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??'

Tuesday W3D2 Tuesday's adventure was an actual adventure - our Pathfinder game. First thing was Crossfit though - a bloody stupid workout quite frankly. 27-21-15 squat cleans and burpee pullups, straight into 15-21-27 front squats and burpees to target. 20-minute time cap for the lot. Absolutely impossible. It's fine - I did 20 minutes of fairly intense exercise and came away almost unscathed (barring a thumb blister) - I just don't really see the point of that kind of workout. Work was ok - mega busy and lots of meetings. It's dawned on me that I have a hell of a lot to do in the next few weeks, and not a lot of time to do it as I'm out for a conference and delivering a couple of webinars, as well as having a week off soon. It'll all come together somehow I'm sure. Pathfinder in the evening was good. We had a fight with a big bunch of morlocks, our first proper combat since we levelled up, and once we'd worked out what the hell all of our new spells and abilities were we had a great time. Our only proper frontline fighter critically failed a will save and got enfeebled 3 (-3 to strength rolls which includes his attack rolls and damage rolls), but I discovered a spell scroll which allowed me to remove the condition and bring him back up. I got to use a stupid new spell which summons an albatross to bother your enemies. The druid cast what is basically an icy version of fireball with plenty of collateral damage. All in all, it was a lot of fun. No realy time for any adventuring after a full combat session, but that's nice sometimes too. I somehow still managed a no spend day, and calories tracked at 2,371. Fairly low, but I'm saving up for a big night out on Thursday. Updated here, and managed a somewhat mindful walk home from work for West Marches. 4/4.

Yeah, it's certainly a nice way to earn myself a free ticket for next year. It doesn't always work, but I try and bear it in mind because that's definitely a real chunk of money at the end of the year.

Sorry for the double post, but just thought about this. I planned to do pistol squats every day this month, and that lasted all of a day. Today I realised that's it's been nearly a full month since that decision. Do you want to team up on this; I'll do my daily pistol squats for my knee if you do your daily kneehab?

Consistency is the most important thing, so if working out with your wife makes you more consistent at doing the thing I think you've probably got plenty of time to tweak the specifics.

I often have to fight myself to go to social gatherings, and I almost always come away glad I went having enjoyed myself.

Sorry to hear about the anxious day; I hope that today brings you more calm and a quieter mind.

Yeah, I'll take a solid B! Thank you! I spent a lot on Tuesday, but knocking out all of those little days of a quid here, couple of quid there, does add up as well. I worked out the other day that if I can save £1.50 every day by not buying a bottle of coke, that's £550 in a year that I'm better off by, and that makes it feel rather more significant.

Monday W3D1 Yesterday's adventure was sorting out some of my stuff from the weekend. Not all of the stuff, you understand, just some. Crossfit was clean and jerks - theoretically 5x3 at 65% of my max clean. I don't know what my squat clean is, so it ended up being 40kg x 3 x 3 and then 45kg (99#) x 2 x 3. We followed up with a workout of shuttle runs, hang power snatches, and wall walks, which I didn't complete in the 12-minute time cap. Work was ok, pretty busy, but I was properly exhausted from the weekend. In the evening I got some stuff tidied away and did some washing up, but I was knackered and ended up on the sofa after dinner. I did update here and paint minis in that time though, so that's pretty good. Calories tracked at a very reasonable 2,675, but I did cave in and buy a pepsi max at lunchtime to try and combat the fatigue so 2/3 goals for the day.

All of the sitting inside and updating maps had given Guglug the unusual urge to venture outside and see a bit of the world himself. Noticing a post entitled 'Explore for Tunnels' at the tavern he sees this as a perfect opportunity to get some fresh air and maybe uncover some hidden knowledge in the process. Heading to the bar, he enquires for more details. Wish I'd read this post before I went for my lunchtime walk, I could have made it longer and more mindful for this goal. Sounds like a fun challenge though

Busy weekend mega update! Friday W2D5 Friday's adventure was finishing a big report at work that I really wanted out of the way. Otherwise it was a fairly chill day - yoga first thing, working from home, made curry for dinner, chilled and painted in the evening. Calories tracked at 2,561, no money spent, updated here, painted some. 4/4. Saturday W2D6 Saturday's adventure was a Tough Mudder! Got up at 6, picked up a friend and got to the site just after 7. A bit of chilling out, eating, sorting gear and all of the usual race stuff, and the two of us were off on course. There'd be a brief thunderstorm the previous day, and the course had been open at that time for a corporate event, so the ground was pretty boggy. Not as boggy as it would be a day later, but that's a different story. The course itself was fun. Tough Mudder is always good value for big-ticket obstacles, including Blockness Monster - a big pool of water with spinning blocks that you have to turn to help others get over - and Flying Monkey - a rig of incline monkey bars followed by some spinning rings to swong from over another pool of cold water. There's also a fair bit of running, though not as much as there should have been - we clocked the '10+ mile' course at 8.4 miles (13.5km). We finished in 2 hours 20, had a finish line beer, and then as we went to shower and change it started to rain. Not wanting to hang around we headed to the pub for a burger before going our separate ways. Knowing that I would be out in the evening I spent some time in the afternoon painting my gnome mini again, as well as washing myself and my clothes. In the evning we went out for our Pathfinder GM's birthday, where we played silly games and drank too much beer. Got home at half midnight and collapsed into bed. Calories tracked at 5,569 (running gels, a big pub burger, and a few beers will do that. Mini painted, but no update here and I did spend money. 2/4. Sunday W2D7 Sunday's adventure was marshalling at the Tough Mudder. Up at 6 again - a real struggle after the previous night - and back to site before 7 to get assigned my post. After plenty of waiting and quite a bit of confusion I was assigned to Creek Crossing, which was basically a river. There hadn't even been a marshal posted there when I ran, but there was so much more mud on course than the previous day and what had been a little jump over the river was now a full on slide in and wade out. It was a fun day, watching people fall in the water and have a laugh about it. Lots of really lovely people, a few muddy hugs, and I managed to blast out 80s metal for the whole day while I was at it. The pack down was less fun, trudging through the mud taking down muddy fences, but it's all part of the job. I got home about 6pm, showered, ate dinner whilst watching strictly, and headed up to bed not long after 9. No money spent, and calories tracked at 3,940, but I didn't find the energy to update here or to paint anything. 2/4. Week 2 scores Decisionist: 7/7 days tracking calories. Finished the week at 25,814 (that's 3,688 per day!), and I gained 0.7lbs, which I guess is testament to how busy I was at the weekend. Hoardsperson: 5/7 days without spending money. Not bad at all. Documancer: 5/7 days updating here. The weekend let me down. Cartographer: I've still only completed 2 minis, so I'm behind, but I'm getting there on the 3rd. I painted on 5/7 days, which is relevant for the West Marches mini.