Scorpia

So the last time I was here I was kicking ass and feeling good. I was the strongest and probably fittest I've ever been. Then the evil depression took over. I took medication and it was good. I came off the medication and it was bad. Very bad. I'm now reaching the end of week one of back on the tablets. I'm the chubbiest, weakest, tiredest and unfitest I have ever been. And that is all before these tablets keep giving me headaches and making me dizzy. So I'm here for a gentle respawn. While my meds kick in I'm just going to aim for some nice walking and not eating too much cake. Then as they kick in properly I want to up my fitness game again and get my horrible diet sorted. I figured writing this post was a good place to say it out loud and make it real. I want to be strong mind and body. I will be.

Wow, you are making a great start to this challenge. Poi frighten me. I'd definitely hit myself in the face and break my nose or something!

Great start with week 0!! Your drawings are excellent. Can't wait to see how you are getting on this week.

I never thought I'd be as interested in knives as I am now! You have such skill! I'm now lost in the black hole of instructables on knife making.

Ooo, sounds like you are making a good start to the challenge! Good going on the ladies group. Keep us updated on how useful/interesting you find the book. I've heard about it before but haven't gotten round to buying it. I always feel like I have so little time but logically I know that just isn't the case!

Argh! It's been a crazy few days. Trying to get my old flat sorted ready to hand back to my landlord on Friday and electricity problems at the new place. As we speak the electricity people are digging their fifth hole in the street outside my house to try and find out why I'm not getting any power. At least it's not raining on them today! Anyway on with the challenges. Goal 1: No Yoga done yet. Been busy painting and cleaning. I'm hoping to get my first session in tomorrow. (0/12) Goal 2: Walking to Rivendell. When the challenge started on Monday I had walked 531.8Km of the 732.8Km needed to get to Rivendell. Which leaves 201Km to walk over the challenge period. Monday I walked 7.71Km and Tuesday 4.75Km. (12.46km/201Km) Goal 3: Not been to the gym yet this week, so nothing to report on this front either. (25kg/40kg) Life goals: Still not published. Still not worn a dress. Not socialised properly, but I have arranged to go out and have tea with a couple of friends tomorrow! I even made a decision and picked a time and place, which is very unlike me. (0/3) While my challenge is off to a slow start, I'm still feeling pretty good about things. I got my old flat painted so I should get my deposit back from the landlord which will be nice. One of my friends got engaged recently and she has asked me to be a bridesmaid which is lovely. It's also an incentive to shed a few pounds to make sure I look good when the wedding comes about. While my diet isn't part of this challenge I feel like I'm getting a handle on it a bit more. I've started having salads for lunch at work and scouting out healthy and protein filled snacks that I enjoy. I'm tracking everything I eat on myfitnesspal which is linked to my fitbit so I can see where I'm overeating. Right, now I'm going to see if I can sneak a look at everyone else's challenge updates without my manager catching me and telling me to get some work done lol!

Wandered over from the yoga accountabilibuddies and found Lego! Yay! Following. I feel you on the too much internet stuff. I am forever distractanetting or procrastanetting. I'm also trying generally to get out and meet more real life people and make new friends. I'm finding meetup really good at the moment. Good luck!

Get well soon and following! Making knives! Amazing.

Oooooo, yoga and art. Following fellow yogabuddy!

Hi! I'd like to join please! I'm a 34 yr old woman and as flexible as an icicle. I have weird painful hip things (poss sciatica, not been to the docs yet), terrible posture (the office worker slump and typical pelvic tilt) plus a bit more of me around the belly than I think is really necessary. I'm hoping yoga will instantly transform me into one of those people you see on Instagram looking serene on a beach, smiling while pretending they have absolutely no skeletal system to impede their pretzeling. If not, then it would be nice to be a bit more active, flexible and get some endorphins on the go. I'm signing up initially for a YogaToday free trial. I'll click about the beginners stuff and see what seems fun and hopefully definitely do it at least twice a week if not more. I'm looking forward to checking out everyones challenges! Scorpia

Aww thanks guys. I'm really excited to start the challenge now. I will definitely check out the yoga accountabilibuddies. I think a bit of support can make all the difference! I'm making some advances in my job and spending today sorting out my messy finances. Feeling really positive. Yay! Need to go and figure out how to insert pictures and gifs. Everything is better with cute pictures. Scorpia

The last regeneration of the lady called Scorpia fell into shadow (of course I'm not going to stick to one universe, what a silly idea) She fought in the great Time War! Battles were won, but ultimately everyone lost and she was left alone and broken. She was badly hurt and angry (Stuff got sucky). How did it come to this? But time in the safety of the Tardis helped her heal (a metaphor for anti-depressants obviously) by triggering a regeneration. Now it is time to leave behind the safety blanket of the Tardis (no meds yay!) and see who she is this time around. Who she will be and what she can make herself. Ahem, so yeah. Leaving behind the cliched overdramatic narrator, I'm trying to rebuild my life from the ground up. The past 7 or 8 months have left me unfit and a tad chubby. Antidepressants are wonderful, but my doctor wants me to try without them for a bit so it's all on me right now. Main Quest: Believe that I am totally awesome Goal 1: Yoga 2x per week. I have found some online beginners classes and I'm hoping that Yoga will not only get me active again but will be good for my mind, with all the calmness and endorphins and shizzle. If I manage all 12 sessions I get 2WIS (cos yogis are wise right?) and 1CON. If not, then I'll sliding scale it somehow. Goal 2: Make it to Rivendell. I got a fitbit a little while ago and I love it! I'm about half way to Rivendell already so I simply want to keep up the daily walking and make it to see the Elves. If I make it 3STA. Goal 3: Be able to bench 40kg. This one might be a bit ridiculous, but life is dull without a bit of ridiculous. I can bench 5x5 @25kg, just. If I can make even 1 rep of 40kg I'll be happy. This one is pass or fail. Hopefully it should keep me motivated to hit the gym reasonably often cos this one can't be squashed in at the last minute. Pass or fail for 3STR. Life Goals: Publish one of my short stories Just suck up the fear and do it. 1CHA cos being able to say I'm a published writer will definitely make me cooler and sexier. Get out of the house and socialise Once a week, leave my house and speak to another living human being for at least half an hour. People are nice and I need to stop fearing/being annoyed with them. 1WIS Wear a dress Just once. I want to and it should not be as scary as it is to pull on a nice dress and let people see my (gasp) legs. 1CHA cos dresses are hot. I think that covers everything, but I reserve the right to add things later or just completely change my mind and refuse to be judged on it, because who knows what sort of timelady I'm going to be this time around!

A small woot over here. I've started lifting recently and do bodyweight stuff already but I really struggle to get enough protein. I'm vegetarian and don't eat a lot of pulses etc normally. I've been working hard on my diet, subbing in healthy protein filled foods instead of carby or sugary rubbish. Today with a bit of help from a protein shake I hit my daily protein goal for the first time ever. It has not been easy. Step by step I create the strong body I want. Thank god for Greek yogurt. Scorpia

Sneaking on to the internet at work (bad scorpia) to post my week 1 summary. Goal 1: Staying in the habit 3 out of the 4 workouts completed. I missed out doing the run due to being cautious with my knee. I don't feel too bad about it. Better safe than sorry. 3/24 so far. Goal 2: Pulling a bit more out of the bag. Didn't do any 1 arm rows in week 1. Partly because I can't find my small dumbells... More housework needed clearly. Goal 3: Raising the bar. I've been devouring Starting Strength and practicing form at home with no weights. Progressing on schedule for this so far. Life goal: A safe place to retreat to. I did all 5 of my housework sessions. Pleased with this. So on with week 2. It's going as planned so far. I did an intense pole dance class on Monday and have had the worst DOMS I've had since starting it. My teacher is pushing us really hard now we have levelled up to intermediate classes. No bouldering Tuesday which was planned because I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy (superawesome film - I am Groot!). I'm bouldering tonight though and will use their dumbbells in the training room to try some one arm rows and see if they've fixed their pull up bar. Saturday I'll be doing some bodyweight stuff focusing on squats, planks and pushups and a Zombies Run!. Cleaning is on track. I should get through the rest of Starting Strength by the end of the week. Positive stuff today: Food - I am putting together some healthy recipes to try to improve my diet in tasty ways. I'm excited about this. Body - I quite like my forearms. They are slender and getting strong. Decisions - I decided today to go bouldering straight from work rather than later in the evening. This will give me a chance to wind down afterwards and get to sleep at a decent time. I don't get anywhere near enough sleep at the moment so this is an important and positive decision. I'll be back on a bit later to reply to posts, but my manager is lurking and I don't want to get in trouble. I can't wait to get my internet at home fixed! Gah. Scorpia

Looks like your first week is going to be an awesome success, go you! Panic attacks suck. You will get there though I'm sure of it. :-) Scorpia

Happy Anniversary!

Lol thanks. I've been good. Knee feels much better today. Another rest day yesterday. I did my 15 mins of housework though. I went to a houseparty in the evening and drank and ate far too much. I know I'm not doing anything food related this challenge but that saying keeps springing to mind "You can't out exercise a bad diet". Mine is terrible. Far, far too much sugar, too much coffee (with sugar in), too much of everything generally except protein which I need more of! Urgh. Clothes are geting tighter and inches are creeping back in. I don't have the healthiest relationship with food so I find the whole idea of fixing my diet overwhelming. But it's going to have to be done sooner or later. Preferably sooner. I will have to think on this a bit more and make a plan. I may or may not go for my run later, but I will do some one arm rows. Doing my housework as soon as I get back home. Positivityness incoming: Today food has been good so far cos I had porridge for breakfast and oats are fabulous. My body is good today as my knee is doing it's recovering thing and will be stronger for it. Today I've made a good decision to look at my eating habits seriously. In a life affirming "I will be super strong and energised" way rather than the previous "I must be super skinny" way. This is a whole life change and I'm ready to face it head on. No idea why, I just suddenly am today. It's time. I'll do a week 1 summary tomorrow morning. I feel like it's going well. Scorpia

I've been pondering similar work issues for a while. I really benefit no one here and I don't make a difference at all and all the managers here treat the staff as though they are expendable and fairly meaningless. It's depressing. Random acts of kindness in the office could definitely help a bit. Being positive and supportive can make a world of difference to people. I dunno, it's tricky. It scares me how much it scares me to think of going without technology even for a day. What if something happens on facebook? You seem to be doing great. Looking forward to more random musings and quotes. I do love a quote. Scorpia

Glad you are feeling on the up Waanie. Enjoy your rest day, sounds like you've earned it! Scorpia

Oh wow, that internship sounds amazing and really interesting. So excited for you! Have a great holiday! So many fun things for you to do. Ahhhhh the envy, it's driving me to make holiday plans. When I'm broke because of this it's totally your fault! Scorpia

Food plans always make it much easier for me to make progress I find and yours looks good. You have my admiration if you manage to lower carbs. Just the thought of not being able to comfort eat with pasta makes me break into a sweat lol. Also snacking is the bane of my life, I just demolished a boatload of biscuits out of boredom at work. I want more. Going to drink water instead though *grumble*. Scorpia

Just sneaking in to steal that cak... er say hi. Drooling. I'm sure the number on the scale going up is disheartening but I'm in agreement with the others. My weight fluctuates by 4 or 5lbs per day up and down. But even when it's up, I've still lost nearly an inch around my waist and hips now. I'm sure when you look back in a few weeks you'll see that the average has gone down. I hope the swimming went well. I'm an awful swimmer, I get exhausted almost instantly. Full respect for doing it! Scorpia

Ahahaha, sadly I saw this too late and several hours of WD with the boyfriend had already occurred. I had plenty of rest though on Wednesday and did my 15 minutes of housework. Thursday I went bouldering... and left after a short, easy session with a sore, twingey knee. Boooooooo. I didn't do any housework. Rest day again today. Knee feels a bit better this morning but I'm keeping an eye on it. My right knee seems very weak and injury prone, which is annoying. It's like an overprotective parent constantly saying "Ooo no, be careful, sit down, don't do that." Planning a bit of housework tonight and then reading in my new pjs with a nice hot chocolate and some nice smelling candles burning. Homework from the positivity group: Today food has been awesome cos I had a lovely healthy breakfast of porridge with tasty fresh blackberries. Today my body is awesome cos I totally have the beginnings of bicep muscles forming (I keep looking at them in the mirror and flexing) Today I made a good decision to cancel all plans for this evening in favour of having some me time. It's ages since I had an evening completely to myself and I'm feeling drained. So I'm going to sit in and have some quality time with moi (and the dog). Lush. Also I've planned out next week's workouts so it's a bit easier going than this week. No bouldering on the Tuesday, will sub in some arm and core bodyweight stuff instead. Scorpia

Ahhhh, I love that. I'm sat at my desk and my muscles are growing! I'll bear that in mind about the core stuff. I'm sure I'll be able to jiggle it a bit to suit me. Clearly when I get home tonight I need to lie on the settee and watch The Walking Dead. Not for my own pleasure, but to help my muscles grow as much as possible! :-D Scorpia