 challenge compared to November and October is that this challenge will run 5 weeks instead of 4 weeks. It was bound to happen since months don’t have a uniform amount of days even though they should.
I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a garage gym. Currently there’s zero room for one. Actually less than zero room as the garage is in desperate need for a purging. *If* I’m able to keep my workout routine for this month then I’ll take this idea a bit more seriously. So there’s a little additional ammo to keep me going this month. Here’s to finishing the year strong and setting myself up for 2021.
That recaps the November 2020 Challenge and tees up the December 2020 Challenge. Wishing you good luck in whatever habits you’re working on.
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