Jarric

Very much in for this. Will this be the year that I finally complete an Inktober? Only time will tell.

Sunday W3D7 Yesterday's adventure was running D&D. The party decided to go to the plane of fire and explore a plot hook that I've been dangling since about session 2. We're on session 11 . Having exhausted every other option they went for it though, and were generally pretty successful at killing almost everyone they've met so far. First thing I went for a run - an easy 5k (3.1 miles) which will become my long run as I increase it over the next couple of months. Spent a load of time reading Bram Stoker's Dracula (I've been doing the Daily Dracula, where you read each entry in chronological order on the day that it happened in the book, but I was a couple of weeks behind). I also spent a decent chunk of time catching up here. I did not paint. Calories tracked at 2,443, updated here, and no money spent. 3/3 for the day. Week 3 stats Decisionist - 7/7 days tracking calories. Finished the week at 20,848 calories, and gained 0.5 lbs. Hoardsperson - 3/7 no-spend days. I want to get at least 4 this week. Documancer - 4/7 days updating here - must try harder. Cartographer - completed another mini, so I remain 1 week behind target on this. It's not slipping any further though, which is nice. On the calorie-counting front, today marks the first day of my bulking phase. I plan to gain an average of 0.5lbs per week for the next 13 weeks, taking me from about 12 stone to about 12 stone 7. I've worked out over the last 4 weeks that my maintenance calories are about 21,078 per week, or 3,011 per day. The plan to start with will be to eat 22,800 per week (3,257 per day), which I'll split as eating a minimum of 2,850 per day and then having a bonus 2,850 to spread over the week. I'll update the numbers over the weeks if I stop gaining weight, or gain weight much too fast. I'll also be aiming to hit at least 150g of protein each day, which should be easy if I stick to the protein shakes. None of this changing my decisionist goal, which is just to track every day.

I should. This is 100% a feeble excuse, but the annoying thing is that step 1 is to get my grandma a passport (she lives in England now, her passport has expired and she's got no plans to travel internationally ever again). Despite having two Irish parents and spending a chunk of her childhood in Ireland, my mother had the cheek to be born in the City of Westminster, making me one step further removed from citizenship. ...I've just thought that I might be able to get m,y Granddad's death certificate - that could actually be an easier route. Will investigate with my Mum.

May I propose that this aesthetic includes bioluminescent mushrooms? Glowing fungi feel good for a cave. Oo, that sounds wonderful actually. Glad the worst of the storm has passed - stay safe out there ❤️

Now there's an idea, can you recommend anyone? (In all seriousness, I should probably just sort out my Irish passport, but there's so many layers of paperwork required and I lack the motivation to do it without a clear reason.) Thank you! That's nice to hear because it's almost exactly what I was going for. It's a bit of a cartoony model, so I wanted to go quite contrasting with the colours, but without them being too garish.

I've been focusing less on the amount of walking - I do quite a bit anyway - and more on the mindfulness aspect that goes with it. I've not been good at tracking this, but here's where I think I am: Tuesday - I made an effort to be aware of my surroundings on my walk home, and saw a squirrel right next to the path in park. He was absolutely fearless - I could have almost reached out and picked him up. Thursday - I took a walk across another park, and watched the birds picking at the site of last year's bonfire. I wondered if they were trying to get the last worms out of the soil whilst they could, before this year's bonfire was placed on the same site on Saturday. Friday - On my walk home from the gym, I saw an albino squirrel on a fence. It's not the first one that I've seen round here, and I wonder if there are quite a few about or if it's just the same one in different locations. Today - I tried to pay attention to my surroundings as WW and I walked out to a café. I don't think I saw anything or note, but the effort counts. I'm calling it 4/7 for the week so far, but I'll have a go at doing something on Monday as well, as that seems to fit the timing of when tasks are announced. Guglug walked on, ostensibly searching for holes, but in reality stopping often to document and study the local fauna. He felt the fresh air was doing him good, even if his head was still buried in a notebook for much of the time.

You are very good at these - limerick writing is hard!

That sounds like a very good idea to me - if I have time to think and I'm doing nothing I find I dwell on negative things. If I have the same amount of time but I'm out for a walk, or painting, or doing the washing up, I find that my thoughts are more positive and productive. I'm never sure why that works for me, but it does.

Last night went off the rails, but I'm committed to getting it done tonight. Got mine done Thursday, missed Friday, but done again on Saturday. Must do a set today once I've digested dinner.

Yeah, if you like. It's dropped in value somewhat in the last few years anyway

Ok, I've missed a few days, let's catch up on some stuff. Wednesday W3D3 Wednesday's adventure was a visit to the physio. He's discharged me, and I have a reasonable running plan for the next few months which will hopefully get me back up to distance without further injury. Spent some of the afternoon at my Dad's house as he had an appointment so someone needed to be there to get him ready for it and make note of what he was told. Managed to do some painting and almost finish my 3rd mini for the challenge, and then went climbing. Through some miracle I spent no money, calories were very low at 2,346, I did update here, so 3/3. Thursday W3D4 Thursday's adventure was finishing an important report at work. Before that was crossfit - almost all of the session was spent skipping and 3.5 days later my calves are still killing me. We did a load of double under practice - I'm still shit at them - and crossover practice - first time I've ever done these but they seem a bit easier. In the evening WW and I went out for an excellent tapas, then I grabbed some more beer on the way home and we caught up with High Rollers and Taskmaster over beer. Calories tracked at 3,382, spent lots of money on tapas and beer, didn't update here. 1/3. Friday W3D5 Friday's adventure was a big client meeting. First thing was Crossfit - some power snatch practice and then a workout of skiing, down-ups, and box jumps. The jumps were not kind on the calves. Then spent 4 hours in the morning in that meeting, and spent the rest of the working day just trying to clear and organise stuff. Next week I've only got 2 relatively normal working days, so just trying to get everything cleared. In the evening I had a couple more beers in front of the TV with some baked camembert, bread, and carrots. I was actually ravenous all day for some reason. Had 6 chocolate cookies in the meeting, 2 jam doughnuts after lunch in the office. With that and normal meals, I hit 3,548 calories. I also spent money on a bottle of coke whilst I tried to get out of the office for my late lunch, and didn't update here, so 1/3 again. I think it was on Friday that I also managed to finish my latest mini - a little gnome guy: Saturday W3D6 Saturday's adventure was a bonfire procession and fireworks. First thing was a run and some climbing though, which was a fun start to the day. Spent most of the afternoon chilling at home, and then out in the evening to watch the bonfire procession go by. I've recently learned that this phenomenon is not only a British thing, but is quite specifically a Sussex thing, so I'll try to explain. All of the local towns and larger villages have a bonfire society, who spend the year raising money for a firework display on or around 5th November. Because there are so many of them the displays actually start in September and run all of the way through. In every town, every society from the surrounding towns march. Add into that local businesses and clubs, and you end up with 100s of people, all in fancy dress, all carrying flaming torches and burning signs, marching through the town. When they get to the end there's a big firework display, they light a massive bonfire, and everyone has a lovely time. Bonfire night commemorates the time someone failed to blow up parliament, and if you want to know more you can look up Guy Fawkes. Bonfires are common everywhere, but apparently processions are not? Calories tracked at 4,075 including a massive slab of chocolate cake at climbing, a sausage and egg baguette for lunch, a lovely beef burger for dinner, and evening beers. Spent money on the cake, and didn't update here, so 1/3 again.

...I guess?! Well there's definitely a difference in cultural touch points here, because I had to reverse image search to find out who that was

Does it? I usually feel like I don't achieve much in a day! That's really got me wondering about how I see my days - thanks for that. I'm not sure how I feel about this comparison

Well I got mine in yesterday at climbing after posting this, will do today's when I go back upstairs. How's the kneehab going?

I've seen it both ways. Sometime you run the numbers on a recipe and it's like 250kcal per serving, and that's not a meal quite frankly. Other times you're looking at a recipe going 'you want me to add how much rice??'