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!!!  

I agree that food is hard. My summer solution to the lunch question is to bring salad. I have two bottles of salad dressing that I leave in the fridge at work. I bring a bowl of lettuce (usually from the prepared bag from the store), a protein component (hard boiled egg, chopped chicken breast or chopped lunch meat) and more veggie components (recently cherry tomatoes and avocado). I forgot to bring the crunchy bits today. Those can be crutons or toasted nuts. Pita strips or wonton strips are good too, but I don't have those in ready-to-go forms.   I have a list of other salads that I like but I have been eating this one because it is easy. Maybe I will have the energy to prep those ingredients next week. Having salad guarantees that I am getting some veggies every day. I am not saying that this is a good fit for you, just that having a simple and reliable plan helps a lot. If you have somethingthat works, I could use more ideas.

What an exciting project!      I'm not an endurance expert but I think you want a mix of endurance and strength, since strength will make the relative intensity of walking lower. You said it's flat near you, but you could do a mix of high rep squats and lunges at home for leg strength-endurance (not to mention balance! good balance will make hiking considerably less inefficient and thus less exhausting), then walking with a backpack around your area for endurance and postural strength-endurance. You could add weight to the backback gradually. Any time you do a hard workout, take the next day off. Exercise is the instruction to adapt, but the adaption itself happens while we rest.      Yeah after a few hours you need to stock up on carbs and water but also salt. Drinking huge amounts of water without also replacing salt can make matters worse by diluting your remaining salt. Sports drinks are fine, but there are also foods with natural electrolytes like bananas and pumpkin seeds.  You don't need to do anything special if you're walking for less than an hour or two, though, just drink to thirst.