I looooove this shirt   This shirt is such a win!! Also, your body is changing dude. You're lovely before and after, but the body comp changes are obvious.     I feel you on the post-travel hangover.

i went for an actual run!  The time sucked, but I did it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good pic of a red tail hawk thoroughly enjoying playing in the wind gusts, but it was fun to watch her coasting into and the soaring with the wind, and turning for another round.  That was early in the run and I just decided I wanted that kind of enjoyment in my time outdoors too.    This new path definitely has a place for physical wellness.  Not only yesterday's run, but today's playground workout was nice too.  Combine that with an apparent re-invigoration to meal planning and everything is feeling so much more possible.   I may have made a new friend at the conference too.  He lives three hours away so that will necessarily put a limit on everything, but we did have a great conversation about art, ren faires, music, gaming, philosophy. and I don't recall what else now.  We shall see how it all goes.  But at the very least, it was another step on this mysterious path of rediscovery

leg swings  🐝 always interesting to note the difference in balance on each side  

The Challenge of Noontide Sun!  (Flexible Habits - Regular Mode)   Rejuvenate (Sleep Hygiene) ✅✅🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 Fortify (5x5 Accessory Sets) ✅✅🔲🔲 Learn (3d Modeling) ✅✅🔲🔲🔲   Tasks! Duolingo Sprint - 18/40 Life Updates Moderated a panel discussion on queer parenting this morning. It was for a work thing and the panel was split between queer families that adopted or fostered, queer families that gave birth, and cishet parents of rainbow kiddos. Interesting discussion and I'm viscerally glad to not have children, even as I watch excellent parenting around me.  Also sad/mad about shitty childhoods as I watch these superstar parents on the panel and the dozens of parents who tuned in. Life is weird.  Lower back is feeling kinda tweaky after a deadlift session on Friday. Changing body means I need to belt up for lower weight than I used to, apparently. I babied it over the weekend with ice and and a tens unit, and it felt 100% by Monday, even after an aggressive bench and dip day. Buuuuut then I had a guy over for "chess club" on Monday, and the game of "chess" was fairly vigorous.  I'm kinda back to ice and a tens unit again. #WorthIt  Sculpting win!  Before - Muppet eyes on the snake and indistinct Georgia O'Keefe forbidden fruit. After - Simplified eyes and inverted positive/negative space on the forbidden fruit.   [The Heiress: Akua Sahelian, as depicted by Tumgig]

Yay for having a full day of things!     I had the same problem with weak glutes and other muscles taking over for them. My physical therapist recommended doing bridges. If you want to make them more challenging, you can extend one leg in the air and make the other leg do all the work.   Once you are able to activate your glutes, you can practice doing it while walking. It turns out there are several ways to walk that engage different muscles. For this practice, you gently hinge from the hip to swing the moving foot forward. Contract the glute to pull your weight forward onto the front foot.  It should feel like your legs are swinging freely from the hip and your glutes are doing all the work.  

Monday - Ridiculously hot day; heat advisory, so no outdoor fitnessing and I didn't really want to go to the gym.  I do have a sesh with the trainer coming up.     Food was fine until trash panda mode was activated.  Peach made a tortilla pizza for dinner but couldn't eat it all so I took half.  I ditched the leftovers I was planning to make but then Qbert made a frozen pizza and couldn't finish the last slice so I had that too.  I had already started my fasting window but pizza... so my fast for today ended up short.   Ended up going over about 100 calories with a decent sized margin of error.  Had I not had the frozen yogurt Yasso bar for dessert I might have been fine but at that time I didn't know I'd be snagging a slice of pizza.  

I love tarot tshirts. So cool.    gouache is a really nice pick. Had to google the difference (which was not helped by my continued spelling of it as gauche or the autocorrect “helping” ) as its not one ive ever tried. Looks very cool, be interested to know how you get on with it (looking for a pain medium i can cart around easily and compactly. Would be nice to find an alternative to watercolours as an option)    not finishing the chips is an awesome win (im assuming you mean what we call crisps. If not please correct me). If i dont like something i find asking myself “is it worth the calories?” Is a good rule of thumb as to whether to finish it or not. I struggle not to finishing eating sugary things and crisps even if im not desperately keen on them. 

In other news, i did 10k steps today 😱 i havent managed that in years!! i actually still feel pretty ok so everyone cross your fingers for tomorrow

Yup. There where very tiny one all over the beach. This one was only 3 or 4 inches across and it was the largest i saw. Someone vidioed a comb jelly round the corner today too. 

Thank you so much!     Thank you 😊    Is dopamine withdrawal a thing?  After riding high on finishing my art project and the critical acclaim that followed, I feel like I am so depressed now for no reason.  I just want to stay in bed all day and not do anything (which is a luxury no stay-at-home-mother has).    I've finished another art piece, but I only feel meh about it.  I also finished Empire of Gold and moved on to Sleep No More.   TBR: Kingdom of Copper  Empire of Gold The Familiar Sleep No More  A Study in Drowning   TBD: Horse Deer Hummingbird Moth Mad Max car Dog?   Water has been a real problem, as I have been overconsuming caffeinated beverages instead to get me through the doldrums.    I am more or less keeping up with getting outside every morning and/or evening.  Between the ongoing beetle battle and the increasingly serious drought, I can't afford to ignore my garden.  Our lawn is brown and crispy in places and we could really use some rain.  Or like a lot of rain.   I did actually go to the gym and walked the track yesterday -- mostly because my son wanted to go.  In other fitness-adjacent news, I've scheduled an assessment with the physical therapist for my shoulder, but have discovered that my co-pays, while not large in themselves, will start to get uncomfortable if I am expected to go in very often.  Maybe she can recommend some exercises to do at home, with just a few check-ins on my progress.   Anywho, that's where I am at just now.  We are spontaneously traveling again next week, so maybe a change of scenery will be what the doctor ordered.