Kalitraz

Back from vacation. It was a great chance to unplug and not worry much. I'm home and feeling revitalized and ready to really throw myself into improvements! I was mindful of what I've been eating and noting most things, moving more, dressing and being presentable, and staying on top of any obligations. There was def more wiggle room on vacation but I'm gonna keep going and building on the momentum. So far I think I'd give myself a B for the challenge, being extra lenient for vacation time. Already took the dog for an extra walk today on lunch and after work I'm going to get groceries with extra helpings of fruit and veggies. I also have extra time set aside this week to get on top of some projects that I was falling a bit behind on before going to TX. I feel good and am looking forward to doing even better. Warm weather is right around the corner (our last frost date isn't until June but still spring is in the air) and I can't wait to get out hiking/camping/fishing etc. Being in TX for a week and enjoying the much warmer climate showed me just how much cabin fever I'd had. Had a blast fishing with gators, hunting wild pigs, delicious fresh fried fish, tried crawdads for the first but definitely not the last time (YUM!). Even got to see the total eclipse tho it had not been part of our original plan when traveling down. We got to spend some good time with my wife's family too including getting to meet my niece and nephew, twins about to turn 3.

I'm back, time for another respawn. Was away for a couple months after a round of covid and back injury. I just kinda fell off of tracking health and need to get back into healthier patterns. Gonna keep things fairly simple for this respawn. I will be on vacation 4/5-4/15 but will try not to be too bad. Flying down to TX to visit my wife's family. Tempted to put off rejoining the rebellion until post-vacation but realize I need to just start back with what I can now. (This is where I'd put a WoW corpse run gif if I could find one... how is that not in the options?! Guess it's Zagreus then) 1. Track all food. I have struggled with this one every challenge so far but I do pay much better attention to my food when tracking even if I don't log everything, but logging will be the goal. Not gonna be as worried about calories, as just noting what I eat. might even just do pen and paper or a note on my phone instead of a nutrition app. 2. Extra movement at least 3x a week. Been back to completely sedentary habits. Just wanting to get back to walking and some bodyweight workouts. 3. Image: I want to work on improving my view of myself and how I appear to others. Working from home and not needing to leave the house but maybe twice a week has led me to some slovenly habits regarding my appearance. I'll make sure I don't just wear pajamas or sweats all day. Doing so has allowed my waist to expand without much trouble, but normal clothes have gotten too tight. 4. Gonna put extra effort into taking care of chores and assignments and not putting them off so that I know I am someone who does my tasks and doesn't just endlessly procrastinate them. 30min/day minimum of work towards a project I'm supposed to be working on. I've got a couple for work, and a couple for school and just life in general. I've always just crammed last min to finish big projects and I want to do some work ahead on them. I'll probably polish this up later but I just need to get something written down and 'official' to get myself motivated. Support/pressure form fellow nerds also helps me get moving. I'll check in on other folk's forums too soon as I can. Good luck everyone. Here's to another respawn for myself.

Bad back and Covid knocked me out for a while and I disappeared from the forums. Been coasting and going fairly easy on things for the last couple months. Gearing up to get back into the swing of things.

It may be kinda cliche but I really enjoyed the museums in Berlin. Art, history, they had some great stuff. Definitely something you should check out while you are there. I think alot of times people don't visit their local attractions because they live there and can go anytime, but it's still great to take advantage of, (and can help you be a better tour guide if you ever have visitors lol). And I've moved away without visiting several I would have liked to for that very reason. Excited for you that your husband is coming, Good job sticking to your challenge! The job stuff sucks but maybe it was just the time for that to be out of your life so you can do better things with your time and reset with your husband arriving.

Well week 1 was rough. I threw out my back and have not been able to move much. Several days later and it is still quite painful. I'm pissed because I'd been moving exercise equipment, chopping wood, wrestling the dog, but none of that is what did it. It was just bending down to pick up a piece of firewood where everything between my shoulder-blades and my butt decided to cramp and lock up. Still pretty sore and idk when it will be better. Been trying some light stretching but even that threatens for everything to cramp up again. I guess I'm just at that age... thought it'd be older than 32.... We'll see how week 2 goes. Can at least really focus on actually logging my food. I really struggle with that. We did manage to get the fancy elliptical upstairs but I have not yet been able to us it but that should help get some more steps/distance from inside (assuming my back cooperates). -40*F several days this week. I like the cold but that is a bit low even for me. Week 1 M 1/8 Tu 1/9 W 1/10 Tr 1/11 F 1/12 Sa 1/13 Su 1/14 Score for the week: Intermittent Fasting 10:30-7:30 1-8 10-6 11-9 11-7 10-7 1-8 Calories/Logging X X 1,750 X X X X Walking (weekly) Steps 3,000 3,500 5,100 2,500 2,600 2,000 400 Workouts 0.5 0 0.5 0.5 0 1 0 2.5 Standing Desk 2 1.5 0 1 1 Daily Bookends 2 4 5 6 6 6 6 Journaling/Meditation Tu. Tr 2 Lagging On Track Bad = -3pts Poor = -2pts Baseline=0pts Good +2pt Excellent +3pts

Ack I know!! Tried and tried but never got the eyes quite right. Thank you tho. I haven't done much painting, a bit here and there through the years. Some sketching. That was one of my first digital pieces. Playing around with lots of brushes and tools. Trying to learn what was possible. I spent WAY too long on it. Just trying to mimic the photo as close as I could and experimenting with what I could achieve with the digital media. Part of what I love about your birds is that they suggest details more than clearly defining them in places. I want to try and emulate that. I'm really impressed with how well you capture the feel of feathers without depicting them precisely, probably because you are suggesting the texture instead of explicitly detailing it. I have nothing to add to hair removal discussion, I'm trying to retain and grow as much as I can lol. Best of luck however, with that and your continuing challenge goals.

Thank you thank you! I quite like your style and want to try and mimic it in some pieces. Ah yeah, I guess the pic is pretty small. IDK that I have it posted anywhere else so here it is. Lots of room to improve but it was one of my first pieces and a favorite. Used a photo my wife took as reference.

Well day 1 was less than great but plenty of room to improve. I'll post the table at the end of each week I think. In rangerish news, I saw wild wolves for the first time Sunday. We were out enjoying the winter landscape before the hard -20*F weather hits this week and hunker down for a bit. We first found a herd of bighorn sheep that live nearby and we find pretty consistently. Then we went on a scenic drive through a nearby wildlife management area that we like and saw 3 wolves. Despite many attempts, I'd never seen them in the wild before. I was amazed at their size, and most of all at their speed! They were so fast! There are alot of mixed feelings about wolves, but I sure felt lucky to finally see them. Took my wife ice-fishing a few times and she is totally 'hooked' now. She caught one trophy book trout through the ice (he was delicious) and now she suggests going fishing to me! She used to hate it lol. She's a Texan and doesn't much care for the cold but we've had some fun with that this winter. So little snow that none of the ski hills are really open. our fave only has one lift with 1/2 of a run open this winter. I also made over 50 lbs of elk sausages new-years eve with the scraps we saved and froze while butchering my elk. It's so delicious, better than any store-bought sausage I've had. I made 10+lbs of Garlic sausages, 10+lbs of Italian Sausage, 10+lbs of breakfast sausage, and 10+ lbs of Cajun Boudin, with a fair bit of just loose ground elk meat too.. The Italian probably turned out the best, but the garlic is my favorite, very garlicky. I'm sad at how quickly they are going lol. I need to make more next year. They may not make it through February at this rate.

Here to follow! Best of luck! I love the bird. I remember you posting a bunch of the art you did a while back and was very impressed (if you don't mind sharing that again I'd love to look through again). It's digital isn't it? Do you have it where it records your process? I'd be curious to see how it comes together. I love your style. I'm just learning digital painting myself (profile pic osprey is my best to date).

Here to follow. I love the deliberate review and analysis of time, re-imagining what you want your time to look like. I'm in a little bit of a similar situation, getting out of a sort of rut for part of my life. Looking ahead to what specifically I want to work towards rather than just a nebulous 'better'. Best of luck with your challenge! I'm impressed.

So sorry to hear about getting fired, that sounds like total bullshit. It may not actually have had to do with your performance. Especially with your whole training team getting booted, makes me think they may prefer high turnover instead of keeping people around. Here to offer what little support and camaraderie I can through the internet. Best of luck with the challenge! Congrats on getting to where your husband can come to you! I'm sure having him around will be helpful in many ways.

Here to follow. Yay for more colorful tables! Best of luck! (I'm gonna have to go back and track down your story from past challenges. I was quite enjoying those and am eager to see what I missed [not to pressure you to continue them, just that I enjoyed them in past challenges and need to catch up])

Here to follow along, for tables and tunes. Best of luck!

Late to the party but I'm here now! Semester's End! This MTG art felt quite fitting, even if it's a couple weeks after the actual end of the semester. I finally finished the last class I needed to graduate and be done with school after multiple hiccups in my college career. I'll be graduating in the spring term, tho I am not taking any classes this semester. I am waiting on the university to process my writing placement exam to count for a requirement. I feel like I can finally move on from this part of my life and move on to the next stages, no longer stuck as an undergrad/college-dropout. My wife and I will be buying our house this year (not fully paying it off, but a big shift from renting and we should be able to pay for nearly half of it), I've started going to therapy and hope to reach some closure on some personal/family problems, and I'm looking at improving my career and planning how I want that part of my life to progress. I've been coasting for quite a long while, still living like a college student in many ways. I feel like this year I will be working on myself and becoming more of the adult I want to be. I fell off the wagon in December, not moving, not tracking food, eating whatever and whenever, and alot of drinking. I gained a fair bit of weight and just backslid in several areas. New year new me tho. Time to jump back in and get back to improving my health. Goals for 2024 1. Lose 50 lbs. Starting Weight 294lbs. 2. Complete at least 2 Coding courses to improve at work and receive raise. 3. Ensure graduation at end of Spring term has no issues. 4. Down-payment on house & pay off as much as possible. 5. Complete DMing my 1st DnD campaign. 1 year in, we just finished chapter 3 of 5. 6. Expand and improve garden. Several new garden beds planned. 7. .... Goals for this challenge: Nutrition and Fasting Intermittent fasting, no eating before ~11am or after ~7pm. Log all Food. Target <1800 Cal Fitness/Movement 3x/week walk (winter weather and early sunset has cut into this so just shooting for 3x a week this challenge) 3x/week Bodyweight workout or other movement. Other misc movement such as VR game session (if appropriate), yard work, a hike, ice fishing trip (manual auger to drill through 10" of ice isn't easy). Will not count things that only take 2 min but if it feels sufficient, I want those activities to still count towards moving. These misc activities might count a 0.5 each. Standing Desk use. 2 hours/day during the week. Mindset Daily Bookends Morning Routine Make bed. Put dishes away while making coffee. Dress like an actual person going to work (even tho I work remote and only need to appear presentable from shoulders up.) Afternoon/Evening Routine 15 min housekeeping Deliberate check-ins with my wife. Talking about our days/plans/feelings/schedules/ etc. I don't think this is a problem, but I figure it's a good habit to deliberately cultivate. Consistent dental hygiene and medicine. 3x/week journaling/meditation. Doesn't need to be much, even just 2 min, just some intentional time for self-reflection/meditation/mindfulness. Table and color-coding grading concept stolen copied shamelessly from @TimovieMan. Thank you! Start: 1/8 End: 2/4 Bad Poor Ok Good Excellent Frequency Notes Intermittent Fasting: Feast Window > 12 hours ≤ 12 hours ≤ 10 hours ≤ 8 hours ≤ 6 hours Daily Usually aim for eating btw 11am-8pm Calorie intake (food logging) > 2500 cal > 2000 cal ≤ 2000 cal ≤ 1800 cal ≤ 1600 cal Daily Not logging counts as Bad Weekly Walking Distance. <6mi 6mi 8 mi 10 mi ≤ 10 mi Weekly At least 3 days walking a week Steps < 3,000 ≥ 3,000 ≥ 4,000 ≥ 6,000 ≥ 8,000 Daily Smartwatch numbers Workouts/Activity 0 1 2 3 > 3 Weekly BW Workouts, VR or other Movements Standing Desk Not used 0-1 hours 1-2 hours 2-3 hours 3+ hours Daily I have a nice standing desk but haven't used it enough Daily Bookend Routines < 4 4 5 6 above & beyond Daily Journaling/Meditation 0 1 2 3x > 3 Weekly Lagging On Track -3pts -2pts 0pts 2pt 3pts

If you want to walk fast, walk alone. To walk far, walk together. Here to walk along together with this fellowship! To Mordor and back again! I'm only at just over 300mi, about 2/3 of the way to Rivendell.

Well, got the paper done, fell a bit short of goal page number but finished the class with a B which means I will finally graduate!!! Only 10 y ears late..... Did not keep up with self-care and tracking over the holidays. Gained a fair bit of weight, didn't move, and didn't track, but hey another chance to be cliche. New year new me. XP. Anyway sorry for not updating. Will be posting a new challenge for 2024 in a day or two. Hope everyone had a happy holiday season and is ready to rock the new year!

I'm a bit buried with a few projects for the next couple weeks but I'm here. I didn't do great last challenge and probably wont be able to really jump into this one for a week or so. I'll put together a color coded chart once I can focus on it. I have 2 major research papers I need to write in the next couple weeks and those are top priority. Main Goals: Track food. The Holidays are here and comfort food abounds. I'm not going to binge but also not going to abstain completely. Just want to track what I do eat and try to be mindful about it. Exercise. 2 days of deliberate movement/week not counting walks. I've struggled to make exercise a consistent habit so it's a main focus this time. Winter is here so movement is extra limited and walks are less frequent but I can still find time and activities to do. When I put together a more complete challenge I will flesh out a few more things I'm working on, but those are the 2 big ones. Good luck to everyone with you last challenge of the year. I'll try to drop in on other threads when I can, but I've found that I tend to use this forum for a bit of procrastination and I need to focus up for a couple weeks.

Well happy almost thanksgiving. Hope everyone who celebrates has a good time and a nice place to go and be thankful. I'm not gonna worry aobut food intake the next two days. Definitely gonna need to redouble efforts for next challenge. I feel like I didn't do bad but certainly not a ton of improvement this time. Just maintaining. Sorry I wasn't able to keep up with everyone's forums this go round. Hope to do better next time. I'll total up everything this weekend and decide what grade I'm giving myself for this challenge. Week 5 M 11/20 Tu 11/21 W 11/22 Tr 11/23 F 11/24 Sa 11/25 X Intermittent Fasting 11-7 10-7 *Vacation *Vacation X Calorie intake 1600 1,600 *Vacation *Vacation X Bookend Routines 6 8 * *Vacation *Vacation X Standing Desk 0 1 *Vacation *Vacation *Weekend X Curfew 6-8* 10* 10 * *Vacation *Weekend *Weekend X Steps sick Tracker dead *Vacation *Vacation X Homework Workouts Lagging On Track Bad = -3pts Poor = -2pts Baseline = 0pts Good +2pt Excellent +3pts

Checking in. How's 7^7 going? How're the fishies?

DIVINE SENSE! DIVINE SENSE!! AH, IT'S PROBABLY RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!

Lol, not a thing as far as I know. Maybe someone was able to stretch creative writing into that but not I. I changed the paragraphs a bit to make that clearer.

Maybe if you'd be comfortable with it, include the link in your sig? I've followed since last challenge so I think I'm caught up but might be nice to read through again. It is quite entertaining and I'd be curious to read it through as a whole not just broken into these little episodes (tho the little episodes are a highlight of the forums for me ). Which silly girl is he referring to I wonder, Solaine or Mabeline? Both?

Well I haven't respawned very well. Failing some areas, just treading water in others. Not logging my food. Couple days not tracking my IF and not much using the standing desk. Not walking as much as I'd like. Haven't worked out and not even any mini-workouts this week. I really need to do those, even if it's just something instead of a full workout. I had several days where I pulled up the daily-dare and then just didn't do them. I just always put off exercise. Always some excuse; oh I just showered I'll do it later before another shower, oh x is more important right now, oh I don't want to be sore tomorrow while doing x.... My dad gave me his fancy elliptical for my birthday and I was really looking forward to using that when weather outside is less than pleasant, but our basement ceiling is so low that I hit my head every step while using it and we don't really have a spot for it upstairs unfortunately so now it's just taking up space.... Winter has been moving in and I've been entering hibernation mode. Just want to laze around and eat food. Not even gonna worry about challenge stuff for thanksgiving and leftovers day the day after. Am coming to the end of my semester and need to buckle down on term paper/presentation so I'm gonna be putting more time into that the next few weeks. 30pg research paper and 15 min presentation on that due in 3 weeks. I have the rest of this chapter of the DnD campaign already mapped out so I think it shouldn't interfere too much and we'll be able to play it out. Gonna take a bit of a break after this chapter and one of my players is gonna run a mini-campaign in the intermission. Very much looking forward to seeing how things play out from the player side of things. Did go out and try to take the boat out yesterday but the one lake we wanted to go to has already half-frozen over. On the one hand bummer that couldn't get the boat out, on the other hand that means ice-fishing is right around the corner! By the time we were able to get to the next lake it was too late to put the boat out. Was still a fun day driving around in the winter weather with my wife through snow in a few places. No luck fishing but I've never had luck at that lake. I think I might be giving up on it. It's so far out of my way and I've never had luck the few times I have been able to get there to fish, but it does have other kinds of fish (Pike, bass, perch, big brown trout, lake trout) that 2/3 of my tackle applies to. The closer lakes really only have smaller trout which alot of my tackle isn't very applicable for. I got my elk mount back and it looks great! It's so big that we're a little limited on where it can hang and it is HEAVY! Think I've got it hanging securely but might fiddle with it more later. Week 4 M 11/13 Tu 11/14 W 11/15 Tr 11/16 F 11/17 Sa 11/18 Su 11/19 Intermittent Fasting 10-9 10-7 10-9:30 11-7 NA NA 10-6 Calorie intake 1,400 Didn't log 2,300 Didn't log Didn't log Didn't log Didn't log Bookend Routines NA* 5 5* 5 6 8 8 Standing Desk 0 1 1 0 1 *Weekend *Weekend Curfew 9:30 9 11:00* 10:15 *Weekend *Weekend Steps 8k 8,200 2,500 1,500 5,000 Homework Tu, W Workouts 0 Lagging On Track Bad = -3pts Poor = -2pts Baseline = 0pts Good +2pt Excellent +3pts

Been away for a little while but back and enjoying catching up on your adventure! Glad things are working out! The rest will fall into place. Wishing you continued good luck!

Wednesday 11/8/23 Thursday 11/9/23