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I hate business jargon, but I do like fruit. The last four years have been tough all ‘round, and I’m pretty sure I’m still bouncing back. So while I love a lofty goal, this challenge is all about baby steps. —No, smaller than that. — No, even smaller than that. What are the easiest possible things I can do to move slowly in the direction of my big goal?* Hydration- glass of water in morning, at night, and with/before each meal. I used to be great at hydration! Now I suck at it! See, that’s what happens if you ignore the little things that seem to be below notice, you become cranky and dehydrated. Movement- 500 active cals/day. (I don’t even know how many steps that corresponds to, maybe like 12000 or so, but a lot of my favourite activities are things like biking and swimming and yoga that are not very steppy). Sleep- ugh, I used to be a champion sleeper, but during the last few months that’s been going by the wayside. From experience, two things I can do to sleep better are to avoid alcohol and drift off listening to a sleep story (currently digging Sherlock Holmes). Flex- wear tank top whenever the day’s agenda and temperatures permit it. Honestly, catching glimpses of my new muscles in the mirror is the most motivating thing to keep me from slacking off the strength training or eating like a jerk. This goal would involve short shorts too if we weren’t moving into Canadian November. Skin- I finally found my perfect sunscreen and holy grail nighttime routine. But apparently they don’t do much good if I don’t USE THEM. Do so, everyday. *Big Goal = to continue evolving into a hot and happy badass. For now this means body recomp, killing it on the important things and earning mad respect at work, while ALSO eluding enough garbage tasks to have fun and feel happy.

I know. Long time no see. *sigh* The tl;dr version is that I've spent the last 1.5 years not working out much aside from tons of walking, gaining weight (not the good kind), and feeling fatigued. Also, the whole family has been in a funk. So, thanks to covid and my husband getting 100% telecommute, we moved across the country 1.5 weeks ago. Our pod full of stuff arrives tomorrow! I'm hoping that a new location means a new start and a new lease on life. I'm also excited about the new Dune movies coming out. I'm a huge fan of the books and loved the Dune and Children of Dune miniseries that came out 20-ish years ago. I also literally moved from the swamp to the desert, so the loose theme seemed fitting. Goals: 1. Earn 14 fitness points for each of strength, cardio, and stretching. Right now, I have a garage that will soon house my weights, rings, a mini climbing wall, and a silks rig (I already have the silks set up!). I also have a 8' deep, maybe 40' long backyard pool. Since I want to keep things light and easy, the requirements won't be huge for this. I get 1 strength point for every 10 minutes of silks, rings, or weights, 1 stretching point for every 10 minutes of yoga, and 1 cardio point for every 1 mile walk or every swimming session. 2 (tied to point 1) "But it's a dry heat..." Most summer days, it reaches 100+ degrees. I can't let that prevent me from working out. So, the plan is to work with the weather rather than against it. I need to make outdoor, non-swimming workouts happen before 9 am or after 5 pm. Or I need to suck it up and deal with the heat. I'm not allowed to laze around in the mornings, decide it's too hot, and then after 5 pm decide that I'm too tired to bother with a workout. +1 point per day of compliance 3. Be mindful of the water - The goal is to take water with me everywhere and make a point of drinking a lot of water. Hydration is going to be trickier here, and drinking enough water will also help with some of the binge eating. +1 point per day of compliance 4. Wear my stillsuit - This one has two parts. (a) Check the UV index and put on sunscreen if I'm going outside and it's over a 3. (b) wear a cloth mask whenever I'm going to be out in public. +1 point per day of compliance. Bonus: Have fun exploring - Yay for this one! The whole family reached a point where we were bored with everything in the area and even within a weekend trip from our old house. Now, we have tons of new places to explore, and we're about a 10 minute drive from a couple different national forests with great hiking trails, a 40 minute drive from a mountain summit that is 20 degrees cooler and has great rock scrambling, and a 2 hour drive from some lakes that actually have good scuba. We're also 15 minutes from a climbing gym. So, there will be tons of exploring to do both now and after covid has died down a bit.