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That's awful! Running when you're sick is difficult, but I've read a lot that says it's still really good for you to work out when you're sick even if it feels a lot harder. Good luck and glad you're feeling better!

Comparing weeks 1 & 2: 1. Triwizard Training: 102% is down to 52% (due to bruised foot) 2. Household Charms: 54% up to 58% 3. Walk to Mordor: 60% up to 96% (not sure if I calculated that percentage the same way - best 5 days average is this week) 4. Caffeine Intake: 500000% maintained

Week 2 Update 1. Triwizard Training - 4/11-4/17 -- Goal: 8 miles Actual: 4.16 Despite the awesome running group on wens, someone dropped a weight on my foot on Thursday. I still took the interval training class that it happened in the beginning of, but took the next few days easy. It was a smaller weight, but my foot was still bruised. So I actually got more house work done, so there's that! 2. Household Charms - perform the Scourgify charm at least five times a week, promote S.P.E.W. by doing a load of laundry six days a week and perform house hold charms list once a week. Goal: 12+ points a week. (extra points can only be earned if all 3 minimums are met) Actual: 7 (I did extra laundry and chores, but not enough sink cleaning to get the credit!) 3. Walk to Mordor - continue walking to Rivendell. Average 2.5 miles/day in April. 4/11-4/17 -- Goal: 2.5 miles, min. 5 days a week Actual: Average 2.1 over all, best 5 days average 2.41. Decent, although my weekends were significantly better than normal and work was really hectic so I didn't have time to get in my regular walks during the work day. Although normal office movement was up! Not bad, not sure if increase to 2.6 will happen this week or not... 2.88 2.13 2.5 1.99 0.61 2.09 2.5 4. Caffeine Intake (Butter Beer) - reduce caffeine intake from ~558mg/day to ~511mg/day or less 4/11-4/17 -- Goal: 534mg or less average per day Actual: this week was EXCELLENT! I was actually at my overall final goal levels! Although between Monday and Tuesday of next week I'm over these levels - it felt good and the extra caffeine actually made a difference - woot power up! 325.5 325.5 372 372 279 279 279 Overall it's not great, but I'm also not disappointed. I see improvement and am still better than I was yesterday!!!

The run was great! Not sure if I'm going again this week, but I will definitely go again.

That sounds like an excellent adventure!!! Plus you weren't late for the meeting. I'd call that a win win.

That's so great! It's nice when everything works out easily!! Congrats

Sleep is sooo important! As are rest days, even with short or slow/easy runs it is good to listen to your body if it told you to rest!

Exactly, just having a stranger judge me for one day was extremely difficult for me to wrap my head around. I understand why they would have a policy like that, but I really don't like the way they went about telling me. If we had a dog and there was food everywhere, no one would be surprised... either way I am making steps forward to keep my house cleaner for me and my health and not strangers!! I was kind of glad they ended up not going - everyone was even nicer hearing I came to the run even when they didn't! Although I think a few will be joining me next week now that I have "scoped it out"!

You got it! Packing up my car this afternoon with my share of the decor including goal hoops, textbooks and potion bottles!

I'm not great with stregth either, but I've starting taking two group class a week at my gym that are mostly strength... it's been so helpful having people expect you at class and hold you accountable if you can't make it or miss a class... due to work or anything else. If you don't belong to a gym with good classes like that maybe when you move you can find some new workout buddies through NF or meetup or something similar to hold you accountable for your strength workouts! just a thought. way to keep pushing!

Absolutely! Even missing a day you are rocking it out!!

The last few days have been an utter disaster! Work is a mess, my boyfriend is working late through the end of eternity and my landlord came to fix the tub and informed me that my house was too messy.... what happened was, the cat had tipped the trash can in the living room with the boyfriend's taco bell dinner from 1am the night before and played with it through out the house. So I know that I do not live in a pig sty, but since there were also 10 dirty dishes soaking in the sick it was unacceptable and they will be back to inspect. I have been struggling with emotions taking over lately and have been doing better, but on Tuesday I lost my lid and spent my work out time plus 4 hours before i crashed into bed cleaning my house. In which time I found 10 pairs of ruined heels and boots in the back of my closet (shared with the shower and leaking/molding for who knows how long. Yes, I cried, no I don't apologize for that. Thankfully none were very expensive, and I can go buy new ones with out feeling guilty. Thanks for the rant... if you read it you are more tolerant than me, if not thanks for tolerating the long rambling paragraph! On the bright side, kind of. I was planning on going to a local running store for a weekly event they do after work yesterday. You go to a local pub, run 3-5 miles and when you get back you get a free beer! What could be better than running and drinking with friends... for free you ask?? Running and drinking with strangers for free since all 3 friends bailed as you pulled into the parking lot. LUCKILY there were a few familiar faces from my gym and others that took me in gladly! I thought I ran 3 miles rather slowly, but when I mapped out my route this morning it was 4.16!! I felt MUCH better about my time after that too!! I am well on my way to 8 miles this week, have only done a few dishes, but have done some laundry every day and the breakdown did result in chores done yesterday! My walking was off one day, but I am going to make up for it today and tomorrow. Lastely - caffeine consuption is still lower than expected and am using it more like a power up than a wake up potion! All in all a decent week and getting BETTER to end with a... surprise Harry Potter wedding shower for one of my best friends is this Saturday, yes I will share photos!

As a Maryland native I don't spend a whole lot of time in DC, but it is a beautiful city. If you have time and like animals you should it up the National Zoo. It's free admission and the metro gets you close, there's a lot of hills in and around the zoo just as a heads up. It is amazing though! Otherwise enjoy the museums of course and the rest of your trip! https://nationalzoo.si.edu/

Week 1 totals: 1. Triwizard Training - running 10 miles a week. Any distance at one time counts toward weekly mileage. Running within another gym class that is not measured, unfortunately doesn't count! 102%: Goal: 7 miles Actual: 3.1 and 4 mile runs = 7.1 mile week 2. Household Charms - perform the Scourgify charm at least five times a week, promote S.P.E.W. by doing a load of laundry six days a week and perform house hold charms list once a week. Goal: 12+ points a week. (extra points can only be earned if all 3 minimums are met) Actual: Scourgify 1.5, S.P.E.W. 4, Charms 1 (i did 3 days but only 1pt since i didn't make the others) 54%: 6.5/12 3. Walk to Mordor - continue walking to Rivendell. Average 2.5 miles/day in April. Goal: 4/4-4/10 -- 2.4 miles, min. 5 days a week Actual: 1.87 3.48 2.95 2.45 0.96 1 0.85 60%: I'm upping the counter on my phone to 2.5 even though I didn't make it to 2.4 most days - we'll see what happens! 4. Caffeine Intake (Butter Beer) - reduce caffeine intake from ~558mg/day to ~511mg/day or less Goal: 4/4-4/10 -- 546mg or less average per day Actual: mg "cups" 0 0 279 3 465 5 465 5 372 4 465 5 465 5 I would have had less Saturday and Sunday, but we went out with friends. Luckily I didn't have a lot Saturday morning, so my extra jolt to stay up past 9pm didn't put me over the edge for the whole day! My goal was to have less than 6 cups/day average. Kicking Ass! - not sure how to put this into a percentage, but it's probably something like 50000% awesome. So it seems I'm doing far better than expected at 2 goals, and welllll below on the other two. I guess it's obvious what I need to focus on this week - to there is that!! Happy Monday everyone!

I did!!!! 4 miles on Saturday! Nice and slow, but I set out right at 11am as the rain and slush stopped - very proud of myself!!

I am currently waiting to the rain/slush/snow to stop so I can get in my 4 mile run this morning. I like to do it first thing on Saturday's, but it is truly disgusting outside and getting worse. Radar says I'm good to go at 11 so I set my alarm and will make it happen! On the bright side I have plenty of time for breakfast before the run! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

That's an amazing time!! I know I'm a week behind, but it's always amazed me how much the race environment can push you past your normal expectations/pace! Congrats!

Sounds like a it's a great new start for a marriage too though, starting the next chapter of your lives in a new place - so poetic! Good Luck managing all of that and to continue sticking to good healthy habits throughout the habitat changes! (I tend to struggle with that, hopefully with NF help you'll kick ass at it!)

Nice job Q. That seems like an excellent mindset going into what sounds like rough waters! Best of luck to your wife as well, I'm sure there are a lot of us you have been in that situation and sympathize. I'm truly impressed you're keeping a level head and continuing to work through the best you can. Stay strong!

Update: I have been doing well with most of the tasks, but getting even to 2 miles a day on Friday (work from home) and the weekend is EXTREMELY difficult. My neighborhood isn't the best to going walking in at night, during the day is so-so, but I still get uneasy. It's also difficult for me to justify driving somewhere just to walk, but I that is my mission for the weekend - figure out a GOOD and DOABLE solution to walk more on the weekends! Happy Friday Everyone!

Thanks Girl! I'm in the middle of book 6 in my audio book! Next Saturday is a surprise HP bridal shower from a friend of mine so the HP theme seems even more appropriate this month! OMG I'm listening to a podcast (Happier) right now and they just mentioned that reading HP from the beinging again was exactly what she needed to feel happier! HAHA! For the WIN! (All the explanation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I did run on Wednesday! 3.1 miles in 29:10!! AFTER my normal 30 min core class. I was really proud of myself and felt surprisingly less sore than expected afterward! The one minute rule is to do anything you can do in a minute or less without delay. It is supposed to help eliminate all the little things you have to do and can focus on larger taskes when you have time. It's from the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin. I just started listening to it and there are a lot of little thing you can do to make you happier. It's going so-so, I have so many little tasks to do that when I start the rule it takes a loooong time, but I think if I keep working at it it will pay off in the long run!

Sweet! I'm really hoping this is going to help me. I'm also going to attempt the one minute rule, but I've failed at it before - I end up giving myself x number of minutes to do as much as possible and stop... we'll see. I starting asking "What happens if I ignore this?" too and it's really be helpful to pick priorities. 3:30 wake up went surprisingly well. The whole work day was really good too, sleep was bad, but I have a hard time sleeping before a big/new event (super inconvenient!)... lunch was a lot of bad choices, but it was provided and I made the best choices I could = really good dinner with ALL the veggies!! Need to run tomorrow too since today was much more physically demanding than a normal work day, but I refuse to slack on upping the mileage so soon!!!

Week 0: I wasn't focused on these goals last week, but here's how I did anyway! 1. Triwizard Training: Ran 6.2 miles goal week 1 is 7 miles. 2. Household Charms: 8 points (I did dishes, but didn't even get the sink clean) goal 12pts/week 3. Walk to Mordor: 2.06miles/day average goal 2.5 week 1: 2.4 miles 5 days 4.Caffeine Intake: 368mg average (only because I had 1 cup saturday and none sunday) I am taking on the "Caffeine Challege" Quest, the goal is slow reduction over a few months to reduce withdraw effects. So that I can use caffeine as a power up instead of a crutch. On Saturday I didn't really want coffee, but had a little to prevent a headache - then just didnt drink more. Sunday came and I had a headache, but I took 2 ibprofen and got to midday, then afternoon, then I'd gone the whole day without it! Today I tried it - just didn't make coffee before I left home, drank water instead on the drive... 12:35 and still havent made coffee at work! I have to be up at 3:30am tomorrow, so I'm going to attempt to use caffeine as needed tomorrow, instead of as a requirement to move! Any who! Over all these things are going okay over all. I feel as though I'm figuring out that I am an abstainer rather than a moderator. I'm not sure how I feel about this because it will make reducing my drinking more difficult, but one vice at a time! On the flip-side, slowly increasing the goals to make better habits seems to be working and sticking more than diving in full force. One day at a time!

love the legally blond reference!!