RogueLibrarian

Thanksgiving weekend! (Any day that long weekend, Thurs-Sun) Another NF friend (from the FB groups) wants to do it too, so I'm doing it.

Also, a friend is inviting me to do the Peachtree Road Race (virtual) with her. It's 10K, and I've never run more than a 5K. I'm thinking about trying it.

I did a kickboxing class last night! I'm not in pain today, or at least no more than usual after a kickboxing class. My bum knee/hip seem to have weathered it just fine, so I'll take it cautiously but proceed forward the rest of the week. I also attempted a little bit of writing yesterday to dip my toe back in. Fellow meditators, I highly recommend the RZA's meditation EP. It's on Spotify & Youtube etc.

Following!

I'm trying to re-kickstart my fiction writing. I've had an unfinished novel sitting in a google drive drawer for a couple of years now. Video classes are not ideal, but they're better than nothing. As long as the weather isn't bad, I can set up the webcam on the back deck and work out there. Karate is usually without equipment. We have a heavy bag so I can actually hit/kick that!

I haven't had a non-spayed female cat in a long time, but yeah, that checks out.

WHOA Hell yeah. Seeing that progress is an amazing feeling. I think my first challenge was, like, walk four times a week.

Followiiiiing

Week 1! Quick morning check-in, more later. My bum leg is still a little uncomfortable, but I'm going to try a cautious kickboxing workout class this evening and see how it goes. I walked a fair amount last week, but I missed my workouts and martial arts lesson. I'm using the NF Prime app (while it's free) and enjoying the quests as a fun way to keep motivated. I'm drinking a LOT of water, seltzer, unsweet tea, especially when I'm having food cravings. Snacking is down and I'm doing a decent job of controlling my portion size. I'm also trying Stevia instead of sugar in my coffee for a couple of weeks now and I like it fine, so I think I can stick with that. I'm coming out of the gate pretty strong! I've lost about four pounds in the last two weeks. It's very encouraging just to see that I can stop the inertia and start moving in the other direction. If I can lose ten pounds total, I'll be happy (fifteen would make me happier, but ten would be great). It's not a huge amount, but I definitely have a threshold weight right around this point where I notice the extra weight if I go over. I'm not a huge guy and have a skinny frame, so ten or fifteen pounds feels noticeable to me. I have some work to cover before lunch, but after my p.m. meeting I'll attempt some kind of short creative writing break.

It has been a quiet week, my bad knee is playing up and I've opted out of workouts reluctantly to make sure I'm in good shape for next week. No injury, just middle age. At least it's week 0. I'm getting out for walks, meditating, and paying attention to my eating. I had lost about two pounds last time I weighed in, but I'm trying to only do that once a week. I am drinking LOTS of water and pretty much avoiding snack urges. I think I might be adjusting to fewer calories ... a little bit.

GET THAT ASS IN, ASSASSIN

HELLO TEAM I'm back, baby It's been a minute. I'm well, healthy and working from home at least through the autumn. I've gained 15 pounds since Covid isolation started. I was blaming it on a medication I started taking, but I looked at the data. I started taking the meds in December, and the weight gain started in March/April. So what am I doing about it? I've sharply curtailed my snacking habits. I'm drinking a lot more water. Perhaps most importantly, I'm cutting my portion sizes at meal times (I have a tendency to mindlessly go back for seconds if I like what I'm eating). I am exercising pretty regularly! My usual routine is kickboxing class on Monday, martial arts lesson on Wednesday (both via webcam), and a run on Friday morning. Earlier this spring I was running three times a week, but the Georgia heat got too intense for that and I had to stop entirely for a while. I'm also working on maintaining mental health stuff during lockdown -- mostly I'm feeling bored and stagnant and confined. Trying to keep focus on work, etc. Trying to do things for fun that bring me joy despite the circumstances. I'm meditating daily, talking to my therapist, all the stuff I think I should be doing to cope. So: Challenge goals. Workouts three times per week. This will usually be the aforementioned kickboxing, karate, run combo, but substitutions are A-okay. Water. First thing in the morning, and throughout the day. Sparkling water, unsweet iced tea, and plain old water. Drink a glass before giving in to a snack craving. Half-assed meal plan: Take less on the plate, and follow with a piece of fruit and/or a fat-free yogurt instead of seconds. Write: Twice a week, write something creative and non-work-related. Doesn't matter if it's good, or how long. I'm just trying to get that habit restarted. And maybe post a bunch of Donnie Yen gifs?

Team Pond 4 Lyfe

Hi babe! I'm going to post in the next challenge and try to bring a friend. ❤️

Following! Am I late?

Not even a little bit. It's fine! Sometimes at *ahem* a certain age one just wakes up with it. I missed karate class on Monday, but took a gym break today at work to try to keep to my goals. So, my space LARP has a workout sub-group going on Facebook, and a bunch of people are doing the Darebee Hero's Journey plan, which is a cool RPG-themed workout. I won't be able to do it daily like a lot of people are, but I'm going to try using it as a supplement on solo gym days like today. I did day 1 of that, followed by 30 minutes of elliptical. Thinking that a good goal for the first half of the year might be improving my running times, at least on the elliptical to go easy on my knees. Pride 5k is in the summer, usually late June.

oh GOD was I ever fucking tempted, babe ahem So. I have some minor back pain today which is yet again going to keep my off my regular workout schedule. I'm going to see if I can do a work gym session tomorrow afternoon to get back on track.

Much better today. Kickboxing class achieved.

I mean, arguably

Hey! I am. I took a test cycle off while LARP stress and travel was on, but I'm happy to be back on track again. It is! As of July 1. Finally got around to ordering new business cards this week. HI EVERYBODY I had two days of anomalous work commitments, an all-day meeting with presentations and an out of town conference yesterday, so I haven't been in front of a computer much to update. Good karate classes this week. Thursday after the meeting, the dean emailed me to compliment how I handled a difficult/confrontational/asshole colleague (I'm paraphrasing) in front of an out of town guest who attended. Good conference yesterday, though I felt sick a lot of the day and ended up leaving a little early, came home to crash for a nap and then slept for 11 hours last night. I think I missed a dose of my medication and yesterday may have been withdrawal symptoms. Better today, though it looks like I'm going to put off kickboxing until tomorrow.

Got to fight with boffer swords in karate class tonight.

Working on it. I'm trying to be as patient with the process as I can. It's so idiosyncratic and you don't know what the side effects will be (or if it'll help) until you've been taking it for a bit, and you can't just instantaneously swap without tapering off, so it's going to require patience. We test every eight weeks with a free week in between. My ranks to date have had two levels each ("regular" and advanced) and my future ranks will all have three levels (beginner/"regular"/advanced), so if I test every time and pass every test, that would put me into beginner blue belt around September. I've been taking just over a year and have missed maybe two tests due to travel etc. I roasted vegetables last night (incredibly easy) and bought stuff for healthy stir fry for later in the week. We ate terribly at our mothers' houses over the holidays. My mom's still not sure how to cook for vegetarians without melting cheese in everything (which I don't hate, but).