Starpuck: Officially Shiny

[starpuck]

Time to make this shiny as promised...

 

I just got back from a really great vacation to Shenandoah National Park where I spent roughly a week hiking in the woods, along rivers, and up summits.   A scenic drive, covering all 105 miles of the park with various overviews and stops was also on the docket, and we stopped for a few quick peeks at the newly minted New River Gorge NP in West Virginia.   It was great!     There was no lifting sessions, or any proper workouts planned, but I had several days where Fitbit told me my daily burn was between 2500-2800 calories.  500-800 more than even my best workout days during the normal routine would give me.   So, I feel the trip kept me properly active!

 

 

Top of Black Rock Summit.                                                      Trail to Doyles River Falls.

 

 

But now it's back to the routine; one I'd like to sharpen and improve.   Over the past several years I've had a sort of yo-yo weight thing going on... it's like I have the up / down weights of a daily weigh in that overall trend downward, and a more yearly diagram would show the same (just with bigger swings as average weight.)   The cool thing is, the general trend over the past 8 years has been downward.  My lows are lower than 5 years ago, and my highs are lower than 5 years ago.  Maybe this is just how my body works!     That said, I know when I let the sweet treats and indulgence tip the scale, and while I have no plans on omitting them completely, I do need to be a bit more choosy with them.

 

I also want to maintain good body strength, flexibility and function because, well, I like doing things and going places.    The better I keep my body doing a lot of things now, the easier it is when new things come up, or as I age.   To that extent, exercise must be maintained.   Luckily, there are plenty of types of movement that I really enjoy.

 

Currently, I am in a mood to really organize and focus on things- I get these moods now and then.   They are almost always, sadly, moods to WRITE about organizing, and not actually get to the DOING of what I came up with, so we're going to try to approach this slowly.      I'm also in one of my, "Oh man, everything is cool and inspiring and I don't know what theme to choose, and I want to do ALL the things!!"   So expect this thread to be a bit of everything!!    Let's get some goals going.

 

Goal #1 - Chastiefol Form Five: Increase

 

Having caught up on S4 while on my trip, and being almost through what's released of S5, I am super hype on Seven Deadly Sins right now.  King is my favorite, and so we're borrowing some of his stuff for my activity inspiration.     Simply put, increase activity!    I've been on a pretty good kick of working out, so I want to maintain that.

 

Strength Days - At least 2/week.

Cardio Days - Variable

Walk Days - Variable

Yoga Days - At least 1/week.

 

I need 2/ week on strength for it to be effective, and I really need to focus on some other stretching and flexibility.   The goal is to move 7 days a week, but not stress out if I take a legit rest day for any reason.  (Physical, mental or emotional break, etc.)

 

 

Goal #2 - Frenzied Eating!!

 

I am not tracking calories this challenge.  I had stopped at the back half of the last, and up until vacation, was doing very well just eating good things in nice amounts.    The goal here is to avoid being Nott!   Eat nicely, and don't get possessive of the treats.   It's hard to track a non-tracking goal, so the best I can think of is to have a goal of LOW numbers of 'Frenzied Eating'.    What counts as Frenzied Eating?   Any time I eat past being full, or indulge extra amounts just on account of taste, or have a treat that is followed by several more treats.    We'll mark these with 🍕 to show we overdid it with greasy foods, and with 🍩 to show it was sweet treats that did it.    The less of these per week, the better!

 

 

Goal #3 - Total Concentration

 

This one is covering everything else.   I am really trying to work on better stress management, bible study time, and general live in the moment kind of stuff.    This also will include the video game disconnect time, so I can get back into drawing and other hobbies.    My gaming crutch through lock down became a bit of an addiction, and I want to right my footing onto the better path before it gets worse.     Modeling this goal from Demon Slayer, another anime that gets me super juiced and ready to kick butt.

• I've kept my devotion streak going, but I want to get better about actually digesting what I am reading and learning - basically, slowing it down a bit.  
• Drawing is something I think is good for me, because I struggle keeping up with things I don't feel I'm good at, or things that I may have some knack for, but constantly judge myself against experts.
• I'd like to run my D&D game again, so prep time must get back into the picture.
• Watch anime more regularly, it often inspires me in ways I need it.

 

I think this is a good enough start for now.   I just need to figure out how I want to track.  BuJo?    Just daily check-ins here?   Online... not sure!   But it's time to get going.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Responding. The thread might not be shiny yet, but you are.

[Cheetah]

[Artemis Prime]

Yay for a super great vacation! Here for support, shiny or not!

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Following! Glad you had a great vacation 

[Elastigirl]

Here to cheer you on

[JuiceeTarget]

Is it tomorrow yet?

[starpuck]

Ok all of you!   Officially Shiny now, see!   First post updated with STUFF.

 

 

[Elastigirl]

I like the term frenzied eating .I hesitated to call what I do binge eating, because that is more a clinical term, and not something I struggle with. But I do struggle with the the  not stopping when I should, or just keep eating the treats. And the term frenzied is good, because at least for me, when I'm doing that it isn't even usually enjoyable. 

[Jarric]

I see a lot of similar goals to mine here, so I obviously approve - I like the lower-pressure-but-still-organised approach.

 

 

[starpuck]

60% through Day 2, so let's do some updating.

 

Day 1 was spent largely getting ducks in a row.   First day back to work, setting up the challenge, and the like.   I've been having really intense dreams lately and while they are not nightmares, they are affecting my rest? 

Spoiler

Sunday into Monday morning dream involved me being part of the faerie realm, but it was set in modern times, and modern times humans were really jealous of our faerie powers, so launched a full blown military war against us.   I had to race through several cities to try and find the leader, manage through an underground cave being flooded with water, that lead into a warehouse, that finally landed me to their chief and I tried to talk him into living peacefully with us.

As such, I didn't do anything that required exertion.   Just managed through the first day back into routine after 12 days in R&R mode.    I played about an hour of ESO and about the same of Valheim, logging off the PC at 9:30.  I could have read, or arted or something, but I really just needed a veg in front of the TV evening.  Still was off the games early!

 

Day 2   I got my bujo put together, just nice and simple.   I did an 'ease back into it' strength day with a good amount of stretching.  Work has been slow so I am catching up (trying) on some C2 Critical Role (Episode 113 currently) for some D&D inspiration.  Good stuff coming up in this episode, holy moly!   Tonight my sis is making a shrimp boil with potatos, corn and sausage, so looking forward to that.   Hope to get some sketching in, and might do a bit of Valheim or ESO.

 

Here's the bujo.  I decided to sub categorize my Total Concentration styles (still based off the anime) to act as a code for which things I am doing. 

[Elastigirl]

Sounds kinda of like a cool dream, but kind of nightmarish too. Sorry it messed with your sleep. I go through times of really vivid dreams too, and yeah, they can mess with your sleep.

[starpuck]

Thursday already, whoa.

 

No Frenzies have occurred, yay!  🦈  Did the post vacation weigh in and am neither up nor down really.  I suppose that's pretty solid.

I did my lift on Tuesday, but ended up not doing anything intentional on Wed.

Today, I took a pretty leisure bike ride up to Target (the long way) and back to work for my lunch break.   I wanted to take it slow and easy to make sure biking didn't bring up old groin woes.  So far, so good!

Dinners have been yummy and eaten in reasonable amounts, and I've been pretty tame on the after dinner snacks.  Sometimes a few handfuls of Slim Kim popcorn, and then one 'sweet'.

 

Got my bills paid.

Planning next visit with brother and fam.

So, things going ok.

 

Would like to get that drawing started, and/or the deeper digs into devotions.     For both of those to happen, they need to come before gaming at night I think.

[Cheetah]

25 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

yay! 

 

Good job!  Keep it up!

[Red1263]

Here to follow the Shiniest Puck!

[starpuck]

Phew, weekends are bad for bullet journal and forums for me!  I will work on that this weekend coming up!

 

Friday was a strength day and food was fine.   I jumped in to heal a normal trial on ESO with my guild and quite enjoyed myself.

Saturday was a hang out all day with The Boy.   We had a really good talk in the morning, then played Valheim all day save for a lunch break out to our favorite local outdoor patio for burgers and a beer.   Topped it off with a lavender latte and went back for more gaming.

Sunday was church, yard work, some solo ESO and then TB™ came over for some Beat Saber and to finish the last three episodes of 7 Deadly Sins S5.   Evening was D&D where my fire genasi barbarian totally pulled some Mad Max moves during our Descent into Avernus game.  (It involved her facing off with an infernal machine filled with wereboars and wererats, then jumping on top of it with her glaive, and stabbing into the cockpit, lol.)

 

I didn't get as much exercise in as I wanted to, and while I had only one night where I feel I let slip a few too many sweets (they were small, but I think I let them add up too fast without noticing), the non-video game goal has not been going well.   I always think I will use it as a calm down after games activity, but I end up playing too late.  I will try setting a 'games off' alarm this week, and shift to other things at  reasonable hour on Mon/Tues.  Wed is group game and Thur is RPG night, so doesn't count for games anyway.   If that fails, then next week it's other stuff first.

 

Me trying to log off for other stuff but not keeping track of the time...

[JuiceeTarget]

17 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Phew, weekends are bad for bullet journal and forums for me! 

Consider the value of taking the weekend off for those things. Maybe you need a break to be able to stick with it better during the week. Just something to consider.

[Elastigirl]

Wait, there is  a The Boy? Did I miss that? Sounds like you enjoyed that day and the rest of the weekend!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Wait, there is  a The Boy? Did I miss that? Sounds like you enjoyed that day and the rest of the weekend!

Working in a hospital my first thought was "TB? Who has tuberculosis?"

[Cheetah]

On 8/9/2021 at 4:51 PM, Starpuck said:

The Boy

 

[Artemis Prime]

Glad I'm not the only one wondering about The Boy. I assumed I just missed something along the way.

[starpuck]

23 hours ago, GoodDoug said:

Consider the value of taking the weekend off for those things. Maybe you need a break to be able to stick with it better during the week. Just something to consider.

Hmm, good point to consider.   It's more that I just don't have the journal out and think to do anything, than an actual abhorrence to the idea.   Plus when I come back on Monday and have to try and remember what I did or didn't do, it gets a little overwhelming.   I need to just pull the notebook out when I get home.   Once that is a routine, should be easier.  

 

22 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Wait, there is  a The Boy? Did I miss that? Sounds like you enjoyed that day and the rest of the weekend!

 

20 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Working in a hospital my first thought was "TB? Who has tuberculosis?"

 

14 hours ago, Cheetah said:

 

 

1 hour ago, Artemis Prime said:

Glad I'm not the only one wondering about The Boy. I assumed I just missed something along the way.

 

I was wondering if anyone was going to catch that, lol.   I think I will keep you on edge a bit longer though, and first go through Monday and Tuesday update!

 

Monday - Food was fine but there was no exercise.   I have had the worst arm DOMS I've ever experienced, from playing Beat Saber on Sunday after a month break, lol!    Add in that we're in the midst of a heat wave where our temps are 92-95, with heat indexes hitting 108 and it was just a recipe for no exercise.    Additionally, I had planned to do yoga or stretches once home, but halfway through dinner the tornado sirens went off and we spent the next hour in the basement waiting storms out.    Needless to say, I played valheim until past my bed time as I tried to unwind from that.

 

Tuesday - Second verse same as the first!   Food good.   Heat and humidity bad.  DOMS still there.    No exercise.   Post dinner hours spent in basement as new wave of severe weather went through and warnings fired off.   Played Valheim once we got back upstairs, until about 9:30 then did some dungeons with friends on ESO until 11.    Meh, not the best.  Not the worst.   Storms and interruptions to routine are troublesome.    I tried sketching while in the basement, but with no guides to brush off proportion rules and such, I got quickly dissatisfied with it and gave up.

 

The heat and humidity continues here until Friday.   So that means today I just HAVE to work out through it, in the crappy warehouse air, all stagnated, and hot, and humid and full of forklift dust and grime.   SO FUN!   I think I will try to do Strength Today,  Bike on Thursday, Strength Friday, Bike on Saturday, Yoga on Sunday.

 

On matters of The Boy...

 

So, my bestest friend is a boy.   
 

Spoiler

 

We've been doing life together for many years now.   We email each other every day.   We plot out our weekly schedules with one another.   We go on these awesome adventure trips together.    Play games together, watch anime together, buy food and cook 2 dinners a week together.   Every Saturday is adventure day together.   We are even, in fact, working to buy a house together.   Just saying ' my friend and I' in regards to him didn't seem a proper enough title to accurately explain the level of partnership we have.    Additionally, whilst on the trip, TheBoy, asked me to consider something.    Which, admittedly was completely out of left field for me, but... he asked me to consider the idea that maybe we should just -actually- do this life together.    I won't call it a proposal, (though I suppose it is damn near close to it, lol), but more a "Hey, look at all the things we do, and how we prioritize one another, and maybe consider, we're beyond just 'besties' already, and think about what it would mean to push that toward a more official agreement down the road."    Now, being an over-thinker worry wart, this should have panicked me to the point of nausea, but it didn't?    And a while back, when I had an opportunity to go on a few dates with another, my first thought was 'But if I am dating someone else, then I can't do these things with The Boy like I've been doing, and that sucks.'   Which gives me pause and makes me wonder if I perhaps already DO consider him more than bestie, but titles and names and official descriptions scare me because, well, I am mostly a ball of huggable fear.    So, I thought, while hanging out here, I would refer to him as TheBoy.   One, he's more than just a pal I did a thing with.   And two, I wanted to see if creating -a- label, triggered panic, or just the discomfort of unfamiliar ground.     I have no idea if this is a good plan or not, but I have to find some way to get out of my comfort zone, and also not just hide things under rugs when questions are posed to me.   Some pictures, because, why not!?

 

 

 

 

[Elastigirl]

5 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

was wondering if anyone was going to catch that, lol.   I think I will keep you on edge a bit longer though, and first go through Monday and Tuesday update!

 

You know I  cheated and read ahead to the spoilered part first , right?😉

[Artemis Prime]

Sucks to have tornado warnings going off. but I applaud you taking art stuff to the basement and trying to make the best of it.

25 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

So, I thought, while hanging out here, I would refer to him as TheBoy.   One, he's more than just a pal I did a thing with.   And two, I wanted to see if creating -a- label, triggered panic, or just the discomfort of unfamiliar ground.     I have no idea if this is a good plan or not, but I have to find some way to get out of my comfort zone, and also not just hide things under rugs when questions are posed to me. 

Sounds like a good plan to me. How did it feel when we all went straight to The Boy like well trained pointing dogs?

 

[Cheetah]

21 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

So, my bestest friend is a boy.  

 

Spoiler

What you're describing sounds like a really good foundation for a life-long committed relationship.  I can understand your hesitation.  Big commitments are scary.  Here's the thing that I learned that made it okay for me when I was considering these things.  Love is a decision you make every day.  It sounds like you're already deciding every day to be in this relationship, and so is he.  Deepening that relationship will be just another decision that you make, or don't.  There's nothing mysterious or magical about it.  I've been married for 17 years, and the thing that has made it work this long is that my beautiful wife and I had a lot of conversations about it in the beginning, and decided that we were going to stick with it, no matter what, and we continue to make that decision every day.   Anyway, that's been my experience. 

 

The way you describe his question to you tells me that he is definitely thinking proposal, but he doesn't want to scare the crap out of you and have you run off.  That's just what I'm hearing based on what you said.

 

Good Luck!