Jarric

Monday W3D1 Monday was a good day. Art was a quick sketch in the small book right before bed, having spent most of my sofa time sewing on more patches. Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was a full on leg day - box squats at 90kg (198#) x 3 x 5, then box step ups, hamstring curls, and natural leg extensions. Work was ok, calories were low, and dinner was a delicious sausage and root veg tray bake.

Sunday - W2D7 Sunday was a good day. Art was a quick sketch of a lego minifig. Kneehab was done as a warm-up for an afternoon bike ride. I had a very chilled day - got up late, went for brunch with WW, and chilled out for a bit before a short bike ride. Went out in the evening for my dad's birthday meal, and had an enormous amount of food. Even though I only had two meals on Sunday I consumed over 4,000kcal, and given that I had nothing in my budget I was 4,000 over target for the week. I only gained 0.4lbs though, so I'll take that. In the evening I watched the lego D&D one-shot that was on recently, and spend a bunch of time sewing Tough Mudder patches onto a Tough Mudder hat. They give you a patch every time you volunteer and I've been meaning to do something with them for years, so I finally bit the bullet and got on with it. Week 2 stats Art: 6/7 (just missed Saturday with Tough Mudder volunteering taking all my energy) Kneehab: 6/7 (just missed Saturday with Tough Mudder volunteering taking all my energy)

Good to know, thank you. Being bitten to death really puts a downer on a holiday!

Yes, remind me and I will report back! I have been once before, so I know a bit more of what to expect, but I'm really excited to go again. Genuinely just thought Timo was saying it was about time you went to one of those restaurants

NF support got back to me, and it's all sorted now. For those looking for answers: The epic quest list is now available again at https://www.nerdfitness.com/level-up/my-epic-quest/. All your previous quests should still be there (mine were) The Academy quests are no longer hosted on the website, however NF have put together a Google Sheet that contains all of the quests and will calculate your XP and level for you. You can find it here, and will need to make a copy for your own use: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kkOxEC9yxH7qhDxJLfEd_3qTSnaN9xXuomhaXTJNlRo/edit#gid=0

It's a very rough sketch that doesn't look much like her, and it's also in my tiny pocket sketchbook, but sure: Yeah, it was really nice actually. The free race entry and 8 cans of beer sweetened the deal too They're really fun! I'd recommend doing an OCR, though which one depends on what you want to get out of it. Tough Mudder has a lot of cool big-ticket obstacles, but it's also a lot of running and like £150 per ticket (though heavily discounted if you buy months in advance). Some of the smaller local events can be pretty cool (and are always cheaper), and the well organised ones have a really lovely, friendly atmosphere that you don't always get at big races. On the other extreme, Spartan is very much a competitive race first, rather than a fun participation event, and then there's various regional and world championships that take the competitive side even further.

18/03 - 164.9lbs 25/03 -163.9lbs 01/04 - 163.1lbs 08/04 - 163.5lbs I ate a little more than 4,000kcal over budget last week, so gaining 0.4lbs feels about right (the budget figure should lose me about 1lb per week). It was a mixture of lots of chocolate, of feeling weirdly hungry, a full day on my feet marshalling a Tough Mudder on Saturday, and free beer from said Tough Mudder than all conspired to put me over. Oh, and my dad's birthday dinner So far this week I haven't had much of an appetite, and am getting less excited about all of the Easter chocolate I still have, so that should see me sticking to budget for a couple of days at least. Going out to a restaurant on Saturday where you eat in pitch darkness and get served by blinder waiters, so I'll have zero control of what I eat there, but aside from that I don't foresee any difficulties in staying on track this week (and honestly, that meal can't do much damage if I'm on track in the 5 days before).

Saturday - W2D6 Saturday was a good day. Not good for goals though. Art was not done, and kneehab also not done. I was volunteering at a Tough Mudder, so I got up at 4.10am, left home at 5.35, and arrived on site at 6.10 for a 12-hour shift. It was really good fun - I was stationed on Sewer Rat, which involves crawling through a tube and then dropping into a river before wading round and dragging themselves out. Lot's of very funny reactions to the freezing cold water, and also lots of really lively moments where people who were scared to give it a go - usually being either claustrophobic or unable to swim - faced their fears and got stuck in. I actually really enjoyed myself, which hasn't always been the case when marshalling events. At the end of the day I had to pack down course markings, sign out, do a quick sweep of the event village for freebies (ended up with 4 sparkling waters and 8 beers for my trouble), and drive home via Lidl for dinner. I got in exhausted, showered, and just sat and drank beer in front of the TV until bedtime. According to my watch I burned 4,647kcal, walked 10.76 miles (17.2km), and reached 255% of my daily activity goal. I also ate a ton of snacks on shift and had 6 little beers in the evening, but it more or less balances out.

Friday - W2D5 Friday was a good day. Art was a quick, rough sketch of comedian Lou Sanders in front of the TV ( @Laghail if Lou isn't already on your slayers list she's well worth a look). Kneehab was done at crossfit. Crossfit was squats - 95kg (209#) x 3, 85kg x 5, 77.5kg x 7. Then a workout for time of 30 calories on the air bike, followed by 5 rounds of 10 lunges and 10 wall balls. My legs have yet to recover. Stayed at work late catching up on stuff, then a chilled evening and a very early night before an arse o'clock start on Saturday.

Well Now I definitely want a holiday there - it sounds beautiful. Bookmarking that for later. Too true Thanks! She's not quite there yet, but definitely feeling much better. Thanks! It's hard to entirely derail your plans in 1 week - I ended up eating over 4,000 calories over budget, and gained 0.4lbs, which is fine. Granted I'm trying to lose 1lb per week, so it's actually put me 1.4lbs off track, but that's still not a disaster. Well you're certainly more expedient than me in this regard Welcome! Good to have you mate.

Brilliant, thanks for that. Do you happen to know what the support e-mail is? I e-mailed contact@nerdfitness.com and they haven't got back to me yet, so I'll chase them unless there's a better e-mail mentioned on Facebook? Also tagging @titsworth in case you can confirm?

Thursday - W2D4 Yesterday was a good day. Art was done late at night, and was just a couple of quick sketches in the pocket book. Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was fun - we did a bunch of handstand practice - but my wrists and hands are pretty sore now. We also did a few 75-second intervals of: 5 chest to bar 5 toes to bar Max distance ski The bar stuff went really quickly and I ended up spending almost a whole minute skiing, which was fairly grim Yesterday I was back at work, and spent the day wading through the mountain of e-mails that came in while I was off. I was knackered by the end of the day (though I've been a bit knackered anyway as WW's not been sleeping well with her cold and it's been waking me up too (obviously I'm not as tired as she is, but still (also, who nests brackets in brackets in a sentence?).).). I finished work more-or-less on time, but then spent ages chatting to a colleague and catching up on everything I'd missed. Then home, cooked a quick dinner (pork and pineapple tacos), and straight online to play Baulder's Gate with some friends. We wrapped up at about half 10, and I stayed up to do a quick bit of art and keep my Duolingo streak alive before bed. Calories were a little high again - it's going to be a challenge to hit the calorie goal this week (particularly if I don't stop eating all of the Easter chocolate).

Wednesday - W2D3 Wednesday was a good day. I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I bought myself a pocket sketchbook (thanks @Sea-to-sky for the idea) and a mechanical pencil that I can carry around with me. Art on Wednesday was a very quick sketch in that book of some holy symbols for the pantheon connected to my character designs so far. I had intended to do another full character in the evening, but ended up without the energy. Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was deadlifts, which always makes for a good day - I worked up to 145kg x5, and felt like I had more in the tank. Also practiced some hang power snatches and some lunges. I ended up having a very chilled day, in which I found myself unable to get off the sofa and consequently late to bouldering. I had a good time, but it was a very short session. I was late home in the evening, and well over calories thanks to leftover lamb for lunch and quite a lot of easter egg. WW was feeling really ill though, so in the end we didn't cook and I just had a Belgian bun and some tiny chocolate eggs for dinner. Still over calories, but not by as much as I could have been. Then I vegged on the sofa some more until bedtime.

I've been watching a bit of The Sketching Hour on YouTube/Twitch, and I cannot fathom how they create such amazing digital art inside an hour. And thank you! It's nice to be making time for it. It was a good day WW, short for Wonder Woman, is my fiancée. We've been together for 17 years, engaged for 14 of those, and one day we'll get round to organising the wedding!

Tuesday - W2D1 Tuesday was a good day. Art was done in the afternoon. I decided to try my hand at digital art on my drawing tablet for today's character design, which went well but took so long. I'm sure I'll get faster, but still won't be my main mode of daily arting. Kneehab was done before my morning bike ride. I'm getting quicker on the bike still, which is encouraging. The rest of the day was pretty chilled - played some Deus Ex, met my parents for lunch, ate a ton of chocolate. WW cooked leftover lamb with squash and chickpeas for dinner (late dinner, thanks to all of the art time), and we chilled on the sofa until bedtime.

Clearly I've scared you all too much . It's quite nice though to see a group at least trying to plan.

Good for music and movies, not so good for books, pretty useless for merchandise (I can think of a series of books and films, for example, where I would buy plenty of merchandise for myself and friends if it wasn't paying royalties to the author).

I think this is a great plan. The best exercise is the exercise you'll do week in, week out. Even if mini-workouts weren't as productive as full workouts, you'll get much further by doing all of your mini-workouts than skipping half of your full workouts. (Having said that, if you're doing all of the same movements over the course of a week, I doubt it makes much difference to your strength gains how you aplit them up anyway.)

Dot grids are hands down the best way to journal #dotgridmasterrace Sounds like a good, busy day today! Enjoy your crashing time.

I've seen her twice in the last couple of months - absolutely fantastic comedian. Congrats on the level up mate! Here's to many more to come 🍻

Monday - W2D1 Yesterday was a good day. Art was done in the evening - I started on a character drawing challenge I found online. I doubt I'll do the challenge every day, because it needs a good hour to flesh out a proper character, but it's a nice option to add to my arsenal. Here's day 1: I went for a paladin/holy knight of a death god, armed with a sceptre and with a teardrop-shaped shield. Kneehab was done at Crossfit. Crossfit was good, got 3 reps on bench at 75kg (failed my 4th rep), and then 2 x 5 @ 70kg. Then a workout of: 100m row, 10 handstand pushups, 200m row, 20 ring dips, 400m row, 40 pressups. It was supposed to be a running workout, but I can't run and rowing worked out ok. The workout reminded me that I suck at pushups, so I've decided to do a pushup challenge this month. For day 1 I did 1 pressup, and I'll add one to the set every day for April until I'm doing 30 on the 30th (in theory). In the afternoon WW did some gardening and I helped with the heavy lifting, including a trip to the garden centre. Then I roasted a lamb shoulder for dinner and we shilled out in front of the TV whilst I arted.

Thank you! And yes, that's a good idea. Breakfast won't work - I eat breakfast whilst walking to work, so I'm out of spare hands, but if I can link it to another habit that would work well. Yeah, that's a good idea. I've had a quick look and there's actually a few different art classes available in my town - will have to investigate further. No judgement, I loved getting totally obsessed with games, but now that obsessive tendency puts me off loading up the game at all if I let it. Thanks! That's very pleasing I know - kangaroo dragon is great! I'll have to remember it if I ever want to flesh out a dragon more fully. Thanks! Ah yes, and I can confirm that there are two main benefits to that diet: Chocolate Wine

You and me both . It's all good though; no need to rush it.

As someone who works in insurance, I could explain the difference, but I see no need to bore you with it 😅 For me I can usually separate the art from the artist, but I really struggle with knowing that streaming a song or buying a book means I am in some way sending them money. Thus I'm much more likely to read/listen to that kind of artist after they're dead.

Hope the surgery goes well, thinking of you.