NeverThatBored

I'm rereading old challenges for motivation, which is always an interesting experience. My early challenges were all very reasonable before I became Captain RangerBrain! But they also did follow the classic 3-goal structure. I think my super small specific challenge is good here, but I can't help being tempted to make it a 3 goal challenge...

Week 0 Update Though it seems the challenge hasn't actually started yet, I'm happy to report that my first week was a success! I walked every day. The general plan I outlined works - walk in the morning when there's time, but if there's not get at least a short walk in after work. I got an unsolicited popup on my phone saying I hit the American Heart Association recommendation for activity based on my walking, so that was also neat! (I work out consistently already but my phone doesn't know that.) I will say that some of my momentum just comes from knowing (and actually remembering) that this challenge exists. So while it's all good and I passed this week with flying colors, I do still wonder how to build walking into a daily habit vs. a challenge goal. You could argue that "walk after letting the dog out in the morning" and "walk after you finish work for the day" ARE actually habit triggers. Walking USED to be a daily habit for me, but I stopped doing it consistently when my shin splints/calf burning issue got bad. After ~10 minutes of walking my calves would just burn so it was super frustrating. I recently bought some more padded and less minimalist shoes. They're comfy and actually let me walk without hurting my calves, but they immediately gave me heel blisters. So I bought these stick-on heel pads and put those in, which has helped a lot! But they do still rub my pinky toes and are leaving red marks on them. I have a really hard time with shoes! These at least let me walk, but I would ideally like to find a pair that doesn't come with so many trade offs. Anyway. Part of my ability/motivation to walk consistently again comes from actually having shoes I can walk in. So maybe the combination of just being able to walk comfortably + the 2 possible times I can walk will be enough to make it a habit? We'll see. If that works, I'm thinking that walking can then be used as a trigger for other habits pretty easily! For example, "after I get home from a walk, I'll do a forward fold for 2 minutes."

Ok I suspect it depends on the dentist, but my dentist removed my glued in retainer for me just fine. We dealt with so much of this with my mom. They'd half answer your question and then ask you for information that was in a previous message. It's so frustrating!

My weekday schedule has some moving parts so a specific time is challenging. Morning is my best bet, and I do already walk sometimes in the morning, or take some coffee around the corner to a spot with a view. I chose this goal with the hope of both getting more consistent and gradually getting my mileage back up to maybe a couple miles/day. So I'm working on something along the lines of: If I'm not working out in the morning, go on a walk If I'm working ou,t try to at least do a short walk after work If I go to my coffee spot in the morning, go on an additional walk later in the day (even though it technically counts for this goal) If my dog sleeps in (and therefore so do I), get in a short walk after work If I have to start work early and don't have time for a walk in the AM, get in a shorter walk after work This plan probably works, but it's not as clear of a trigger + action as I'd like! Now that the sun's staying up later I actually can get a walk in after work, which wasn't the case even a month ago. (Not that I can't actually go on a walk at night, but I always feel an aversion to that even though my neighborhood is super safe.) Are races happening again?? Lol you know me, my real goal is to walk a couple of miles, but the minimum is at least 5 minutes on days when I don't do any other walking. Unfortunately we don't walk him because he's 16 and has seizures when he exerts himself (+a bad leg) or else that would work really well. Hi! Thank you!! Nice to see you too~ Hi Miau!! Good to see you!

Tank summoned the Rangers on facebook to participate in the new challenge, so here I am! I posted in my previous unsuccessful challenge that I wanted to pick ONE of these little baby goals to do for a challenge: Daily mini walk Daily movement break during the workday (any movement), or doing the darebee daily dare challenge or a slight variation, a daily "step outside and sit for even just a minute" Daily work on studying Japanese even if it's just a minute or two (I pretty much entirely stopped studying when covid hit and I couldn't go to classes anymore) Daily toe touch stretch My "do one pullup attempt a day" mini goal has been enormously successful, so despite my urge to do all of these, I'm sticking to one. The pullup goal has been successful because there's a clear trigger - when I take my dog outside to pee, I attempt a pullup on the bar outside. None of these have an obvious trigger, so I think figuring one out will be the key to success for any of them. I'll choose walking since my very first NF challenge back in the day was walking. The goal is to walk any amount, even if it's 5 minutes. It helps that sunset is starting to get later so I have time to actually walk after work some days! I don't have an idea for a trigger yet and I don't want to overcomplicate it, so I'm just going say this is my goal for now: Walk every day for any amount of time

+1 if you need additional internet friends to blame for stuff, although Sylvaa's the real queen of persuasive authority.

I stumbled across the same Jewish-style braised brisket recipe, so it's looking like the right choice! That's very interesting about slow-twitch muscle! I've heard about muscle fibers in the context of people's muscles, but I'd never thought about it in the context of cooking meat before.

They're nice for soups, but I don't love immersion blenders for making smoothies. They're kind of annoying to use (IMO) because you have to move them around for a while and try to find all the chunks, which is not a quality I like in a smoothie. The magic bullet works well though.

Yeah, sadly I don't have access to a smoker.

Very belated reply. I'm in California staying with my dad for now. IDK long term because I now have too many options and no clear direction.

Sooooo this was a challenge I totally remembered that I started. Despite my absence here, I did successfully get everything packed and jammed into my storage unit. It's so full I look like a hoarder, but I did it! I also drove a uhaul one day for the larger stuff, which as some of you may know was particularly terrifying for me because I am a nervous driver. I've come so far! Now I'm in California living with my father and I have no idea what to do with my life from here wheeeeeeeeee this is all totally fine I'm not a big new years resolution person, but in January I wanted to do SOMETHING so I started attempting a pullup on the outdoor pullup bar I set up this summer at least once/day when I take my dog outside. Within a few weeks, I'd regained my ability to do pullups! Then last week, I did TWO PULLUPS IN A ROW for the very first time in my life!!! Pretty good ROI for a small daily action. So now I'm thinking about another very small action that I can do and actually posting that as a challenge when the next challenge starts. I'm thinking of a few options at this point: Daily mini walk Daily movement break during the workday (any movement), or doing the darebee daily dare challenge or a slight variation, a daily "step outside and sit for even just a minute" Daily work on studying Japanese even if it's just a minute or two (I pretty much entirely stopped studying when covid hit and I couldn't go to classes anymore) Daily toe touch stretch I'm trying very hard to resist my Captain Rangerbrain impulses and just. pick. one. of these to focus on.

Hi all! I've been kind of absent from the forums lately, but I had to return to ask this all-important question: what is the best way to cook a brisket? I've got one in the freezer and I'm eager to cook it, but I've never cooked one before and I know there are some Opinions™ about brisket here on the forums. Do you have any favorite recipes? I'm hoping for something in the tender and delicious category.

Packing continues! I've got one, maaaaybe two, more trips to the storage unit that I can make with my car before Saturday. I've got some more bins to load in, and then I'll be pretty much done with all neatly box shaped things. That leaves furniture and a bunch of awkwardly shaped stuff. I'm getting a UHAUL van on Saturday for the furniture. I have two big pieces I have to store, so I've been saving room in the storage unit for that. Once those are in I can fill in all of the awkward stuff. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of space, but it FEELS like there isn't because I have to get the furniture in first. I'm pretty nervous about driving the van, even though it's not THAT big. Simultaneously, I just had some work done on my car. It's annoying to pay (A LOT) for car repairs when I'm about to be away from the car, but I felt like I should have it done because my friend is going to drive it for me on occasion and I want everything to be safe. So that's done now too.

The latter! Decisions are for people who have their lives together.

I'm in the middle of packing up my apartment and putting everything into storage. It's an experience. I'm even packing in my dreams. I've never packed up an apartment entirely by myself before. This could have been very difficult. And it is a lot of work, but compared to the events of 2020 and other things I've had to do, this is nothing. I'll be packing through the 13th and all posts until then will be related to getting that done. After that, here are some challenge goals: Start cutting back on coffee, with the goal of going without it at least 2 days/week Do daily movement of some sort. Ideally something I'm not already doing consistently like yoga or mobility or walking more. I'm consistent with workouts already but they still count. Do 1 thing that needs to be done daily. If there are no things, celebrate!

Hi All, I'll jump to the new challenge momentarily, but for now I just want to do a quick catch up post. My trip was very nice, though haunted by the lingering specter of packing that caused me a lot of anxiety on and off the whole time. I got to see my aunt outside her house, as well as two good friends I hadn't seen in over a year (we isolated first). In total I got to pet SEVEN cats and play at least as many board games. The drive was also record fast because there's no traffic right now. This weekend was spent mostly packing, but I did go on a nice bike ride, which I enjoyed despite the cold! I've secured a storage unit near my apartment and moved several carloads of stuff over there. I've packed a lot, but I'm I'm in that stage where there are piles of stuff all over the place so it feels like there's endless packing left to do still AHHH This was the to do list I made before I left: Pack everything - In progress Identify and secure a storage unit (of indeterminate size??) - Done Figure out how I'm going to move my desk to said storage unit - I think I need to get a uhaul but I need to look into the details of how that works Figure out where I can donate stuff I'm downsizing - Depending on what happens with packing, I might just pack it instead Get my car inspected and renew the registration - halfway! The inspection is done and I still need to do the registration Start ordering Christmas presents - halfway! I ordered the most crucial ones and I have some gaps to fill in shortly

After making this post, I found myself randomly clicking on a link to one of my old challenges. It was from 2017 and I was doing so much! I was at peak Captain Rangerbrain and loving it. @fleaball do you remember the cat takeover challenge??

Surprise surprise, I abandoned this challenge! This goal seemed good on paper, but it's not working for me. While journaling and brain food are really good things to do, and things I want to do, I need to focus on something else. I'm having trouble doing normal things. I keep up with work and exercise, but then I leave the dishes ignored for 5 days or don't fold my laundry. I've been meaning to start packing, and have done a little bit, but then I watched an episode of The Queen's Gambit and found myself bingeing the rest in 2 days instead of doing anything that needs to be done. It's as if my past, present, and impending life changes are causing me anxiety??? Weird. So I want to change my goal to something like "do something that needs to get done every day." Inconveniently, I'm about to leave to meet my friend at an airbnb cabin for a week for a vacation and I can't take care of any of those things if I'm not here. So NEXT challenge, that will be a great goal. For the remaining 2 weeks of this one?? I honestly just want to relax. Be kind to myself. Enjoy seeing loved ones (and their dogs). I'm thinking a good goal might be to find some way to move, either yoga or a workout, every day while I'm away. For the next challenge/stuff I have to deal with, a to do list... Pack everything Identify and secure a storage unit (of indeterminate size??) Figure out how I'm going to move my desk to said storage unit Figure out where I can donate stuff I'm downsizing Get my car inspected and renew the registration Start ordering Christmas presents Just typing out that list makes me want to spin in circles! Wheeeeee stress!

This all warms my heart ❤️

Badass!!

FWIW if you want an easy unfancy way to cook a turkey, oven bags are great! RE: PT they won't care or likely even remember your weight from 2 years ago. Please don't let that deter you from getting help!

Pssst

Wearing masks, saving kittens...who is this man and what has he done with your father indeed??

Ok, but real talk...which sandwich did you order?

I came to this website and got distracted 3 times before I remembered that I meant to post here. On Tuesday I had the day off from work, so after voting I went on my first bike ride since I left VA in June. I was really enjoying riding in the first half of the year, so it was nice to get out and still be able to ride. I did about 9 miles and it was quiet out on the trail that's usually busy. Honestly, it was more relaxing to me than the baths I've been using to "relax." I also got to go feed my friend's cats since she was working late, and I love time with cats so that's a win/win. I didn't journal but I spent some time on that mobility course, so that's a brain thing. Today (Wednesday) I did some journalling. Not the journalling I've been meaning to do, but some journalling all the same. I spent some time playing the ukulele, which wasn't what I meant by "do something good for my brain" but it IS good for my brain, so I'm counting it.