Marauder

Helllooooo! Fun challenge setup. Just my style. What kind of video games do you like? I stayed up watch the Game Awards last night and adding things to my list. Congrats on the thesis!!! Woot!

All I can say is thank you for the snort laugh.

One day I will have these breakfast tacos. #bucketlist

I love rambling and now I've missed 3 pages of it already. @#$#% LOL at the Subway veggie hater. I think I would have demanded more spinach though. Are you going to a gym gym? or doing more at-home stuff? I've been debating a gym membership, but it feels silly since I have so much here in the basement. What I really want right now though is mindless trotting on the treadmill (our air is crap already this winter and I can't walk outside).

Electric candles are NOT cheating. I kind of love them. Rose Bowl hype for you! Holiday Bowl for us. RIP. That game, so painful. LOL

Here! I love "say something nice". I'm totally adding that to my habit list. Way to kill those PRs.

Aw, thank you!!! Habits are the hardest! Very rewarding and easy once established, but oh boy getting there is rough. Ditto. Who needs lust and pride. (also, hello friend) Yoho! Oh, I haven't read Atomic Habits. I'll add that to my list for later when I start to fizzle, LOL. It's inevitable. I have a whole year of habits every two weeks already listed out. I'm determined!!! How have you been doing? Thank Elastigirl! I sure hope so. The 50s are gonna be my time (this is what I keep repeating in my head for reinforcement). Thanks for all the welcomes friends! I need to scurry off after I post and find everyone's challenge threads. @Sloth the Enduring are you challenging or are you still a battle log man? I intended to find everyone yesterday, but right after I posted my challenge, my router went out and thus ensued a whole day of router acquisition, programming, and then resetting every freaking thing in the house to use the new wifi, aka. yesterday was all fire fighting. I DID take my vitamin D and multivitamin. I DID NOT eat slow (why is that SO hard?), but I did stop at satisfied rather than full. I have been continuing intuitive eating since I abandoned my last challenge with medium success. Sometimes I do ok, sometimes not so much. I'd like to do better. I am finding myself really challenged to eat slow. Im not sure the psychology behind that or maybe its just a bad habit. The things I've read recommend you take 20 minutes... YES, TWENTY... to eat a meal. Does anyone out there take 20 minutes to eat a meal? like without say... eating while playing God of War or playing Summoners War on your phone or reading a book? 20 Minutes is SOOO long. LOL. I have a new strategy... Today, I will time myself eating my meals and then try and add time each day... I don't know how much yet, maybe a couple minutes at first? Honestly, I probably prepare and eat my lunch in less than 5 minutes. Yikes.

LOL. Challenge has nothing to do with mustard, but it makes me giggle. And thank you! Thank you Tank!

Heh, maybe a mod could delete the thread I created in the wrong challenge thread. Doh! I turn 50 and can't internet. Good grief!

Ola! Long time no see. Missed you nerds. And yes, I'm very late. Since I've been gone, I've enjoyed a life ripe with sloth and gluttony (and no not that Sloth, get your mind outta the gutter!). Ok, well, I may be exaggerating a bit, but I have also not managed to keep up my fitness and health goals as much as I'd like. In addition, I've managed somehow to turn 50. It was a less than glorious moment y'all. I struggled HARD with this birthday, but I'm coming around and I've got a plan. It seriously shocks me that I'm 50. I swear it was just yesterday I turned 40. Really! And then I thought... I've been on this fitness and health journey for SOOOO long. The real problem I have is sticking to it. I've done a lot of reading about willpower, habits, etc. over the years and I think I've come to the root of my issue here... patience. I've got very little. If I'd taken the time and patience to really own a few good lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise habits when I turned 40... (I mean really take my time and OWN them!) maybe I'd be in a different place right now? So we're gonna give it a try and I can think of no better place for accountability and support than here with my rangers. You are totally stuck with me now until I turn 60 and can conclude my hypothesis. *smirk* Rules for My Impatient Self: 1. Focus on one habit for 2 weeks before adding another. 2. Track each habit for 1 month before deciding if you own it yet. 3. If you don't own that habit yet, keep tracking another 2 weeks and reassess. 4. Never add more than one habit at a time. 5. Never more than 2 habits being tracked. Keep it simple! The idea is a rolling habit track/add. Focusing on one habit for an entire month seemed a little long and I was worried about boring myself to death. The plan gives me room to keep things fresh, but also make sure a habit is established before adding more. And... Just because my habit for Dec 20 is weight training, doesn't mean I can't do any of that before then... that would be counterproductive, right? It's just not the focus and not being tracked. Start Dec 6: Vitamin D and multivitamin daily. Eat slowly. Stop when satisfied. Start Dec 20: Weight training 2x/wk So... who's excited to see me log on and check off one task every day for the next two weeks!!!!

LOL. These gifs exist for a reason.

I've fallen victim to reading Tank's thread before eating. Now must go make breakfast tacos.

Dear heavens I love me some Civ VI. The first day I got it on my PC, I think I logged in 12 hours. *cough* It's sort of like Home Depot... You walk in, look for 20 minutes, then realize that it's actually 4 pm the next afternoon. Except with Civ VI, you play for 30 minutes, think... just 1 more turn... then 6 hours later, you're at war with Cleopatra AND Teddy Roosevelt and are launching a space program.

That average blood sugar!

Thanks gals. It's moody. Good and bad all in the same day. Overall I think the trend is towards better though.

Challenge Summary This last week: Strength (workout) +2 (all from luck) Perception (meditate) +2 Endurance (row) +3 (1 from luck) Charisma (clean) +2 Intelligence (journal) +7 Agility (yoga) +3 (1 from luck) Luck (clean air walk) +3 (+4 to above for extra luck) Challenge totals: Strength (workout)-- 9/12 Good numbers due only to good luck clean air bonuses. In reality, strength workouts were not going to happen due to the acute back pain, so it is what it is. Perception (meditate)-- 11/20 Again, good numbers only due to good luck clean air bonuses. I probably need to stop making this a goal. It may be a thing I only do when I don't feel like I have to do it. Does that even make sense? I'm a touch of a defiant. Endurance (row)-- 9/12 Not a terrible performance. Some points from luck, but I definitely got on the rower more than I have in a while. Would like to keep this going as the back improves. Easy rows don't seem to aggravate it much. Charisma (clean)-- 8/8 Perfect score. Why isn't my house cleaner? LOL. Probably need to increase the frequency of this type goal for real progress. Intelligence (journal)-- 26/28 Yeah, this one I could do regardless of back pain, so excelled here. Agility (yoga)-- 6/8 Again, lots of bonus points from clean air bonuses. I did start doing more of this last week as my back started to feel better and stretching was feeling helpful. Luck (clean air walk)-- 12/12 As clear above, LOTS of good luck and clean air this challenge. I thought for sure going into this that I was stuck in the vault again, but ridiculously unseasonably warm weather has had us in the green for all but just a few yellow days this challenge and maybe one or two bad days? Crazy! Overall, the challenge worked out okay in the end. I could not have predicted the exceptionally clean air or the back pain episode. In the end, they balanced out the score sheet. Lots of walking was done, which keeps me moving and happy. Not so much strengthening happened due to the back issue. I got myself back on the rower, which will hopefully lead to good things as my back improves. Many thanks to @Tanktimus the Encourager for the intro to Intuitive Eating. I've got a long way to go, but I feel optimistic about this for the long haul. I still have many challenges with some of it, but overall I see absolutely no down side to getting in touch with my physical hunger more and tuning in to my body cues for satiation and hunger.

Wow... That is SO neat. None near me according to the search here... https://www.veriditas.org/New-to-the-Labyrinth I would totally try it if there was. The challenge is essentially over for me because I don't really do much on weekends. It's been a bit of a crazy day (and week really), and I don't have time to sit down and do the summary or the final graphic yet, but I will try to get it done tomorrow or Sunday. I am still here and kicking though. I've done reasonably well with stuff. Maybe overdid it a bit as the back was a bit pissed off this morning. More later this weekend...

... googling...

Intuitive Spending. No, really though. Scarcity is a for real thing that I do to myself. LOL. The tracker looks deceptively not bad due to Wonderful Luck in the clean air department. Strength: I'm going to get back to working out this week assuming I don't wake up tomorrow with a step backward int he back department. Deadlifts are probably not on the menu for the next couple of weeks though. I'll substitute some core work. I actually think some bad form on the single leg Rom deadlifts is what did my back in. After thinking on it, I think this all goes back to my core being inadequately strong to stabilize for cross lateral or single limb, especially with weights involved. Time to rectify that situation. I see lots of bodyweight cross lateral work in my future. Once my back is done being touchy, I'll put the deadlifts back in. I doubt they'll be a problem to be honest, but Im not taking chances of another month off the bench. Perception: Meditation just isn't happening. Part of the problem is major distraction. There is ALWAYS someone at my house right now and I find it hard to get a peaceful spot/moment. Also, it just hasn't felt like a priority. Not sure how to feel about that. It's always been a struggle. And, I've always felt like my walks are meditative as well. *shrug* Endurance: Rowing has been hit or miss. I did lay off of it with the back. No excuse why I'm not doing it now except laziness. Going to try and fix that this week. Charisma: Cleaning is happening. Intelligence: Journaling is happening. I do much less on the weekends, but I'm not troubled. I am actually enjoying it quite a lot. My little color square tracker is sadly not very colorful here at the end of January. I like the format though. It clearly shows where I started hurting and losing my mojo. Here's to things getting more colorful this week and into February. Agility: This one took a hard fall. I suppose I could have counted all the stretching I did for my back, but the idea was to really make improvements in mobility and that is literally the opposite of what happened so far this challenge. This one is likely to bring in the last place finish right alongside Perception/meditation. Luck:. Ironically, seems I'm a lucky girl, at least in the air quality department. Extra good luck points is the only reason that tracker up there is not nearly empty. *side eye*

The Utah one is just a few blocks from me. Good, not the best though, and a bit grimy.

In my experience, exercise elevates blood sugar readings for at least an hour and maybe longer. Just something to consider. Sounds like you are on the right path and have some good folks to work with.

I FINALLY figured out how to fix my graphic so it looks right. Yay! And I even managed while I'm fog-headed. I literally just caught myself moving wet laundry from the dryer back into the washer. Doh! Ironically, I'm doing exceptionally well in the Luck category. The air seems to be taking a turn for the worse later this week, so we'll see how that holds up. I am struggling with the GMB/agility stuff. No surprise there. Still a bit touchy in the back for any real movement challenges. Just putting on pants is enough of a challenge still (although I'm happy to say I can do so with much less assistance than last week). I've filled a few of these columns with my extra good luck days from clean air walks, and it's probably a good thing. Strength training is still mostly a nope. Doing well on cleaning and journaling. Meditation has not been as successful. I've had great success with Intuitive Eating and implementing it into my life. I was heading that direction a bit, so it flowed well. I have some work and home challenges right now which are not ominous or interesting, but just take up a lot of my time. No buy is going quite well. There is no way in hell I'm making it to June though and I'm wondering if a "no buy" is really just the credit card/stuff version of a diet and I should implement Intuitive Spending. LOL.

Yeah, does, but nothing has changed in that department really. Mattress is reasonably new-ish (like a year or so) and sleeping pattern doesn't seem obviously different. Weird. ----------------------------- Back is feeling a bit better today. Rowed again today and it is not bothering it. Just feels a bit moody right now. Mostly good and some occasional spasms that I can work out relatively quickly. Still no lifting likely. Walk already done. Air quality is starting to get worse, so happy I got that in early. I will update tomorrow with the fancy graphic, but time is tight today with errands.