Laureleye - The road goes on

[Laureleye]

My quest for the rest of the Calendar year (at least) is just to take care of myself. 

 

Goal 1:  Eat right.   I will track on MFP; eat a minimum of 1400 calories, not exceeding my burned calories by more than 50.  Hoping to avoid junk but not setting anything specific for this.  1 star/day for staying within target, with bonus star for no grains.

Goal 2:  Take care of me.  Take supplements and medications at the correct time.  Saline rinse; 3 days a week.  I couldn't really do this while traveling, so I need to put the habit back in place.

Goal 3:  Stay in motion.  3 workouts/week.  Minimum 2 strength.  Bonus if the workout exceeds 1 hour.

 

Life goal:  Ave 2 hours/week on creativity.  Knitting, needlepoint, furniture finishing, etc.  I've found a great throw pattern to make for my "old" assistant who just got married, so that will be priority one.

 

[Laureleye]

Well I feel like I'm finally started on this challenge.  I didn't get a workout in, but it looks like I'll make 10,000 steps.  Got caught up on my grocery shopping and some other errands and ate well; I'll be within my target, but just barely.  For some reason, there were cookies everywhere at work today, and I succumbed to one of them.  Oh well, I guess it will take me a couple of days to get rolling.

 

I noticed that it's nearly Frodo and Bilbo's birthday, so I thought I'd start a trip to Mordor.  I've got almost a week to locate a Mordor spreadsheet. 

[CrimsonTide2006]

Great job with the 10k steps!

[Laureleye]

Well, I guess it's just going to take me a whole week to get my act together for this challenge.  Yikes! 

Today went better.  I was right on the money eating & no grains.  Gee, if I'd made a chart a could put stars on it, couldn't I?

Got in my meds and all, but still no saline rinse.  I did go buy a new kit late this evening, so at least I'll be ready tomorrow.  I got my yarn ordered for the wedding afghan, and found the Mordor spreadsheet.  I'm doing a little work on it so it will sum things up & tell me what my last milestone was.  I got the first leg all set up, so I'll be ready to start this Monday (even though Frodo started on the 23rd of September). 

[ShadowLion]

It can be hard getting back into a routine after being gone for awhile. Give yourself a little time to get into the swing of things. Glad you are back!

[captncid]

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[Laureleye]

I've ended up skipping week 1 & started my challenge today.  I had a great day:

Eating:  Right on target...but grains.  *

Workout:  Strength training, plus a finisher!  *

Meds:  *

Hygiene:  *

Creativity: 45 min.  Didn't knit though.  I'm working on some minor house hold redecorating and had a consultation with a designer from Calico Corners.  She had some great ideas on change things for max flexibility and keeping the cost down. 

 

Today is also Frodo & Bilbo's birthday, so I've started my trip to Mordor with a bit over 5 miles.

 

I had such a hard time sorting myself out when I came back.  I think coming home to my big old empty house hit very hard.  I haven't made any firm decisions yet, but I've decided to do some things that will allow me more flexibility in the next 6 months or so.  To begin with, I not only am struggling with taking care of the house and yard by myself, I can't afford to live here after I retire.  So no matter what happens, I'm looking at down-sizing a bit.  My sister used to live next door in an 800 SqFt apartment, and so I played "what would I keep if I was moving into a place that size?"  I could close my eyes and see what would and wouldn't be in it.  A friend is upsizing, so I've sold her a bedroom suite (tho she hasn't taken possession yet).  Looked through the garage & made a quick list of what I would keep.  Got my nephew coming to help me on Saturday.  Hopefully I'll know when it's time to make the next step.

 

I've decided to take advantage of the free garage-sale day coming up, so I'm furiously prepping things.  I also visited my financial guy and we laid out new financial plans.  Got my star charts made up.  Prepped 2 breakfasts and 3 lunches.  Researching credit cards, paid off my line of credit, and paid up all my bills.  Whew!

[Laureleye]

Good day at work today; I'm knocking out the user documentation so we can finally roll out our smart phones.  I was a bit late leaving work but still managed to do most of my home stuff except I had to cut out the creativity.  I baked a kabocha and a spaghetti squash; this is my first try for a kabocha so we'll see how I like it. 

Tracking:  on target and no grains **

Workout:  No workout day

Meds:  *

Hygiene:  *

Saline:  *

made 5.5 more miles towards Mordor.  Still in the Shire!

[ShadowLion]

It makes sense that coming back to the big old empty house would throw you It sounds like you are being wise to go for maximum flexibility while you sort it all . Good for you on all the financial planning, research, and paying things off!

[Laureleye]

Well, maybe I was a week late starting, but I'm on a roll!

Tracking - on target & no grains **

Workout - Strength + finisher + mailbox walk! *

Meds - *

Hygiene - *

Saline - (not planned)

Creativity - 0.  My cat was apparently soooooooo lonely!  She hopped up in my lap, and I couldn't reach my knitting.  Oh, and she ate my homework too.

 

Walk to Mordor -  6 miles...and I'm still in the Shire.  If I can figure out how, I'll post my spiffified spreadsheet.

[ShadowLion]

Woot for the being on a roll! Looking forward to seeing the spreadsheet!

[Laureleye]

Woot for the being on a roll! Looking forward to seeing the spreadsheet!

Couldn't upload because the file format was prohibited???  I am clearly doing something wrong.  I'll beat my head against it over the weekend when I have more patience.

 

Another good day today.

Tracking - on target & no grains **

Workout - (none planned)

Meds - *

Hygiene - *

Saline - *

Creativity - 45 minutes of knitting

Walk to mordor - 5.3 miles for a total of 22.4 so far this week, and yes that means I'm still in the Shire.

Exciting news on the kitty-cat front.  She has started going outside more frequently and hiding less.  She hopped up on the sofa (!) while I was knitting and sat with me and we played flashlight tag again.  Happy to see her perking back up and maybe the diet is working too.

[Fonzico]

Nice! It sounds like once you got rolling, you really got rolling

 

Good luck with the downsizing! I know it can be difficult sometimes, but certainly worth it in the end. And there's no sense in paying for/maintaining so much more space than you need.

[Laureleye]

A bunch of monitors arrived today, so I got in a little lifting moving them around.  I installed my own; it's our first touch-screen and I wanted to get a feel for it. 

 

Tracking - on target & no grains **

Workout - Downtown orienteering.  I wandered down 8th street sort of looking over lofts and such.  I also got in a mailbox loop so I'm over 14,000 steps for the day.

Meds - *

Hygiene - *

Saline - (not planned)

Creativity - Had a cider...so no knitting.  But the kitty joined me again (and slept on my knitting bag). 

Walk to mordor - 6.4 miles for a total of 29 so far this week.

 

I looked some things over in the china cabinet and set some stuff aside to go.  Some of the downsizing will be hard, but I think the relief will outweigh it in the end.  I've already decided to thin down my hakata dolls by giving some to my niece and nephew.  Right now though, I'm focusing on stuff for the yard sale in 2 weeks. 

[Fonzico]

Now that my phone has a pedometer that doesn't drain the battery, I finally have something of an idea what so many steps are actually like... And 14000 is impressive! Haha I was so proud of myself for hitting 7000 the other day. Well done!

[Laureleye]

I love walking.  Got another 6+ miles in today just having fun.  I've got several things sort of going at once.  One is my upcoming garage sale.  I went through several cabinets.  The it occurred to me an inventory would be useful.  So I made an inventory of all of my furniture, art works, and decorations.  I've coded most of them with their future priority, and noted a couple of more to garage sale.  I still need enough stuff to make the house look used if/when I put it on the market, but now I've got a plan.

The other major thing going is planning fixes & minor upgrades for the house so that it will show well (although the location will give me a huge boost).  One is to reupholster my living room set.  One of my other kitties (who is in the big catnip field in the sky) scratched some stuff pretty badly.  Had my 2nd appointment with the designer and think I'm ready to start next week with my love seat.

 

Tracking/eating:  one target but with some grains.  *

Workouts:  None planned, but over 13000 steps.

Meds:  *

Hygiene: *

Saline: 0

Creativity:  The cat and I knit for 45 minutes.

 

Walk to Mordor: over 7 miles, for a total of 36.5 so far. 

[Laureleye]

I stayed really busy today, and clocked 12,000 steps.  I'm this close to 42 miles for the week.  But I'll have to do better next week to make to Tom Bombadil's house.  I started off by rotating the compost and giving the kitchen a quick clean.  I've been pulling things out for my garage sale as I saw them, but today I went through the china cabinet and kitchen cabinets in a more orderly way.  Then I started marking them all.  I've still got a little more than 1 box of stuff left to mark, but everything else is caught up.  I also made 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 5 breakfast in advance.   

 

I had a great week 1 (I bailed on the 1st week of the challenge so I'll only have 5 weeks):

Tracking:  7/7.  No grains 4/7.

Workouts:  3/3, plus a lot of steps.  Two strength+finishers, but no workouts in excess of an hour.

Meds:  7/7

Hygiene:  7/7

Saline: 3/3

Creativity - 2.15 hrs.  I'd planned on more knitting tonight, but was too tired. 

 

I'm glad I called the designer and got started on the reupholstering project.  It makes if feel more like I'm redecorating - not like I'm cutting things.  I also got my financial plan reorganized, and made a lot of headway on my yard sale. 

[Fonzico]

Awesome week indeed - straight A's! Sounds like you had a really productive weekend in general. That always feels good!

 

Have a wonderful week (two, I guess)! I feel like I'm living in the future from you... Well, then, I must already know that week two is excellent for you. And I do, because it was. Is. Will be.

[ShadowLion]

Super week - you are really forging ahead on things! So glad the kitty is doing better, too.

[Tateman]

How has it taken me this long to find your thread!

 

Glad to see things are going well.  I am working my way up to your level of steps per day

[Laureleye]

Awesome week indeed - straight A's! Sounds like you had a really productive weekend in general. That always feels good!

 

Have a wonderful week (two, I guess)! I feel like I'm living in the future from you... Well, then, I must already know that week two is excellent for you. And I do, because it was. Is. Will be.

And I feel like I've run out the front door without a handkerchief. 

 

I got the week off to a good start, even though I didn't do a strength workout.  I had a headache, and couldn't take the idea of the workout - went for a good walk instead.

 

Tracking/eat:  on target & no grains **

Workout - *

Meds - *

Hygiene - *

Saline (not planned)

Creativity - 0 (went out to dinner with a friend)

 

Walk to Mordor:  I apparently snuck in just enough steps late Sunday to get my 42 miles for week 1.  I started out this week with 7 miles. 

 

I think I've found someone to do some decorator-sewing at a reasonable price.  The upholstery place wanted almost $80 to make a throw pillow! 

[Teros]

 Right now though, I'm focusing on stuff for the yard sale in 2 weeks. 

Good luck. I thought mine was going to be a disaster but then at the last minute, some guy wanted to buy literally 95% of the stuff in a huge mega-purchase. Made a couple hundred bucks.

[Laureleye]

Good luck. I thought mine was going to be a disaster but then at the last minute, some guy wanted to buy literally 95% of the stuff in a huge mega-purchase. Made a couple hundred bucks.

Wow - that's great when that happens.  I'll get a lot of foot traffic - I'm on the route to the local Starbucks.  We'll see how it goes.

 

Another pretty good day here

Tracking/eat:  on target & no grains **

Workout - (not planned)

Meds - *

Hygiene - *

Saline - *

Creativity - 60 minutes; I gathered pictures and design materials for my "seamstress". 

 

Walk to Morder:  5.9...hoping to hit 6 before I head for bed. 

[Tateman]

Hope the garage sale goes well for you.  

[Fonzico]

Another great day! Good luck with the garage sale, I hope it goes well.

 

Also, $80 for a throw pillow is highway freaking robbery. Seriously!