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Good luck!

I'm glad you stayed safe!

Hey all. Been a real whirlwind challenge. Saturday night we had 10 people over somehow all in the living room. Drinking / music / horror films. 2am and people still going, i drank alcohol free beer until 1.30am - then moved onto tea HAHA Funny and strange to be sober, with a cup of tea, whilst everyone else is doing tequila shots!!!! 😯 Everton won on Sunday for the first time in forever. And we hung out with our friend all afternoon/evening. Took Bronze who had a blast with their dog. I went to the docs, they think i have tendonitis. So need to get ibuprofen gel. me and Roxy are going to try to eat less meat. I have got some veggie chicken to try tonight. I hope i like it. Its the main thing i never liked (i prefer veggie mince and i like veggie sausages etc but never found chicken that i like) It is a new one so fngers crossed. Love you all xx

Hormones and eventually a razor has solved this problem for me .

W4D7: one DPZ in the morning. I fasted until the evening, then I ate a light dinner. That seemed to jumpstart the hunger sharks again, and my subsequent evening snacking ran the day's total almost up to target. 1706 kcal for the only green day of the week. Week 4 Check-in: 214.6 lbs on the scale, which is a little higher than I anticipated. Looks like this is going to be my first challenge since respawning that ends higher than it started. That was bound to happen eventually. W5D1: one regular DrP and a bunch of DPZs. Eating was way high. Morning was consumed with church duties, which was nice, then I did some shopping on the way home. I spent the afternoon and early evening in the kitchen doing meal preps (week's lunches and Sunday family dinner), then the rest of the day was just chilling with games and YouTube. W5D2: woke up cruddy again and took another sick day. I stuck to one DPZ in the late morning, but I didn't bother to rein in my calories and I didn't do anything for Move either. Spent the whole day on the couch surfing YouTube and eating all the remaining gluten-free foods and snacks I bought/made over the weekend. I was finally able to get a good night's sleep without any cold medicine last night, and I woke up this morning feeling much better. Let's hope that translates to a good streak for the remainder of this week.

Hunger didn't stay quelled for long, and the illness (or its effects) is being stubborn. I keep thinking I've kicked it, but then a coughing fit will jack up my sleep. Hope to be rid of it soon. I wish I could think of a couple easy wins to shoot for, but at the moment I'm kind of stuck. I got my performance appraisal at work last week which was excellent. I did manage to fix a toilet at home on Friday, so that was nice. My guitar playing at church on Sunday was pretty not bad. Fitness-wise I made a tasty meatloaf with mashed potatoes for this week's lunch prep. I'll take those.

Blue raspberry!! That's not my favorite, but I do like that it turns my tongue blue. Did you have these pops as a kid too? And thanks! I'm really excited. Like it feels like old school summer vacation!

Grape and blue raspberry! I hope you really enjoy the break and feel restored in the fall.

DANGIT!! How? How did so much happen in the last few weeks that I thought the challenge was closed and Reflection Week was nearly over? Okay, Universe, I hear you!!!! Anyway, steady is the course for the next ten days as we do the rest of the work that is in front of us. ❤️

and this is not to be sniffed at! I've got so much better at declining food I don't need and freezing things for later but Past Me was the worst for it...

Monday BJJ Training went well. We continued with back attacks. Straight jacket to the overhook, hip in to roll your opponent to their belly, dismount to the strangle/overhook side. Walk your body over their should then turn your belly up to strangle. I had a great roll with Stan, it was well over ten minutes and we were both gassed at the end. We started from standing and both times we were standing he tried to pul guard and I caught it and just stepped around. We had a variety of sweeps and passes but we both attempted to work our bottom kimura game which mean we both got to practice defending that as well. It made me got much deeper into it, having an opponent who was actively working the same mechanics. At one point I abandon the kimura and went for a baseball bat choke and it got close. I could feel that panicked fight come on. However he moved the correct way and it loosened up. The biggest thing he kept trying to work was his three attempts at back stepping my halfguard for the leg lock. The first time I shoulder clamped him and took top. The second time I scooted under and he turned to face me so we ended up neutral. The third time I just could not make my body react fast enough and he got to the leg lock and that was the end of the round. Monday night was Arkham Horror with a friend. It was a single worst game I think we've ever played. We had mediocre builds, bad tactics and a dose of bad luck and by about 4 turns in it was obvious that we weren't going to win. Two more turns later and Jeff was out so we called it. Ah well. We'll try again in a couple weeks Tuesday This morning was my practice run on the new schedule. I got up at the usual time. i didn't really need a pregym shower but given that I'll need one for BJJ next week, I took one. Headed over to the rec. It was busier than I expected Leg Extension 60: 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, Leg Curl 60: 19,18, 17, 16, 15 Sumo Squat 210: 10, 10, 9 Cable Curl 35: 17, 13, 11 Cable Tricep Extension 40: 22, 17, 13 I came home and had my oatmeal that I prepped in advance and have just been enjoyiung some downtime. Time to get to work those, eight straight hours.

Ugh, hope this stabilises enough for you to get what you want done 🤞

Ah ok yeah - I guess there are different types of ill, and there are definitely times I require eg chocolate for emotional reasons. Glad you're feeling better, and hope the swim goes well if you decided you were well enough to go. Also very fair to think about how achievable your targets were/are - learning for next time is still a worthwhile exercise

Grounded walk was a win! It ended up being a very nice day - not too hot, not too cold. I was still in a sweater, but I wasn't freezing which was nice compared to the morning when I was! Today started rough so far. I've been sleeping awful and, although I'm getting enough sleep, my sleep cycles are wonky and I'm not getting enough REM/deep sleep. This morning I didn't wake up to my watch vibration alarm (goes off about 20 seconds before the Man's) but I was jolted awake from a very intense dream by his obnoxiously loud alarm. I tossed and turned all night and know I was awake far more than I should've been simply trying to get comfortable (impossible it seems). Chest day suffered a bit due to that. I just didn't have the energy or the care to really try. The only thing that increased was my finisher- dumbbell bench press. Even then, it wasn't really an increase, it's just that the 20lb weights were always taken when I was doing that so I had to drop down to 15s for 10-12 reps the last couple weeks. I did one set with 15lbs and then the guy returned the 20s so I finished my last 2 sets with those. An increase but not really an increase. My shoulder has popped out of socket a couple times today. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not focused, I'm weaker due to being tired, or because it's weaker after I accidentally popped it out last night working on the truck. No matter what, it's a bit sore even sitting here at my desk so I'll need to be mindful/careful of it since we have back/shoulders tomorrow. Food is good. Dinner was less flavorful than I had hoped but I was also rushing it a bit. My own fault. Overall, I think the ingredient prep with a tentative meal plan is the way to go - I know what recipes I have ingredients prepped for and I can adjust from there. I need to start looking at meal prep for next week. I'm not going to have much time to prep at all since I'll be crunched even getting the groceries. I've been taking a look at the Coach's app for balanced macro meal idea and favoriting a few to try. I forgot to log the 1/2 mango the Man gave me at lunch (leftover from his lunch so it wouldn't go bad) so I ended up 20g over on carbs for the day. That's okay, this week is learning and seeing where I stand. I'm inputting my breakfast, lunch, and figuring out what sounds best regarding dinner (chicken burrito bowl, chicken burrito in tortilla, chicken taco salad, etc.) and logging that so I can see where I stand. Yesterday I should've had a piece of bread with my soup (along with the mango) rather than 2 slices of bread with my dinner which didn't quite fit well together. Today I'll see the basic meals and improvise the sides and snacks around them to meet macro goals as closely as I can. Mundane Magic was all completed yesterday since it ended up being a nice day later in the morning. I was able to Greet the Day when I let the dogs out and then we went on a delightful walk after I finished eating lunch. I managed to squeeze in Rune and Oracle very late in the day yesterday, but got it done. I've already finished Rune and Oracle for today - I told myself I couldn't hop on here until that was done. I still have a Full Moon Ritual/Tarot spread to do today so I needed to knock out the other things right away if I was going to have any hope of finishing it all on top of work. Today is still supposed to be clear so I'll aim to take the dogs for a walk after lunch again and get that walking meditation. Yesterday it forecast rain starting tomorrow through the weekend but it seems tomorrow might be clear around lunch with rain starting later. Hopefully as I imagine a walking meditation is so much easier/better outside in nature than on a walking pad indoors. Plus the dogs can go with when I go outside hah! Budget is good. As of today I have what we owe for our half of the summer vacation set aside - I'll just need to pull the money from an ATM before we go see Fam next (this weekend?). That will make me feel much better to not have that debt looming over me. It is much easier for me to deal with debt to banks than to friends or family. I've adjusted my budget to account for these things and feeling confident I can get it taken care of quickly. My bank also refunded me the $13~ from the Uber charges I didn't make so my credit card is under $7k again. I just have the other card with $700 I need to pay down as well. Very doable as long as I stay mindful. This weekend is the only travel plans we have until June that I know of so I should be okay there. No work on MBA yet, the Man wanted to get started on the truck before the rain comes in so hopefully we can finish the big stuff before it gets too miserably hot to be working outside. I think maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get started helping him. We figured out a plan that he'll talk me through it (he's better at talking things through than writing) and I'll create an outline based on his talking points and the rubric for this paper. From there, he can expand on my outline to create the paper and I'll then edit the paper (using my outline as a reference to be sure we stuck to the rubric). I think that's it. A lot of ramblings but I'm so exhausted and I had to take a lot of breaks typing this up. Wish me luck today, I'll need it. I hope today is smooth sailing on a beautiful sunny day ❤️

Booo, lost all the things as my laptop froze mid typing... Wfh yester, ran, lunch cycle, physio, kettlebells, weights and extra walking to/from pilates. Got into bed on time but spent a bunch of time on my phone catching up with correspondence until 11pm so no time to read. Need to work out a way to improve this really, I don't get enough reading in. Basically much exercisies to get much pointies. Yesterday: 🥗 10pts 🏃‍♀️ 5pts 🚲 5pts 🚶‍♀️5pts 🌞 5pts 🦵 5pts 🫖 5pts 🏋️‍♀️ 5pts 🛏️ 10pts Total: 850pts OK, feeling a little better about total points for this challenge...

Food Shopping today. So pretty done in now. Managed to get some orzo though so am definitely going to make the orzo soup. Did some more to this weeks bujo pages (which i realised id forgotten to draw). Thought id post some half done ones so people can see the guide lines and things as i often find this helpful to myself when learning. Just finished book 2 of Cassandra gannons fairytale books, beast in shining armour. Which is kind of a remix of beauty and the beast. Really enjoyed this one too. Very interesting characters again. have been looking back through my bujo and the time im getting to sleep is definitely slipping a tad. Need to be more careful with that as it does help. Also need to be working more fruit in at lunch.

Didn't make it to bell practice last night; was getting to the point where I was worried that I wouldn't be safe to drive. Good news; I do have my narcolepsy meds now. Should be doing better quickly. Plan for today Change out cat litter ✔️ Listen to praise music✔️ Put lotion on feet✔️ Work✔️ Drink bottle of plain water✔️ Get med from FedEx✔️ Bell choir practice Brush and floss✔️ In bed by 10✔️ Plan for today Listen to praise music Put lotion on feet Work Drink bottle of plain water Shower Do dishes Cook 2nd meal Do dishes made while cooking Brush and floss In bed by 10

Nic helped me put together one of the red bookcases on Sunday evening, and that means that now only have seven items left to assemble. I'd like to have these done over the next couple weeks. I also have a few furniture pieces that have no home, and probably need to get given away. I'd like to play with the arrangement of things once everything is assembled and see if these pieces are useful or need to find a new home. I miss having an herb garden. Just in general, I love having herbs around, but specifically lemon balm (for heat relief) and basil (becuase basil). I have some window box planters that are empty and I think I might set up some herbs in them and place them near the dining table or at the back of the kitchen counter between the sink and the living room space. Happy full moon! It's officially the end of eclipse season! What has been revealed to you or culminated into fruition since March 25th? I can't believe that was only a few weeks ago; it seems like ancient history. I like to go to a favorite farm and pick strawberries at the end of April / beginning of May as a way to put the semester behind me and welcome in summer, and I invited Nic to come with me on Saturday to pick strawberries. I'll likely need to have the afternoon and evening to work on the novel and the legislation spreadsheet, but I'm looking forward to having a whole mess of local strawberries. I wrote another 750 words yesterday on the novel (total is now 11,900; goal is 90,000). Keep watching for word counts, since this is a big project that needs to come into the world. I have an agent at Folio who asked for a full manuscript, and I'd like to deliver it in August or so, definitely by the end of Challenge 6 (September 1). The beginning work of writing always seems impressive (look, another thousand words!!), but that's because it is like starting a campaign with a first level character. Going from level 1 to 2 is a lot different than leveling up from 11 to 12. I had given up on acupuncture, with the Other Acupuncturists not really fitting my needs after My Acupuncturist retired. When I met with my Jedi Council (Quaker small group) yesterday, one of them mentioned a new-to-town acupuncturist that he really likes, so I made an appointment for next week. Fingers crossed. I fell asleep at 8:30 last night and slept until 6. I woke up with a headache (weather changes -- it's downright cold this morning) and read some news before logging in. The president of my university is floating a proposal to absorb the faculty-driven senate into a trustee-driven body, effectively stripping the faculty of any policy voice in what seems to be an obvious power grab. I wrote to my advisor and asked for some time to discuss this next week, since it seems unthinkable to me, and yet it is likely to pass. Academia is broken, and it seems to be crumbling in real time around me. I am very much looking forward to completing my degree. I don't know if I'll continue with the library degree afterwards, though since it's essentially a vocational degree, it seems to be a program that fits well in the new-Academia™ model. The current timeline looks like Qualifying Exam in the summer of 2025, then dissertation the year after, PhD awarded in May 2026. I imagine the academic landscape will look measurably different by then. The weather has mee sleepy and wanting to hunker down under blankets, despite the good rest of last night. I have a much-needed massage later this morning, otherwise I would still be in my flannel nightgown. Chances are good that I'll come home from the appointment and take a shower and be right back into the nightgown-with-tea mode, and I'm looking forward to it.

My friends, I have posted on my battle log that I am taking some time off from May-September to make art and relax. I have spreadsheets ready for the rest of the year, so before I run off into the woods with a box of crayons and bag of snacks, how would you like to deal with this? I can share the links to the whole group for the upcoming spreadsheets, or hand it over to one person with the copy for the first post of each challenge. Also, if you have other ideas/suggestion, let's discuss and decide together!

Good news, my mammogram results came back and they are fine! I'm also looking at my hair today and am really glad I made the appointment. I really don't know what went wrong here. It looks like one haircut stacked on another haircut. I think I may come out of it with one length. Last week I said I think I need a break, but I wasn't sure what that meant. What I really want to do is take the summer offline. I want to go play outside, eat popsicles and read books and work on my art a lot. I'm stuck in caregiving mode right now, and I don't need to be and that's super stressful. Everyone passed all their healthy tests so we can relax this summer. I want to really stop and remember what being an artist feels like. Also, I want to have fun. I don't feel very fun these days. I feel grouchy and irritable and withdrawn. I also need a break from thinking about weight loss and obsessing about my health. I just want to exercise and eat well and not think about scales, blood pressure, heart rates, and evaluating all my choices that week and what I need to do next week. With Bert the nephew coming to live with us in the fall, I feel like taking this time to kinda reset is really important so I feel really relaxe and good about me when he comes in and pees on the toilet seat and I say "Bert, if you sprinkle when you tinkle please be neat and wipe the seat." Honestly, even without him coming to live here, I need a break so that's what I'm going to do. I'm gonna make art, go outside and play, and relax from May to September. I'm really excited for this! Now the important bit: popsicle flavors! What's your favorite? I love orange and grape!

WOOHOO!

That's where Mr.R and I are currently 😬 we want to move so bad and get more land but everything is expensive, it would be nice to pay more off of our current house and I need a job.

Whoa, worth it!