athousandwords

On 4/23/2024 at 8:46 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

My friends, I have posted on my battle log that I am taking some time off from May-September to make art and relax.

We'll miss you but I hope you have an absolutely wonderful, creative, relaxing summer and we see you refreshed in the fall!

What an amazing weekend - honestly, what an amazing week!

My trip to Cancun with my sister was wonderful in every way. We talked, we laughed, we laid out at the pool, we played in the ocean, we read, I listened to all 31 songs on The Tortured Poets Department Anthology?! 😳, we drank really watered down drinks, I actually hit my water goal every day, we ate some delicious food and some not-so-delicious food, we exercised! biking! pool cycling! so! much! walking!, we saw coatis and iguanas and a capybara, we watched some fun shows, we played games, we had an absolutely fantastic sister-fun-weekend. Our resort was beyond gorgeous - every day felt like paradise. I'm happy that I maintained some of my goals: exercised enough to feel comfortable checking those boxes two days this weekend, and drank tons of water. The calorie maintenance was never going to happen, but I'm right back to it this week. And so, so many happy memories.

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

Enjoy Cancun!

Sadly I'm back already, but it was a lovely trip! ❤️ 

Mar 26 - 175.2

Apr 01  - 174.4 (-0.8)

Apr 08 - 173.4 (-1.0)

Apr 15 - 174.2 (+0.8)

Apr 22 - 177 (+2.8)

This just feels very, very expected after spending the weekend at an all-inclusive in Cancun.  😅 So we'll see where we land next week. 

ttpd @  the pool

Feeling mostly back on track today. I'm still not hitting my pomodoro numbers, but that's partly because I'm in a slow period of work where I have more meetings/coordination type work than tasks that need deep focus time. I've been a little distracted, but nowhere near the unproductive levels that I hit when my executive dysfunction is really dysfunctioning. Actually today I almost just fucked off on work because I didn't have anything urgently pressing to do, but wanting to at least get some pomodoros done I picked up a backlog task instead. So it's helping, even if I'm not at the level I aspired to.

Most of my "calm down" activities lately have been reading. I just finished Piranesi for Book Club, which I absolutely loved. It's a beautiful, short read. Then the last two nights I read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which was not at all what I was expecting. It's a cozy read though, and also quite short. I've got my Kindle loaded with a bunch of books for my trip this weekend, so I'll have a few options for beach reads. But tonight I'm planning to jam out on YouTube karaoke. I'm hoping our resort does some karaoke nights and I'm the kind of weirdo who practices my songs in advance so I don't totally fuck up on stage! 😂

It felt good getting back to my workout this morning. I'm going to get in one more workout tomorrow and then I'm not planning to exercise or track food while I'm in Cancun this weekend. The plan is just to relax and have fun with my sister. ❤️ 

Congrats about the increased supply! Glad to quest is helping! 🥛🎉

Bummer about the oven though. 😩 At least you still have a way to cook... and no one wants to cook in the oven during the summer anyway? 😬 

I'm playing catch up, but I'm happy to read about your productive conversation with Dave, your accommodations to catch up on sleep, and that your houseguest will be moving on soon! I hope Dave has a lovely birthday despite the admin shenanigans! Enjoy the beautiful weather! ❤️ 

Ugh, feel better! 🤗  That's awesome about the swimming medals though! I love stuff like that - it's so motivating!

On 4/15/2024 at 2:56 PM, Laghail said:

• St. Paul was lovely and the friends who hosted Liam and I were so gracious. Actually our first weekend away as a couple; some combination of extreme his and his introversion, and we started dating just before covid, it means the couch is everything in our relationship. I'd normally assure you that I am in fact a fun person, but that is a lie. I identify as a bummer and I mostly hate travel.
• Road trips mean audiobooks and we finished this Kingfisher novel and it was a delightful take on the fall of the House of Usher, with some Jeff VanderMeer influences

Sounds like a lovely trip. Not to knock the couch, but getting a little travel every once in a while is good for the soul.  

And I just got Nettle & Bone from the library! It's been on my TBR list for a while so I'm excited!

11 hours ago, Jarric said:

Sounds exciting; where are you off to?

Cancun! My sister and I are celebrating her 40th birthday! 🎉

11 hours ago, Jarric said:

There was, to be fair, a great deal of guessing on Saturday. Had my meal in the dark, which was an amazing 3-course meal including a great swordfish starter. It was a really cool experience, and though I've done it before I was still amazed at how relaxed I felt being temporarily blind. Add to the mystery meal the beer before the restaurant, the cocktail before the meal, two glasses of wine with the meal, a beer on the way home, and then deciding to have cheese and biscuits for dinner, it was certainly a high-calorie day with a lot of margin for error on the guesswork element. 

You (and the scale) will forget all about those extra calories in no time, but what a great experience!! Adding to my bucket list!

On 4/14/2024 at 9:49 PM, Elastigirl said:

Sunday was the start of my cut. I had planned on having a range  of between 600 calorie deficit and 400 calorie. But,I was getting stressed about it, and feeling like I was going to fail. Which is a bad start. Changed my range for between 300 and 500 calories. I'm really just aiming for the 300 calorie deficit for at least the beginning of the week. That will give me some easier successes. It also gives me more wiggle room if my metabolism slows. It's supposed to be nice weather, so it should be easy to get some walks in.

Sounds like a smart plan, listening to your body! Hope you're able to get out and enjoy the nice weather this week. 😊

Awesome week! You're brave to paint a stairway all - that's a lot of work! All that trimming out and needing to work on a ladder. 😵‍💫

Keep up the good work!

Just catching up and I'm so enjoying all your positive posts from the last few days! Nicely done getting out of the sleep deficit and shaking off the extreme workload of the eclipse! I feel like all your planning ahead is paying off this week! Hope you have a great week ahead of you - it sounds like you've got a smart plan for using up leftovers without going too wildly off track with your eating plan.

Congrats on your shorts NSV! I've been trying on my summer shorts as well and am pleasantly happy with progress compared to the end of last summer. 😊

On 4/14/2024 at 7:15 PM, Loveable_Bouncer said:

Also realized when seeing a contractor when coming home from errands, that I have a turnover this week. (Totally forgot even though its in my binder). So I have a busy week ahead. Upside I will get a chunk of my hours and rest next weekend (as the next turnovers are not until end of April... then the season ramps up into moving season). 

Ahhh good luck with the busy week!

Mar 26 - 175.2

Apr 01  - 174.4 (-0.8)

Apr 08 - 173.4 (-1.0)

Apr 15 - 174.2 (+0.8)

Little up today, but I'm not too worried. I was seeing 172 most of the week, so I'm hoping this is just a blip! Although I'm going to an All Inclusive for a 3-day vacation this weekend, so it may be a couple weeks before this blip goes back down. 😆

Well, week 3 was a nosedive off the good habits train, but for all the best reasons!

We had a busy, busy week over here with big kid turning 7 on Thursday!! Plus on Wednesday, there was no school (Eid) and my son begged to go roller skating with a friend, so I took off work for a couple hours so that we could go. Thursday we had his grandparents over for pizza and fondue dessert! Then on Friday we had some good friends stay with us for the weekend so their son could come to the big kid's birthday party on Saturday, which was a lot of fun and also a lot of work. Finally on Sunday there was all the cleaning up post-party and then book club that evening. 🫠

This week was really complicated by having so much going on. With doctor's visits for little girl early in the week, then days off school and early morning meetings later in the week, I missed my 7:30am workout time twice and simply had too much going on to make up for it. If I skip work to workout mid-day I miss out on pomodoros (and I was already missing a lot of work time this week!). If I work out at night, that's usually my time to relax and calm down, so I miss that goal instead. There's no perfect system, and with everything giving a little this week, it just ended up meaning some missed workouts and work hours. 

I'd like like to say Week 4 will go better, but I already missed a workout this morning for a doctor's appt (mine this time, just routine). And I'm leaving on Thursday for Cancun! 😎 So I'll just try my best. The next few months are going to be busy, I need to just roll with the punches here.

• Okay, technically I only made it through 80% of my workout yesterday, but I did go on a long walk with my daughter in the afternoon, so that's good enough for me
• Food was good and I had calories left to spare in the budget after. I made a big ham on Sunday because it was on sale after Easter, so yesterday's dinner was a diced ham, broccoli, and mushroom frittata. I do think I'm probably retaining water with all the sodium, but since I'm not actually overeating on calories I figure that will whoosh away in a few days after we get through all this ham. I gave some away to a neighbor so we probably only have 1-2 meals left, and I may just freeze some for making soup another day.
• Water was fine. Probably should start earlier in the day so I'm not gulping down 48 oz in the evening, but it's okay.
• Ugghhh work was not great yesterday. I was feeling super defensive and out of sorts, and a coworker was getting on my nerves - but he was also taking care of a sick kid all weekend, so I suspect we were both a little out of patience and running on bad sleep. I ended up stepping away from my computer at 4pm to go for that walk and clear my head. So only 3 pomodoros done, but considering the doctor's visit, pharmacy pick-up, and other meetings I had, that's not so bad. I should be able to make up the hours later this week.
• Last night I worked on the favor boxes for big kid's party this weekend. And that probably sounds more like work than pleasure, but it was fun! I wanted to print out stickers for the favor boxes and had a lot of fun designing the sticker and remembering how to do text on a curve in gimp. It was a nice way to spend the evening and dabble in a little creative work. Stickers and boxes under the cut:

I'm having a hard time getting started today. I should have worked out this morning, but now I'll have to do it in the afternoon. 😕 I think I might try to log some pomodoros now before my first call and hope that getting some work flow time will jump start my executive functioning today.

If you're a beer drinker, I was always told that milk stouts were great for production - or any beer really because I think it's the brewer's yeast that helps. 🍻

Your son wanting to match is sister is just 😍! I love that! Sounds like you need to have another fancy dress day to get some use out of the purple dress!

Beautiful paintings! Love the garden updates too. I have a black thumb so I'll just admire from afar.  

I'm so sorry to hear about your coworker's passing - be kind to yourselves as you get through this. I can't even imagine how it would affect your office. Hopefully productivity is the last thing on management's mind right now. ❤️ 

And well done on keeping with your goals this week! Your hard work is paying off!!

21 minutes ago, Jarric said:

So far this week I haven't had much of an appetite, and am getting less excited about all of the Easter chocolate I still have, so that should see me sticking to budget for a couple of days at least. Going out to a restaurant on Saturday where you eat in pitch darkness and get served by blinder waiters, so I'll have zero control of what I eat there, but aside from that I don't foresee any difficulties in staying on track this week (and honestly, that meal can't do much damage if I'm on track in the 5 days before).

I've always thought that experience would be so cool! Report back on what you think! 

Glad you made it through! I hope the rest of your week goes well and you get some time to de-stress and relax this weekend.

2 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Oof.  Hopefully you will dodge that one.  I assume she's on antibiotics now?  Should clear up her symptoms rather quickly.

Yup - she'll be back to school tomorrow, so if I have it, it's already incubating.... 😆

Love the new profile pic, btw!

4 hours ago, Shello said:

W3 4/8: 256.4 (-1.6)

 

Sunday's weigh in was better but I'm fine with 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  Average weight continues to drop steadily.  I did eat out twice last week so happy I was able to mitigate.  This coming week we have one night out planned.  I'm not expecting it to be a huge problem.  Hope everyone has a great week.  

-1.6 is still pretty good! 🎉