Anamal

Right, so this challenge has kinda been all over the place, from pretty decent successes, to kinda random weeks, to weeks or weekends where I just decided that I didn't give any f--ks anymore. So I'm going to end this challenge today, do a week or so on my own, and maybe hop into the next one. I still have lots of goals going down! I'm just not sure that NF challenges are the right place (esp as I tend to forget to post here, and can't prioritize engaging with other members right now). Peace kids!

Mid-Week Check in! I've been doing ok, still pretty tired after a hard weekend, and it seems like Shark Week might be starting early, so I've been majorly suffering from cravings, sleepiness, cramps, and general lack of motivation. Oh and the desire to sleep. Did I mention the sleep? And the cravings? And the sleep? Clearly that's where my mind is at. But I did decide on something fun! I want to train for a fast 5k for the next few months and see what I can do. Typically I lean towards the slower and longer races (having run a 50k and marathon already in 2016 before I was injured). But now that I'm coming back from an injury that was a major setback I want to try something new. My goal for the next two years is to PR every race distance from the 5k to the 50k! Once I PR one I can move up. So we're looking at 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon, 20 mile, marathon, 50k. Should be fun! Current PR for the 5k is 28 minutes I believe. My goal would be sub 25mins (or just about 8min mile pace). I'm really excited to have something new to train for now that backpacking season is wrapping up. I downloaded a training plan today and I'll get started on Monday! Right here are the stats for the last two days: Tuesday - Running: 0 miles, rest day Macros: All Green Steps: 5,295 Strength: None, rest day Wednesday - Running: None, rest day. But got in a morning walk. I like to keep the habit of walking or running in the morning when at all possible. Macros: Green light (but not with good foods, this week has been a major struggle). Steps: 11,230 Strength: 1 of 3 complete, and first day on a new program. Lower body + Core. Bonus Content Includes - Going out to drinks with a new friend New and exciting projects at work Planning out new running goals! Setting a timer on my phone to remind me to walk around every 30 minutes.

Week 3 Wrap Up - Overall Grade 80% STEPS Friday - 6,559 (wanted a true rest day before the weekend backpacking trip). Saturday - 40,096 Sunday - 52,629 (new steps PR! And now you can probably see why I was ok with being a little lazy on Friday). MACROS Friday - All Green! Saturday - LOL NOPE! Not even close, ate intuitively in order to fuel my hike. But I'm not really counting this as going over since I can't really function on diet calories while hiking for 7+ hours. However, in the future would like to eat more protein, and less fats, since my body is primarily burning carbs on hikes. Sunday - See above. RUNNING Netted out with 9 miles running, and 50 miles (yes, five-zero) backpacking. I think we're good. But I still want to do better with running. STRENGTH Total 2 of 3 sessions for the week completed. I'm aiming to do much better next week and re-working my actual workouts to fit my schedule better. Week 4 - A New Beginning! - Outlining Goals This week started a little funny with the three day weekend, so it really feels like it's starting today (Tuesday), meh whatever, four day week! There are a few things I want to update this week that I think will help me succeed. Strength: Re-work training from three full body days, to 1 upper body + core, 1 lower body, 1 combo + core. This way I can get in all my sessions and still hike on the weekend. Hoping that by doing only upper body early in the week I'll be able to strength train right after a long hike. Running: Running under a certain HR wasn't really doing it for me, I gave it several months and while my times were slowly dropping, I was beginning to stall and it was starting to injure my achilles tendon, and I was forced to run with poor form in order to move that slowly. Starting this week I'll be working on running cadence. I can already feel that this helps me engage larger muscles (glutes and hams) and doesn't injure my calves. Macros: Same as before, but now with hiking season coming to an end, it will be easier for me to green-light more days. Steps: Keeping it the same. I'm upping my daily goal to 20k from now until late October when I will start reversing out of my current deficit. MONDAY: STEPS: 43,083 MACROS: Obviously no, it was supposed to be a low day. I cannot hike 16 miles on 1800 cals, it would be very unpleasant and slow. However, I didn't go totally crazy with food after we got off the trail, so in general cals weren't crazy high. RUNNING: Uhhh nope, but I did hike 16 miles, so that's a thing. STRENGTH: Nothing to see here, you can probably figure out why (hint - it was all the hiking and travel I did). ** Speaking from Tuesday morning - I'm very tired today after all the travel, hiking, lack of sleep, and just general effort. My weight is up after the weekend, which I suspect is due to eating too many fats, and possibly water retention after a much larger sodium intake. I'll continue to monitor that and make sure I'm drinking lots of water. I still want to get decent steps in today as I hope it will get my body feeling better and some blood moving to my muscles. Also, I'm probably dehydrated. Also, I'm committed to getting back on my macros.

Week 3 - Getting Back on Track. Last week and weekend we're admittedly not a show of my best training/eating habits. But I had an amazing time with friends in Seattle, ate some incredible food, hiked in some truly awe-inspiring mountains, and generally had a great time. Increasingly I'm feeling good about how my body is looking, and in the last week I've developed the ability to do a dead hang pull up! Win! So while last week was decidedly off-plan, I came back into this week ready to kick some ass. I think last week really illustrates some of the issues I (personally) have with the NF challenge format. I find that in pursuit of my goals, I can sometimes lose track of how my body is feeling, and what it's telling me I need. So while I was probably only at 50% adherence to my goals last week, I'm not going to severely mark myself down, because I think it's what I needed to succeed long term and not get burned out or injured. Anyway, on to this week: STEPS: Monday - 13,089 Tuesday - 20, 056 MACROS: Monday - All Green! Tuesday - All Green! RUNNING: Monday - Rest Day - Landed late and had to go straight to work, no time to train Tuesday - Run 4 miles STRENGTH: Monday - Rest day Tuesday - Strength 1 of 3 complete

Week 2 - Days 2-4 Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. TL;DR After a long weekend, plus getting my period, plus backpacking trip coming up I decided to have a rest week. Lots of walking (aiming for 20k steps a day), but very little else. Body just didn't feel up to it. Macros: Doing great here! Weekend will be about eating intuitively since cals will need to be higher while backpacking. Running: Uhhhh like 1.5 miles out of 14. But I've been walking in the morning and at lunch every day this week, so lots of movement. Strength: 0/3 so tired, my body definitely needed rest. After a really half assed strength session on Tuesday, I decided just to chill until next week. Steps: My daily average has jumped up to 20,000 steps, with me getting in 15k+ every day this week (and definitely this weekend after my backpacking trip). Bonus Content: Went climbing once Submitted my first article to my editor this week Got out my 2nd and 3rd blog posts Going backpacking this weekend.

Week 2 - Day 1 - Monday Oh my god! I was so tired! Over the weekend I hiked (like active, moving, hiking time) for close to 17 hours, covering 30 miles, and almost 10,000 feet of vertical gain, and as many feet back down. Monday I needed a rest day. I also didn't get up and walk around as much as I should have, but I still tried to keep up the habit of getting water and using the bathroom on the far side of the building. Macros: All green baby! Feels good to be able to jump right back into my program without having to think about what to do. Makes it really easy to pick the right foods in the right amounts. Honestly, I'm a huge fan of outsourcing efforts like this. Strength: N/A rest day. Running: N/A rest day. Steps: 5,703. Not impressed with myself, I could have easily gone on a walk before dinner, but I was just too lazy and tired. I'll aim to do better with the remaining days of the week. Thanks guys! It means a lot

Week 1 Wrap up! Overall Grade: Steps: Daily Average = 19, 073 Grade: A Strength Train: Sessions 3 Grade A Running: Total milage 8 of 13 + 1 Hill session This one is leaving me a little confused, I got in my hill session so that is a plus. But I didn't hit my mileage numbers, in part due to a little injury flare up, and in part because I knew I'd be backpacking for two days and getting in lots of mileage and elevation gain. And while that's good for overall fitness, it's not specifically run training. Looking forward I can see I'll be on a three day backpacking trip each of the next two weekends. So assuming a rest day before/after each trip, that leaves 2-3 days to run each week. So I'm going to officially instate a new rule: I must run my weekly milage, UNLESS I go on a backpacking trip that is at least DOUBLE the distance of my remaining mileage. And I MUST make an effort to run at least three days a week. Grade B Macros: Green Light 5 days of 7 Grade A Week Grade: 95%

I'm going to wrap up Thursday and Friday in this post, since starting Friday afternoon at about 4pm I'll be off the grid until Monday morning. Day 4 - Thursday - VICTORY! But a tired one. Steps: 11,685, not super high since I cut my run short, but I did ride my bike to work, which doesn't show up as steps. Running: 2 miles. Ankle was a little bothersome so I just cut it short. Macros: All green baby! Despite the fact that I was basically hungry all day long I stuck to my goals. There is always going to be some discomfort when it comes to change. In addition, shark week just started so I had the joy of being an emotional mess yesterday, the lovely benefit of bloating, and a general desire to eat all the things. Such is being a woman. It generally is far shittier than being a man. Strength: Session 3 of 3 complete! Again, I was really tired and unmotivated so I skipped my extras that I've programmed in. Which, I'll probably have to re-think anyway since my apartment is so tiny that I don't think I can safely practice handstands or even wall stands. I'll tackle that next week. Bonus Content: - Went climbing with boyfriend but we bailed early because I was really unmotivated and he wanted to finish brewing his beer. - Officially signed on with an outdoor website to write content for them. This marks my second freelance job in addition to my regular job. I will defeat the student loan dragon! Day 5 - Friday - (probable) VICTORY! Yes, I'm writing this on Friday morning, but it's a rest day and I've already planned out my food for the day, so I can basically figure out how this is going to work. Steps: Probably relatively low, I'd guess in the 6k range. I want to give my body a day to really really rest before backpacking this weekend. Running: N/A - Rest day. Total run mileage for the week will be 8/13. Not great, but ankle flare up, plus 27+ miles of hard hiking this weekend. I'll call it even. Maybe give myself a B for this week. Macros: So long as I stick to the plan I've outlined I'll green-light everything, thus marking my 5/5 days for the week on green! Strength: N/A - Rest day. Bonus Content: Who knows what the future will hold! It's 10am as I'm writing this. So far I'm hungry (it's a low calorie day), and have terrible cramps (see note above about how being a woman is the pits), but it's a mellow work day so I'm hoping I can escape early to get into the mountains. I'm already packed up and excited to try sleeping in a hammock.

Day 3 - Wednesday - VICTORY! *Does celebratory karate moves* Steps: 13,480 I know what you're thinking: "But Anamal! You're below your 15k goal average! You won't make it!" Fear not simple peasant! For I am going backpacking this weekend, and will easily crank out 30k+ steps each day. That doesn't mean I don't want my daily total to be close to 15k, but it does mean that I can be a little more lax knowing Sat and Sun will be big steps days. Running: 2 Miles w/hills Cut it a little short (was aiming for three miles), but my ankle started to act up a little bit. This is the same ankle that I injured in a marathon earlier this year and required almost six weeks off of running, and a total reset in fitness. So when it starts to get a little funky I call it a day and go home to foam roll. But I did ride my bike to/from work to up my caloric burn a little. Strength: Completed workout 2 of 3. I'm liking these shorter sessions. Macros: Green light baby! BOOYAH! And even managed to fit in a glass of wine and restaurant food for date night. Winning. So far I'm feeling really great this challenge, the scale is moving in the right direction, and I'm starting to get the hang of the whole counting macros thing. I'll be excited to see where I end up at the end of this challenge. Bonus Content: - Rode bike to/from work while being an adult and actually getting my oil changed. - Launched my blog (finally, I've been majorly lazy on this). This is another step towards having more financial freedom and the ability to pay off debt faster. The goal will be to build the site and hopefully monetize it in the future, or alternately use it as a portfolio for more freelance writing work. - New pot for ultralight backpacking came in. Now all I have to do is finish building my alcohol stove, and repair my backpack's pockets and I'll be ready for this weekend.

Day 2 - Tuesday - VICTORY! Steps: 16,689 - Thanks to a four mile morning run, and a walk at lunch. Strength Training: Did my first of three workouts, took about 30 minutes. It feels easier to only have to do 30mins of strength after I run, but who knows if I'm going to enjoy having to do it three days a week. We'll see. Running: 4/13 miles I realized today that because my calves are so strong I can really rely on them to run instead of my larger glute and hamstring muscles. As a result they get really tight and tender. This run I focused on engaging my glutes and the run felt a lot better. Macros: Green across the board! This marks day 2 of 5! Even with boyfriend cooking! This sometimes makes me nervous, but I sat down and explained my goals and how I want to be at a lower weight before we go to Peru in November so I don't have to worry about macros on vacation, and I think he's on board. Or at least willing to humor me when I ask him how much of an ingredient he's using. Side Note: I want to green-light every weekday this week since I know I'll be backpacking this weekend and won't hit my macros due to having a much higher caloric need. I'm not worried on days like this because I know I'll be burning an additional 2,000 to 4,000 calories each day on the trail, but I still want to hit my goals this challenge. Bonus Rounds! - Contacted 5 new agencies about potential work, and sent follow up emails to six others. - Reached out to an online forum about becoming a contributing travel writer and heard back with a yes! - Waiting on more details/first assignment. - Went rock climbing with boyfriend. Totally! At first I didn't really get what she was saying, but then this week, after a weekend of unstructured eating and no training, it's nice to be able to get back on track easily. And I also know that because I'm normally eating one way, that a day or so of being off-track won't derail me.

Day 1 - Monday - VICTORY! Steps: 10,209 ** Note I know this method isn't perfect as I'm using my phone to track, which I don't always carry with me. But it got me out the door for an evening walk that I wouldn't have done otherwise. Definitely a win. Macros: Green across the board! And as a bonus the scale is starting to trend downward already. It's nice having a program to jump back into after a weekend of travel and eating (lots and lots of eating). As my wise little sister said: when you have a routine, it allows you to be spontaneous. Smart kid that one. Running and Strength: Nothing to report. Dropping people at the airport this morning meant that even after a rest weekend I took another rest day.

Hello, My name is Anamal, and I am a mountain dwelling creature who lives amongst the desert humans of Southern California. This is not by choice exactly, but more as a penance for my foolish youth, where I willingly walked into the prison that is student loans. For this challenge I'm seeking a home with the Rangers. I hope this will be a place where I can push myself to master my body and push beyond my current skill levels. At the end of this challenge I want to be a leaner, faster, and more adept version of myself. GOALS: Strength Train 3x - Weekly For this challenge I'm going to try and do bodyweight strength training for shorter sessions, but more often. I'll be following the NFA bodyweight level 4 A, B and C workouts for the next five weeks. When I have the energy/drive I'll be adding in some gymnastics holds to the end of workouts (hollow body hold, back body arch, and chin-up hang). Green-Light Macros 5 of 7 - Weekly In addition to Nerd Fitness I'm also working with Eat to Perform to get my nutrition dialed in, and lose some extra body fat. My goal is to green-light (aka hit my macros) at least 5 days a week. The other two days are for long hike or backpacking weekends where I typically need to consume extra calories in order to keep up with my energy expenditure. Run Further Run Faster Similar to last challenge I'm going to work on building my mileage progression. This time with a weekly hills-repeat session thrown in. Week 1 - 13 miles, Week 2 - 14 miles, Week 3 - 15.5 miles, Week 4 - 17 miles, Week 5 18.5 miles Side Quest V1 - Keep up with pre-run warm ups and evening foam rolling to help prevent injuries. Steps on Steps on Steps I'm going to aim to have a daily average of 15,000 steps at the end of the week. As I'm already running a decent amount this is more to help me keep moving on my non-training days and burning extra calories to aid in weight loss, but in a non-taxing way. My reward for scoring at least a 90% throughout all four goals will be a new pair of trail running shoes.

Aaand somehow it's already Thursday and I haven't updated this! Gah! Tuesday - Morning "Run" was more of a walk, my calves have just been killing me! 2 miles Afternoon walk (because I was working from home that day, so why not?) 5 miles Wednesday - Strength training session # 2 of 2! Plus enough energy to add on some extras! Bike ride - 12 miles Afternoon walk - 2 miles Thursday - "Run" aka interval stairs session 3 miles Afternoon climbing session. Total mileage for week 12/16 On top of that I've been "green lighting" aka getting really close to exactly the numbers I should be hitting on my macros since Monday! So that's a win for my caloric deficit goal. And with that I'm calling it on this challenge. Friday is a rest day, and my sister is visiting this weekend so I'll be using the weekend to let my legs recover. Basically I'm foregoing one of my challenges (mileage) in favor of a far more important challenge (no injuries). Job hunting has been going ok (well, not that I've had any interviews or any replies other than people telling me that there is nothing open), but at least I've been putting the time in nearly daily. And I've been putting some serious effort into my 2nd job.

Monday - Low cal day Strength Training A - Done Bike ride 12 mile work commute - in an attempt to burn extra cals and kick start weight loss. Stretching - 2 sessions of calf stretches (one morning, one night). Job - Reached out to five ad agencies with my resume Tomorrow (tuesday) I'm taking the day off in an attempt to de-stress, and do some research as to what I might want my future to look like.

Week Three Wrap-Up! Going to make this quick, I have ish to do today. 1a/b) Don't Get Injured Been foam rolling more, stretching more. All is good. Got in both strength workouts this week, but didn't have the time/energy to add on extras, just the minimum. 2) Running More Mileage - Ran my 15 miles, and added on a four mile hike on Sunday. 3) Eat a Caloric Deficit - The start of the week was rough as I got new ETP numbers in half way through Monday. But by Wed/Thurs I was on board and hitting my macros pretty closely. It's a bit of a challenge eating so many carbs without resorting to grains (besides rice). But things like corn/beans/cereal leave my stomach unhappy so I'll have to find options for making rice and potatoes more interesting. Oh and fruit, love me some fruit. 4) Find a new Job - Honestly, I'm struggling here. I'm not hitting my goal numbers and having a hard time drumming up interest to search harder. Last week I reached out to six agencies (only one of which had an open position), and spoke to three people at my agency to ask if they knew about the job market. Decent but not good enough. I think part of the struggle is that I'm not really sure WHAT I want from a career. Right now all I can fantasize about is going on a long backpacking trip and winning the lottery so I don't have student loans. I know this is somewhat beyond the purview of NF, but here is the deal: I'm really feeling trapped. I don't especially like the city I live in, but my BF is going to be here until at least June of next year, and I don't really want to live apart from him. Beyond that I feel like I'm only working to pay off my student loans, as I don't make enough money to have a solid savings account for travel, and pay my debt and living costs at the same time. And no, I don't spend a lot on extra stuff, we don't have cable, rarely eat out, I pack lunch and breakfast every weekday so I don't spend extra money there, I have a really limited wardrobe and drive an old car that I don't have payments on. The truth is I'm just really really in debt (35k+) from college. It sucks. I don't want the "finer things in life" I don't care about any of that shit. I just want adventure, simplicity, and freedom. But I need a job until I'm out of debt. But what? What combines the outdoors, creative photography/graphic design/video, and a decent paycheck in the city of Los Angeles?

Oops haven't checked in since Monday! This week got a little hectic and some things fell by the way side, but we're not traveling this weekend so I'll have some time to work from home and get my little life-ducks in a row. Training - Tuesday - Climbing, Wednesday - 4 mile run + strength training, Thursday - 3 mile run (hill sprints), Friday - Rest Day Caloric Deficit - ETP numbers have been a bit challenging to hit (I keep going over fat macros!), but I'm excited to try something new. Obviously what I have been doing hasn't been super successful in terms of body recomposition and fat loss, so I'm willing to try new things. So many carbs! It's actually kind of fun. And I'm excited for this weekend when I can meal-prep with these new numbers in mind. Weekly Mileage - 15 So far I'm at 10 miles. This is pretty perfect since I wanted my long run (saturday) to be 5 miles. Winning! Find a New Job - Reached out to five agencies this week (didn't quite hit my goal). I don't want to send out emails on a Friday since they're more likely to get lost in the shuffle, so my plan is to prep a bunch of emails this weekend so that I can send out 10-15 on Monday and just be done with it. However I did speak to two people at work about finding a new job (they both said they'd do some poking around ) and I met a friend for drinks on Wednesday and got some feedback as to how agency job hunting works. So I met my mini-goal! Aside from that I've been spending my time thinking about what I really want to do in my job. I'm not sure working at an ad agency is what I want long term and since I'm set on leaving my current job anyway now would be a good time to join a company that aligns more with my core beliefs (hint hint, it's not selling luxury cars). This all will require some thinking and research on my part. My other large concern right now is paying off my student debt. More and more I feel completely trapped until that debt is gone, and with more than $35k still to pay off I'm starting to get a little panicked. So while it's not the only thing I'll consider when moving jobs I'm going to really chase a pay raise in the hopes that I can get this debt paid off faster and then I can start living with more freedom.... and less need for a traditional job.

Ok Monday was a bit of a whirlwind, but in a good way! First things first, training: Morning run 3 miles, plus 30mins of strength session, didn't have the time to add on any extras, Job hunting: Spent most of the day crafting my base cover letter, so I'll only have to write one paragraph for each job I apply to. Why does writing take me so long? I only ended up applying to one agency, and I need to do better today, if I'm going to make my weekly goal I need to send out 5 emails Tuesday. I was also supposed to meet with my friend who knows a lot about the job market, but we had to reschedule for later this week. Caloric Deficit: I've been working with ETP (Eat to Perform), and asked the coaches to give me new numbers for High/Medium/Low/Super training days and set me up on a rhythm pattern for eating (aka eating higher/lower on certain days to accommodate training and give the body a chance to recover). The goal is to start now and do 8-10 weeks of PFFL (performance focused fat loss) before I enter a maintenance phase. The calories aren't that different, but the macros are. This week might be a bit off since I already meal-prepped, but next week I'm going to try and be spot on. My weight has been hardcore stuck for the last few weeks and I'm hoping a change up in macros will get me moving in the right direction again. Injury Prevention: Actually got my butt out of bed to foam roll for a few minutes. Win!

You should totally get back into bouldering/climbing! It's actually what got me back into strength training after slowly transitioning out of the gym and just becoming a runner. And it's what got me interested in more gymnastics-style strength. Yeah, job hunting is a bummer, but at this point I'm employed and not in any danger of being fired, so it's just a matter of how long finding a new job takes. I feel like if I accept that it's going to be a long and sucky process, then I'll be pleasantly surprised once it's over Here is a pic from this weekend. These guys were high-lining (aka slacklining very high off the ground) like 50ft above our heads while we were climbing. It was totally insane.

Week 2 Round Up - Overall, week 2 was not as strong as week 1, but it wasn't a disaster either. 1a) Foam roll or stretch daily - Eh, lets give it a C. I still did run warmups, and stretched some, but need some more quality foam rolling time. 1b) Strength training 2x weekly - Sadly in America 50% is still an F, so I guess I got an F. I struggle with balancing all my hobbies and between being tired from backpacking last weekend, and traveling for climbing this weekend I only got one strength session in. Booo. 2) Running - weekly goal 14 miles - Achieved 8 not impressive. Again, I was just tired at the beginning of the week, and then didn't get much more than maybe 3 miles of total hiking this weekend going to and from the crag. So I guess this one might be a D, since it was slightly more than 50%. 3) Eat a Caloric deficit - Mon-Fri I was on a roll, and even started daily weigh-ins so I can track weight fluctuations and have a more direct view of what certains foods do to body composition and water retention. However, Saturday I did terribly, eating nearly 3,000 calories, and definitely not exercising enough to counteract it. Sunday I did much better, and if nothing else I tracked everything in MFP. I'll give myself a C and strive to do better this week. In two weeks my sister comes to visit and I know eating will be a little more lax then, so I want to do really well in the lead up to that. 4) Get a New Job! - Website is up from week 1, and I reached out to two recruiters towards the end of last week. My goal from here on out will be to send 10-20 e-mails each week (that's really only 1-2 a day) until I start to exhaust my options. Last week was a B. Mostly since I didn't really accomplish my week 1 goal, and as a result couldn't be as aggressive in reaching out to companies as I would have liked. My mini-challenge for week 3 will be to speak with three existing contacts who can help me find a job. Aaaaand Go!

Thursday - 4 mile run in the morning. This felt kinda terrible, and I think the morning after a low-cal day I need to eat something before my run or else I'm really low on energy. Hour long bouldering session at night. This workout felt much better after eating more during the day. Stuck to my calories, and getting closer to figuring out this whole macro thing! Even though I had to cut guacamole from my burrito bowl Sacrifices! Reached out to two recruiters with my resume, and my website is officially up and live, fully updated, and I'm pretty proud of it! Overall I'd say it was a good day. Friday - Rest day! I was definitely feeling run down this morning and could use the extra sleep. I think anytime I start to get frantic about getting enough sleep it's a good sign that tomorrow needs to be a rest day. The only thing I'm worried about now is how I'm going to get my 2nd strength workout in, and the remaining 6 miles run. Also, already heard back from a recruiter! Sadly it was to tell me that she doesn't have any openings at the moment, but at least I know I'm not shouting into the void. I'll be offline this weekend as we're driving up to Big Bear tonight to relax, escape the heat, and rock climb this weekend! Wee! I'm so excited!

Wednesday - Today was a low (calorie) day and I definitely felt it. I did my workout in the morning, and then added on some gymnastics hold moves and made a pass at the NFA bodyweight level 3 boss. Didn't make it, but I was really really close, I think. Need to keep working those assisted chin ups. The workout felt good, even fun. However, the rest of the day I was basically hungry. But I know there will be some discomfort when it comes to weight loss so I'm willing to accept it. Besides I like stacking my calories towards the end of the day so I go to bed full and sleep through the night better. I'd rather be hungry around/after lunch than before bed. I know I said my website was up and running as of Monday, but if I'm being fair I actually just finished it yesterday. I wanted to get some work uploaded that was unfinished, and re-write my "about me" page. So now it's live, and I have a good list of recruiters to reach out to. Time to get down to work. Speaking of work, I'm really feeling burned out at my current job, it feels like everybody is always asking me for favors, and yet I'm never getting anything in return. Of course the field I work in is a lot about how well you're liked so I can't burn any bridges by telling people to fuck off and do their own shit. Still, it feels like a lot of giving, not a lot of receiving, and even less like I'm ever going to get a chance to move out of my current department and into the job I really want. Yep, definitely time to move in. The boyfriend and I decided not to do anything epic and I'm really really grateful for that. I'm tired and need the sleep.

Week 2 feels like it's already off to a great start! Monday - A much needed rest day after our weekend backpacking. Today (Tuesday) - I ran (slowly) 4 miles and felt pretty good, aside from tired legs and the humidity that we get along the coast. Oh well, it was nice to be off the track. I'm still really nervous about re-injuring my foot, so I'll be slowly transitioning off of the track, and onto the streets. Tonight we'll go rock climbing, where I'll hopefully burn another 200ish calories to round out a "medium load" training day. I've recently begun working with the ETP group, and filling out my trend sheet. So I'll be wearing my HR monitor and checking cals burned (in addition to cals consumed) more closely during this challenge. As for my personal goal, I just got a big list of recruiters from a friend of mine, so it's time to start bothering people into giving me a job.

Week 1 Round Up! 1a) Foam rolled several times this week, but could be more consistent. I'll give myself a B, good, but room to improve. 1b) Strength train 2x. CHECK! 2) This week I only ran 6 miles, but then I backpacked 26, so I'm counting that as good. But for the week coming up I'd like to hit my mileage goal since we likely won't be traveling this weekend. 3) Eat a caloric deficit. CHECK! I was solid through the week, but kind of sabotaged myself on our backpacking trip, not because I over ate, but because I way under ate and was absolutely dead by the end of the first day. As my boyfriend said "you can't diet on the trail." And he was totally right! I dragged my butt into camp on Saturday and it felt like I just had zero energy. It sucked and was not very fun, and I seriously wondered how I would get out of the canyon we were camped in. The next morning I ate basically a double breakfast, then a snack even when I wasn't hungry, and forced myself to snack again when I started getting tired. And it was AWESOME! I hiked so well and felt amazing! I was nervous about logging my food today given that I was sure I'd ruined everything. But you know what? I only ate about 3000-3200 calories on each of our backpacking days. And given that I burned 2500+ each day, in addition to the 1500 cals it takes for me to just live I'm totally fine with it. Plus, when I eat more on the trail it's actually way more fun because I have more energy. It also drove home the idea to me that hunger is largely mental. Like when I'm backpacking I'll get tired, and my muscles feel like they're totally exhausted, but I won't actually be hungry if it's not near a normal meal time. And yet clearly my body needs fuel during those moments. But when I sit on my butt all day at work I get hungry when 1pm rolls around. Bodies are weird man. 4) Personal Goal: Get Website revamped and up and running. CHECK! Now this week will be the start of actually applying for jobs (Something I totally dread). Onto week 2!

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your dog and your friend that's rough. Though it's good to hear you're making your time count while you can. I'd also be interested in hearing what kind of OCR training you're doing.

Nice goals! I think I need to adopt your goal # 1, it's too easy to waste time in the morning if I don't. Good luck!