Katerina

Ok, so it's time for the intermittent post (I don't like to use my work computer, and evenings tend to be monopolized by the little one.) So, here goes. . . 1. Regular movement has gone OK. Not perfect, but OK. Yoga, a couple of C25K days, a long-walks-with-neighbor's-dogs day, and today--a leg exercises day that I have a feeling my legs will try to murder me for in the morning. Jumping sucks. 2. Resistance training is still off the table until Monday. I am not excited about this, but oh well. Maybe by Monday, life will be sane enough that I can actually get to the gym again. I've got dumb bells here and have used them here, but I don't have a ton of space. Or much of any, really. (All the move-ins and move-outs. . . it has gotten significantly better, but trying to meld two households is no joke.) Husband has had to deal with a lot of drama from the housing association (Why is civility a lost art?); with all of that, I wouldn't feel right tripping out the door and leaving him with the little one. He needs downtime, too. 3. Morning prayer has continued. 4. I did get to church on Sunday but had to leave early because of overtired/starting-to-get-sick toddler. 5. Packing lunches (sigh). I'll get on this today. I've kind of half-assed this; cutting veggies for salads but not actually chopping the meat or assembling the salad. I don't know why I hate doing this so much. I suspect in part I am tired of the routine. I've been doing the same thing for awhile; I don't know what else I would really want, though. 6. Running in the morning this weekend didn't work. My son had to work early, and the little guy got up early, and I am the only one who gets up early, so yeah. BUT I did get out there and run later, so I did the best I could with what I had.

The shoes look brutal for dancing! (I have memories of jazz shoes for my son when he did hip-hop years ago.) But wow, you move well together

Hey, so I know we talked books awhille back. On this subject (well, in part--this topic was only one part of the book), I just read The Happiness Hypothesis by (Jonathan?) Haidt. Might be worth a gander; I enjoyed it, at any rate

Yes! I concur completely. You know what would be awesome though? A magic wand that would clean the house. With the move-ins and move-outs over the past month, I feel like I am running a gypsy settlement.

Thanks for asking Well, it is my first (and hopefully only) break. and fortunately, it's not too bad--just kind of splintered off to the inside of the knuckle closest to my fingernail. I got the x-ray last Tuesday and finally got to an orthopedic specialist yesterday. He gave me a new kind of splint (much less restrictive than what urgent aid had given me), and I have to go back in 2 weeks. Happily, because the break is minor and because of the type of splint, I can take it off to shower. Unfortunately, he told me no weights--not even resistance bands until he sees me again. So I guess it's C25K and yoga. As for progress this week, there has been none. I was cooking and recovering from the late service on Sunday, so that day was shot. Then yesterday I spent a lot of my after school time at the doctor. . .unless you count my being a jungle gym for the little one. I might try to do yoga yet today, but I am still dragging. The weather here is absolute garbage this week (defined as raining like the end of time, flash flood warnings), so outside stuff is not looking good until maybe the weekend. Honestly, more than anything, right now I just need sleep. So the week marches on, and it's ok.

Are you me? This is a major problem of mine. It drives my husband slightly crazy. Awesome on the good parent time Also, the hope thing--love it! Sorry I am behind the curve here.

When I used to teach AP Lit, I went on a rant about foo-foo books. . .like those written by Nicholas Sparks. One of my beloved smartasses not only bought me one of his books, but bought it in large print and inscribed it so I would have to keep it. (Brat!)

Hi, All, It's been a while. The transition (my son and his family moving in) went generally well (a story in itself, but this post is not about that); I was graced with a sinus infection and broke my finger in the month since they moved in, but I am back in the saddle. . .more or less :) Ok, so goals for this challenge. . . Physical: 1. Work out (defined as at least half an hour of planned movement) at least 5 days of 7. The thought here is that if I shorten the workouts, they will be more accessible with more moving parts in my life right now. (With watching the grandson while my son works, trying to allot a hour or an hour and a half after work and sufficiently before bed to avoid trashing my sleep is unrealistic.) 1a. Of those 5 days, 3 will be resistance training of some kind. (Broken finger will at least temporarily necessitate machine or bands rather than barbells or dumbbells, but whatever.) 1b. The remaining 2 days (or 3 if I can amalgamate my excrement sufficiently) will be back to C25K. 1c. I am going to try to get yoga in once a week, but this is an aspiration more than a hard core goal. Spiritual: 1. Continue daily morning prayer. 2. Get my lazy behind to church weekly. (I have been blowing this off for several months. I hate the timing of our Liturgy; I wish it were earlier. But I need to suck it up and deal.) Food: 1. Get back to packing lunches ahead of time. I have been slacking here, and it complicates the morning. 2. On *weekend* C25K days, run early and fast until lunch. Since I am posting this late, I will also say that my workout schedule for this week has been off. They splinted my finger on Tuesday; the splinting caused me so much pain I went back yesterday. It is splinted another way now, and I am not in pain. I have gotten in C25K twice this week, and I should be able to do some kind of resistance tomorrow, BUT this is my Easter weekend, so I am giving myself some latitude here. (Liturgy tonight. Pascha starting at 11:30 tomorrow night, etc.) I got my lazy behind to Confession last weekend and to church on Sunday, so check there :) I did fast this morning and ran as well. (I took the day off.)

@scalyfreak, I plan to use the @Harriet Apprentice of Awesome approach and keep throwing effort at cardio until it surrenders My suckage in the meantime is a PITA (sometimes literally), but it is also beside the point.

I read another of her books last year and liked it. I strongly recommend Twyla Tharp's book for you (on creativity). I think you'll love it Hmm on the guild leap. . .I feel abandoned (seriously, best to you)

Excellent. We need a change of pace after January

Generally true, but we are on the opposite side of this equation. Hubby is on the board, and they recently voted to increase dues by $20/MO to have money set aside for upcoming big projects (to avoid special assessments which lower property value). It's the first increase in 8 years, and only now WITH the increase are our dues similar to other properties. But Holy Moly, the FB shit storm! (HOA has a FB page which is a horrbile idea. Turns out grown ass adults act like middle schoolers on social media.) But whatever. Elections are tomorrow, so a couple of people may lose their seats, but at least the nonsense should dial back. Also, @Harriet, re: 3 min of jogging, there is a *reason* I was picked last for teams in gym class! I suck something horrible at any and all cardio.

Yes, sir! As much as I can identify overworrying about food, I am TOTALLY guilty of being a neurotic mess about what I am and am not supposed to be doing so that I don't undermine my own efforts.

Right there with you. You're not alone. Isn't that exciting--lol?

Agreed. Everything else is an experiment--which requires a certain level of rejection of trends--why shouldn't this be? Also, at the risk of stepping on toes (not my intention), I would argue that in the end, everything is an argument--from the anti-bread preachers to the vegan bandwagon. IMO, both contain a certain amount of nuanced truth, but they are both selling something and should be taken with a grain of salt. I honestly think that the neurosis that accompanies our eating choices is such a First World Problem. I mean yes, we do have to watch content/amount because we do have the privilege of not worrying about starving to death anytime soon, and certainly, there is responsibility/sustainability to consider (i.e., prodigality is never called for), but beyond that, omg. What would your great grandmother say? Mine would say that we worry about too much.

Yes. This. Right there with you! I am also very interested in your review of the light.

Well, it's been awhile, so here's to wrapping up. I got sick the 3rd week in January, and that lasted for about 3 days. Then we had hell freeze over here (Chicago area), so I bid Adieu to January with more than a little pleasure. I am noticing that the days are getting slightly longer, so that helps. :) 1. The Physical: I am still having problems with my arm. Some days are better than others, but it has become a limiting factor for now. I figure if form goes to hell on account of pain, that's just going to make more problems. As unhappy as I am about this, I have more or less stayed on track. I have had a couple of weeks in which I have either backed off weight or done other work altogether. I have also tried to include work to directly address the problem, and I saw somewhere that switching to a neutral grip where I can may help (at least until things get really better). A couple of people (Blocky and Rusk) suggested such an approach for squats; I have *not* found that fun bar that has shoulder handles, and I am afraid to try to jimmy anything with straps (native clumsiness that would make a clown blush), but I can certainly use the trap bar for deadlifts and dumb bells for bench press. Moving forward, I will keep watching weight (maybe doing 3 sets that start out way light and progressively load rather than trying to do one warm-up set and then 3 sets at full tilt) and trying to address the stiffness. On a note that may make @Grumble chuckle, I did change the cardio-esque part of my work to C25k. The reason for this is that the HIIT routines from my trainer included a lot of arm work. One of the routines in particular just murdered my elbow the next day, so obviously, that needs to be off the table for a little while. I am now in week 3 of c25k, and I was proud of myself that I didn't die when I had to jog for 3 minutes consecutively. I *do* feel like I am improving week to week, so while I wouldn't have planned things this way, I guess it will be OK. On a side note, I have also read several sources that have said that 3 days/week of like 30 min jogs isn't going to compromise strength training, so I can let go of worrying about that. 2. Living Space: The clearing out has gone meh. I *did* go through our bedroom closet and clear a bunch of stuff out of there (like a couple of garbage bags' worth), so I suppose I am technically on schedule there. I should do the same with the garage in the next couple of weeks. Part of the problem here is a feeling of unsettledness. My husband is on the board of our HOA, and there has been enough drama and general bullshit to make me want to spend an extended amount of time in a deserted place. (Seriously. What the hell is wrong with people sometimes?) It's bad enough that my husband is actually talking about moving, and he is not one to say crazy things in the heat of the moment. (That is my job.) Honestly, I have no idea how I feel about this. I mean, a place with more space would be super helpful, but damn, that's a lot of work to get from here to there, and it also implies a change in financial management. This *should* motivate me to hit simplifying hard, but it's not. I suck at blind chases. I need a decent picture of my goal, or I tend toward paralysis, and right now, so much is up in the air, I am just kind of staring in dumb confusion. 3. Professional Life: Semi-fail. I have not devoted time in a ritualized sense to this. However, on account of the previously-documented Volunteering to Talk Out of My Ass Day, I ended up having a conversation with a colleague who teaches a class in a related discipline (art history) with quite a bit of period overlap. We have started talking about working closely together to cross over subjects to broaden both pictures for the kids. We are talking about joint field trips and projects--SUPER exciting. Also, on account of TooMAD, I started to kind of get a vision of what I want the class to look like from a planning perspective, so like I said, I didn't attack this ritually, but nor have I done nothing at all. Side note--one of those ideas is to get the kids to read either a bio or a historical fiction each semester to kind of flesh out at least one person or period. I have done some reading on that count :) 4. Personal Life: Well, as mentioned above, I have been doing more reading, so yay, that. (Insofar as it is at least quasi-pleasure and not all business, I am totally counting this. :)) I have done *a little* more yoga--not as regularly as I should, but yes, more regularly than I had been. I also had a date night with the hubs about a week ago. (We hadn't done that in a while--"dates" for both of us tend to be one-on-one with one of the kids.) Also, during this week's school closings, I stole a page from @Harriet and actually tried some meditative/creative work. I have started a sketch of a Tree of Life (because I am so sick of dead winter yuck that I could scream). I am about half done with the sketch; I am taking my time adding a little at a time so as to think and not rush things. I don't really see this challenge as having been roaringly successful, but nor do I see it as having been a complete failure. I suspect the next few weeks will be more a question of survival/not getting behind more than actually progressing. I am not thrilled about that, but sometimes, that's just how it goes.

Do your own salads have a little of all the tastes (sweet, bitter, salty, etc.)? I am a big fan of Asian-style salads with Litehouse's Sesame Ginger dressing. Ok, I am not Mike , but 1) rotisserie chicken (for days of lazy), and 2) sauteed chicken with herbs of your choice. . .deglaze the pan with wine--stays tender. I agree that walking (particularly outside when the weather permits it) is one of the best mood-lifters out there.

My cat sometimes tries to imitate me by doing a stretch. It's pretty hilarious. Sometimes days like this are needed, too. All that writing and art is taxing; you need input as well, as tea and window-gazing may be just what you need.

I, too, had braces as a teenager (because adolescence isn't enough of a gawky phase--let's put an ugly metal apparatus in your mouth, too). I, too, lost my retainer (which I was only supposed to wear at night). But yeah, now my dentist is recommending I consider getting things realigned. (Sigh.) I will ask for further details tomorrow about my appointment. I just don't know if I am ready to commit to all that yet. Hoorah, @Gemma for having the tough conversation that will hopefully start to get curricular issues fixed. Also, for Project 333 success.

I am sorry to hear this, Rusk.

Hahahaha. I agree completely. I hate shopping. Glad your week went pretty well. Your progress in your new business venture is exciting. Life is cold here in the midwest, too. I am already over winter, and the truth is, this week is the first week we've really had of winter weather.

Ugh. Sounds like 1984 I drown it put when needed with old headbangers music--lol.

Speaking *for me,* just oats AND about two hours before workout even starts would be a) not enough protein, and b) too large a window. I'd be more inclined to nosh on the walk. . .maybe carbs with protein and a little fat? Just my .02

He only really confides in Son #2. He tells me his thoughts bother him, but he won't say what they are. He also tends to hold people in a general disdain (insecurity, I think), which is behind the refusing therapy. I guess it's like everything else: just keep trying