cloudykitty

@The Most Loathed I'm glad you (and The Rebellion) think my timing is good. Someone called me crazy for deciding to start getting back into fitness with colder temps starting up then Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. 🤣 I say now is as good of a time as any. Besides, a pre-preemptive kick in the rear to Seasonal Depression is always a welcome idea in my book! My main challenge these days is going to be getting these weekday workouts accomplished. So tempting to come home from work and just flop on the couch with a cat! Also possibly worth of Challege Status: renewing that military ID. I have no idea if the process has changed since the last time we did it.

Here's my Respawn Tale : 2021- was doing well with staying active. Rode my bike on a regular basis and did the Beti Bike Bash race. Did workouts on my own a couple days during the week and more often than not would take good weekend bike rides. 2022- was so-so with activity. Was intending to do the Beti Bike Bash again as a racer. My mom had a bit of a struggle with her health and I flew out to spend some time helping to take care of her. My return flight was the day before the bike race and I knew I was going to be tired so I didn't go. I forgot to register anyway so thankfully I wasn't out a wad of cash. That trip out of town threw me completely off the tracks of my good activity habits and the working out never got to a good spot again. But my mom is doing better now. My young adult kid also decided to temporarily move out of our house and they don't drive so I was being their taxi much of the time as well. Here we are now, coming to the tail end of 2023. Recently I've been noticing that the desk job life and lack of activity is taking it's toll. My clothes don't fit well, ADHD symptoms seem worse. Mood is grumpier. My job is now in an office instead of working from home so I have less time to do things I want to. But I gotta restart somewhere! I volunteered at the Beti Bike Bash. I sucked up those good vibes and loved it! My battle plan: 1. Cycling Class Saturday mornings at the community rec center. Went today and it had good energy. It was a great workout. The instructor gave me the tip to figure out which resistance setting is best for me. I have it on the calendar for all this month. 2. Keep up with the vitamins and water intake. Track them in Fitbit and start a weekly check in thread in these forums. 3. Get one hour more of sleep each night. 4. Squeeze in weekday working out or bike rides as much as possible. Also need to renew my military ID so I can use the base gym again. That's it for now, hope to start talking with you all more again.

Thanks @Grace1010and @Artemis Prime that is comforting. When I make my smoothies I tend to throw everything in there but the kitchen sink 🤣. I am deffo going for convenience here so I will wash the greens carefully and plop them in. Happy slurping to you both!

Didn't get as much done as hoped. But... The teenager and I decluttered the kitchen table. I tossed some old mail off the end table by "my couch". Not challenge related, but I took care of some church business type stuff I'd been putting off for a bit too.

I've been major slacking on the challenge. Gonna make up for it this weekend. There's a tag along bike in this shot. It shall again see the light of day! *a loud battle cry is let out before ravenously consuming lunch*

Haven't done much de-cluttering, and today I only cleared out a handful of random receipts from one of my bedroom dressers as I got the laundry beast down to low health. Perhaps next weekend the basement boxes beast can be battled.

The Cloudy Kitty approaches the doorway of the Tavern and sits for a moment. Her ears flick about, taking in the sounds of friendly chatter as she enjoys the morning sun warming her short grey and white fur. Upon deciding that these folks are the type she'd like to share stories with, she melds to her human form. A woman of average build with a pudgy tummy strolls casually to the bar. She perches on a stool and her feet weave themselves through the rungs of it. Her long skirt is adjusted to protect her legs from any unwelcome cold breezes. When the barkeep gets to her seat she pushes up her black velvet sleeves, introduces herself with a smile, and politely asks for a black tea with a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar. As the morning rolls into day she will switch to water with some lemon squeezed in, and evening twill bring red wine to her lips.

The fates have just stampeded across my path! I was saying to my spouse right after my yoga this afternoon that i need more boxes cleared out of the basement workout area because there's not enough room to properly do the poses! COUNT ME IN!

@epitedeioterov I hadn't thought of having a challenge be something "small" but we gotta start somewhere! Thanks for encouraging me (even if you didn't mean to)!

@Harriet thanks for the reminder to tag with the @, i just forgot to do it! I hadn't realized magpies aren't Corvids, thanks for the education! I like the idea of doing a Challenge sometime. Currently, sticking to the challenge of maintaining the consistent working out and remembering to track them and my water intakes is as much of a challenge I can handle for now! 🤣

Hi Harriet, Thanks for the encouragement. I'm diggin' your avatar. It's a Corvid, right? A magpie? I need to figure out how I'm going to put together my questing journal for accountability. At least remembering to record the workouts is getting a little easier to remember. Yay for Google Docs!

What about Babble or DuoLIngo for a cheaper paid option? Have you checked for any Facebook groups?

Help me please, I am confused. Some sites are saying that collard greens should be steamed before adding them to a smoothie, other sites make no mention of cooking them. From the small amount of reading I've done so far, it seems like cooking activates their benefits more. So why do some recipes say to cook and some don't? Thanks! A new smoothie addict

I thought I'd made an account here a few years ago but the password reset didn't generate anything so here I am. So who am I? - a wife - mom to a teenager - full time customer service representative, thankfully working from home now - a crazy cat lady who is currently cat-less. Our current critter companions are two cockatoos, a baby musk turtle, some amano shrimp, some nerite snails, and bladder snails as turtle snacks What are my goals? - build strength and endurance - get rid of the belly flab - make my heart happier, even though I'm not quite sure what that means for me currently I've been using fitness trackers since 2017 (casually, lol) and currently have a Fitbit Charge 4. Their free features have been nice over the years and I'm trying to level things up a bit. I'm hoping this a community more on the same brain wave as me. Seeing so many people at the Fitbit Communities who get so many more steps than I do drives me a little nuts and I feel like generally most of they people on there are much more gung-ho than I am about fitness. I just don't have enough time in my day to get in 15,000 or higher steps (especially with a desk job!), or bike ride for 90 minutes. I was in a bit of a slump for a couple months but am getting back in the swing of things again. I do mainly body weight workouts but also have some equipment: a mini trampoline, exercise ball, small stool for stair work, and a yoga set (mat, blocks, strap). Looking to incorporate my gear more into workouts for better results. Currently am working on a Mon- Tues- Thurs- Sat plan. Loving the Low Impact HIIT workouts and sneaked in a stress relieving/ recovery yoga session on Fri too this week! Trying to figure out if I want to do any supplemental journaling besides what Fitbit does for me. I'm not trying to lose weight or bulk up, but am thinking that taking tape measurements of the belly would be a great thing to start recording. Does anyone have tips, suggestions, or insights for that topic? Looking forward to getting to know this community!