Arrow

I'm alive! I definitely fell off the bandwagon but nothing too bad. I stayed strong on the stretches for a week and half or so. I got partially caught up because I knew I needed to re-vamp my challenge goals and didn't have the motivation to do it. I honestly forgot for a bit. Life has been a roller-coaster. A coworker asked me to watch her dogs for a week while she was gone and I am a sucker and even though I didn't really want to I said yes. When driving over there a couple nights ago my car got hit. I'm 100% fine just a little shaken up, my car is mostly fine, alignment is off but otherwise seems ok. I drove it minimally when I realized the alignment was off and got someone else to watch the dogs for the last day and half. I'm waiting for shops to open tomorrow to take the car into the auto-body shop to get checked out. In the mean time I hit up Reddit to see what I could try to check myself, and thus far haven't found anything bent/wrong. Today is a bit of torture because it's a waiting game. Waiting to call the insurance when they open tomorrow, waiting to get the car checked, waiting to see if I need to ride my bike to work every day, waiting to let extended family know if I need a ride to thanksgiving...the list goes on. Good news is I planned a vacation right before this happened and I get to go home and see some friends for the first time in years along with my nephews (one furry, one human). My organization went out the window and I was already panicking before the accident so naturally things are a mess.

Biggest thing this week: I actually went to a physical therapist consult to see what is up with my shoulders. Turns out I primarily only use my trapezius muscles and not the other ones, so new goal: - strengthen my back via good posture, stretching, and some easy workouts!

Just gonna keep updating. So I stretched forever yesterday, looked up a bunch of yoga videos on youtube and found some good ones. I discovered just how inflexible I am in certain areas (looking at you hip flexors!) my body reacted interestingly to all this new movement. I'm going to try and stretch everyday but allow myself every other day because life happens. My back is generally sore, after sitting with proper posture last night and as frequently as I remembered today at work, it is very noticeable when I am slouching. I also tried to do most activities right handed today (I'm a southpaw) and boy oh boy did my right shoulder get a workout in. I had to scrub 5 kennels today and it went something like: *scrub, scrub, scrub* "Shit, ow, ah fuck, why am I doing this?!" *scrub, scrub, scrub* I have kept up on my other goals of water and a veggie with dinner so far this week! Those two are coming easily to me for now, I might have to revamp this challenge more for my back/shoulders since they are taking the majority of my focus these days. Time to go stretch and get ready for bed!

I definitely got my workout in today, I did a 3-hour hike for work (the longest one) which is over 5 miles. I even had to almost run up the first part which is naturally the longest, steepest, hill ever. I had to get my group of dogs up before the other hike could unload from the car and they were right behind me. I made it up the hill in 7 minutes with two 5 gallon jugs of water in my pack! It was a beautiful hike. This afternoon I had my consultation with a physical therapist. He had me do lots of exercises and told me I don't actually have any major irregularities in my shoulders that would be diagnosed as scapula dyskinesis. I do however have very disproportionate use of muscle. My trapezius muscles are doing all the work and the other muscles around my shoulders/back/scapulas are very weak. He didn't give me specifics just 'back strengthening' exercises are what I need to work on. I also need to work on my posture to help out and my hips/waist have no hinge to them. Essentially all of me is tense and I can't touch my toes to save my life. I need ideas for good back strengthening exercises! So far I have: -rows -pull ups (eventually, assisted for now if I go to a gym) -planks -reverse fly's -supermans I also need to start stretching more...I'm gonna need a lot of help here, he suggested yoga as a great idea because it could help both shoulders and flexibility but I know nothing about yoga and I'm poor. Please help a girl out!

I read this and think "Wow that's amazing!!" as I stuff my face full of candy. You have far more control than I do

Your cat is adorable and looks badass! If I was any good at photoshop I would put him in this:

I finally remembered the other things I wanted to put as goals so I edited my original post to add them! So far so good on everything. As it gets colder it's getting hard to get out of bed to get to work on time so the biking to work once a week might be more of a challenge that I originally thought. Yesterday I kinda forgot the challenge started, my weeks usually start on mondays not sundays, I failed the water part of my day but I did have veggies with dinner. I went to a haunted house with my best friend too so I guess that counts as facing my fears I love haunted houses! We also went on an adventure in the woods near by and went to a corn maze that was a TON of fun. We loved it so much we went back in the exit and went back as far as we could (1/2 way before we were blocked by staff) just to confuse people and then went back out again! Today I had work and I am almost done with my nalgene of water. I made an appointment with a Physical Therapist for tomorrow!! I'm excited to hopefully get some good direction from them and some exercises. I also made an appointment with a dermatologist because I am 100% done with this adult acne crap, that's next week so wish me luck. Plan for the rest of the day is errands and cooking up a butternut squash for dinner, yum! At the moment I feel motivated to go for another woods adventure but I'm not sure that will happen, if not I'm going to try and do the body weight workout tonight.

Bodyslam?! That's intense, don't hurt yourself! Thanks! BACK UP EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME. Thanks

Loki's videos are always amazing!! After seeing that video I might have to watch Civil War or Winter Soldier tonight...maybe both!

*cue epic music* you're not alone in the civil war obsession! Gained a follower for sheer awesomeness

Food goals: -remember to eat dinner every day -when eating said dinner make sure to have at least one type of veggie Fitness: -do the NF bodyweight workout 2 times a week -ride my bike to work once a week Life: -drink one nalgene of water a day (I'm bad about staying hydrated) -volunteer once a week (I'm already lined up to volunteer at a museum, this is to make sure I follow through with it) -make an appointment with a physical therapist for shoulders -after appointment is made make a plan on how often to do exercises or whatever PT recommends Bonus/Practice: -facing fears: try to acknowledge when I am avoiding something and why, maybe even write it down. I might add a few things here or there. I know I had other goals in mind but I forgot them...

*A few weeks ago* I would have loved to be given this option for my computer a few weeks ago. Turns out the last Windows 10 update for my laptop was corrupt and my computer stopped functioning. I tried to fix it, and then let my computer die and put it out of sight until I felt like I could deal with it (read: afford to fix it). So often I put things out of sight and hope they will go away or fix themselves. Spoiler: my computer did not fix itself. Luckily the lovely folks at Geek Squad had my computer back to me in less than 24 hours, unfortunately it was completely wiped clean. I hadn't backed up my files since April so I lost 6 months of work. Thank god I am no longer a student or I would be devastated. I lost photos and revamped versions of my resume. I spent a few hours the other day setting up my computer, reinstalling all the essentials. Within a few days of this I also happened to weigh myself for the first time in a few months. I noticed my pants weren't fitting anymore, they were too big?! Turns out I have officially lost 20 lbs in the last year and a half! I was pretty excited about this but it didn't hit me until I was buying pants yesterday and I fit in a size 4. I ended up buying a 6 in one brand and a 4 in another, WHAT?!!! Two months ago I was wearing a size 10!!! See here Being down to the same weight as 6 years ago feels an awful lot like hitting restart on my computer. It feels a bit like this: which when I then tried to do anything quickly turned into.... I am so weak. I have always realized I have little arms and have joked that they are my little t-rex arms. The one thing I have going for me is that I hike twice a week for work (occasionally 3 times) anywhere from 2-5 miles per hike or up to 10-12 miles a week. My plan at the moment is to incorporate body weight workouts and make a plan to combat my scapula dyskinesis! Also ideally find a new job and stop putting things off. So this challenge is going to be about restarting with what I have and building in a new direction! I'm going to take the last few days before the challenge officially starts to get my goals figured out.

I do! Thank you!!! Now I'm in a weird spot where some pants I bought two weeks ago are too big and baggy on me, even right after a wash! Crazy to think I am back to a size 6 after being a very full/tight 10 and refusing to buy anything bigger than that. I really noticed when I was suddenly tightening my belt a lot more, now I'm on the last notch!

I'm going to admit right off the bat, I can be pretty bad at consistency and motivation but I am working on finding a buddy to help with that. In fact this guy I just started seeing is a huge fitness nut (personal trainer/body builder) and I plan on getting his advice/input but I don't want to totally depend on him since I'm not an official client or anything. My current situation: Back down to 'normal' weight, same weight I was at the end of high school and beginning of college, 132 lbs. I stayed this weight for almost 5 years before life caught up with me so I've always considered this my healthy weight. At 5'4" and 132 lbs I finally feel good about myself again! The hangup is I am weak as shit, almost no arm muscle (I call them my t-rex arms), my core is ok, and my legs are great but I feel too small. I've always had little person syndrome, thinking I am bigger/stronger/tougher than I actually am. Suddenly I've really started to notice it and it's bothering me. I hike at least twice a week for work and depending on what hikes I do I end up doing somewhere between 5-10 miles a week (~8-16km) between that and there being nowhere to sit at my work (other than in the car) is how I've lost weight in the past year. So the goal here is to actually get some muscle! I get that I will gain weight but I want to see it in productive places! I can't afford a gym membership at the moment and I am scoping out all the ones in my area for what I am looking at and affordability. I plan on starting with some beginner body weight workouts a few times a week (2x?). I just don't know how that will help tone up upper body, I do have scapula dyskinesis (read here) so it makes doing arm/shoulder workouts difficult or painful if it's above my head. I plan on asking my friend for help on this part, getting beginner exercises to fix the dyskinesis. The rest I am rather clueless on, I like doing random sprints but I've never found a good workout program that I like. Any input would be amazing!

I'm back to 130-132lbs! I haven't been super diligent about my diet but I have lost about 20 lbs in just over a year by living on my own and eating normal portions. It's amazing what happens when someone my size (5'4") stops living and eating with two guys (6'0" and 6'4")! Now it's time to build up some muscle!

Oh wow I have been forgetting to update! Week 3 went great. I forgot to eat veggies one day but I did plenty of running and stretching and generally kept up on all my goals! I finished my fanfic last week for those of you who wanted to read it: Here Week 4 so far: I GOT A BIKE!!! I am so stoked, I am waiting on a nice ulock I ordered off amazon before I take it out. It's sitting in my apartment and I keep staring at it and it almost feels like love, haha. I haven't gone running yet this week but I have been out geocaching twice! Geocaching is the best, we (my friend and I) adventured up north to find a cool one we heard about and went to some places neither of us had been to in years. I know I live in a beautiful place but HOT DAMN western montana is so gorgeous I can't get over it. We went to a bird refuge and the national bison range, it was awesome. I am sure there is other stuff to update on but I can't think of it right now!

Oh wow 200 incline pushups? I might just die. If my shoulders don't act up too much I'll do my best to complete them.

Bear crawling around my apartment it is!

200 squats done! I did the last 100 during work today and all the dogs kept trying to lick my face and jump on me

Today was super productive! I went to work and I was hiking today so I did roughly 3.5 miles before 11 am. Then after I was done dropping off dogs, giving baths and uploading photos to our website I went home and passed out on my couch for while. My sleep schedule is still really weird but getting a little better so I had to go do something so I wouldn't fall asleep again. I went and did some errands and ate out for dinner (not too proud but it happens). I made the mistake of having caffeinated soda with dinner and I was WIRED. I decided to go do my run since I hadn't gotten to it this week. I extended my 1.1 mile loop and it was probably somewhere between 1.5-2 miles by the end but I wasn't even tired so I walked around a bit trying to decide what to do. SO, I walked down to an old track by the river and ran/walked/sprinted another mile around the track and it felt AWESOME. I forgot how much I love sprinting! Then I walked home and stretched and cooled down. The whole workout took me about and hour and half, I also paused to sit by the river for a bit and soak up the scenery. I just did a rough estimate on google maps and total it was probably around 5 miles! Then I was still super motivated so I did a bunch of dishes and made tea and worked on my fanfic for a bit. I guess moral of the story is to watch when I drink caffeine! I also seem to be reacting a lot stronger to it than I used to, but I have also been drinking it a lot less .

100 down, in less than 30 minutes. I don't know if I will be able to walk when I get up.

I forgot to mention that when I reunited the dog with her owner, the owner wrote me a check for $500 (appartently she had a reward listed on the poster). Now I feel a little weird accepting the money BUT I have been meaning to buy a bike since mine was stolen out of my yard last year. SO my plan is to give $100 to my friend that helped me cause I love her and it's her birthday tomorrow and then use the last of the money to buy a bike and the left over is going into savings!! I don't plan on getting a super nice bike but I want one that won't completely fall apart on me and that I can maybe do some mild mountain biking with. With that in mind... Two new goals! 1. buy a bike in the next week 2. bike to work on regular (non-hiking) days! I am so stoked. Where I used to live was pretty inconvenient for biking around town but my new apartment is right next to the junction of the two main bike trails through town and I will be able to bike just about EVERYWHERE!

Update! I have managed to keep up all my food goals so far but I might be stretching the vegetable part (pizza with green peppers counts right?) I actually had a streak of writing at the beginning of the week but I lost some motivation the last couple of days. I am now done with my meds! I will have to call my doc and see if I need a follow up appt but I didn't forget to take them, whoo!! I have been having some problems sleeping the last 2 or 3 days, I keep waking up at odd hours and am unable to fall asleep for a bit. Yesterday morning I woke up at 5 am (didn't have to be at work until 8) went outside hopped the fence into the bike place next door just because I could, thought I was going to get caught, ran back and went back to sleep for an hour. It almost felt like sleep walking and this morning was weird too. I woke up a 1:30 am wandered around my apartment for 30 minutes and then woke up at 7 (felt like shit and I didn't have to be at work until 1pm) read for a while and fell asleep and woke up at 10. Both nights I didn't go to bed until ~12:30 am. I usually require 7 hours of sleep to be functional and it definitely had some effects at work today. My exercise hasn't been as great, I keep forgetting to stretch but only one left so I will do it later tonight. My extra run was supposed to happen tonight but as I started I found a lost dog and brought her home and managed to find her owner. I figure a good deed compensates for the run! It's been a strange week.

I hiked 6 miles on Friday and I started to go for a run tonight and I found a lost dog and reunited her with her owner, a good deed outweighs running in my book! Challenge complete.

I have mine on my fridge so when my fat ass tries to get more food (aka cookies) it's right there in my face.