[DarK_RaideR]

I blame @Jarric and his silly Fatboy Slim themed one-shot Dnd session for all this, really...

 

 

This is my brain on drugs work

 

Simple as that. I'm spending a large chunk of my day working so there's not much chance for anything else. Wanna make sure I keep on keeping on and not burn out. Not just stay afloat, but surf the damn waves even.

 

Eat

Switching back to full-on Zone diet. Weekends are for meal planning, bulk cooking and long term grocery shopping. Spend some time and brainpower there and then so I don't need to bother with this throughout the week. Bring food and snacks to work, obviously. Track weight whenever I remember too. By the way, 97,1kg is the benchmark number. Not great, not terrible.

 

Sleep

I'm running on less and less sleep. It's piling on and bound to crash. Gotta make a conscious effort to get more rest. That's kind of it, just be more mindful about my nightly sleep total.

 

Rave

Anything fun-related falls under this bit. Dumbbell workouts are also fun, so I'm putting them here as well, though I'm not pretending like I'm able to do them on a consistent schedule or at the same weight. Sticking to the order of Eat-Sleep-Rave-Repeat though. No fun stuff if it's at the expense of the two other things that come before it. Those are the foundation. If I gotta sacrifice fun stuff to make sure I eat right and more importantly, get enough sleep, then so be it.

 

Should be pretty obvious, but part of being super busy means updates are gonna be pretty short.

[DarK_RaideR]

Challenge day 1: Monday, May 8th

Eat: I'd planned, shopped and done some cooking during the weekend, so I was able to ease myself into this. Spot-on day.

Sleep: Stayed up till 3am prepping work stuff for a court the next day. Woke up at 6:30 on Tuesday morning. Stuff like this is why sleep's so high on the priority list.

Rave: I mean, the sleep bit kinda leaves zero space for fun stuff, right?

[Heidi]

20 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Not just stay afloat, but surf the damn waves even

Here for this.

❤️ 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Here for support old friend.

Sleep well.

[TimovieMan]

As someone who struggles with the "sleep" part as well, I'm here for support!

 

[WhiteGhost]

Being super busy is tough and draining, both physically and emotionally, but it still beats the heck out of unemployment.  I hope you manage to get some good sleep

[DarK_RaideR]

16 hours ago, Heidi said:

Here for this.

❤️

 

15 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Here for support old friend.

Sleep well.

Welcome, both of you.

 

10 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

As someone who struggles with the "sleep" part as well, I'm here for support!

As someone who never had trouble falling or staying asleep, it feels genuinely weird to now have a sleep goal. And it's not the usual "no screens before bedtime " stuff.

 

2 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Being super busy is tough and draining, both physically and emotionally, but it still beats the heck out of unemployment

Word.

[DarK_RaideR]

Challenge day 2: Tuesday, May 9th

Eat: I was on point, but then I coordinated a couple of great coworkers to help another from out of town. She was thrilled enough to send us all a box of small éclairs at the office, freshly made by a shop that specializes in churros. Delicious. Still, I only ate a couple at work (one after lunch, one during scheduled snacktime) and the three that were left over once I left. I did however skip dinner, so it kinda balances things out.

Sleep: After the rise comes the fall. As soon as I got home, I went to bed around 19:30 and woke up around 1:30. Cats came in purring for a snuggle, so I immediately fell asleep again and woke up at 6:30. That's... 11 hours of sleep, if my math is right.

Rave: No time for anything besides work and sleep.

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

As someone who never had trouble falling or staying asleep, it feels genuinely weird to now have a sleep goal. And it's not the usual "no screens before bedtime " stuff.

Just getting to bed at an appropriate time instead of trying to do *all the things* first is the. biggest. hurdle. 😅

 

I added a curfew to my challenge for this exact reason. If I respect the curfew, the actual sleep part will usually take care of itself... 😇

[Jarric]

21 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I blame @Jarric and his silly Fatboy Slim themed one-shot Dnd session for all this, really...

 

Pleased to be a source of inspiration

 

11 hours of sleep sounds good! I always think that I need to catch up on a sleep deficit before I feel better - it's not enough to get 7 hours a night and assume I'll get over that one night where I had 3.

[Heidi]

4 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

As soon as I got home, I went to bed around 19:30 and woke up around 1:30. Cats came in purring for a snuggle, so I immediately fell asleep again and woke up at 6:30.

This is good. 
When I was first trasitioning back to the hella work schedule, I did this for several months. If this is what's needed, it's needed. I suspect you will find an equilibrium soon, Ranger. And I'm glad you got some sleep.

❤️ 

[RES]

I feel like we're living parallel lives with just eating and sleeping...here to support you my friend 🥰

[DarK_RaideR]

So glad to see each and every one of you around ❤️

 

Is it any surprise that I got caught up with work (and a good chunk of sleep, if I'm being fair) and already fallen behind on my challenge updates? Probably not.

 

Challenge day 3: Wednesday, May 10th

Eat: I don't remember the details, but I've been on point with my eating schedule so there's no slip-up to report here.

Sleep: Just regular sleep. Didn't make the extra effort to go to bed early, but having a court hearing the next day put the necessary pressure on me to not stay up late. Also, the hearing on the next morning was an hour later than usual, so I could get some more lazy time before I had to get out of bed.

Rave: I have no memory of doing anything special, think I just cooked something and went to bed.

 

 

Challenge day 4: Thursday, May 11th

Eat: On point yet again.

Sleep: Eh, went to bed at 2am so not great. On the bright side, it's the end of the working week so should be able to catch up pretty quick.

Rave: I got a message from a friend on my way back home that he'd received a traffic ticket, so I took the time to sit down and type some legalese for his objection papers. In doing so, I forgot it was actually Thursday and the online OSR group had a game day until they pinged my that they'd put my character on autopilot and once again, he'd fallen unconscious, rightfully earning himself the "sleepyhead" nickname. I did get to join them for a bit once I was done though, so that's something.

[Heidi]

On 5/12/2023 at 3:23 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Is it any surprise that I got caught up with work (and a good chunk of sleep, if I'm being fair) and already fallen behind on my challenge updates? Probably not.

Doing the goals is the right thing.

Of course we love your updates 😊 but doing the goals is what matters.

 

Good job staying on point with food. I have a wicked-hard time keeping that particular plate spinning in the right direction when work sucks every minute up. Well done.

 

Hoping you're getting some quality rest, and that the Rave moments are excellent.

[DarK_RaideR]

Challenge day 5: Friday, May 12th

Eat: Schedule, bulk cooking and bringing food to work are paying dividends. I did stop for a beer after work, but made up for it by eliminating carbs from my dinner.

Sleep: Not great. Slept late and had to wake up early next morning for a haircut appointment.

Rave: Guess the drink bit will have to do. Got friends who work there, so it was fun to catch up.

 

 

Challenge day 6: Saturday, May 13th

Eat: I made crepes for breakfast, so it wasn't all by the book. Don't feel like I significantly slipped though.

Sleep: Aye, went to bed around 10-11pm and woke up late the next day.

Rave: Not much to report. The sleep was excellent.

[DarK_RaideR]

I think it's safe to assume by this point that I won't be able to keep track of day-to-day progress on this challenge. I have, regardless, been keeping up with my stated challenge goals and will continue to do so until the scheduled challenge end.

 

Eating has been on-point until May 19th, more or less. Travelled to my home town for elections and after my dad's nameday dinner, I kinda dropped off the strict schedule. Didn't go overboard or anything, but I haven't been sticking within zone diet parameters either. Also, I'd cooked all edible supplies before my trip to prevent them from going bad, which means I came back to an empty kitchen with zero time to grab any supplies (left the office at 22:00 yesterday, to give you an idea). Gonna have to soldier on till the weekend, when I'll be able to get things back in order once more.

 

Sleep has been hit and miss, the trip home and election days off allowed me to catch up on sleep. Haven't been running on a serious deficit, but it's far from stellar as well.

 

[Heidi]

This is a soldiering on time, and they kind of suck, mostly because just as you get your footing on one front, things change, or go long, or get disrupted in other ways.

For what it's worth, I think that you're doing great just staying the course right now.

Proud of you.

[darkfoxx]

https://giphy.com/gifs/sad-arrested-development-disappointed-oXB0K4oFw3fck
 

[darkfoxx]

Just now, darkfoxx said:

https://giphy.com/gifs/sad-arrested-development-disappointed-oXB0K4oFw3fck
 

Not sad and disappointed, head down and keep plugging away! 

[Jarric]

Hey man, good job on sticking with your goals as best you can. I'm with you that a trip or a few late work days can throw things out, but it sounds like you're sticking to the spirit of your goals when you can't stick to the letter. That should make stepping back into your goals at the weekend easier.

[DarK_RaideR]

On 5/24/2023 at 2:48 PM, DarK_RaideR said:

I think it's safe to assume by this point that I won't be able to keep track of day-to-day progress on this challenge.

It's been a wild ride and I've been ultra busy, as you can probably guess. However, I've made progress, just not on my original goals.

 

Eat: Since the last update, I've fallen off the Zone Diet train. This has mostly to do with the amount of time, focus and effort (and money) required to plan, shop and execute all this stuff involving fresh vegetables and home cooked meals. Out-of-town travels haven't helped this either. However, I've still been mindful of my eating and although it hasn't always been stellar, I haven't completely messed it up either.

Sleep: Haven't been really paying attention to this, but I can't recall a single day that sleep (or lack thereof) was an issue. Even on a single night where I was unable to fall asleep until 4am, I had the chance to wake up late the morning after and still get enough sleep.

Rave: Fun times have been had, more or less. Not complaining.

Bonus: Couple of weeks back, I ran out of rolling papers for my smokes. Part boredom and part due to being super busy, I didn't bother to get any for a few days, so I decided to keep that streak going. Bummed a single cig from a friend few days back, didn't feel like I was having something I missed or enjoyed, so I've stuck with it since. Guess I quit smoking again, huh.

[Jarric]

8 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Guess I quit smoking again, huh.

 

Well done man, that's awesome! Sounds like you've been doing well on your goals too, despite being so busy.

[Heidi]

I like the reflections.

Nicely done!

This is what being in partnership with the Universe looks like.

❤️ 

[RES]

On 6/10/2023 at 2:04 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Guess I quit smoking again, huh.

Sounds like it  great job!

[DarK_RaideR]

Pft, this challenge didn't even make it to a second page. Tells you all you need to know.

 

See you on the flip side.