athousandwords

Yup - that's basically it. The infrastructure here just isn't prepared for snow. It's not devastating like it is further south, but it does make it hard to get around. I love this! I wanted to do it in December before Christmas, but life was just too hectic. But at least we got it done now! My 6yo is starting to understand making room for new toys, my 3yo still wants to hold on to everything. But some of their toys are doing to my daughter's daycare, so she'll still get to play with them occasionally, and the others are getting handed down to younger cousins, so they also can be "visited."

Glad to hear you're feeling better! ❤️

Just let us all know where we can subscribe to your recipe blog when you leave here

Cheering you on! We've got basement goals this weekend too - check in on Monday on how it all went?

I think this is the best part about logging in advance - having that big picture of your day's input to be able to move things around and change so that you can actually enjoy your donut! Side note: now I want a donut 😭

Just catching up after a couple days of not checking the forums, and uh... (kidding... mostly) But I do want to offer a virtual hug because I feel the same connection to this space - I've looked around a lot for a place that offers similar judgement-free support and consistency and the NF forums feel very, very special. I've gone away and come back many times but it always feels like the people here are kind and encouraging whenever I come back. I don't think anyone wants to be alarmist, but I get that feeling of being unsettled when something you rely on for support starts to be unsteady. "Go gently" feels like a good directive right now - keep going!! Keep improving!! But be gentle with yourself and your feelings. ❤️

Tools is such a good framing - sometimes time on the computer helps us prioritize what's important, sometimes it takes time away from those things. As someone just getting back onto the forums after a few years away, I think there's a time and place for both. I'm sad to see you go, but happy too that you're in a good stable place in your life to spend time on other connections. Wishing you the absolute best in your offline life and your continuing adventures! You've been such a beacon of positivity here on the forums - we're going to miss you. ❤️

Week 3 1. Use it and LoseIt 🟢🟢 2. Complete Pathfinder Fitness every other day ⚪🟢 3. Run 3, Walk 2 🟡🔴 Week 3 is where the "fun and shiny" part of a challenge starts to wear off and I always start to drag, and this month is no exception. Of course it doesn't help that we're going on day 3 of no school for the kids, thanks to MLK Jr Day and snow, so my routine is totally off. On the bright side, I haven't completely gone off the rails - I have been tracking calories, and I did my Pathfinder workout yesterday after the kids went to bed. But running -and even walking - has been hard because it's so cold and snowy and it's hard to find time when I've got the kids home and I'm still working. But let's talk positive! On Monday, I had the day off for the holiday so I had the kids help me do a massive toy cleanup today. We took everything off the playroom shelves and everything from our off-rotation toy storage (my office closet). The kids decided what they wanted to donate, what they wanted back in the playroom, and everything else got organized and put back in the closet. Even though I didn't go for a walk, I still count this as a partial win because I was walking up and down stairs all day and put in nearly 8000 steps (on a typical walk day I get over 10k). Pictures of our super duper organized space behind the cut: Yesterday we had 3" of snowfall overnight, which isn't a ton, but it's more snow that we've gotten in the last two years so the kids were hyped. We went out first thing in the morning and hubby and I shoveled while the kids sledded on our small hill, made snowballs, and ate snow. Shoveling didn't take too long and it wasn't much of a workout, so I was planning to still do a run on the treadmill, but the day got away from me. The rest of the day was balancing work calls, meal planning, and watching the kids (to be fair, they mostly watched TV all afternoon). We didn't really have groceries in the house, but we had some frozen chicken and veggies so we made this Chicken Dumpling soup that turned out delicious. So it's been a good start to the week, even though my movement goals are suffering. Today the kids are still home, I'm in meetings all day, and I have to get to the grocery store, so I'm not going to try and recoup my run from yesterday - I'll just get back on track tomorrow.

Week 2 1. Use it and LoseIt 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 2. Complete Pathfinder Fitness every other day 🟢⚪🟢⚪🟢⚪🟢 3. Run 3, Walk 2 🟢🟢⚪🟢🟢⚪🟢 LoseIt: This weekend was a challenge. We had a family party on Saturday, so I tracked the best I could. Ended up just squeaking barely under the line on calories, but who even knows if that's accurate because I was just guessing on the food (was that pork eggroll 187 calories? 210? 150? who knows). Still - consistency over accuracy and I did well to track everything I ate before I ate it, so that I could make sure I wasn't mindlessly eating over my calories. Then Sunday - the kids asked for McDonald's after soccer, and even though we were heading home and I could have just eaten leftovers, I got a Quarter Pounder meal because it sounded yummy. And then I had to run (even though I wasn't in the mood) to burn off enough calories for dinner. 😆 So I ended up really close to the margin on Sunday too, but still scrapped under. Pathfinder Fitness: This is going just fine. Still enjoying the challenge with my husband; we compare notes on the workouts and it's nice to have someone to complain about being sore with. This week the challenges lined with with running days for the most part, which I find a little easier. Sunday was kind of a cheat because I picked the running option and overlapped with my actual planned run, but it was that or nothing. Running: On Friday I had a gorgeous long run - 4 miles!! Broken into two 2 mile sets, with a fair amount of hills. I ran my favorite part of the trail, which I can only get to by running downhill for almost a mile (with a steep downhill for 1/2 of that), which means I have to be prepared to run a mile uphill on the way back. But I survived, and was rewarded with rolling farms and pastures and a quiet, lovely trail to run on. Sunday was harder - it was cold and windy out and I didn't wanna so I ran the bare minimum on the treadmill: 10 min running, 20 walking to check off my pathfinder challenge and called it a day. Overall I think this week went well. The scale has been climbing upward despite being consistently under my calories budget, which is disappointing, but I did have a lot of sodium this weekend. This week I'm going to focus on drinking water and eating less sodium/processed foods, and we'll if we can't nudge the scale toward the opposite direction.

Catching up and following along!

Week 2 1. Use it and LoseIt 🟢🟢🟢 2. Complete Pathfinder Fitness every other day 🟢⚪🟢 3. Run 3, Walk 2 🟢🟢⚪ Not much to say here - yesterday was mostly a rest day except a small Darebee workout. I did go on a 30 min walk with hubby as part of that workout and it was really nice to get some time together to talk without interruption or pressing work. We made burrito bowls (taco salad?) for dinner with some leftover pulled pork that we made over the weekend. Tonight I'm making soup with the last of it because it really needs to get used up and we're all sick of bbq. Had a really rough bedtime with both kids but I'm pleased I was able to keep my calm for like 95% of it and I think it went better overall because of that. Treated myself to a gin & tonic and part of a chocolate orange after bedtime because I had calories to spare and it was a nice day to round out a rough evening.

Feel free to send some of your snow our way instead! Our winter storm last weekend was a bust and we haven't gotten snow in the last two years. My kids are devastated!

Sorry about the rough night! I hope you got better sleep last night (I mean, yummy Mexican food always puts me to sleep, so hopefully that worked!)

We're having similar weather here - yesterday I went walking on the trail by our house and saw at least three trees that had been knocked over, and had to move several branches off the trail. Hope that's the last of the bad weather for you! Hope you post some of your art here as you go!

That's good one! 😂 My kids' favorite was "Planet of Mars", for obvious (kid) reasons: Just soaking it all in while it lasts!

Week 2 1. Use it and LoseIt 🟢🟢 2. Complete Pathfinder Fitness every other day 🟢⚪ 3. Run 3, Walk 2 🟢🟢 Technically waking up early isn't a goal this challenge, but I like keeping myself accountable here. Today I didn't get up quite as early - baby girl crawled into our bed in the middle of the night and I was enjoying the snuggles when my alarm went off this morning. Then I accidentally cancelled my alarm instead of snoozing it, so I got up about 10 minutes later than I wanted to, but at least that's better than falling back to sleep entirely and not waking up until my second alarm goes off (the one telling me it's time to wake up my son). Anyway, I eventually got out of bed but girlie was sad that I left her so she came downstairs for more snuggles while I made coffee and woke up. No mindfulness practice this morning, but plenty of gratitude because toddler snuggles are the absolute best. Another happy memory (look, this is my journal now, just go with it) - I got 6 yo a copy of "Where The Sidewalk Ends" for Christmas, and last night I pulled it out for him to look at while I was cooking dinner. He absolutely loved it! He sat at the table reading for over half an hour and giggling at the silly poems. That was one of my favorite books growing up, and I was amazed to find that I still have some of the poems memorized, years later. He read his favorites out loud to me, and then, when I told him my favorite poem was "Sick", he read that one aloud for me too. 😊 I'm just bottling all these nice moments up for when he's throwing a tantrum next (though that's getting better too - I think we're finally over the holiday hangover and the behavior for everyone has improved a lot 🙏🏻).

These are so sweet!

I really wish LoseIt would implement a calorie range of like 100 under - 100 over or something. We all know it isn't a firm line, just embrace the flexibility! All the hugs. I know this feeling well and truthfully it's a valid feeling - there have absolutely been times that taking a week off for being sick has led to me taking a month off... then two... then a year has gone by without exercising. Maybe there's something you can substitute so that you're still engaged with a healthy lifestyle, while letting your body rest? idk I'm honestly an all or nothing person so I have the same struggle. Either way, we're here for you and absolutely no one is judging you for resting instead of running. Hope you feel better soon!

What a fun start to page 2!

Been dealing with plantar fasciitis for a year and I should just go to a dang doctor already

Woohoo! Hope you're able to keep them comfy all week! Hope you had a good evening 😊

Put on an episode of Queer Eye and busted out two 1.5 mile intervals.

Following along as a fellow parent of two youngins (and fellow nearly-40, though I still have two years to go). I'm honestly shocked at how much you're getting done - I feel tired all the time and I think I'm not doing half the exercise you're doing! Like your workout today sounds amazing! And skiing this weekend! And your plans to climb this year! Just, go you for staying with your programs and being such a good example for your kids. ❤️ Yeah - we're in a similar place. Happy to have a home that generally suits our needs, but feeling locked in here due to interest rates rising and home prices still being high. I think it's okay to want something different (and maybe even to obsessively check the Zillow listings across the street...) but also recognize that it probably won't happen any time soon. I'm just trying to lean into what we have (and keep an eye on the market). Hope the littlest one is sleeping better and feeling better soon - RSV is awful. 😢

Absolutely AMAZING progress! You are a rockstar! Yikes - be careful out there and take care of yourself! Sounds like you make some really good progress on all your lifts though. 🎉