Rebel Pilot Gar

Glad I decided to take the week as a rest. I think mentally I needed it. So far I have still been keeping up on my goals, but more because I want to rather than feeling like I have to. 1 bike ride on Tuesday, planning for 1 more tonight and another on Sunday. I did have a beer on Tuesday, but only the one. Was dry again on Wed and had 2 beers last night (off work today since I worked a day last weekend). No cleaning yet this week, but we have a big kitchen purge/clean/organize blast planned for this weekend.

Thank you! Yes we are lucky that we don’t have a timeline to get out of current place (one of the benefits of renting from family). It’s just our own impatience to find a new place that we need to manage 😅 The stuff with Percy is SO GOOD. Can really tell how much this project is a labor of love for everyone involved.

I really enjoyed Legend of Vox Machina so far. (Though Scanlan is a bit much sometimes). Interested to hear what you think when you watch it I definitely want to watch again / continue trying to finish watching campaign 1. Yes! Arceus is so much fun!! Honestly I’ve struggled to get into the recent Pokémon games (haven’t really played since Diamond Pearl Platinum / Heart Gold Soul Silver). But really loving the game mechanics and story so far 🧡

Haha thank you! There were a couple of clues (a body of water nearby, suspiciously low price compared to surrounding properties, etc) And thanks, I’m excited for him. I’m kind of hoping that me being in my job for ~8 years balances it out? We will see when we get there I guess…. Thank you! That is a good motto to have There was an unusually bad flood last year in my area so it is definitely something we are more aware / cautious about as we continue searching.

That sounds stressful. I hope you can find a moment to relax. Maybe an extra mindful dog walk followed with cuddles?

Thank you! Nothing particular though I prefer more rural/natural scenery to cities. No, we have not been to see any houses yet this challenge. Mostly sticking to the online window shopping. We saw one that was really beautiful and almost perfect, except in a potentially really bad flood zone 🥲 We decided it would be smarter to bypass that one.

Great job on the week! And that wine faerie drawing looks soooooo good in color! That background also looks splendid. Do it!!!!

Great job! (also that image nearly made me spit out my coffee) I’m thinking the same. Planning to wait until at least Friday/Saturday this week. And even then it will be celebrating something with a friend rather than just the fact I can have a drink.

Yay goal adjustment and meal prep! Sounds like you have a great plan for week 5

Keys on the table / designated driver reminder is a good reason!

Week 4 results. Treating week 5 as a “zero” week and jumping straight into the new challenge when real zero week starts 6 Feb Had a super crazy week at work. Was originally supposed to go in Saturday, but external teams were able to pull up project timing to Friday afternoon. So I only had to log in for an hour or so at home Saturday. We also got some snow Friday into Saturday so I appreciated not having to go in 😅 Given crazy work week, I pulled back on the bike every day habit. I think the “5 min a day” was a perfect way to ease back into working out again. Low effort enough to get me on the bike. But I have been enjoying the longer rides too. Going to focus on longer bike workouts 2-3 times a week for my next challenge. At least until the weather warms up enough that I’ll run outside again. I did find an app / fitness MMO / virtual world thing for indoor biking and running called Zwift. It works with my stationary bike and the interface has some cool training plans and scenery. Does have a monthly subscription cost but I’m going to treat that as my “reward” this challenge. Dry January still going well, even with the crazy work week. Just 2 days to go. Next steps are to experiment with Dry Mon-Thurs. Still trying to decide if I’ll have a drink 1st Feb… currently leaning towards no / don’t really care. We’ll see when I get there. Still very proud of myself for doing great things here. Decluttering went okay. Definitely was not a priority or something I felt motivated to do this challenge. Planning to put this on the back burner and focus on routines next challenge. Hope everyone else had a good week!

Very smart - the evil spoilers are out there. Fingers crossed you get your copy soon!

Fair! And yes, I definitely pulled it together for the end of Week 3. The longer bike rides fit my longer term exercise goals more, though I did like the 5 minute rides as an approachable "ease in" to routine changes. I am a rebel, rebelling against the challenge calendar timeframe, doing my own rebel thing. 😎 Thank you! And yes, I am really liking using the bike -- most of the benefit I'm seeing is for mental fitness/ anxiety reduction rather than physical fitness. But I'm sure there's a bit of the second one improving too Very excited! I'll admit, I haven't been keeping up with Campaign 3 (my ranger-brain latched onto the Witcher and Book of Boba Fett and is not ready to transition to new new things yet. Vox Machina however is not new, more of a banked-flame obsession waiting for a log to be tossed onto it).

Same ~ (except I did digital download so I’m just waiting for Nintendo to unlock my game 🥲) Have you decided your starter Pokémon?

Yay Thursday. Dry January is still going well. Just a couple days to go. Been a long week so far. Getting bombarded at work. Monday wasn’t too bad despite the very early start but I’m getting pulled from my projects to deal with emergencies which is never fun. Especially when the project has a timeline. Taking it easy on myself with the “daily biking goal”. I’d be happy to get in three 20 min rides rather than a daily 5 min ride. Maybe I’ll mark that with a star? Hope everyone else is having a good week! I’m working Saturday (as long as doesn’t snow so much I can’t get into the site). Will try to check in with everyone on Sunday. Debating on taking next week as a “Zero Week” and upgrading goals for starting during zero week next challenge. I feel like I’ve been doing well enough with the goals I started out with and want to take a couple steps forward. We’ll see how I still feel come Sunday. Also also super excited for tomorrow — Legend of Vox Machina release on Amazon Prime. And the new Pokémon Legends of Arceus game releases!!!!!!

Other than Jan 1st I’ve done every day dry so far! Saving money. Both in not buying alcohol. And not impulse purchasing things online. Still doing a bit of online purchases, but I think it over a few days to decide if I really need/want the new thing. Most of the time I just end up writing it down as a “maybe later”. Feeling very accomplished! Have tried “cutting back” numerous times in the past only to open the floodgates after “maybe I’ll just have one”. Feeling better/more clear in the mornings. I’m still not a morning person (that’s for a future challenge ) but I definitely feel better. Also more productive in the evenings! Especially with cooking/cleaning up after cooking right away.

Week 4 Tracker: 1) Build a morning exercise habit by using stationary bike for at least 5 minutes daily ⬜⬜🌟⬜🟩🌟⬜ Bonus: Warm up & Cool down stretching ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩 🌟 = 20+ mins on bike 2) Save money by reducing alcohol consumption 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 3) Prepare for eventual move by decluttering 🟩🟩

Way to go on killing it week 3!

Week 3 Results. Joking about additional week zero aside, I recovered the biking habit through the end of the week. Dry Jan still holding strong. Mentally felt myself wavering a bit this week it still didn’t have anything in the house to break the habit with so that worked out. Might be a bit quiet this week. Bunch of really early days and maybe even working part of the weekend for a project so I’ll check in when I can.

Yes in the UK - mostly in and around Norfolk. Sounds like a great workout! Definitely appreciating the addition of pictures to mentally put a movement to the names 😅

Happens to all of us. Picking it right back up once you realize is the important part 😉 also that is a nice price!!

Still sending good luck vibes your way on the house stuff. Glad you are feeling better. Hope the house-task routine disruption resolves soon and you can get back to winning all of your goals I have a friend who did this also. Masters turned into PhD and I doubt they’re coming back to the US anytime soon other than to visit briefly. (But they also live near enough to my step family I can swing a visit whenever pandemic stuff eases up enough to feel comfortable going)

Rough work week last week and another rough one coming up ahead. I managed to restrain myself and buy only AF beers for me. And even though I finished all 6 of them between Friday and Saturday…. Still holding strong. 21 days. Just a few more to go.

Found a really nice “cycling cool down” video that’s also just a great short yoga stretching session. Challenge stuff is still going good! Next week is going to be very busy at work so just trying to relax and do basic cleaning stuff.