Waanie

I've also started on "The Rivers of London" . I can only see the number of e-reader pages I've read and no true pages, but I'm about 25% in now (starting chapter 4). I'm liking it so far!

Thanks! Like I said, no idea how realistic my goals are . Although if I look at the others, I do think it's attainable 5 years from now if I'll train consistently. I decided to not focus on clarinet too much, since I don't have concrete goals. Like, I want to play and become better, but actually planning for it is hard. I'm currently moving WAAAY less than I did in the past. I seem to need at least one hour a day of movement/exercise to be fully functional. If I do less, my mental health suffers. I think my tiredness is currently work-related, such as having to get up earlier to ensure that I have a desk that day. I'm even considering if the solution is to take a walk every evening if I'm not doing anything like sports or orchestra 🤔. I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it. It is a tool to see what you should do next and what you can expect, I guess? I don't like writing, so I won't write a narrative about it. I don't know what you like? I'm currently reading "Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch, which seems nice and is heavily recommended by @sarakingdom. I also really enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. These are both urban fantasy, if you'd like another subgenre, let me know or post over in the reading PvP!

So, I did some work on my roadmap. The goal of this week is to identify what you're going to work on, where you are in your "story" and what are the obstacles in these storylines. The goals are intended to be relatively long-term, think 5 years or so. I ended up with the following goals: Energymanagement: I fix my problems with exhaustion, and can stop the descent if my energy levels will be falling at a later point in time Sports: Participate in the world championship kettlebell Food: Eat a healthy vegan diet Chores & maintenance: My house is relatively clean & decluttered and I have systems in place to keep it that way These goals feel VERY ambitious, but who knows what'll happen if I aim for these. Even if I get halfway at each of these goals, I''ll have made a lot of progress compared to where I am now.

Today was quite intense exercise-wise! I did a KB training, where I did 5x2 minutes of longcycle with 2x10kg with 1 minute rest in between, and 8 minutes of snatch with 8kg. I did this all without too much trouble, which is great! My technique is also still increasing with leaps and bounds . This afternoon my husband and I went for a 9km hike, with a 7km bike ride each way. Now my legs are tired . Anyway, I still have to work on my roadmap this week, so I'd better start that now .

It's funny how different things work differently for different people! For me, todo-lists reduce anxiety, even if I don't do everything on the list. I also like having journals, but don't actually like journalling or writing down gratitude statements. I'm glad that for me it's a tool for planning . Mostly fantasy and occasionally some SciFi. I just finished both parts of "The hands of the emporer", which is high fantasy, but usually I'm reading urban fantasy. I like young adult books because they're relaxing and predictable, but I also sometimes read different stuff .

Yes! Unless your body weighs nothing, in which case I'm wondering how you typed this . If I lift my leg, I still lift some weight, namely the weight of my leg and I should brace my abs slightly. If you do abs workouts, you can mess up your back majorly if you let your lower back come off the ground. Even pull-ups benefit a lot from bracing. Rant about abs exercises for "beginners": Anyway, if it is not soreness but pain, I'd take it slow for a few days, do a lot of walking and take it more slow the next time!

Jup, I'm trying to do it more often again, and this morning I got through the 10 minutes without problem and my body feels much better for the day ahead! Bujo is a shorthand for bullet journal, which is basically a booklet with just dots instead of lines. I use it mostly as an agenda and todo-list tracker, but there are people who track a lot of stuff and/or are very artsy with it. I currently have a monthly calendar + todo-list, and every week I make a weekly planning and weekly todo-list. Then every day, I have a daily todo-list and appointments. I use it just for my private life, so it typically does not need a lot of space. I currently also track on which days I played the clarinet, used my bullet journal and read. I notice that I am reading every day even though it is not a goal of mine, and I would like to play the clarinet a little bit more often. Anyway, a bullet journal is a tool that is very versatile, and I switch how I use it fairly often.

You might need to work on your bracing, if your lower back is bothering you. A gentle warming up with dynamic movement might help as well, but it's the bracing that's really important to protect your back. Also, if you work out less than once a week, in my experience the soreness will always come back. It's more productive to work out at least once a week, or if that's not feasible, to start more gently. Anyway, I hope your back is feeling better today!

Today's food was surprisingly delicious! It was a vegan Chow Mein where the sauce was absolutely delicious 😊. It was easy enough, although chopping did take up a little time. Yesterday's workout was nice, although I'm afraid I now have a bruise on my sternum from KB squats. I don't know how I get all these bruises and blisters and such 😒. Anyway, I did not feel 100%, so I took a quite low deadlift weight, but all is well.

Oh wow, you're really close to Paris and London! I guess it takes me longer to get to Amsterdam by public transport than it is for you to those major capitals .

Munich is quite beautiful as a city though . About 5 years ago there were also regular flights from Eindhoven to Manchester, but I have no idea if that still flies and how close you are to Eindhoven and/or Rotterdam. Not to say that Paris is probably much closer for you.

My last few days were business as usual: Monday I had orchestra rehearsal in the evening, where we were practicing in smaller groups for an upcoming festival. I was not unhappy about my play, and I was happy that I had practiced certain bits with the hard bits simplified. I won't be able to play all the bits fully, so it's better then to play the most important notes correctly instead of all of the notes, of which half are incorrect. Tuesday was an exhausting day at work, with some high visitors and meetings all afternoon. In the evening I was just reading and practicing the clarinet a bit, since I was too tired for anything else. Today I wanted to take it slow, but I already ran a few errands and I feel like there is just so much to do! I went to the dentist at 8AM, picked up spare lamps for my car since two of them had broken, went to the car wash and checked the pressure in my tires. I got home with a headache, but fortunately that was just a caffeine headache that was easily fixed by a cup of tea. I kinda want to go for a hike this afternoon because the weather is nice, but I'm not sure where to hike and how to fit it into my schedule... We'll see what happens. I guess I just feel anxious? Blugh.

Week 1 report Roadmap: did one chapter on Sunday night. I did not enjoy drawing my dreams, but mindmapping one of my projects was really nice. I forgot how much I love mindmapping, since I haven't done it in almost 15 years. It works great to structure a project or problem or anything I need to remember, so I will keep this in my life. Yoga: did one 15 minute evening-yoga movie. I never feel like doing yoga on beforehand, but afterwards I always feel better. BuJo: I used my bujo every day except for Friday, which was a very busy day already anyway. Now that I use my bujo more, I instantly have more overview of my time again. I did plan waaaay too optimistically, which is a lesson in its own as well.

Usually it is a matter of habit for people, but they often don't care enough to be willing to change that behaviour either. I'm glad that at least in this company that seems to be different. Jup, I have period when I'm very active, and in those periods my body can take much more than in the periods that I'm taking it slow in. I'm not sure how I get back into an active phase now, so I'll have to pace myself a bit. Btw, you don't necessarily need to go to the gym to get nice muscles, any type of strength training combined with a somewhat low bodyfat percentage makes your body look amazing. My body was great when I was just climbing .

Jup, therapists are really an area where the saying "if it doesn't help, it doesn't hurt" does not hold. I have had to explain that to a variety of people. A bad therapist can make your problems worse. Especially if your problems are around anxiety and if you don't have a solid sense of self-worth (not saying this is true here). @XBlackWidowX I think it's a good place to start to talk to the psychiater, and maybe they know a good therapist as well?