starpuck

Another check in.

Aight. Today's check in:

Work was absolutely nuts.   I had a big win in that I went and did my strength work out, even though I had to work 10 minutes into my lunch hour.

Stayed on track with food, ate all the calories I should have today since past couple days were extra low.

Got some guitar practice in.

Bowed out of a game night I did not have the energy to do.

Chilled, and planning on early bed.

Miiight do some art.   But BG3 has it's needles in me.

Tomorrow's goal is less coffee.  I fueled the chaos engine by lots of extra joe today.  Tomorrow I wanna focus on cleaner fuel sources.  Pineapple snack ftw.

Ayyyye, I'm here-ish?

I don't even know what the excuse is this time, so let's just drop this here and move forward. 😛

Aight. Today's check in:

WFH (and really glad I did, because work lost internet, so we couldn't even do work at work)

Rearranged room and feel really good about it.

Also counted that as exercise, because Fitbit tracked 30 "Active Minutes" during the brunt of the furniture shifting.

Guitar lesson, plus extra practice afterward.

Video game night. Ate 1337 calories and under target, so good there.

Going to bed early.

Really trying to focus on "Not" planning things, and just doing good things each day and posting them here.   I know what needs to be done.   I know what's sensible eating and movement.    So rather than plan and plot and have boxes looming, just gonna try and do each day well.

Tomorrow should be a crazy day at work, thus the early bed business.

Then I'd really like to do some piano and art.  (At least right now that's what I feel like doing tomorrow.)

On 10/19/2023 at 9:21 AM, Jackdaw said:

Yay, I love vampires!

 

Good luck with your goals! It doesn't matter which attempt it is, it matters you keep on fighting!

Hey there and welcome!   I love the peptalk too!    It's Rocky-adjacent... what's that line 'Doesn't matter how many times you get win, its' how many times you get knocked down and get back up!'  Something like that...

On 10/19/2023 at 3:16 PM, TrashcanCarla said:

Here to follow and support! I have to say that I love the simplicity of your challenge and am rooting for you!

Thank you thank you!   I needed simple this go around.

On 10/20/2023 at 6:58 AM, Jarric said:

 

I saw this on Discord early and bleary-eyed this morning, and thought 'that demon face shaded a bit flat, makes it look a bit like a mask'. So, good job, even if I was too tired to understand what was going on

 

Hahaha yes~  That's awseome!   I'm falling more and more behind, but I'll just keep grabbing prompts as I get time to draw.

On 10/20/2023 at 8:36 AM, sylph said:

 

👀

 

I LOVE THIS!  I am too chicken to try it, but I am so drawn to these short /pixie / assymetrical styles.   Maybe I just need to do it and live with it!    What better season than winter.  I can wear toques all day if I hate it! Hah.

A few days behind on checking in but here now!

Saturday I got a 4 mile hike in during the morning.  It was beautiful weather and great fall colors, but once back - we hit up Ramen, and after that I was totally wiped.  I was tired, didn't feel like doing much, and so sat around watching shows and moping about.  I am not at all sure what was up with that - but that's the exact 'deflation' of moods I am tired of having.    I have been somewhat frustrated on relationship things, so maybe the morning irritations really hung in there.

Sunday was church, then chores and then made some shrimp ramen noodle thing and had in person gaming.   I really love the in person gaming, but I was so angry at the one girl who sat there on her phone the whole time not paying attention at all.     I wish people would be honest if they didn't feel like being an RPG group member anymore.  I'll see if she's better next time - but ugh.   Anyway.  People brought LOTS of sweets and crackers and dips and I pigged out so bad, that I was legit sick on Monday!    Which meant Monday food was bad, and no exercise.  I even went home early to chill out.   I feel MUCH better today thankfully, but that was 2 days of food that derailed an otherwise 6 day streak of doing really well.   

What I can take away from this past week?  I did in fact get 5 purposeful exercise days in.  Totaling 8 miles walked and 2 strength sessions.  That's so much better than many of my past weeks so I am taking a win on this.   Food was good, every day up until Sunday.  Saturday was a high day with restaurant food, but I didn't over do things for the most part.  Sunday was a catastrophe.  Monday started fine (I was eating so light) but by dinner, they ordered in Chicken Sandwiches and fries, and it was hitting SO well, that I ate the whole thing.  So probably over on calories.

Today though, is Tuesday.  I feel much better.   I got a lovely 9 mile bike ride in today because it's Oct 24th and 80 degrees.  (Forecast for Halloween is snow.)   They claim it's peak fall colors this week, so I hit all 3 natural spots nearby work and snagged some pics.

Tonight is guitar lesson, home for chicken and dumplings (healthy Weight Watchers low cal recipe) and then video game night with the boys.    Work was super busy, so no side-gig things got done, but I might try to get an Inktober fussed with here now.

On 10/17/2023 at 1:30 PM, Cheetah said:

 

Fun colors?

I've been rocking some fun highlights on the under layer since last year.  My latest was dark blue and purple and I really liked that combo.   Might just refresh that, but kind of want a big bold new cut / style.
Maybe.

On 10/17/2023 at 2:22 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

Sending healing vibes like

OMG DR!  That is the sexiest Salubri I've ever seen.  Thank you!  THANK YOU TWICE OVER!   😍

On 10/18/2023 at 7:39 AM, Jarric said:

 

When you think about it, 15 minutes is pretty good. That's 1 hour 45 per week if you do it every day, which is probably enough for general health purposes if at least some of it is fairly vigorous activity. If you're think of that as a minimum, that's definitely good.

That's a really good idea. I usually give up on Inktober on 1st November, but maybe I should stick at it too, and see if I can get it finished by the end of the challenge?

...I think I'm up to day 8 so far  

I've managed 13 total Inktobers, but in random order.  When I fall behind, I tend to just catch up and do whatever day is the easiest.     Today is plump.  But a friend from another server asked me to draw him a demon mask and demon was the 17th.  So... today will be one of those too.    I hadn't even thought about the adding up of 15m a day,  and yeah, you're right!   Wow.  That's kind of motivating in and of itself.

THURSDAY CATCH UP

Let's see, I last updated Tuesday which only had Monday's shenanigans posted.   I am proud to report the week has been going wonderfully!

So, Monday's work out left me with such bad DOMS that I am still sore today and only today is it tolerable enough that I am not walking funny.  😅    The really impressive part about that statement, is that I still went out and did a 2 mile walk on Tuesday and Wednesday so I could get some movement in, despite being so damn sore.  It helped infinitely that those days were sunny and 60-65 and so I wanted to milk the 'nice days' we have left.      Food has been totally on point the whole week too.  I've tracked the calories and been well under calorie limit.     My first guitar lesson on Tuesday was so much better than the one I tried last year.  I told the teacher that the single thing I could benefit most from lessons, was for someone to watch my technique and form, and he immediately found my strumming needed some fixing.  (I was whole arm swinging from the elbow, and said that forearm/wrist is more efficient and lesson tiresome, as well as what will allow you to play faster in the later days)  Very cool!    I got a homework assignment to work on Bad Moon Rising - which, chord wise and rhythm wise, I am good - it's focusing on working the new strum form that is the tough part.    I also did some Inktober prompts (but still have a lot more to catch up) - these are the the ones I did this week.

Not gonna lie... at first I thought the pic was from like ... Red Dead Redemption or some other big AAA open world game.   Then I read on and was like, oh man... is that Kalitraz???   How cool.   First time scoping in around these parts, and your charts and graphs have won me over.   Also really like the goals approach.

Here to follow along!

Haha, I agree on the big swing 'check forums' --- Run marathon.

I also really like the idea of goals morphing each week!!

hmmmmm.

Here as always my friend.

There are plenty of boxes in your ' Might come up Stuff' that I am right there with you on.

So yeah!  I'm here for the cheering on!

52 minutes ago, sylph said:

 

I don't know exactly why this picture of a happy Patrick Rothfuss comes up when searching for kobold gifs, but who am I to argue with the Way of the Gif?

Omg that IS an amazing  gif of him!! I love it!!!

I also love Artemis challenges, and wouldn't miss it for the world!

I was gonna cheer that I also made it on first page, but $20 says my post is the first on page 2.

Here to follow along.  I too am in the 'must fend off the lurking shadows of potentially preventable health concerns' stage of thinking!  We can soldier up together!

20 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Very nice goals!  You can do it!

Thanks for the support and encouragement.  Always good to have ya here.

19 hours ago, sylph said:

Here for this.

Yaaay!   Fingers crossed I stick a bit better to checking in at least! 😛

19 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Bwuhahaha.   That is SUCH a great brow raise gif.    So glad you're here Art!

19 hours ago, Kalitraz said:

I like the challenges, especially your eat 1/2 compromise. Calories in and movement (calories out) do seem to be the 2 biggest things to track so I think you're on a good path. Here to follow along and offer a bit more support. Good luck!

 

 

Yeah, I had to codify that - because otherwise, I sometimes get stuck in 'all or nothing' and when something comes up that I can't "all" -I give up the whole day (or sometimes worse!)  It's a real streak-breaker if I do that.      And hello!  Welcome welcome!  So glad to have ya!!    (Great gif btw.  I haven't seen any of that show, but I am flooded by the amusing gifs and clips.)

18 hours ago, Jarric said:

I like the simple approach, looks good to me.

Gotta be simple for now.   I can go back to Chaos Rangering once I am on a better routine hehe.

18 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following along again. I've almost completely stopped working out too.

It's so easy to shift priorities.  And sometimes we even need to!   But man do I notice the difference.   Gonna even go so far as to apply the 15m of anything counts philosophy!

First Check In 

Did things yesterday!     I got my first workout in foooorever in.  And omg.  I feel like a freshly turned vampire.   My body is dead!  Mostly.  The legs are so dang sore I can hardly lift them to like, move one leg from under the other and back again.   I am going to tough it out and take a VERY leisure paced walk on my lunch break.  It's sunny and ... 56?  So enough that I can get some hoodie on and get some fresh air and bright skies.    I also ate within calorie budget yesterday and wasn't even hungry or craving anything beyond that.  So good on that front.     I'm pretty behind on Inktober and really in the mood to do it, but my schedule isn't playing nicely.   So, my Inktober might last through the first part of November, and I'm going to be okay with that.   

This week I have a pretty full plate.

Tues:  First guitar lesson, then home for a quick food and then onto video game night with the boys.

Wed:  I think there is a brief Beat Saber meet up at like 7ish.  I might do a few songs, but not stay overly long for that as I want to get some streaming in on Bloodhunt or Bloodlines.  I also have a girly doc 6 month follow up for a 'totally benign cyst' they just want to keep tabs on.   I always get nervous with that.

Thur:  We swapped days for things, so a free night for music and art.

Fri: Weekend!   Also we are playing Vampire on this night since ST is busy on Thu.    Nice to be able to sleep in after!

Sat:  Hair appt in the morning and then nothing!   Might meet up with nephew to check out his new car.

Sun:  Church in the morning, some chill time, then hanging out with the boys after, cooking dinner at their place and then RPG night.

Plan is to do strength days on M W F.   But if I am still mega sore tomorrow, I might do another walk and then evening beat saber.    Fill in the rest with move days.   I also am half tempted to do something really different with my hair but I dunno what.  Hmm!

Another go at this.   Last attempt at getting a challenge going again was riddled with stress factors that knocked me out of the game.  Ideally, I want to get to a point where I can let stress hit me but not get through my Fortitude... but I am just a fledgling and these things take time to build up.        I've been stuck in a rut for ... way too long.    I need to get out of it, but, just like a wagon wheel stuck in the mud it's going to take my effort, and my willing to get dirty.    So I need to push through with discipline until motivation shows its beautiful face again.

Biggest backslides over the past year have been food and exercise.  (Lol, nice time to get a double whammy)  - I've lost the momentum and discipline on getting some daily movement, and the food gets worse with the less I move.  Instead of getting brain boosts from activity, the brain asks for quick hits from junk food and the like.      So this challenge is going to be about two things first and foremost.    And these things are my current 'beast'.    In VtM they refer to the beast within as that monstrous voice leading you away from maintaining your humanity.  Many, but not all, vampires put up a valiant effort to fight off that beast. 

THE GOALS

Food - Track calories.    It's not always the most fun, but it's the most accurate way for me to pay attention and make good choices.  I too easily say "that's probably not so bad" and let things slide when I am not tracking accurately.  So we're tracking calories daily.   I realize some meals I can only 'best guess'.   So the rule for that is, over-estimate the best guess, or eat just half.   I don't want to become someone that 'can't eat out with friends' so the compromise is to make eating out less about the food more about the people - and choosing smaller plates, and/or eating half.

Track Food 7x / Week -- Allowances for things I can't be accurate on, so as not to make this an all or nothing approach.

Exercise - Move.  In some way.  At least 5x a week.    Pretty self explanatory here.     I lost the exercise habit and need to get it back.   So for now, nothing more complex than "purposefully move, 5x a week" - that can be a 20 minute walk, or an hour long lift, or Beat Saber, or anything else.   The idea is to just do it.  Even when the brain suggests I do something else with that time.     That's it.   Oh, and track it.  Because without tracking, I tend to get kind of careless.

That's it.   Those are the only two things that are going up on here.  The rest of the things that I want to keep in habit of, I'll do my best to do that *guitar, music, art, etc,  but they are not being prioritized right now, until these two habits get back to being habits.

Yo guys.

It's been a while.    

I've had to deal with like 10 straight days of stress and trouble shooting.   Long story short, new PC from Cyberpower was not working.   5 days of trouble shooting that.   Then I just opted to return it and went to buy a new one from a local store.    Which also didn't work.  Returned that one 2 days later for even exchange, and the new NEW one also didn't work.    Returned that same day, and picked out parts to custom build.   That was picked up just Sunday the 24th, and now, finally, I have a working PC.   BUT!  I have a very strange, probably not correct, financial conflict to resolve with the store + the store CC + refunds / rebills that I won't be able to resolve until the CC company has 10 days to post the refund.    I had 3 days off from work in that time, and all 3 days had about 8 hours of of tech support calls, chats, youtube videos and digging into the guts of my RIG.

In short, lol - the first 10 days of Restember were stressy because of covid watch and having no friend hang out time.  The past 10 were stressy and exhausting because of PC stuff.     I didn't really do anything food or exercise wise.  Picked up the guitar a few times.   Nothing else really was on the plate because I was just too pooped out all the time.   I would have preferred my Restember be, ya know... restful.   But at least I adopted the idea of 'do what I can, or what I must and not stress about goals and ticking off boxes.'.

I am feeling a bit of the turn around now and the path looks clearer ahead.   Today I have a lunch meet with a customer, but I've decided already to get the chicken burrito bowl, easy beans, and count that as at least getting some veggies in.   Dinner is pork and saurkraut so good there.    I am going to try and ease back into my challenge here, and, rather than feel overwhelmed catching up on 2 weeks of your alls, just gonna mark them read and start fresh keeping up from here on out.

Keeping to the nostalgic theme of this thread.

15 hours ago, Jarric said:

Maybe nothing needs to change? Doing anything 5 days out of 7 is pretty good, so if youre able to hit your goals on the weekend maybe you can plan your weekday goals with the expectation that you won't hit them on weekends?

 

Regardless, I love the Restember vibes for this challenge - you seem a lot happier when you're only doing 1 million things every day rather than 10 million things

Haha, I feel like I'm not doing much at all.   But that's okay for now.  

I wish that my 5 of 7 were good enough, but my 2 of  7 has often ended up SO out of whack, that I'd have to basically fast two of the weekdays to make it not undo all the other calorie deficits.   Need to just stop letting weekends convince me to 'loosen up and let it slide'.     I need to like ... keep a grip and let it inch.    I'll get there.

On 9/12/2023 at 10:38 AM, Cheetah said:

Nice paintings!  Happy Challenge!

Thanks Cheetah!  Good to see you here.

On 9/12/2023 at 7:14 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

What if you did some programming from darebee that doesn't require you to plan out your own lifts? They have a broad diversity of programs available amd the novelty might get under your dunwannas the way they got under mine.

That might be a really good option!  I gave it a peek and the only thing that scared me was the amount of reps per set.  (At least in the one I looked at!  LOL.   I will have to look for some more.)   

15 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Walking is the best!  Good job!

It sure did feel good.

Wednesday Wrap Up

Managed another good day.   Food was spot on, no excessive snacking or splurges.   And I did a bike ride at lunch.  (Which was a mistake... it could have been glorious.  65 and sunny, seemed like a great plan so long as I had long pants and a hoodie.   Except I forgot that I have this weird thing where cold air/wind getting into the INSIDE of my ears, causes like ... 'ear migraines?'   Like my inner ear hurts so bad I get nauseated and dizzy.   I knew I had this thing (not that I've ever heard of any one else experiencing it) but I thought the threshold was like 55 degrees....   because warm wind doesn't bother it at all.   So, that was a bit of a drag, but I still got my exercise in.   Did about 20 minutes of guitar, then swapped "I'll do my thing if you do your thing" with @Keladris - she did her knee exercises, and I did 5 minutes of practicing the F chord.    Some games had and now to extra early bed.  I got a headache - could be from earlier ear woes and allergies.   So rest is key.

On 9/12/2023 at 11:17 AM, Heidi said:

like if clear snot was congealed into a chilled syrup.

That was the most poetically gross thing I have read on the internet in some time.    LOL  Thanks!?

Glad to hear things are trekking along well Tank!   Keep that vibe going! Yeaaaaaah!

Also - I went to parochial school K-8th.   And my brother's name was Mike.  And he had a black Trans Am.   I wore a watch, and during every chapel service, would talk to the watch and tell "KIT" to come get me.

Because ....

That song is so crazy!  In the best way.   It sounded so pop-punk and then it got hard and dirty!   Switch back to very KPop sounding.  So much going on!  I love it!    And that video is amazing and gave me serious Scott Pilgrim vibes.

Love the Wed plan!  Eager to see how it all wraps up for you.     I agree that unplanned free time can sometimes go "FWOOP!"   Sometimes though, I feel like that's needed.  But definitely as a treat and not a routine.

This Kassandra yoga sounds intriguing.  And 10 minutes is not overwhelming as a time amount - would you say it's suitable for beginners and those with little yoga in their history?

All the rangering!  

Haha, it happens to the best of us.

Hope you are more recovered now!

Wooo!  She's making her own gifs now.   The possibilities are endless!

Tuesday Wrap Up.

I had a good day at work.   Kept my head together and pretty chill.    I took a 2.8 mile walk at lunch and the weather was just absolutely perfect!!!  So nice.   Food was on track.  I did have the thinnest slice of a Jarosch Bakery coffee cake, because those come straight from Heaven and one does not pass that up when a vendor drops it off at work.   Kept everything else super chill food wise.  Even tracked calories yesterday and today.     Played guitar for about 30 minutes and had SUCH a good session with it! Felt great.     Played some games, and winding down with some VtM streams and maybe some more games, or game prep.  Haven't decided yet lol.

8 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I love the sunset pic!

6 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Puck those paintings are amazing. I'm super impressed.

Thanks guys!  I realized, only just now, I could count that as two days of arting!  Hah!

Today's Go...

I dragged my butt back and did the work out.  I didn't enjoy it.  I will continue to do this for the week and gauge if it's just the 'object out of motion stays out of motion' moops.   That combined with that 'wow, it's all so hard again because you stopped for months'.   Right now I am going into the workouts, pre--resentful.  Presentful?  Hmm, doesn't work as a combo word.  Anyway.   I need to give it a few times to get over the 'tantrum' part of it.  If I don't start perking up with it, I need to find other options for the exercise.    Food was fine.  No music today.   It was SO cloudy and dreary all day.  It was a low key day.   Tomorrow we'll see how things feel.  Early to bed tonight.

I love all these smart goals.

And man you are gonna have so much fun!!!

Man this is all so exciting.

Also, I am taking notes.... for my eventual day!

Sounds like you guys are tackling it all really well though!

I love all of these goals!

And all of these gifs.

And all of these plans!

And the guy who wrote them up!!

Inktober!  I am planning to use that to spring board my art side back into existence!!!

13 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I think it was still mentioned in bumpers but I remember 321 contact.

That was slightly before me. 

Electric Company...

Wait, was that the one with : There's No Gnews, like Good Gnews, with Gary Gnus!

Wait no.  Just looked it up!!!    That was The Great Space Coaster, which was one of my faves!

Good to see good things happening in her Tank!   And all this Nostalgia, it's like your thread because an episode of Stranger Things, where the plot is entirely happening, but we're all just like OMG!  WALKMANS!    RADIO SHACKS!