NightWatcher13

Ok, so - how'd week zero go? (no points, tis week zero and I'm working on getting stable) SQ 1 - 2 walks, 1 yoga. Not amazing, but also definitely not terrible. SQ 2 - I bought a purple 1 hour sand timer, so I have something visual I can flip and put down in front of the screen while I'm playing to make me remember "hey, timer plz." I didn't game as much this week as I did weeks prior (just had a looooot going on) but definitely didn't remember to set a timer yesterday when I got to play. We'll see if the sand timer in an obvious place helps this coming week I did track my sleep for the week (largely falling asleep between 4 and 5 am, waking up between 12 and 1 pm). SQ 3 - Didn't wind up tracking my food this week, but I did go ahead and change the times and number of alerts to remind me to track food - it's not helpful to have a reminder to track breakfast while I'm still in bed, who knew? LQ - 4 total Duo sessions, 2 were Japanese. Overall, not a bad week of getting groundwork (hopefully) set - we'll see how it goes from here!

Thanks!!! I appreciate the heck out of you keeping track & checking in

NightWatcher groaned as she looked over yet another cliff, then turned to glare back at the unclimbable wall she'd hopped down from when she decided to face the stalking demon. She glanced back over to Seigward, who was still peacefully snoozing away the afternoon. How was she supposed to get back to the bonfire from here? Sure, she could let the raving hoards in the nearby building rip her to shreds and find herself back at the safety of the bonfire, but then all the souls she'd just collected would be for nothing, and she'd have nothing to offer her Firekeeper in exchange for more strength. She looked again over the cliff, trying to will a climbable path to appear before her. Unfortunately, this was Lordran, and reality was never going to bend itself to making her life easier to traverse. Watcher sighed inwardly, pulling out her bow and checking her Estus flask to make sure she still had some left - there was only one path she hadn't tried to leave the burned out remains of the village left in the demon's wake, and there were some hoards she was going to have to go through to get back to the Bonfire - one way or another. So, last challenge went - basically nowhere. It wasn't a complete waste, but I also didn't make any real progress. So, it's time to go back to the drawing board Bonfire for a reset. And time to start properly tracking again. Main Quest : Reclaiming my health bar Working on making this SMARTer, but not entirely there yet 🟥Physical - injured shoulder (should be starting PT soon!), pulling some of the excess weight off my frame, regaining my energy 🟦Mental - sleeping well, dealing with stress properly 🟩Social/emotional - finding balance between my work schedule and social activities and emotional needs like creativity, which means I need to figure out how I can be social around a 2nd shift schedule. All 3 of these feel like they're close to empty right now SQ 1 - Traveling back The journey ahead looks long and painful, and for the time being I have to be careful with my left shoulder (again...) which cuts out a lot of exercises I would normally include like VR, so I'm still pretty much stuck with walking when possible glares at the rain again and very selective yoga when it's not. Tracking: 5 sessions of either walking 30+ minutes or doing yoga each week, 5 points/week SQ 2 - Finding traction The way ahead is full of trip hazards, dark rooms, and rather sticky and slimy at times it seems. I need to have good footing (energy) going forward, which means I need to figure out a way to regulate my sleep schedule so I can do things before work rather than getting up at the last minute and rushing myself together and out the door, and need to be able to plan to do things ahead... also around a schedule that can pull me in 4 hours early OR have me stay 4 hours late on any given day. I need to make sure I'm getting enough sleep in, but I also need to watch my mindless or stress relief activity time limits - YouTube, Social Media, and Elden Ring will all need to have time limits set somehow to keep me from scrolling though or playing for way longer than I should. Tracking: 1) set 1 hour daily limit for week days/2 hour daily limit on weekend for video games going forward 2) Once out of the shower, set 1 calming YouTube video to listen to for settling in 3) Track sleep - I don't know exactly what to do with this yet besides track it, I'd like to set a bedtime of 3am but can also get held over at work UNTIL 3 am, then count in commute home, some food, a shower and settling in...🤦‍♀️problem is, a lot of my OT will probably be working late rather than going in early at 11am. SQ 3 - Mind the Estus flask I don't want to start messing with my diet just yet, but I do want to start tracking my intake again so I can see what I'm eating and go from there. Tracking: Track food in MFP, 5 points/week Life quest - Practice Japanese Tracking - Duolingo at least 5 days/week, Japanese minimum of 3 days/week

Saaaaaame here on the 'rather cook than clean up" bit here; when Mom stayed here she actually did the dishes for me since I did all the cooking and that was so incredibly helpful! Unfortunately, living alone all the cooking and cleaning belong to me, and I'm only good at one of those things

"NOOOO, you should have WAITED!" Watcher heard the words behind her just as she stepped out to face the stalking demon now turning it's gaze towards her. "Well, it's too late now. I, Seigward of Catarina, fight by your side!" A battle cry from the knight running up beside her drowned out the shriek of the demon bearing down on her. Watcher had definitely underestimated the demon she had decided to face, and by the end both she and Seigward were cut and burned from the wrath of the demon. Watcher was glad she's had the help, but also knew she had moved way too quickly to start the fight. "That was quite the performance, but you mustn't get in over your head. We Unkindled must put our duties first! But for the moment, we've a toast to make." Seigward said kindly, pulling out two mugs and a flask of glowing yellow Estus. He filled the mugs and handing one to Watcher. "To your valour, my sword, and our victory together. Long may the Sun shine!" He laughed and cheerfully slammed his mug into Watcher's, spilling a little before downing his entire brew in one gulp. Watcher gratefully drank hers as well, feeling the burns and cuts heal from the influence of the warm liquid as it met her lips. "Well, I'm going to have myself a little nap. The only thing to do, really, after a nice toast." And just as quickly as he'd rushed in to help with the demon, the knight found a comfortable spot on the grass and began snoring. NightWatcher blinked down at him in surprise, but then tipped her hat and turned to make her way back to the bonfire. At least there were others out here, fighting against the same monsters in quests of their own, and maybe sometime she could return the favor to him down the road. (The above is not my original work - it's just a novelized version of what happens in the game after you first meet Siegward and very fitting for how this challenge went for me) Ok, so - I DEFINITELY stepped in over my head this challenge, and am just now starting to get my feet back under me. How the individual quests went : SQ 1 - I got 3 entire walks in during my time in the challenge, and I think I did yoga maybe twice? I wasn't particularly great at tracking that ^^; thankfully Zombies, Run! had all the walks in it. SQ 2 - Hahahaha yeaaaaaaah, I just got the dishes mostly caught back up today from earlier this week. SQ 3 - Again not completed; I do have an extension filed so the fact that taxes are late isn't a problem, but I'm definitely getting a pile of things that need done that I need to actually start checking off by putting them into the "IMPORTANT AND URGENT" quadrant, rather than the "important but I'll get around to it" quadrant LQ - bit of a mixed bag. I haven't lost my streak (currently at 49 days) but a lot of that has been streak freezes and the like. And I don't think I've done a single Japanese lesson in the mix. The last few weeks were really bad for my mental health and by extension, my executive disfunction issues from my ADHD (more details in the spoiler). So now, I need to figure out how to bring myself together enough outside of work to achieve the things I want to do for my own health and well being. Overall, I'm counting this particular challenge as me mostly getting my tail handed to me and getting through with a lot of room for improvement and development - but also as a reminder that things do not go according to plan, and I'm far from the only person dealing with that struggle.

Dishes are the absolute worst chore. Why does cooking have to make so many of them?

Hey Waanie, how's life treating you? You doing ok?

We're here whenever you're ready to pick back up. It sounds like things have been rough with work, I hope you're hanging in there. Sometimes, just going through the motions and watching something on TV is about all you can muster the energy for, and that's both understandable and ok.

I'll have to add an actual finish-up post to this one later, but for now new challenge is posted. Mostly the challenge is similar, I traded the house stuff for some other upkeep that needs done and added Duo back into the list.

Bit of a late start this round (combination weather suckage and adjustment to new job and shift) Why not go with everyone's favorite onion knight from Dark Souls 3 for a template this challange? He's loveable, a darn good cook, wears some chonky armor. Unlike his predecessor Siegfried from DS 1 who let us solve all his problems for him and eventually hollowed, Siegward never gives up. He'll gladly accept help when he's actually stuck, but will also work hard to solve his problems and ultimately fulfill his promise to an old friend. Main Quest - reclaiming my health bar - I need to figure out a good way to make this a S M A R T goal in the near future, since it's a good idea but a bit amorphous at the moment. SQ 1 - Traverse the Lands - "Ah, no, please, go on ahead. I´ve my own road to take. And a duty to fulfil, very soon..." Seigward comes from the distant land of Catarina, which... we never see in any of the Dark Souls series so we know it's not too close to Lordran. He doesn't have a mount far as we ever see, and we find him in places all over DS 3 so we know this guy can hoof it all over while wearing some serious heavy armor, carrying a zwiehander, and somehow or other toting along the ingredients to make a sick soup. Goal : Walk minimum 3 x/ week (more as weather and energy allow, but goal of 3) : On days with no walk, do at least 10 minutes of stretching/yoga to start maintenance program SQ 2 - Estus Soup - "I know. Won't you join me for dinner? I make a fine estus soup. I've got some stewing right now! Even we Undead deserve a little normalcy, from time to time. Seigward periodically along the way makes a pot of Estus Soup that he shares with our character in the game. Much like Seigward I love to cook (&share when possible), but man the cleanup from it can be brutal for me. I lack a dishwasher, and I H A T E keeping up with dishes. Unfortunately, if I'm going to be able to cook and prep food, I need the dishes kept up with. Goal: Keep the kitchen cook-ready; no dishes left in the sink over night at least 4 days/week. SQ 3 - Putting Duty First - "That was quite the performance, but you mustn't get in over your head. We Unkindled must put our duties first!" I have a tendency to want to take on the big, shiny challenge I see RIGHT NOW rather than doing the slow, plodding work on the goals I already have that are WAAAAAY far away or that require constant upkeep - consistent exercise, some issues that I just found out from taxes several years ago that need fixed because bureaucracies are very efficient (seriously, it's 2022. You couldn't have told me in 2020 about issues with 2019? Or bother sending the mail to the correct address?), and getting my info in for taxes this year (I did get an extension and had to hound the company I went through last year for my returns from last year so I could have someone else do it this year so hopefully there are no more issues going forward) Goal: I have several items that I've been procrastinating on that need to be done, but are also stressing me out. I'd like to check these off my to-do list (I'm sure there are other things, I'll add them when they come to mind): - 2019 tax issue correction - Finish taxes for this past year Life Quest - Duolingo. I lost my habit of doing this regularly back when Dad was sick/passing because of the chaos around that time, and just never picked it back up after until about a month ago. Because it remembers where I was, Japanese has felt frustratingly difficult, so I've mostly been working on Spanish practice. Goal - 1 lesson (Spanish or Japanese)/day, minimum 3 Japanese lessons/week

Tracking updates: SQ 1 - Following the last update, I took walks that Thursday and Sunday, then the following Monday, but afterwards both the weather and my energy levels crashed. I got some light yoga in last Tuesday and Sunday, so not nothing but also not ideal. SQ 2 - Overall I stuck to the food plan I made last week pretty well, and this week got a full set of meals laid out & shopped for last night. Food plan for this week (I'm pretty happy with it): Tuscan chicken over pasta and steak / blue cheese salad from last week, and black bean & veggie quesadilla from lunch today. The steak salad felt pretty indulgent, but was also a good way to stretch one piece of steak into 3 separate meals. The Tuscan chicken was insanely rich; next time I'm subbing the cream for oat milk I think. Absolutely no notes on the quesadilla though, that was perfect. (The filling was literally just canned black beans, a bell pepper / half red onion / chopped fine, half a block of cheddar shredded and some cumin and chili powder mixed together.) SQ 3 - Weeeeell... the guest room is currently a box room and I need to pick up the livingroom from trying to do to much and not picking it up after.

Yay! And sushi is definitely always awesome Easy was definitely the name of the game last week. Took most of the week to get my feet all the way back under me. I started writing this last week, but was kinda bouncing all over the place and never got it posted ^^; oops. I'll do a separate actual update for tracking stuff, but starting this week I'm on 2nd shift - not the best for social interaction generally, but hopefully more predictable overall than my previous job & I should be able to keep up with more personal based stuff by doing it before work sucks my brain cells out for the day. Time will tell though.

Thanks! First day was just sitting in a room going over safety stuff and general factory stuff, but today was partly that and partly learning in the QC lab, which was interesting but will definitely be challenging to learn everything. I'm not gonna lie though, I got home from work yesterday and pretty much just flopped onto the bed, before getting up long enough to make some kraft mac & cheese, take a shower & go to bed proper. So much for the last week I could have gone to volleyball (2nd shift is gonna make that impossible once I'm done training 😕 ) Today, I managed to go for a zom walk after work - well... after sushi. But the sushi was definitely worth it. Food has been generally ok, I've been packing either falafel salad or chicken couscous bowls so far (which are both way more filling than they have any right to be, should have split the couscous bowls into smaller portions). Dinners were both not the best - yesterday I had the late evening dinner of kraft mac & cheese, but also got some Taco Bell drive through on my way home cause I was super hungry and also very done with energy at that point. Today dinner was sushi before going for the zom walk as mentioned with some rangoon - certainly not the healthiest thing on my wallet or my waistline, but also was something I haven't gone out for in at least a month or more, so definitely worth it.

SQ 1 - Friday: Wound up not doing anything for exercise Yesterday: Still gross and grey outside, so I did some yoga - started with a more active hands-free yoga video, got halfway through it and realized that I really needed something else and swapped to a yin yoga video. Which is probably why my legs were still sore today, but oh well. Today: It got decent outside so I went out for zoms. 7.2 K walk, which took me further out than I'd been on the trail here before the extra was mostly because I was trying to make sure I hit 10K steps today... not because of anything internal or from lack of walks the last two days, but because it was community day in Pikmin Bloom and I wanted the badge. SQ 2 - Friday: After the falafel salad, I had ramen soup for dinner. Just wasn't feeling super energetic. Yesterday: Had one of the leftover salads, then made some spagettios with some leftover mushrooms and meatballs mixed in. I think I just really didn't have any energy, not sure if that was the weather or just from lack of exercise. Or something else entirely, I didn't feel sick, I just felt vaguely sore and tired - which meant I didn't feel much like food prep. 😕 Today: Made a quick breakfast with some sausage and french toast stix, lunch was a sandwich and frappe from Starbucks (which... worth it). For dinner, I made the chicken couscous bowls - friggin delicious. Will definitely make again. Got enough leftovers for 2 more meals out of it ready to go to work the next couple of days, along with 2 more servings of the falafel salad ready to go. I also made a grocery run for some quick items - some frozen breakfast sandwiches and canned coffee drinks so if I have trouble with the mornings, I have something easy to grab and go. SQ 3 - I did work on the shelves, but didn't get them all the way up. I did get a new bullet journal so I could start from day 1 at the new job in a new one (went back to white paper - the blackout was really pretty and I loved working in it, but hated that I couldn't use normal pens to write in it if my pen stopped working. So not exactly organizing the apartment, but hopefully helping organize my brain. Speaking of mornings... I cannot believe I managed to plan for a start of getting up at 6 am THE DAY AFTER DST STARTS!!!! I'm literally going onto 2nd shift in 2 weeks once I'm done training, I was used to getting into work at 9 at my previous job, and the 1 day I pick to start my training on first shift and arriving by 6:50 had to be the monday after DST. 🤦‍♀️ So I'm gonna go get in the shower, go to bed, and get up at what would have been 5am yesterday because I'm just that good at planning ahead.

Right? I was so disappointed, thankfully seems to be ready to be nice again today. I cheated and tried Amazon, which arrived today - so I didn't make it earlier when I originally was thinking about it. I've only gotten to try falafel a couple of times, but definitely liked it. The shelves... *grumbles* I'll deal with them later, kinda lost my spoons for that this weekend.

Oh come OOOON, Ohio 😕 Guess it's snow o'clock. I'll do something inside today - not sure yet if I want to try to do one of the indoor Zombies, Run! trainings or do a more laid back yoga, my muscles kinda hurt today. Not sure if I did something that's making them sore or they're grumpy at the weather. I've actually never bought shallots before, I'm sure I've had them in restaurant dishes before but I've always used onions when something calls for it at home - this is the first time I've actually picked one up 😆 Couldn't find couscous though, so orzo's going to have to suffice. I think that'll be dinner tonight. I made the falafel salad today for lunch after getting groceries, that is definitely a very good meal, with enough leftovers for 2 more servings this weekend. I got 2 of the shelves I wanted up last night, buuuuut the template for one of them was a bit off so the screw placement is wrong, and I need to re-align it.

SQ 1 - Yesterday: 5.2 K walk, today: 3.5 K, with a very brief run thrown in at the end SQ 2 - Yesterday: Had some more of the leftovers from Today: Picked one of Mealime's pre-made meal plans for the next few days, I'll go get the groceries tomorrow morning now that I know Aldi restocks every morning so I'll probably be able to get the chicken then rather than this afternoon. It's not on the meal plan itself, but I added items to the grocery list to let me add the Chicken couscous bowl that @Rookietried cause they sound amazing, and I'm already getting chicken for the rest of the meals. Got breakfast tracked, haven't eaten anything else just yet... should probably do that here shortly. SQ 3 - Yesterday: Got the boxes moved from my bedroom to the guest room, but did not get the shelves up. On the plus side, that definitely freed up a lot of space in the bedroom to start organizing. Today: Not really cleaning/organizing related, but I got a little 25 pod grower planted so stuff will be ready to go into the ground in April/May. I'll try to get the shelves up this afternoon before I settle in for the evening.

I don't see why it wouldn't, you'll have to let us know if it works if you try it

Small boots, long journey? Battling wraiths?

How are ya holding up over there, Jupiter? You doing ok?

Yesterday (Tuesday) SQ 1 - It was pretty nice out yesterday, and there were buds all over the place - still fairly cold, but spring is prying the door open slowly. SQ 2 - Got to use my spiralizer Mom got me a long time ago (remember me talking about needing to organize my apartment? Couldn't find the dang thing for the past couple of weeks, she found it like 5 minutes after setting her stuff in the guest room. She doesn't even live here! Moms.) to make the zoodles and chicken recipe I had on the meal plan for me, Mom and Rose for lunch. Also... spiralizing carrots results in this bit of comedy gold: Dinner was a leftover chicken leg/thigh quarter and mashed potatoes, and later some mac & cheese with mushrooms mixed in - which makes sense that I got extra hungry later in the day, I forgot to eat breakfast. 🤦‍♀️ Related to food stuff - I got everything sorted on My Fitness Pal so it talks to my Fitbit, so now I can start food tracking again and get more of an accurate view of what my intake actually looks like, and get a better sense of how to tweak it. SQ 3 - Got list written out more thoroughly, and got 4 loads of laundry done (1 load clothes, then lots o'bedding) Tasks for today (Wednesday) - move boxes from bedroom to guest room - pick spots for shelves, get them put up - run (walk quickly) from zoms - ??? - Profit 😛

Thanks! That was kale, carrot ribbons, scallions and a homemade peanut dressing (4 tbsp peanut butter, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp honey, little bit of sesame oil and a pinch of red pepper flakes) with a diced up pork cutlet on top. Definitely a pretty filling meal too! *Edited to add - forgot the lime juice in the dressing - 1 lime's worth

Tracking data from last week - estimate in for Wednesday's KM, since I forgot to turn on Fitbit before the walk and didn't have Zombies, Run! going to track distance for the walk. Overall, not a bad weekend - I even got a 25 km bonus from my Pokemon, Go! app on Monday so I got some steps in. Busy week, but good week.

Hahaha sounds like someone had some energy to burn Glad you didn't have any residual covid yuck going on! Hopefully you're able to be completely done with that

Definitely glad to hear your mental health is doing better! Sounds like a plan, but don't be afraid to let your body take a break if it needs one. Diminished lung capacity is no joke 😕