stillskies

DAYS 8-12 Goal One - Get your ass moving. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, muscle up and lift the bar: 1/3 - Lifted tonight. Squats (5x5 @ 85lbs) and deadlifts (3x5 @ 105lbs). I fucked off the beginning of the week so I'll be doing all three in a row. Again. One day, I'll learn. Walk (or run) it off, buttercup: 1/2 - Snugs and I went on a run today! I have... a lot of feelings about this even though I know I shouldn't compare current me to me that ran my first half marathon because lol. But whatever. We did 1.36 miles (which was more than I'd intended, but once I hit the halfway point, I was like okay I can go a bit longer). It took a little over 19 minutes, which is... not terrible, but not great. I don't know. I did the thing at least. You should be a pretzel: 1/3 - Did a more strength/core based yoga session today and stretched after my run this morning. But since the stretching session didn't meet the minimum time length, I cannot count it. Hence a yoga class. Goal Two - What is in your mouth? Keep it under 1800: 4/7 - As stated earlier, I sucked on Sunday because travel and mountains, but I've done well the rest of the week! You are a cucumber with anxiety: 3/7 - Sunday and today were nopes. But I've gotten it the rest of the week! Soda is poison and you need to stop: 4/7 - Sunday I was over by 10 (as stated in last weeks recap), and Monday and Tuesday were RIGHT ON 400, but I've got most of the week at goal. This is great! Goal Three - Me time. Stitch, stitch, baby: 0/7 - Nope. Haven't started. At this rate, this goal is just here to mock me. Take a night off, mommy: 0/1 - SUPPOSEDLY I will get some time on Saturday. Which I desperately, desperately need. I have book club, so for sure as of 5:20ish pm I'll be baby free, but it would be nice to have the afternoon, too.

Yup! It's all uphill from here or something like that. LMAO Yup. I'm a freaking raven, really. SHINY RUN LIFT BAR DAYS 5-7 Goal One - Get your ass moving. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, muscle up and lift the bar: 3/3 - Nailed it. I got in my last lifting session on Thursday, which was bench (5x5 @ 80lbs). I didn't do a second olympic lift, but I did do some stability stuff with the dumbbells and some hanging practice. (My grip is terrible. I'll never survive aerial again if I can't get my grip back. Sob.) Walk (or run) it off, buttercup: 2/2 - Nailed it! Walked around Breckenridge Saturday afternoon, then went tubing, which involved a bit of trekking and pulling the tube through snow. You should be a pretzel: 1/3 - Yeah... nope. I failed this one. WHOOPS. BETTER LUCK THIS WEEK. Goal Two - What is in your mouth? Keep it under 1800: 2/7 - I was good on Thursday, but Friday/Saturday/Sunday was Mountain Vacation and I just. Stuffed myself with food. And I feel vaguely ill because of it, but oh well. You are a cucumber with anxiety: 3/7 - I did it Thursday and Friday!! But not Saturday and Sunday because lol. Soda is poison and you need to stop: 4/7 - Thursday and Saturday were good, Friday and Sunday were each over by 10. You win some, you lose some. Goal Three - Me time. Stitch, stitch, baby: 0/7 - Some day, this knit will start~ Take a night off, mommy: 0/1 - I didn't think that was gonna happen, but I did get about 2.5, maybe 3 on Saturday between walking around Breck and tubing. Not the greatest of weeks, but also not the worst. IT'S ALL UPHILL FROM HERE~

Week 1, Days 1-4 I didn't get my challenge posted until yesterday, but whatever, I do what I want. Goal One - Get your ass moving. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, muscle up and lift the bar: 2/3 - Lifted last night, about to go lift tonight. Last night was bench (5x5 @ 75lbs) and seated OHP (5x5 @ 47lbs). Tonight is squats (5x5 @ 70lbs) and deadlifts (1x5 @ 95lbs, 3x5 @ 115lbs). (Weight edited in once I finish.) Walk (or run) it off, buttercup: 1/2 - Went for a short walk around the block with the wife and child yesterday. It wasn't as long as I'd have like because holy balls it was cold out. You should be a pretzel: 1/3 - Tentative, since I'm supposed to do this after I lift tonight. Will update if I don't. Goal Two - What is in your mouth? Keep it under 1800: 1/7 - I kept it under 1800 today, and I missed it by 8 calories (!!) yesterday. Sunday and Monday.... lol. You are a cucumber with anxiety: 1/7 - I did remember to do this today! But... that's it. Sigh. Soda is poison and you need to stop: 2/7 - Sunday and today were under 400 calories, and Monday and Tuesday were each 50 calories over. Alas. Goal Three - Me time. Stitch, stitch, baby: 0/7 - Ouch. I really do need to start this... Take a night off, mommy: 0/1 - I don't think this is happening this week, but that's okay. We'll be in the mountains this weekend, so I'll have some baby-free time what with there being four of us. Not too terrible a start. I'm still mad about yesterday's calorie count, but c'est la vie. I really wanted that melted chocolate with my strawberries.

Ty y'all ♥ Yup. I have a hard time with C25K for some reason - it either feels like too quick a ramp or not quick enough. I've got a loose idea of what I'm planning on doing, which has worked in the past for me. I tend to start out with walking/running intervals, kind of like C25K does, but I end up doing distance-based rather than time-based. I'm way too finicky about my mileage to be like "ten minutes in better turn around, that'll be like 1.5 miles" nahhhh I gotta do the 2. XD Thanks for the encouragement!! And def stick around. ♥

Why are you like this?

I despise you.

Guess who's back? Back again? Stillskies is back. Tell some friends. (Please don't.) Anyway, I have been dragged from my grave to come back for the ten year anniversary challenge! Which means I... have to remember... how to do the things that I spent two years way back when learning how to do, because time is a bitch and so is depression. Such is life. And speaking of life, there have been some big changes!! Mostly, you'll notice I'm here, with the rangers, and not back with the monks where I used to hang. This is because I sadly had to say goodbye to BJJ in 2015 because whatever I did to my back just couldn't take it anymore. Which was a real bummer, since I had gotten my fourth stripe on my white belt and was close to my blue. C'est la vie. I do still (on occasion) run and lift, and I had a hot minute of doing crossfit, so when I was pondering my (late) return, the rangers seemed like a good fit. So hi! Please be gentle. Other changes of note: I quit my job in December to be a stay at home mom to our now 11 month old daughter. So time is kind of wibbly wobbly and the only reason I know days is because I have a part-time night job at a bookstore, so I have to know when to show up. I was doing aerial pretty consistently (hoop is life) but I took some time off after my last performance in July and have been dragging my feet getting back into it. Maybe after this challenge I'll see about going back or something. I'm still not very interesting. Sorry. ONTO THE CHALLENGE! GOAL ONE: GET YOUR ASS MOVING I've been doing a bullet journal on and off for the last few years, and this year, I decided to simply pick three things in four areas of my life to focus on. Some of them I'm doing okay on! Some of them, like getting my ass moving, needs a bit of help, so here we go: Twinkle, twinkle, little star, muscle up and lift the bar: What it says on the tin! I want to lift 3x a week. I was doing okay in January, although I slipped to two days by the end of the month, and I didn't touch the bar at all last week. So, let's see if being back here (and having to report in) will guilt my butt into going downstairs to the rack in my flipping basement and lift the bar. Walk (or run) it off, buttercup: I miss running. I hate running. You see the conundrum. I want to run (or walk) outside 2x a week. This can (and probably should) be with the baby, as my in-laws are lovely and got me a running stroller for my birthday, and Snugs enjoys seeing the outside world. This has a lot more mental push back than the laziness that sometimes overcomes me in the previous goal: back in 2014, I started running, and in 2015, I was doing long distances without stopping with a decent pace. Then I got depressed and stopped. Every time I've tried to get back into running, I keep comparing myself now to how I was in 2015. My mile time is too high, I should be running faster, longer, etc. After a few runs, I completely shut down and refuse to go back out. Hence the walking caveat here. Anything that gets my body moving and working towards that goal of being able to run like I used to is helpful. It's just... hard to remember that. You should be a pretzel: This should be an easy one, and yet. I hate stretching. My lower back, which I injured back in 2015/2016, loves being stretched. Additionally, aerial looks so much nicer when you have some flexibility. Hence, yoga/at least 20 minutes stretching session 3x a week. @starsapart and I were doing pretty good, picking a yoga video during Snugs' first nap and getting through it, but I really, really, really hate yoga and stretching, but it's good for me, so I have to suck it up. GOAL TWO: WHAT IS IN YOUR MOUTH?? Counting calories is the only way I've found that works for my body to lose weight. So I've been logging all of my food again (started at the beginning of the year), and I feel like I've re-established that habit pretty well. I'm taking care to pay attention to when I'm freaking out over the number on the app (I have a very long history of disordered eating: counting calories sometimes triggers it, so I know once I start the whole "oh, yesterday was 1600, let's see if I can do 1400 today/1200/800/etc)" to stop the counting). What I've been shit at is keeping my calories in a reasonable range, and drinking more water, less soda. So: Keep it under 1800: At my current weight, 1800 is still a cut. Better if I stay in the 1600s, but that's a more drastic cut for me right now, when my daily average is 2200. Start slow, build momentum, go from there. What really kills me is that it's only been recently that this has started. I was doing good at the beginning of the year, with one or two days a week where I went over, and now it's... a daily thing. So, I want to keep my daily calorie count at under 1800. You are a cucumber with anxiety: And (aside from anxiety), what are cucumbers made of? Water! I'm not setting a particular "you must drink x ozs of water a day" goal because I truly, vehemently hate water. Instead, I just want to start out with making sure I'm getting some water when I'm not working. For this goal, it's simple: drink a glass of water in the morning before eating anything else. That's it. Preferably, it should be the pint glasses and not the smaller glasses, but literally, I just need to built the habit, so. Baby steps. Soda is poison and you need to stop: Ah, the days when I was soda free. The problem with those days was I still wanted soda. I like soda. But I really don't need to be drinking as much as I currently do. My year long goal is I can have soda no more than two times a week. That's... not working for me at this moment in my life, so for the purposes of this challenge, no more than 400 soda calories a day. This means two and a half small cans, two large cans, one and a half bottles... However it works out, but no more than 400 of my calories can go to soda. GOAL THREE: ME TIME This is a nice, easy one. I'm really fucking bad at taking time for myself, so I need to force myself to do it. Fortunately, I do have hobbies outside of playing with the baby, so let's dig in: Stitch, stitch, baby: My bff is having a baby!! And I like to knit!!! So I've been meaning to start on the baby blanket I want to make for her! To make sure I get this done (and, in accordance with my bujo goals), I just want to take an hour a day to knit. That's it. Just an hour. Baby is due in April, so the main goal is to be done by end of March, but her baby shower is on 3/14, so that's the stretch goal. But, an hour a day is something I can find. Take a night off, mommy: Being a stay at home mom means you really don't get a night off. And as the only time I leave the house, sans baby, is to go to work, I don't really have baby-free time to do something fun. Even exercise is done during her naps or after she's in bed, and there's always the risk that she'll wake up, truncating whatever I'm doing. Basically, I need consecutive hours of not being responsible for Snugs. All I want is four consecutive hours a week. Can be an afternoon, or an evening. Doesn't really matter. This one, however, is contingent on @starsapart's schedule. If I'm not at work, she's at rehearsal, and she's also often at rehearsal over the weekend. So this one might not be an every week thing, but it is something I need to work on doing. That's it. That's the whole challenge. Let's see how this goes~

All The Rest of The Days Work has been busy. I'm trying to stand up a new team by the first week of April, and we're ridiculously behind. So, a lot of my time has been spent on that. Outside of that, I've mostly been binge watching Gilmore Girls and having fun RPing. And playing with the cats. Lots of playing with the cats. Challenge-wise, this last week was a bust. Didn't do anything challenge-related, so this week was a fail. Rolling with the punches, but I definitely think I know which princess I'm doing next month. So, yay. Moving on.

Cats in bags are always cute. Work has been crazy, but I've been... around. More or less. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wrapping it up.

Thank you~! And I will, eventually. CAAAAAT. And no worries! Thank! ♥

Looks like it's the season for promotions. Thank you! Oh man, I'm so far from blue. SO FAR. Need moar training...

I love chucks. I stopped wearing them because they weren't work appropriate, then I got rid of my gray low tops and my lavender high tops and then I had none. So now I have classic black and white chucks and all is good. I still dress like a college student and I have no regrets. Comfy clothes are comfy. Trying to be! We'll see how it goes for me...

Not an update, but: GUESS WHO FINALLY GOT HER FOURTH STRIPE? THIS GIRL. :D The professor made a joke that I'm a forever white belt since I should technically be a blue belt at this point (been training for over a year, but with frequent breaks whoops~), BUT NOW THE BLUE BELT IS IN MY SIGHT AND I AM TERRIFIED. That is all.

Days 011 & 012 & 013 & 014 I'm liking this bullet approach, especially since I'm not even going to try to do daily updates. I just... don't find I have much to say these days. Probably me being too much in my head, but. Thursday First day back after all sorts of meetings. Catch up day! Woo. Fortunately not a lot to catch up on thanks to me doing it during the meetings, but. Went to the gym with E at work and beat her up while I did core. Went to the gym with stars and did volume squats and bench. Nothing too excited. Friday I was going to go to the gym, but whoops. Too tired. So tired. Lots of work. Also, lots more coding. >.> I always end up coding a bunch when I'm in a game. BUT IT'S ALSO PRETTY???? Saturday Skipped bjj because ugh exhaustion. Spent the morning watching Gilmore Girls and basically putzing around. Once stars got home, we went shopping for a new pillow (for her) and shoes! Got a pair of chucks for general and lifting wear. Spent the evening kind of vegging out. Sunday It was pancake party day! Spent a good chunk of the day at my in-laws eating food and generally chatting. Went home and vegged out, then hit bed early because ugh daylight savings. Didn't go to the gym because pancake day. Onto the challenge summary thing! Rock That Crop Top, Jas (aka core - 3 sessions a week) - 3/3. Got in a few quick sessions, but I did it. Climb That Wall (aka chin ups - 3 times a week) - 3/3! Two in one day, even! Did some Sunday morning, as well. I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Part the Third (aka food - stick to the plaaaaan) - FAILED! Not even going to pretend on this one. As the week progressed, so did my assholish eating. Making Kitty Famous (aka instagram - one new cat picture a day) - 6/7! Missed Monday.

This one is a murder mystery - everyone gets to tell their own story and interact with the overall plot as plot things are posted. I'm having fun so far, so. SO PRETTY. Also ridic # of lines, but SO PRETTY. They are a part of training, and for the most part, I honestly don't mind them. Usually, as they come more often, they start to shift towards technique rather than strength, but there are a few that just... refuse to use technique. And I'm like, noooooo. Hanging in as best as I can at any rate! I tried doing some after the big game I was in crashed, but none have kept my interest so far. This one seems to be. As for changes and interactions... Interactions are decent, but I'm still learning to write with some of these people, and I don't know how they handle line changes yet. We'll see. BUT YES. THE ROCK. Best bi gym owner ever. SO PRETTY. It was so cute!!! I was surprised by how good it was because Disney's track record is kind of hit and miss, but. Just keep swimming.

Days 008 & 009 & 010 More bullets because I'm just... Urgh. So. Tired. Monday Yet another day off! Huzzah! Spent the afternoon shopping with stars and then we went to see Zootopia, which was super cute and amazingly well done and you all should see it! Also, it was rainy and grey in the afternoon and it was super happy making. I love that kind of weather. Spent the evening baking and getting mentally prepared for the next two days... Tuesday Day one of all day strat meetings for work. Had to go to the South campus, which meant leaving at 6:30am, and barely getting there by 8am. Ugh, traffic. Not much to say about the meetings themselves, except they were long and informative. After the meetings, we did a team dinner, where one of the managers regaled me with tales of his vasectomy. Why do people like to tell me these things???? Wednesday Day 2 of all day meetings! Left at 6:15am and ended up getting there over half an hour early. Go figure. Meetings were meetings. Potentially picked up another project, so. Went home afterwards and vegged out. Also started coding with html again and made something pretty! Yay! Onto the challenge summary thing! Rock That Crop Top, Jas (aka core - 3 sessions a week) - 0/3. Haven't gone to the gym this week. Climb That Wall (aka chin ups - 3 times a week) - 0/3! Haven't gone to the gym this week. I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Part the Third (aka food - stick to the plaaaaan) - MOSTLY PASSING! Glad I built in the exemption for the strat meetings. That's all I can say. I'm looking forward to eating good food again, urgh. Making Kitty Famous (aka instagram - one new cat picture a day) - 2/7! Missed Monday. Whoops.

Days 004 & 005 & 006 & 007 I really, really, really hate being busy. I absolutely despise it. Anyway, bullet list because I just can't be fussed to go into too much detail right now -- my brain is fried from meetings. Thursday Work was relatively okay. A few meetings that went as well as they could, and a quick work gym visit with E to coach her through her weight workout. Mostly spent the latter half of the day putting things in order for my PTO. Went to the other gym after work (which was a battle because I really just wanted to go hooooome) and did the lifting. Didn't get a chance to squat because every five seconds the squat rack was taken. Did managed to do assisted dips, though, which was the first time I'd ever done those, so I'm considering this a win. Was introduced to a new online writing RPG. Decided to hold a character and started putting together his application. Finding a PB was actually the easiest thing ever -- changed a few things, but he's basically a character out of the original thing I'm writing, and the only person to accurately portray him is The Rock. He's just not a supernatural or in the mob, but he's still a sucker for animals. Friday First day of PTO! I had lofty goals: I was going to go to bjj! And get my car washed! And my hair cut! Instead, I finished up Toni's application and sat around watching Gilmore Girls. I have no regrets. Saturday Was actually excited to go to bjj, which is kind of amazing because Saturdays have kind of been the day I grudgingly get up or find an excuse not to go. Instead, I was up and ready and even early! Started with basics (single leg take down, guard escapes), switched over to women's (some chokes and mount attacks), and stayed to roll afterward and during the actual randori. Things quickly went downhill, however -- my partner in women's was a girl who is overly enthusiastic and very doggedly tries to get a specific move, even if said move isn't going to work. Well, she was trying to go for an Americana, but my wrist was off the mat. I tried to explain that she wasn't getting it and had to get my wrist back on the mat, and instead she decided to put all of her weight on my hand and drive my fingers into the mat. As soon my thumbnail started to bend, I tried to tap, but she kept going. She kept going until I was repeating "ow ow ow ow" and the professor had to stop her. She'd pulled my nail back far enough that the nail bed was full of blood, and my thumb hurt whenever pressure was put on it. Sigh. Ended up bandaging my hand and continuing on, and ended up going harder with her than normal because I was pissed and in pain. Not hard enough that I could have hurt her, but hard enough that she realized she wasn't keeping me down if I didn't want her to. Rolled with the professor a few times, was complimented, so yay! Then went to randori with the big boys. Actually managed to get an armbar on a blue belt (he ended up giving it to me since I had the set up mostly right, but had my leg in the wrong place). Another white belt (one stripe) nearly wrenched my shoulder out of its socket, so I stuck with upper belts after that. After randori, went to my gym weigh in, then went home. Collapsed on the couch, watched more Gilmore Girls. Pretty much stayed there. Sunday Went to the gym, lifted the weights, squatted 165lbs! Which was totally exciting and hard and I AM 10lbs AWAY FROM MY GOAL FOR THE GYM CHALLENGE! Lazed about until evening when I needed to start prepping souffle for Kagetsukai and stars' parents, since they were coming for dinner. Had a nice dinner with the in-laws and Kagetsukai. Started (and finished!) my first log in a while for the new game. Realized my writing is really kind of rusty, so I need to work on that. Sigh. Onto the challenge summary thing! Rock That Crop Top, Jas (aka core - 3 sessions a week) - 3/3. Did core while E did her weights, and then added in more core during my regular gym work out. Climb That Wall (aka chin ups - 3 times a week) - 3/3! Two sessions with the assisted pull up machines. I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Part the Third (aka food - stick to the plaaaaan) - MOSTLY PASSING! Kind of fell off the wagon with soda. Whoops. Making Kitty Famous (aka instagram - one new cat picture a day) - 7/7! Have cute cat pictures and videos:

Eh, it was fine. I made up for it on Saturday when I was there for over three hours. ^^;; I just. I hate shopping. Hate it. Yup! Always fun. I'm enjoying the 'Anyone but Trump 2016' signs I'm seeing. It gives me hope that we're not too far gone yet. If I could just wear pajamas, my wardrobe would be awesome. Alas, work requires people clothes. Ugh.

Aaaaah! Good luck with testing! Kick (literal) ass!

That video is awesome. Have you seen the sequel? He takes on Mulan, Cinderella, Elsa and someone else. Thank you~! ofc. Gotta have strong gifs, man. It's what keeps me alive. Kitty quest is best quest! I'm really only limiting soda because I'm tired of stars bitching at me about soda. Yass, good. She totally does. She's nutritious. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Days 001 & 002 & 003 Going to do today's update since I'm mostly done with the day and I'm not planning on doing a whole lot tonight. Monday was spent putting the finishing touches on the spreadsheet of doom. Went over it with the person who will be using it, and there is a laundry list of things to fix on it. Mostly superficial things (colors, grading curves, and an additional column add on the first tab), so I took care of those yesterday. Wanted to have a chance to go over how the sheet will work as an integrated feature to do the reporting that it needs to do. Pretty sure it's 95% complete - I would say it's done, but then I look at my e-mail and see a new request for the spreadsheet. Alas. Anyway, rest day, so no real exercise to be found, although stars and I did go shopping after work. I've been in dire need of new shoes (and... probably clothes, but I'm still kind of anti-shopping), and stars needed shoes that didn't make her feet hurt and some new BB cream, so off we went! Stars found a pair of loafers at DSW, which was our first stop. I, sadly, did not find anything that I liked. This is, also sadly, not unusual. I hate shopping and unless I have a specific idea of what I want, I tend to... not go. Anyway, after my strike out at DSW, it was off to cross the street and hit the mall. Our first stop was Payless, where I managed to find a pair of Christian Siriano for Payless shoes that I didn't hate. They're flats, they're loafers, and they're a neutral color (and I'm wearing them today!), plus they were less than $30, so I figured this was a win. Once I had my new shoes, it was off to go to Sephora for make up, except that I sort of led stars into Anne Taylor first. Not for me - for her. See, she's got a problem. Clothes don't really fit her off the rack at the stores we usually shop at (Kohl's and the like). They just don't carry sizes in a small enough size, or shirts that have room for her aerialist shoulders. Amazingly enough, whenever we go into an expensive store, she doesn't seem to have this problem! So I've been trying to convince her to start buying one or two pieces at expensive stores to fill in the gaps in her wardrobe. Now, I didn't lead her into Anne Taylor with the intent of her buying anything - I was actually taking her in to gauge reactions to some of the clothes since her birthday is coming up - but she tried on a few pieces and ended up walking out with a skirt and a shirt. She seems to be slowly coming to my point of view (muahahaha!) so we might make this a monthly thing where we go shopping and she gets one or two pieces, and we keep doing this until she has a wardrobe that is lovely and doesn't fit weirdly in places. Win win. Anyway, after that, it was off to Sephora to procure BB cream, and then off to home for dinner. Tuesday was a busy day. It's also usually a double BJJ day, but it was also caucus, and I felt like I should actually go to that. Work itself was okay - finished the spreadsheet (in as much as it can be finished), went to meetings, was praised on said spreadsheet by my boss, and went to Zumba. After work (which I left late because of meetings), I went to my caucus location. Without getting into my thoughts on the Democratic candidates (I'm a Democrat because they mostly believe I'm a person), the process itself was... a clusterfuck. Seriously. Doors opened at 6:30pm and were supposed to close at 7pm. Except that more people turned out than they'd anticipated. We didn't actually get to the straw vote until 8:30 because the last people weren't checked in until 8:15. I was there until after 9pm, and I wasn't happy about it. I also ended up being nominated caucus secretary for my precinct, and the precinct committee person was trying to convince me to be a delegate at county caucus next weekend. Yeah, no. If the precinct caucus was this badly organized, I can only shudder to think what county will be like. I may show up to the reorg next January and maybe run for something, but we'll see if I still feel charitable towards politics in a year. Needless to say, no bjj. Also, ended up having to have frozen lasagna for dinner because this damn thing took so long. Woe is me. Today has been slower, thankfully. Had a meeting this morning where I presented the spreadsheet to my management team and pretty much won them over to my way of thinking, so yay! Went to the gym to get in a workout, and now I'm sitting here, reading random articles, and relaxing. Tonight's plan was going to be going to bjj, buuuuuuuut I think I'm just going to stay home. I've got Friday and Monday off, so I'll probably end up doing bjj classes on those days, so. Onto the challenge summary thing! Rock That Crop Top, Jas (aka core - 3 sessions a week) - 1/3. Went down the gym today and did some AMRAPs of core (and squats because of another challenge I'm in), as well as some timed sets for planks and wall sits. My current AMRAPs are as stands (and will likely be re-tested weekly to see if there's any improvement): Bodyweight Squat: 50 Crunches: 70 Sit Ups: 25 Glute Bridges: 30 Mountain Climbers: 35 Exercise Ball Roll Outs: 12 Current plank and wall sits time is 00:00:30. Going to try to improve those, as well. Climb That Wall (aka chin ups - 3 times a week) - 1/3! Band assisted today, but I totally noticed a brand new assisted pull up machine at the gym at work. Super exciting! Anyway, 3 sets of 5 with the blue band (I have no idea what resistance that is, to be honest). I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Part the Third (aka food - stick to the plaaaaan) - PASSING! So far anyway.I've done one bread free day and have had no sodas. I'm a bit screwed on processed food (cereal is kind of my go-to for breakfast because it's fast and filling, and Cocoa Crispies are made with rice rather than wheat) since today was a pre-packaged burrito kind of lunch day, so I might rethink the processed food goal, mostly because breakfast. Making Kitty Famous (aka instagram - one new cat picture a day) - 3/7! Have cute cat pictures and videos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BCdDclXShpZ/?taken-by=stillskies Natsuo really doesn't like being photographed or recorded, hence the two Youji pictures. But they're just so cute.

RESERVED FOR WEEKLY SUMMARIES AND END OF CHALLENGE SUMMARY WEEK 001 CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADE: A! Urgh. My coreeeeeee. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADE: A! Urgh. My armmmmmmms. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADE: B! Mostly stuck to the plan. Soda kind of derailed me at the end of the week. Oh well. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADE: A! Didn't miss a day! Also, photographing the cats is super fun and they are sooooooo cute! WEEK 002 CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADE: A! The burn. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADE: A! I can probably do a single chin up without weight. Will have to check it next week. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADE: C! Yeah, let's not even talk about this. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADE: B! Missed Monday. Alas. WEEK 003 CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADE: A! Managed it. BJJ gave me some new core exercises. Urgh. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADE: A! Barely, but managed it. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADE: C! Food is a horrible thing for me. Again. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADE: B! Missed Monday. Again. WEEK 004 CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADE: C! This last week was horrible. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADE: C! Nope. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADE: C! Next challenge is going to have to be rethought. Again. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADE: B! Missed one day. Again. END OF CHALLENGE SUMMARY CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADE: B! Aside from the last week, I did pretty good about this. Will need to keep doing this, though. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADE: B! Again, the last week was rough, but I did do it for the most part. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADE: C! Nope. I really, really fell off the wagon. Again. Already trying to figure out how to go about this next challenge. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADE: B! Generally missed one day a week. But there was lots of cat pictures, and they were cute. And I really just like my cats.

THE YEAR OF DISNEY PRINCESSES BECAUSE I AM A MOTHERFUCKING PRINCESS MONK: PRINCESS JASMINE EDITION As is tradition (hey, once totally counts as tradition!), have my favorite Jasmine song: What? She's only got the one song, and as much as I like A Whole New World, I like this better. Rock That Crop Top, Jas. Having some core confidence definitely translates in other areas of life - I mean, just look at that sassy princess in her crop top. I totally need that. And core strength. After all, a rocking crop top isn't going to toss the guys off of me in bjj. CHALLENGE: Core - 3 sessions a week GRADING: A - 3 sessions | B - 2 session | C - 1 session Obviously, to be done on different days. If there is a class at work that is core heavy, it will count. No time limit on this - just need to make sure I'm focusing on this. Climb That Wall Now, Jasmine just wanted to be ~*~free~*~ from her princessly obligations. I mean, we all feel that feel sometimes. Me, though? I just want my damn chin up back. CHALLENGE: Chin Up - 3 times a week GRADING: A - 3 days | B - 2 days | C - 1 day At least one set of 5 attempted three times a week. This can be done at home (which... let's be real, would be me jumping futilely), at work (which has assistance bands), or at the other gym (which as the assisted pull up machine). I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Part the Third Now that Jasmine knows that food doesn't grow on trees (wait), it's time to start being a bit more specific in how we decide to eat. CHALLENGE: Food - stick to the plaaaaan GRADING: A - Stuck to the plan | B - Mostly stuck to the plan | C - There was a plan? So, this go around, I'm going to have some specific things to work towards since two months of beating into my head what should and should not be a daily nom thing has started to sink it. The plan is as follows: Limit bread/pasta to 4 meals a week - this means 3 days of no wheat; rice does not count towards this Processed food no more than twice a week - basically, if it comes from a box or a can (unless it's corn), I can only have it twice a week. Chocolate does not count, nor does dairy. Soda on double bjj days, otherwise once every 5 days - when it comes down to it, I like soda, so instead of saying no more soda, time to restrict it. There will be an exception to this rule on 3/9 and 3/10 because I'm in all day meetings, and as I don't drink coffee, I need caffeine from somewhere or I'll fall asleep. Making Kitty Famous Let's be real - the actual star of the movie was Rajah. And he's such a handsome boy. I've got two handsome boys at home, and the world really ought to see more of them. CHALLENGE: Instagram - one new cat picture a day GRADING: A - 7 pictures | B - 6 pictures | C - 5 pictures Follow me on instagram if you want (~stillskies), but I'll also post them here.

I love KKM. From what I know, it's not on Netflix - I have the licensed DVDs for Season 1 and half of Season 2. We have fansubs for the rest of it, the OAVs, and Season 3 somewhere. You may have to go looking for alternatives, unfortunately.

Days 025-028 Thursday was relatively quiet, aside from the abject panic that consumed me once I saw my year end review was scheduled for that day. It went well - glowing review, as expected, but still. I always get super paranoid about it. Went to the gym with E during lunch and tormented her with the barbell while I did barbell glute bridges. Ended up getting to 135lbs, which is pretty good for my first time (I can probably do more - thanks bjj! - but the weight resting on my hip bones gets kind of painful after a while). After work, stars and I went to the other gym for lifting tiemz. No new records - focused on volume for both bench and squat. Got some chin up work done on the assisted machine. Went home and continued my binge watch of Bitten. Friday was busy busy busy, but only because I finally decided to get a start on one of the scorecards I've been kind of languishing on. It's taken months to get the information I need, as well as access to it, so now that I have it, I figured it would be a good idea to start formatting the spreadsheet. Which took 8 hours. My entire day was spent on that spreadsheet. And it looked pretty damn good by the time I left work, although there was still some tweaking that needed to be done. Went home, ate noms, finished Bitten and started Gilmore Girls. Saturday was a nice, lazy day. I was going to go to bjj, but the desire for sleep won out. Had a minor fiasco with our garage door - Friday night, we'd heard a big crash, but assumed it was the cats. Apparently, it was one of the springs on our garage door breaking. So, in order to get our cars out of the garage, we had to have someone come and fix it. Stars found someone, they came, got the garage open, and she took off for aerial (she'd arranged to be able to go even though she'd missed open gym) while I hung out and waited for the guy to fix it. He did, I paid, he left. Stars came home, and later we went to Kohl's (we had some Kohl's cash to use) and the grocery store. Went home, watched more Gilmore Girls. Sunday was a nice, lazy morning. Woke up, nommed, made brownies. Watched Gilmore Girls. BlackTezca came over and we watched more Kyou Kara Maou (I want to finish the series, but I'm told I have to be good boo). She left, and stars dragged me to the gym. Ugh. I did not want to go. Managed to PR in squat (160lbs woot!), worked up to 95lbs on my bench, and got up to 185lbs on deadlift. Not bad, but ugh. Did not want to gooooo... Went home, showered, watched more Gilmore Girls. Spent some time working on the spreadsheet for work. Basically, I just watched Gilmore Girls this weekend. No shame. Week 4 and end of challenge summary on page 1. Onto the challenge summary thing! Contortion is Needed to Mimic Paintings (aka yoga - 2 sessions a week) - 2/2. Two quick 30 minute sessions while stars was out of the house over the weekend. Thordamnit, Elsa (aka outdoors - 2 winter activities throughout the challenge) - 2/2! Completed! I Can't Keep Eating Like an Asshole, Redux (aka food - eat only what starsapart approves 6x a week) - 6/6! I Want to Stuff Some Chocolate in my Face (aka baking - one new chocolate recipe a week) - Brownies!