[Severine]

Yeah I think a lot of people are having a rough day     I hope you're able to find something soothing or relaxing to help things feel more manageable.

[Marauder]

Where did those days go?    Husband is off Covid isolation now so it's nice to have him back.  Im exhausted from all the adulting that was necessary.

 

• workout - ✅  (yesterday, Im on a S, T, Th schedule right now).  I can't recall off the top of my head but there were pushups, and my legs are reminding me there were db RDLs, goblet squats, and bw squats.  I'm following a program and thankfully it tells me what to do, which is honestly (for me) the only way to live.  
   
• eat slowly - ✖️ I have been mindlessly snarfing down my meals.  I will try to do better.  Stress!
   
• sleep - ✅  I've done pretty good in this camp.  No husband to hang out with meant early to bed every night.  

 

Our road trip is suddenly upon us and we aren't prepared at all.  We leave in a week and half and havent really put the van back together after we ripped it all apart a few weeks ago.  Built a drawer set and need to secure it in there.  Need to install the camp kitchen we bought.  Need to figure out the rest of the storage.  Just remembered this morning to order more dog treats and food for the trip so we dont run out.  I just made a reservation for a campsite for night 2 last night.  If you know me at all, this lack of planning and foresight is highly irregular.    Maybe I'll take this opportunity to turn over a new leaf and live a more spontaneous life...

 

hahahahaha.  Just kidding.  That's never gonna happen.  

 

 

 

[Severine]

Where's the road trip to?

 

Good job on sleep and I hope you're able to get stress a bit more under control 🤞

[Marauder]

15 hours ago, Severine said:

Where's the road trip to?

 

Good job on sleep and I hope you're able to get stress a bit more under control 🤞

we are in Utah and heading west to the Oregon Coast, up the coast, and (likely) into Portland and then looping back around. We have campsites reserved for along the coast. The rest of the time we’ll either find something last minute or stealth parking lot sleep. 
 

we don’t road trip often, but when we do gas is $5+ Per gallon. 😜  we have another planned for September back east. My niece is getting married. 

[Terra]

Welcome back my friend!!!  So good to see you here again.

 

Consistency is so hard.  I am very similar to you, start strong...  finish what?   These days I have been trying to just be patient and accepting of myself while I work through all the parts of life.  Making only little changes because anymore than that sets me up for not finishing my challenge goals. 

 

That road trip sounds amazing!  Love the Oregon coast.

[Marauder]

2 hours ago, Terra said:

Welcome back my friend!!!  So good to see you here again.

 

Consistency is so hard.  I am very similar to you, start strong...  finish what?   These days I have been trying to just be patient and accepting of myself while I work through all the parts of life.  Making only little changes because anymore than that sets me up for not finishing my challenge goals. 

 

That road trip sounds amazing!  Love the Oregon coast.

 

I hear that.  I've had a few health scares this year that I feel should motivate me more.  Ugh.  My nutrition is actually pretty good.  What I desperately need is to get better sleep and ESTABLISH A ROUTINE OF MOVEMENT.  It's so hard though.  I'm incredibly good at being lazy.  One step at a time, as you said...

[Severine]

9 hours ago, Marauder said:

we are in Utah and heading west to the Oregon Coast, up the coast, and (likely) into Portland and then looping back around. We have campsites reserved for along the coast. The rest of the time we’ll either find something last minute or stealth parking lot sleep. 
 

we don’t road trip often, but when we do gas is $5+ Per gallon. 😜  we have another planned for September back east. My niece is getting married. 

 

Sweet! We drove through Utah in December on our way from Boston to Vancouver (yes, we drove and yes, it was nuts) and stayed a day in Ogden and it was gorgeous. I really liked Oregon and Washington, too. Treeeeeees.

 

I hope you have an amazing time.

[Marauder]

Workout - ✅  all the things were lifted and pulled and squatted

 

eat slowly - ✅ better today

 

sleep - 7 hrs 2 mins. 
 

a very productive day here. I made a list and got a lot done. Mostly household and pet care but it all was getting behind. Feels good to check off a solid list of stuff!

[Marauder]

Opinions welcomed...

 

Im struggling with what to do after returning from vacation.  I'm determined and committed to making strength training a strong part of my forever plan.  I'm struggling with the "details" monster.  Chronic overthinker here.

 

I've been doing megsquats Before the Barbell program with the anticipation of starting her paid monthly programming Stronger By The Day once we return from vacation near end of July.  I'm in love with the idea of varied done-for-me programming, just open app, and do things.  It comes in two flavors....  gym and home, both 4x/wk. 

Gym assumes access to a barbell, which I dont have.  We made some changes and I no longer have a home gym or room for one.  I do have a PF gym with their usual dbs and machines and Smith machine, and home dbs and bands.  The home version of the programming uses bodyweight and bands.  Im generally not a fan of bodyweight workouts because I have to do so many modifications (I mean, it includes handstands, um LOL), so Im meh about that.    So....  I was planning on doing the gym programming and subbing the big barbell lifts with machines.  It's not perfect, but it's what I can do.   I know the science behind compounds lifts being superior, blah blah blah.  

Am I really doing a major disservice here by not finding another gym or a more dumbbell focused program?  I mean I'm 53 and just trying to stay strong, and honestly, when I was barbell lifting at home before, I struggled with squats making me dizzy and recovery times with deadlift.  I've looked a bit into other gyms near me and its dismal.  I've not found another program with a setup and community aspect that I like nearly as much.

[Severine]

Fellow overthinker with some ideas/thoughts:

• Is it possible to send them an email and ask if they can do a DB-focused program for you? I can't imagine it'd be any harder for them.
• If you asked PF to get a barbell or two, would they?
• You could do the barbell program at the gym, use the machines to sub for the big barbell lifts, knowing that it's technically not as challenging as using a barbell but either (a) recognizing that it's still 5000% better than not doing it at all, or (b) viewing it as a stepping stone to maybe doing barbell once you've built up more strength and you can figure out a way to make a barbell setup work somehow/somewhere.
• Could you use DBs instead of BBs? I've seen other workouts that do subs, e.g. for a deadlift they just have you pick up the DBs from the floor. The workout I saw kept the weight really modest at first so people could focus on keeping the sides even, which is obviously easier with BBs than DBs.

[Marauder]

5 minutes ago, Severine said:

Fellow overthinker with some ideas/thoughts:

• Is it possible to send them an email and ask if they can do a DB-focused program for you? I can't imagine it'd be any harder for them.
• If you asked PF to get a barbell or two, would they?
• You could do the barbell program at the gym, use the machines to sub for the big barbell lifts, knowing that it's technically not as challenging as using a barbell but either (a) recognizing that it's still 5000% better than not doing it at all, or (b) viewing it as a stepping stone to maybe doing barbell once you've built up more strength and you can figure out a way to make a barbell setup work somehow/somewhere.
• Could you use DBs instead of BBs? I've seen other workouts that do subs, e.g. for a deadlift they just have you pick up the DBs from the floor. The workout I saw kept the weight really modest at first so people could focus on keeping the sides even, which is obviously easier with BBs than DBs.

If they would do a dub program just for me I couldn’t afford it. LOL.   Planet Fitness is a chain and doesn’t do barbells anywhere so doubtful. 
 

and yes and yes to the other points. I think this is where I need to get my head space. As a chronic rule follower, easier said than done and I’ll just have to wait and see how disruptive the substitutions get. The program is delivered in an app that allows subs but I don’t have access until I sign up. 
 

thanks for echoing some of what I was thinking!

[Marauder]

workout - ✖️  I'm calling it early.  Got my covid booster yesterday and the body aches are through the roof, so cancelled.

eating slowly - ✅  did good yesterday, no appetite today, so that should be easy for today.

sleep - ✖️ busy brain so couldnt settle in until around midnight and then thunderstorm at 3 am and didnt get back to sleep,  RIP.

 

Today will be napping.    

 

In other news, in perfect harmony with my overthinking, went walking yesterday past the local community rec center, popped in, and guess what...  full set of freeweights, barbells, etc.  All very clean, nearly vacant, and only $15/mo.  I see a change happening soon.  Bonus points, walking distance.

[Severine]

Score on the gym within walking distance! That sounds amazing.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Oof. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot recently.  I gotta give you props for lifting and squatting through all that. 
 

If possible I’d love to see how you modded your van.  

[Marauder]

12 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Oof. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot recently.  I gotta give you props for lifting and squatting through all that. 
 

If possible I’d love to see how you modded your van.  

 

We havent taken any pictures since we ripped everything out.  I'll have to take some later today or tomorrow and post them for you.  We have a low roof (regular) Transit cargo van and basically built a floating platform for the queen size bed, put in a large idea drawer between the bed and driver seat, slapped a Dometic electric fridge/freezer on top of it.  The "kitchen" is out the back doors with a pull out drawer style kitchen setup (bought prebuilt) and some homemade pull out wire basket drawers for food and stuff.  It's very DIY and unfancy.  No insulation or anything.  LOL.  We are fair weather campers. 

 

Here are some pics of the old setup....  I had to go looking for it, but thought I had posted some before.  Everything below the bed is gone now and replaced.  It's working out much better now.  We spent way too much on a prebuilt kitchen, but its so worth it!  It's here... https://www.nomadkitchenco.com/product-page/nomad-kitchen  We debated building our own, but by the time we bought all the supplies, tools, and made a (probably really crappy) copy, it would've been 70% of the cost anyway.

 

 

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Oh that looks great.  The kitchen looks super handy.  I want to modify the mini-van to make it better for camping and  one of the goals is cooking out of the back.  

[Marauder]

44 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Oh that looks great.  The kitchen looks super handy.  I want to modify the mini-van to make it better for camping and  one of the goals is cooking out of the back.  

 

The only downside we've found with cooking out the back is that the van has to be open while you're doing it.  This can be a problem if its buggy or particularly cold.  We haven't had a ton of bug problems, but Im always a little annoyed when Im sleeping and the husband wants to make coffee with the back doors open in the cold morning.  This has now been solved with a little butane stove that can sit on top of the fridge inside for coffee. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

28 minutes ago, Marauder said:

This has now been solved with a little butane stove that can sit on top of the fridge inside for coffee. 

How do you solve the ventilation problem?

[Marauder]

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

How do you solve the ventilation problem?

 

Well, the van isnt insulated so it's pretty  naturally leaky in the air department.  We always sleep with a fan running on low and front windows cracked.  The little single burner we use is rated for indoor, and butane burns much cleaner than other fuels and creates carbon dioxide rather than monoxide (which is cool).  We do have a carbon monoxide detector in there too.  Even if we needed to have one of the side doors open, it would be a big improvement over both back doors open.

 

We've looked into installing a ventilation fan.  Most people that modify vans have them, but we just haven't needed one so far and if we add one we wont be able to squeeze the van in the garage, which would be a bummer.

[Marauder]

Workout - ✅ in an effort to not be inflexible and rigid I did a random workout with my daughter today from YouTube. Caroline Girvan can kick some butt. Not my kinda thing but I’m pretty sure I’ll be sore tomorrow.  So, still got in 3 workouts this week.  Take that Covid shot!!!

 

eat slow - ➖ I do well on this when I remember.  Sadly I do t seem to remember enough.  Need a better solution. 
 

sleep - ✅. 8+. YES.   I really need to find an app for this. The Apple Watch does the things but it’s so stinking hard to find the info. 
 

Got a few things ready for the trip and will need to stay on top of it for the rest of the week. 
 

hope everyone is doing well. Hoping to find time later tonight to get caught up on everyone’s challenge. 

[Marauder]

Just a quick pop in.  We leave soon on vacation and this challenge is going to remain pending until I return.  We don't have a set return date, so might be right at the end, but unsure.  

 

❤️ 

[Severine]

Have fun!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Hope you're still having fun on the vacation.

[Marauder]

We have returned!  It is a bit of a shock to return from wearing your puffy jacket to stay warm on the coast to 107 degrees in Salt Lake this week.  Shock to the system to say the least!  I ate all the seafood I could possibly eat and it was awesome.  My activity level was 200% of usual, so probably a win overall despite my rather rampant appetite.  The pup had enough of vacation though.  I think he was legit thrilled to see home when we got here.  We visited a few towns with possibilities for retirement locales.  Specifically really liked the Corvallis and Salem areas.  I loved Ashland as well, but it's so dang far from any airport that I think we ruled it out.

 

I'm hoping to find time later in the morning to check on everyone's challenge progress while I was gone.   I have plans for next challenge already as I have some new program(s) I'm going to run.

 

[Elastigirl]

Eating all the seafood sounds like a lovely vacation! Glad you had a good time.