sylph

Lift. 2x week. It didn't work last time, let's try it again, eh? Monday & Saturday mornings. It doesn't even have to be the program, FFS. Just move something heavy-ish up and down a few times. Walk. 2x week. Before work, when possible to avoid the heat. Alcohol. None on weeknights. Snacks. Think about when/why. This is often due to boredom. Fix the boredom with something other than food. ----- Just to get back to goals I missed Monday's lifting session this week due to previously described madness. Given the bustle of the rest of the week, I don't know that I'll be able to manage Saturday's session either, but we'll see how it shakes out. Definitely gotten plenty of walking in this week, however (including two just yesterday) No alcohol has been had. Snacks have been hit-or-miss. Some mini chocolates still left so those are periodic visitors, but also been managing with baby carrots + dressing, or string cheese, or (in a pinch) a Tbsp of peanut butter straight from the jar. Thinky Thoughts have returned, though suspecting what I do now about my hormone situation, I feel like I can't trust any emotionally-based opinion point that floats through my head at the moment. I'm trying to sit with them and either analyze them objectively or sort of file them for later examination if they come up again. A journal would probably be helpful here, so I could see if there are patterns to when/why this stuff is coming up.

Same, but for me it was also that the question was so broad and showed that my parents did not have enough information about my day to ask anything more specific. Most days aren't that memorable so (even now) when I get asked how my day is/was, 'fine' is the most likely response. Anything beyond that will involve either a lot of boring detail that makes no sense, or even MORE boring detail as I attempt to provide context. "Fine" is way easier. If my parents had asked something like "How did your geometry exam go? Any tricky proofs?" or "How was the feedback on that history paper you worked so hard on" or "Is Jamie still mad at Eloise?" it may have elicited a more in-depth answer. Or maybe not. Because teenagers.

All of this got done yesterday afternoon/evening. Hubs' haircut and dinner wound up being later than I wanted, since I got lost in the black hole of time that is the sewing room, but hey, whatever works. Ollie is back to normal for sure now, so that's all good. I've gotten two walks in today (one longer, one shorter-- just to the PO and back). Work day will be done shortly in which case I'll likely go back to my bag making. Left on the list: grocery shop--Friday afternoon buy fabric for MY sewing project--maybe Friday afternoon? (Local shop has 40% of fabric this week so it would be nice to get there) work on pattern for MY sewing project--maybe Friday evening? And also let's add laundry. Going to have to be Friday afternoon. Though I suppose Thursday night after I get home from meeting up with my parents? And estimate on some paver repair that's just been scheduled for Friday right around lunch time. Friday just got real busy, y'all.

Sunday and Monday dissolved into a blur. I think Sunday I spent mostly doing some background reading/planning for my next large sewing project (for ME!). That evening, the light in the laundry room went out. It's a 4ft fluorescent, so we don't keep bulbs on hand and it was late enough that things were closed. Yesterday morning I had an appointment for a haircut, after that, we went to get bulbs and also lumber to fix the wood rot of the well enclosure. Apparently whatever lumber the guy who we bought the house from built the enclosure from doesn't exist, because the dimensions do not match any commercially available piece of wood at a regular hardware/lumber retail location. More planning/thought needed. Called the guy and he said he'd pop over and take a look. SCRAMBLE home to frantically clean/organize/make the house look a little bit presentable. Spend 1.5 hours chatting about various and sundry things (including the well enclosure) with the previous owners of the house. No real solution, but at least some options. Install bulbs and the light still didn't work. After trouble-shooting, deciphering the fuse panel, and a lot of fiddling about with a multimeter, hubs determined that the ballast was probably dead. Cue some frantic googling for the correct part and a quick run down to the Home Depot in the next town before they closed, and hubs had the new ballast installed and the new bulbs placed by around 10p. At this point, we'd barely eaten all day and there wasn't really time to make something reasonable while still having enough time to decompress and relax before bed. I had a PB&J sandwich and I think hubs had a premade frozen 'healthy' meal that we keep around for just this kind of situation. Oh, also, Ollie has been a grumpy/anxious cat for the past couple days, hiding a lot, hissing at the other cats and hissing at us(!) periodically, so add some concern in over whether he's alright and may/may not need to go to the vet. Blarghgh. Fortunately, he seems to be handling things better this morning and be more like his regular goofy self. Things I was planning to do yesterday and didn't: Lift Walk Cut out pieces for next bag sewing project Make dinner (there is ground beef defrosted in the fridge) Cut hubs' hair Today is a full working day, so I don't know how many of those things I'll be able to rectify, but before Sunday, here's the list of things Misc time/when possible: haircut for hubs--hopefully tonight. cook defrosted ground beef--hopefully tonight. cut out fabric for bags--maybe tomorrow night? grocery shop--Friday afternoon work on pattern for MY sewing project--maybe Friday evening? buy fabric for MY sewing project--maybe Friday afternoon? (Local shop has 40% of fabric this week so it would be nice to get there) Scheduled things: Tuesday: Work full day Wednesday: Work full day Thursday: Work half day, lunch w/ parents in afternoon Friday: Work half day Saturday: Group meetup event Depending on how the rest of the day goes, I may or may not be able to cut out of work a bit early today and tomorrow. We'll see. PS. Have I mentioned how grateful/lucky I am that my husband is a handy guy who knows about stuff? He's always willing to jump in to fix/repair things as needed and I am SO happy that he has this base level of knowledge and confidence. I have no doubt that I would be able to call my dad/YouTube/google my way to a solution in most cases were he not around, but I like not having to

Thank you!

After we lost the last of our clowder, we'd planned to start over with 1, leaving an 'emergency spot' for a second. So we started fostering kittens just to have a cat in the house. Our very first pair of fosters, we adopted. 2 litter mates, male and female, because they were so cute together we couldn't bear to think of someone else adopting them separately. Then a single male a year later, because he was sweet and funny Then a single female a year after that because she was the closest we'd met to our 'soul kitty' that we lost the year we started fostering. 🤷‍♀️

Lift. 2x week. It didn't work last time, let's try it again, eh? Monday & Saturday mornings. It doesn't even have to be the program, FFS. Just move something heavy-ish up and down a few times. Walk. 2x week. Before work, when possible to avoid the heat. Alcohol. None on weeknights. Snacks. Think about when/why. This is often due to boredom. Fix the boredom with something other than food. ----- Yesterday (Friday) was not a lifting day. I did get a short walk in (just over a mile) Had a couple drinks with hubs before bed since it was Friday and thus allowable. Snacks were better controlled-ish. Mostly because I got a bunch of sewing done in the afternoon. This morning I lifted. Goblet Squats Lat Pulldowns DB Flies Hanging Knee Raises Superset each pair of exercises, 4 sets each and blew through it in about 25 minutes. Went on a walk afterward (2.5 miles) It's only about 6p, so no drinks as of yet. I woke up from yesterday's two mixed drinks feeling cruddy, so I will likely not have any tonight. Snacks have been minimal today as I did a bunch of sewing (again) and have finished my WIP, finally. Still have not done dishes (though I did load and run the dishwasher).

Lift. 2x week. It didn't work last time, let's try it again, eh? Monday & Saturday mornings. It doesn't even have to be the program, FFS. Just move something heavy-ish up and down a few times. Walk. 2x week. Before work, when possible to avoid the heat. Alcohol. None on weeknights. Snacks. Think about when/why. This is often due to boredom. Fix the boredom with something other than food. ----- Yesterday (Thursday) was not a lifting day I did not purposefully walk, but a couple errands in the morning meant my Garmin auto-detected one. No alcohol yesterday Snacks are.. snacky. I did not do the dishes yesterday I did dye my hair I did sew. I would like to be done with this project sooner rather than later.

Damn. Right in the feels.

Lift. 2x week. It didn't work last time, let's try it again, eh? Monday & Saturday mornings. It doesn't even have to be the program, FFS. Just move something heavy-ish up and down a few times. Walk. 2x week. Before work, when possible to avoid the heat. Alcohol. None on weeknights. Snacks. Think about when/why. This is often due to boredom. Fix the boredom with something other than food. ----- Yesterday was not a lifting day. I did briefly noodle on what a routine would look like if I added a third day of lifting. And then promptly let it sit, since I don't want to distract myself by thinking about next challenge before this one is even finished. I did get a walk yesterday after my morning meetings, before it got tooooooo warm out. No alcohol. Snacks were a bit out of control. Sharks are here and I have some other fun hormone things going on, so my urge to eat is somewhat all-consuming. I will attempt to be more thoughtful about this today. Yesterday I did not do the dishes, dye my hair, or sew. I did have a phone chat with my doctor so am feeling like there is some kind of direction there. She was thoughtful, listened well, answered my questions, and gave me what felt like a very individualized plan of attack moving forward. As I've only ever had 'routine' appointments with her in the past, I was happy with her approach when there is an actual issue.

Easier said than done! How do I feel like a worthwhile human being if I'm not suffering and struggling? 🙄

I have questions.

Lift. 2x week. It didn't work last time, let's try it again, eh? Monday & Saturday mornings. It doesn't even have to be the program, FFS. Just move something heavy-ish up and down a few times. Walk. 2x week. Before work, when possible to avoid the heat. Alcohol. None on weeknights. Snacks. Think about when/why. This is often due to boredom. Fix the boredom with something other than food. ----- Back to previous format, to help keep goals in mind for the last couple weeks of the challenge. Yesterday was not a lifting day. Didn't get a walk yesterday. Will probably try to do so after my morning meetings this morning. No alcohol yesterday. Snacking is getting a bit rough. We have a bag of mini (like single bite-sized) chocolate bars in the pantry. It's way too easy to grab one or two as I pass through the kitchen and then they are gone before I even realize it. In the future, I will refrain from buying such tiny chocolates, since I think if they were larger I would be (1) more hesitant to grab them more often and (2) I would have to spend some time actually eating them and could actually get some experience of enjoyment out of them rather than one bite and gone. Interesting (to me) thing to think about. Stuff to do: Work. Wednesday is always a heavy meeting day. Walk. It's warm already and the sun is OUT so getting this sorted before lunch will be a good idea. Dye hair. my roots are quite bad at the moment (why do I always feel like I'm behind on dying my hair?) I have a conference to present at in a couple weeks so I do need to get on this. Dishes. They're starting to pile up a bit, so I need to clear them up. Sew. I have a project for hubs that has been languishing. I'm getting a weird mental block about it so I just need to go get some progress on it sooner rather than later.

They are working, in that I am doing them. I question whether they are working as in having any effect. 🤔 The decreased alcohol consumption is definitely good/working. Walks are good. Any lifting is better than no lifting. I suppose I need to keep from assuming that because my goals haven't been a struggle means they aren't worthwhile.

Hrmph. I'm annoyed. I put aside all my procrastination and inertia to call my doctor's office to move my appointment sooner and they have nothing sooner than the appointment I already have at the end of next month. Dumb. I really hope that when I do have my appointment, my doctor handles it well. This will be the first time I've come to her with a medical problem, as opposed to routine health stuff. She's been great for the normal stuff, but how she response with an actual concern is TBD.

I'm not sure how it's been 16 years already... And thanks! Making sure they are manageable/realistic has gone a long way to actually meeting them. I'm unsure whether they were perhaps TOO low, but perhaps we will adjust that for next challenge rather than worrying about it now. Thank you! And yes--"mindless handful of Oreos" hits a lot differently than "10.30a serving of cottage cheese" heh.

What has even happened in the last almost-week? Well, we finally got our taxes sorted. Our accountant helped us find some deductions and reduced the amount we had to pay pretty significantly, so that was good. Still a hefty bill, and still the latest I have EVER submitted my taxes (the payment still says 'pending' but the due date was made). Our 16th anniversary was on Friday. Dinner was had. Saturday, I worked out and walked, then we mowed/did other lawn work and enjoyed some margaritas on the lanai Sunday, I think we lost most of the day playing Helldivers. Well worth it. Monday, I had a dentist appointment in the morning. Workout afterward followed by a walk. Some laundry. More Helldivers in the afternoon. Today I am back at work after being off all last week. I have spent the morning digging through a backlog of emails and making myself a task list. As for goals: walks are on point, workouts are being had alcohol is pretty well in check snacks are slipping. Some of it is definitely related to boredom/mindlessness, but I do think there is some evidence to encourage me to increase my calories overall. Perhaps a planned mid-morning snack would be of use.

Ohai! Thanks for checking... update incoming

I'm glad he's integrated well, but I feel bad for the poor girl who now has no cat Welcome to the 4 Cat Club.

Yes, on both counts. Fortunately our accountant is AWESOME and was able to give us some good advice. Just have to wait for his revisions now. 5 days until they're due--no anxiety here whatsoever I think this is the latest I will have ever submitted my taxes. EVER. Thank you both! Here's hoping I can keep it up for another week.

Lifted on Saturday Goblet Squat Lat Pulldowns DB Flies Hanging Knee Raises Then went for a walk Lifted this morning Good Mornings DB OHP DB Rows Calf Raises Then went for a walk. And now I'm poring over our taxes and waiting for our accountant to call me back because, oof.

How are things? Still getting along reasonably with your parents?

It's been a few days so 🤞that the coughing and congestion have gone well on their way at this point.

Happy (?) Tomb Sweeping Day Is that a thing? Is it a happy kind of holiday or a solemn kind of one? Anyway, hope the trip went well all round.

Walks are good How'd the rest of your week go?