[sylph]

After thinking about it for awhile, I think I have three main areas that I'll be focusing on for 2023--gym, food, home. Each challenge I'll address one aspect in each of these categories. Though the details might change, keeping the same categories of areas to work on will (maybe) help keep me focused.

 

GYM

One thing I accomplished in 2022 was being VERY consistent with lifting, once I decided to get back to the gym.

 

The image at the bottom of this post  shows all of last year, with the date in red if I worked out that day. Aside from being out of town, recovering from various hurricanes, and the last two weeks of holiday/foster kitten madness, I did pretty well. (also, I really liked my star chart idea. I will probably keep something like this going for this year as well)  If I counted right, I noted 99 workouts in 2022 between the beginning of March and the end of December.* So, of the 44 weeks since I "got back to it" that's 2.25 workouts per week. Throw out 2 weeks in the office, a week (ish) for hurricane recoveries and 2 weeks for holiday nonsense and that's 99 workouts in 39 weeks = 2.5 workouts per week. I can't remember the last time I've been lifting weights that regularly. This year, I'd like to keep it up.

*note: this does not include the 2-3 workouts I had in both Jan and Feb, but only since March 1. I really got consistent starting March 11, but I'll throw myself the bone of including the March 1 because I like the sound of 99 workouts better than 98. It's my thread, I can do what I want.

 

My current program is the SBS Hypertrophy Template. I'm using the 4x/week version now. Realistically it's usually 3 workouts/week, but I like the split of the 4x program better so here we are. When this all shakes out, it kind of categorizes like this:

• Perfect: Follow the template. Lift 4x/week
• Ideal world: Life gets in the way sometimes. Lift 3x/week
• Status quo: Shit happens. Lift 2x/week
• Less than good: Sometimes everything falls apart. Lift 1x/week
• WTF: Big happenings are apparently afoot. Try not to die. Lift 0x/week

I'd like to keep at least my 'overall' average from last year of 2.5 workouts per week. That means some weeks are going to be at 4x, and some weeks (knowing how life goes) are going to be at 1 or even 0x.

I'll ad this up at the end of the challenge and keep a running tally over time.

 

FOOD

I'd like to also continue to loosely meal plan before grocery shopping. I don't know if it keeps a handle on my calories better, but it sure does save my sanity to have at least a rough idea of the meals I can make with the ingredients I have in the house rather than looking blankly at the fridge around 6p and wondering what's edible.

 

HOME

And finally, house organization. We bought this house two years ago, and in Feb we'll have actually lived here for 2 years. We need to keep addressing the storage problems by improving the way we use space as well as buying cupboards/wardrobes/etc. to help account for the drastic lack of closets in this house (a perpetual problem in Florida, apparently)

 

I think that's about it--depending on how my day goes, I may or may not get one more workout in before the end of the year and turn that 99 into a 100, but no pressure either way (since I did just workout yesterday for the first time in two weeks and I am FEELING it today).

[sylph]

Oh, if you're new and don't know who I am, here's some background stuff:

Spoiler

I am 42, living in central Florida for the last two and a half years, having transplanted from Michigan in the middle of the very beginning of the COVID shutdowns.

I have been a lifter with varying intensity since college and currently have a very decent power rack/freeweight setup in my garage

I did aerial silks for ~5 years prior to moving to Florida, hence my assassin-y guild, despite the fact that I've not been in the air whatsoever for about the last 4 years

I am married and my husband and I have 3 cats. We also occasionally foster kittens for our local animal shelter (we have two currently... so CUTE!)

I like fantasy novels, Star Wars, video games, and various other nerdy stuff.

Anything else, just ask!

 

[sylph]

So I did not get in workout 100 yesterday. I'm okay with that. Spend the evening sitting on the couch with hubs and cats and watching Warrior Nun. Since the second season dropped recently, we opted to re-watch the first season to remind us what it was all about and then jump into season 2. So, season 1 done. Season 2 now on deck.

 

In about half an hour or so I'll venture out to the garage for workout #1 of 2023, which is squats.

Also, shout out to @bigm141414, I'm giving FitNotes a shot. We will see how it compares to my beloved RepCount.

 

Other than that, there are leftovers for dinner, some laundry running in the background and foster kittens to entertain for a couple more days.

 

 

Oh, and our Florida 'winter' seems to have passed, since temps are in the high 70s today, so the garage should be a good temp and mayyyyybe I can even get out for a walk later. It's 2023--who knows what madness may ensue.

[sylph]

Squats are heavy AF today. Two weeks out of the gym and slightly too many alcoholic beverages last night likely contribute to that in no small way.

 

 

As an aside, I'm going to give Dry January a shot. We'll see how it goes.

[KB Girl]

Love the year overview chart thingy!  
No alcohol is probably great for the gains. 

[sylph]

18 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Love the year overview chart thingy!  
No alcohol is probably great for the gains. 

it was remarkably motivating.  I've set up another for this year and am excited to see what it will look like throughout the year..

The gains and evening out my weight, no doubt. I'm still heavier than I'm comfortable with, so there may or may not be some light caloric restriction in the very near future.

 

--------

 

Yesterday most of my day was spent poking around vistaprint and pixlr to get a business card/thank you card designed and sorted out for hubs' Etsy store. It took most of the afternoon/evening but we finally wound up with a design we were happy with and got them on order. Fingers crossed they look as nice in-person as they did on the screen. I'm not super creative but I have a good intuitive grasp of software and spent a lot of time fooling around with free image editing programs in my late teens/early 20s so I can usually get programs to do what I want. Whether I can replicate them or not is debatable, and I'm sure most of what I do is the most hack-y bass-ackwards way of getting things done, but we are both pretty chuffed with the final design so I'll call that a win.

 

Allergies are completely bonkers for some reason this morning. I'm finishing up my coffee (now that it's almost noon) and making a short list of things to do today. Back to work tomorrow, so this is my last Holiday Hurrah.

• Wash towels and sheets. Remake bed
• Empty dishwasher 
• Sort out recycling and bring to the curb
• Pull weeds poking between bricks on the lanai
• Bench press workout? If my allergies settle down and my head doesn't feel like a big ball of fluff, perhaps. If not, that'll be tomorrow
• Get outside and get a walk. "Winter" seems to have passed for the moment so it's probably beautiful outside. Some vitamin D will probably do me some good.
• Grocery shopping needs to happen soon so I'll probably take a look at the grocery sale flyer and do a little meal planning for the upcoming week. I know tonight and tomorrow (and leftovers tomorrow will likely last through at least Wednesday if not Thursday, but before I hit the store, I need to get my plan in order)

 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

Here to follow along.  I did not realize it had been so long since you have been doing aerial stuff but then again, I usually just gloss over the last 3 years as if they never existed.  So in my world, it has really only been 2 years  

[sylph]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Here to follow along.  I did not realize it had been so long since you have been doing aerial stuff but then again, I usually just gloss over the last 3 years as if they never existed.  So in my world, it has really only been 2 years  

I know right? What is time?

I actually just looked back to determine real time and see if I was miscounting... the last showcase I was in with the super awesome routine that I was VERY proud of was in January 2018 and I stopped shortly thereafter as we initiated the very beginnings of our plans to move. So I guess it's been closer to 5 years, which is baffling to me.

[sylph]

On 1/2/2023 at 11:56 AM, sylph said:

 

• Wash towels and sheets. Remake bed. Check & Check
• Empty dishwasher Check
• Sort out recycling and bring to the curb Check
• Pull weeds poking between bricks on the lanai Nope
• Bench press workout? If my allergies settle down and my head doesn't feel like a big ball of fluff, perhaps. If not, that'll be tomorrow Nope
• Get outside and get a walk. "Winter" seems to have passed for the moment so it's probably beautiful outside. Some vitamin D will probably do me some good. Nope
• Grocery shopping needs to happen soon so I'll probably take a look at the grocery sale flyer and do a little meal planning for the upcoming week. I know tonight and tomorrow (and leftovers tomorrow will likely last through at least Wednesday if not Thursday, but before I hit the store, I need to get my plan in order) Kind of. Looked at the flyer and realized prices were good until Wednesday. I will probably shop Thursday so need to wait. But I know what we're having tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday, so mostly check.

My allergies are crazy this month, y'all. I take a Claritin every day but it no longer seems to be cutting it. I should probably rotate around to Zyrtec for awhile to see if that makes a difference.

I did get a walk this morning, so my 'nope' there is really a slightly delayed 'check' on that one.

No weeds got pulled. I don't know what I wound up doing yesterday afternoon, but there was a lot of foster kitten time, I think. They are getting more and more active and that means that they need more play time which means more sylph time. I drop them off tomorrow morning to finally go into the adoption pool. While they are adorable and lovable and I will miss them, the demands on my time are getting a little excessive. We've had them for just over 5 weeks now, which is much longer than our usual 2-3. These guys were really far behind weight-wise, so there's at least a reason, but I'm looking forward to getting about 4-6 hours of my time back every day.

 

In a couple hours I will dump dinner into the crockpot and after work today I'll get in that bench workout.

 

Also, 3 days into dry January and doing fine.

[starpuck]

Hi!  Following here.  It's like stop time animation compared to the Discord side of things.

I too do that rotate the allergy meds when one seems to be 'too used to the status quo'.

Like the set up on everything too.   Your strength plans have been so fun to listen to over the past year or so. 

[sylph]

1 hour ago, starpuck said:

Hi!  Following here.  It's like stop time animation compared to the Discord side of things.

I too do that rotate the allergy meds when one seems to be 'too used to the status quo'.

Like the set up on everything too.   Your strength plans have been so fun to listen to over the past year or so. 

Agreed--forum is definitely a different pace.

 

And thanks! It's been fun getting back into lifting. Hopefully this year will be as entertaining to witness!

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, sylph said:

I'm looking forward to getting about 4-6 hours of my time back every day.

That is a lot of time! 

I have never been happy with my allergy meds until I got this nose spray thing, works well without the tiredness that pills induce in me. 

[sylph]

16 hours ago, KB Girl said:

That is a lot of time! 

I have never been happy with my allergy meds until I got this nose spray thing, works well without the tiredness that pills induce in me. 

Hubs swears by NasaCort,and/or nasal rinses, but my primary symptoms are runny/itchy eyes most of the time (this year I'm having some additional sinus stuff which is new)

 

----

 

 

Baby kittens were dropped off this morning. They are scheduled to be spayed today and so should be recovered and into the adoption pool for the weekend. There are very few kittens available right now, so they should go quickly. I hope they wind up somewhere wonderful. They are some of the best kittens we've ever fostered and we will both miss them horribly. ❤️

 

Bench-focused workout yesterday. If I'm not too bogged down in other stuff and my posterior chain feels recovered from good mornings adequately, I may get my deadlifts done today. We have some running around to do tomorrow and Friday so there may or may not be an opportunity to get another workout in there somewhere.

 

Other stuff to do:

• Launder towels from kitten room
• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc.
• Scrub down the rest of the kitten housing area (aka our second bathroom) both for post-kitten cleanliness and also for general bathroom cleanliness. That room has not been used much for its purpose for the last ~month, so various things need to be appropriately cleaned before putting them back into service
• Run dishwasher (happening currently)
• Walk to the post office
• Review new grocery flyer and plan shopping/meals (this also means snagging the flyer from the end of the driveway before it decides to rain, which it looks like it wants to begin doing soon.)

[Artemis Prime]

Hey, a bit late, but I found you! That year overview is pretty sweet, might have to steal it for this year.

On 12/31/2022 at 1:51 PM, sylph said:

• Perfect: Follow the template. Lift 4x/week
• Ideal world: Life gets in the way sometimes. Lift 3x/week
• Status quo: Shit happens. Lift 2x/week
• Less than good: Sometimes everything falls apart. Lift 1x/week
• WTF: Big happenings are apparently afoot. Try not to die. Lift 0x/week

I love this scale.

[starpuck]

Ditto Artemis on the scale you used.  So great!!

 

I go back and forth between NasaCord and Flonase.    My docs have told me they are good for post nasal drip?   *shrug*  Beats me.    LOL.    There are also some good allergy eye drops on the market.   I don't use them because of contacts, but my sis and TheBoy swear by them.

[sylph]

5 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Hey, a bit late, but I found you! That year overview is pretty sweet, might have to steal it for this year.

I found it REALLY motivating. Along the lines of a sticker/star chart for a kindergartner.

 

5 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

I love this scale.

TY! I'm trying to set goals but also be realistic and not too terribly hard on myself. I have gotten pretty good at getting away from all or nothing type goals but am also very good at justifying reasons to do things the easy way. This gives me some way to assess where I am and whether I have a justified reason for things falling apart or if I'm just choosing to sit on the couch (which is sometimes a valid choice, but recognizing it as a choice rather than "omg, I have no time to workout" situation is important to me)

[sylph]

4 hours ago, starpuck said:

Ditto Artemis on the scale you used.  So great!!

 

I go back and forth between NasaCord and Flonase.    My docs have told me they are good for post nasal drip?   *shrug*  Beats me.    LOL.    There are also some good allergy eye drops on the market.   I don't use them because of contacts, but my sis and TheBoy swear by them.

TY!

 

Hubs loves NasaCort and thinks Flonase is garbage.

Allergy eye drops make my eyes burn SO MUCH (but then feel somewhat better after) so I am always hesitant to use them.

I would probably do well with a sinus rinse, honestly, if I could get past the squick of it. Mechanically flushing out all the pollen and gunk seems like a nice way to address the inciting cause.

[sylph]

An update to keep myself on track and artificially inflate the post count of my challenge (hah!)

• Launder towels from kitten room These are currently in the dryer
• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc. Not done yet--slowly picking away at bits and pieces between work things.
• Scrub down the rest of the kitten housing area (aka our second bathroom) both for post-kitten cleanliness and also for general bathroom cleanliness. That room has not been used much for its purpose for the last ~month, so various things need to be appropriately cleaned before putting them back into service Scrubbed the toilet because... well, it's Florida and water/air interfaces tend to grow... things... if left undisturbed for too long. Gross.
• Run dishwasher (happening currently) Done. Need to put these away, reload, and then do the actual dishes.
• Walk to the post office Done.
• Review new grocery flyer and plan shopping/meals (this also means snagging the flyer from the end of the driveway before it decides to rain, which it looks like it wants to begin doing soon.) Looked at the flyer, was immensely disappointed with the sale offerings in most cases. Meal plan not yet fleshed out.

As a note on meal stuff--if anyone has any favorite dump dinners, crockpot recipes, one pot meals, or sheet pan meals that they'd like to share, please feel free.

[sylph]

16 hours ago, sylph said:

An update to keep myself on track and artificially inflate the post count of my challenge (hah!)

• Launder towels from kitten room These are currently in the dryer
• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc. Not done yet--slowly picking away at bits and pieces between work things.
• Scrub down the rest of the kitten housing area (aka our second bathroom) both for post-kitten cleanliness and also for general bathroom cleanliness. That room has not been used much for its purpose for the last ~month, so various things need to be appropriately cleaned before putting them back into service Scrubbed the toilet because... well, it's Florida and water/air interfaces tend to grow... things... if left undisturbed for too long. Gross.
• Run dishwasher (happening currently) Done. Need to put these away, reload, and then do the actual dishes.
• Walk to the post office Done.
• Review new grocery flyer and plan shopping/meals (this also means snagging the flyer from the end of the driveway before it decides to rain, which it looks like it wants to begin doing soon.) Looked at the flyer, was immensely disappointed with the sale offerings in most cases. Meal plan not yet fleshed out.

As a note on meal stuff--if anyone has any favorite dump dinners, crockpot recipes, one pot meals, or sheet pan meals that they'd like to share, please feel free.

Aside from folding the towels after the dryer finished, I made no additional progress on this list. Oh well. I'll continue to accumulate tasks here and try to continue to do them.

 

I got up this morning and for the first time since just after thanksgiving did NOT go immediately to the kittens, since they are gone. It felt very strange. I actually wound up sleeping in an extra hour, which was really nice. Though it made me realize that perhaps I could switch to morning workouts, since I could've easily fit in my deadlift session this morning prior to signing on for work. I've never really been a morning workout person but I am now considering it, as it would probably be nice to get it out of the way for the day. Presuming I can haul myself out of bed for it, anyway. I thought about it this morning while still in bed and went back to sleep, so this remains to be seen.

 

We have some running around to do today so I probably won't get deadlifting in. Same for tomorrow, unfortunately, so it seems like Saturday and Sunday are the next opportunities to get out there. Deadlifts and OHP, respectively.

 

So today's running list (not all will be done today, just current brain dump so I can put it SOMEWHERE)

Spoiler

• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc. from kitten room (litter box is scooped and 'clean' but needs the rest of the old litter dumped and the box itself needs to be scrubbed and sanitized)
• Finish cleaning second bathroom
• Empty & reload dishwasher
• Do dishes
• Meal plan--and then grocery shop (probably Saturday, at this point)
• Afternoon/evening running around with hubs today & tomorrow
• Dye hair -- meant to do this the weekend after Thanksgiving and still haven't managed to do it. My roots are ridiculous at this point. Probably another weekend project.
• Start organizing tax stuff
• Scrub & refill cat fountain
• Probably other things, too that I'm not thinking about at the moment...

 

[starpuck]

Oof you reminded me to get tax stuff together a bit.   I like to get a jump on that heh.

I love lists, and love striking things off them.  I think I might start making bigger lists (of things I do easily) just for the added boost of feeling good about doing a thing!

 

[Mad Hatter]

That's some amazing consistency! Love the scale. 

 

Hope the kittens get an equally loving home.  

[sylph]

List:

Spoiler

• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc. from kitten room (litter box is scooped and 'clean' but needs the rest of the old litter dumped and the box itself needs to be scrubbed and sanitized) Food bowls cleaned, still need to do the rest
• Finish cleaning second bathroom
• Empty & reload dishwasher Done
• Do dishes
• Meal plan--and then grocery shop (probably Saturday, at this point)
• Afternoon/evening running around with hubs today & tomorrow Yesterday's done. Today's still yet to do
• Dye hair -- meant to do this the weekend after Thanksgiving and still haven't managed to do it. My roots are ridiculous at this point. Probably another weekend project. 
• Start organizing tax stuff
• Scrub & refill cat fountain Refilled, since it was making empty sucking noises. Scrubbing will need to be done yet
• Yardwork--there's some ivy growing up the side of the house that really needs taking care of. And some general upkeep stuff that's due. Plus the weeds from the lanai are still taunting me. It's been pretty rainy the last couple days, so hopefully this weekend will be nice enough to get out there and make a dent. We aren't in embarrassing territory (yet) but I would like to not fall terribly far behind on house maintenance stuff.
• Post office run this afternoon
• Deadlifts Saturday
• OHP Sunday
• Spend time with hubs. Aside from some errand-running yesterday and the stuff that will happen this evening, I feel like we are ships in the night a bit right now. We should have time to sit and share a meal out later today so that should be a nice pause.

 

[sylph]

22 hours ago, starpuck said:

Oof you reminded me to get tax stuff together a bit.   I like to get a jump on that heh.

I love lists, and love striking things off them.  I think I might start making bigger lists (of things I do easily) just for the added boost of feeling good about doing a thing!

 

Our taxes are going to be a PITA this year, but... what can you do?

And yes, you have hit on my strategy. Put things on the list for the joy of crossing them off. I did this on paper for years and found it immensely satisfying and a useful way to stay on track. I'm trying it here both to keep me on track and to make me come and update my thread on the regular. We'll see if it works.

 

If I ever get my office organized at all, I may swap back to the paper list for the tactile joy of it. As it stands, my desk is too much of a disaster and the list would just get lost.

 

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

That's some amazing consistency! Love the scale. 

 

Hope the kittens get an equally loving home.  

Thanks! I already feel like I'm slacking off, but since I've already made it to the 'shit happens' level this week (and yes, there is some shit happening, so that's fair), if I can get tomorrow's lifting in, I'll be happy with that.

And even if I don't get tomorrow's lifting in, there's enough going on that I'm okay with that, too.

 

 I noticed that one is posted on the website this morning. I don't know if that means the other has been adopted already or what, but I am hopeful for them.

[starpuck]

27 minutes ago, sylph said:

tactile joy

I feel like I need to either write a song with this title, or create another theoretical band.

 

[sylph]

• Clean carrier, food bowls, litter box, etc. from kitten room (litter box is scooped and 'clean' but needs the rest of the old litter dumped and the box itself needs to be scrubbed and sanitized) Food bowls cleaned, old/clean litter dumped. About to go take the carrier, litter box and mat out into the yard and scrub them out as soon as I finish my post-deadlift protein
• Finish cleaning second bathroom
• Empty & reload dishwasher Done--this (not surprisingly needs emptying again.)
• Do dishes Done
• Meal plan--and then grocery shop (probably Saturday, at this point) Nope. Sunday, now, I guess?
• Afternoon/evening running around with hubs today & tomorrow Done
• Dye hair -- meant to do this the weekend after Thanksgiving and still haven't managed to do it. My roots are ridiculous at this point. Probably another weekend project. Probably also Sunday
• Start organizing tax stuff
• Scrub cat fountain 
• Yardwork--there's some ivy growing up the side of the house that really needs taking care of. And some general upkeep stuff that's due. Plus the weeds from the lanai are still taunting me. It's been pretty rainy the last couple days, so hopefully this weekend will be nice enough to get out there and make a dent. We aren't in embarrassing territory (yet) but I would like to not fall terribly far behind on house maintenance stuff.
• Post office run this afternoon Done
• Deadlifts Saturday Done
• OHP Sunday
• Spend time with hubs. Aside from some errand-running yesterday and the stuff that will happen this evening, I feel like we are ships in the night a bit right now. We should have time to sit and share a meal out later today so that should be a nice pause. Done. Had dinner and a good chat so that was good. 

 

So, I'm liking my running tally here. Not sure how it really relates to the categories I laid out earlier in the thread, but we'll see how it goes once the week is finished.

 

On the plus side, I've hit my third workout/week so I'm happy with that.