BLSutherland

Howdy y'all! This is not my first Rebellion rodeo; around this time last year, I was kicking ass, taking names, shedding pounds, and building muscle. And then I hurt my knee and never really got back to 100%. And then school got super hectic and started letting things slide. And then... And then... (You see where this is going) And now I'm here! Getting off the excuse bandwagon! But rather than jump in and try to start back where I was before, I'm starting fresh as a baby Rebel. Let's relearn how to walk before we run. To that end, I'm using the (Pagan) New Year as a good time for shedding old habits and establishing new ones. Here are my Quests: Diet Quest 1) No candy. Diet Quest 2) No more than three 20-ounce diet sodas per week. Fitness Quest) Complete NF Bodyweight workout 1A/1B at least three times per week. Level Up Quest) Bed by 11 pm. I'll prettify this in a bit. Just wanted to go ahead and get the ideas down.

Maaaaan, I know I need to get to sleep at a reasonable time, but my sleep habits are SO screwed up. 10 pm for me tonight. Time to get off the computer and do all the evening routine stuff. Night, y'all!

WEEKLY WRAP-UP I've had a not terribly productive weekend on the work front, but a pretty kick-ass weekend at home. Starting doing so serious cleaning and purging, and did a big mess of cooking/prepping for the week. Chili and groundnut stew for lunch and dinner, steamed broccoli for the next two days (and raw to make more later on), yogurt and broccoli and sweet potato frittatas for breakfast. Nearly everything is pre-packed, so I can grab and go in the morning. I made my five days to the gym this morning, but ended up off-schedule on workout days so today was cardio only. Ah well, next week is another week. Quest One: I will eat at NF Level 7 at least 18 out of 21 meals a week. MADE IT FOR THE WEEK. Quest Two: I will bring lunch and healthy snacks to lab at least 4 out of 5 days a week. MADE IT FOR THE WEEK. Quest Three: I will go to the gym at least 5 days a week. MADE IT FOR THE WEEK. Life Quest: I will permanently remove at least 14 possessions a week from my apartment. MADE IT FOR THE WEEK (one garbage bag full of things removed) On to next week, friends!

Not a bad end of the workweek, today. We decided to have a lab cleaning day and it was actually fun. We found a bunch of stuff that predates me (I'm a 5th year PhD student) and stuff we *think* dates back almost 20 years to when my PI started here. Ecology and Evolution is weird: Some of the stuff we do, like molecular biology stuff, 20 year old equipment is aaancient. But for the Ecology stuff, I'm pretty sure the same bundle of PVC pipes and t-posts have been used for field stuff for easily that long. It's fun to work with both fancy chemicals and dirt. Anyway, we had a really great speaker who does similar work to what I do, and he and I had a nice conversation. On the goals front, I DID take my 2nd sub-7 meal at lunch (sandwiches, but didn't go crazy), but I brought snacks for the afternoon, so I'm still counting the "bringing food" as completed, because otherwise a planned event hurts me twice! I also got another weight day in at the gym. Still no purging. Tomorrow! Quest One: I will eat at NF Level 7 at least 18 out of 21 meals a week. NOT TODAY, but still good for the week. Quest Two: I will bring lunch and healthy snacks to lab at least 4 out of 5 days a week. YES. Quest Three: I will go to the gym at least 5 days a week. YES. Life Quest: I will permanently remove at least 14 possessions a week from my apartment. PENDING.

Whew! Been a crazy few days, but things are looking good! First, I had my 5th year committee meeting yesterday, that I was terrified of. I really felt like I haven't accomplished much in the last year, and went into a panic beginning over the weekend trying to put together documents for my professors to review. Turns out I've actually gotten a lot of shit done! After a not great committee meeting last year, this one went swimmingly well. I was basically told that I have enough data to write my dissertation NOW. The last two projects that still need a fair bit of work just bump it from a good dissertation to a sexy one. Anyway, here's the wrap-up of the last few days, and hopefully now that the committee thing is done I can get back to consistent posting. Quest One: I will eat at NF Level 7 at least 18 out of 21 meals a week. So far, I've only had one sub-7 meal: breakfast before my committee when I stress ate some scones my friend brought in and chugged more coffee than was strictly necessary. I'm planning on another tomorrow: We have a visiting speaker that I'm having lunch with. If I get lucky and it's Sticks (a Mediterranean kebab place in my town), then I have options. If not, its most likely sandwiches from Panera and I'll count it as my sub-7 meal. Otherwise, things I going great: My giant pots of chili and broccoli-vegetable soup (which looks like baby food but tastes fantastic), have been good bases for the week. The chili has been going into a huevos rancheros thing for breakfast and has been DELISH. Anyway, so far, so good: YES. Quest Two: I will bring lunch and healthy snacks to lab at least 4 out of 5 days a week. I've been ROCKING this so far: Broccoli soup or Thai curry, with a fruit (apples or mangoes), and chicken. Yum. And no vending machine or overpriced canteen stuff! YES. Quest Three: I will go to the gym at least 5 days a week. I didn't go the day of committee (I basically came home yesterday and passed out about 6 pm - too much not sleeping plus adrenaline/caffeine crash. Otherwise, doing well. Two days of cardio plus one of weights. YES. Life Quest: I will permanently remove at least 14 possessions a week from my apartment. I haven't touched this one, but I'm planning a big cleaning/purging binge on Saturday. Stay tuned. PENDING.

Sounds like a good setup for a success. Good luck on your challenge!

Oh shit, the new challenge starts today! *Britt scrambles to get goals together* So, the last challenge started strong...and ended like a sad pile of mashed potatoes. Time to rededicate and get things going in the right direction! Quest One: I will eat at NF Level 7 at least 18 out of 21 meals a week. So yeah. The calorie counting thing was a pain in the butt, even when I stuck to the same basic foods every day, and sticking to the same foods every day made Britt a bored, bored, girl. We're gonna try something different. And hard, but (I think) doable. I'm picking level seven as a goal because in most ways it doesn't represent a stretch: I already eat a lot of veggies and protein, and bread is an unusual occurrence. Where this challenge WILL be a challenge is on the sugar. It crept back in last challenge in a big way, and it needs to get its happy little ass back out of my life. The way this challenge is structured gives me three meals a week to choose to be less than level 7. One of those shall be my Wednesday night knitting group, which will also be my one night of the week when I will drink alcohol. The rest of the time we're gonna be good! Quest Two: I will bring lunch and healthy snacks to lab at least 4 out of 5 days a week. I do a great job on breakfast, a decent job on lunch, and oftentimes a shitty job on dinner. Part of the dinner fail is not eating enough for lunch and returning home ready to gnaw my own arm off. This challenge I plan to bring my lunch to work EVERY day, and to bring a healthy, filling snack (yogurt, most likely), to eat in the afternoon to stave off the hangry. This should help me power through the evening in a good place. Quest Three: I will go to the gym at least 5 days a week. I want to get to the point where going to the gym just becomes automatic. I don't think about it, I don't juggle every day to find time, I just GO. The actual content is less important than the going, at least for this challenge. Life Quest: I will permanently remove at least 14 possessions a week from my apartment. I am a PhD student looking for finish up in December. I've lived in the same apartment for almost five years, and I've accumulated a ton of crap I don't need, or use, or even want anymore. Time to downsize, which in turn will make me calmer and happier and less stressed. The 14 items could be anything that doesn't usually get removed (i.e. I can't count taking out the recycling), but single objects count (i.e. one old textbook, not ALL the old textbooks). Quest #1: Lucky Level Seven! A: >=72 times - [+4 CON] B: >=66times - [+3 CON] C: >=60 times - [+2 CON] D: >=48 times - [+1 CON] F: < 48 times - [+0 CON] Quest #2: Be prepared! A: >= 20 times - [+4 WIS] B: >= 18 times - [+3 WIS] C: >= 16 times - [+2 WIS] D: >= 14 times - [+1 WIS] F: < 14 times - [+0 WIS] Quest #3: Gym Bunny! A: 20 times - [+4 STR] B: 17-19 times - [+3 STR] C: 14-16 times - [+2 STR] D: 10-13 times - [+1 STR] F: <10 times - [+0 STR] Life Quest: TIME FOR CULLING! A: 56 items - [+3 CHA] B: 48 items - [+2 CHA] C: 42 items - [+1 CHA] D: 36 items - [+0.5 CHA] F: <36 items - [+0 CHA]

Well...three weeks out of four ain't...horrible. Post-mortem So, things I have learned this cycle: 1) I can eat roughly the same thing for about three weeks in a row before I go insane. I figured out a basic meal plan before the last challenge and only modified around the edges, which made it easy to keep track of calories, but made things deadly dull before too long. I'm thinking Teros may have been right; I think next challenge I'm going to focus less on numbers and more classes: Eat more veggies and proteins and fewer sugary things just because they under the magic 1900. I'd still like to keep an approximate count, but I'm not going to be so measurement-obsessed. Ain't nobody got time for that! 2) Stretching is HUGE. I'm not quiiiite to where I can do a full squat with my heels down, but damn am I close! and I've noticed improvement in little things, like being less stiff after I sit writing for a long time. Big accomplishment I submitted my first manuscript to a journal yesterday! Now begins the review process, which can get hairy, but once this gets published, it'll be my first paper as first author! So, so stoked!!! Alrighty, time to figure out what next challenge is going to be!

Report Twenty-Two Man, today has been a Monday. Long story short, but my morning began at 3 am with me stepping on a thumbtack... It got better but it was quite busy! Lots of benchwork, lots of computing. Lifting day today, so I completed cardio and stretching in the gym. Cooked a giant pot of colcannon tonight. A little carb heavy, but the carb/fat balance is good and it's super filling. Add some meat and we've got dinner for the week! Goal One: Red Queen Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM Today was Ehhh...I'm calling it yes. (1,905) Goal Five: What are words? Not a ton of writing, but a little bit of work on the methods for paper two. Today was YES.

Report Twenty/Twenty-One Backed off the coffee and now my chest is doing fewer flippity-floppity things (I tend to feel like I'm having palpitations when the GERD gets bad), but I've figured out the sore-throat is just run of the mill allergies. Yay, warmer weather! Saturday was a fairly relaxed day of working on manuscript edits and watching my bracket go down in flames. Stretch session felt wonderfully awful after two days of laziness. Was thinking about going to hike for my cardio, but the weather didn't cooperate much the past two days, so back to the gym for me, cranking away on the stationary bike. Goal One: Red Queen Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Wrote down everything, and finally seem to have my appetite back in order. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM Yesterday was YES (1,815) Today was YES (1,892) Goal Five: What are words? More finishing touches. Getting sick of finishing touches. When can I fire off this bad boy?!? Yesterday was YES. Today was YES.

Report Eighteen/Nineteen Yesterday and today have been kind of meh. Between the personal crap and work, and now I think I'm getting a GERD flare up because I've been an idiot and decided that copious amount of coffee are a good idea. Blergh...going to wean back on some tea, because going caffeine cold turkey sounds like a GREAT way to have a bad weekend. In terms of my gym goals, I've taken the last two days off, because I did three in a row and because lab has been stupid busy. Tomorrow is a day back! Goal One: Red Queen Yesterday was NO. Today was NO. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Yesterday was NO. Today was NO. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Yup! Tracking away. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM Yesterday and today has been easily digestible things and light meals, trying to soothe the cranky GI tract. Hitting a little low, but haven't been hungry. Going to try to hit closer to target tomorrow. Yesterday was YES (1,584) Today was YES (1,621) Goal Five: What are words? Finishing touches on Manuscript one before we submit that bad boy! Yesterday was YES. Today was YES.

Report Fifteen/Sixteen/Seventeen It's been a not great few days on the personal life / work life front. About the only thing that HAS been going right is getting my ass to the gym. I don't know when I became one of those people who prefers using physical exertion to work through life problems, but I gotta admit I kind of like it! A lot of these are going undetailed, because I jotted down the whats, but not the specifics. Anyhoow... Goal One: Red Queen Like I said, exercise has been good for the soul. YES, YES, and YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Likewise! YES, YES, and YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Two days ago I did great, yesterday not so much, today pretty good. YES, NO, YES. Goal Four: MCM Where there is lax recording and eating of feels, there lie calories. More than 1900 of them. YES, NO, YES. Goal Five: What are words? Heh. So lab meeting yesterday completely exposed the soft, weak underbelly of my project. Spent today retooling, but that still count because I've been working my butt off! YES, YES, and YES. Here's to feeling good and kicking ass. Y'all have a good night!

Welp. Ladyfriend and I just broke up. I was going to update tonight, but I think that's not in the cards. Gonna go sulk for the evening then be back in rare form tomorrow.

Report Fourteen A frustrating midpoint to the challenge. I realized that I was not going to be anywhere NEAR ready to present a draft of my paper to my lab meeting. Sent an email to my advisor telling her I've written three versions of introduction to this manuscript and I hate ALL of them. So I'm backing up. I'm retooling my Tuesday meeting to ask some opinions about how I need to frame this story, and THEN proceed instead of trying to force through something shitty. On a better note, I worked out my frustration by having a GREAT workout at the gym! Goal One: Red Queen Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,892 Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? So clearly the writer's block hasn't improved. Decided today I wasn't going to force it, so I didn't other things instead. Going to talk to my advisor tomorrow and try again. Today was NO.

Report Thirteen Still in major write mode and cranky about losing an hour of sleep, so I'm keeping this short and sweet. Goal One: Red Queen Today was PENDING. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Today was PENDING. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Yup, managed to do that even though I sat like a slug on my couch all day. Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,798. Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? Wrote, rewrote, rerewrote the introduction to this stupid thing three times. Blergh. (Lest you all think I'm the world's slowest writer, methods and results are in the bag already) Today was YES.

Loki expressed his opinion of your shenanigans. Now that's it's basically springtime and I've reopened the windows (i.e. CatTV), his favorite perch is the top of the fridge. So I may not have a pterodactyl, I DO have a catgoyle.

Report Eleven/Twelve Grad school is kicking my ass y'all... I'm presenting my 2nd manuscript draft to my lab group on Tuesday. To give them time to read it I need to get it in their hot little hands by tomorrow morning. I've been burning the candle at both ends and it caught up with me yesterday. Under the guise of "writing at home" I stayed home from the lab yesterday. And while writing DID occur, so did a shit-load of sleep! I feel almost like a person! I've made lunch, eaten a healthy breakfast, and am about to go do battle with Big Mac (the lab's main analytical computer, so named because...it's big...and a Mac. Our other lab computer is Little Dell. We're creative people.). Let's see how the past two days went! Goal One: Red Queen It has been GORGEOUS the past few days here in Virginia, so I made time the past two days to go to my favorite local hiking spot and look for spring ephemerals. Aside from the botanizing, I did some major exertion on those hilly trails! Day before yesterday was YES. Yesterday was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH I've been having neck and shoulder pain the past few days, but I'm thinking it's tension and sleeping poorly. Woke up feeling a bit better having added some neck exercises into the mix (holdovers from PT when I had whiplash in a car accident...if I just keep getting injured I'll have stretches for all seasons!). Did some spot exercises on the neck and right shoulder again yesterday, but that wasn't a full body thing, so it doesn't count. Day before yesterday was YES. Yesterday was PENDING. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Managed to keep writing things down even through the chaos that this stupid manuscript has put into my life. Day before yesterday was YES. Yesterday was YES. Goal Four: MCM Day before yesterday was YES. (1,876) Yesterday was YES. (1,892) Goal Five: What are words? SO. MUCH. WRITING. Day before yesterday was YES. Yesterday was YES.

Report Ten All the computing. I worked from home today and ran analyses remotely, which was awesome. Start a run, putter about the house, write some, check output, rinse repeat. Of course, my cat was also thrilled I was home, so I had 20 pounds of Maine Coon polydactyl mix in my lap. (He's big, but also fat. He and I are both trying to shed mass, one of us willingly, one of us yowling about empty food bowls a lot) Goal One: Red Queen Today was not a regular gym day, so no cardio goodness to report. Today was PENDING. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH However, I DID do an in-house stretching session while I waited for bowtie to do the thing. PT stretches today. Right calf has been achey the past few days. Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Yup! Recorded everything, and ate much better than yesterday! Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM I was a bit low this evening, so I munched on some of my homemade snacky bars, which are better having sat a few days. Today was YES. (1,875) Goal Five: What are words? More cranking through manuscript two! Today was YES.

Heh, yes, crack might be somewhere in the fine print on the ingredient list...

Report Eight/Nine Blerghhh... Manuscript One needs MORE cleaning when I thought my advisor was fine with, a couple of curveballs got thrown at the data analysis for manuscript two, and I owe the Feds money I don't have because my department FUBAR'd my withholdings and I didn't catch it. So yeah. Today was not fabulous. I weebled. I wobbled. I'm taking tonight to sulk and then getting back in gear tomorrow morning. I am a bigger bitch than my life is, and it WILL respect mah authoritah! Goal One: Red Queen Yesterday was a regular gym day. Today I had to cat-sit for my friend so I used her treadmill. I hate treadmills, but it serves its purpose. And Stanley thankfully did not try to trip and kill me while I was riding. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Yesterday was fine on the stretching front, all systems go. This morning my left ankle decided it wasn't having today. I'm not so sure it's not psychosomatic cause I'm pissy. Fortunately I have more week left to get my four. Yesterday was YES. Today was PENDING. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Heh. Yeah, I've faithfully recorded everything over on Sparkpeople. Yesterday was pretty good, today not so much. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM So you remember last challenge when I bought those Girl Scout cookies and froze them, and how that seemed like not such a swell idea? Well, today I remembered, too. Came home from an irritating day at work and binged on cookies. Gave the rest of the box to a friend of mine to minimize the damage! Yesterday was YES. (1,892) Today was NO. (2,631) SIGH....Getting back on the wagon tomorrow! Goal Five: What are words? *rages impotently* Science hates me today. I spent all day trying to coax programs I only halfway understand to do the thing. And then trying to figure out what it meant when it did the thing. I DID get some methods finished for the second paper though. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES.

Report Seven Howdy folks! Today was a combo lab day/binge House of Cards day (I mean, it IS the weekend...). And I tried to make homemade energy bars. I'm not sure why, really, but the idea got in my head, and just stuck there. One trip to the bulk aisle of the swanky grocery store later, and I'm mixing up nuts and seeds and dried fruit and whatnot. Can't make these without the whatnot, I'll tell ya! Anyway, they're pretty good and very filling, with a lot of protein and fiber going on. Not too shabby. I'll test them out this week as snacks in the lab and see if they stave off the afternoon hangries. Goal One: Red Queen Today I took as a break day. Back on the stick tomorrow! Today was PENDING. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Ditto. Today was PENDING. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Wrote down all the things, and figured out the nutrition info for my new little project. True Facts about Bootleg Larabar: 129 kcal / 4.7 fat / 12.2 carb (2.8 fiber) / 9.3 protein Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,845 today. Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? Got back remarks on the cover letter and manuscript from my former labmate who is now a post-doc for another lab in our department, and incorporated them into the documents. Feeling pretty good about these right now! Today was YES.

Report Five/Six Had some friends visiting last night, so I ended up sacking out before I posted. Back again today! Goal One: Red Queen Yesterday was a break day in general. No gym a'tall. Today was an everything day: bike, stretching, lifting! Today was PENDING. Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH As I said above. Starting to feel like maybe I'm seeing tiny signs of progress in my ankles. Able to keep my heels down going a bit deeper into squat position. Today was PENDING. Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Yup! Did a good job on all counts yesterday, and made the best approximations I could with breakfast today (Friends still in town. We did a diner and I got a spinach omelet, I guessed three eggs). Also did a movie double-feature: Zootopia and Deadpool. Not, uh, my idea on the movie picks, but liked them both! Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,835 yesterday. 1,892 today. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? Spent Friday reading literature for 2nd manuscript and today working on the cover letter for the first a bit. Yesterday was YES. Today was YES.

For me it's the other way around, but I know the cause. My right leg is smaller than my left, by about 0.75 inches, but also in general weaker. So whenever the right leg is "anchor" I'm always a little more unstable.

Report Four Goal One: Red Queen Today wasn't a lifting day since yesterday was, but I did go ride the recumbent for 24 minutes (because that's how long the program runs for and I don't know how to set it differently. *shrug*) But yes, cardio was A. THING. Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Also got in the stretchies! Slightly less wobbly today on Warrior I, which is to say I only KIND OF resembled a newborn calf trying to walk. This whole balance thing is gonna be a process... Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! Yup! *Sigh* So my lab friend brought in an apple brioche from a bakery in town as thanks for helping him on a lab thing. I split it in thirds with my two other labmates. Guessing my third was still about 250 calories? Kind of proud of myself. It was DELICIOUS, but I absolutely did not need a whole one of those! Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,894 (squeaking just under the wire on fruit pastries!) Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? Sent my interim report to Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources so they'll let me keep coming to their parks and picking their flowers! Administrative writing still counts as writing. Today was YES.

Report the Third Goal One: Red Queen Went to the gym tonight, which ended up being a great way to work off some aggression from dealing with dumb people all day. Seriously. All the dumb. I pictured myself pinching a couple of lab members' heads off while I trundled away on the elliptical. Not sure I'm sold on the elliptical. It's more of a workout than the recumbent bike, but seems to exacerbate that whole "uneven legs" thing. Maybe I should try just straight-up walking/jogging. I'll keep experimenting until I find my groove. Today was YES. Goal Two: STREEEEETCH Oh, yes, and it was glorious. Legs especially seem like they might be getting with the program. I tried Warrior I, stealthstitcher! So, um, balance is not my forte, but I definitely think this is going to have a place in my routine! Today was YES. Goal Three: Write down all the things! All the things! Today was YES. Goal Four: MCM 1,825 calories Today was YES. Goal Five: What are words? I made a map today, and it is cool! I have weird plants all over the place. Also, the meeting I was stressing about yesterday afternoon went swimmingly. New guy is completely onboard! Today was YES.