Keladris

Shoudler weakness would make a lot of sense. I struggle to control my shoulder blades at the best of times, they're just not the stable. Funny enough, my ballet is helping with this, since you constantly have to be pushing down wards from the shoulder blades when going up on your toes or doing pirouettes, otherwise you don't engage your core properly and fall. When I'm doing the inclines, it's on a bar, and I go until my chest touches the bar, then straight back up. I can do 12 of those. For the lower variation on the chairs, I only manage 5, but they're a lot slower because I find them hard (although probably slower makes them harder haha), so I'm probably pausing at the bottom to gather myself before pushing up.

I went an injured myself pancaking, but have since recovered and now I really feel like I'm making progress again. I'm close to a front splits on one side, but the other side is still some way off. I think my favourite stretch is froggie, it feels so good! Also, why are pancakes so hard? How does anybody get to the floor?

Decided to see if I could actually in any way get close to a push up (or a negative push up at least) today, and was pleasantly surprised! Not sure how to lift my hips up at the same time as my chest. I guess I just gotta keep working on those inclines and it will come. This is WAY more than I could do at the beginning of the year (used to just slightly bend my elbows and fall on the floor!)

Interesting! Thanks for this. I do generally try to stop before my form goes, although that seems to coincide with a feeling that I can't do anymore haha. I've been watching loads of "Ultimate Beastmaster" which is an amazing obstacle course competition with very strong, fit people. It's inspiring but I'm also a bit down that my push ups are taking so long to come! But I know I will get there, and my aching arms and shoulders today tell me I've been working hard enough!

Ooh why is it good to leave some in the tank? I'm pretty much making this up as I go so any and all advice helpful!

I've done a terrible job of tracking, I managed to not save my excel file for week 1! I've been plagued with migraines, which meant only 1 strength training for first week, but I made it up with an extra one this week. So I say it counts! Anyway, here's my wee spreadsheets for this week: Friday 21st Sunday 23rd I'm definitely noticing that 2 workouts are better than one! I'm feeling kinda vain, body has changed so much since my respawn in Jan! So here's some shameless selfies I'm starting to see the road to the gunshow... Which feels strange since I still can't do my push ups on the ground. But I WILL get there!

Been on the weight loss PvP since Jan, and I've often experienced a plateau and then a woosh. Hooray for a woosh! And speaking of plateaus... I'm still staying somewhere between 74.5 and 75kg. Which is not too bad, considering I've not really been counting calories the last few weeks. I think it's been good to maintain for a wee while. I've also had a lot of migraines that seem to come on while I'm hungry, so didn't want to be restricting myself at all really. BUT! It's time to get back on the wagon and try to truly lose that last 0.5-1kg. Have decided to follow this for a bit: https://www.eatingwell.com/article/289024/7-day-vegetarian-meal-plan-1500-calories/ 1500 is slightly below what I should be eating, so going to add in some protein powder to things to bring it up to somewhere around 1700. It's quite a different eating routine than I'm used to (I usually basically eat two meals a day with a snack). But I think little and often might help out with these migraines. Let's see how we go!

Am just about holding at 74.5kg. I get the feeling my body would really like to settle at 75kg. Not been tracking my food this week, so I'm pleased I've managed to stay more or less put. Think the last half kilo/1lb is going to take some serious discipline to lose, but I got time! Was a bit disappointed that my mum responded to my weightloss with "don't lose anymore, are you sure that's healthy? You've lost so much weight". It's 10kg/20lbs, and I've lost it in 5 months. Plus, I was overweight before and now I'm not. I guess she's just struggling with the change.

Just here to spread some hype! You got this I also really like your goals and you have a killer tracking spreadsheet thingy set up.

Bit late posting, but I did weigh myself last Sunday and came in at 74.5kg - half a kilo off my goal! I also now fit into my partner's jeans which is something that has never happened before haha. Been very hungry this week though, I think I might end up putting the half kilo back on again. I think I'm quite fearful of regaining after all this effort. Sent pictures to my family and my mum ordered me not to lose any more weight lol! I supposed she isn't used to seeing a smaller version of me. I'm still perfectly healthy though, and the weight loss has been steady, not a crash diet.

Lugging instruments through long treks from one town to the next, swinging from trees with poise and elven grace, scrambling up a cliff to look down at the land below: being a bard is strong work! And Keladris was going to get strong. ------------------------------------------------------------ I'm sticking with my one goal at a time approach to the challenges. It just makes things simpler and I feel good when I succeed. I am of course still doing all I can do to maintain my progress so far (I need to make sure I keep getting outside throughout this challenge, but my flexibility is improving nicely, I'm really pleased how well I am maintaining my more colourful diet and dancing is as joyful as ever). So my one goal for these 5 weeks is to strength train twice a week! I've not managed to do that since respawning, tending to skip the second one each week. I'm more or less at my weight goal now, and so my next big goals are to get my push up to the floor and do my first pull up. So I need to focus on those goals to make them reality. How to make it happen? Well, a certain @Starpuckand I are budding up to keep each other accountable. My strength training days will be with Thursday and Sunday or Friday and Sunday (depending on whether I need a rest day after dance on Weds). Workout 1 will be slightly different from workout 2. I've built this program from the NF beginner bodyweight program, although I'm a little more advanced than the basic one now! Here's my week 0 base for workout 1: I use resistance bands for the weights. Will do different variations of the squats and lunges depending on how I'm feeling. And workout 2: The idea is this workout involves 'heavier' reps but less of them. The lower incline on the push ups is reallyyy taxing, I can't do more than 5 at the moment. My assisted pull ups use a chair, but I might buy a new loop to help me out. I'm also going to do some dead hangs during the week to really help with those pull ups. Going to be channeling Brienne-bae to find my strength for this challenge!

Hey Puck! We got thissss! 🦾

Yayy for dancing and painting and hiking and lifting! You got this

*Slips into the tavern, places order*

Signing up! This sits perfectly with what I think my personal 5 week challenge will be, which is to slot all the pieces together from the previous challenges to build consistency. Time to find some balance...

Wrap up This challenge has been really good for me. I'd become such a hermit and was hardly getting out. All the walking has definitely helped my weightloss, and I'm feeling fitter too. Now even ready to start running! Plus it's really good for my mental health to get outside. I've learnt I'm much more likely to go out if I do it right away, but also if I wake up too late, I want to eat first which inevitably leads to checking emails etc and next thing I know it, it's 3pm. The days I missed walks was because of this. I think I'm going to continue to aim for 5 days outside per week, although not necessarily always on weekdays. Sometimes work calls. I'm also adding running into the mix since going faster takes time. And with all my other activities, I'm actually feeling hopeful I'll finally be able to run a 5k (never managed it before). Next challenge is going to be finding balance between everything. Got a twin challenge planned with Starpuck to make sure we're both doing strength training twice a week. Want to find my best balance between dancing, walking, running and strength. I'm going to say this has been a successful challenge! Awarding myself a level up to level 1 Thanks for following! I found the photography thing really interesting, it made me look at my neighbourhood differently. I'm still pondering a photo adventure party challenge if folks are interested?

Friday The weather was truly terrible today, cold and rainy. But we made a quick dash to the pharmacy to send off my taxes (you can see I'm cold!): Saturday Did a bit of making up for missing a walk or two and went for my second couch 2 5k run. Nothing particularly caught my eye for photography, but you can't go wrong with trees and sky.

Third week in a row at 75kg! Is this just the weight my body wants to be? I think I've probably been eating a few more calories, although with tracking most days I'm hiting around 1800kcal which in theory puts me in deficit. Don't really want to lower to 1700 or 1600kcal cos I'm just really enjoying fooood. Although it is also shark week so maybe I'll suddenly lose next week. That's happened before

Wednesday Very short 15 minutes but there was a nice stillness in the air. Bit rainy but also a balmy 14oC and just felt very calm. There's this lookout (from behind bars!) round the corner from our apartment. I just can't get enough of staring at the horizon! Thursday Really bad shark attack today, cramps kept me on the sofa for most of it. Was sorely tempted not to get out but glad I did in the end. Was later in the day than usual, after 5pm and there were SO MANY people exercising in the park. Lots of very fit people running the track, doing weights around the track, playing football in the middle of the track... Used to feel a bit bitter seeing fit people but now I'm cheering them on and feeling like maybe I can be one of them!

Absolutely! I love the NF youtube video about thinking in terms of years and days, not months. So you choose your long terms goals, and then just focus on building up habits day by day. I think that's how you make sustainable change (although I'm only 4 months in myself!). I've found just having 2 goal for each challenge has really helped me. We got this!

Sounds like really solid goals and strong motivation. I know exactly what you mean about needing to find that sweet spot of being healthy and not obsessing.

I stared at the pic for ages and eventually saw the duck! You're so right. Glad you are enjoying the photos, it definitely helps with motivation. I think the motivation is slowly returning. I realised there's always slight variations of the same routes and definitely the photos help too. I'm actually wondering about turning this into a PvP challenge - a group NF photo quest?!

Week 4 Wow are we here already?! I still need to catch up for a couple of missed days... Monday My puzzle for the day is who did this do this log and why? Tuesday Have been toying with the idea of doing couch 2 5k for weeks. And today I just woke up and said "I feel like running today". So that's what I did. Felt absolutely incredible. Way less difficult than I remember running being (I haven't done this since about 2015...) Put some epic cinematic music on and felt like I could do anything. Made it more challenged to take pics, but here's another view of the site near the new university campus (very good spot for a run cos it feels so open and little traffic). Wasn't so long ago there were kids playing in deep snow here:

Oof! I've been bad at posting again... Here goes. Week 3 continued... Tuesday Turn around the blocks, went a slightly different route and found this lovely set up: Wednesday Snowed all day, just couldn't bring myself to get outside. Thursday More snow. I know it's not a great excuse, but dressing up in winter clothes just makes it so much more effort to get out. Friday Went to one of the many nearby parks. Torn between two pictures... Say hello to my squirrel friend: And an old white dude who lost his glasses (turns out he was the first mayor of the local area): Saturday To make up for skipping a couple days, went for a scramble up the Mont with my partner. It really was a scramble, since we decided to go off track and ended up scaling the sound of the mountain... Eep, turns out I'm a bit afraid of climbing although also enjoyed the challenge. The snow left as quickly as it arrived and everything is now turning green at a rapid pace:

@Skywalkercongrats! Must be a great feeling! @TiogaGirlI'm looking forward to the needle-in-the-arm day myself. Interesting reflection on the impact of the last year on weight. I'm fully aware that the only reason I've been able to be so consistent and motivated since Jan has been because I have nowhere else to be and nothing else to look forward to other than fitness goals! @ShelloI think that's a very health mindset all round. Thanks everyone for sharing, this group really keeps my motivated Proud of my dinner for this evening: