obax

It's actually less about the bad decision and more about the 'not drippy' aspect. I'm a spiller, and I wouldn't take me seriously if I had mustard all over my uniform, so I don't expect anyone else would either. McDonald's and Tim Hortons have the least spilly options I can find. I don't particularly want to choose either, I just have yet to discover an alternative that is both healthier and not spilly and able to be eaten while driving (that's takeout, I can do this with my own food fairly easily). When I have the option to sit and eat, even when I'm out on the road, I do choose healthier options, but the healthy hand-held and not spilly all together is a white whale I have yet to conquer... It's days when I either haven't eaten all day or end up doing overtime. The former is a problem because I don't want to stuff a giant meal into myself right before the gym but a snack won't cut it, and also hangry=low mood=low motivation=giving up and trying again tomorrow. The latter is a problem because if I have to do overtime it's usually for something complex and/or disgusting and it inevitably makes me cranky and/or exhausted mentally, so I just say f-it and go home to the couch even if I still make it home in time for the later class. The solution to the former is goal #2. I'm not sure there is a solution to the latter other than willpower/better habits, even if my stuff is already in my car I still have to come home and take off my uniform (I wear a kevlar vest and duty belt, I don't even fit in my personal car wearing it all, and I'm not supposed to use my work vehicle for personal stuff outside of work hours). Add to that general, all around sleep deprivation during the week, and my willpower isn't at a peak at the best of times... That said, the occasional cancelling due to an especially hard day is fine with me, life happens and I don't always have enough spoons, but when it's both, multiple times a week, I need to make a change. I've thought of this, and have tried it in the past, but I find grazing through the day just makes me low-key hungry all the time, and even if it's calorie dense stuff like nuts and jerky, if I'm properly hungry and eat a meal's worth of calories with that stuff I'm still hungry after and just eat more. I really do best when I can eat discrete meals of whole-ish foods. That said, it might be worth another try, especially if I can add in more fresh fruit and such. It's not really a new habit, I've been working on this for around a year now. I'm more just trying to find better consistency and, like so many things in my life, not give into the excuses so easily. I naturally have an all-or-nothing mindset, so if I can't sit down and do my best work and be totally dialed in and produce a significant amount of progress, I feel like it's not worth it. This is a mindset I struggle with in a lot of things, this is just one more added to the list. An hour a day might be a better goal, but I also know myself well enough to know that some days are just not writing days, so I'm trying a cumulative amount in a week to give myself more flexibility but still a target. And really, 5 hours is nothing when I'm writing. The comment about the 10hr before coming up for air is true, I sat down and turned on my 10hr Skyrim music loop and the next time I even broke my focus was when the loop ended and I was wondering why a different song was playing. I had no idea so much time had passed, and it wasn't until I looked up that I even realized I was hungry or had to pee so badly. Even when I'm only sort of into it, an hour goes by and it feels like half, I can easily go until 3am if I'm not careful and then wonder why I'm so tired...

The alarm and putting it where you'll be was my suggestion. The medication I take at night is just in a jar, so I can make as many little jars to spread around as needed if I'm going to be in different places, but I'm assuming the BC is in a blister pack and that won't work. One thing I could add is, if I'm, say, out for drinks or something and forgot to bring any pills along with me, I'll schedule a text to myself for a later time when I think I'll be home. Even if I'm not quite home when the text comes, I'll see the notification and get reminded that way. I do this to remind myself of all sorts of things and it works great, but I'm not sure if all phones have that function. The other method I use is to associate it with something I do every day at approximately the same time. For my birth control in particular I keep it on top of the coffee container so I have no choice but to take the box out when I make coffee, and take the pill while the kettle boils. The exact time varies a bit, I'm up quite a bit earlier on workdays than weekends, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for me, but YYMV. Regardless, good luck! Habit forming can be a tough one, especially when you're trying to change an existing habit!

Think of your 15lb KB workout as one data point in the ongoing experiment that is life. 15 was easy, now you know. It wasn't a waste of time, it was information gathering. Now you have better information and can make changes as needed. Sometimes I get ambitious with my weights at the gym, but I always like to have an emergency dumbbell or kettlebell near by if I get overly ambitious. Start heavy and if it's too much, take a step down part way through. Eventually what's too heavy won't be any more and you'll have to find something heavier to swing around.

Made it to the gym again today. More deloading, and honestly I think that's where I need to be right now. I'm not a fan of push press, I prefer strict press, but that's what we're working on. I don't really have numbers for push press so I just made it feel right and did that. The WOD kicked my ass, I did the fitness version this time, and even then still had to scale down a bit. It was almost all movements I'm very slow at so I was not surprised, but as the coach says, fitness was had and that's what matters, so it's all good. I just died a little, is all... Workday lunch was McDonalds. I planned for an office day and was just starting to think what I wanted to make for lunch (I work from home) when a priority call came in and I had to leave the house. It had the potential to be a long one so I got food on the way, then got 3 more priority calls and ended up being out all night, so getting food was the right choice, I just didn't choose the best food. I'm not even sure having stuff in my fridge would have mitigated this, I had to get out the door fairly quickly and I don't know if I would've taken the time to throw together a lunch. I don't mind the occasional McDonalds in these sorts of situations as long as I'm otherwise eating stuff from home, it was just bad timing. I ended up doing a bit of writing last night after all. I counted 20 minutes towards my goal. I read over what I wrote the other day and it was actually better than I thought it was at the time. I didn't do any major revision but I made myself a whole tonne of notes in the margin (I'm so happy I discovered that function!) for when I do sit down to revise, and wrote a bit more past where I stopped. Might have another look at it tonight but I'm not feeling all that focused, so I might just continue where I left off with the most recent Critical Role episode and do a little brainstorming/daydreaming once I'm in bed instead.

Are you open to suggestions for methods that might help with the timing? I take birth control and haven't missed a pill in a very long time, and also take a sleep related medication at the same time every evening. I'm terrible at forming new habits but I've found some things that have worked for me, if you're interested.

Oh. That makes perfect sense, and is probably what I would've guessed if I'd thought about it. Just never seen a shaved horse before, but first time for everything!

Question, because I know nothing about horses and am curious: why shave your horse like that? I've never seen it before, though I'm hardly widely experienced in the world of horses so maybe it's common and I just know nothing. Also, love the painting!

I'm excited for the dark christmas carols. (This is the first time in a very long time I've used the words 'excited for' and 'christmas' in the same sentence (without the word 'not'). Are minor keys the secret to christmas cheer??)

The other thing to remember about a C25K program, or any program, really, is, unless you're on a time crunch, it's ok to repeat a week. Not sure how that'd work with your app, but there's nothing wrong with redoing a week, or even a couple workouts, if the next week/workout seems too much. As a former runner and current couch potato, 5 min walk + 5 min run sounds like a lot to begin with. I'm not sure I could run for 5 min without a break right now...

Update on other goals: I did get takeout for lunch, but I chose something healthy-ish and brought it home with me to eat as I did paperwork. Not really an improvement, habit-wise, since I spent most of my day hungry (and hangry), but an improvement nutrition-wise. Unlikely any writing will get done today, but I did get some good brainstorming/daydreaming done while driving around today.

Is it zero week? I don't even know what the dates of this challenge are... Gym today was accomplished. I'm in a crappy mood and it did not improve it, but at least I went. It's deload week so it wasn't overly taxing, which is probably a good thing since I've been so inconsistent lately. It did feel good while I was there and I decided last minute to go for the full WOD instead of the easier fitness version, and was able to complete it before the timecap, so yay? Not sure about the other two goals. I don't really have much in the way of portable lunch food at the moment. I'm working afternoons this week, which throws my whole routine (such as it is) off, and I chose laziness instead of the grocery store after the gym this morning. I can always have another PB sandwich and an apple, I guess... Writing may or may not happen today. I'm pretty tired and mopey and that's not always the best mindset for sitting down and getting some work done. But it's per week, not per day, this just might end up being a week where I cram it in on the weekend...

Nice and simple. I've been on again-off again (mostly off) with these challenges for a while but have been thinking through some things and something's gotta change. So I thought I'd give it another go, for accountability if nothing else, see if it (re)sticks this time. 1. Healthy Body Go to the gym 3x/week. That's it. Just attend and do the class (I go to a crossfit gym). I've done crossfit before and really enjoyed it, but the cost became prohibitive, so I had to give it up. New(ish) job = new paycheque, and I re-signed up earlier in the year, and was doing really well for a few months. Lately, life + job stress has led to me sliding off the rails a bit by either not scheduling classes at all, or scheduling and cancelling when my day was hard. I'd like this to not become a habit (or more of one than it's already become), partly because 3x/week is what I'm paying for, partly because it's not really that big a time commitment and I legitimately enjoy it, and partly because I feel better when I'm moving/lifting more regularly. 2. Healthy Eating This is a bit more nebulous, but I've gotten very off track w/ my eating habits. Some days I forget to eat. Some days I remember but can't be bothered. Some days I choose unhealthy fast food/takeout while on the go for work. Most days I get takeout of various healthiness for dinner, or don't eat dinner at all. I've mostly identified the problem as a lack of will to shop for groceries/meal prep mid-week, which has slowly expanded to a lack of will for the same on weekends. If I have healthy food I will eat it, the hard part is procuring/making (with an added wrench that I eat on the go when I'm on work so food needs to be hand-held and not drippy). Right now I'm starting small, focusing only on my workday lunches: Monday-Friday I need to take my lunch with me and prepare it at home from food purchased from the grocery store, not from Tim Hortons or McDonalds. I've been doing better with homemade dinners lately, so I'm less concerned right now about this, but as a bonus goal I'd like to prepare 2 separate soup/stew options for freezing. 3. Healthy Mind My current main creative outlet is writing (it feels pretentious to put it this way, but I'm writing a book!) When I started I was very hyper-focused on it, to the detriment of much of the rest of my life (and if I'm honest, this was probably a major contributing factor to some of my healthy eating derailing). I've gotten myself in a much more sustainable mindset with regards to time spent on this, but am feeling like the trade off for sustainability is lack of progress. I often tell myself that I don't have the time or energy because I can't commit to sitting down and writing for 10hr straight without coming up for air (yes, that happened, and it was glorious, but not at all doable on the daily), and then don't touch a keyboard for days/weeks. It might be true to a certain extent but writing is a practice like anything else and not everything I produce at all times needs to be capable of winning a Pulitzer. So I'd like to commit to at least 5 hours/week to spend writing something. I've got my main WIP, a side project, ongoing revisions of both (I revise as I go, which is less than efficient but I don't care), and several sources for writing prompts. As long as I'm spending this time focused on one of these things, it counts. Actual writing is fine, worldbuilding is fine, brainstorming is fine, revising is fine, noodling is fine. Minor edits and staring into space daydreaming is not fine (or rather, they're both fine but don't count towards the 5hr). 5x 1h or 1x5hr, it doesn't matter, and if I have the time and the energy for a marathon session on a day off, 5 is just the minimum. And that's it!

Just a regular 2-day weekend, which is not enough. It's not enough for a regular 5 day week, for that matter... There's some talk of a 4 on-4 off schedule coming into being, but I think its some way off. I know a lot of people would be very happy with such a thing, but I also think they need to hire a bunch more people to make it work.

Week ?? Update Well, it didn't take me long to drift away from the challenge... Overall, my eating's been better, though still not great. I do ok when I have food in the fridge but I'm having trouble finding motivation for the mid-week grocery shop to keep it stocked all week long. I've been making a point of at least getting something to eat while I'm on the road, though, and not going through the whole day with no food. It might just be a bagel at 10am and nothing 'til dinner, but that's still better than nothing at all. Bedtimes have actually been not bad, more or less. Not perfect by any means, but better than they have been in the past. And it does seem to make a bit if a difference to my energy levels, I'm still tired all the time and just want to lay on the couch, but I'm less tired all the time and can sometimes get myself off the couch. Exercise isn't going great, I'm continuing to wimp out about the cold. If my sister asks if I want to go for a walk I've been saying yes but she doesn't like the cold either so that's not happening often, and I'm not taking the initiative to ask her. The barbell is still out but has not moved. Some of this is habit, I've gotten in the habit of coming home from work and settling in on the couch and that's it for the night, and I'm terrible at making new habits, especially ones I'm not overly enthusiastic about (some of my all-or-nothing mindset coming through, it'd be a half-assed workout with an empty barbell so it seems not worth doing). Some of it is just sheer laziness, I'll notice the barbell sitting there, or have the thought that I should get dressed and do something active, and then just snuggle in even more to my blankets. A long ongoing problem for me, I'm not holding my breath that I'll suddenly find a solution to it, and that's probably part of the problem too... Been picking away at my writing, I've felt a bit unfocused with it and am not producing the quality I'd like to be, but that's part of the process, and there are nuggets within the crap that will eventually result in something good, I think. I'd love to have more time/energy for this, but it really is a weekend only type thing, I'll for sure get carried away if I try to get bits done during the week, not to mention the only time I feel semi-well rested is Sundays. Is what it is, such is the life of a adult human being...

Week 2 ~ Tuesday ~ Thursday Guys, 7 days in a row is such a long time to work....... I really don't like my long weeks........ Eating has been better, though I'm not always making the best choices, I am eating more and more regularly. It's been hit or miss with the 'made by me' aspect, I keep forgetting/choosing not to go get more lunch meat. Got 1 walk in but I'm being lazy and also a wimp about the cold. Bedtimes haven't been the best, mostly because of Critical Role, in one episode a thing happened and I HAD to start the next episode to find out how that went, and then I just started one later than usual and HAD to watch until the end...

I am, and it has. I'm a winter person, but seem to have become somewhat more of a wimp in the last little while, I'm normally quite happy to get out in the frigid wastes of a Canadian winter, but not so much this time 'round. That said, if I'd bundled up and gotten out there I probably would have enjoyed it, I love a good cold sunny day. I'm pretty sure that's how it works......? Not eating isn't normally a problem for me either, or at least not to this extent. I've always eaten at weird times because I'm not hungry in the mornings and often wait until 11 or later to have 'breakfast', but would always eat 3 meals through the day. I have forgotten to eat on occasion in the past, usually when I'm really into a video game or something, but rarely made it past 2 when my stomach would force me to take a break from whatever I was doing, but never this regularly, nor this purposefully (meaning I've been making conscious decisions to stay on the couch or drive by the Timmys instead of making the effort or taking the time to procure food). Lots of ideas on my book (it feels a bit pretentious to refer to it as a book, like 'I'm writing a book!', but in theory it'd be a novel-length idea, so I guess it is a book?) but it's going to take some time to get the next part organized in my head, it's getting much more complicated. I might actually have to *gasp* plan things out ahead of time! Normally I just wing it and it more or less works out, but I'm getting to the point where it's a lot of details to keep in my head all at once.

whoops, I apparent forgot how to forum and posted twice

I only know the first 2. I know all the words to I'se the By thanks to Great Big Sea, and have been singing Land of the Silver Birch since I was a kid (I might actually know all the words to that too, if I think hard enough, it was one of my favourites). That's it, though, but I've never been all that great at being a Canadian (I don't especially like maple syrup and I rarely apologize...) Edit: Lies! I know the Paddle song too, or at least I've heard it before, but didn't remember until I actually listened to it. I feel like we sang songs like that in elementary school at some point, I'm going to assume when we were learning Canadian history type stuff in Grade 3 where we learned about Indigenous peoples and pioneers. Is it weird that I have a very distinct memory from then of making log cabins out of popcicle sticks and mini milk cartons? Mine was a chocolate milk carton that I drank myself during pizza day then rinsed out for the cabin. I do not remember what the end result looked like, but I'm going to assume it probably looked like an 8 year old's version of a model log cabin. Edit 2: this got me thinking about my childhood and I remembered where I knew the Silver Birch and Paddle songs from! It didn't make sense that it was just from grade 3, and I don't remember my mom singing either in particular, but Fred Penner has a version where he combines the two and I'm certain I listened to it on the vinyl version of repeat when I was little. https://open.spotify.com/track/4K2CXvDR5hHKkVxpxdp83m?si=j-xaUk4zTiePxWLwCbvp0Q&utm_source=copy-link

Week 2 ~ Monday Ate 3 meals. 2 were takeout, 1 was made by me. I have soup prepared for my dinners, which I didn't really want, but I did want Indian food, so I got some. No moving, I'm heckin' tired and it's heckin' cold and I wimped out. Been thinking that I need an indoor alternative for when it's heckin' cold and I'm feeling wimpy, and that's easy enough to put something together, but my history of actually doing at home workout is so poor I hesitate to commit because it feels like I'm just setting myself up for failure. That said, not going out for a walk is also failure, so................ *shrug* Imma pull my barbell out of the corner and set it on the floor in front of my TV, that's one less hurdle for indoor workouts. Not holding my breath, but at least it's there and ready to be picked up. Bedtime was not good at all last night, I stayed up way too late reading. I knew I was making a poor choice while I was making it, and made it anyway.

Bit late to the game, but I'm following along for the rest, of course.

Got here rather late but I'm jumping in now!

Update ~ Sunday I ate 3 meals today, guys! And 2 were made by me! Not actually that hungry through most of the day but I made myself eat anyway. No movement, it was a grey and blah day out and I'm tired AF. Forgot to text my sister about what days to walk with her. To bed on time last night, and started to fall asleep fairly readily then popped awake just as I was drifting off (this has been happening frequently of late and it's very frustrating), then lay wide awake for some time. Not too many dreams, so once I did get to sleep it was ok-ish in quality.

Update ~ Friday and Saturday Welp. Not great. I did not eat properly (just plain forgot on Friday, when I was off, and had neither the time nor the patience for drive-through today and was in too much of a rush to get out the door to throw some stuff together). No moving. It's cold! And I'm being a wuss, I do like the cold, it's actually the dark that's the problem (it feels like hibernation time, not walking time). Will text my sister this weekend to try to pick some days next week we're both able to go directly after work when the sun's still up. Bedtime was not good Thursday night, I was very not tired. Was technically in bed on time Friday night but I continued to text with my friend until much later. I'm a bit on the sleepy side at the moment, so we'll see how it goes tonight.

In reference to story structure. I'm using the term a tad loosely, but it's a natural break in the story, and the next part will take place a few years after, potentially. And when I say I've 'completed' Act 1, that really means I'm already thinking of some ideas in the same timeframe that could/should be added, and also the document has reams of notes in the margins, and one chapter is straight up incomplete. So 'completed' is also being used loosely. But I got it to where I wanted to get it and now I'm taking a bit of a break for Mass Effect, but it's very much top of mind regardless.

Somehow I thought I was only a day late, but turns out time continues to have no meaning and I am several days late. It tracks, actually... Not much fancy going on. I've been in somewhat of a funk, not sure exactly what's going on but I feel like it's probably a combination of things including the roller coaster that is Covid combined with winter blues combined with some less than ideal habits. So this is gonna be real simple. 1 ~ Eat I have developed a habit of eating poorly of late, and by' eating poorly' I mean 'not eating at all'. On my days off I often forget to eat, and on work days I can't be bothered. I haven't been grocery shopping in I don't know how long and have maybe cooked 2 things in the last month. So, the goal is to eat at least 2 meals per day (plus a protein shake), and for a majority of my meals to be made by me (simple stuff like throwing some cheese and deli meat in bread counts as made by me, it doesn't all have to be from scratch). 2 ~ Sleep I've actually been not too bad at bedtimes lately, or at least less bad than usual (this post notwithstanding). It has been a bit up and down with the holidays and time off and such, but I need to keep this on my radar because it's easy for me to slip into bad habits. So, the goal is, bedtime of 10:30 on work nights and 11:30 on non-work nights. 3 ~ Move This is just to go for at least 3 walks/week. It will help if I make dates to go with my sister, who is also trying to walk more, because, if left to my own devices I probably won't, but if I've set a time/date, I will. And that is all, goal-wise. Some things I'm working on on the side: continuing to write (I've completed Act 1 and have grand ideas for Acts 2 & 3. Now we'll just see if I can pull it off). Mass Effect Legendary (I've finished 1 and have started 2). Build a pell (I got my hands on a mitre box so I can do it now, it's just a question of will I do it?)