[darkfoxx]

This last challenge I started building some good habits I want to carry through. I increased my yoga class load, also sneakily increased my social life behind the scenes, and set myself on a good nutrition trajectory. 

 

Nutrition

 

Last challenge, I added my green smoothies back in for breakfast and ate with a focus on hitting 80g/day in protein. This was difficult some weeks and definitely took planning. I felt a little veg-lite some days and relied too heavily on convenience junk foods just to hit that number some days. 

 

I’m going to continue to refine this one. I planned poorly this zero week and am riding the struggle bus to even want to hit that goal number as a consequence. Next week, I need to plan better. I’m still weighing whether or not i want to continue on with spreadsheets or tracking; we shall see what shakes out here. 

 

Movement

 

Last challenge, I added an unexpected 5th class to the rotation and I want to keep that going. 

 

Schedule: Monday stretch & flow, Tuesday mobility, Wednesday detox yoga, Friday slow flow, Saturday slow & strong. All with 20-minute walks to and from. 

 

Other

 

Continue on with crochet projects; finish the insides of all completed bags

Get supplies to finish the couple bags I ran out of yarn for

Get supplies for a cover-up project 

Start fabric bag project

Complete copywriting project(s) as they come and I feel good about doing 

Try to keep my new weekly post-yoga coffee out going

Meet up with a friend who is in town

Finally get around to cleaning and reorganizing at least my closet so I can find all my yoga leggings - cull the things that no longer fit me - or that do not have a place to land (for the most part)

 

 

Upcoming travel may or may not but into this challenge cycle; we are also theoretically hosting family for a few days possibly at the end of this cycle as well. We shall see what happens there: they’d be coming from a country currently on the red list (meaning 2-day hotel quarantine), so may just skip this leg of the trip. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

 

Following along.

[Terra]

I'm here to follow too! 

[darkfoxx]

Zero Week Update

 

All 5 yoga classes: check

Nutrition: Mostly check. I feel like I was lacking a bit in veg and relied a bit too heavily on convenience protein consumables - especially at the beginning of the week - but pulled it out and did well the rest. 

Turned in some copy. 

Finished 1 crochet bag, knocked out some cork leather wallety things & started another of the big crochet bags

Had coffee Wednesday 

Caught up with one of my Tuesday online coffee friends

Did not do lunch with the in-town friend. 

 

 

[Scaly Freak]

I think this may be my third attempt to follow your challenge... and if it fails again this time I am going to be upset.

[EricMN]

Customary announcement of clicking the "Follow" button.

[darkfoxx]

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

I think this may be my third attempt to follow your challenge... and if it fails again this time I am going to be upset.

😆 I feel ya - I’ve been g-a-r-b-a-g-e at remembering to update … or, ya know, actually interact with people 

9 hours ago, EricMN said:

Customary announcement of clicking the "Follow" button.

[darkfoxx]

Monday

 

This weekend, I finally got around to cleaning up my closets and de-cluttering them a bit. I didn’t do a full cull because that would just be depressing, but I did chuck a few things I have been super annoyed at not fitting on a continual basis. 

 

Stretch & Flow class was good.

Breakfast was my protein green smoothie, lunch was the toppings off of a poke bowl, dinner was steak & a baked potato with a little bok choy on the side. Eaten but not pictured was a pack of peanut butter only Reeses cups.

Crocheted a bunch. 

 

 

[EricMN]

5 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

This weekend, I finally got around to cleaning up my closets and de-cluttering them a bit.

 

Closet envy...

 

[darkfoxx]

14 hours ago, EricMN said:

Closet envy...

 

I could still do more with it - and could still cull a thing or two, namely that huge wire dog crate neither of my pups have ever used.  

[darkfoxx]

Tuesday

 

Mobility class was a killer - it was the last shoulder class for a bit, and man it was exhausting. 

 

Breakfast: Green smoothie with protein powder & chia seeds

Lunch: Mango chive salad with rotisserie chicken

Dinner: Snow peas with rotisserie chicken, a splash of soy sauce and a thwack of sambal

Snack: A few flatbread cracker things with the last of the fancy ketchup chutney 

 

Crocheted a bit, did a bit of research for the next trip. 

[darkfoxx]

Wednesday, Thursday

 

Wednesday’s Detox Yoga class was great - had a good time working on side crow & headstand. 

 

Had post-yoga coffees with my yoga friends, caught up with the girlfriend who is in town for drinks, came home at a reasonable hour, and committed to going to the party Friday I was probably going to weasel out of. 

 

Breakfast: Green smoothie with protein powder & chia seeds

Lunch: mango chicken salad

Dinner: Chapaghetti ramen

 

Thursday I went for a massage at a place one of my yoga teachers told me about and it was great - a mix of “regular” oiled and Thai massage and at a not-insane price. I walked to the downtown mall after for lunch. 

 

Breakfast: Green smoothie with protein powder & chia seeds

Lunch: prawn hargow, laksa soup

Dinner: Sheet pan salsa chicken with peppers & onions, half an avocado & a hand full of tortilla chips for scooping

Snack: The last of the yogurt with a spoon full of cashew butter 

 

 

[darkfoxx]

Friday - Sunday

 

Friday yoga was good, despite being sore af from the massage. And then … I ended up going to that party I wasn’t too sure about, stayed until 2:30, and then made it home. Saturday was a lost cause; forgot how to damn breathe properly in the morning and bailed on yoga. Spent the day on the couch with the pups. Ate not great, but what i needed. Juice was involved. 

 

Sunday was the usual mall walk; food was pretty good - a hype bar for breakfast, chicken bowl for lunch, burger patty with babaganoush for dinner & more babaganoush with chia tortillas for a snack. 

[darkfoxx]

Monday

 

Yoga was good - stretch flow class focusing on hips. 

 

Food was good - green smoothie, burger patty with babaganoush, dinner was some killer chicken meatballs with ranchy zucchini 

 

Met a new friend for coffees. 

 

Crocheted a bunch, colored some. 

[Scaly Freak]

3 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

 

Food was good - green smoothie, burger patty with babaganoush, dinner was some killer chicken meatballs with ranchy zucchini 

 

For some reason I misread this as raunchy zucchini.

 

Considering the standard zucchini shape it's not that much of a stretch, really.

[darkfoxx]

Tuesday - Sunday

 

Went to the rest of my classes - Mobility, Detox, Slow Flow & Slow & Strong; all went well and I had some great progress with a crow variation and inversions. 

 

Food has been fairly good - smoothies most of the days I was supposed to have smoothies (skipped Saturday in favor of some bangin’ breakfast out). 

 

Went to our friends’ for a bbq Saturday and enjoyed our steaks thoroughly. Had a few drinks, but was done with them by 2.5 stretched out over an afternoon. 

 

I’ve been searching for a vacation tattoo artist, crocheting & working on some bag inners. Also, playing Littlewood. 

[darkfoxx]

Monday

 

Travel day. Flight was only 2.5 hours, so that was good. Food was …. What it was. 

 

Breakfast: A surprisingly good benny toast out after dropping the pups off at puppy Shanghai-La

Second Breakfast: A scoop or 2 of nasi goreng, a slack bowl of thom ka & a whiskey diet at the airport

Lunch: Chicken matchboos and another whiskey diet on the plane

Dinner: A way-too-late chicken club and all the fries when we finally got to the hotel and settled 

 

Yoga didn’t happen yesterday and is not suuuuper likely to happen today - I may wander down to the gym later for a dick around, but I’m not super motivated to do so, seeing as it’s almost 1. Dinner is at 6 and I’m hoping not to need lunch this late. I’ve been working all late morning on some ghetto rigged graphic designing for oldboss. 

 

Which is fine; I wasn’t planning on doing much more than vacation planning today. I hope to get a walk in tomorrow while the weather is nice, and may re-visit the national museum the day after. Or, if I’m feeling super froggy, I could tackle the old shopping district, but I’m not sure on that one. It’s chaos and I’m not actually shopping for anything. 

 

 

Y’all … this hotel has way too much color and pattern for me in general, but I absolutely love the window coverings and the open weirdo angles throughout each room. My damn bathroom has a pass through wall from the tub to the external vanity. It’s bananas. 

 

[darkfoxx]

Tuesday, Wednesday, Most of Thursday

 

Tuesday was more working and not much else; dinner was at the hotel Turkish doner joint. 

 

Wednesday was less working but still working; made it out of the hotel to walk around for dinner - some sort of almost-stroganoff in a bread bowl & hummus 

 

Thursday was only a little work (like an hour total), lots of gaming and watching the rain. Meant to make it out of the hotel, but it was rainy and I didn’t really *want* to go to the mall. Still should have made it to the gym. Did not. Dinner will be lots of sushi. 

 

 

[darkfoxx]

Friday 

 

It was windy af and chilly, so of course we felt like exploring the Citadel ruins - on a huge hill. 

 

totally worth it, though. Bonus: the tiny museum to the side was fantastic. 

 

Had the National Dish of Jordan - Mansaf (meat: in our case a nicely baked chicken half over a bed of fluffy saffron rice served with a thin yogurt sauce made from yogurt that’s been dehydrated, grated & reconstituted) - for lunch at a local spot. It was great. 

 

Walked up and down some more hills to attempt to see a shopping district that I thought was souq-like but turned out to be kinda young and hip but kinda suck. Was not worth the lungs trying to jump out of my damn chest and the pissing off of my knees, but I’m still glad I now know. 

 

Dinner was a chicken burger & fries I didn’t need from room service. 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sounds like a blast. I love discovering things like that mansaf you mentioned. 

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, darkfoxx said:

Had the National Dish of Jordan - Mansaf (meat: in our case a nicely baked chicken half over a bed of fluffy saffron rice served with a thin yogurt sauce made from yogurt that’s been dehydrated, grated & reconstituted) - for lunch at a local spot. It was great. 

 

That sounds amazing! I may need to google this dish now.

[darkfoxx]

On 3/4/2022 at 10:36 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

That sounds amazing! I may need to google this dish now.

 

On 3/4/2022 at 9:07 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Sounds like a blast. I love discovering things like that mansaf you mentioned. 

It was pretty great and cool to draw parallels with other global chicken + rice dishes.

 

Saturday

 

Traveled back home, snuggled pups.

 

Sunday

 

Thus far, we’ve gotten our return PCRs, had a great breakfast out, spent more than usual on quick groceries from the ‘easy to find keto & vegan shit from the US’ Tesco-run shop in the same mall as the health center we always go to, and I’m typing one-handed as i cradle a deeply asleep Odin like a baby with the other.

[darkfoxx]

The Last 10 Days

 

Yoga has been good - got my 5 classes in last week despite the grumbling from my left leg; felt weak, stiff and uncoordinated - but I still showed up. This week I’m on track for my 5, with 3 complete so far. And I’ve noticed some pincha, funky crow, funky headstand, side crow & fallen angel progress. I was tired af today after class but I felt strong, even while a sweaty mess. 

 

And yeah. It’s consistently over 90F here daily already. Today was also dusty wind - so much so the matcha I enjoyed with friends outside and walk home has resulted in dusty boogers & crusty eyes. #sexy

 

Food has been decent for the most part - I made a London Broil last week and had that with a bunch of salady ingredients, this week it’s been rotisserie chicken and more salady ingredients; tonight will be a stir-fry. 

 

Weekend food was meh - hit the new American style pub for drinks and lunch after my killer yoga class Saturday and had a shockingly good for being halal Cuban sandwich with fries. 

 

Have finished most of the crochet bags I was working on and have cut the pattern for the fabric bags - now I’m working on some stash busting granny squares to whittle my yarn stock down before I hit the shop for the bits and bobs I need to finish my first round of bags. 

 

Pups are good - for the most part. I say that, and Odin has just decided it was time to bitch at the hall. Aaaaaand a dude out there barked back. SMH 

 

I’ve been working on some social things, and went last week to do a friends’ daughters’ makeup - a trial run for the type of look she’d like for her senior prom. That’s next week and I’ll be heading over to do that look, too. With a little goodie bag of products so she can at least mostly recreate the look herself. Hopefully between last week and next she’ll have absorbed enough info to do so. She wants glowy goldy JLo style - which I can totally do. She was also really drawn to one of my favorite orange and brown palettes, which super works because that was my default color scheme all last Summer. She’s got a good base of products already - I’m going to bring her a few specific brushes and will try and cobble together a palette in the same colors as mine. 

 

I don’t think I’ve been up to too much more - if I have, I’ve forgotten. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sounds like things are going well. We'll done on that yoga consistency. 

[Scaly Freak]

11 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

I’ve been working on some social things, and went last week to do a friends’ daughters’ makeup - a trial run for the type of look she’d like for her senior prom. That’s next week and I’ll be heading over to do that look, too. With a little goodie bag of products so she can at least mostly recreate the look herself. Hopefully between last week and next she’ll have absorbed enough info to do so. She wants glowy goldy JLo style - which I can totally do. She was also really drawn to one of my favorite orange and brown palettes, which super works because that was my default color scheme all last Summer. She’s got a good base of products already - I’m going to bring her a few specific brushes and will try and cobble together a palette in the same colors as mine. 

 

Excellent! Spread the joy of playing with makeup!