Alrighty, possibly my final post before we leave. I cannot guarantee I'll be able to hop on tomorrow. We're trying to leave as soon as The Man and I are off work (about 430) which means I have to pack any last minute items (things like meds and my journal) after I take/use them which also means I'll be trying to pack and get things sorted while trying to finish off everything for work. Work is sure to be hectic since we're so far behind on things already. On top of that I have to drop the dogs off at our vet for boarding. It's a sad sad trip. I hate to leave them and it is the ONE thing I'm dreading the most about leaving. I love my babies so much and it hurts to leave them. Fortunately this trip is only scheduled for a couple days longer than our beach trips and we've done a couple of those and they've been okay. I just hate not being with them so much.   Gym so far as been good this week. Since I combined leg days on Monday, I'm going to stick with my usual Thursday Les Mills class. It's a full body intense-fest and it'll be great way to end this week and start off vacation. I'll likely have plenty of walking and swimming while gone, but no dedicated workouts so I want to finish strong. Nothing kicks my behind quite like that Les Mills class haha!   Food is okay, not perfect. We didn't meal prep this week due to not being here for the full week -- dinner will be at hotel or on way to hotel tomorrow and meal prepping for 3 days for 2 people was more trouble than it's worth. Yesterday I got distracted and didn't end up meeting my fiber and carb goal. Oops. I realized once I was in bed that I didn't eat my afternoon snack as planned which would've gotten me to goal. I did manage to get water in, though, and hit my fat and protein. Today I'm on track for hitting all my goals so long as I can continue to get up and move around to get my steps. Coach has me at 8-10k (I requested the goal be put back because I was averaging about 5-6k due to work) and yesterday I only missed it by about 250 steps. I just didn't think about it until I was already in bed with lights off and such. I couldn't disturb the Man trying to fall asleep for 250 goals. I'll suck it up as a learning experience. Plus my watch was nearly dead and I needed it to charge as long as possible while I read so I could be sure it wouldn't die before waking me up this morning (it's my silent alarm).   Spiritually, I did my New Moon Tarot this morning. Yesterday I did my weekly tarot a day behind as I got distracted and lost track of my days. I also did blow cinnamon (sorry, @Sovalis I totally forgot to hop on and remind you! Here it is for you a tad bit late) for abundance, prosperity, and wealth in all areas. I've stirred in my daily gratefulness and intentions in my coffee as usual. I also did Greet the Day on my walk with the pups this morning.   The Man's homework for the week is completely done as of last night - he had a 1-2 page paper and 2 discussion boards (each one requiring his post and him replying to 2 additional people). Now we don't have to worry about his school work until Oct 14th with his new classes! Whew. Perfect timing.   I'm not sure what else to note on so if I don't get a chance to pop on tomorrow, happy Challenge-End and I hope you had a fantastic round. I'll see you on the next one once I return! ❤️ 

I missed this post last week and I just have to say, goddamn on this photography!!

Final post before vacation - I'm up but my macros are also up. I also had a couple days of very little water and food was out so I had to work with the options I had which weren't idea. Between the stress of being behind on projects AND going on vacation, I'm spent. This is okay. It is completely normal to hold on to water weight given all these factors.   I'm doing great in the gym and hitting PBs/PRs and I'm happy with that. Coach is very happy with where I am and I signed on an extra few months (through Feb 22nd) during the major deal they had going (I pretty much got a month and a half free) for returning or current clients to coincide with their end of the year Strong Girls promotion. My coaching was set to end Oct 22nd which only 10 days after I get back from vacation and I know I'll need more than 10 days of accountability. Plus with holiday season coming up, it definitely helps to have a Coach to keep me honest and accountable. I put money on it so I'm more likely to stick to it!   There will be plenty of walking and swimming on this vacation. Food is unknown, but it is an island so I imagine plenty of seafood - I'm okay with this! I feel like I have the tools to be fairly mindful without overly restricting anything. The key will be to maintain my water intake and ensure I'm getting protein and fiber. Given the seafood options, I don't think protein will be as big of a struggle as fiber will be.   See y'all in a couple weeks 😘 Just know I'm cheering you on even if I'm not posting

Thank you. I'm trying to access the part of my brain I used to justify my first draft of my story - that the first iteration doesn't have to strive to be perfect - it just has to exist to be perfect.   I appreciate the support being given to me for my brain in art, and am similarly comparing notes against how I feel about exercise. The fact that I'm willing to take stairs instead of the elevator is perfect. 💖

Tuesday - what I really did: Exercised at lunch stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get an essential ingredient (potatoes) and stuff other people wanted started a load of laundry started the dishwasher chopped vegetables for making pot roast put chicken breasts in brine washed fruit to take for lunch chopped peppers so people might actually eat them for snacks cleaned up after myself in the kitchen brought in the houseplants from the back porch because the weather has finally turned autumnal Did not sit zen. I was still trying to get everything squared away when Dumbledore got home from gaming at 9:45pm and needed my help. I got to bed nearly on time, then could not fall asleep. Grrrrrr.   No caffeine for me today. I thought the tea yesterday would be fine. Wrong.   This morning I did core yoga and got the pot roast seared and in the crock pot. Work has been pretty good so far. I have to go to a grocery store again at lunchtime because Cleo ate most of the lettuce mix last night. I should have picked up more. There was just enough for one generous salad. I want to encourage Cleo to eat vegetables, so I told her it was fine when she asked.   I will see how I am doing when it is time for aikido tonight. I am feeling a strange mixture of energetic and grumpy.  

Repeating for emphasis.  It's so easy to dismiss/downplay our successes (I am so guilty of this).  I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate that pushing yourself to do something you thought would be really difficult turned out really well!

Yay!     Okay, this is me being mean. I would say "oh, that's nice. Have you made a reservation at a kennel for the dog? I'm going to be away this weekend too." Then plan a trip of your own. It does not have to be anything fancy, maybe somewhere in the country where you can get a discount on an off-season room in a B&B or Air B&B. Just to make your point.

I appreciate you checking in. 🥰 Yeah, it's unfortunate to miss sessions, especially with the player death to lead into something new and exciting, but it also means I don't have to stress about running during the training, so that's a nice recovery. I am happy to get them in even if I'm consistently winded by the fourth and fifth floors. Yay me! 🤩🤩🤩   🥳🥳🥳   Well, doing the docs was a little unnerving because I'm still learning what all I need to check, but we immediately had our trainer double-check our work, and then sent that to our supervisor. We're gonna give it a second go after lunch using this morning's docs to cross reference as we do the next day's work.   It's good to try doing it ourselves while close to the people who only do that job because they know what to look for, and they aren't already juggling fifteen balls at the branch.

Week 4 Tuesday No workout because of an evening meeting, but that was on the calendar, so I'm safe from being attacked. The later part of the evening involved logistics of getting ready to pick up my truck from the shop in the morning (the original power steering pump was leaking and needed to be replaced after 400k miles which seems fair), but I did get candles and teeth done, so short rest.   Turkey: 3 hp Short Rests: 19 Week 4: 17 xp   Moving quietly, Hal approached a small clearing and spotted the turkeys foraging for food among the grass.

Gross. Sorry you got to enjoy that. Fingers crossed the FB is enjoyable tho. How was the wedding otherwise?      Apologies if you already said, but what's the new gig?