Achaedia

Tomorrow is the day!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congrats on the baby! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Placeholder for challenge recap

It's been a couple of years since I've been around these parts. 2018 was a year of changes for me Namely: I officially became a parent with the adoption of my first progeny, Bee. My second daughter, AJ, will be adopted some time this year. They have both lived with us since the middle of 2017. We also have 3 other fosters, so we currently have 5 progeny total. I got a new job. I was formerly teaching the youngest progeny at the College of Dynamics in Rata Sum for the past 9+ years. I now oversee technology throughout the entire University. As a result, my health and fitness have fallen by the wayside. I've gained over 60 lbs in the past two years, and I am struggling finding time to work out. With 2019, I am trying to find more balance in my life, between work, family, and self-care. Here are my goals for January: Fitness: Work out 4x a Week My current workout plan combines kickboxing, weightlifting, yoga, and bodyweight exercises. During these 4 weeks, I will concentrate on showing up. I have my workouts scheduled with my coach on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Sometimes I don't feel like working out, and that's OK. What matters is that I show up on those 4 days and do what I can. By February, 2019, I will: show up to work out 4x a week, no excuses. Loot (80% compliance or higher): New Pull-Up Bands Nutrition: No Eating Past 7pm I do a pretty good job during the day, especially when I am busy. However, after we put the kids to bed, it all goes out the window and I find myself gorging on cheese, chips, and candy. For this challenge, I will look for other activities to help me relax, such as painting my nails, doing peel-off masks, and drawing. By February, 2019, I will eat only between the hours of 11am and 7pm. Loot (80% compliance or higher): New tea kettle Family: Cook 6 Nights a Week With 5 kids, we can't really afford a lot of takeout, and it isn't good for us anyway. Between my wife and I, we will cook at home 6 nights a week. If we don't feel like it, we can have a rotisserie chicken night. By February, 2019, we will cook dinner at home almost every night. Loot (average 6 nights per week or more): Date night! Self-Care: Exfoliate I was given a facial just before Christmas, and it was kind of a disaster. A nice lady attacked my face with a blunt instrument and told me that I have clogged, large pores So one of my goals for 2019 is to take better care of my skin. By February, 2019, I will exfoliate 2 times per week and wash and moisturize my face every day. Loot (80% compliance or higher): Clear skin + a new mask or beauty tool

Day 8 Water = 48 oz again We had church and then karaoke for my birthday, which is tomorrow! No workout. We were a bit strapped for time with all of our weekend plans, and sore from lifting heavy objects yesterday. Going to bed early tonight. The pups have a 7am grooming appt and then I have a training at 8. I am supposed to wear "comfortable clothes" which I choose to interpret as Activewear! So I can easily do an interval run somewhere on the high school campus before starting my training.

Week I Summary! 01. Strengthening - I am planning to do Stronglifts 5x5 for now, with interval runs on alternate days for cardio. I am going to TRY to do these in the morning. 02. Hydrating - Because I can do at least 48 oz of water a day, that is what I have set as my baseline. 48 x .25 + 48 = 60, so my week 1 water goal will be A MINIMUM of 60 oz a day. 03. Musicking - I have a plan to practice, but I didn't get to it much this week. I think it's because "3x a week" is too vague. So this week I am going to practice M, Tu, Th afternoons for 20 min. 04. Employening(?) - This is kind of up in the air right now because I am waiting to hear from my wife's company, and I cannot start until Thursday anyway. If I haven't heard anything by then, I will recommence the search! Score: 3/4=75% Not perfect, but OK. Now on to the next week!

Day 7 We went to breakfast after intercepting a few work crises by phone. I had a veggie omelette and coffee and fries. We had to go to my grammy's house and pick up my dog, who has been staying with her since Easter. He is a cool guy but he's been running through her legs like an asshole. We dropped him at home and then went to help a friend move. According to MFP, I burned over 1,000 calories moving boxes for an hour. We were sore and grumpy D< We were paid in beer, pizza, and gratitude. We came home and watched TV until we crashed. We also ate Canadian snacks.

Day 6 I once again did not get any sleep, and did not wake up in time for exercise. I only had a half day of work, MUCH closer. I drank 48 oz of water. I napped in the afternoon and my wife drugged me at bedtime But I don't remember much of the rest of the day. Did we have something in the evening? I'm not sure.

Day 5: Whew, the last few days were busy! Here is Thursday: I slept only 4 hours but I still managed to wake up early enough to do an interval run before heading up to the mountains to work. The scenery was beautiful! I don't have a photo of it. But here is an Internet picture taken from a nearby park. After a long day making our work plan for next year (basically the goals for our school so that we can apply to be an official Expeditionary Learning school) I had to rush home to talk to a social worker about our foster care home study. Traffic was bad, but my car got 99mpg on the way down the mountain! The social worker asked a bunch of invasive questions so we went out to a late dinner to make us feel better. Our waiter liked us and we got lots of wine. I got a few minutes of piano practice in before bed. I drank about 60 oz of water.

This looks funny! I'm going to roll a pose tomorrow and see what happens. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Day 4: I drank 60oz of water. I might drink a little more before bed. I did not get the camp job but I will most likely get the day program job -- it's with my wife's company and she said they already have a couple of clients in mind for me to help. I will most likely hear next week. I started a little late on the piano this week, but I have some exercises chosen to begin working through. I'm meeting with my director, assistant director, school designer, and another teacher tomorrow to do our work plan for next year. Unfortunately I have a pretty long commute. So my plan is to wake up at 6am, do a ~20 minute interval workout, and have a quick breakfast before heading up the mountain My wife has an early morning too, so she will help me wake up.

Yeah, I inherited an antique upright piano from my Papa and we recently got it tuned. So I need to actually play it!

Thanks! I did one quest with the warriors in 2016 but I'm glad to be back!!!

I know you!

Don't Disappear is a good challenge. I need to do that one, too.

I'm in! Music is one of my goals this month but for this I think I will do visual art (illustration/painting) or writing.

Day 3 Update: I applied to 3 jobs! Not counting the one where I will write paid reviews for things on Amazon. The jobs I applied for are: Pickle packer Day program for adults with intellectual disabilities Teacher for a STEM summer camp Water intake for today is 48 oz. This isn't really part of my goals but I learned the chords for Bruno Mars "Count on Me" on ukulele. My index finger kind of hurts from practicing but I want to have the chord changes down by the beginning of the year because it would be a good crew song for the second graders Neither is this, but I stayed up till 3 am last night reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and finished it today. It made me cry, but I loved it. Only now I need a new book.

Leaves and sticks crunched under Achaedia's feet as she made her way through the forest. She was sure it was here. The directions she had been given would indicate she should be coming upon the rebellion any time now. After a year-long absence in which she had married the love of her life, purchased a dwelling on the outskirts of Rata Sum, and graduated from University as a Master of Synergetics, she was now ready to return to the fray. Achaedia the Warrior Part II: The Liftening Goal 01. Strengthening Achaedia will research and select a workout program as a means of getting back into fighting shape. The ideal program will combine interval training for cardio with power lifting for strength. Once the training program has been selected, training will commence. Goal 02. Hydrating Achaedia will increase her water intake by 25% a week, with the first week serving as a baseline. Goal 03. Musicking Achaedia wouldn't call herself a bard by any means, but she used to be known to tickle the ivories every now and then. In the month of June, Achaedia will do warm-up exercises on the piano at least 3x a week. Bonus Goal: Gainful Employment An asura's got to eat. She will procure a part-time job in order to earn gold during the summer when the progeny are out of school.

I think I like band-assisted more, but the pull-up machine is more customizable weight-wise and it's convenient since it's right there and there isn't really a good place to put the bands at my gym. The bars on the machine are a little wide for me though.

Oops, I guess it's been a while. Part of that was tapatalk's new update and part of that is busy times at work. I've still been focusing on my goals though. I've been working out intentionally most days (like at least 4 days a week, typically more). I didn't do advance preparation of meals this past week because I only had one normal work day and it would have been pointless to do that much work for one day. I did do it the previous 3 weeks though! And I will do it in this final week too! I've also been doing my morning water. Here is a picture of me and Rory jogging yesterday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dinner tonight: salmon with apple salad and sweet potato rounds. Lifted weights yesterday (traded barbell row with machine-assisted pull-ups). Going to do yoga today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been lifting weights 3x a week, tracking my calories, eating less. I don't drink calories. I walk 10k steps a day. I don't understand why it isn't going down at all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I feel bad because I'm not losing weight. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Puppy emergency Rory bit Pudge last night & Pudge had to have emergency surgery at midnight. He's doing fine, but we might need to spend my tax return on a dog behaviorist. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Whew, long week! I had my observation and a few late days. We went to dance lessons on Thursday night and a play on Friday night. Because of my weird schedule, I didn't make it to the gym this week. I did do 3 intentional workouts (all cardio, sadly, but still) and I walked nearly 70,000 steps during the week Morning water was drank all days we ate at home and one of the two mornings we went out Meals were prepped again as well! We got a lot of wedding things done as well. We tasted cake, ordered shoes for the wedding party, and selected songs. Once again, it's late and I'm tired but I consider this week a success. Looking forward to another good one Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk