Alethea

Always thought Nano was cool, but never had an idea worth writing about. October 31, I had a "heh, that'd be cool" idea, managed to scrape together something that might resemble an outline at a distance, signed up for nano, and now I am wrecking myself daily. SO far this week I have: 4 times gotten less than 5 hours of sleep in a night 3 times forgotten to eat a meal Daily neglected my work to play with outlining 3 times decided I was a genius 5 times decided I was a talentless hack 2 times decided to quit written 10,460 words. How is everyone else holding up?

Really late to the party, but behold the Eye of Sauron. [ATTACH=CONFIG]993[/ATTACH]

I hear you're supposed to inhale/exhale when your left foot hits the ground. I've done that whenever I get a stitch and it goes away very quickly.

I'm not so much lazy as I enjoy instant gratification like reading and watching TV. Given a choice between getting sweaty or kicking back with a beverage and a book, the later is way more appealing to me (and doesn't require effort!). So, I say to myself "k, absolutely, you get to read and chill and it will rock. But first, do this." and my inner 5 year old says " k!" because it only heard the first half, and I get moving before I start trying to talk myself out of it. As soon as you try to bargain with yourself ("but I'm tired!" "but I dont want to!" "but it doesn't really matter if I dont do it"), it's death to motivation. Dont even let those thoughts start.

Thanks, Catspaw! The cookies and brownies were indeed rediculously delicious. The Master Chef is also a very talented baker. I am terribly spoiled. Awww, hugs for the love you guys. I know you're there for me, and I take much comfort in your support, believe me. I have just found that when I say I suck and other people say I dont, I tend to try to prove that I'm right instead of being comforted. Combination of being both incredibly stubborn and clinically depressive. S'all good, storm is weathered! Caco, I am a total yogaslut. My favoritest studio in the world is http://www.sanguineyoga.com/ , which is near-ish Job #2 and veeery far away from my house, rather $$ but has the most amazing teachers. My home studio is http://calgary.mokshayoga.ca/ , a 10 minute run from my house, but they only do the Moksha yoga sequence which gets dead boring after a while. Sometimes a girl just wants to Wheel, you know? The place I'm trying out with a daily deal of 20 classes for $25 is http://www.samadhiwellnesscentre.ca/ , which is near Job #1 AND includes free mats and towels. Ooooooh. Haven't tried it yet though, so will report back. I'm fortunate to be in a city with a huge yoga culture. Oooh, Clawed, good find! That was very useful, actually, and reminded me I still have to work on my supple leopardness. Wanna be MWoD buddies again? Thursday Walked and stretched homemade paleo breakfast and lunch, which I've been doing all week, yay me. Dinners are also primal at least, but are negated by the fact that we still have sweet sweet cookies. Except today, which was McDs at 10pm. I hate cooking when I'm home late. damn, I can't even remember my goals anymore. Getting up! Right! Amazingly, I've been getting up at 6:45 and completely failing to be in bed by 11. Once again, I affirm that I would FAR rather be a night person. Friday: walked - when I go a few days without poppy knee hurtiness at all, then I'm going to start taking up the running again. I am confident I'm on the right track, as things are already improving. I shall master my hips and quads! I have a very stupid problem with fitness, being that I am not remotely athletic and never have been, so I'm having to teach myself how to move and activate muscles from SCRATCH. I get it wrong, I hurt one way. I fix that, then I hurt myself another way. But that's fine. Getting there! strengthed - oh, hey, I can do 5 full pushups/set before my wrists start hurting! Elbows are no longer the weakest link! Was doing the yogic "dont let your weight rest on your wrist-bones, support it with your whole hand" and my wrist muscles were unimpressed with the workload. Suck it, wrists. Homemade paleo breakfast and lunch. Up early, will no doubt be in bed late. Wooo, Friday long weekend!!

Also, if anyone has any awesome pumpkin recipes to deal with the no-doubt excessive amount of pumpkin we'll all end up with by haloween, post 'em here!

I'm still here, I'm still here!! Sorry for the long silence. Last week I self-diagnosed my worsening knee issues as Running Knee. It got to the point where even walking and lunges caused clicking and pain, so stopped, did nothing for a few days and sulked. I suck and I can't do anything without hurting myself and everything is horrible forever, blah blah blah. I figured no one wanted to listen to that, so I took some time to myself. Once knees started feeling better this last weekend I started walking 5k instead of running it (grumbling all the way, you can be sure), did some research on the knee issue, adjusted my strength program to be less hamstring-intensive and more quad-focused to hopefully solve the runners-knee issues, decided I'm ready to resume full yoga and found a new studio with a deal. As of now, I've walked 5k 3 times this week (sniff, it's just not the SAME), and done strength once. I finished my 14 Day Paleo Challenge, but I dont want to talk about my diet since then. Lets just say it involved large amounts of both cookies and brownies. *cough* So, this post is me recommitting to the Challenge and being the most awesome Alethea possible, and I look forward to catching up with all you people's awesomeness as well.

MONDAY: Got up on time, bed on time Paleo homemade breakfast lunch and dinner. 14 Day 100% Paleo Mini-Challenge: 13 Days. Exercise: Wasn't sore, but was very tired. Tai chi and stretching, 30 minutes. Uh.. guess I should mention, every weekday I walk on my breaks and lunchhour, so every day theres about an hour and a half of walking to add to my actual listed totals. Quick Food Recipe of the Day: Can of salmon, 1/2 avocado, cucumber bits. Mix together with salt, pepper, and spice of your choice, have on salad. DELICIOUS.

Rob, the hotdog weekend makes me shudder. Hotdog COOKIES?! Tell him to switch to bacon!! The baconfest was a fundraiser for some Jazz and Fine Foods Organization and I think it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but they underestimated the amount of bacon-lovers in this city. Lineups were INSANE. Pinup, it WAS awesome. I'd do that every weekend without regrets! Caco: Thank you, thank you. Whole costume ended up costing about $15. I almost bought bright yellow tights to go with the ensemble, but I couldn't quite bring myself to. I have my pride! Not much, but enough! Week 3 Summary: Homemade meals every day, 6 days of which were paleo. 14 Day 100% Paleo Mini-Challenge: 12 Days. I did everything except plyometrics and 1 running session, but I get an extra half-credit for my wellathon, so 85% awesomeness. Getting up continues to be a major struggle, but 6:45 has become a reality, instead of just "too damn early". Going to sleep at 11 has become habit. Not hitting all my exercise goals is dissapointing to me. Running in particular is something I'm trying to develop, so it should not be something I miss. Eye on the prize, Alethea. Thus, Week 3: Decent. Also, if anyone is curious, I have stayed the exact same weight and measurements as 2 weeks ago when I hit my Standard Active Size. It is a strangeness to me. The Great 100% Paleo Experiment seems to be failing.

Supermoderator is a formality - got privilages to help format the forums a while back and so far no one has taken it away yet. But I keep trooping on! Maybe your security guys joined the Rebellion too? o_O Regardless, take it as a sign!

Dave! Welcome back!! I've wondered what you've been up to since you left. Congrats on the upcoming nuptuals! So exciting!!

I was more of a dinosaurs kid, but I can certainly appreciate the wonder of the rainbow! not a competition so much as a "raise money then go hang out for a while" sort of event. Though they did pit companies against eachother in various fitness challenges for the amusement of all. SATURDAY: Got up on time, bed on time. Paleo brunch and dinner, but more importantly, BACONFEST!!! It's the most wonderful time of the year..... Bacon EVERYTHING, down to bacon pancakes, cupcakes and chocolates. I somehow managed to stay paleo and focused on the Bacon Games instead. Pictures shall be forthcoming. Excercise: Not a damn thing. And it was glorious. SUNDAY: Up on time, bed likely on time. Paleo breakfast and dinner. Aaaaand, here we go: Strength: 30 minutes Pilates: 30 minutes Tai Chi: 60 minutes Yoga: 60 minutes Meditation: 60 minutes Jazzercise: 60 minutes. And I did it all looking like this: [ATTACH=CONFIG]769[/ATTACH] I didn't originally plan on the jazzercise, but how could I not. The things I do for charity... I'm going to go collapse somewhere.

Good luck, man! Big step. You can do it!

Colin: It was funny! I would also be a big fan of the Triprocrastathon!

Sorry! Emptied, and ready for all the love you choose to send.