Treva

Weekly wrap up Talk to my attending: did not, because shenanigans. I may just email tonight because I am so heck tired and I am too chicken to ask in person Not ordering crappy food: I ordered chipotle, because I know what those calories are and I can control "portions" a little better. I counted it out and the salad that I got is around 450 calories, which is right for a dinner on a 28. Meditate: started this. Feeling better. Hydrate: also started this. also feeling better Identify road blocks to weight loss: inconsistent schedule leading to inconsistent diet and training. Stress leading to poor sleep, probably wacky hormones, and not helping myself with weightloss. I still want to think more about this one too. Do I eat too much chocolate? Probably. Is that my only vice? I drink zero calorie sodas because I need the caffeine, and I eat a few pieces of chocolate every day. Sometimes a small dessert, like a lemon custard cup with some warm skim milk. That's it. So the inability to lose weight is probably coming from my actual lifestyle, which, to be honest, is not going to get better. Out of morbid curiosity I'm interested to see if a health coach can actually offer anything. The answer will probably be no. Something has to give, and other people's health trumps mine right now. I reorganized my apartment a little bit this week, which has helped me feel more efficient. I baked lemon bars to bring in to the team. I'm working on getting my hair less frizzy, changed out some of my skincare products and am sticking with an adapalene gel that has helped me in the past. I still feel overwhelmed by a lot of what I need to get done for work and the upcoming application cycle, but I am starting to make progress.

So, while I would like to join up on the recent PVP, since I would like to lose 6 pounds in 6 weeks, I am definitely not comfortable posting my weight. So for now, keepin on doom blogging into the void. At work: I was able to start handling some more critical care stuff and you know what? nobody died. In fact, my workup and diagnostic acumen was spot on. So I was like, ah yes, I have achieved some level of badassery. That is pretty damn cool. I have essentially gotten started on the very long road, which is nice. I am still a little annoyed that I haven't lost as much weight as I want to, but I also respect that I am pre-shark week, and I am 3 pounds down from last month's pre-shark week weight, which is probably a good sign of weight loss. I'm gonna keep on roastin them veggies, but I think I need to work on my portion control. Personal life continues to be sh*t , but you know what, I am ignoring it. It's not there right now. Just going to let everything burn. Breakfast and espresso before work, even if I have to get there at 6:30, has also been a game changer. I am so much more awake and alert and my plans are much better. I feel much more confident and I interact with attendings in a more positive and constructive way. I am cranking through the research still. It is feeling very overwhelming, so I have been doing a lot of mirrors edge catalyst. highly recommend. I am still not meditating. Goddammit. I am also still bad at hydrating at work again. I am making decisions!! at work!! that aren't wrong!! god it's amazing!!! I am returning emails regularly. Good job self, overcoming communication anxiety. I still have it, but I am managing it better. Right now I just want to identify roadblocks to weight loss. After that, I will identify solutions. I will also plan to go to the gym sometime in july to reactivate my membership and ask them when they will open the pool again. I want to swim again. I know I lose weight when I swim. I recently started taking B12 and vitamin D, and I have felt a huge difference in my mood. ' Goals for this week - Talk to my attending - don't order crappy food when on call - meditate - hydrate - identify road blocks to weight loss.

It feels like a hot minute since I last posted, but honestly probably not. I stopped playing piano at work in favor of getting home earlier for more quality organ time. I got sick of being bothered while trying to play. The diet revamp has worked out, I think. I'm down a couple of pounds. I haven't stopped baking sweets, but keeping lots of healthy snacks with me at work has been a solid good. I have still been roasting stuff in the oven, which is a game changer. I've added in small potatoes as my starch instead of bread or pasta, and it keeps me less hungry after dinner. And weirdest of all, waking up to have breakfast before I rush into work puts me a little more on my game. I drink my espresso before I go to work so I'm a little more awake. Still struggling with anxiety. I think it is because first day in a new place always makes me anxious. I also have a lot of background stuff going on. I haven't meditated, and I haven't used my journal in a while. I've ben getting pretty bad headaches, and I feel like my personal life is s**t right now. Workout life is ok, music life is pretty good, work life is stressful, and personal life is crap with a veneer of sanity or something overtop. I'm keeping it together. I'm just tired too. Today was double stressful because I had research meetings, and I'm overdue for a bunch of work documents that I legitimately tried to do today, even though the server kept crashing. Anyways. Time to turn on something funny and get back to work Goals for this week/two weeks - continue to have breakfast before work - either meditate, journal, or both at night. no excuses. I have five minutes, I can meditate - return all emails within 24 hours, or as they come in and Do Not Stress about the language - make decisions at work. Don't hedge, don't fret. Identify the problem, algorithm to solution, modify based on current factors. - hydrate goddammit.

Been a few days overdue to posting, but here we are. I've substituted my decon time with an extra 30 minutes on the piano at work. I still hate it when people try to talk to me for more than 5 minutes. I came to play, not to chat. A little frustrating. I revamped my diet again, ish, and overall is more veggies with protein, and legume and veggie based carbs for the most part, very little added sugar. Buying my celery sticks precut really helps. Roasting everything in the oven at dinner time means I can get all my meals made/prepared for the next day in 20 minutes, and then I save a bunch of time for self care and practice. I liked the internal/external change model to keep myself motivated initially and overcome some mental blocks. Now I am moving towards setting tasks for the day, the week, and the month. Goals for this week: Internal change: don't be anxious when talking to bosses at work External change: drink more water

Well, I gave myself a break from no facebook no extra scrolling, and I found that I really don't need to scroll any more than I usually do. I realized I am angry less because I am looking at facebook less, and there is less of the "woe is me" in my life from people who don't matter. I haven't found great resources for how to talk to patients about toxic body positivity yet. i haven't found a lot of resources on toxic body positivity; which is a little frustrating. I am not practicing consistently enough. I really really need to build consistency; my history of discipline is there, I just need to prioritize it. My bosses are encouraging me to not overwork myself with the extra research projects. Maybe now is a good time to build some consistency. Major Changes I realized tonight that the act of practicing is not necessarily selfish; I do it to be better and to be a better person. By working on myself, I can be a more positive force for change in the community, and I can bring better music to people. Just because I enjoy it doesn't make it selfish. I am not going to decon after work unless I am on a covid service. I am going to aim for after work piano practice for 30 minutes, 45-60 minutes of working out, and 45-60 minutes of organ practice. I will be flexible with the piano practice; if I'm leaving work after 530PM, I'll toss it. Secrets to making this work: Minimizing Meal Prep. I can use pre-prepped lunches and easy-prep dinners to keep me from having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Weekly Wrap Up: Internal Change: I have not been meditating on things that make me angry, because I am not angry. Interesting. External change: I think I have practiced for an hour at some point this week. I am practicing about 20-30 minutes a night consistently, which is good. Homework Goal: I got up to date on India, a little, and am reading about some of the things I can do to help. It is more active than thoughts and prayers or sending money. This is cool. Relaxation Goal: going to play video games tonight with pizza and maybe a smol alcohol. I have been beating up on myself to lose those "last five pounds" for several months now. I had the opportunity to do an exercise cardiac and pulmonary stress test today, which I did. It turns out I am in very good shape, with numbers consistent with recreational or regular athlete and am very energy efficient. My anaerobic threshold is consistent with an athletic male, so as a "non-athletic" female who thinks she still has a few more pounds to lose, this is very cool. The best part is that my insides are all not ischemic and work like the machine I have been hoping they would. So I may not look like much but I guess I've got it where it counts. I never planned on being an elite athlete, but having this reassurance that what I'm doing works, is really, really nice. For next week, I want to look into toxic body positivity. I want to tackle that.

I bit off more than I could chew today. A lot of laundry, had planned to mop, all that kinda fell by the wayside. Was too late at work as well, everything just seemed to take too long. I'm still waiting for my laundry to dry so I can go to bed, but even if I pass out at 10 PM, that's still 9 hours of sleep I can log. easily. I'm writing this instead of doomscrolling. I still think stopping looking at facebook feeds has been healthy. I realized I wanted to post things in response to other people, because I couldn't stand their feeds. No feeds, no posting. I think I feel a little defeated too because I'm behind on doing the things I normally do, like homemade jam. I am also realizing it is completely bonkers to expect myself, a resident in an apocalyptic style pandemic, to still have the time to make homemade jam and ciabatta every two weeks. Everything I expected of myself was bonkers. Seven research projects, work, and studying for step, AND practicing. God. Crazy. I still need to fold laundry. I guess I can do that. I had a really nice talk with one of my attendings today about toxic body positivity and how we are supposed to talk to patients about their weight when they want to fire us for bringing it up, and we riffed on motivational interviewing. I need to look more into that. Anyways, I realized I can change if I feel brave enough. So Tl;dr I got some B12 and Vitamin D because we talked about how bad my SAD can get and how much better it is with aggressive lighting. Maybe I'll feel a little more energetic in a few weeks. For now, no more doom scrolling, do laundry instead.

I don't think I got to any of my goals this week. I am going to reset and try them again for this upcoming week. For some reason things were busier than expected.

I'm really sorry to hear about your uncle . Thank you for sharing. I hope you find the time you need for yourself.

Recap of the week Internal change: I have been doing better with jut presenting my plans and having attendings tell me whether or not they like it. I've stopped caring a little bit about whether or not I sound smart, or if it works out. I'm just trying to take care of patients. External change: It has been a very good idea to step away from facebook. I am going to continue that this week. I just don't want to see what's on there. I've logged out of every device except the browser where I've replaced newsfeed. This feels good. Did not get started on the LDA lecture Workout goal: I started adding on burpees, russian twists, and dips. I'm excited to add more things. I can't box jump, but I can step jump in our stairwell. Decluttering: was good for me. I rearranged some furniture and now everything is more conducive to work and my lifestyle. To do This Week Internal Change: Name the things and behaviors from other people that make me angry. Find 5 minutes to meditate on one to let it go. External Change: Find one day this week to practice for an hour Homework goal: read 2 papers on the recent variant and surge in India Relaxation Goal: Play video games 1-2 times this week.

Midweek checking in. I got my book for my homework goals. Gonna start on LDAs. I decluttered when I got back after vising home. Internal change: this has been hard. I feel like a bad doctor, and let's be honest, it can be really hard to do my job when patients yell at me. Trying to de-escalate them or find a way out has been hard. External change: this was way easier than I expected. I only skim it occasionally and can stop myself pretty quickly- I stop scrolling any time I get annoyed by a post, so I don't get very far at all. Workout Adjustments: Today I am really tired. It's been hard when I'm really tired. one think I want to look in to is dry land training for swimming. I miss swimming and want to go back when the pools open up. Things I've found and will keep here are - medicine ball slams - box jumps - burpees - planks - russian twists - dips - jump lunges I think my set size and repetitions are pretty typical. I might switch up my strength training exercises to include more of these. I'm gonna nap for 20 and then try to work out.

ook time for the standard weekend navel gazing and deciding what to do next week. Flexibility is going to be the name of the game. I am going to aim to structure my blocks of Workout, Relaxation, Practice, and Homework around worktime. Lessons I learned this week Workout: I still hate running. It only makes sense as a mode of transportation. Relaxation: I sleep better if I schedule this before bed. Practice: I need to have different levels of difficulty in my music so I can do easier stuff on more taxing days, and harder stuff on easier work days. Homework: I cannot exceed my limit of 2 research projects, 1 QI project, and 1 case report. I learn better when there is a project involved. How to apply things next week - not too many new changes!!! Homework goals: Pick a topic to make a talk about. Relaxation goals: Declutter each space in the apartment this week. Internal Change: Respect my own strength by not diminishing my own capabilities. External Change: stay off facebook newsfeed this week.

Gettin back on the scale and still being at goal weight like wooooo. It's really nice to see some progress. Physical: I am still pretty tired in the afternoons which has made working out challenging. I'm always trying to keep my 30 minutes of cardio, even if I am too exhausted to do weights. I finally broke out my 30lb KB the other day for some swings, and it wasn't as horrible as I was expecting. I went for a run today Running still makes me want to die. I also tried my hand at bechemel to make a mac and cheese; not the healthiest thing, but it was fun and I offset it with some roasted brussel sprouts. Mental: I have been getting up before clinic to work on my research projects, which has really helped me get ahead. I am most productive in the mornings--after 9-10 hours of sleep. I am finally starting to get caught up on the tsunami of work I had hit in feb. Papers are either submitted or getting submitted, projects are either done or almost done. I have been able to control my time more (amazing) so I can actually do the things I want to do outside of work (insanity). Emotional: I really like my antianxiety journal and my goal setting for the week. It helps me stay focused and keep "moving forward" even when I am tired. Like last night, still got on the bench and felt better after practicing, even though I was bone tired. I'm actually with a really nice crew of residents for this block and have really enjoyed the time just because my coworkers are fun.

So I have decided this is the only way I am living my life right now I guess a check in to where I am Physically: I am back on the fitness ball. My weight is my usual stable. I don't know if I am going to be able to lose more; my scale seems really erratic (I am +/- 5 pounds or more every day, which seems weird), and I might get a different one. I am doing a lot more self care than I used to. I am still doing mini vacations at night which have helped with sleep. I haven't had a "sleepless night" since January. Or maybe december. Investing in my physical health and picking shut off times has been really good for me. Mentally/Intellectually: I am practicing more. I am also just stealing time on the piano at work after hours to do slow practice work. I am not meditating as much as I used to. I am also finding that working on my research projects counts as studying. That said, I need to work on more physiology knowledge. As soon as I crank through one last research project.... Emotionally: I have gotten through some challenging mental spaces surrounding my relationships. I know what I want now. Human and I need to talk, but human may not be ready for it yet. I think I am as ready as I will ever be. The vaccination stuff was emotionally taxing because I felt judged for getting the vaccine earliest (1a as essential healthcare worker aka doc with covid patients) because I am young and healthy. However, as things have opened up and more people are able to get their shots, I feel less judged. I also opened up to some colleagues and students about how we all don't have confidence in our work and how to combat that in a way that isn't "fake it till you make it". We agreed that supporting each other and looking for ways to build on our experiences would make us feel the best and helped with our confidence the most. Lately I have come across some of the most clinically challenging scenarios since my time on a critical care unit. I had to trust my instincts much more than I expected to; and I was right more often than I expected to be. I also faced my own "kobayashi moru" of medicine and did everything I was supposed to do; a little haphazard, but the fellow let me run the whole thing start to finish. That helped my confidence. I had to remember though that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy; and yes, it was ok for me to be really terrified the first time doing this by myself. But I still did it, and I know the next time and the next time I will be less and less scared.

I feel this in my bones. Good heavens. This is incredible. I adore this response. Such amaze. Much awesome. Wow. Yay!!! This is so great. I am glad the observation and communication led to a positive change. I am the same way. The sun wipes me out. Every time I call a dermatologist for a patient, before they give me recommendations they stop me to say I need the highest SPF available, at all times, yes even in the winter for five minutes. So exciting that you are finally back to in person aikido!!! That's awesome, what a relief! Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Hey, I am sorry I am late to the party. Hugs for all of your prior sads. It's great that you've been able to catch up on sleep recently; I have watched the full snyder cut and I gotta be honest, I like it better than the original justice league cut because of the depth it gives the characters. Although will anything be as good as Young Justice? will it? Doubtful. Gonna have to watch Raya now, tho. Thank you for the review! I like your idea of meditation triggers; that sounds really smart. I am glad nothing has happened lately and you have the time to observe how you feel. Wonderful.

Hoo boy. It has been some time. As always, want to thank anyone who has taken the time to stop by and read. I appreciate you looking in on my journey. I'm hoping to get back to looking in on everyone else's soon. After my last challenge, I felt close to my baseline fitness level again. I have been realizing that non-hospital months are good for returning to baseline or making progress. Hospital months are for not losing ground. I have been working on cooking and baking more. Specifically cooking. I want to do more healthy meals for myself that don't just involve roasting vegetables. I have been using my anti-anxiety journal, which helps, and been doing a new thing where I post weekly goals for myself on the fridge. I pick an internal and an external change each week, and try to meet them, instead of making big monthly goals for myself that can feel daunting and get overly involved and complicated. External goal: tomorrow can take care of itself better if I prepare the night before: make espresso and moisturize. Internal goal: My talent is only as good as my last practice session. I am worth it, therefore I practice. And if anyone bothers me, my excuse is still "I can't, I have to practice." Other big changes include having gotten some confidence at work after surviving the literal actual worst calls of anyone in my year, realizing what I want in my relationships, and doing well on my last step exam! My highest score yet! So that was nice.

oof. I am very tired. I learned this week that trying to do "lots of body part specific exercises" may not work well for 28hr call months. I was post call yesterday and very tired. Body: so as above, have figured out that having leg days, and arm days, and core days are difficult things to have when on 28 hrs call. I think it would be wise to make adjustments for my last week to account for being very tired. Brain: Lots of little tasks are easy to do and spread out. I really like my anti-anxiety journal. I felt much better after using it. I am looking forward to using it more. Spirit: I got the Bible on audiobook, and listen to it before bed. Adjustments for the upcoming week Body: I think I'm going to scale back to Base, Strength, and Core days. Base days are S&S cardio, strength days are S&S+Cardio+2 arm exercises, 2 leg exercises, and Core days are my pilates/yoga days + cardio +/- S&S. I think this will be easier on my body and on my schedule. Brain: I don't think I need to make too many changes, although it's really hard to do flashcards every day if I'm away from my computer a few times a week. It might be easier to say "learn 1 chemo drug every day". I still feel like I don't know how to manage patients. Spirit: I don't think this is too much of a problem, but 99 names is not happening at all. Hey, but at least I'm sleeping a whole lot more at night!! Other adjustments include diet. Like, how do I diet when I have to stay awake for 28 hours. I do not know. So far it has been accidental intermittent fasting because you can't eat when everyone is crashing and also getting hammered by nursing pages. So...like...yay? Probably will meet weight loss goals? Anyways I missed lunch on my call day and had to eat dinner between patient decompensations. So. But good news! the nice people in the food places at work told me which of their teas has the most caffeine so I can stay awake. I should also give myself credit for at least cardio on call days, because I am DEFFO getting 10K steps in. Deffo.

That does make sense. I started off with doing extra music, especially at the hospital, and that seemed to go well. But! I also ended up baking, and gave away more than half of what I made to my co-residents, which they greatly appreciated. I'm lucky to have such nice friends to eat all the things I make. Thank you about the reminders for giving the self some slack. The self has needed to be given some slack on mistakes this week. Post vacation blues are very real. It has certainly been a challenge adjusting back. All I want is to sleep and do nothing, but there has been a lot of research work to do. I hope things ebb a little bit more in the future. Right now there's a lot of flow and work outside of work; which is fine, I just wish it hadn't happened all at once. Body: I got sidetracked this weekend on exercising, but am looking forward to getting back on track today. My weigh in shows I'm still getting closer to my goal weight. Brain: I have been having to push on the research front pretty heavily. I need to remind myself to meditate and stretch after my cardio, and not rush things. Spirit: I've been still baking, but it's bread, or pizza, or stuff I'm giving away. So not so bad. In big news I submitted one of my first publications yesterday, so that's pretty exciting. I have a lot more research to crank through. It's important to me to get things balanced. Midway ish lookback Self care every day is important for me. I am also respecting that it may look different every day. If I were to logic this, I would say sleeping and eating are things that need to happen every day. In order for those things to happen, I need exercise and music practice to help me sleep well and keep me from getting too sad to eat. I am starting to do the same thing I did with chores, where I pick a self care item to do every day. In addition to fold laundry, I also have quick pedicure, or face mask on my to do list; things I used to put off as weekend luxuries are now anytime minivacations. Keeping myself from being too sad to function is important. I did not go to a tox session because my research got away from me. I made friands instead of religieuse and gave them away.

since it's me and I'm back from vacation, obviously the update is late and I got very heckin sidetracked. Monday was a travel day, and Friday/Saturday got unexpectedly sidetracked by the human. Body: I am hanging in there and very glad to be back with my bike and my weights. I've escalated S&S to swings with the 25lber, which has been smooth. I am finding working out at home, I can usually get it all done in 50 minutes. That may or may not be sustainable once I hit q4 28s, but we'll see. Brain: I have been doing a LOT of paper reading since I am working on getting a few publications out. Flashcards are happening, albeit slowly, and I came up with a study schedule for the next rotation I am on. I did not do as well today with some admissions. Spirit: hahahahah so I baked yesterday, but taking care of myself in this respect took a back seat with all the papers I am doing. Looking ahead to this week: I've planned out my studying and workouts, even though all I want to do is go back on vacation, hide in a hole, and never do medicine again. I should maybe bake today or tomorrow morning to help myself feel better.

Thanks! I'll give it a try! Ok, today seems like a good day for a summary I still have some practicing to do, and I have been slacking on journaling. But! I am still keeping up with my hydration, and started some flashcards to help me learn the new things I want to learn. I am figuring I need some kind of schedule or plan to approach what I "should" learn. I think it will be things I learned for work, but also things I find in a review book and journal papers. Body: Barre did not work out this week. But that's ok! As above, have been trying to figure out the best way to optimize weight loss. Things I realized this week Weight loss will be easier with more vegetables and sleep sleep is a priority being flexible about when I work out is important. There are ways to be healthy at work, even on 28 hour calls, by prepping dinners the night before and prepackaged healthy meals (microwavable meals, popcorn) Brain: Slacking on journaling and meditation, but I think once I am off vacation that will be easier with more alone time. I will need a plan for my flashcards. Specifically, what information do I need to learn, and how do I find out what I don't know. I am still hydrating well The amount of practice and music study time I need to be happy will amount to a part time job. This would explain why I have been miserable. I have reviewed some of my evals, and have been pleased to find the majority are overwhelmingly positive. It makes me feel better, and I also feel like I have a better sense of perspective. I also want to learn italian, and get better with my spanish. I need to download duolingo Spirit: I think I can be more intentional in this area. I might add a few quests in the upcoming weeks.

Not at all! Good mad! Fun mad! Hence the adam driver gif. Yeah it's super cool that we have advanced some body knowledge! I think relying on the Old principles is nice, but I think I get miffed when the data gets obscured. I just got so sad when someone on a forum was trying to figure out how to make their mitochondria strong, and didn't understand what had been said by some of the people explaining the method. The papers they cite came out in around 2005-2010's, and the newer data is from 2013 and beyond. The problem with metabolism is that we're working against unsupported theories from the 50's and 60's. I certainly didn't find everything on the subject. It's not naivete in the slightest, it's literally doctoral level biochemistry and lack of research on every little specific training program. I think from a physio perspective it's similar to HIIT in the concept of high activity with rest periods, which is how some other papers I found described the same beneficial results. And I agree that it is a great program, and would 100% use it. For me, I think it's a great way to do compound movements with good cardio. And I felt better prepared for life too. Hey, as you so elegantly put it, everyone has a different situation. My training just means I know what the funky words mean. And probably other things. You have a lot more experience doing different kinds of physical training than I do, and you know what's worked for you and what doesn't, and that is So Heckin Valid. I have clearly learned from reading your blog, and from advice you've given me. I read into this because you suggested it, and you wouldn't do a thing unless it made sense to you; therefore I take it seriously and make sure I understand it too. You have brought good fitness advice to me without needing the heavy science. Full stop. I am figuring out that S&S PLUS cardio PLUS heavy weights is probably what pushed me beyond any ability to recover. No amount of carb loading can fix this. I may have tried the carb loading. Anecdotal evidence confirms Not Ideal. However Cake Still Yum. I tried barre and my knees died, so I think that's the only thing I need to recover from. I'm sorry I made you think anything of what you said was problematic!! Only people who misinform the general public about biochemistry (probably through no fault of their own) are mildly problematic.

*heavy calming breathing* So I did look into this anti glycolytic training business, and the short, gentle version is: I found the one paper they cited and it doesn't support the physiology they discuss. Furthermore, it's an old paper and we have some newer data on HIIT training. I'm worried the paper they cited is confounded by the beneficial effects of cross training, which I don't feel were adequately corrected for in the experimental model they used. Basically, yes! it's HIIT training. But the way they're talking about energy in the body is not the way the physiology actually works, and isn't supported by the overwhelming amount of data I found. So the HIIT's right, just everything else is...confused. I can go into the hairy details, but god it's going to require the metabolism map and that's a lot. TL;DR They do not explain it correctly, therefore the terminology is inadequate at best. I am so mad. So, so mad Anyways! To the wonderful body-affirming points you made! I think the most important takeaway, based on what you're saying, is to not overwork the muscles past the point where they can recover in 24 hours. There was another paper I read about HIIT (which seems similar to S&S) vs more "endurance" or longer lighter training, and basically both confer similar benefits. but yes! listen to the body and figure out what my muscles can recover from, and what can't they recover from, and maybe the longer lower impact training suggested in the 2020 paper I found on Crossfit is more of what I need, instead of having the energy to do HIIT. In other news, now I'm down the DOMS and recovery rabbit hole and I like it down here. I have looked at barre exercises. I am not a fan of the physics on the joints and how it affects alignment/ligaments. *sinks into Orthobullets and never ever leaves*. In other news, I did lung physio today! Exciting!

Ok. I guess that's what I'm doing? I use swings and TGUs as warm ups, and then go on to my other weight training workouts. I wasn't getting great results with just S&S+Cardio alone. Weight loss is challenging for me; my most successful stint was when I was swimming competitively for an hour 5x a week or more. Since I can't realistically do that, making myself pour sweat for as long as I could seemed reasonable. For some reason I was under the impression that I had to do S&S every day in order to reap the benefits. I don't have the book with me, so I can't refer to whatever my impression was. I have totally missed the joke about snap city. But you make a really good point, and there's an easy way to restructure my strength training so I'm not coupling up my S&S with my other strength training.

Thanks!! Haha, that's very great to hear, thank you! That is very nice of you to say. I am happy with what I developed, and I'm glad I'm in the right clan I appreciate the insight. Do you mind telling me a little bit about what "adding on" people did that was detrimental? I try to change only one thing per week. For what it's worth, my add ons are Leg: 3x12 weighted squats (20lbs) OR 3x20 body weights +3x20 hip bridges + 3x15 leg ABduction + 3x6 leg lifts when I'm at my bar set. Core: pilates or barre Combat: longsword for 15-20 min Arms 3x10 pushups, 3x2x10 arm rows My S&S is still 20 lbs only. While I add barre this week I'm not increasing anything; next week I'm increasing to 25 lb swings and doing biking again instead of walking. After that, I may increase leg or arms. Eventually I want to do 30 lb swings and 25 lb TGUs, but that may take another month. I know I should look into Pavel's new method. Body: I found some Barre stuff on youtube that I'm going to try. I did my first "full load" yesterday - full speed S&S, full speed leg day. So far so good. I will want to invest in a mirror for home so I can watch my form. It's a lot easier to work out when I'm well rested. I'd like to keep being rested while at work. Long calls make this challenging. Prioritizing sleep is going to be important for me in the future. Brain: It is sometimes hard to get the time alone to do meditation and journaling. But I have started studying again. the flashcards are a good way to start. If I keep reading and studying, I should be ready for PGY3. I splurged on new equipment for work, and am going to finally buy the jacket I've been looking at. I mean, I guess buying a new stethoscope when my tubing is actually broken isn't necessarily a splurge. Should probably reframe my concept of "splurge" vs "I need this for work, to be efficient, or to make my life less stressful." Spirit: I volunteered to do more music at two churches, and my schedule looks good to work at both. I'm going to be doing some baking today. I've been working on finding out where my independence has become selfishness, and how I can make sure I'm being compassionate, even when I'm tired or frustrated.