Artemis

It's been a good week. Lots of school work, lots of progress. Challenge update coming tomorrow, but for now.... bed. Also, horseback riding started today. We didn't get to do any actual riding; just tacked up and then took everything off again. Real riding next week. Obligatory kind-of-related gif:

Four weeks does seem to be more managable, and the shorter break between challenges should be nice. Yeah! This is the best kind of progress

The crockpot is mostly so that I can cook in bulk and don't have to actively monitor the process. I'm planning to store up a bunch of frozen meals to toss in the crockpot when I have time. Backup meals are a must, though I don't have a definitive plan for those yet. Horseback riding is an elective class. The University coordinates the lessons through the local stables for the same price as lessons directly through the stables. Going throigh the university was easier for me since I don't have transport if I'm on my own. I've been on a horse before and took a few lessons/attended camp when I was younger. It's been awhile though, so I'm starting with the begginer class to build the groundwork again. We start this Friday and meet once a week for 10 weeks. The Whole 30 will be tough, but I'm betting it will be worth it. I'm nearly ready to start. I still have to come up with a plan for eating in the dining hall and figure out my portable lunches. Thanks for the recipes! I'm going to dig through those tonight and pick a few to prep this weekend. It's one of the only images I could find that was Galavant/food related. It's scary and yet really hilarious in context.

Me too...

It's been a fairly slow weekend. To be honest, I was mostly sleeping to recover from the lack of sleep throughout the week. I did get my groceries in and did some cooking yesterday. I made two batches of the crockpot paleo chili I love; one to make for this week, and one to freeze for later. That breaks down to 6 whole 30 meals a batch, so it was a fairly productive cooking day. I also have other groceries stashed away that are whole 30 compliant. I don't have an official start date yet, but I'm gearing up for 30 days of really clean eating. If anyone has whole 30 crockpot recipes/freezer prep meal ideas, I'd love to hear about them. The goal of my upcoming Whole 30 is to defeat these urges:

I love this! Your place of work sounds interesting, though it wouldn't be my ideal place to go to school. I like technology too much.

I've got The First Law in paperback back home, but since I can't take it with me to college I may have to pick up an audio copy and give it a try. I actually just finished the Alloy of Law in audio and am going to stash away a few more credits to pick up the Mistborn trilogy. I've read them before, but having an audio copy for 'rereading' on the bus would be nice.

This works especially well for the classics since the kindle books are often free and then the audiobooks are either close to free, or 100% free.

I hope things are going well and that the soreness is wearing off. Have you managed to grab a new copy of The Way of Kings? I just finished an audio copy of Alloy of Law and am going to try to get Shadows of Self finished next so that I can read the new one. So much Sanderson. So much awesome.

Thanks! Advice/recipies would be greatly appreciated. I'm planning to order some groceries tomorrow, though I probably won't commit to a Whole 30 until next weekend or so. Going into one without enough planning seems like a terrible idea... The first week of the semester is over (and I'm still alive)!!! I've got a fairly low key weekend as far as homework goes, so I'm going to start on some of those mini goals. Top of the list is unpacking, ordering groceries, and cleaning the apartment. It's snowing full blast here which means outside activity is somewhat limied, but I'm going to try to get to the gym this weekend for a bit of biking in addition to some of my other workouts.

Yep! Lots of thinking over the last week and things are definitely going to be changing as a result. The second season is hilarious so far! I tried to respond to this the other day, but then Disney + packing + flying back to school happened and free time disappeared. Anyways, I'm finally posting and I'm going to commit to posting at least every other day from here on out. Things are good now, though it was a rough week. More an emotional roller coaster than anything else. I had been experiencing that feeling of helplessness quite often at school and wasn't really expecting to encounter that over break. It was very frustrating and led to quite a bit of thinking, which led to a deeper level of contemplation and eventually the idea tired to do much else and I don't feel I've made much progress towards what I wanted when I entered college. Feeling like I don't have a direction to my life sucks and feeling as though I have been unintentionally deviating from my desired path for the last two years is even worse. I've distracted myself/found happiness in other activities (I.e. Costuming) and it's helped alleviate the frustration. However, this was only a temporary emotional fix and in reality was only compounding the problem. While I was having fun and alleviating the stress that school causes I still wasn't spending time on my goals. Over break I was doing things I should do, and enjoy doing, but I wasn't making progress on the things that need to be done. I've come to the distressing realization that I have been doing this for quite some time. I need to refocus my life on the things that I really want to achieve, stop being terrified, and just do it. I had a similar fitness-related realization a few months ago, and while progress has been slow and scattered, I have made progress because I am committed to doing so. It's not quick, but it's happening. It's time to take similar steps in the rest of my life. This probably means the next challenge will be more focused on fixing some of these issues and less focused on fitness. I'm thinking of starting a Whole 30 in a week or two and making that the largest/only graded fitness aspect of the next challenge. Here we go with the current 2016 Large Goals List:-start a small business (even if I only sell 1 thing. Do SOMETHING). Plan in progress-Lose 30 pounds by June 1st, 2016 (vacation is coming, and I shall be ready)-Obtain a summer internship-Find Friends in college - I don't have many real friends at my university and this is my fault. I'm not great at reaching out to people and find making new friends difficult. Plan of attack - get more involved (currently registered for at least one fun class and horseback riding). Explore fitting the fencing club, or something similar, into my schedule this semester. Immediate mini-goal list:-Clean my apartment-unpack-organize textbooks-finalize schedule/classes-build master calendar-finalize resume-Submit ALL the internship applications-Optimize room (posters, organize power strips, etc.). Do the things that make a place feel like home. I never did this last semester and I don't think it really helped my emotional state. Costume:I'm putting this in a sort of limbo for now as I haven't made as much progress as I was hoping, and I need to refocus my life. The current plan is to finish some of the parts that won't be affected by weight loss later this semester, and then to finish the costume over the summer. Since TFA is out, there's no rush and I want to do this properly and remain unstressed. Parts list for this semester:-Helmet-Gauntlets-Boot armor-Shoulders-Belt rig/holsters-Weapons Fitness: Things are going well, I've been hitting most of my goals (missed one workout both weeks), but have some room to step it up. The bokken didn't fit in my luggage, so I brought my escrima sticks. They don't have the weight or length of the bokken, but they'll work. As to why I have a small weapons collection, I did karate when I was younger. It's been a few years, but I kept most of my gear and it's turning out to be useful. I am going to go be heroic now!

Day 4 (yesterday) Fitness - no workouts Food/caffeine tracking - Done. Food choices still need improvement, but I only had a small bit of caffeine. Day 5 Fitness - More bokken work planned for later this evening, I'll update tomorrow with whether I followed through or not. Food/caffeine tracking - done The last couple of days have been relatively unproductive outside of catching up with friends. I've been trying very hard to get things done and yet I feel as though I'm achieving very little. Kind of like this: It's probably just in my head, however it's still very frustrating. I think part of the problem is that I've been spending quite a bit of time visiting with people, attending appointments, and doing things of that nature. That's great and everything (and it's stuff I need to do), but I'm not making much progress on my other to do lists and I think it's making me feel unproductive. I'll see how tomorrow goes before I start moving my schedule around.

I don't know about staying asleep, but to help get to sleep I actually have a sleep playlist on my phone. It's about 30 minutes long and is composed of pieces that are kind of hypnotically relaxing (Music of the Night is one of them). Orchestral pieces work as well. The key is to have songs that you're familiar enough with that your brain doesn't have to actively focus on the lyrics or movement of the piece, instead it just becomes background noise that kind of lulls you to sleep. I don't know if this would help you at all, I just know that it's ridiculously effective on me.

Here, have some dragons (and feel better!)

I still have to get my hands on Alloy of Law and the most recent Mistborn book but I've read most of his other novels. With luck, the local used bookstore will have at least one of those. I promise no spoilers! I can restrain myself.

Today was great as far as activities goes. I had breakfast with one friend, and then met up with another friend in the afternoon. The two of us went out to lunch, saw TFA (again), and then played a few rounds of pool back at my house. While I'm very happy to visit with everyone, my food choices definitely suffered as a result and I'm going to have to develop 'battle plans' for eating out with friends. For anyone who hasn't seen Star Wars, or who has only seen it once, it is 1000% better the second viewing (and it was already good the first time). Go SEE it. Day 3 Fitness - I dug out my bokken for one of Darebee's Samurai katana workouts. I've done the same workout the last few times and am definitely improving in speed and economy of movement. This probably means that it is time to change it up a bit and add another katana workout to my repertoire. Food/caffeine tracking - Done. Terrible food choices. Less caffeine than yesterday.

Galavant! Season 2 is pretty great so far. Injuries/limitations definitely suck when there's nothing you can do about it. Hopefully, everything will settle down and you can get back to all your normal routines. At this point, I doubt I'll be cleared for weightlifting until after surgery. Not happy about it, but it is what it is. No point whining, I just have to learn my way around the new rules. Nice gifs!

Congrats! It's great when other people start to realize that you're changing. Sometimes other people see more clearly than we do.

As you have all noted, body image is something that is always skewed. The mannequin/body image thing was 100% an accidental discovery, but one that I'm really happy about. Projects... There are always too many of them. Theoretically the dummy will make things go a bit faster (cross-fingers)Day 2 I didn't accomplish much today except leisure time with friends. Fitness: Nothing. A workout WILL happen tomorrow. Food/caffeine tracking: done -sent via iPad: apologies for any typos

This is a great challenge (and I love the armor goals). Food tracking is rough, and I don't even look at calories as much as food choices. It'll get better though, and it's a great way to hold yourself accountable.

Hammers, bikes, and mayhem! This is going to be fun! Drawings = added bonus

Oh. Wow. You have the best theme! Huzzah for Bridge 4! The Stormlight Archive (and all of Sanderson's other books) are ridiculously addictive. Who doesn't want a suit of Sharplate, or to be a Knight Radiant? This challenge is going to be epic!

All the gifs!! I'm having fun finding them, we'll see if I can keep it up. Good luck with hunting down a copy of the show, I'd love to hear what you think if you manage to track it down. I'll do my best to keep it entertaining. Day 1: Fitness: Nope; will do a workout tomorrow. Food Tracking - Complete Caffeine - Logged Costuming - More leatherworking and fitting. I also talked my family into helping me build a packing tape dress form to use for vest making. I think this will help speed things up a bit with the armor making and simplify the process. Fitness related side bonus: it's remarkably easier to be analytical about body shape when it's not you in the mirror. The mannequin is me, but at the same time it isn't. In short, I'm pleasantly surprised by my current physique. While I have a long way to go, I've made a lot more progress then I thought I had. It might be fun to do another dress form in 6 months and put them next to each other.

If I can manage it, all of the gifs/memes/pics for this challenge will be from Galavant. Challenge finalization is coming tonight! I am having entirely too much fun finding these gifs...

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron is a dark medieval fantasy that is quite good and the next two books in the series are equally well written (series is currently incomplete). The novels take place in an earth-like world with similar themes (religions, etc), but more magic. Michael J. Sullivan's Ryiria Revelations Trilogy is also great fun, and a lot more lighthearted than The Red Knight. These novels are set in a more fantastical world where elves and dwarves exist. Tamora Pierce's novels generally fit your requirements, just know that they're written for more of a YA audience.