i'm lyndsey

Today marks the end of week 5, which also officially ends the buddy challenge, although I have every intention of keeping in touch with my buddies, if they’ll have me :)

The buddy challenge was when Ben told us to find a random internet stranger, who also was in the challenge, and partner up. It turned out pretty awesome, and I ended up with 2 rad, encouraging, and motivational buddies, Melanie and Jessica.

Once buddies up, we set some goals for ourselves, and had to stay accountable to them throughout a week and a half. here were my goals, and how I did with each of them at the end of the week and a half.

1. Go to the gym at least 6 times - I only went 4 times in the 12 days. I had a really rough week this week, so I opted to do some workouts at home, so while I still got the right number of workouts in, I technically came up short on this goal since I missed the gym twice.
2. Run at least 6 times - Check! 6 runs complete in the last 12 days!
3. Track all of my food for the 12 days - I was on this one 100% until the last 3 days. I fell apart. No excellent excuse for this one, just stressed, losing track of what I ate, and not being disciplined enough to bother. It is what it is.
4. Try 1 new physical activity that I’ve never tried before - Check! in fact, I did 2! Trampolining, and Mountain Bike park riding!
5. Sign up for the Warrior Dash, even though it frightens me! - Check! Got signed up today! No turning back now!

I say 3/5 isn’t too bad, and the 2 I missed were not complete failures, just came up a little short.

Overall, January goal and buddy goals went pretty well, and I look forward to nailing my February goals. What I’ve learned from all this goal setting is to set goals that I actually have control over. For example, I can write a goal that says lose 5 lbs this month, but do I honestly have control over that? Not really. I have control over what I eat and how i work out, which then should result in the weight loss, but the actual number on the scale I do not have real control over. Any given day things can interfere and cause the number on the scale to fluctuate, it doesn’t mean I am a failure. it’s like setting a goal that says “make so and so like me”. You dont actually have control of that, you only have control of your actions towards that person. With the right actions, you should get the desired result, but if you don’t it doesn’t mean you are a failure.

I also checked in on my pushups earlier this week. I was able to do 12 real pushups, which is up from 1 pushup on Jan 2. Win!

Week 5 was pretty decent considering some emotional personal stuff I’ve been going through. In fact, if it wasn’t for the challenge and my buddies, I would have went extremely off the rails this week, and who knows how long it would take to get back on. There were a few moments this week for sure, when I wasn’t doing all of the things I was supposed to, and there were days when figuring our 4 things I did well at the end of the day was extremely difficult, but I hung in there. I got through the week, and tomorrow starts a new one!

Thank you buddies, for the last 12 days! Bring it on Week 6, bring it on.