Emerald Eagle

Update: Week 2 - Day 7 (Saturday) A good night of sleep resolved my headache, thank goodness! Got my grocery shopping and two loads of washing done before we had to leave for lunch. We did manage to finally trade in my old car as well. We didn't get a lot of money for it but it's now gone and out of our hair before the rego needed renewing. It's been on my list for a while so it's nice to have that ticked off! I managed to not over-indulge at lunch and after lunch finally got my second run for the week done. Still not perfect on the Week 4 intervals but for me it was a victory to get the run done. This was also the first run I got to do with my new bluetooth headphones (loot from a previous running week). They are so much more comfortable than any headphones with cables I've ever used while running or working out! Definitely a great investment. We're about to head off to dinner with friends, but I'm going to wrap up my day here now. If I write my scores now then I'll have to stick to them! Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: 2/3 Challenge D: N/A (Weekend)

Good luck with the deadlifts! Going on the weekend or at a time when the gym is not super busy is definitely the way to go (it's how I managed my 20SOC the first time).

This is a tough one, but I think I'd get in trouble if I didn't pick 2016. Health and fitness-wise the first half of 2016 was awesome, I started to have a routine and I felt in control. That fell down a little bit in the middle of the year when wedding planning got stressful but we pulled off an awesome wedding day with memories I'll treasure forever, and then spent 3 weeks exploring the Scottish countryside together - the trip of a lifetime! In the second half of the year fitness took a back seat but I still achieved a lot. I got a new position at work, was appointed to the volunteer position I've wanted for the past 4 years, and was part of the team which delivered the 20th Australian National Rover Moot to over 700 participants after nearly 4 years of planning. *Phew* thank goodness this year is a little calmer!

Update: Week 2 - Day 6 (Friday) All the resting from yesterday must have done my body some good. I was awake just before my alarm, got out of bed on time, left the house on time, and got to work 10 minutes early! that never happens!! Work was fine, nothing special, a plus that nothing had blown up while I was away. I ate my pre-packed lunch and watched the live Crossfit Open 17.1 announcement on YouTube. I've never done Crossfit, and I'm not sure I want to (yet at least) but as a sports nerd I've gotten quite into following it as a sport and definitely enjoy watching other people suffer through their crazy workouts! After work I was meant to go for a run, but we had been invited to watch my husband's little brother's cricket final. Under 12's cricket is definitely not the most thrilling sport you'll ever watch but it was good to be there to support the boys. By the time the game was over we were both cold (thanks Melbourne weather!) and hungry, and my headache was starting to return. We found a new Thai restaurant we hadn't tried before and boy was it good! I had chicken satay skewers and a chicken cashew stir fry. The sauce was definitely on the sweet side but I didn't have anything deep fried, and avoided rice and bread. I am now in bed, warm again after a shower, and ready to put my headache-y brain to sleep. The plan is if I wake up tomorrow feeling ok I'll go for a run first thing and do the grocery shopping before we head out to lunch with family. Fingers and toes crossed! Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: 2/3 Challenge D:

Update: Week 2 - Day 5 (Thursday) Today I did precisely nothing. I woke up with a horrible headache, sent a text message to my boss telling him I wasn't coming to work and promptly went back to sleep until about 11am. Finally got up about 1pm, watched YouTube videos of powerlifting competitions, and then went back to bed. Was woken up when himself came home from work, which was quite a nice way to wake up all things considered. Ate a delicious spag bol dinner cooked by himself and now heading to bed before facing Friday. Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: 2/2 Challenge D:

Hmmm, $100,000 is a deposit on the farm property we've always wanted to own. It's also enough to buy a very nice 4WD and spend 6-12 months driving around the outback exploring. So it would depend on how adult-y I was feeling on the day.

Thanks guys! It's super cool to share with people who understand Update: Week 2 - Day 4 (Wednesday) Today was pretty good. I spent most of my day in meetings at work which minimised the lack of motivation. Only downside was my legs - they're still pretty sore so I decided to delay my scheduled run til tomorrow. After work I had a Rover meeting - volunteer roles only two hours a week . The meeting was lively and went much later than expected which meant I hadn't had dinner. Driving home I was SO HUNGRY! Stopped at the late night kebab shop on my way home. While this is not the most amazing food choice it wasn't true fast food (I have to drive past at least 3 Maccas on my way home), it has veggies included, and I didn't order any desserts. Considering this time last year I would regularly stop for highly processed burgers, a large coke AND a large hot fudge sundae I think this is progress! Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: 3/3!! +5XP Challenge D:

Just realised that this XP pushes me over the edge - LEVEL UP! That means I can order the new pair of leggings that I have been coveting but couldn't justify buying. Will post pictures when they arrive P.S. If I ever had any doubts about Steve's gaming theory they are now eliminated. The motivation to earn that XP is very strange, particularly for someone who goes not have a huge gaming background, but it sure gets my butt out of bed in the morning!

Update: Week 2 - Day 3 (Tuesday) Started the day with a 6.45am PT session. I have not worked out in the morning for AGES. It meant that my alarm went off a lot earlier and I had to be at gym at the time I would normally be getting out of bed. But I did it! An additional challenge, my trainer wanted today to be leg day. We have been doing a lot of upper body work because a ) my upper body is super duper weak compared to my lower body and b ) I wasn't sure how I would manage DOMS and running. Work out went well, hit a PR on the leg press and my squats felt really good. The gym session meant I was 10ish minutes later to work than I would like, but was basically on time. I'm counting it as a win because I didn't snooze my alarm and the delay didn't affect my day. Had a super productive morning and then a very blargh afternoon. My boss got back from the US this afternoon so I've now lost the delay tactic I've been hiding behind for my boss battle. Tomorrow I will be sending an email *gulp!* After work I headed to the gym for my run - and found out I was definitely right to manage leg day around my runs! Everything felt tight and tired, I just didn't have the bounce in my legs that I usually do. By the end of the session on the C25K App I had to drop the to a fast walk for some of the run portions. For now I'm happy that I stuck to the modified plan and still did my run. +5XP for that! I'm going to try the same run on the App tomorrow night and see if I can feel more confident before moving on to Week 5. I then went grocery shopping (yes while still in my sweaty gym clothes) and bought everything I needed to make meals for the rest of this week. The evening was spent cooking dinner for tonight (mmm baked chops!) and meal prepping +10XP! All in all a good day. Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: (2/3) Challenge D: Domestic Rangering:

From someone who had to make these decisions a couple of months ago, I was given two good pieces of advice for making guest list choices. 1. Think about where you see yourselves in 10 years, and which of your friends will still be in your life. If you can't see them around in 10 years, they don't get an invite. 2. The following flow chart:

Sending hugs. It is so hard to lose the ones we love, and four legged friends always have a special place in our hearts. Going home to hug my own puppy and tell him how special he is.

I'd say a week is not enough time to accurately experiment. Especially thanks to how our bodies work (sigh, hormones why do you make life so difficult?). Stick to it for another week at least! I try and do something for 4 weeks so that I can compare across a whole cycle. And if it helps, remember that the scale can be a big fat liar. Measure other things as well - my scale went up last month but almost all my measurements went down and I *feel* stronger, so something must be working

Update: Week 2 - Day 2 (Monday) After thinking about I want to change up the way I do these updates. I'll write about the day here, and then summarise the challenges below. I'm hoping it can be a bit more personal and I like reading about everyone else's days so maybe someone will enjoy reading about mine. Gave myself a 10 minute sleep in this morning because of my crazy stupid busy weekend and very late night. As I pre-organised it the night before I didn't snooze my alarm and was technically on time for work, just not early on time like I normally aim for. I think for me this is a coping strategy - if I had tried to get up at normal time I would have almost certainly thrown my phone across the room and slept in anyway. Despite not having pre-prepped meals my eating today was not horrible. I bought a toasted sandwich from the cafe downstairs (ham, cheese, and tomato) as well as a fruit salad. For lunch I walked down to the local supermarket and bought salad ingredients and some protein from the deli, as well as a pre-packed box salad for dinner that night. I have enough left in the fridge at work for lunch tomorrow and maybe Wednesday as well. After work I had an hour to kill before my Scout meeting. I hadn't packed my gym bag so I couldn't go for a run. Instead I went for a walk and did some Pokemon hunting. The only downside was the blisters my ballet flats rubbed into my heels need to make sure I have my runners in my car in the future! Ate my salad for dinner and avoided the cookies on the table while we discussed our Business and Strategic Plan for the next 5 years. (Why can't someone pay me to run a campsite? *sigh*) I even managed to finally re-schedule the 2 PT sessions I needed to move, including one session before work tomorrow morning. I haven't done a gym session before work since before the wedding, this could be interesting! Challenge A: Challenge B: Challenge C: 2/3 meals Challenge D: P.S. Very late last night himself and I talked about the week and meal planning. Menu has been modified, new copy below. Now I am building my shopping list in my BuJo for tomorrow after work. My breakfasts: Zucchini slice and baked chicken thights My lunches: Lamb and greek salad Himself lunches: Thai green curry with chicken Monday: Salad / Freezer meal for himself Tuesday: Baked lamb chops and steamed veggies Wednesday: Bolognaise sauce and zoodles Thursday: Lefover bolognaise Friday: TBC (maybe out with family, maybe out at restaurant) Saturday: BBQ and Salad

*Shudders* My current pet peeve is probably borne out of my ongoing frustrations at work. If you are in the middle of a conversation with someone, or worse you specifically booked a meeting to sit down and discuss something with someone, DON'T ANSWER YOUR PHONE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CONVERSATION! So rude, and it makes the person you are meeting with feel like crap. *end rant*

Some wise words from the man himself:

Update: Week 2 - Day 1 (Sunday) Challenge A: Was tired and drank too much juice and soft drink, but I did manage to resist cake at the birthday party in the evening. Challenge B: I knew the chances of any run today were extremely slim, so scheduled as a rest day. Challenge C: See comments from previous days. Was still away camping and had run out of tablets. Challenge D: NA Not a work day!

WEEK TWO: PLAN Remembering the end-game. Workout Dinner Notes Sunday Rest Day Chicken Stir fry Out at faily dinner Monday Rest Day Chicken and Salad Out after work at Rover meeting Tuesday After Work: C25K 1 + Lift Day 1 Curry ** Meal Prep Wednesday After Work: C25K Run 2 Freezer Meal Out after work at Rover meeting Thursday C25K Run 3 Freezer Meal Rovers at the beach Friday After Work: Lift Day 2 TBC Saturday Free for re-schedule BBQ Friend's birthday Later half of the week is a little packed so we'll see how it goes! This meal plan is still a little rough. Because we were away for the weekend meal prep did not happen on Sunday as usual. I have enough food for today and have some time after work blocked out on Tuesday to make meals for the rest of the week. I'll have a firmer idea of the plan then.

Week 1 Summary: Challenge A: An Eagle eats nutritious food 0XP earned Challenge B: An Eagle follows through on a plan controlled by Battle Log Challenge C: An Eagle experiments XP earned throughout the week. Only 1 perfect day. Challenge D: An Eagle is on time NA NA 0XP earned this week. Domestic Rangering: An Eagle is prepared 10XP earned!

Mixed bag of things happened over the weekend, summary included below. Update: Week 1 - Day 6 (Friday) Challenge A: No sweets consumed. Avoided the Tim Tams at youth group! Challenge B: Scheduled run did not happen. Motivation was not there to go at lunchtime and work got crazy in the late afternoon so I ended up staying late and not having time to get a run in between work, packing for our camping weekend away, and helping out with youth group at church. Challenge C: Did not remember to take tablets with dinner (which was consumed on the road on our way camping at 10pm at night). Challenge D: Left home early and got to work 5 minutes early! Update: Week 1 - Day 7 (Saturday) Challenge A: While cleaning out the freezer up at the campsite we were consolidating all of the leftover ice-creams into one freezer. I ate one chocolate coated vanilla ice-cream from the freezer. Challenge B: Last opportunity to get in my 3rd run for the week didn't happen. I did spend the day outside, and the cleaning up we did included shifting firewood and rubbish. I did plenty of walking and a bit of lifting but no formal exercise. Challenge C: In the craziness of packing I did not replenish my fish oil tablet stock. Remembered to take the last of them with lunch but none at the other meals. Challenge D: NA Weekend. The weekend was super busy for us. Up at the campsite we had a lot of cleaning up and work to do to get everything organised. We then had to get home for family dinner and so next week is not planned as well as it should be.

Late to respond but couldn't resist a book question! Currently re-reading some of my teenage favourites in some Tamora Pierce novels. My favourite book changes with my mood. Sometimes I want Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, sometimes it's Sara Donati and the Wilderness novels, sometimes it's Jane Austen.

Melbourne, Australia. We get lots of rain but it's never cold enough for snow.

Happy Anniversary I hope in 31 years my marriage is still going strong.

Yay for tax refund! Boo for mirror damage. Hopefully it all balances out. (In my experience, particular on older cars the mirrors are not that expensive to fix. Fingers crossed that is the case for you!) I am so jealous that you get to live in a place where it snows. The only time I get to see snow is when we drive 5 hours and pay a crazy amount of money to visit a ski resort.

Hadn't seen you on Instagram or here so was hoping you were having an awesome time! Enjoy it, times like this are really precious

Good luck for your interview! My first ever job interview I got to the location SUPER early because I was worried about parking. Found a park fine but then I couldn't find the building that the interview was in. In the process of wandering up and down the street several times I literally helped an old lady cross the road. There was no way I would actually tell them that as I was sure they'd think I was lying. I did eventually find the door to the office, which was completely plain a part from a A4 piece of paper with the companies logo printed on it (ah start ups, how I love thee). Even without mentioning my citizen of the week heroics I got the job so I guess it all worked out in the end