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I feel like I've spent a lot of time the last few months building my alter-ego's awesomeness, which is definitely great and necessary, but ultimately not as much fun. Yay, I do the dishes right after dinner! And I drink lot of water! Good stuff but not .... exciting. So let's focus on super stuff this time. Finally! I feel ready to work on actual skills, not just basic strength building. First skill: I "lost" my pull-up ability when I developed a shoulder recruitment imbalance, and gee whiz, now that I'm activating the right muscles more, I can't do one again. I will slowly work my way through to this again, but with body awareness, movement prep, and follow up stretching. Second skill: Also shoulder related. Grumble grumble been effecting so many things grumble. I'm starting arm balance work by taking on crow pose. I want control in this before I move on to super stuff like handstands. Third skill: A continuation from previous and probably on going for a looooong time. Two different running goals of getting back to sub 30min 5K (or better), and run a 10K without time goals to begin with. I see alternating interval training and long runs in my future. Long term skill goals: muscle up, human flag, handstands, maybe a parkour class or an aerial skills class, running super fast and far. https://i.gifer.com/37sf.g My alter-ego's attire has been jeans and Ts for a while now. I need to feel better than that, so time to upgrade. But!... This super-suit can't restrict me in any way during my usual activities, or maybe add to risk. Also money, and fitting rooms are closed. Therefore I will be shopping in my current wardrobe to find things that are more put together than the usual grubbing attire, with an eye to shapes and styles that work for me so I know what to look for when I can go out. Or maybe what patterns to buy and plan for when I can effectively go fabric shopping if I can't find what I want (usual problem.) The related challenge is that I've been slow to get to my exercising and then I have to walk the dog, and I'm still not leaving the house for work, so by the time I shower, why bother? I will rectify this by having one glass of water, then one cup of coffee while hopefully checking in here, and then getting my sweat on first thing in the morning. And if I can't walk the dog in this suit then it doesn't fit my needs. Back to alter-ego https://i.gifer.c She's done a great job keeping my going, so the things my AE will keep at are; food tracking for calorie tracking for knowledge and to make sure I keep an eye on a few nutrient goals. tackle a few house projects, looking at painting radiator covers to start budget track and plan play in the garden

This challenge was rudely interrupted by a pandemic last year. However, now that we're settling into our post-apocalyptic plaguescape for the long haul, it is yet again time. This challenge, I will endeavour to become the Disc's second greatest lover. "My name's Casanunda," he said. "I'm reputed to be the world's greatest lover. What do you think?" Nanny Ogg looked him up and down or, at least, down and further down. "You're a dwarf," she said. "Size isn't important." This challenge, I'm working my way up the rankings of the world's lovers by leveling up my international playdwarf lifestyle. (Or, as a previous challenge put it, do things with elegance. Strangely, despite years of aikido and years of urban myths about people being told to do things elegantly, I had to re-derive the principle in another way before I realized this was not about aesthetics but about managing to combine mindfulness with emptying the mind.) Some of these may seem like odd choices for a fitness/life level-up (like increasing alcohol consumption, and, I dunno, taking life advice from the worst possible people), but there are three factors at play here: first, this challenge needs to be fun, cuz this us what we do instead of vacations in plague years; second, it's addressing recovery from a certain amount (which is to say, lots) of cutting corners on self-care in the broader day to day living sense and getting by on "acceptable"; and three, it's addressing the (narrative) causality between good habits and seemingly unrelated projects and lifestyle choices. Or, as Vetinari would have it, all the little wheels must spin so the machine can turn. And this is a timely challenge. I've really been struggling with self-care lately. Part I: Casanunda Training There are two first steps to becoming the world's greatest lover: First, yoga warmups with lots of hip openers, for obvious reasons, and, second, get into bed as often as possible. (For sleep, of course. I don't know what you're thinking.) If I'm going to be a soldier of fortune, I need to work on mental stillness and physical prowess. Walking and strength training, to start with, and some meditation. Tasks to be checked off: rewatch Casanova and take notes. Part II: Be a Better Lover Than Lord Rust "It was a Guild of Assassins, after all. Black was what you wore. The night was black and so were you. And black had such style, and an Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug." While Assassin-School-trained, Lord Ronald Rust did not particularly benefit from the lessons on style. So I think I can outdo him here on the things that make an Assassin an Assassin. The projects I will do here include repairing and replacing bits of my wardrobe with a focus on rotating in my higher quality clothes, leveling up my daily grooming from ultra-practical to something attempting a little actual style, and more aperitifs-and-tapas. This will also involve getting back in the habit of making actual things with recipes and planning and cultural connotations, rather than just going with the fastest and most basic form of slapping nutrition onto the table, and managing my pantry better. Also, getting back to my macros and IF schedule. Part III: Be a Better Lover Than Rufus Drumknott "I believe he collects different types of stationery," said Vetinari. "I have sometimes speculated that he might change his life for the better should he meet a young lady willing to dress up as a manila envelope." All this lifestyle-leveling-up requires a certain amount of organization and schedule-wrangling. Being the world's second greatest is demanding. And for me, leveling up the bachelor pad is going to center on organizing: not just finding the right place for everything, but finding the right use for everything, and the most efficient way to organize it all. Where the Lord Rust half of this focuses on making everything I own beautiful, the Drumknott portion involves making it all useful, and also includes recycling things I don't use into things I do. Things will fit into the storage I already have, be more organized, and work better. Also, the habits I use to clean and organise it will be streamlined.

Well, it finally happened - at the tender age of 35, I have finally decided to become a real adult. It was inevitable. I could see it coming years ago, but damn, I put it off as long as I was able. I'm proud of how long I held out... but now I'm excited to finally be wearing my big-girl panties, and exploring the wild expanses of genuine adulthood. To inaugurate my level-up, I am setting a 30-day challenge for myself. My goals are as follows: - Complete the move-in process to our new house (including unboxing and organizing all our shit) - Complete the move-out process from our old house (sign-off all the paperwork & turn in the keys) - Revamp my wardrobe, from the current mish-mash of accumulated crap, to a *purposeful* *functional* *events appropriate* one - ACTUALLY WEAR THE NEW WARDROBE - Update my financial budget - Resume healthy living (cooking at home, prioritizing my workouts, and maintaining self-care routines) I'm setting the challenge dates for 01 APR - 30 APR, simply because I want to do a "30 Days, Before & After" kind of photo collage [and a 1 month timeframe is easiest]. I'll get back in sync with the actual 4WC timeline after that.

So I've found I want to wear my workout leggings everywhere I go, even to work, but have found limited shirts that are work appropriate that cover the butt. Any suggestions? Blouses, dresses, skirts, shirts, tunics? What do you ladies wear? Yea, yea I know they are not considered "pants" which is why I Want something that covers the butt mostly.

Does anyone else have this problem?: You're at home, checking out your figure in the mirror while wearing your usual (or favorite) undergarments. You like what you see! You go out, buy a bathing suit in a similar style as the panties/bra and no no no it is the most unflattering thing ever even though the cut is exactly the same. I think this happens because bathing suits are generally designed to fit tighter, but if you buy looser to be more flattering, they will probably fall off in the water. I am curious if you all have any favorite places for bathing suits, either online or for in-person shopping. I think I technically have an hourglass figure, though my bust is rather small and waist is not very narrow. I'm thinking of going with some of those retro high-waisted bikinis because they look cute, but I'm afraid they'd emphasize my hips too much. I think the best solution for me would be to find some athletic style bathing suit separates. I always like how a sports-bra style top looks on me, but bottoms are the tricky part. I have a one-piece that is reasonably flattering, but would really like a bikini. Favorite brands? I hope this is not too off topic

Totally random, but if you could pick ONE fantasy outfit to be acceptable in your day-to-day wardrobe, what would it be? This could be a costume from a favorite show or movie, or pieces of a fantasy-themed outfit you think would work well together. How about it? I would pick this, from Once Upon a Time's closet: But without the pigeon. Not like the poo would show up on the outfit.... I'd just prefer a falcon is all.