RedCedar

Yeeeaaah buddy! Get it with the pushup practice. And the sculpture looks amazing. Keep kickin' ass!

The shelter I learned this trip was called a quenzie. It's somewhere between and igloo and an snow cave. I started by digging down a little bunker-like kitchen area and heaping all the snow up on one side of the walls. The dug down area was somewhere between waist and chest height. Carving tables and benches and storage selves into the snow kitchen was really fun! Then I tunneled into the wall with all the snow piled up on it. I tunneled until I got to the center of the snow pile, and then started to dig up. After I dug up a ways and created a step/bench in the snow, I dug out towards the edges of the snow pile, leaving walls and ceilings between 1-2 feet thick. By the time I was done, with a little help from two others, I had a domed room about 5 feet tall that four people slept in. The little step up created a place for cold air to drain out, and the shelter kept us out of the wind and rain. If the weather had been better up there on Mt. Rainer I think it would have a new favorite hobby. But it rained the entire time. The key to staying warm is staying dry, and that just wasn't an option this trip.

Whew, been too long since my last update! I've been fighting to not let the momentum slip away or let grad school take over and knock me off my game. Snow camping was a serious adventure, and I had a lot of fun. Mostly type 2 fun, the-now-that-it's-over-and-I-survived kind of fun. My diet has gotten seriously off track these last two weeks, mostly due to being out of town and not having enough good choices/willpower while eating out. My exercise routine has been completely dismantled, but I got in several miles of snowshoe-backpacking and spent over 5 consecutive hours digging out a snow shelter. A few short hikes here and there on the weekend, and two Insanity sessions over the last two weeks. Missing so many workouts has had a noticeable impact on my mental health, just as school is at its most stressful. I think February in Washington might have something to do with the intense lows as well. The spirals just start so fast. I don't workout or take care of myself, so I start to feel bad, then I feel bad so I don't take care of myself or motivate myself to workout. Damn you, positive feedback loops! But I'm not buying my own excuses anymore, and I'm done hiding from my support. It's easy to update regularly when things are going well, and easy to withdraw when they're not. I've got this weekend to get things back on track, and finish out this challenge strong. One bad day/week/two weeks won't define me. hehehe, I said "eating out"

I am trying to remind myself that one bad day/several bad days/an off week does not define me or my success. Congrats on moving out of "oh well I give up land". I'm working to do the same. I'm right there with ya digging in for a better weekend after a long, exhausting week that threw me off my game a bit. But I got up early this morning and made it to Insanity again for the first time in over a week. Hoping you find the same chance to get back to it. We got this!

Hey everybody, Sorry to have been MIA for a while, grad school life has taken over, and my girlfriend came to visit this weekend. I am going to be gone this coming week as well, off to go snow camping for school. I will return with many updates and will come back checking in on all of you Thanks! Keep fighting, may the forest be with you!

So there is a new chef in the dinning hall, and she's making a lot of new friends fast. Last night I got a bit too excited about the pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes... And the berry cobbler. I ate until it hurt, but at least it was after Insanity! I have also been trying to make a new habit of not hitting snooze. This morning I got out of bed on time for the third day in a row. Today was the real test, getting up at 5:30 to join the 6am Insanity crew. Such an energy boost to start the day! HERE WE GOOOOOOOO! Have a great day rebels!

200%!!! Killin' it!

Ah, so things are getting really good Watch the last ones with discretion if you can, there is only one season!

Step 1. Move into the forest. Live far, far away from everything and everyone, like no cell service, no zip code, an hour drive one-way to the grocery store kind of far away in the woods. Step 2. Cut off most social interactions. There are only 7 other folks in this residency portion of my grad program, and a handful of staff members. It's basically just me and the trees. Step 3. Workout every time you miss your girlfriend.

Thanks to Flea's app tip, I did not hit snooze today even though I didn't have class. Today was pretty much the opposite of yesterday. I went for a nice long hike and finally discovered my forest gym. A 2-mile stretch of trail that has several inclines of varying steepness for hill sprints, a western hemlock with a (almost!) perfect branch for pull ups, a cluster of several vine maples at different heights for inverted rows, and a very sturdy yew for climbing. I'm so excited for the weather to warm up so I can start using it! During my hike I sat down for an hour and journaled. Yay for writing! Also had my first exhaustion test from the 100 pushups program today, up to 29 consecutive good-form push ups! Went to Insanity tonight, and it felt really good! I mean, I'm sore as hell, but I felt like I was able to do the entire workout this time. The dining hall is open again so I didn't make dinner tonight, and I couldn't resist the dessert they put out. Gonna have to work on making better choices if I don't make my own food, but that's a lesson for later. I feel awesome about today. Time to finish the last sips of my 64 oz, grab my book and get in bed. Let's see if I can resist the snooze two days in a row. Goodnight rebels!

OMG THAT LAST EPISODE IS SO F***ING GOOD BUT IT WILL NOT HELP YOU BE UN-FRUSTRATED!!!!

Glad to hear it Fishface I'm just trying to pay if forward for all the support I've gotten here too! It helps watching other folks push through and meet their goals, I can really feel my community growing. Thanks for being a part of my support network

That's a win in my book!

Been working on the 100 pushups program for two weeks now, and I just finished my first exhaustion test. 29! up from 16 to start. Great work everyone, this is fun!

Yaaay skinny jeans! You go get that week three Fishface!

(sorry double-posted and I don't know how to delete it)

Hey PA, I love your quest! I am planning on thru-hiking the PCT with a friend in 2015. We'll be northbound, and I am so excited to be ending with Washington. I also hail from the beautiful Pacific NorthWet. I'm currently living in the middle of North Cascades National Park, and while these mountains are stunning, I am missing the Salish Sea. Are you perhaps in the San Juans? Glad to hear you got a dentist appointment scheduled for tomorrow. I was going to suggest holding whole cloves between your teeth or clove oil. It's the remedy my mom would always use when I had toothaches as a kid, and it works really well as an oral numbing agent.

Vegas has a way of doing that to bodies haha. Good work fitting in a run, even if it was a short one. Any workout is better than no workout!

Thanks for the tip on the app Flea! Habit building and consistency is probably my biggest life challenge, besides organization, but these kind of go hand-in-hand. I even have difficulty taking my ADD meds everyday. Although, I guess if I could remember to take them daily I wouldn't really need them...

I agree with LouCarJo, sounds like you've been making good choices around food and really thinking about what you're eating and why. For example, no candy or chocolate bars, or sugar besides some fruit and a bit of dark chocolate? That's awesome. And its obviously paying off. I'm pretty sure losing 7cm doesn't just come from the end of holiday bloat. Don't worry too much about what the scale says. I know it can be a hard number to ignore, but all the other, more important indicators (like you feeling and looking better) are heading in the right direction. The scale may not have moved from a result of losing fat and gaining muscle. Muscle is much more dense than fat, so it weighs more. Your cycle can also make the numbers on the scale fluctuate quite a bit. Good work in week two, and keep it rolling! I'm rooting for you Fish!

Today was a very lazy day. I only had three things on my to-do list, make up the pushups workout I was supposed to do last night, get outside, and work a few hours on my work study project. I only accomplished the pushups workout (78 total reps!). I feel pretty good about that, but looking at the rest of my sad to-do list was bringing me down. I wrote "Sleep-in until noon" on my list just so I could cross another thing off it haha. I guess I could consider drinking my 64 oz and making an odd mix of leftovers stir fry for dinner productive. I think I'm gonna go read for a while and call it an early night. I've got tomorrow off too, so I will try to get up early and have a more productive day tomorrow. Good luck going into week three everybody!

Good thing you're not taking a willpower cold shower tonight!

Despite feeling like it was a bad day, I see a lot of positives in your update. You found some time to get outside, even if it was briefly, and got 2 and a half hours of dancing in! You didn't let a bad mood push you off your healthy eating game. A salad is not a bad choice at the end of a rough day when you can't bring yourself to cook a perfect meal. You could have let disappointing numbers on the scale drag you into "oh well I give up" land, but instead you posted them so you can track your progress. I hope you feel better about tomorrow, but it sounds like your week is off to a solid start.

You are on fire! That's really awesome to hear about your increase energy levels, better sleep and all around feeling-better-ness. Keep rockin' it!