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Hey all, it's been a bit. Seems like something is always coming up when I think of starting up a challenge post. I'm late to this challenge, but I figured I would start something anyway. Better that, then thinking I'll just wait till the next one The last couple of weeks, I have been trying to get a little more consistent with a few things like sleep. This challenge I might start off smaller and add to it as I progress. We'll see how it goes. I feel like I'll be keeping it pretty casual. A driving force to me really needing to get myself going. High blood sugar tests. Even on medicine. So I need to get this fixed. Then just in general more family deaths, has made me look back to watching to just be able to live a much better life. Also, things may change some because my wife is getting a knee replacement on the 14th. So bowling and pretty much everything else I do is on pause to help take care of her. I hope to be able to get some things going around that I can continue during this time too. So let's get to it. Goal#1 - If I am too tired, I won't do squat Sleep is so very important. I've been working on it again, but I certainly have had the go to bed at 2am+ too often. I just haven't been getting the best sleep. Losing weight will also help get better sleep. So it will all work together. It's summer, so I don't have to worry about taking the kid to school till sometime in August. I have been enjoying my reading as well, even when I go too late at night haha. My wife also bought a sleep mask for me to help with the light Though it is a pain to have a sleep mask and cpap mask on. Off to read at 10:30pm Off to bed at 11:30pm Goal#2 - Movement For the moment, I want to start off with 15 minutes walk. Hopefully I can still do this while taking care of my wife too. For now, I can start the daily incense in Pokemon Go. It's 15 minutes. Walking around my block takes about 13 minutes or so. That is pretty much what I want as my start. Eventualyl either making more time per walk or adding in a second walk later on. Maybe after a week or so I can also start doing some home workouts in. I know I would be able to have that going while I was helping my wife. First though, I want to try to get walking going. Plus getting back to walking will help improve my mood too 15 minute walk each day. Goal#3 - Tracking foods Part of finding out my blood sugar numbers were really bad, was I looked closer to what I have been eating and drinking. Obviously, I knew getting and eating candy or sweets can be bad. I found I was drinking a powered drink mix thinking it was ok. It had maltitol as a sweetener, and that was spiking my numbers a lot. I was drinking a lot of it too haha. At least I figured that out, and took it out. With the blood sugar numbers, I also considered jumping back to keto. Then thinking maybe more keto with fruit or something. First though, I am going to give a shot at losing weight with tracking calories. Lower calorie higher volume is more what I want. More proteins, more veg and fruit etc. Track food intake each day in Cronometer That will be enough. There is plenty more I want to add in, but I want to just focus getting more consistent in each of these errors. No grading really.

I resisted the temptation to use this on my last challenge, but after the last week I feel very justified. Covid sucks. So, Mushu gifs aside. I couldn’t think of a title for this challenge so I pulled out my (much neglected) tarot deck and pulled cards until I hit a 7 because this is my 7th challenge. Seven of Wands courage, inner strength A single wand stands up tall, ablaze with light. The others fall away in shadow. Such is the story of the seven of wands. You’ll not find any strength or support from others, only yourself. It’s time to be truly courageous and stand up for your beliefs. You may feel overwhelmed with caution and fear, but your internal fire will guide the way. - the wild unknown tarot, kim krans I had to laugh when I read this. My interpretation: stop dithering (i.e. collecting underpants) and get to it. How… appropriate. Quest #1. Save Money. Goal: Save 1 month’s rent. I might be getting ambitious here, but I'll halve the time on completing my 6-month buffer if I do it this way, and June is the last month where I'm expecting a bunch of OT. If there's a time to try and bank extra, this is it. Quest #2. Track Food. Goal: Eat out fewer than 28x this challenge. (35x if it’s just coffee) Quest #3. Gain Flexibility and Endurance. Goal: Complete daily movement. In a somewhat coincidental turn of events, an app that I've had for years but only use on and off had an all-access sale today. I've now got premium access to all sorts of instructional videos and the goal this challenge is to pick a course and work my way through it. Quest #4. Reading. Goal: 1 chapter per week. I will defeat this book. One day. Honestly, considering how many years this has taken, it really should be an Epic Quest but whatever. Damn Brick. Quest #5. Make Money. Goal: Free up enough time for IATSE calls. Deadline: June 26th. Epic Quest: D&D Goal: Write up a complete campaign. I have determined that this is the stuff of Epic Quests. I’ll post updates here when they happen, but it gets done when it gets done. Reward Tiers. So. Rewards. Something I have completely neglected in the past but also something I want to think on, so this slot is here.

And we're back after a several week-long (and much needed) hiatus and ready to roll. Got a few more bad habits to shake, a couple of updated perspectives, etc. etc. One thing I want to start doing this time around is to plan my challenges a little bit better. In the past, there's been a focus on building healthy habits through identifying things that I do routinely (each day, each week, etc) which is useful, but is also incomplete. Building habits without any particular end in mind feels too much to me like just building a habit for the sake of a habit. It doesn't go anywhere. There's no endgame. Instead, it felt too much like an endless slog of self-improvement protips. So, different approach. Let's strategize, do some good ol' fashioned SWOT* analysis, and figure out a strategy to get where it is that I want to go. *SWOT Analysis-Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. Step 1: Decide on End State. Step 2: Assess Current State. Step 3: Assess Threats and Weaknesses. Step 4: Assess Opportunities and Strengths. Step 5: Devise and Execute Strategy. 1. Decide on End State. At the end of the five four week challenge, here's where I'm hoping to be: 1. Eating out limited to once per week. 2. Sufficient meals prepped to enable #1. 3. Significantly curbed "zonk out in front of computer" time. 4. Awareness of what I'm putting in my body. That means tracking my food. I'm not happy about this one, and it's going to be hard, but it is what it is. I need to be aware of how much food I'm putting into my body. I'll need to do my utmost to keep my perfectionist tendencies from short-circuiting my goal here. Progress, not perfection. 5. Moving more. Less time on my butt in front of a computer and more time on my feet. 6. Increasing my time spent working on the weekends to take pressure off of my weekday work time. 7. Get back to regular (daily) piano practice routines. Even 15 mins per day will be fine. It's high time I got back to that. ---- And just to have it down, let's add in a couple of things that I hope will happen but won't lose sleep if they don't. 7. Basement repairs finished. (Yes, we are 6 months from when the flood ruined our basement. Yes, the insurance company is being jerks about it. Yes, I'm extremely pissed.) 8. Significant progress made on building a new workbench / mitre saw station for the garage. (Ideally, it will be complete by then, but not stressing it if not). 2. Current State. Diet is not so good. There's the recurring "something sweet" theme that happens almost daily where my wife and I talk ourselves into getting something--Ice cream, chocolate, gummy worms, etc. to cap off the night (when I was a kid, my parents called this "bedtime dessert" and it became pretty much an expectation that we'd get some kind of candy bar or something right before laying down for the night). Then there's the beer that's also basically an every day thing, but with the occasional dry week or couple of days. Then there's the running out of stocked up meals in the fridge and just ordering out which is both bad for our bank accounts and our health. My weekday routine consists of getting done with the workday, cooking dinner (or ordering once the fridge stores run out), and then gaming until bedtime, usually while drinking a couple of beers. On weekends, I usually fill one day with some kind of project and then the other day with a marathon gaming session. My gaming has picked up significantly since I finished my second computer build, and I suspect that some of it is driven by being able to play games previously unplayable on my older machine. Some of it is also driven by a desire to make good use of my investment because some of those parts weren't cheap. When not doing that, I was mindlessly scrolling reddit, but that's been curtailed since the API controversy. Work could be more fun, but still feels kind of like a slog as I have to motivate myself to do most things. I enjoy my job, and I get to do a lot of the things that I find fun--reading about esoteric topics, writing, strategizing client engagements--but I get pre-occupied by cravings for video game time and goofing off time (or maybe just turn-my-brain-off time?). My wife and I both game a lot, mostly to distract ourselves from the stress of day-to-day life. I want more interaction with her as well which requires pulling my nose out of this machine. And piano basically hasn't happened at all since I moved it back into the unfinished basement when we bug-bombed the house a month ago. 3. Assess Weaknesses and Threats. Weaknesses: -Work takes up a huge chunk of my weekday time and energy, and cooking dinner takes another huge chunk, so I'm left with not a lot of time to do much during the week. -I've got workout equipment in the garage, but going in that building depresses me because there's a huge crack in the concrete, and every time I see it I think "This needs to get fixed, and damn is it going to cost me a lot of money." -My workout space isn't very organized. Weights and other stuff are stored on the floor or on top of coolers. Might not be a big deal to most, but I've learned that having an organized space is important to me. -I don't have much in the way of workout-appropriate attire. Shoes starting to show their age (and I don't think they're really running shoes per se). Also don't have much in the way of workout equipment, but I've got enough to get me by. -Fridge space is very limited due to having a small fridge. Kitchen storage space is also pretty limited. -I'm a perfectionist. I tend to feel waves of guilt when I'm not measuring up to my own impossible expectations. I don't post on here as much as I think I should or I lapse on a commitment to myself, and then it all falls apart. -My property is very shady which doesn't leave me much in the way of gardening options. Threats: -Gaming is really tempting now that I've got some beefier hardware, and it's hard to resist. -Cravings for beer or sweets hit and its all I can think about. These get especially pronounced when I have a hard day and just want comfort. -There's plenty of stuff that can quickly throw me into a shit mood which will easily derail any attempts at self improvement. There's domestic stuff to stay on top of. We're still battling flea issues with the puppies. The $#$%#$ basement still hasn't been fixed and our insurance company is being the opposite of helpful. Work has its various frustrations and stressors. And the money just doesn't come in as much as I'd like it to (it never does). -Work is getting more complex, and I'm now taking on tasks that I don't understand (more strategic layer stuff) and am leveraging down the stuff that's easy for me. That's the way this is supposed to work, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. -I've also been cajoled into coming in to the office at least once per week which cuts into my weekday routine significantly. It also means devoting resources to improving my wardrobe (which, let's face it, needed to happen regardless). 4. Assess Strengths and Opportunities. Strengths: -I'm a damn good cook, and I know my way around the kitchen better than the average bear. I also enjoy eating most vegetables. -I've got a supportive community, both here and IRL. My wife is also highly motivated in the journey to make ourselves healthier and happier. -I still have my health and my youth. My knees work fine. No major injuries or ailments to contend with. Same for my wife. -No kids or dependents aside from the critters, and none anticipated any time soon. -Cash flow is currently pretty good, and expected to improve as time goes on. -Work is pretty flexible if demanding. I don't have set office hours. As long as I get in my minimum amount of time each week, I should be good. I'm respected at my job, and I do good work. Opportunities: -Got several good grocery stores around. The usual suspects, plus a farmer's market or two within relatively short distance. -I do have the basic workout equipment. Weight set, Olympic bar, bench. There's a lot you can do with just that stuff. -Also some nice walking trails nearby. -Plus a kayak. -I've also got lots of tools in the garage-Enough to enable me to build the organizational tools that I require if I have to. I've also got various technology tools to help me out. And meal trackers have been getting better these days. 5. Devise and Execute Strategy. Whew. Okay last bit. In light of all that, here's the breakdown for this challenge. 1. Daily-Track basic meals in my meal tracker. I'm not going to shoot for catching everything. Just the easy stuff. I'm also not going to stress tracking "beer" in the tracker. I'll pick one "beer" that will serve as a default beer in the tracker, and each time I have one, I'll track it that way. (Meal planners seem to be notoriously bad at recording beer calories which drives my perfectionist brain crazy. [though this ought to be an indicator of how bad beer for you is in that the ingredient labeling standards don't appear to be nearly as robust?]) 2. Weekly-Devote at least 30 minutes each week to building out my recipe collection in my meal tracker to make #1 easier. 3. As needed-Computer time on a timer. I'll set a timer to monitor my computer time. Reporting here will be limited to just whether I did that for the day or not. 4. Weekly-Devote at least a portion of my weekend time to meal planning and prep activities. That includes cooking, but also grocery planning, shopping, etc. I also intend to cook at least a few dishes each week that can serve as staples (so a braise or some other kind of meal that I can mix and match with other stuff). 4b. Look up a video on how to re-heat rice. For some reason, every time I try to reheat cooked rice, the texture's always way too dry, so I end up throwing out leftover rice. 5. Daily-Step goal of 8,000 steps. 6. Weekly-Minimum 1 hour of weekend work. Rule: That hour must be spent ONLY on work tasks that I enjoy and that excite my curiosity. Save the unpleasant stuff for the work week. I want my weekend work time to be something that I look forward to and not something that I dread. 7.Daily-Min 15 minutes piano practice time. Downstairs in my unfinished basement if need be.

Hey. Me again! I'm still here after all these years. If you're new - feel free to read more inside the spoiler. I've improved many, many aspects, but this walking thing STILL eludes me - so I'm here - again - to try to build that habit back. So - if you've been on my other threads, I laser focus on one, maybe 2 things - and while I've improved tons of stuff I admit I haven't really focused the last few challenges - but I'm going to try to actually focus on walking this time around (and this time, I mean it - no really LOL). So - weather permitting - I want to get in one walk per day - every day. Could be 5 min, could be 30. I just need to get out and walk. I will, of course ALSO post when I make a particularly good new recipe and cross-post to my recipe thread (yes, I cook, I cook well which can be a problem when we go out and I get picky because I'm always like "Mine's better" LOL).

Hello I’m new here. I need to try something else. I think this may be a part of a strategy that leads me where I want to be. Good luck to everyone! Why am I here? I take serious issue with my body and how I feel in it. I expect better of myself. I’m doing this to meet my own expectations and to feel and look better. The way I’ve been carrying on is nonsense My Goals Goal 1: Lift weights for 30+ minutes 4x each week. More than anything this will test my will power. I have decent equipment at home. I have a space to exercise. I just need to do it. To make the most of the equipment I have, I’ll need to do something that relies heavily on dumbbells. I also have a pull-up bar that I absolutely dread. I’m going to do the LIIFT4 program (Beachbody On Demand). I plan to take a pre-workout supplement before each workout. Historically, if I get my workout done early I have success. When I start delaying it throughout the day I become less consistent. I’ll need to try and do most of these workouts before my workday starts. Goal 2: Reduce sugary coffee intake to the point of giving it up completely. This is going to be TOUGH. I know a person can’t be addicted to coffee or sugar, but I’m as close as you can get. This, sadly, is core to my routine (and identity). Right now, I consume two 24oz Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brews each day. My plan is to wean myself off of these completely. I’ll start by consuming two 16oz, then two 12oz, one 16oz, and so on. Over the course of the 5 weeks I’ll phase them out completely. Goal 3: Eat at a weekly calorie deficit. This will also be tough. I tend to snack a lot at night. Achieving this goal will require that I change this behavior. I’ll also want to start eating more protein to get the most out of my workouts. I hope in doing so, I feel more sated throughout the day. I may also need to sprinkle in some runs to ensure I burn enough calories to hit this goal. Ultimately, I have a lot of work to do in the diet department for long term success. This is a start. So, that’s my story. Looking forward to getting going.

Grandkaj is Returning to STAY!! Hey everyone! Returning Rebel for the... who knows how many times its been. I tried to return a few challenges back but i dont remember the reason i didnt keep up with it... So for this challenges im keeping it SIMPLE so its easy to do and stay with these challenges. Goal 1 [Nutrition]: - Eat 1-2 pieces of fruit every day; Its not a lot but i went from 2-3 pieces of fruit every day to 0 which i kept being stuck on. I can have fruit in every meal i want but especially after my workout. Goal 2 [Level Up My Life] - Stretch atleast 4 days a week; - Read when waking up, read before heading to bed atleast 4 days a week; For both stretching and reading i've lost the touch for it in the last year and a half. Everything is going pretty good now and i want to get properly back into those cause they help me stay flexible but also (regarding the reading) help me prepare for the day/relax for the night. - Pomodoro Clean my apartment; I'm oke-ish at keeping my apartment clean, but i HATE doing it for a long time. So this challenge im going to start with Pomodoro Cleaning again. I got this handy dandy little cube with timers that i will use to signal when to clean and when to relax. I can think of WAYYYYY more stuff i want to do, but then it will be too much and burn me out. All of these are doable and will give me a good start again.

So here i am facing one of the greatest undead, the powerful Kerrigor!(aka breast cancer!) the hardest part of the fight is over, but i'm left weakened in body and mind. My goals for this challenge are to help build up my strength for the final stretch(radiotherapy, or rounding up the last of his minions) So my plan is -walking -meditating -physio exercises every day. hopefully some of you will follow along!

Respawn time! I have decided to join a challenge in the hopes that I can form some habits that last more than a week. Probably my biggest struggles right now are mental health and basic self care, so I am starting SUPER simple Every day I am aiming to - Go for a walk of any length - Brush my teeth - Either meditate or journal, outside if the weather permits Hopefully I vanquish the challenge and can keep building on these in five weeks time

After going AWOL for nearly all of the last challenge, I've realized something that I've well... um... realized before. I simply cannot take on too many goals at once. At least, not yet. I've regained a few pounds and haven't exercised a bit in weeks, due to my "all or nothing" mentality. I have been in a major rut since the previous challenge started, and I am back now to break myself out of it. My challenge this time around will be to: Get Up Early I need to get up at 5:30am in order to complete goals 2 and 3 plus shower before my 3-year-old son wakes up in the morning. GOAL: Wake up at 5:30am Monday through Saturday. Exercise - Couch to 5K I once was an avid runner, and I hope to become one again. I recently picked up a book called Slow AF Run Club by Martinus Evans, and in it he talks about completing 8 marathons and many more shorter runs at more than 350 pounds, albeit slowly and at the back of the pack. He encourages everyone to take up running, no matter their size, and I'm super-inspired! The last time I tried running (I still have my fairly new running shoes from that attempt back in November 2022), I gave up because I got winded so quickly. However, I was trying to run at the pace I used to run at when I was much lighter and in better shape. Huh! I wonder why I was so out of breath!? /s Anyway, I'm going to start run-walking and get myself to complete my own 5K challenge (not an official road race) within this 5 week challenge. Even if I stop for walk breaks, I'll still consider it a win. GOAL: 3 walk-runs a week. Exercise - Strength Training Something that is important for my middle-aged body and will be even more important as I get older is to have a strength training routine to prevent osteoporosis. It's also important, I think, for cross training as I embark again on a running journey. GOAL: 3 full body circuits a week. Hydration - Drink More Water GOAL: 3L of water daily. I truly think that I can accomplish these goals and am excited to get started! I'll definitely need some peer support, though, so please cheer me on if you're reading this. Thanks!

I didn't notice the last one ended and this one started. Life has been rough in this castle. Long story short, a husband's need for mental health support easily direct affects a wife's ability to lead her day to day life. (ie, if he won't go to bed out of some weird teenage-like mentality, I'm stuck waiting for who knows how long for him to get up and with an unreliable capacity to face the day) With that being the case, I've not felt I've had a lot of control in my life to tackle my own growth lately and I think it finally hit a peak a few weeks ago. But fingers are crossed that the winds are changing. That's the minimalist backstory for this challenge. I'm going bare bones this time. 1. Do the exercise run/walk 3 days per week, minimum 2 miles. Try for more running than walking. continue through GMB floor loco and integral strength. Try to do it outside and despite that people might see me. 2. eat the food use the fall back plan for breakfast, savory oats. Try to resist bacon most of the week plan and make ahead lunches. Try to avoid the siren call of chips and munchies avoid the alcohol. just try 3. enjoy things got decent knitting needles so it is less challenging now. try to make time read for fun. try to sit still see what life brings. try to be open to what is offered. Sill playing with the daily dare and duolingo. And my parents are back from snow-birding so its time to readjust meal planning and household expectations. That shouldn't be to tough though. We live well together. I know nerds are awesome and I expect the thought to arise for some of you. I'm very aware of my mental health state. Things are very difficult right now, but I'm not depressed. I'm angry and frustrated, but not depressed. I also have some capacity to not let those feelings rule my actions while still acknowledging them. Off to try to do things!

My brain is broken. My house is broken. My ankles are not literally broken but may as well be for how useless they are. Nothing is working quite right in my life right now. Watch me do the bare minimum to duct tape everything back together and attempt to save my sanity and probably my arteries. 1. Batcave: be orphaned. get rich. get a butler. wait. wrong plan. 1. batcave: spend two minutes making my space more livable 2. diet: eat 3 meals a day 3. ankles: pt daily 4. brain stuff: spend 2 minutes journaling; do 1 Duolingo lesson

The goals I've been using are working really well, so why fix what isn't broken? Just a little tweak to remove one goal that just isn't happening right now. Goals: 1. Eat more mindfully with a target goal of losing 2 lbs during the challenge 2. Strength train 3x per week 3. Stretching & balance routine 5x per week 4. Walk at least once a week 5. Do something creative at least twice a week

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - not an Albert Einstein quote by the way - but you get the gist But still - I'm going to keep plugging away at trying to work walks into my daily routine. I mean: My house is mostly clean - someone could legit stop by and I wouldn't have a heart attack. 10 min warning and I would be fine giving them a complete house tour (minus roommate area in Basement) While I don't have the BEST sleep schedule, it's a LOT better than it was I'm eating more veggies and better in general We're meal planning and sticking to it I just seem to have some sort of "block" about getting off my a$$ and walking and I need to just do it - with or without Nike...... So that's my challenge. Yes, I'd like to pick up\detail clean a few spots in the house (namely my office) but I really, really need to just get out and walk.......

Greetings, nerds! I've been hanging around on the Discord but it's been many months since my last forum challenge. I stopped weight lifting around December, due to schedule changes, followed by getting sick, followed by my husband getting bronchitis as a secondary infection, followed by some exciting trips out of town. It's time to get back on track, but I don't want to take the time to go to the gym....so it's time to activate--- ✨ the home gym ✨ I've got a garage. I've got a pull up bar that doubles as a push up stand. I've got two 20lb dumbbells. I just bought gymnastics rings. So here's the plan. Git Gud (muscle edition) 5 days a week, do a 20 minute circuit of: reverse row sit backs rings push ups (these are gonna be so hard lol...i'll report back) dumbbell squats that glute exercise my PT gave me that hip flexor exercise my PT gave me AND: increase PT to 2x a day (I've been doing it every evening before bed, but it's not enough, so I'm gonna do a set with my morning workout) The goal is to improve stability and overall conditioning. I threw my back out by sitting with bad posture last week--that's gotta stop. Git Gud (digestion edition) Also: 🥚 prioritize protein and vegetables at every meal (including breakfast and snacks) 🧋 reduce sugar consumption (say no to sweets, save it for boba) 🦈 alcohol once a month only (I will designate a weekend or period of 2-3 days during which I am allowed one drink at a time) ☕ reduce coffee intake by 2g per week (starting at 15g for pourover, 20g for aeropress) The goal is for my stomach to stop hurting 🫠 [melting face emoji here]. I definitely did not start today...I'm eating leftover tater tots for breakfast...but Week 0 is for calibration. Yesterday I swept the garage and put the rest of the mats down. Today I'll hang the rings. This week I'll figure out how much I can do in 20 minutes, if I need to bump it to 30 minutes to cycle through the whole thing with sets of AMRAP-2, what time I have to get up to warm up enough, get the exercise done, and still eat before work, etc. etc. and I'll post daily updates with my reps and how food is going.

Last challenge, I started using a daily goal tracker to try and start building a few healthy habits, and remind myself of other things that would be good to do, but don't get a red box if they're missed. My performance was mediocre, which for me is a fairly good challenge. I didn't even totally vanish for weeks on end! Every Day 1. Use Challenge spreadsheet 2. Read Boundaries 3. Do some packing Gonna post this so I can work on it on a different computer. Might edit it, might just make another.

Janus (Latin: Ianus. Pronounced: 'ja:.nus]) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages, and endings. If this sounds familiar - HI! HELLO! Long time no see! There are respawns, and there are respawns. I do a lot of the first one - every month, every week, every day even. Things like 'I'll stop this now' or 'This time I'll do it this way.' These are normal. These are for those times when you fall off the wagon, but you only need jog a bit to climb back on, or maybe you lay on the ground for a little while and then grab ahold again when the wagon laps you. Ladies, Gents, Eithers, Neithers, and Otherwise-Human Phenomena. The wagon hasn't just lapped me, it's been in for maintenance and moved to another track. But hey! After ages of talking and trying other things and other collecting-underpants-like activities, I'm back! With a plan! and deadlines! But back to the beginning: Years ago, I wrote in my origin story “I am Janus Echo because if there is any concept or idea worth repeating over and over again, ceaselessly; it is that of new beginnings, of rebirth, and starting something new with every breath.” So here I am again. Respawning after a whole lot has happened to me and the world (here’s the short version: in March 2020, I was working on a cruise ship.) So without further a-do: Welcome to my first challenge since 2018! Please feel free to leave comments - kudos, critiques, suggestions, and opinions are equally welcome. I've got my layout almost ready for reveal and should have it up in the next couple hours.

Try to be a little bit better than yesterday. Pick your own version of 'better;' stronger, fitter, healthier, disciplined, able, educated, dependable. Whatever floats your boat. I'm going with disciplined and living in today, each day. I think. At least that's today's feeling. I've had a really good week of sticking to the eating plan I made for myself because I decided I was disciplined enough to do so, not because it was the right thing or the smart thing or I should do it. It seemed to work for me, so I'll try again. Living in today is about not letting the difficult things outside of me overwhelm my thoughts so that I forgot about being in today. I had really good luck with being surprised by something every day last summer and I'm going to reach for that again. Otherwise, it's the usual goals of fitness, diet, limited alcohol, and personal growth.

I'm feeling better than I have in a long while. Work has lightened up some with the new manager. My Narcolepsy doctor added an extra medication that seems to be helping a lot. For the first time in probably the better part of a year, I don't feel completely burned out. I feel like I can finally start making some real progress right now. Today, I made a list of all the things I really should be doing if I want to be a healthy/ functional adult. They're all fairly small, modest goals and I honestly feel like all of them should be achievable. Yeah, sure, all that should happen. But most of it doesn't happen with any consistency, and while I might manage a day or two of doing most of them, experience shows that I won't stick with them. Instead, I'm going to make a goal to look at my goals every day, commit to keeping up with 4 of them that I'm already fairly consistent on, and add just two little things to establish. If this works well, I'll try adding a couple more next challenge, until I've got myself a solid set of healthy daily habits. Week Zero Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Goals Check Make this box green Established Take meds Drink 1 Bottle of Water In bed by 8:15 Practice Spanish New Brush teeth Clean cat box Extras Shema Praise music Pray Spiritual reading Check Blood Pressure Check Blood Sugar Stretch / yoga Walk outside Floss Bathe Active play with cats Brush cats No food after 6pm Wake up at 4 Out of bed by 4:05 Practice Violin Practice Visual Art All dishes done 5 min tidying a room Sweep/swiffer 1 room

I have lost all the spoons, metaphorically and literally. I am so tired. It has been a hard few weeks between work, dealing with my mother (who is trying to start stuff and wonders why I am not reacting) and my knee still not behaving ( I may need an ultra sound or another MRI) so I have no metaphorical spoons. Oh and this challenge, we will be tearing out the entire kitchen to put a new one in since the cabinets are falling off the wall. With this big a project coming up, we have been slowly emptying the kitchen for weeks. Which means certain things are getting packed up, and I can’t always find them. We have lost some spoons this way and I can’t find those either. So this challenge is going to be harder than usual since this is probably the biggest project we have ever undertaken and the longest since it was 3-5 weeks estimated since we ordered the cabinets for them to be delivered (this is week3). Then we will install cabinets and then have no countertops for another period of time (we have heard anything from 2-6 weeks). Oh and the cabinets are now being delivered in 3 days The seeds have started so the garden is getting big, but we had snow yesterday so it’s going to be a bit before we put anything outside. Our usual seed plan has things sitting in the soon to be empty kitchen. And then there is Easter to consider. I started the challenge last week, but I have lacked the spoons to post it. I ended up collapsing into a nap and then nothing yesterday. And the scale is at my new high again. Sigh. Anyone got any spoons?

I am morbidly obese and that's fucking stupid. Over the past 5 years instead of Pokémon I've been collecting all the chronic health issues that come with being morbidly obese. Not helping are the facts that my mental health is a shitshow and I live with people I would gleefully trip if we were all being chased by a bear. So all in all I'm just in a fabulous place right now. 💩 Goals 1. check my blood sugar every day when I wake up 2. (goal 2) 3. (goal 3) 4. (goal 4) 5. warm eye mask for 15 minutes at least once a day So goals 2-4 are ~secret~ ( ) because trauma. Dug at it with my therapist and figured out more about why I don't like sharing my goals and/or why I just give up on them once they're known. I'll be working on that gremlin behind the scenes and I'm trying to compromise with my brain by sharing the lower-stakes goals. Does it make sense? Who fucking knows. Check back in 5 weeks I guess.

The first challenge went pretty well, so time for new challenge, new goals. Just a short recap of my bigger goals for the new people here: I'm going for two hiking trips at the summer. Both are physically quite challenging. I'm trying to get into a better shape for those trips, so I can enjoy them. Instead of this. My biggest issue at the moment seems to be my eating habits. To be more spesific, I'm not eating enough at the daytime, and it sometimes leads to binging/eating junk in the evening. It makes me really bloated and causes a lot of discomfort. My new goals for this challenge; 1. Eat real food at the daytime. If it's not possible because of short breaks at work, aim for more nutrious snacks. 2. Keep up the workout routine! 2 x full body workout + 1 short core workout in a week. I want to add one additional set of the exercises my physiotherapist gave to my back pain. (I usually combine it with other workouts.) So 4 workouts in a week in total, but the physiotherapy stuff by itself will take less than 10 minutes. So it's totally doable. 3. Listen to relaxing audio every evening before falling to sleep. This has helped me a lot with stress, but I have neglected the habit for a while now. So I'm going to focus on this one. I hope lowering the stress levels, eating more evenly throughout the day and keeping up the exercise routine, will eventually help me with the bloating and binging.

Here we go with Challenge 3. A couple* of changes to my approach with this one: -I'm only checking in once per week. All the data tracking will be kept on a spreadsheet, and I'll use the challenge area as a way to show my analysis of my progress. -Bringing back the Greyskull lifts officially since I saw such an improvement after just one week of doing them. Yes, maybe it was a fluke, but that doesn't change the fact that some exercise > no exercise. -Adding food tracking to my challenges now. To start out with, it'll just be dinner, and it won't be any more detailed than writing down what I had for dinner. Yes, this won't allow me to track "macros" or whatever, but I've got to start somewhere. -Projects and everything else will still stay on there. Will also work in some piano stuff as well. Still haven't quite made up my mind what format my reporting on here will take. I expect I probably won't until after my first week when I have some data to show for my efforts. I'll come up with something. I always do. ------ * Just in case there's confusion on what I mean by "a couple."

I wasn't going to make a challenge because I have felt like there's no point since I end up just not following my goals. BUT there is merit in showing up. So I thought of a way that I can show up and still work towards things. I am going to do a photo journal of my challenge. I will try to keep any beefy updates in my battle log. My goal... Share photos of things I eat, any exercise I do, and things that make me happy and feel human.

And by spring forward.... I mean lumber in a general forward direction.... I hope..... I haven't been around as much. Just too much to do - with a bit of decompressing playing Diablo III creeping in since I have my new computer..... Work has been a bit crazy as well, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel for the 2 projects that I would never have tried to attempt at the same time if I'd had a choice. I AM, however, going to start pushing back on being the "we don't have engineering resources and no one in Services can do it so let's drop it in Athaclena's lap". Well with that it occasionally gets dropped "we have some engineering cycles and this is taking too long or we don't like how this thing we don't understand takes longer than we think is appropriate to finish, maybe engineering should review. I've had it being second guessed - engineering should just do it and get off my lawn. If you think you can load 3/4 of a billion records AND pivot it from a key\pair method with your "keys" buried in a string of text on a vastly undersized dev system faster than 10 days - SUCCESSFULLY without blowing up the server - be my guest. Literally no one on our engineering team has the same experience I do - but obviously I don't know what I'm doing so fuck it - I'm not going to do it any more. but I digress...... I've been eating a TON more veggies and that has become more of a standard thanks to Mom being here so I don't just go "well I don't feel like it". But I really need to buckle down and get some weight off. It's been crappy the last couple of weeks (even when the sun is out, it's been very windy and cold) but I think we're through all of that. SO - I'll be back to getting in walks and working on getting an actual garden. In fact - those really the 2 things I'm going to focus on. 1) Get in my steps (currently set at 4000) and hit that average over the course of the week and up that if I can through the challenge 2) Get some sort of garden going - whether that is ONLY in containers on the deck or stretch goal of getting together a full on garden in the side yard (which includes pull out a bunch of stuff over on that side yard). To that end, the seeds are in their starter .... things.... and if we end up clearing the garden I'll hit up some local nurseries for more.

After a pretty successful last challenge, I'm thinking of working with the same set of goals: Goals: 1. Eat more mindfully. 2. Strength train 3x per week 3. Walk at least once a week 4. Do something creative at least twice a week 5. Work on the cookbook-in-progress at least once a week Hopefully I'll be able to continue with the momentum I picked up on the last challenge.