RedStone

They just are Well, on the "bad" days I feels this sense of urgency to everything that comes to mind immediately and as fast as possible, as though this will help somehow. This includes interacting with my people as soon as they reach out - sometimes this is necessary in a crisis situation and someone is suffering, but a lot of it has been less urgent boredom, frustration etc... but then I pop on a call or get sucked into a chat and I ignore my schedule and stare at the screen and never stand up and constantly feel like I'm on the "witnessing the survivors" end of things like Harry Potter on that fateful day after the whole thing, you know which thing, no spoilers, although if you haven't gotten through the whole series yet and you're here on NF, I don't even know. SO I dunno, trying more than anything to get a handle on the immediacy issue, the anxiety that surrounding feeling like I need to be everywhere at once and of course the impotence that goes with not being able to be. _____ Last few days feel almost normal. I have clients on the schedule, a virtual group class I'm designing and testing on a few friends today, and overall tasks. I'm not sure if it was the anxiety leading up to Mr Red's b-day on Monday or what, but things feel ok atm, and I'm eating better again. No more deep chest pain, no more stomach cramps or weird body chills. Hoping to keep the momentum up when I can!

I can't believe I got 8,000 steps in today. Honestly I'm kinda thrilled that even hapenned lol

Not alone. We're all doing some version of it ❤️

Awesome! Yeah!

BAHAHAH that's fantastic.

Love you ❤️ Flex is looking for a pull up bar solution for old door frames too lol if you find something let me or him know! I suggested going to empty playgrounds with bleach. Are there outdoor "gyms" near you? We don't have any, but there are lots of places that do... dip bars, pull up etc. I'm also thinking gymnastics rings or TRX for out door training? Mine also has a door frame stopper. Lots of options.

Today I am grateful for: 1 - An early spring. We still have some cold nights, but the trees are budding, bulbs coming up, roses are starting and my kale came back. I'm grateful for warmer weather and sunny skies to sit under 2 - My friends. Last night we played our first night of online mahjonng, it was weird and awesome. Someone got me a bag of flour because they knew I couldn't find any, and I got someone else a package of paper towels because I knew she needed them badly. 3 - My community. I'm part of a relief aid group connecting volunteers with people and organizations in need and it gives me hope and purpose.

Okay I'm fine, you know, considering the situation. Whatever cold I have peaked towards the end of last week, cold meds helped, and I'm over the stage of thinking I have (or had) "IT" -though I do think that's a pretty common stage of "going through all this." New York State is on a version of shelter in place, and with our numbers soaring and proximity to New York City things are changing rapidly every day. Because of my paranoia over my cold it's about 2 weeks in for me so far, about a week and a half for Mr Red, and about a week for the rest of my city that wasn't doing it already. I have friends who have already gone through it and recovered - with loss of sense of smell as an apparently under reported side effect? Weird. Anyway. I don't want this to become a place for all of that. I'm going into the next challenge with a fluid sense of goals pertaining to good routine. There's going to be good days and bad days, but hopefully some good can be made from all of it. ONWARDS!

Yeah, that's a tough decision. I'm glad she's not high risk but loneliness is difficult. The work station looks like a corner of calm! I need to tidy today, idle hands are making a mess of everything.

this^ Hope all is well

I think banana breads were made in due force this week! I made my mom's and I plan on trying beer bread next week as well as making a sourdough starter, which I think would be useful to offer friends as well!

JOIN ME IN A ZERO WEEK SPECIAL GRATITUDE THING! Gratitude practice is a beautiful thing. It gives us perspective, grounding, and is quick and easy. All you have to do is list three things here you are grateful for. You can do it once, or come back - even everyday - if you find the practice useful for you! And I'm gonna go ahead and say... bonus points if you add a GIF everyone else will be grateful for having seen Why not. Silly, adorable, funny, thoughtful, whatever. Have at it!

Welcome to the Juice Bar, the Rebels home away from home! Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. If this is your first challenge here at NF, please post your challenge in the Level 1 / First Time Challengers subforum. Take a minute to introduce yourself, let us know why you're here, tell us something nerdy about yourself, and share a gif! Have questions? Want some feedback? Ask away! Just want to hang out and chat? Awesome! Want to hide in the corner for a bit? Have a drink on us.

I must say, it was a VERY good question ❤️ I do! Mostly for friends and myself, birthday gifts and stuff At one point in my 20s I took a 6 month course on bench jewelry but have forgotten pretty much everything 😆

Life is weird. Routine is helping. Let's keep this simple for now, subject to change! 1. Stick to and continuously refine routine. -Bare minimum - movement and course of study everyday -Create and implement night time/sleep routine - try 2X this coming week 2. Stay social, but not too social -limit non-work video calls to 2 per day 3. Get in my steps. A friend gave me an old fitbit, wear it, use it. Friends, we have some time ahead of us. Lets do what we can to be there for each other.

Oh goodness! I missed this one, my apologies. It's been quite a week 😂 I had to think about this one for a bit, but there was a day that was like this mystical experience of kindness. I was on a teen tour in Israel, and was having kind of a rough raw time one day in the social part of things - I'm very extroverted but at that time it translated into me constantly trying to prove that I was worth spending time with. I was exhausted. So on this one trip we went to a city called Tzfat that feels super ancient and is home to mystics, artists, galleries and that sort. I was totally fried socially, and the heat was getting to me, so I went off on my own t explore. I'm not sure if it was the season or the day of the week, but for the most part it was pretty empty - the streets and storefronts were quiet and I was pretty happy about that while also kind of feeling like a failure. At the end of some alley that kind of looked like this: I ran into the only person I saw that morning. It was an older gentleman, sitting at a little worktable outside of a shop. He was making big ornate beaded necklaces and I'm not sure who engaged who but he invited me to sit with him. He was Iranian, and told me all about his life growing up, how he got to Israel and the conflicts that came with that. (This was maybe 1995 at the time.) He made us turkish coffee and taught me how to design beaded jewelry. At the end of the afternoon, and I could tell how tired he was getting, he was fairly up in years), I felt totally fortified. I'd connected with this stranger that welcomed me into his life, and much more deeply than the teenage raucous I was expending so much energy on. Before I left he put together a small pair of pearl and amethyst earrings, put them in my hands and sent me on my way. In retrospect I think what has held out for me all these years about that day was the time spent, the pace of the conversation, and the realization that I could connect deeply with a stranger by listening to them. By sitting and witnessing their life and learning from them. That the act of them offering for me to join their world was a kindness to me. It hit me as a very intense mystical experience at the time, but it was actually pretty simple

I've had a hard time updating. It's been hard to focus and zero in when so much is up in the air. Lockdown started in my city on Friday, with even bigger restrictions starting today, but I've been self quarantining since last Monday. The long and short of it is that last weekend I started in with a light head cold, (that was Saturday morning after staying up late and being outside in the rain with friends) I didn't think too much of it, and kicking myself now because I saw my parents on Sunday for my father's birthday, and they are both high risk. Monday it was in my throat and now it's in my chest. Bad enough to be paranoid, not bad enough to do anything other than rest, drink fluids and watch. I don't know if I actually have the big IT, but don't (and probably won't) know that I don't - I certainly don't qualify for a test, so I've been extra cautious in the way we wish everyone would be in the early stages, though the east coast is rapidly joining some of the high dense areas of the world. I shut down the gym and am in the process of moving clients to remote and online options. I teeter on how the state of my affairs with challenge is. One really interesting thing is that I'm feeling a very intimate connection with my gym space now that no one is coming here and it's ALL MINE. It's not a space I think of as being "mine" - it was created for my clients... the other day I went down for a workout and 2 things hapenned - 1st I DID NOT NOTICE MY WRIST AT ALL!! In fact, the DBs I used for presses were too light and I went up. I even did KB swings! Good tidings for the sprain And second, I really felt a sense of calm ownership of the space, like it's just for me. I'm taking it easy, but when movement happens down there it's really nice. (And the bleach smell is starting to chill a bit too! MEEP!) So I'm starting to think about what the next challenge will look like, and what it will look like here, what the best kind of support everyone will need. Interesting times indeed.

Your turn! Tag someone and ask them Truth or Dare!

Well it looks like I'm a wee late! But I'll dare ya anyway In my shopping this week I'm thinking about all the new recipes I'm going to have time to try in the upcoming weeks, I dare you to find and try a new recipe yourself this week! Let us know the recipe and how it goes!

LATE CHALLENGE SURPRISING TWIST THING! Here we are at the near end of our challenges with another two weeks to go still, and well, this is about the time we all start losing steam amirite? @Rookie and I have a little game for you, just for fun if you want to play - the game is simple, and you all know it... Here's how we're going to try it - post here with a GIF indicating if you would prefer a "truth" or "dare" question, or if you're not really feeling this round and would rather not be tagged. (If that's the case, no biggie!) The truth questions can be anything appropriate for a public forum (lets keep this light and fun, yeah?) and the dares can be anything reasonable as well, and not restricted to fitness stuff! If you agree to play but get a truth or dare you don't want to deal with, 5 squats will clear the air. So, take a second (or 15) to respond to this thread, I'll start by challenging @Rookie with her preferred thing and then it'll be her turn to truth or dare one of you! All of the fun of middle school without any of the awkwardness. Seriously, where was this, (uh, wow,) that would be 27 years ago for me! Here are some suggestions to help get in the spirit of things! What's one thing you'd do differently in your fitness journey What is an embarrassing thing you've done this year What's the funniest thing to happen to you Dance to a supplied song Attempt a self portrait (and share it) Attempt a cartwheel

So many hugs for the loss of your pup, I'm so sorry for your pain ❤️

It is. A good, healthy catharsis. I definitely well up at appropriate things - long distance commercials, Inside Out, GIFs about dogs, softly letting the tears come down, but its the full body sob I've been putting off. No more! And it's not like a i need such a hefty release everyday or anything. I'm gonna say that this exercise is helping some. The very first thing I did made an enormous difference, and that was to take my isolated dragon (her name is/was Luna btw), and put her into a crew of dragons, possibly multiple parts of the same person, possibly something in the inner child realm surrounded by loved once, almost absolutely both. They're all in a cave and it wasn't long before Spike and Friends were there, and now the cave looks like the inside of Spongebob's head. This is a far cry from the original aesthetic of a long thing winding black dragon with iridescent scales and paper thin wings against a black sky and a black cave. They're all plump and cartooney now. That may be a bit far of a pendulum swing in the long run but it's helping. Mr Red and I went down to Jersey to surprise my dad for his birthday. I don't see my parents all that often but we do talk on the phone a lot. One thing with my mom set me off on the self esteem despair train, but I acknowledged it in the moment and talked it out with the Mr on the way home. I'm thinking that I'd like to create an affirmation spread to consult/remember during those times. One thing that Mr Red said that stuck out to me was - just because THEY'RE awesome, why can't YOU be awesome too? So I'm going to sit with that and work on it, and so a little affirmation map for myself looking at unconditional love, accomplishments and I'm not sure, maybe characteristics I'm proud of. If anyone has any suggestions for what might be useful I would appreciate hearing them! Another solid note from this week - I had my last call with the editor. It was surprisingly positive and closed the experience on a solid note. The long story short version is that I'm walking away from this experience with a comprehensive marketing plan... and a solid understanding of what that even means LOL but my plan is much more clear, and everything I was pouring into the old project has been redistributed into more appropriate channels. (Some is staying, I still plan on using what I have for the series!) So I'm pretty happy with the way that turned out and it was a bit of a surprise. It does mean that I'm going to have to create a schedule to follow, but that's all part of the game. Meal prep is hapenning and I'm keeping it simple with tried and true favorites - Turkey burgers on english muffins with string beans, and chicken with peanut sauce with rice and roasted broccoli. At the end of last week I recognized some food stress from feeling restricted with my meal plans (honestly they haven't even changed, I've just been turning up my nose at meal times and snacking on blah stuff that leaves me hungry at the end of the day. So on Thursday I walked over to the lovely cheese shop and got a few slices of procuitto to have on a nice cracker along with the regular meal. Worked like a charm! It was very satisfying and I felt so much better. I'm trying to keep that in mind with meals this week. In tech news, the pixel 4 I ordered several weeks ago came in and I now have a phone that does actual phone things! You know, like pick up a call and send emails and stuff. I really stressed over which phone to get and consulted all my techie nerds. @Grumble pushed me towards the pixel and I have to say I really love it so far! Thanks homie and OMG that camera is awesome. Movement - my hip is feeling much better and I'm a little iffy on running, but will have at least 1 this week to try. Otherwise, full body strength work, morning yoga and the usual martial arts! Finally, are basil lassis' a thing? Because if they're not, they are now! Failed attempt at a green goddess dip turned into something wonderful.

I'm not sure if it's new or something I always had. I'm surprisingly forgiving and understanding to myself despite the underlying existential dread. Riddle me that Batman Same. Pretty much everything weightloss oriented and I get a TON of training program stuff, both for professionals and clients. I don't need to see your 30 days to a better butt module, Karen! So many MLMs, SMH

Me too. It's been a good week, so far as bad weeks go. Me too... I absolutely have to get some camping ones if nothing else, which should be available in my town. Any recommendations? Speaking of fishing, this guy also does non food aspects of survival packs, he did an unwrapping of a 1944 pilot emergency pack with an amazing fishing kit apron inside! So cool, it's like a museum :DDD HAHAHA I was SO about to tag you @Rookie!!! Beat me to it. Steve is so calm and relaxing and it's hilarious that he'll eat something, say it's terrible and rancid, and then take another bite to "make sure." I keep yelling at the screen - stop eating that!! I will check out CrazyRussianHacker (that sounds familiar for some reason?) - any other recommendations? This is reminiscent of my cousin visiting from Florida making small projectiles in the park using pool chemicals... This is one of my favorite things - I use "scam" or offensive" a lot. I do think it helps and makes me feel a combination of satisfied, justified and devious. Yeah, I'm ok with stuff like this, an off week is just part of the show. I feel more tired and emotionally drained more than anything else, and have a hard time hitting the rest button in the middle of the week - I'm definitely one of those people that starts fresh on Mondays. _____ But I am kinda looking forward to the weekend, even though it's a little loaded. I have friends coming over for mahjonng Friday night, (I have a feeling one of the girls may crash over since she lives far away), my self defense thing on Saturday afternoon, and a dash over to a friends surprise party that kind of over laps. Saturday night will be super chill (DEF looking forward to that!) and my Dad's birthday brunch thing on Sunday. Thinking ahead I should enlist Mr Red to help me get meal planning in mind so maybe we can get groceries on Saturday and not be toast on Sunday for actual cooking like I was last week. I kept saying, oh I have time to cook during the week blah blah blah, but it always got stressful at meal times, there wasn't enough in the house and I ended up eating out a few times which I don't like to do. A little plan ahead goes a long way for me, especially in the stress department. I'm committing some time today for journaling, I will include a bit about my beloved dragons, and focus on goal alignment so I can start next week on a strong note.