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Well yeah, I live in the Breakfast Taco capitol of the world. Today is a good day. I did Laundry, NF Yoga Water B and made lunch. I didn't feel like cooking, but I had more pork sausage, so I made patties as though it were ground beef. I fried up some bacon, set it aside, cooked the pork patties and fried some eggs. I stacked them, then topped it with cheddar cheese. It was really good. An apple made a great dessert. Mood is better. Still processing the stuff, but it feels more neutral than the last few days. The five-step grieving process is an artificial construct, but often a useful tool for communication. The five steps (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) do often happen, but not always in that order and certainly not linearly. I think I'm pretty done with denial, and there hasn't been much bargaining. Right now I'm bouncing between anger, depression and acceptance. Today's the first day I've had any real hints of acceptance. It's still a process, and one of the things I'm learning is how to process and have my emotions. I'm neither denying them nor feeding them. They simply are, and I'm doing my best to be aware of and feel them as they come.

Update: We have a baby! I've missed one workout this week already (which won't be made up probably), but I don't care as I was busy. We went in at 7 pm on Monday to start the process. Except, L&D was actually busy, so the process didn't start until about 10 pm. My daughter was a trooper. She was able to deal with pain until about 6 am, when they gave her some meds. At 7:30 am, I went home for a few hours because I needed to work (ugh!). I was back at the hospital by 10:30 am ish. Baby was born at 2:47 pm. 6 lbs 5 oz, so a nice size for being born at 37 weeks. Mom and baby are both doing well. He's having a bit of trouble feeding (because apparently 37 weeks is when babies learn to suck), but the nurses are helping to get through that. His sugar was a bit low this morning, but after eating, it was where it was supposed to be. I didn't realize how exhausting the process would be for the grandmother! I didn't do a lot of sleeping Monday night and tried to balance work and supporting my daughter. Last night, I pretty much passed out.

They reached out yesterday and are putting me in touch with their landlord! I may officially have a place to stay soon! Day 2.2 I decided I didn't want to go to the gym for a conditioning workout after all. Instead, I walked a lot -- I went to Trader Joe's to get lunch supplies once I realized I forgot my prepped food at home and also walked from work to home later on just to get more movement in. My landlord is coming in to take some measurements for window replacements and the apartment looked like a tornado had hit it with all of the moving/shuffling things around, so I prioritized cleaning/tidying up instead. I cleared a way to the windows (it's that bad, haha), swept, did dishes, bagged up some trash to take out... which I'm now realizing I left in the middle of my kitchen floor. Alas. I did some craft work associated with the awards for the scavenger hunt, but am waiting on some more supplies to arrive before I can really finish up. One of my hunt items is to buy me a drink (and fries) at my favorite bar, so I had people texting me to take me out and I graciously obliged them. There was some tag teaming of one group swapping out for another friend on a different team. I was maybe out too late. And then I maybe was up even later obstinately dicking around on the internet. This scavenger hunt is bringing me SO MUCH JOY. One team of folks that I'm more newly friends with is going HAM and they're clearly having a great time and I love it. Plus I'm convincing people to donate to charity and donate blood (good, altruistic things!), but also do things that are just amusing to me like getting into a semi-frozen river in January and howling and writing bad horoscopes about traffic signs. Ahghaghhug, I love it so much. And I really, really love that people are getting into it. My days this week have been filled with periodic submissions through all forms of communication and I get a kick out of it every time. Notus: 0/1 gymnastics conditioning, 0/1 lifting conditioning Zephyrus: 2/4 peaking resources, 0/1 program written, 2/5 recovery updates Boreas: 8/9 apartment listing searches, 2/4 room inventoried Eurus: create fb invite, text people not on fb, finalize scav hunt clues and distribute them, determine prizes, pick final location!

Thanks! Day 8 1/14 Monday evening gymnastics was good, first time tumbling in ~ 1 month (holidays then ankle). I worked on tap swings and flyaways into pit. They have a new bar on order so the bar will be raised soon and hopefully flyaways will improve and I don't kick foam when I swing. Tumbling was primarily front handsprings which I saw a LOT of progress on. I landed all except one. Back walkovers. Handstands. Stretching. Finished the evening up with a homemade pork burrito bowl (BTW this is phenomenal) and some Young Justice. B&F: ☑☐☐☐☐☐☐ J&S: ☑☐☐☐☐☐☐ Food log: ☑☐☐☐☐☐☐ Postcards sent: ☐☐☐ Week 1: ☑

Thanks, we are very happy. He feels confident about his Chinese test yesterday and is confident that he can get at least 85% (which is the minimum standard where we want him to be achieving). English and math this morning and then liberation will occur at 11:30am. Thanks, I hope so too Yeah, living among so many people has taken some getting used to. It was really brought home to me last week when I was watching @Tobbe's vlog and he walked around his neighborhood and not only knew every single neighbor, but also where they were (iirc, at the time his family was the only one living in the entire neighborhood). I don't even know the names of most of the people that live in my apartment block (20 units), and only recognize a handful of people in my complex. For reference, my building had 4 blocks, and the complex has 3 buildings like mine and then 4 towers which have about 30 floor with 8 units/floor, so approximately 1,200 units in my complex. Considering I have been working on stretching since I joined NF and have been working on it fairly consistently for more than a year, I wouldn't use the the word "leap" to describe the progress. I am happy to give the extended version back story, but I am going to have to go back to before the army for it to bring everything together. This won't be as detailed as Teros, but should fill in most of the gaps

Challenge Journal: January 15th, 2019. Happy belated #MomoaMondayTuesday! So one of my goals this challenge was to follow the In&Out Principle, whereby I can only purchase new superfluous objects/items by purging/selling old ones. Another was to really dial in my nutrition tracking and get back into a weekly weigh-in for progress reporting. With that in mind, I returned some things to Walmart and picked up a digital scale. What followed was most upsetting. My whole Nerd Fitness career I've been using the same crappy $5 analog scale. It guided me from 240ish lbs down to 185lbs and back to 220lbs and now to the realm of 208lbs on my path back down to sub-200 bodyweight. However, judging by Camp Nerd Fitness' powerlifting competition when I came in about 16lbs heavier than I expected, and my gym's weightlifting meet when I was similarly surprised, I've determined that thing was a piece of garbage and tossed it today. What this really means is that I've been misreporting my weight for about 4+ years haha! Whichever device is truly accurate, even weighing my cat resulted in a 2+ lb difference after carefully zeroing my old scale. It now occupies my garbage box, and I will be going by the new digital scale - no matter how disconcerting and frankly downright demoralizing the report was. See my Challenge update below for results because I simply cannot post it twice. Another update: I sold two pairs of lululemon shorts on Facebook Marketplace to a gentleman from Florida for a cool sum but forgot to factor in Paypal's rates and extra shipping so I ended up making exactly what I listed them for in USD as CAD. Not the end of the world, but a good lesson for my foray into online selling. Also I got a nice return on my health benefits spending account; these payed for my new hoodie, dining room table, and an extra payment on my credit card. Now to sell a couple more items to pay for my Ikea shelving unit this weekend. Minimalism can be fun, folks! CRACKIN’ SKULLS & CHAININ’ COMBOS "A delicate balancing act of fuel and activity." [+2 STR, DEX, STA, CON] The Mindful Art of Nutritional Alchemy™: 1970 / 2170 cals. MyFitnessPal tracking streak: 20 days 5 CrossFit classes per week: ☑☑☐☐☐ [Challenge Total: ☑☑☐☐☐] I DON'T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING... "Dump Stat my Charisma until I’m an Extrovert.” [+5 CHA] Partake of 4 sessions of “Be Happy” per week: ☑☐☐☐ Social activity 2 times/week: ☑☐ Moment of Positivity shared (per update): ☑ ...I'M JUST HERE FOR THE VIOLENCE A Self-Improvement Junkie. [+2 WIS] Post a daily challenge update 4 of 7 days/week: ☑☐☐☐ Weekly weigh-in: 224.3 lbs Ongoing To-Do mini-quests… ☐ Read: [In Progress] Kings of the Wyld, Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braid,You Are A Badass, Remember your N.U.T.S. ☑ Play: Game out - played a bunch of Overwatch last night! ☐ Play: Hit the slopes snowboarding! ☐ Write: Share one self-authored poem. ☐ Currency: [90g] Sell 250g worth of clutter. ☐ Currency: [Pending] 2-week shopping ban. ☐ Test: CrossFit benchmark metric [TBA] See below! Mini-challenge goals... ☑ Relax Feat: Self-care date. ☐ Distance Feat: 5km ruck. ☐ Social Feat: Introduce myself to every unfamiliar member at my gym this week [Total: 5_ ] ☐ Speed Feat: Complete a CrossFit benchmark WOD for time.

MOTIVATIONAL SCREAMING MAN IS AT THE GYM TODAY OMFG ITS AMAZING

Monday - I still haven't been logging food. Coincidentally, I've only been gaining weight since the year started. I did have a leftover lunch in the fridge at work but I did not make any extra since I was planning on lunching with DDG as much as possible this week. It was not possible Monday so I was going to have to get food elsewhere at elast once this week. I elected to order a burger from the work cafeteria. It was sad. Someone remind me not to do that again. The new cafeteria has no fryer so there were no fries. I got some BBQ chips.... and water. Not being able to eat sweets has been compelling me to compensate with other junk foods. When I got home from work I had a PBJ with the intention of having another after the scout meeting. But Qbert made some mac and cheese and didn't have time to finish it. I helped him. Scouts was interrupted by Peach's mental health crisis. details spoilered. Tuesday - I had the day off from work (see spoiler). Peach and I slept in, then made some bacon and cheez toast. We went to the movies and I realized I couldn't get a diet soda and that made me sad. But I brought some water in my movie purse. Peach ordered a pizza and I got nachos. I ate most of the nachos and about 1/4 of the pizza. That was probably enough to carry me through the rest of the day but late in the evening I had some of the stuffed pepper stuffing wrapped in a tortilla...and then I made a 2nd one for no good reason. nothing logged again so I have no idea of total calories. I did make it to the gym for 35 minutes on the elliptical while Peach was at dance.

You know I sort of wish I could do that. Not that I would tbf. I've got a huge ambition for this year and I'm going to do the work I need to do to give myself the best shot of making it happen. Honestly it's less complex than it seems. I'm either separating out and mitigating stresses or increasing specific stress. I currently double up 2 days in my training. With Monday and Wednesday both consisting of a run and a lifting workout. I approach them a bit differently however. Monday is a lower body leg workout. The bulk of the work consists of heavy squats and fast sprints. Both of these are high stress activities and focus on the same body area so the idea here is simply to increase the intensity of the specific stressors. The day after is a rest day and the next moderate lower body workout (in the form of a threshold workout) doesn't happen until Thursday. There is a strong argument that i should be doing the run before I lift but the reality of the situation at my gym means that I just won't do it that way round. The Wednesday run, is a slow easy run into the gym. This one is meant to be at a much more recovery effort and is just a way of me adding and expanding my mileage without stacking too many miles together (I'm looking to increase my mileage to a much, much higher extent than you should even be considering adding a 5th run is a way to decrease the risk of doing so). This run has minimal impact on my workout because, for me, an easy 4 mile run really is a recovery effort and takes very little out of me. The workout on Wednesday is focused on upper body movements. So the answer really is. I added my hard run on a day when it would compliment and not oppose the strength goal for that day and my easy run I put on a day when I wouldn't be needing my legs to do very much. Thanks I really want to keep growing and getting better My weight rebounded a little in the wake of increasing my carb intake. Not by much and but a little. I think I will go under this PB. though, it's 89kg. I'm also getting to the point where I'm not really sure what I'm aiming for. I don't really have a 'goal weight' in mind. Not really lovely, but decent enough.

Tuesday w2d2 Eat - filled both of my water bottles - lunch was distraction free Move - PT exercises: one legged stands Think - completed morning pages - meditated 10 minutes with insight timer - gratitude: resident on the team, grit, Arrow

I feel like life is getting ahead of me and I'm losing the plot a bit. Sleep is a bit out of whack (parkour hype!) so I'm halting that goal this week, I'm struggling with eating enough and just like I haven't had enough quality chill time on my own for a few days. Tomorrow will be busy as well (morning acro and whisky tasting in the afternoon!) but then I'll have to take a bit of time off to catch up with life. The worst is that we have to come in to the office every day this week as we have guests again. They loooooove inviting themselves over without even confirming with us, it's actually really annoying and it's going to be a recurring theme for the next few weeks. But today I did another fun thing waaaay out of my comfort zone. I took a hip hop class! I can't decide if I liked it or not, I think I'd really like it if I could move more freely, but now it was very difficult to get out of my own head as it was all so new and weird. We only did one "choreo" which literally consisted of two 8 counts and that's it, which is great because I hate trying to remember choreography. But that of course meant that it was focused on freestyle instead. For every little "exercise" she's like yeah add your own style and I'm like WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE ONE, WAIT DOES AWKWARD DORK COUNT? So that wasn't so fun. But then there were moments where I let go a little and it felt like I could actually enjoy this after a bit of practice. After class I was still quite unsure whether I wanted to try again or not, but then I started talking to two of the women that I danced with in class and they were like "oh you HAVE to come next week!" and they had such a fun chill attitude towards the whole thing that they quite easily convinced me. Monday positive actions Meditated Parkour Had oatmeal with apple as a snack at work when I started to fade Tidied a little to keep things under control Tuesday positive actions Meditated Dance class Had lunch with a friend Didn't eat my carrot soup but chose higher calorie options Current stats Eat 0/7 - Sorry emergency seed crackers with peanut butter don't count as breakfast Sleep - On halt this week Move 1/7 - Missed Monday The device thing is also going terribly

W2D2 (Monday) This is why I can't have nice things junk food. I got a small amount of candy that I was going to divide up to have with my lunches, and some chex mix to do the same. Got tired, took sleep meds Sunday night. Meds knocked out the rational part of my brain, so instead of sleeping I watched more YouTube videos (on Medieval Weaponry) and then I... So, maybe not a good plan. I can still have candy, just not more than I'll eat in a single sitting, 'cause night me is kind of dumb. Activity: 14,662 steps, 5,347 cals out. Went for a roughly half mile walk with a friend. Also had bell choir practice. Have you seen the size of my bells? (profile pic) That counts as a workout too! Food: 2,147 cals in 60% fat, 22% carb, 18% protein. This does not count whatever I ate Sunday night, 'cause I don't really know. Today I also learned that I HATE Tapatalk! Apparently it harvests images posted inside threads, and then posts those images on the landing page. I was ok with having my before pictures where and how I had posted them. I was not ok seeing them as soon as I searched for "Nerd Fitness" on that app... Final note: the Academy has a poorly named quest of "Walk to Mordor" to do this, you need to walk outside for at least 5 minutes, three days in a row, with a second quest to do it 30 days in a row. I'm working on doing that now, but I also want to ACTUALLY walk to Mordor, so I'm keeping track of my outside walking on WalkToMordor.com and I'm going to couple that with reading The Lord of the Rings, matching my reading to my walking.

Yesterday's Workout: Bench - 135x15, 120x15 Incline DB Bench, Dips, Waiter's Walks, Ring Pushups, Ring Rows I also cleared out the uhaul box and got a new office chair, so can cross those off this week's list.

Totally feel you there, I know for a fact my scale shows me something like 4kg lighter than I actually am, but you know how after a certain point you should trust the mirror more than the scale? It's kinda similar, but I say it doesn't matter what your weight really is, only that you use the same scale to measure its changes. You can go through a bunch of scales in the same day and get various results anyway.

Not sure I get what you mean, but it reminds me if that quote about exercise being a celebration of what a body can do, not punishment for what it did. Your point if view can change a lot in these subjects. Aren't all Rangers? Multitasking aside, we are the two "forest themed" guilds, after all. Haven't been there myself, but according to the internet I was pretty sure it looked like this:

Damn you, you insomniac maniac, i wish i had the time and the willpower to pull of this much training! Sadly this is more like my morning routine...

Some Oregon for y'all:

If these haven't been a part of your life you need to try some. So good. It's definitely the competitiveness. I'm planning to shove monster cookies in my facehole in the morning and drink diet coke all day.

Sort of on auto mode. I'm still fighting a cold. I have a cough and it's really annoying me. I did workout yesterday. I'm of the notion that as long as it doesn't make you feel worse, working out is alright. I didn't do it as intense obviously, but getting some movement in at least helps my mood. Went on a short walk yesterday and today. Today I just did some stretching. Food, well a lot of stuff seems to make me cough, so it's been rather snacky type food. I've been trying to keep it pretty Paleo, to help my immune system. Tonight I made some amazing butternut squash soup in my Instapot. I put some oil in the pot on sauté, then added some onion, then a bit of curry powder, then some garlic, then I threw in 2 cups of homemade broth, 10 oz. of frozen butternut squash, and set the instapot to 15 minutes. After it was done cooking ,I added some coconut cream , then whipped it all up with my immersion blender. And then remembered I'd never added salt, so I did that. I did paste the printout of my Bible reading plan in my BUJO. But other than that, I've just read and watched Netflix, and done a little laundry. Really want my energy back

Week 2 Day 2 Update Today has been a kind of up and down day but for the most part it was up more than it was down!! Exercise I was up and doing my Toe Challenge just a little while ago so that puts me at 6/8 days (since I didn't start til last Tuesday) so I'm pretty much on top of it. With luck I'll be able to get on top of my normal exercise goal tomorrow since I've got a doctor's appointment on Thursday morning (nuts, I'm being responsible!!) On the food side, as much as I wanted to go out and get wings on BOGO wings from the neighborhood chain restaurant, I managed to stay home and made pasta with bottled sauce and some frozen garlic bread. It hit me like a brick but it wasn't a bad decision altogether. So it's a tentative success until I do something better this week... for real this time! Financially.... yeah, I'm really trying to get things a little more organized!! I'm being an adult with responsibility!!!! Got rid of my '02 LeSabre because it was a good temporary car for the last 3 years but when repairs cost more than the car it's time to give it up (and getting some money out of it helps), took care of a traffic violation (not mine), deposited the check for the car into savings for a fall vacation (or other uses, TBD), took car of the last things I needed for the new car including getting the title and registration in the mail and getting my safe back into a general order. Now while none of that is technically fixing my credit related, it is financial responsibility and that is what is lacking sometimes. Overall a pretty good day, especially now that I've got friends both old and new here for the ride!!

Fitness: - My coworker wasn't in the office today so we couldn't walk together, but I still went out on my own and walked 4556 steps. Nutrition: - Ate my leftovers and some snacks and that was about it. Total calorie count is 1299 (well, around there). Still hovering around 140 pounds. I can't quite seem to go lower. I'm not sure how (or if) I need to adjust or if I need to give it a little more time. Intellectual: - Revised for about a half an hour rather than the hour I wanted. Still, I got through a page so I'll take it (although now I don't like this page and I need to tweak it some more). - Still plan to read for about 20 to 30 minutes. I keep going back and forth between 2 or 3 different books. I'm not sure I like any of them yet.

Update 1/14/19 (Monday): No story b/c no Hero's Journey workout: 0515 wakeup (late night, so slept in a bit) said the Lord's Prayer, as well as a more personal prayer listened to the daily prayer using the Pray As You Go app completed 2 minutes of single leg hops (1 minute for each leg) (Daily Dare) two rotations of WHM breathing (holds: 2:11, 2:17); also took a cold shower (2 minutes warm, 3:30 cold) took the dogs outside while shirtless and shoeless; worked through some stretches and movements ran today: Time -- 27:06, Distance -- 2.72, Average Pace -- 9:56/mile completed 1 minute push-ups, the 1 minute bicep extensions, followed by 3 sets of 30 seconds of push-ups and 30 seconds of reverse angles (Epic Five Day 22) as part of the progression to being able to do 50 push-ups in one go, I completed 5 sets of 20 second push-up plank holds completed all of the daily requirements for Duolingo I was officially accepted into the Leadership Studies Masters degree program. When I complete this Masters, I will be able to become certified as a school administrator. This will be one of the most challenging things I have ever done because it will without a doubt conflict with typical my work-life balance. It may also impact how consistent I am with my challenge goals. I may need to re-adjust my schedule to make more time. started reading the first chapter of one of my textbooks, School Leadership and Administration.

Ok, quick one tonight: Lots of snacky treat food brought in to the office today. I resisted, although I was sorely tempted for a while. After work was a Chest, Shoulders & Triceps session. Made progress on several lifts, even if it was just a couple of reps. Definitely hitting the point were I'm not putting the weight up weekly any more though. Gym was also still not that busy, thankfully. Dinner was steak with garlic butter, boiled carrots & broccoli, and a fried egg. Rather nice indeed. No update tomorrow as we have a guest for the night, but I'll be making that cheesy chicken from last night again so we'll be eating well. Tomorrow morning is weigh-in no. 3 - I'll try to remember to do a quick phone-based update to say how that goes.

Chapter 3: Recruit Training Wolf

Longtime fans of this feed will remember lots and lots of talk last year about my promotion application. (We have to turn in the equivalent of a fat three-ring binder worth of stuff, and it takes months to put it all together.) I just got an email from my dean that the committee unanimously recommends me for promotion to Associate Professor. Report ends "The committee applauds Mr. RogueLibrarian's accomplishments and his dedication to librarianship." NAT FUCKIN' 20, FOLKS. Now the dean approves it and sends it to the provost's office before it's official, but this was by far the big hurdle. Thanks to all of you who kept encouraging me.

Monday w2d1 Eat - filled both of my water bottles - lunch was distraction free (during a busy work day, go me!) Move - PT exercises: squats 4 x 10, one legged stands Think - completed morning pages - meditated 10 minutes with insight timer - gratitude: reading, Stardew Valley, efficient attending

If anyone is interested, this is some of what I played this morning. Sorry, not the best quality. O Cara Mia (Portal 2) In Dreams / This is my Father's World

Next time shake a box of stuffing at them.

Thanks. I don't know if you should be impressed or not. I'm always unsure of whether to work out or not when I have a cold. I sort of do it on how motivated I feel. But part of my motivation may have been that I had few workout over Christmas week, and none the week after, so I really hated to miss. Today I'm skipping the workout I'll do the stretches, but nothing else. I feel better today, but still have a cough. Since I'm still trying to get over the cough, I figure my immune system does not like what I've been doing, so I'll take it down a notch. I think I will go on a walk though

It is. I slept in until 8:00 am (normally getup around 5:45-ish) and am currently enjoying a lazy slow breakfast before I have to get ready and go show up downtown at 11:30. Since volunteering only is for a couple of hours, afternoon plans have been made. They involve quality time with Happy Sidekick, and video games. I would have expected supplement sales to go up instead...

today (physically) I feel Better. but I forgot piano lessons last night. sometimes I get so Darn busy.... I'm also feeling a little glum about my mornings. on friday, saturday and sunday I went to bed early and ALMOST got up early enough to do something in the morning. Sunday particularly I got a little yoga in before everyone work up. it was great AND more important a good habit that needs brought back in my life. the rest of the week we are back to late nights and No mornings. my natural wakeup time is just early enough to stumble through the house get clothes and head out the door to work. sigh. I shouldn't live that way. I should have a better morning. (and I DID, last year) -its bugging me ha. sorry to rant. all of you with great morning habits.... GOOD JOB! that can make such a difference in life! I'm jealous.

2.W The last week was awesome! I think doing my food collages are really helping me make better choices and I feel so much better for it. My wallet already feels the difference, too. So I lifted 3x in week one, and updated the BRUTAL spreadsheet. I am really enjoying watching all the friendly competition go down there, even though since I deloaded I have no hope of winning I haven't really done anything in a group in terms of lifting in FOREVER so I'm so happy this is happening!! Last week I also did my week 1 AND week 0 mini challenges - I walked outside in the cold for 2 miles, did a social thing at work, and gave myself a face mask. I danced a whole bunch, really started digging into some technique in latin, and decided on what dances I'm doing at the team match in March (int. cha cha, int. jive, int. viennese waltz, smooth waltz, smooth foxtrot, strongly considering int. rumba but unsure because I kinda hate rumba but I also kinda love it??? My teacher really wants me to do it so TBD on that). I ROMWODed almost every day. I also decided against the PNF/PAILs/RAILs stuff because I couldn't figure out how to fit it into my routine. I am going to start doing some ballet barre on my own (not like... a "barre" workout, but the real ballet barre routine I used to do way back when I did ballet) to help with my strength through my range of motion. I meant to start this out last Thursday but ended up collecting underpants on PAILs/RAILs instead. I'm going to post some food collages later. And that's that. Happy hump day! Week 2 Schedule

Haha, thanks! It was very cool... to the point of cold. Thank you. It is going well. Thanks! Tracking: I was giving a talk about how to enhance tourism in Taiwan's Matsu Island. I was very excited. This is the first time I worked with a translator. Sleep: 10:30-6:30. Good and relaxing! Food: Sorry again, food with the government people means no pics. 7:30 Soy milk, grilled sticky rice with sauce, red bean soup, tofu skin bagel sandwich. 10:00 Cake break 12:00 Grilled pork, pork meatball, vegetables, pickles, rice 15:00 Another cake break. I didn't finish this one. 18:00 LOTS of local seafood. Yellow wine and other island liquor(used for toasting... and I toasted a lot). It seems that I failed the "drinking once a month" challenge. A mistake is a mistake, but I plan not to make more. One food stood out... Buddha's hand mussels. It does look like a pair of clawed hands praying. Exercise: None. Gratitude: 1. I finished the talk. The island people thanked me a lot. I feel appreciated. 2. The food. It was so exotic. Each dish weirder than another. Tofu skin bagel sandwich ,Red fungus fried rice, noodles made of fish meat, sticky seaweed, Buddha's hands, Yellow Island wine. It was an entire new experience. 3. My translators (grad students), they are awesome. I would not have understood any of the other speakers without them because the entire conference was in Mandarin. I need to work on creative writing at some point!

I don't know what's going on here but it's sounds like a nightmare.

I feel this is a bit too elaborate for just one day of Intuitive Eating. The most important guideline is this one: honor your hunger. So when you feel hungry you eat something and you stop when you are satisfied (notice I didn't say "full"!). The Hunger Fullness scale can help you with this: A few tips to help you do this: - Try to stay between an 3 and a 7 - Don't beat yourself up if you don't stay between 3 and 7, use it as a learning moment - Be mindful of your hunger cues, like: - a grumbling stomach - thinking about food - Wanting to watch only cooking shows - Feeling cranky - Feeling tired - Feeling sad/down - Unable to focus - Halfway through your meal put down your fork and examine where you're at at the hunger scale - Eat what you want and what will make you feel good. Sometimes this means a salad, sometimes this means a cookie. - Remember, and this is important: you can always have more food if you need it. Don't keep on eating just because you believe you can never have that food again, because you are an adult and you can have any food you want. The most important thing is to be mindful of your food choices. I feel that you've succeeded if you noticed your hunger and fullness, and was aware of what you really wanted to eat. You don't have to be perfect about it, just aware.

Week 2 Day 2 Work --> Dinner --> Nap EXERCISE: Lifting (3/W): 0: V - V - V 1: V - V - V 2: V - O - O 3: O - O - O 4: O - O - O Extra (1/W): 0: X 1: X 2: O 3: O 4: O NUTRITION: Breakfast (6/W): 0: V - X - V - V - V - V - V 1: V - V - V - V - V - V - V 2: V - V - O - O - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O - O - O Lunch (5/W): 0: V - X - V - V - V - V - V 1: V - V - V - V - V - V - V 2: V - V - O - O - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O - O - O No Beer (7/W): 0: X - X - V - V - X - X - V 1: V - V - V - V - V - X - X 2: V - V - O - O - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O - O - O SLEEP: Before midnight (7/W): 0: X - V - X - V - X - V - V 1: V - V - X - V - V - V - V 2: V - V - O - O - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O - O - O Before 11 PM (7/W): 0: X - V - X - V - X - V - V 1: X - V - X - V - X - V - V 2: V - V - O - O - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O - O - O CHECK-INS: Working days (5/W): 0: V - X - V - V - V 1: V - V - V - V - X 2: V - V - O - O - O 3: O - O - O - O - O 4: O - O - O - O - O Weekend (2/W): 0: V - X 1: X - X 2: O - O 3: O - O 4: O - O WEIGHT: Week 0: Mon: 84.1 / Tue: 84.9 / Wed: 84.7 / Thu: 84.4 / Fri: 83.1 / Sat: 83.3 / Sun: 83.8 Week 1: Mon: 84.3 / Tue: 84.3 / Wed: 83.8 / Thu: 83.5 / Fri: 83.0 / Sat: 83.2 / Sun: 84.4 Week 2: Mon: 84.7 / Tue: 83.9 / Wed: 83.9 / Thu: / Fri: / Sat: / Sun: Week 3: Mon: / Tue: / Wed: / Thu: / Fri: / Sat: / Sun: Week 4: Mon: / Tue: / Wed: / Thu: / Fri: / Sat: / Sun:

Quest log updates! Because it's a bit behind and we can't have that... 1. Sleep. It’s starting to be annoying that I am so bad at this. But I have learned that anxiety often manifests as insomnia, so at least now I know why I am so bad at sleeping. So, measures will be taken to take power away from the anxiety, which in turn will make it smaller and less insomnia inducing. 1a. I have given myself a bed time and will use meditation techniques I have learned from Headspace to help my brain slow down and go to sleep mode. 1b. Daily meditation and some kind of physical activity will help the brain become stronger against the anxiety and stress Daily update: The tea experiment continues. I tested the impacts of tea by not having it on Monday afternoon, instead I had a cup of coffee. I didn't notice an impact on my sleep, but holy hell did it mess with my stomach! The last time I had this kind of heartburn it involved lots of alcohol and spicy food. We will definitely avoid afternoon coffee from here on. 2. Schedule my gym workouts in Google Calendar, for three nights per week. This makes it exponentially more likely that I will actually go to the gym. Getting my tired behind into the car and towards the gym building is by far the biggest obstacle for me when it comes to working out regularly. QUEST COMPLETE 3. Request time off for all the dates listed in the Upcoming Events email I received yesterday, so it becomes possible for me to physically be present at the events I am volunteering for. This quest expires and automatically fails on Thursday 10th of January. QUEST COMPLETE 3a. Sign up for all the events. All of them! QUEST COMPLETE 3b. Add all the events to Google Calendar QUEST COMPLETE 4. Declutter and tidy the desk in my dragon cave. Completing this quest unlocks Quest # 8. 5. Join the Walk to Mordor 2019 PvP. Then link it in my sig so I can find it easily. QUEST COMPLETE 6. Sign up for Read Harder 2019 6a. Read the recommendations and make my book selection. 6b. Start reading early enough that I can actually finish it this year. 6c. Also, link it in my sig so I can find it easily. 7. Work on my NaNo project every weekend. 0/4 Weekly update: Added a couple of peripheral characters. Starts research to figure out how to make Quoll Writer's backup go to Box.com, instead of to somewhere on the same computer. 8. Spec out and pick parts for the new computer build. Not available until Quest #4 is complete. 9. Sort out the skincare stuff 9a. Completely geek out on skin care ingredients and learn how they work, and which ones I want. QUEST COMPLETE 9b. Identify brands and products I want to use from here on QUEST COMPLETE 9c. Obtain the products from 9b 9d. Incorporate them into existing daily routines Daily update: Oil cleanser obtained. Retinol serum obtained. Vitamin C serum obtained. Daily moisturizer was on the same shelf and 30% off, so has now also been obtained. Hydrating daily toner has been purchased and should arrive tomorrow. Left to acquire: Evening serum with either peptides or hyaluronic acids. New to the list: Gentle chemical exfoliant. 10. Activated by completing Quest #2: Go to the gym during my scheduled time. Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday. 10a. Reschedule Friday gym visits for Thursday evenings. Daily update: Went to the gym today. I forgot my phone at home! It has my workouts, and it has my music. I had to listen to the really sucky cheerful pop music they play at the gym instead. Ewww. Never again. I improvised a short workout - barbell row and deadlifts - and then went home so I would not have to listen to he annoying music anymore. 11. Activated by completing Quest #3: Attend all scheduled volunteer events. Daily update: First event tomorrow! Took the day off work so I can focus fully on the volunteering. Scaly thing:

I'm making a good adulting decision and going to bed on time, despite still having jobs to do. I've done jobs, and it's bedtime, so I've done enough jobs.

For some reason that just decided to post itself before I could get my update in. Last night we had the same sweet & spicy fried fish as last time, as well as some chicken & celery. I didn't take a picture, but it looked pretty much the same as last time. No workout this morning because I needed to pick up Ghostlet after his last two finals. He feels pretty good about his English test, but is not sure about math. Math was apparently harder than he expected. Lunch is going to be lasagna which is the oven now, but you are going to have to wait until tomorrow's update for pictures.

Once Again, It's Truck Porn Tuesday and there are no pictures... I promised a lesson on the Wildland Engine Typing System in a previous Truck Porn installment and I will do it at some point, but I've had a lot to deal with the last week and a half. Beyond a lot of extra stress and pressure at work, a home renovation project on a deadline, and some major health and financial problems in the family, I've been completely overloaded. It's a bit of a mixed bag for this challenge so far. I have made it a priority to keep making home cooked meals and taking my lunches to work. My veggie consumption has dropped somewhat from my average of 6 servings a day in late December, but is still at a pretty consistent 5 servings a day. I was hoping to get to 7 this challenge, but my grocery shopping has been too sporadic to make that viable. I am doing what I can. The vertigo, like what I was having a year ago, has returned. Not quite as bad, but still pretty disruptive to my daily stair laps, though I have taken two easy Saturday hikes the last two weeks. I have been stretching and doing a few body weight strength exercises, kind of maintenance level, not the more structured and strenuous version I planned for this challenge. I've managed to hang onto my tiny habits, but have not added any new ones. One thing I have been doing quite a lot of is observing, listening, journaling. I've been making time to read and think and contemplate. My stress level was getting so high, I just had to draw the line on others' expectations of me and withdraw for some quiet. A lot of it has been active quiet. I've been spending more time than usual doing household chores, cleaning, and rearranging furniture. I can move around, get some things done, and think stuff through.

Hello, hello, my friends! Sorry I haven't been super active/attentive in posting my updates. I kind of slacked off, posting only the bare minimum, and there are days when I just lack the mental energy to log on and post-- but I promise I'm keeping up with my challenge. Here's Monday's update: Yesterday was reeeaaallly rough at work. Despite starting the day strong with a great workout, I was mentally drained by the end of it. I may have indulged in a snack or two because of stress. That being said, despite the struggles of dealing with tax season, I was able to: Do a great workout that focused on pull-ups/upper-body strength as well as lower-body strengthening with my knee Drank over 2 liters of water Practice my mindfulness with the app I'm using Listened to the most recent episode of one of the Stoicism podcasts I'm listening to Purchased a hard copy of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (yes! finally! It's been on my "to-buy" list for a while) Wrote down my daily gratitude Practiced crunches Practiced Polish on Duolingo Here's my workout from yesterday: Warm up: - 3 minutes jump rope - 10 PVC pass thrus - 10 scap push-ups - 10 scap pull-ups - 5 BW squats - 15' hip rotations/extensions alternating - 10 Y-W-Ts Workout: - 4×6 assisted band pull-ups CU grip -4×10 BW squats - 3×8 bench press @ 65/75/75 - 3×10 toes to barbell - 3×10 lat pull downs @120 - 3×10 military press @40 - 3×5 lunges/side STRETCH As for today, today was much better work-wise than yesterday. In fact, this was probably one of the best days of work I've had in a while-- it was a good reminder about what I actually like about this job. Today was cardio day, and I got a good 2+ miles of sprint intervals in before my lungs started being unhappy in the cold air of my basement (we have a dreadmill in the basement, which is both a blessing and a curse haha). As far as goals for today go: Cardio for strengthening conditioning of knee/furthering goal of getting into OCS Had 2L of water Practiced gratitude Did my crunches Practiced Duolingo Greasing the groove by doing 5 band-assisted pull-ups every time I walk by the pull-up bar Successfully avoided snacking today What's left for today: Practice mindfulness And that's it folks! I'm gonna bop around and check in on how y'all are doing on your own challenges, and then call it a day!

Thanks. I wish I was able to do more. I talked to the other intern about the issue I had and he noticed the same thing that I did: the supervisor was getting more heated by talking to him and dismissing him which is what was escalating things later on. Never watched Star Trek. What was the episode like? Thanks Listening to it right now (as the Bludgeon Brothers theme ends lol). "We use it to get out of our own way" -podcast. EXACTLY. I end up thinking themself into inaction. Teros as an alter-ego is assertive and confident and when I channel and act that way, it has ALWAYS HELPED. Not once in a while it was a good idea. Not half the time. Literally EVERY-SINGLE-TIME that I've felt I turned into the alter-ego version of myself. "How are you hiding in your field of play?" - This resonated as well. I am a wallflower but when I channel that 'other' as he puts it, I come out of hiding. I'll explain more in my *Currently* post at the bottom. "Eventually you don't need the alter ego, you embody it." - And I see this as eventually being *only* Teros. And doesn't defining it give it more weight and make it easier to explain? It makes it more concrete when talking about more. True, hating the non-ideal self can be dangerous but what the hell else am I supposed to think about those traits that I don't like? It sort of ebbs and flows a bit. old mike/dark passenger can be labeled as my borderline personality disorder, my depression, anxiety, weakness, insecurity, and more. There's nothing to like about anxiety. Nothing to like about depression: those are horrible things to feel. HOWEVER, I think that being able to *appreciate* the value of those as motivators or as ways to connect to other people is an important distinction. Thanks man. Currently #7: I did the math and I should be able to cut down my internship hours almost 2 months before classes end. According to my rough estimate, after this week I will be at 304 hours at my internship. Over the summer, I did 130 hours. Which means that my total is 434 (I didn't include staying late a few times or the time I went to the other shelter yet). I need to do 600 hours by mid-May. That means I only need 166 hours, which at 16 hours per week, means I'm done in 10 weeks. That's the last week of March... Since I need to finish on that week in May and extra hours don't count, I'm going to cut down the hours and do only 8 hours per week. With the upcoming job, I wanted to address people in the morning Uplift. I wrote a letter that I was going read this morning. I didn't know how people would react. Here's what I read this morning to a group of 40 people, as I nervously gripped my paper: I felt that with a big change, I wanted to say a couple of words. Normally, I don't say much of anything here because I feel like this is the place for other people to express themselves: I'm just along for the ride. However, I'm going to be joining the Amos House family as one of the House Managers for the men on Wednesday and Friday nights, as well as still interning on Tuesday and Thursday during the day. I didn't take the job for the money, since honestly I could just do hours at a supermarket for the pay. I took it because I want to help, and I truly believe in everyone that comes through these doors, even though I tend to be a wallflower and I'm not that good with names. I used to be friends with people that looked down on this community. I remember someone telling me that they thought it should be legal to hit any homeless person with their car and not get in trouble. He...is an ex-friend now. I know how society looks down, like people here are less than people. But when I look here, I see people that have courage, people that are hurt and want to be understood and change their lives for the better. I don't click with people at my school, with their problems being about how their supervisor might not like them. Meanwhile there is so much expression here that is raw and difficult. There is a lot of emotions and pain to process through. I don't think anyone that got here has had an easy road. I guess I just wanted to say that I'm proud of all of the people here. Even saying this stuff makes me nervous, so being able to share in any capacity I think is a huge deal, and I'm glad to be a part of this. Also, I think maybe I need a different intro since I can't say I'm 'just interning here' anymore. I hope everyone has a great day. The response I got.... The entire room was clapping and cheering. One of the guys said that he was glad there were people like me in the world. Another guy got out of his chair and hugged me. A woman came up to me after and told me that she was crying and thanked me. The other staff person that was running the group said that he never saw the whole group so united and what I said was 'really powerful'. I also handed the receptionist a letter answering a question she had last week: 'what is love?' I typed up a 3-page note and put it in an envelope and gave it to her. I'll see what her reaction is on Thursday. I feel good. i did a good job today. I'm making Jamaican riblets and ranch cauliflower for dinner tonight, all whole30. I'll do some challenge recaps tomorrow after work.

Done and done. I like her a lot too! And I really just need to not brain right now. I just grabbed the basic off the sight (is the full version much bigger?) and it feels a little light, but in all honesty, I've been off routine for a while and I'm not recovering from my regular routines well enough to get any consistency, so her ramp up should be fine. An easy win, which is what I need in this department! Thanks!!! I'm really enjoying the process, and ran out of one of my colors and got totally derailed when I couldn't work on it today! Kind of a bummer and I got all weird and ended up having a cranky pants nap (more related to missing a meal) but I'll get the fabric tomorrow and have time to work on it Thursday and Friday nights This remains to be hard/easy. Just right now one of my regulars wanted to change a time for tomorrow, stretching my 8 hour day to 9. I almost did it, then stopped myself. I apologized that I couldn't, and offered other time this week - and heyo! She quickly jumped an empty slot on Friday that I'm happy to have filled in! WOW. So yeah, lots of anxiety surrounding this. It's expensive but I'm doing it anyway. At the moment I feel more afloat than grounded... but I have to go forward somewhere. I spoke with an acquaintance last night at the WIB meeting (women in business group that I'm in), and she was talking about how she wants to do a storefront location in our town and wants to have multiple practitioners in there. It's exactly the kind of situation I feel comfortable with, and it provides a network for referrals. So I dunno. It's not a bad thing. And it would be really cool to go further down the orthopedic route... there's a training program out in CO I've had my eye on for awhile. Could be a cool jam to add to my arsenal! I dunno. I think those are the questions I'll be working through in the coaching program. 3 Months long. Starting... as soon as I send in the questionnaire and some moneys.

Surgery went smoothly from the doctor's perspective. nerve is no longer impinged and i should expect a full recovery. on the patient's end... no amount of machismo, testosterone or tough guy attitude is going to keep you calm when in the surgeon's room. 2mg of atavan did absolutely nothing to help. Getting frozen with the biggest goddamned needle ive ever seen was the worst part. the actual surgery was only 3 minutes, surprisingly. but hearing and feeling your bones and ligaments move and grind when there is hardly any pain, just pressure, is such an alien experience, so weird... Right now, the freezing is starting to wear off and I have to get a meatloaf in the oven. Got a dinner date, made Italian meatloaf (blend of beef & sausage, spread flat, shingled with mozza cheese, genoa salami and sauteed mushrooms before being rolled into a log. Served with herbed zucchini, and brown butter mash. Dark chocolate truffles for dessert.

the first parts were from Saturday and the last from the Monday training. Oh and the handsome chap walking past to admire me is my hubby

It's amazing how getting enough sleep is turning into a magical cure-all for anything! And I've noticed the same thing with my skin and my sleep patterns as well as also my dietary patterns. It's almost like my skin is this big living thing connected to all of the rest of me, and facing the consequences of what I do to the body inside the skin...! Enjoy! And you're welcome. In case someone had somehow missed it, my inner geek thrives on the sciency aspect of skincare (it's like alchemy but less creepy!) and I enjoy talking about it. Particularly with people who are a bit more balanced and relaxed in their approach than the hardcore members of Beautypedia or MakeUpAlley... Disagree. No one is obligated to do anything skincare related, but my personal opinion is that everyone should wear sunscreen, regardless of who they are and where they are in life. Because the sun causes cancer! To be more specific and technical about it, the UVA and UVB rays that are present in natural sunlight, have both been rated "a carcinogenic substance" by the WHO agency that researches cancer. UVA are the Aging ones, that cause wrinkles and hyper pigmentation, a.k.a "age spots", and window glass is no match for these extraterrestrial dermal destruction rays. UVB are Burning rays. They cause tanning if you don't overdo exposure to them, and sunburn if you stay with them for too long. Soo... since extended exposure burns, that means that tanning essentially is a very slow and insidious way of broiling your skin... and over time it does cause damage to the top skin layer. The deeper layers too, if you tan/burn repeatedly. UVB rays can be blocked by window glass. The more UV ray damage skin cells sustain, the more damaged they will become, and the more likely they are to develop melanoma (=skin cancer). Having a high amount of natural pigmentation in the skin does absolutely nothing to prevent this. At best, having darker skin slows down the process. At worst, it makes no difference. The American FDA is not nearly as good at approving and regulating active sunscreen ingredients as the equivalent agencies in Europe, Asia, or Australia. I think it has to do with how the rest of the world treats sunscreen as a cosmetic and the FDA doesn't, or something. Don't quote me on that though. However, as a result, US-made sunscreens are only required to report their SPF rating and whether they are broad-spectrum or not. The SPF rating tells you how effective your chosen sunscreen is against UVB rays. "Broad spectrum" tells you that it also will protect you against UVA. (Asian sunscreens are required to be rated on UVA effectiveness as well as on UVB, and I think Europe as well. I don't know about Australia.) The American FDA not only does not require UVA protection to be rated, it doesn't actually require it to be present in the first place. This means there are sunscreens out there that only protect against one of the two kinds of UV rays. This sounds like a minor detail for someone who doesn't care about pre-mature aging, until you remember that both kinds of UV rays are carcinogenic! So if you live in the US and you are buying a sunscreen, you absolutely need to look for a broad spectrum one, or you're not actually fully protected. American Academy of Dermatology FAQ on sunscreen Ahem... um... Excuse me a moment while I put this soap box away now...

*quietly restringing harpsichord* All in due time........... And lo, the yoke of capitalism returns! It seems like a great place to be though, so I'm looking forward to it. The more money will DEFINITELY be a plus, as I'm about to slap 4 snow tires on my car this week, and... yeah. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! ^________________^ I needed your cheers so much this morning! That gif gave me a much-needed cackle ahahaa YES I SURE HOPE SO, ALL OF THAT, ALL OF IT~ w e e k 2 Phew, guys. To say I was a little overwhelmed would be an understatement. I start my new job bright and early Monday morning, on the heels of a snowstorm-that-hopefully-won't-be-that-bad??, and the weather's making me a little nervous. (I have a sizeable commute right now due to living in the rural mountains, about 20 miles each way. Which usually isn't that bad at all. But, weather.) I also have so much to do that it's making me stress-puke kinda, and I woke up at 4 am with HEY HO ANXIETY that I managed to fend off an hour later and fall back to sleep only to have a heart-rending dream of my old cat that passed a few years ago coming to comfort me??? And I was bawling in the dream and woke up like "well fuck" so Also it's a good thing I have a job now 'cause I'm dropping a grip of cash on snow tire installation on Thursday, I need to dig around in the basement for work clothes and probably go buy some more, I need to sit down and figure out my health insurance changeover before next week, and of course my phone stopped working properly so when I'm on calls with people they can't hear me and I hafta put 'em on SPEAKERPHONE to have a CONVERSATION :V, and like WHAT am I gonna do for LUNCH next week should I figure out a batch cook or PHEW Anyways I'm real overwhelmed and stressed and I'm reminding myself that despite the good news that it's OKAY AND NORMAL to feel this way. I also sat down this morning after setting up a snow tire appointment and wrote this. (Spoilered for length I guess?) This narrative and the cast of characters therein has been such a huge catharsis for me, you don't even know. It's real different from anything I've ever written, I think because to me it's instantly relatable and "real-time" as it may be; everything I write corresponds to my current status and it's never a struggle to sit down and let the words come out. Each character is very near and dear to my heart and of course writing this this morning made me cry, also I don't know French so I Google translated some of that and yeah. At any rate, would that we all had a Revenant to cuddle and speak French to us and put us to sleep when our brains acted like idiots yeah?? I feel a little better now so I think my next step is going to be to make a list, write down everything I need to do so I can see it and it won't just be a giant "?????? THINGS???" in my brain. This week is probably gonna be stressful but I know I can get it all done. One thing at a time.... <3

Insufficient love and attention is given to badgers. So here are some badger cubs and their adopted fox kit sibling. I hope you are feeling adequately OK today.

guys i have a job and i'm breaking my own rule tonight I start next week and BOY DO I HAVE A LOT TO DO BEFORE THAT. Get snow tires on my car - go buy more work clothes - get set up to batch cook again starting this weekend - finally go shopping for auxiliary items like vitamins, probiotics, etc - color my hair - wow I'm actually gonna have real money soon huh wow WOW - oh also we're getting a big snowstorm this weekend EEEEEEEEK *wheeze* Everything is So Much Vol. 34; But It's All Good........