September Wrap up and October Challenges

Hello October! It's kind of hard to look back when I'm already looking forward! October 1st certainly brought the autumn weather. It was a miserably rainy and blustery day... and I loved it! Today, on the other hand, is beautiful. The sky is clear. The morning was cool, but the afternoon will be warm. And, it's these kinds of contrasts, from day to day and morning to afternoon, that make autumn really special! 

Even though I'm excited about October already... let's start by wrapping up September... 

Egg Challenge

Although I didn't get as creative as I planned to be for the egg challenge, I am pleased with how it turned out because I did eat eggs every September morning! It was nice to set aside some time most mornings (when I wasn't picking up convenience store eggs) and have a nice breakfast. It's a good way to have some down time, rather than springing out of bed and rushing around until you get to work.

Sept. 22 - Andrew (the boyfriend) is really good at making super fluffy scrambled eggs without adding milk or cream! They're amazing and so tasty. Here are some of his scrambled eggs with a 1/2 slice of toast, salad and plain yogurt with kiwi.

Sept. 23 - Andrew's scrambled eggs again with bacon/olive/cheese toast

Sept. 24 - Fried eggs with the same bacon/olive/cheese toast

Sept. 25 - Same convenience store eggs and Tuna triangle kimbap

Sept. 26 - I was so enthusiastic about eating breakfast I forgot to take a photo until the very last minute! Andrew's scrambled eggs and peanut butter toast... I think there was more, but I can't remember!

Sept. 27 - I made Shakshuka again. this time with a side of toasted baguette pieces

Sept. 28 - Fried eggs and garlic sweet potatoes

Sept. 29 - An egg sandwich from The Beastro. This was a really "egg"cellent egg sandwich!

Sept. 30 - My eggs aren't as fluffy as Andrews (even though mine are plus milk!), but here are my scrambled eggs with 2 slices of bacon and yogurt and granola!

Walking, Week 4

Unfortunately I didn't hit my walking goal the final week. Aside from the final day, when I was feeling miserably sick, I don't know what happened. I guess I didn't make much extra effort to get my steps in and wasn't being as mindful of how it was all adding up together. For all 9 days I only got 105,641 steps in, which averages out to 11,738 steps per day. 

It makes a nice color pattern though, right?

October!

I'll be honest, a couple days into October and I'm kind of at a mediocre start. I did suddenly get pretty sick the final day of September, which stayed through the first day of October. It must have been a 24 hour bug though because I'm feeling pretty good now. 

Anywho... for October, 4 new challenges...

Challenge 1: No School Lunch!

When I was keto dieting I couldn't eat the school lunch, so I gave it up completely. When I stopped keto I mostly continued to bring lunch to school, but when I was feeling too lazy to make lunch, I would just eat the school lunch... this was once or twice a week. For September, with all the life changes and stresses that were happening, in order to relieve one burden, I just ate the school lunch every day. 

Now, let me be clear. The school lunch in Korea is in no way unhealthy compared to the school lunches in America, which are disgraceful for the most part as far as I'm concerned. However, there are 2 big problems with school lunch at my school for me. Number 1, because I don't make it, I don't know what's in it. This makes tracking my calories really difficult. Number 2, my school lunch is served buffet style, and it's really delicious! Therefore, I have a lot of trouble controlling my portion sizes! 

Here are some examples of lunch: 

Challenge 2: Workout 4 Days a Week!

Related to this... join a gym. I've already polled some people and have decided on Body & Seoul, which is located not far from my house. It's actually a martial arts center, offering classes in Muay Thai, Grappling, MMA, and Women's self defense. However, the class that I'm most interested in is called "Fight Fit." It looks like intense interval training, which is what I usually enjoy! One thing I like about the gym is that you pay for how many classes a week you would like to attend and you can attend any class you want. So, I can try a lot of different things and if I'm busy at a time that I usually attend class, I can just attend a class at a different date or time. 

Challenge 3: Try Yoga and/or Pilates

Like I said before... I've never really be interested in stretching and with that... yoga. However, I've never really done a yoga class before. Body & Seoul also offers class in Yoga and Pilates. I've decided that I should at least give one, or both of them a try before I pass such harsh judgement. I really want to work on toning, and they're probably really good for that! Also... I still want to be a more flexible person and that's not going to just magically happen on it's own, haha! And, finally. My posture in universally acknowledged as terrible. It's something that I really need to work on, and perhaps yoga/pilates will help!

Challenge 4: Practice Guitar Everyday! 

Ok... this isn't exactly a physical health or fitness challenge... but it is a mental health challenge! 

I had a guitar but the action was really high so it was extremely difficult to learn on as a beginner and discouraging! Luckily a friend (thanks Yi!) has given me her guitar. This guitar is a lot easier to play so I'm out of excuses! It's been a goal of mine to learn guitar for a long time. I played clarinet when I was younger, but I've always wanted to be able to play an instrument that I could sing along to. Andrew heard of an app called Yousician from a friend and told me about it. I've gone through a couple of the lessons on it and so far it's been really helpful! Partially because it feels like I'm playing a game! If I can dedicate a little time to playing guitar every day, I'm sure I'll improve quickly!

Like July, I've started up another health challenge for October among some friends on facebook. The ides is to support each other, keep each other accountable and cheer each other on! This was really successful in July so I'm looking forward to it for October.

Excited to write about my first week! Until then!