ohlemontine

Last week was... well not good at all challenge wise. Typically last week was the week I would normally fall off of these challenges. Give up, get embarrassed that I'd failed again, and just disappear (usually into a tub of ice cream) but I'm absolutely determined this time to see this thing through. I have goals and deadlines that I really want to reach, or at the very least say I did my best. So today I dragged myself back to the rec center. I did my core play workout (still on week 2 since ive only done 2 days of it im the past 2 weeks) and also restarted c25k since I have a few 5ks coming up I'm interested in doing again this year (a neighborhood one I do every year, possibly a mud run, and the pumpkin run, and if it ever actually gets put together I wanna do the color run again this year). It felt amazing to say "f it, I'm not wallowing this time, this time, I'm going to do the work, and nobody is gonna stop me, not even myself" Fingers crossed I can keep this up, but it's feeling more doable now that we've passed that slump week. Sunday: 🥘🍔🥘 Monday:🥘🍔🥘🤸‍♀️🏃‍♀️

So even though I'm currently stuck on bookbinding (need either bookcloth or fabric and fusible interfacing to make bookcloth) I kinda wanted to show off some of what I have gotten done so far. so here we have 5 small sketchbooks (4.5"x6" approx) and 2 regular size (5.5"x8.5") blank notebooks. The 2 regular size ones will not exactly be the greatest ones and I'll likely just give them away, give them to my son to play with, or sell them at a steep discount since they are made with plain copy paper and folded against the grain, before I knew how big of a deal that was. Before I make anymore of the regular size I will need to invest in some larger paper to cut in half so the grain goes the right way. some of the inside covers or endpapers of the sketchbooks just random shot of the sketchbooks. They open flat! so this is one of the regular size ones and the pages don't bend right to flip through them nicely because of the grain. one of the sketchbooks, see how the pages bend nicely, it is much easier to flip through. so the next step is to put the covers on them, the book board I currently have is a floppier weight so they will be a bit more of a limp case bound, but it still turns out quite nice. This is my first finished regular size one that I made for my son (who has a cat obsession) for reference:

Ope... okay, my SECOND favorite seedling vendor xD

I sure hope so... I figured gamifying it would help since he loves video games. Since he's homeschooled, he won't have much of the extra social pressure of staying clean and not stinky or face getting teased and bullied; which while I'm glad he won't be bullied since it is the reason we pulled him from school in the first place, that also means theres no PRESSING issue to keep him on track. I'm hoping helping his character not die will create that kind of pressing issue long enough to get him in a habit/routine that will be pretty much second nature.

OOf last week was a busy one, pulled a couple hours overtime at work, and was super sluggish for much of the week, i think I only did Core Play once the entire week, and Yoga on Saturday. did pretty decently with not eating takeout too much, though I think i did go over my 5 meal limit by one or two meals. (one of our favorite food stands opened back up last week and we couldn't miss out on opening day lol, so it was very much worth it). Didn't do any reading or bookbinding (the bookbinding because I'm at a point in the process where I need a few more supplies to finish, and I'm low on funds right now) but I have been sitting down and doing more of the diamond painting and since it is in the spirit of stopping the binge watching, doom scrolling cycle, and since it quiets my brain and focuses it before going to bed, i think I'll start counting it as well for this week. In other news, our community garden has opened up so I'll be busy the next couple weeks tending to my plot and getting it planted and keeping it weed free and harvesting delicious fresh veggies and herbs from it, so you'll likely get fun updates on that! Today I'll be hitting up the Farmer's Market (which also just opened, last Wednesday) and getting some seedlings from my favorite seedling vendor. So far this week is off to a semi rough start. Didn't go grocery shopping last Friday or Saturday, so I've ate out 3 times already (Sunday Lunch, Monday breakfast and Lunch), didnt do Core play yet this week, Monday because I zombied out, Tuesday because I needed sleep after having not slept at all on Monday. Today will depend, I had a migraine last night that stopped me from going to work, and today I'm still a little off, so I don't know if exercising in that condition is the best idea, but I also don't want to go for any longer without doing something, so I might just go for a walk or do a yoga class or something later today if I feel better.

(but flip instead of walk I guess lol) I love this challenge! Can't wait to find out how you accomplish it!

Week 1 Update: Doing pretty average so far. Some good, some bad. All in stride. Tracking my stuff through Habitica while training my son to use it for personal hygiene reasons (he's almost a teen and I'd like him to start basic hygiene habits now before it becomes a stinky problem xD) Icon Legend: 🍔 takeout /🥘 home meal 🤸‍♀️ Core Play / 🏊‍♀️ Aqua Mix /🧘‍♀️ Yoga / Rest 🪡 bookbinding / 📖 Reading SUN: 🥘🥘🧘‍♀️ MON:🍔🍔🥘🤸‍♀️💫(new hobby unlocked: diamond painting, this is the only time I'll count it for mindset this challenge though) TUE:🥘🥘🧘‍♀️📖 WED:🍔🤸‍♀️📖 THU: FRI: SAT:

I have heard of Inkheart, but never read it. Do you recommend it? What genre is it? Maybe I'll add it to my stack of books! I missed reading so much, I used to read all the time, often finishing a novel in a day, now, with a child that I'm homeschooling, I'm often lucky if I get 2 chapters in before getting sidetracked and forgetting about a book completely lol.

Well, hello everyone! Good luck on another challenge! Orders herself a ginger tea, and sets to sewing a stack of papers together.

Starting stats: Weight Sunday May 7th: 281.9 Starting body image, front Monday, May 8th: Starting Body Image, side Monday May 8th: Starting measurements: ERROR 404: TAPE MEASURE NOT FOUND. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.

My partner of over 12 years and I are FINALLY tying the knot in October! It's been a long and bumpy road, and I'm so excited!! I am less than excited though about my health, which has steeply deteriorated the last half a year or so. Between financial stress, family health stress (several cancers have been popping up in my immediate family), and work stress, I've been absolutely exhausted and drained and letting myself go. While my perfectionism would love to focus solely on getting my weight down, I know that would only wind up making things worse. So instead I am forcing myself to focus on making myself FEEL better, and be more healthy in general, and the weight will eventually follow, even though it will likely be a lot slower than I would want. For this first challenge we'll start kinda slow. Nutrition: We have been eating out basically every meal lately, it is hitting the waist line almost as hard as the pocket book and therefore is a HUGE stressor right now. I want to focus on only eating out 5 times or less a week for this first challenge. What constitutes eating out: Takeout, drive-thru, restaurant. What does not constitute eating out: meals at family's house (regardless of whether it's takeout), family gatherings at a restaurant when paid by family (Sunday lunch with my parents after church is still considered eating out). Fitness: I am going to start focusing on getting my core strength up. It is the area I am severely lacking in. To do this, I will be doing the Core Play program by Karina Dimitrovova. This is a 4 week program that I will repeat for a couple times (at least 3 times). It takes approximately 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, with a 7th day of rest. If I feel up to it after my Core Play routine on Mon, Wed, a/o Fri, I can also do a water aerobics class at my local rec center, but this is completely optional for this first challenge. Mindset/Mental Health: I have been spending far too much time bingeing TV shows and webtoons lately, and just generally being pretty lazy, but lately I started re-reading the Harry Potter series, and remmebered just how much reading really calms and centers me. I have a buynch of books I've bought in the last couple years that I had ever intention to read, and never got to, so I will slowly make my way through them. In addition to rediscovering my love of reading, I have discovered a NEW SHINY HOBBY! of bookbinding! So my goal this challenege is to work for at least 30 minutes daily on either reading or bookbinding projects. In order to keep from going overboard on things to do, I will not be striving to update daily here, but I do need to have some sort of consistency goal for posting or I will completely drop off the challenge somewhere around week 2 or 3, so I will aim for at least 1 post/update a week So excited to get started!!

Thank you, I hope I'm learning from all my past mistakes and taking it in small enough bites to actually accomplish. I haven't gotten quite as much done so far as I was hoping, but I have gotten some things done, so I'm not gonna beat myself up over it. (It doesn't help that I've been almost bedridden with migraines all week... thanks Michigan weather being so indecisive) I've cleaned the cabinets in the kitchen and put in shelf liners, and started putting food and dishes back into the cabinets. I've also made a list of items to meal prep this week and a quick list of sample meals that can be made using the prepped ingredients --instead of prepping whole meals in batches and therefore possibly getting bored eating the same thing multiple times in a row, I'm prepping elements/ingredients (like this week I'm doing a batch of hummus, some barely seasoned pulled pork (so I can season further according to the meal), some rice, boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, and cutting up veggies.) In this way I can pick and choose using prepped ingredients to make a variety of different dishes for different meals and not get bored. Started looking through my books and picking a few out to read. So far I have (In no particular order yet) -The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor -Sharing Jesus (Without Freaking Out) by Alvin Reid -The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey -How to Survive Your First Trip in the Wild by Paul Magnanti -Spindelkin by Jean Davis As for getting stuff together for the gym, I haven't gotten anything done by way of that yet.

So I know I'm joining really late in this challenge, which is why this is a prologue. I'll be using the rest of this week, and next week (zero week) getting myself set up for success going in to the next challenge. As you may be able to tell from the title, or if not, definitely by the tags, I'm getting married! The wedding is at the beginning of October this year, so I have almost 4 full challenges before then to get ready. Lately I have really (REALLY) let myself go, a combination of stress and health issues (my own and various family members) and I want to be feeling my best as I walk down the aisle. When you feel your best, you tend to look your best! Therefore I'm not going to focus too hard on specifically losing weight, but making changes that make me feel good, and the weight will eventually follow. The goals for the next 4 challenges will be roughly the same for each one, just building in intensity as I achieve goals. They will be roughly: 1. Nutrition: I will start off with decreasing eating out to just 4 times a week (currently, sadly, we are eating out almost 2-3 times a day, and this is greatly impacting my health, energy, stress, and pocket), then move on to only twice a week (Sunday lunch with my parents after church, and Wednesday lunch while doing laundry at the laundromat), Then focus will switch to what I am actually eating, and logging food. 2. Fitness: I will be going through Core Play again, doing at least 2 rounds of it, then deciding whether to continue with another round, adding more reps, or move on to Beyond Flexibility. I will also be doing a water fitness class anytime I feel like I can swing it. 3. Lifestyle/Mindset: I have started bookbinding and making my own sketchbooks and notebooks, so I will aim for 1 hour daily working on that, and then 1 hour of either reading, writing, or arting. So what is the prologue going to look like if those are my goals for the actual challenges? Well, like I said, I need to set myself up for the best chance at success, so this "prologue" will be for getting everything together. 1. Nutrition: I need a clean kitchen and clean dishes in order to prep food. Then I will also need to go shopping so there is actually food in the house to eat instead of ordering more food. So, daily I will be working on cleaning the kitchen and putting it back together (we've had to take it apart a couple times now due to roaches in the building and the new landlords actually doing something to get rid of them for real). I think 30 minutes daily will work greatly. I will also need to make a list of foods to prep, and grocery list based on that. Then go grocery shopping and prep some meal items. 2. Fitness: I need to renew my membership to my rec center, pack my gym bag and start packing it in my car, along with printouts of my workouts for the day. I need to figure out schedule of when the rooms I will want/need to use will be available, and what time classes are, and create a working schedule around that for sleeping. 3. Lifestyle/Mindset: Make sure I have all materials I will need for bookbinding, and clear off desk again. (clearing the desk shouldn't be too bad, it was done 2 weeks ago). Ready a list of books to read, and place them in bedroom near bed for reading before sleep. I will try to update semi-daily, but not stress myself out about it, I have enough going on already. I will commit to updating at least once weekly, to make sure I'm staying on track and focused. I encourage punishment for not posting updates for over a week. I have a bad habit of falling off the edge of the world after about 2 weeks...

Hello everyone. I am back again, and again with a very easy going challenge. About 3-4 weeks ago I came down with the 'rona and it really took it out of me. I'm still having issues breathing, so what I was doing fitness-wise before I got sick is a bit out of the question for now. I did lose about 10 pounds over the 2 weeks I was sick, and while it was not the way to do so, I'm looking at the positive in that it helped get me closer to my goal, and this challenge I am going to focus on not gaining that weight back, and hopefully losing a little more in a safer and more productive way. Goals: 1. Follow my meal plan at least 75% (3 of 4 meals a day) I am currently using the Eat This Much App to plan my meal plans for the week and grocery lists, its really nice, and has taken a lot of the stress off of me in trying to figure out what to eat and how much to stay healthy. It also has been pretty good at giving me meals I actually don't mind eating and can actually afford which has made it better than the other meal plans I have tried to use in the past. 2. Continue doing water weights/water walking at least 3x's a week, but also end it with breathing exercises. I have been going to the pool 3x's a week and running on the off days, but I can't run yet, as I can't get full breath yet, especially after a full night of work. I will continue to do the pool work, as I can scale that down enough that I'm not dying, and spend the last 5 minutes or so just taking deep breaths with my chest underwater to help work on my breathing more. 3. Use my CPAP every day for at least 4 hours a day. I am trying to use my cpap more and improve my sleeping, as well as the last time I spoke with my sleep specialist we discussed switching to a biPAP instead as my CPAP has been giving me problems with air swallowing, but since I don't currently use it enough, my insurance might not pay for me to switch until it is shown that I'm using it consistently and that the therapy is not working properly for me. Stats for the beginning of this challenge: Weight: 261.2 CPAP usage in the past 30 days: 11/30 CPAP days used 4+ hours: 5/30 CPAP average hours used: 4.3

So it's been a hard couple of weeks, and I haven't done much but work, and try to sleep. I did get out for a run sporadically, but nothing regular and that kinda bums me out, but I also feel like I did what was best for my body at the time, at least exercise wise (Nutrition-wise is a totally different, horror story) But work has been... extremely taxing, so adding extra stress by way of running on top of that just didn't sound like a good idea. I'm sure my body, and my chiropractor, will thank me on that lol but now I have 2 weeks or so off work while they redo the flooring and put in new ovens at work, so for the upcoming challenge I have a totally beautiful clean slate to get everything put in order to actually start crushing my goals. Plus the chance to really get some good relaxation in and stop stressing so much for a little while and give my body a break. I'm really looking forward to it. I also look forward to a much more normal sleep pattern for a few weeks. Oh sleep... how I've missed you so. So while this challange did not go anywhere close to how I would have liked it to go, I definitely learned a lot from it, and it went better than it could have gone, so I'm glad for the experience, and the lessons, that I can't wait to take with me and apply in the next one! Hooray for personal growth!!

okay, so this week sucked. not even gonna try and sugar coat it. I did a whole big fat lot of nothing. in my defense, it is kinda hard to go out running when you're in some apocalyptic flooding rain that seems like it will never end... okay, that might be a little dramatic, I'm on the West side of Michigan so we haven't got it quite as bad as, say, the Detroit area, but it has been pretty darn wet and hard to get out and do anything. I also have been sick the last couple days. Just the dizzy, nauseous variety of sick. But we continue on, we don't give up. There's nothing I can do about yesterday's crap, but I can always choose to kill it today, which is what I plan on doing! And hey, the rain has even stopped! So, I think it's time for a run!

*furtively darts to a secluded corner* I will take something extremely delicious, but horribly alcoholic. If it contains absinthe, all the better. I'm in a mood lately. *pops some cash into the electronic table jukebox and plays something folky, angry, but energetic. Something good for running like a wild thing* Now Playing: Highway Queen by Nikki Lane

Well we're not off to the greatest start, eating like crap(ish) so far today, because I had zero energy, and a lot of things planned. Planning to make sure I still get in one planned meal for dinner tonight, and get it logged. I'm worried about my ability to do my run tomorrow morning though, with everything feeling blah from eating horribly. Guess we'll see when we get there. On a positive note, I am going grocery shopping today, which means I'm on schedule to get everything prepped and ready for the new week of meals (my weekly plans start on Saturday, based on my Friday grocery shopping) So that should set me up for success for next week already.

Well here we are again, hoping this is not another case of insanity, doing the same things over again, and expecting a different result. I feel like I always start these challenges with the best of intentions to update regularly and keep with it, but it always fails for one reason or another. Usually it's the simple fact of trying to do too much all at once. So we're going to try things a little differently. We're going to give myself grace, and wiggle room, and we're going to keep it simple stupid 💋. I always feel guilty, because I want to cheer others on and check out their pages and keep updated with what's going on with everyone else, but I feel like thats where everything starts to spiral out of control; that guilt when I fall behind. So this challenge, I will be focusing on myself for the most part. If I have the energy to respond to comments, or follow other people's challenges, awesome! I'll do that! but, if I don't, that's perfectly fine, I really need to work on myself, and that's not selfish... that's just reality (I'm typing this just to remind myself. If you write it out, it becomes truth, right?) So my focuses this challenge will be as follows Fitness: I am working on c25k program, and am aiming for 3x's a week, but with how easily I've been getting overwhelmed lately, I am going to be content with as few as 1 run per week. 2nd Fitness: I will also be getting back to work on some bodyweight/flexibility work. I haven't decided if I will go back to doing core play again (since that's supposed to be a 6x's a week program, and that's just too much for me right now, and I don't know how scaling it back to 1-3x's a week will affect the effects of the program) or just work on the beyond flexibility, which will still work my muscles, just not quite as rigorously, and is a program designed for 3-5x's a week, so it is easily scaled back to a doable amount of times for me. So I'll probably be doing the BF, but it's still up in the air and I still have a few days to officially decide. I'll let you know when I make a decision, probably lol. Nutrition: I have started using an app called Eat This Much, which helps you plan meals based on your caloric needs and macros without me having to do all that math myself. The nice thing about this app is also that the meals are actually foods I regularly have on hand, and find delicious, and am not too scared to attempt cooking, and also the ingredients don't cost me an arm and a leg to get. So my plan for this challenge is to eat at LEAST one meal from the plan each day, but aim for 80% on target meals. I also have been using the Ate app to track my meals, although very sporadically, so part of this goal is also to log all my meals on the app. So what is all of this going to help me accomplish? Why would I put myself through all of this? (You may not be asking this, but I sure do some days... especially on run interval 7 of 8💀) The fast and loose explanation is, I would like to lose 100 lbs. The more nuanced explanation is: There are several things I really really want to do, but often times my body, and lack of stamina hold me back from doing them, like gymnastics, dancing, and running (which a newfound torture that I love ). There are also things that I want to do that my heavier body make more expensive and therefore unattainable, such as clothes shopping, or making my own clothes. Lastly, I really want to set a good example for my son of eating well, exercising regularly, taking care of myself, both physically and mentally, and just generally being a happy healthy adult. I want to show him how fun this lifestyle can be, and all the things you can do with a functional body. Alright, here goes!

it was an odd choice, but he seems to enjoy doing it. It's a language i know almost nothing about, so it's been interesting trying to help him, but luckily Duolingo is pretty intuitive.

That might work, especially since we have a working printer and an ink plan that will auto send ink when we start to get low lol. As for how the last 5 weeks went, it went about fair to Midland I suppose... lost a few pounds, kept up with my running, and towards the end I started keeping up with my Korean. Also been cleaning and organizing well. Things to work on for the next challenge will be: keep up the running, Korean, and cleaning. Finish the Sept 5k in under 50 minutes, track my eating, and work on mobility. In other news, homeschooling is going.... well it's going. XD some days it's great, other days Its all I can do to keep from strangling this boy >_< but it is helping me keep on track with several things. I am getting more sleep than usual, the korean streak I'm on is mostly due to the homeschooling, and same with the cleaning and organizing. And since we already boot up the computer every day for math lessons and Mandarin lessons (son's language choice) I can more easily update here regularly next challenge, and also update my spreadsheet. We'll see I suppose lol

And it happened again >_< started out strong then stopped tracking as much half way through... ugh... Anyone have any ideas to help keep this from happening? At least this time, I did at least keep up with my fitness regimens (for the most part) but tracking of everything went out the window.

Okay so here's the rundown so far this week (also today's points may still increase, but this is what I have so far) Total Daily Points Sunday: 6 Monday: 13 Tuesday: 5 Wednesday: 7 So, quick daily highlights: Monday - Good day, great day, I should be averaging about 14pts a day if I do what I'm supposed to daily. -🏃‍♀️Got my run in! Did not do my mobility afterwards though... shame on me lol - 🍽 Logged all my food!!! Even the embarrassing stuff Tuesday -☠🦈 felt like crap, its shark week - 😴 I think those points were for sleeping 8 hours... i slept a lot yesterday. Wednesday (so far) - 🏃‍♀️ Got my run in - will definitely need to repeat this week though... possibly more than once, can't run for 3 minutes straight yet. - 🧘‍♀️ Mobility done! Today was upper mobility, and I was finally able to grab my hands together in swimmers stretch with right arm up (still using a strap for the other side) - ⛲ 2 liters of water down the gullet already! (Granted I say already like it's not basically the end of my day lol)

I love the acronym! Lots of good vibes being sent your way, I cannot imagine the immense amount of planning and prep you have to deal with this year with everything being so crazy. I hope everything goes smoothly for you! Love that you will be getting your students outside, I feel like kids this year are really going to need it!

Yeah, it will be an adjustment, but I'm very (VERY VERY!) blessed with a really good really smart kid, and only one right now, so it's nowhere near as hard as it could be. Technically, he could have gone back to school, or done online remote learning, but the way those options were presented would not work for our family. My son is going in to 3rd grade, and at the beginning of the quarantine baloney he was at somewhere around a 4th grade reading and math level. When the quarantine started, they basically halted learning new stuff, so the 3rd graders will likely spend the whole first semester finishing up 2nd grade, so it would be extremely boring for my son, who continues to do math and reading and writing exercises and homework style pages throughout the entire year, summer included (he actually really likes to learn and I think it's his choice to keep doing the homework pages all summer xD). Couple that with having to wear a mask ALL DAY (minus lunch, and sensory breaks if we did those again this year), and the fact that they would group all the kids into small groups of 3 and those would be the only kids they interacted with for the entire semester (and there were some kids that bullied him so theres a chance of getting stuck with one of them) and I wasn't having that. And online remote learning would again be mostly review, and also the schedule for class times and such wouldn't work with mine and my SO's work schedules. So homeschooling just seemed to be the best option. And truth be told I've wanted to do homeschooling forever, but just didnt think I could make it work, but this whole pandemic fiasco has kinda forced my hand, so that's cool in a way. next post: an update on week 1 so far! Stay tuned!