Hoped to update the list today – sorry I didn’t manage to.
I will say that I’m struggling with the rate on the yoghurts goal. You wouldn’t think eating a yoghurt would be hard, and it’s not that I even dislike yoghurt… but somehow I really don’t want to, because it’s an obligation.
Still, this evening I’d have derailed (for a second time already!) if I didn’t eat a yoghurt, so… resentfully, grumblingly, I ate it.
Annoyingly, it even made my throat feel better after a bit of an acid reflux-y episode. Rude.
I’m 13 datapoints strong on the out-of-bed goal. Some days were certainly a struggle. I’m happy that there were no days that I failed the goal due to forgetting it existed and breaking the rules. There was one day when I forgot to turn off an alarm, and that was certainly the hardest day to follow through on staying awake. I don’t expect I’ll forget to turn off an alarm in the future.
I’m using comments to record my out-of-bed time. I’ve learned that there is more variance in the number than I expected (2-3 hours difference between some days). I would like to improve that once I’ve been consistent with this goal. I feel very committed to it, and I’m planning to go ahead with it in 2024.
Have you considered expanding your goal to include any serving of a live and active culture dairy product? (such as kefir, Yakult, sour cream, and cottage cheese). I wonder if having more variety and choice could be helpful to keep it going for the whole year.
I’ve created a Self-Gratitude Quotient goal for this. I’m already tracking the number of gratitude posts that I made in https://forum.beeminder.com/t/gratitude-journaling-together/ but this new SGQ goal is specifically for days on which I write down something that I am grateful for about myself. I’m not forcing myself to always post that SGQ item to the gratitude forum thread because sometimes it might be something that is too personal to share, but I expect that most of my SGQ items will be public.
I’m doing this because it’s difficult for me to express gratitude towards myself but I’m aware that it is good for my mental health.
The goal’s rate is currently 5/7 per day (i.e., five days a week I need to write down a self-gratitude item).
I’ve started it with a buffer of 7 days because I’m trying really hard to keep all my goals at 7+ days (with mixed success). Will that cause a problem for the NY Resolution contest? It will make it easier for me to avoid derailing, so I don’t know if this is suitable here.
Something that’s good for my mental health is remembering nice things that people have said about me or my work. I use a quote-of-the-day sort of tool to resurface a random example each day. And I’m getting better at capturing snippets of praise when they fly past — for which I’m, um, grateful.
I’ve thought about it, but unfortunately I’m quite “picky” about flavour etc, and tend to prefer sticking to routines. So while I probably should add a variety of foods that provide live beneficial bacteria… it’s probably easiest on my poor brain if I take the easy way. Though it’s a great idea for people less stuck in their ways!
Update on my running goal: I am archiving it since it’s hurting my back very badly.
Now I know: I can’t run or I will be in pain for 1 week (in my current setup).
Next step: finding another physical activty I can do
I don’t want to be a couch potate forever!
I started with 5 kilometers a week, then changed to two times a week and then 3 a week. It became much easier when the goal was not to please beeminder gods, but rather to achieve practical goal - in my case 5 kilometres under 25 minutes. 10 under 50 is also a good goal to have.
The yoghurts goal is trucking along, vaguely resentful but working OK. A year feels like a very long time to stick to it, but I think I should. I have noticed that my acid reflux symptoms feel a little better over the last couple of weeks, and I lowered my dose of my PPIs appropriately. It might be anecdotal, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
I’ve seen in the other thread that you are going to continue this goal for 2024. Have you noticed any effects during the month of December that you attribute to taking creatine?
Mostly improved muscle recovery, less soreness, and I think I have better focus and mental energy. Could be placebo, but creatine is pretty well evidenced in research studies!
This wasn’t my first time supplementing consistently, but in the past I would do it consistently for a few weeks and get off track. I hope the beeminder goal will help me stick with it all year because I have some big athletic goals!
