s.h.e.amalgam

I will not let others drag me down and tear me from my path, no matter how dear they are to me. Had some problems the last few days. The good news is I'm here posting this, and my determination has begun to speak louder than my self-depreciation.

Day Six: Mental recovery from the weeks insanity not yet complete. Will post when capable of completing sentences.

I do a little bit of everything that I can get my hands on. I've never really settled on any one (or even a handful of) medium/s that are my favorite. Right now I primarily knit, plan, and dream. (I'm in the process of making a home on very little funds and I don't even have a desk for myself yet so most of my hobbies are in the write-it-down-so-I'll-remember-it-when-I-have-what-need-to-do-it stage) If I had to list the top five things I was most likely to be caught doing if time and money were not concerns they'd probably be: (in no particular order) Knitting Building (and/or painting of staining/finishing) something (I am building all the furniture we need but don't have, bookshelves and a desk are first on my list) Photographing things Painting Any number of random sentimental/decor projects I am a very "functional art" kind of person (which is one reason I had so much trouble in art school) and I love to create things that are specifically designed for the end user, whether that means physical design or sentimental design. I would much rather have artwork hanging on my wall that I love because they mean something to me than because they were pretty and/or expensive. When I do projects for others I love to get them involved in the process and really create an end product that is theirs and could not have been made for anyone else. Because of that mindset I tend to always be looking at things and either mentally figuring out how I could create the same thing on my own, but with this or that tweak to make it perfect, or filing it away in the back of my mind to learn how to do eventually. I think it's this aspect that will keep me from ever settling down artistically.

Nerdmal: Awesome start. Really. I've found that after a week or two of trying to work on my starting goals there's one or two things I need to revisit and possibly modify (sleep schedules and Angry Birds!). Whether that's normal, or just because I'm new to this whole actively attempting to change my life thing I'm not sure, but I don't think it's something to get discouraged about. Even what we think is the little stuff may have things that are hiding underneath that need addressed first. I've already had to scale back from things like "Go full Paleo" to "Focus on elimintating grains and finding enjoyable ways to eat more veggies" and "Design a strength/cardio routine for the week and start it tomorrow" to "Make the Angry Birds workout a MWF habit." You can probably tell, but the problem with the original goals was that they were far too vague and often left me collecting underpants (over-analyzing) rather than actually doing anything, and they were far too complex and huge to have actually been first steps for me. I don't know if that was more a response to your post, or just me sharing what little I've learned over the past few weeks. Either way, the point is that you have made a good start! Athena: Thanks for letting me know that anyone could edit the spreadsheet, I wasn't sure. Also, I have a question. I know there are the 6-week challenges, and that they usually have a 2-week or so rest period in between. It also seems like most people's "challenge thread" is the one relating to the current 6-week challenge. Since I joined a little more than halfway through the current I challenge I've opted to sit this one out and get my feet under me before I do a "real challenge." So, instead of creating a challenge thread in the Adventurer's guild, I've been using my daily battle log to record my stats, goals, and progress. I guess my question is basically, am I doing it right? I know that when I join the next 6-week challenge I'll need to create a challenge thread in the Adventurer's guild, but until then is there another way I'm supposed to be doing this?

Day Five: More craziness. More failure. One big win! But, it's even later tonight than it was last night, so I will try to update this in the morning. For now, I must sleep.

Sylvanas: Kale chips are so simple, there are a few tricks though. You want fresh, crisp, curly kale. Floppy, or flat kale doesn't seem to crisp as well. You'll want to wash it definitely, but it has to be bone dry again before you move on to the next step. If you have a salad spinner: wash the kale and tear it into bite sized pieces (If you peel the leaves back you'll start to notice natural break points that work quite well) then spin, spin, spin until everything is completely dry. If you don't have a salad spinner: follow same procedure as above, but once the kale is washed and torn up lay pieces out on a clean (non-lint-y) towel or paper towels and then wait, wait, wait for them to dry finally. Once the kale chips are completely dry dump them into a mixing bowl, or container of some kind that has plenty of room to toss the kale around in. Drizzle a tbsp or so olive oil over the top and then toss with your hands, coating the kale completely with olive oil. (I found that I still needed to spread olive oil around on individual leaves as I moved on to the next part.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper so the chips won't stick to anything (they're too fragile at the end to survive being stuck) and lay out the oil covered kale in such a way that the leaves lay flat (or mostly so) instead of folding over themselves. Put the baking sheet and kale into a pre-heated (350 degree) oven and let them bake for about 10 minutes. (All ovens are different so the trick here is to check them after about eight minutes and if the edges are beginning to turn brown go ahead and take them out. There's a fine line between done and charred with these things) Immediately after they come out of the oven season them with whatever seasonings you want. (I just used salt.) Also, I found that mine were better after a day or so, I had just left them in an open bowl on the counter but they had completely dried/crisped up and the flavor had mellowed a bit the second day. Wow, that was longer than I meant it to be, it is simple I promise, I just wanted to share all the tricks I had to look up since every single one of them really is the difference between so-so or ruined kale chips and a recipe I actually got right on the first try.

I was thinking, maybe this weekend when I don't have quite as much craziness going on, I'd like to figure out how to use the spreadsheet they have for the accountibilibuddies groups and see about adding us to...if I'm allowed to do that. Also, what do you guys think about posting a link to the threads that contain each of our current goals up in the first post? It would allow us all to have easy access to each other's goals and wouldn't take up that much space or upkeep time. Let me know what you think. Today got knocked out by another migraine (and a particularly painful ECG) so still no Angry Birds. I'm debating whether to keep trying of refocus on my stretching and put the former on a backburner for a while. We had spaghetti tonight, but that's mostly just to get the stuff eaten. Oh, I almost forgot. I had a spectacular surprise this morning; I've been trying to cut back on getting on the scale every morning so it had been a few days, but I gave in and checked my weight this morning. 199.5! It's the first time that first number hasn't been a two in more than three years, and absolutely thrills me. I've been losing bits and pieces off and on since last April but my highest weight was about 218 and my lowest was 202. I had a problem with it fluctuating wildly between those extremes, and could never seem to break through the 200lb barrier. I am intensely pleased with this first small, but for me, truly significant win. Best wishes! See you tomorrow.

Welcome to the bunch!

Day Four: Gods, I feel like a cat. Specifically the "I'm going to run around (and into walls) like my tail is on fire and then pass out cold on the floor until I wake up and do it all over again," aspect of cats. Neither I nor my husband managed to eat until almost 4pm today, thanks to another crazy day. I should have been in bed an hour ago, but I'm only just now getting to spend my daily NF time (which I promise is worth more to me right now than the half hour of sleep I could have had). This only having one car thing is really starting to become tiresome, and extremely time consuming. I just can't stand spending the entire day in the car when I had things I needed to do around the house. I don't know what I'd do if I were working...probably implode. Anyway, tomorrow marks my second attempt to get the Angry Birds workout off the ground. Assuming I can find the time to do it before I'm so exhausted that there's no point. I think one of my near future goals is going to need to be to figure out a real sleep schedule that will allow me to go to bed early enough that I can get up early enough to get things like breakfast and workouts out of the way before my day blows up in my face instead of trying to work it into the middle. I also made another step towards starting my walk to Mordor. I got the chance to talk to my physical therapist about it, and now have stretches both for my shoulders (so tight I lose whole days to tension migraines) and for my calves. That last is the important one, they're so tight right now that I can't walk more than a quarter mile without my legs hurting so badly I have to rest for 10-15 mins before I can even limp back to the car. Oh, and I made another baby step towards Paleo! No more pitas with my salad for lunch. I found a great salad base (lettuce of choice, tuna or salmon, and hard boiled eggs) that I can put whatever I want on top of and it's wonderful! Even my veggie hating husband was thrilled when I told him I was making salad for lunch! I've been working my way into Paleo for about two weeks now. I haven't seen any physical changes yet. For now though, I'm happy with little things like; having a gallon of chocolate peanut butter ice cream that's been sitting in my freezer for almost two months and I don't want any, or that two and a half weeks ago I was complaining that I couldn't figure out how to do lunch because there was no way that "eating like a rabbit" was going to cut it, (it's amazing what the addition of a protein will do for a salad) or that my husband has said "mmm" to things like kale, (raw and chips) mashed sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and salad. These are my wins for the moment. Even if the scale/my measurements aren't going anywhere yet I can still tell that I am successfully creating a healthier lifestyle for my household. That's plenty of win for me right now. Goodnight, and good luck to me tomorrow!

Hi, djnorris, welcome to the bunch! Sylvanas, I'll see you over there!

This is definitely awesome. I've been running around like a crazed squirrel the last couple of days. My husband and I only have one car, so I spend a large part of my day right now driving him back and forth (he has a crazy weird work schedule) and driving myself back and forth to physical therapy appointments, grocery shopping, errand running, etc. It's kind of insane. Neither of us even managed to eat until almost 4pm today because of the craziness. I am doing okay goals-wise though. I'm down to salads for lunch, (red leaf lettuce, tuna fish, hard boiled eggs, cranberries and slivered almonds with a homemade apple cider vinegarette today) and I've even stepped down from stuffing them in pitas. Almost out of grains in the house, too. Tomorrow I try again at getting an initial assessment on the Angry Birds workout. I'll be using a bookbag filled with D&D books for bent over rows since I haven't figure any other way to do a "pulling" exercise (and believe me I tried!). I'm hoping that by the time that method runs out of steam I'll be confident enough in myself to be able to go down to the track and use the equipment there. I'm writing a slightly longer version of everything over on my daily battle log (http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/topic/23676-rats-rats-rats-also-starting-stats/) if anyone's interested. It's also acting as my "character sheet" and kind of an on-going challenge log that's not related to 6-week challenges, though I will definitely be participating in the next one of those. I've wondering if there were a way for us to all post our current goals/progress made toward them and be able to keep it at the top of the thread... I don't know. I will probably spend some time thinking about it/trying to figure it out the next time I get to sit down for more than ten minutes at a stretch. I do think it would be a good idea to have some way to easily view everyone's goals. (I'm not a big fan of digging through threads.) Anyway, I've got to run again, I'm almost out of time for getting a decent night's rest. I'll be back tomorrow! Good luck, everyone, and it's sooooo incredibly awesome to see all of you!

Thanks again for all the info.