Sovellis

Heheheh, well, I managed to complete all three workouts last week, but won't be doing so this week. My back has started acting up again, despite making a concerted effort to focus on form and be careful. After a couple days of rest it's already feeling a good bit better, but I don't want to sabotage the healing by lifting again too soon. Might substitute time on my bike. The thing that's concerning is I suspect this may be a disc problem. Might have to call the doc and make sure it isn't serious.

Woo, so after sleeping through my alarm I was determined to make this day productive. I have revamped my lifting routine because I was getting kinda stagnant, and wow I am glad I did! My arms feel way more tired and sore (the good kind) than they have in weeks. I also finally did a cook up, though it was only breakfasts, but since that is the hardest meal of the day for me, it takes priority. Made a big batch of eggs and bacon, portioned it out, and froze most of them. I also made a batch of bacon egg and cheese jalapeno bites. I now have no excuse to not eat breakfast for at least the next week and a half. Also working on my third batch of stock, so I can finally get the bags of scraps out of the freezer. I even had a decent night driving deliveries, made more exciting by the snow and very slick roads. One delivery was a fairly large order from a nice bbq place, and just as I pulled in front of the customer's house, it got cancelled. I contacted the delivery service and they said I'd still get my base pay for the delivery (only $3, but still), and that I could keep the food! Unfortunately most of it isn't keto friendly (french fries, corn bread, baked beans, etc.), but that's fine, I'll just bring it to D&D tomorrow. Sometimes things work out.

It really is, and I hate it. Like, I feel better! I wanna GO! but I can't. Oh well, a lesson in patience. Definitely, still want to push through, but I'm having to adjust my expectations for sure.

Got up earlier than usual today, which is a win, even if it was super hard. Lifted, despite still getting short of breath way easier than usual. Cooked. Handled a work crisis. Went to a work event. Altogether a difficult but successful day. On a more optimistic note, I spoke with my supervisor, the owner of the agency I work for, and she sounds willing to cover my registration fees for some 5ks this summer and may even buy a custom shirt with the agency logo for me to run in! I do not mind advertising if it means I can do runs I wouldn't otherwise be able to do! She may even join me for a 2 day 100 mile charity bike ride. So even though I am wiped out, I am satisfied with tody.

Okay, so this past week did not go terribly well. I am still struggling with getting to sleep at a reasonable time, motivation to get out of bed the next day, and I only managed to work out once. I have managed to be pretty good about my diet, at least. I think the problem is a combination of lingering fatigue due to recovering from illness and the fact that I have not had a single down day in many weeks, and won't have one for at least another month. I am tired and don't want to do anything. I'm not sure what to do about this. While I build my case load at my primary job I need to supplement my income by delivering for caviar. This works, but it means I just do not have any down time. As far as recovering from that nasty cold, I probably just need to have a bit more patience with myself. My breathing still isn't back to normal and I do still have that sick fatigue. I worked out once last week, maybe shoot for twice this week, and three times the next.

Just logging food is totally enough for week 1, it's more work than it sounds like! And mornings are tough. Hopefully it'll get easier as we start getting more and more daylight.

Was in bed on time, and fell asleep easier than the night before, but I ended up waking up 3 hours before my alarm this time. Why must you do this to me, brain? WHY?! Oh well, so I had another tired day, but I did complete my entire workout routine, and now I have that very satisfied tired body feel. Hopefully tonight my brain decides not to fight me when it comes to sleep? Stayed keto, but I'm struggling to eat enough. That will get easier once I have an actual day to do meal prep. *flump*

First day: Ugh. I had trouble getting to sleep last night (not surprising), but then I also woke up 2 hours before my alarm. I have been dragging all day, but I still finished a day of work and even proposed the idea of my employer sponsoring me for 5ks this summer. I stuck to keto, though I still haven't done any meal prep due to feeling like poo, so it was the few keto friendly items I had ready made in my fridge. Hoping that tonight I can actually sleep, and then tomorrow I'm going to lift for the first time in 2-3 weeks.

I have chronic digestive issues, but once I got going on keto, they significantly diminished. I wasn't hungry all the time, I had more energy, I was more clear headed and focused. All around I really felt better, it was really surprising!

Restarting after a few years away from this site! This year is not off to quite the start I had planned. I had gone off keto from thanksgiving to new years because I can't go through December without egg nog, but I had planned to go right back on Jan 1. Then the start of the new decade rolled around and I came down with a nasty head cold, preventing me from being active, following any sort of diet, or even posting here until now. Oh well, better late than never, right? I will probably add some sort of fiction to my posts as things go along, but I want to get something posted so I don't use this as an excuse to push things off any further. GOAL1: Nutrition. I tried keto last year and found that while it was a difficult adjustment, I felt significantly better. I want to get back into that, cooking regularly, planning my meals out ahead of time, and being very conscious about what I put in my body. I will be using Cronometer.com to track everything I eat and drink. A bonus would be if I could put on a couple pounds, as it has been historically difficult for me to gain any weight at all. GOAL 2: Sleep. My default is nocturnal. Unfortunately, this does not lend itself well to working or otherwise being a functional person. The first thing I'm tackling is my sleep, starting tonight. For now, I am going to aim for a 2am bed time, waking at 10am, no snoozing (this might not sound like much, but last 'night' I went to bed at 6am). GOAl 3: Strength Training. I plan to get back on track with my regular workouts, shooting for 3 days a week. Once I get this re-established I am hoping to add in 2 days a week of cardio, most likely on my indoor bike trainer. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Finances I am going to die in debt due to student loans, there is nothing I can do about that (I have already consulted a bankruptcy lawyer), but there are things I can do to get my finances in better shape than what they are currently. Part of this will mean continuing to build my case load at work, part will be resisting impulse buys or 'retail therapy' when I am having a bad day, and part will fit in well with my nutrition goal because if I plan my food out ahead of time I have no excuse to eat out. At some point I will need to contact the bank that manages my federal student loans and set up some sort of payment plan with them. I am still hoping to find something I can do about my private student loans, but it looks unlikely that Ii have any options but to just let them default.

I feel bad that I haven't been posting more, but I really haven't been feeling it. Not the challenge, that's been going pretty well overall, just the posting. Like I said, the challenge is going good, at least with the exercize stuff. The school and other stuff has kinda fallen off a bit, but I'm getting back on that. I managed to get another massive knot over my left shoulder blade, but luckily that was just before it warmed up enough that I can start running again! I have decided to go through c25k again this season, but this time with my weighted vest. I can already feel the difference, and I sound like a maraca when I run, lol. Yesterday was intensely windy, gusts up to 60mph, but I still got out and ran! Woot! Now I just gotta keep going on my transcribing. Ugh.

Drinking horn. I've actually gotten Riften and Morthal carved now too, but they're not painted yet. I'm finding it really easy to pound these out!

The horn, as promised!

Lol, sorry. The DMV went as it always does. Long boring lines, anxiety inducing crowds, supervisor had to be called in twice because my paperwork is weird (I was born in Germany, so my birth certificate is actually a certificate of a us citizen born abroad, and so does not have the birth certificate number they usually use, ugh), but I got through it. I am officially a resident of the state of Illinois! And just in time to vote in the primary! Other than that, last week was mostly a bust for me. I had intended to prep for a visit from a friend, but couldn't seem to get it into my head that they were going to arrive today. So I didn't end up getting much productive done, but I did go over to Noor's place to play Blood Bowl with her wife and another friend. Omg Blood Bowl is so much freakin fun! One night of it and we're all hooked. We're planning on each running two teams. I'm going to use old Warhammer minis to run a dark elf team, and then I'm gonna get the pro elf mini set and run a different type of elf team, but I'm not sure which just yet. I think I'm leaning towards wood elves, but I do like the high elves too. So not much productivity, but good fun and socializing, which is also important. Oh, and I finished the Falkreath horn! I'll post pics tomorrow. Still debating which city to do next. My first thoughts were Whiterun or Windhelm, but Markarth is also cool, and then there's Riften and Dawnstar... I might end up just having to roll a die to decide.

Of course! I love showing off my work! With any luck it will be finished today. Today I am trying to psych myself up to go to the dmv and finally switch to Illinois residency. Woo. Of course the day I plan to get my pic taken for my license, I have a breakout of cystic acne. Big ugly lumps. Woo. When I saw that I was severely tempted to put this off until next week. Instead, I am experimenting with some light makeup for the first time. Scary, but it seems to work pretty well without being noticeable unless you're just a few inches away. Doesn't make the lumps go away, but it hides the redness. If I can manage to talk myself into going to the dmv, my to do list will be dmv and clean house. If not, it will look a lot more like yesterday's list.

Apparently you're right. Not only did I complete everything on my list, I also did a couple extra things! Looks like I'm back on track! Well, I didn't finish the horn, but I made a ton of progress on it. It's going a lot more slowly than I anticipated.

Hehehe, I have a feeling you'll do more than 2 days of exercise in week 2.

Pretty sure that a big part of my problem was that I missed a dose of my meds. I got my shot last night, and while I don't feel completely back to normal, I feel distinctly better. Weather is kinda gross today. Apparently when the cold front moved in yesterday the temperature dropped 30 degrees in 3 minutes! Now we're getting ice and snow and gusty winds. Wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't had a couple of 60 degree days in a row just before this. Spring is teasing us. I want to get out and start running again! The bike trainer works, but it hurts my butt and is painfully boring. Today's to do list: Dishes Clean House Lift Bike (maybe, we'll see) Finish painting the Falkreath horn Transcribe (20 min x3) Shower Runes Duolingo Take my damn vitamins Check school emails Alright, I can do this. Right?

New thread is up. Keep it Going

Not sure what I'm going to do for the story this time around. Having trouble getting psyched up for this challenge at all really, but I have stuff I need to get done. I'm gonna just keep going with my to do lists which include lifting, riding my bike or running, cleaning house, school work, and mental health work. Going to try to work in more focus on my hobbies as well. Hopefully I'll get a story post up tomorrow.

Sometimes it feels like no matter how hard we work, no matter how much progress we make, we're still... kinda gross. Which seriously sucks.

Okay, so overall I actually did pretty good this challenge, not as well as I'd have liked, but oh well. Next challenge I hope to really buckle down, start instituting some more regular schedules and habits and such in preparation for my internship in august. I'm still not sure how leveling is supposed to work now, so I think I'll just stick with the old system for now. I'll work out the numbers tomorrow I think. Still hoping to get a more regular story portion to these challenges, cause it's fun and I like stories. I must admit the story for this challenge did continue on in my head, but I just never got around to sharing it. Oops. I'm finding that while I like the shorter challenge length now, I struggle with the shorter breaks between them. It ends up feeling like no break at all which is frustrating.

Having a bad body day today. I was feeling vaguely uncomfortable but wasn't sure why, but then a picture came up on my tumblr and I was like, oh. This past weekend at con was really fun, and it was a chance for me to feel that I look good and such out in public, but at the same time it highlighted some aspects of my body that I am still intensely uncomfortable with. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is one that can't be fixed without surgery, and I can't exactly afford surgery right now. *sigh* Some day. Some day I'll be able to look in the mirror without intense discomfort. Not today, but some day.