Ah, awesome that there are some hilly places near you. Yeah I'd go for a hilly walk each weekend. I wouldn't set a minimum at first--I'd just see where I'm at the first couple of times, then gradually push it longer and or add a backpack as the months progress, provided your recovery is adequate. You don't have to start immediately, but eventually I'd also do strength for the legs 2-3 times per week, not on consecutive days. Kettlebells are fine. You can do swings, or just hold them for squats and lunges or step ups if you have something to step up on to.  It's not about the minutes*, it's about the sets and reps. Pick a few exercises for the areas you want to strengthen. Pick a weight or difficulty level that you can do for anywhere from 5 to 30 reps. Do enough reps to get close to failure. Go ahead and start with one set for each exercise. You might alternate exercises so you're doing two different workouts. For example, maybe workout A focuses on quads and core, while Workout B focuses on posterior chain and back. Match the difficulty or weight to the reps so that it's not too easy or too hard. After a week or two, if you're recovering easily, add sets.  To summarise: exercise choice is based on what muscles you want to work number of exercises is whatever hits all your desired muscle groups and creates a workout that's not too long to recover from if you have more exercises than fit in one workout, you make two workouts and alternate them  reps are roughly 5-30 for strength and muscle weight/difficulty is matched to reps: meaning you make each set difficult enough that you could NOT have done loads more reps even if you wanted to sets are based on recovery capacity frequency is 2-3 times per week   *Well, it's about sets and reps for strength and muscle size (which translates to more strength). You could also do timed kettlebell work for endurance rather than strength/muscle. But I cannot tell you about endurance training as I know little about it. If only kettlebellgirl were here. In any case, I think walking and hiking will take care of the endurance, so I think the strength/muscle workouts would really add something uniquely useful. But I might be biased.    Then I'd track daily steps and establish a baseline. I probably wouldn't increase it *at the same time* as adding strength and hikes. But you could increase it later, if your recovery is adequate.    So yeah, month one I would: establish daily steps baseline without changing it, establish one hike each weekend with no set time or distance, start 2-3 strength sessions per week with minimal sets. If you don't think your recovery is good enough to start strength and hiking at the same time, you could just start hiking and add the strength in month 2. 

I don't disagree that veggies as part of a main dish count as veggies. I guess my hesitation was more of a question as to whether the veggies I put in this soup, split between 4-5 meals, was enough to meet the intention of eating more veggies. In this case, I think total quantity of veggies per meal is sort of borderline, but I'm willing to count it. If the dish had just one onion split across several meals, I think that wouldn't meet the intention I was trying to set.   I can share what (sort of) works for me. I really like that it takes most of the decision making out of prepping lunch. I take a bagel with cream cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and a little container with either cheez-its or homemade trail mix (cashews, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips).   This worked pretty well until I started going to the climbing gym after work. My guess is that it was enough calories to last until the end of the work day (or if it wasn't, I was okay with being a bit hungry because I was going home soon to have dinner), but now I need a bit more in the afternoon/early evening to have energy to get in a workout before dinner.

Hey Sov!! You look mega cool in the photo and I can't wait to see your maze 😃

Hey @Harriet   It's not majorly flat near me. I can quite easily get to hills in a short time !   Defo not short of hills!!!!   Bananas is a good one. I hate nuts tho apart from peanut butter 🫠     How would you start month 1?   One 2 hour minimum walk with hill per week?   3 other 30 minute minimum walks during the week?   3 sessions of 20 mins with a kettle bell??     Xx

Hello gorgeous!!!!! Love you too.   Thank you so much x

Just gotta let it run it's course. I've been doing scalding hot water on it. There's steroid creams to help the itch but I don't find they do much.    Hot water and dry it out lol. Steroid creams. 

I have done okay on taking time to do fun stuff. Not so great on getting to bed on time. I have been consistently getting to bed at 10:30, which is Not Enough Sleep.   I am feeling very close to my scream-and-run threshold at work. Nothing bad is happening, just two projects with deadlines today on top of the usual. I can tell I am stressed because I am eating a lot of chocolate. The chocolate also helps with not having enough sleep. I have switched to Ghirardelli 100% baking chocolate as the most economical option. A 4oz bar of baking chocolate is the same price as a 1.7oz (50g) bar of 100% chocolate from the candy aisle. The flavor profile is a bit more acidic, but I can live with that.   I have been good about the no caffeine, no dairy rule. I may have eaten a couple things with processed dairy in them. I am not counting processed cheese food powder as dairy. I also am not eating much of it. I will probably relax this rule in July.   Aikido is going okay. Getting up from falls is more work than it should be. That means I need more sleep and more strength training. I am also feeling the lack of sleep in not having the energy to do creative things. I have the idea of making shortbread, but not the spark to make it happen. We are out of batch-cooked food in the fridge. Maybe Elf or Dumbledore will cook something. If not, we have a lot of frozen burritos. I might have to pick up more frozen veggies. Dumbledore made a point of buying more salad stuff for me. 💓   My plan for tonight is to just do knee exercises and zen. Then get to bed EARLY for a change. I need to make a side dish for the aikido after-test party on Saturday. I can do that Friday if I plan it tomorrow.  

Thank you.    May the compassion and rest heal both James and me. I clearly need an extended recouperation plan.   After work I logged out and went in my dark-cool-quiet bedroom and sat back on the bed and closed my eyes, thinking some thoughts in a gentle light way for what felt like a few minutes. Friends, over two hours had passed, and clearly I needed it. I'm glad I gave myself permission not to go to Dance class yesterday. Bonny is wonderful, and I don't need to wreck myself.  I watched an episode and knit for a bit and was tired again. This is  good. But then when I went to bed, I kept snapping awake from fitful dreams, and no time had passed. I know this dance well, and it's all about anxiety and specifically about worry. Yes, I have a lot of detail, clerical work to "remember" to do the next day (as if I haven't added it to every list ever out of fear that I will forget something and drop the ball and the sky will fall and it will all be my fault for not paying enough attention). The only thing for it was to get up, make tea, and watch an episode while kniting. I went through this cycle several times before finally falling asleep-enough, which is mostly light sleep with bizarre dreams, but I don't actually wake back up. FitBit says I slept for about three hours, and that feels accurate.   Today's ToDoList work is done. My house is clean and my homework is done: I have sent the internship documents to Libary Shannon for her to make comments on, and we are meeting tomorrow morning to discuss them.  I made the chicken salad. Yesterday, I think. Anyway, it's pretty good, and Iam glad I have it on hand.  All that remains for today is workaday meetings and the evening things. Today is Farmer's Market Day and I'll be swinging by the market with a cooler-bag before going my violin lesson. If it doesn't make sense to drop the produce at the Loft afterwards, I'll definitely be asking if I can bring the bag indoors during the lesson so that it doesn't have to sit in the hot car.   Update: James just wrote to ask that we cover Chapters 4 & 5 tomorrow, so I'll be spending the evning after Violin seeing how far I get in the reading before I fall asleep.  

I've been struggling with this one too. Between my water goals, my daily coffee, my growing Diet Coke consumption, my daily high protein Boost, and the occasional beer, sometimes I think I drink more than I eat! Timing drinks worked well during the school year (like saying "I need to be through this water bottle before the end of 2nd hour") but over the summer so far my best bet has been pairing water with something I really like. For example, I set a rule that while I'm sewing, the only drink allowed in my space is water. Or I've been craving ice to chew on, so now I've also said the only drink I can put ice in is my water.  It's not perfect but it does help and maybe it'll help you with the doldrums too?

Awesome!!!