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The most important things to remember when reading one of Sir Terry's excellent books is to never decide to finish the chapter before going to bed.

I read this and thought I'd replied but I just composed it in my head 🤦‍♀️ Sorry to leave you "on read"!!!   You are wise to keep it to 5 minutes. I started Monday and I'm doing random 10 minute yoga videos to see what clicks for me. Ideally I'd do it first thing in the morning but... I think I'll have to establish an earlier wake-up habit first 😅   It's sooo humbling! My hamstrings hips and glutes are all super tight and even these short flows are a struggle in places! I'm glad we're doing this! Clearly my legs need it.   Are you doing a challenge this go round? 👀  

Now that we are somewhat settled into our school year routine, I'm ready for a proper challenge!   Training for 5K (🦃Turkey Trot🦃) Mr Mezzo wrote out a 13-week training plan for me, so this is going to stretch across 2 challenges. I have some Stamina and Strength points I can earn over the course of this training block, and the overall goal is a sub 35 minute 5K on Thanskgiving.  Tracking in a BuJo spread.   Daily Stretching (5 minutes) This came out of a conversation with @athousandwords   My goal is 5 minutes minimum of intentional stretching, ideally first thing in the morning but that's not a requirement (yet). I'm doing 10 minute yoga videos (built-in leeway for kid interruptions, they love to "help") until I have enough of a base to string my own flows along. This is a potential Dexterity point. I started during zero week and it has been DEEPLY humbling. I am not a 25 year-old wannabe yogi anymore 😅 Also tracking in a Bujo spread.   ReEngage Not going to talk much about this but upon completion of this marriage workshop, I get a Wisdom point. Weekly class/group work for 14 weeks. It's a time commitment and there is a good amount of homework involved.   Villainous Vanity Is it sad that I'm using the villain arc to give myself the permission/excuse to focus on some beauty goals? Probably.  But in Act 1 of Wicked Glinda gives Elphaba a makeover and my villainous inspiration Emma Frost is unapologetic in her vanity. She knows who she is and does what she wants. Depending how I break this up it will be worth a Charisma point or two, because feeling pretty makes you more confident which is a cornerstone of charisma?? Sure, let's go with that.   That's it for the challenge.    Thanks for being here and Happy Fall Y'all!!     

Because I still belong to the rivers for 24 hours.

Heck yes!! If you go the farm share route, feel free to send me “what the hell is this?” and “lookit this beauty!” posts. I love local seasonal agriculture.   UGH. And with the recent new moon (opposite Saturn) happening at the same time as Mars square Neptune, there’s just heaps of angst to go around. The sky is literally asking us to process through our melancholy, disappointment, and worry. BOO. Why feel your feelings? I have forty-leven unfinished projects to choose from to prove that you can literally NOT feel your feelings in semi-productive ways.     Anyway, I hope everyone is doing the emotional work, which is likely not as scary or as exhausting as the worry that we can so often put into it.  In my case, I set the worry down and said, thank you Universe for being uncertain and unpredictable, and then went to sleep. Rest is sacred work. Welcome aboard!  I hope you are having a lovely weekend, too.   I’m very glad you liked it. I haven’t heard of Limitless Heroics at all, and this was lovely. Thank you for sharing it!   Yesterday’s meeting with James was just grand. He’s so good at this. I’m looking forward to the committee meeting on Friday afternoon, and am going to ask Taylor to move the acupuncture session to lunchtime before the Committee meeting, since both Neal and James have asked for some one-on-one time after the meeting to discuss whatever went on in the meeting itself. Neal first, James said, then a bit of time with him to discuss the whole lot and also to choose our schedule going forward.    I didn’t go pick up the milk after meeting with James. Our session was almost two hours long, and it was really good, but I was tired afterwards and it was too late to be picking up he milk unannounced, and I texted the house owner and asked what time was permissible in the morning, and then brushed my teeth and fell asleep by 9:30.   I woke up around 2:30 and was muzzy-headed. I could tell that the Bookworm was at it, but it was a low enough annoyance that I just kind of scrolled the news and meditated and then went back to sleep a few hours later. I woke up at 8 with the real deal (failed saving throw against The Worm) and took a Maxalt (healing boost potion thing). Even with that, it was all still a dicey mess as I got dressed and made my way to the North end of town to get the milk. I was nearly human by the time I pulled in the driveway. The host of this delivery site is an old acquaintance and she’s a fellow witch-druid-thing, and it’s always nice to see her. We talked some as I got the milk, and she offered me an aloe that needed repotting, and I said yes and helped repot it. It’s a mess, having tried to grow through a railing at one point, and we did our dirt-work together. It still needs some significant support to reshape it, but i love having it. As I put the aloe in the car, I mentioned that I am very much missing my ficus plant, and she walked me to a spot of her yard where a potted ficus bush is going a little nuts. She took a cutting of the ficus tree I gave her three years ago and planted it in a pot and it’s been going gangbusters, and she had been feeling bad about wanting to get rid of it. I couldn’t have spoken up at a better time. We corralled the Very Large plant into the back of the Smart Car, left the hatchback window pane open, and tied a red bandana to the trunk for visibility.   I drove home slowly, making the other Saturday morning drivers irritated that I had the nerve to be doing the speed limit, and it was all good. I got to the parking lot a few minutes before Georgia arrived, and she and I had a grand time fetching the wagon and bringing in the plants. The ficus is really impressive, and I stacked a two side tables to get the right height, and Georgia loves it and so do I. The tables are all sorts of wrong, but now that I know the height and the location, I can figure out what actual piece of furniture is needed. The Peace Lily will likely want to be higher as well, and the whole thing is coming together in the dining room area.    Georgia and I had a lot of good conversation today.  I was pretty tired by the time she left, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow.  I made a sandwich from the roast beef that I picked up at the butcher’s yesterday, and it was the perfect dinner along with a large glass of milk that did more for my poor head than anything had yet.   Goodnight nerds. ❤️ 

You beat me to it, but I did it too! Thanks for the much-needed and very much appreciated jostling.     See you shouldn't even say things like this, because my brain immediately is like SEE WORRYING HELPS and then I have to shove it in a closet until it quiets down.   Everything in your challenge is a good idea. I will be here and following.  Let me know if you want obnoxious gifs texted to you as walking reminders (what are friends for?)

This challenge brought to you by @fleaball, the patron saint of Severine actually showing up to do challenges. Thank you for the reminder and motivation!   As of my most recent testing last month, my cancer is still in remission (yay), but I just turned 43 and my physical fitness is so far from where I want it to be that I lack the words to properly encapsulate my disillusionment. The melodramatic title of this thread truly conveys the level of melodramatic panic I sometimes experience when I realize that every year I get older without improving my health and fitness, I'm hastening my own decline and lowering my chances of living a fulfilling life as I age. Scary shit. In the long term, I would like to lose a bunch of weight, regain a ton of strength, and in general better prepare myself to traverse the next ?? years/decades in a state where I am physically able to do cool shit. All of this requires a lot more actual engagement than I have shown in the last few years. Moving to Vancouver in 2021 was, in general, not great for me (turns out I don't like it here), but it's going to be at least a year before we can think about moving, so I need to figure out a way to do more than just float in a dissatisfied limbo while I'm here.   The immediate, short-term focus of this challenge is that I am going to be travelling from October 18 - November 11. We're flying to Vienna, spending five days there, and then taking a train through the Alps to Venice, where we'll begin the Italian segment of the trip: Venice, Lake Como, Genoa, Bologna, Florence and Tuscany, and finally Rome. European cities, done properly, require a lot of walking, and I want to be able to do it as comfortably as possible. It's already going to suck being fat in Europe, but I can at least be fat and somewhat capable. Thinking about the trip has also been a good reminder that I want more travel/adventure in my life, and all of that is easier when one is in reasonable shape. For example, I would love to do some of the trips these people put on, but the really cool ones are beyond my current fitness level. I need to keep this in mind as part of my 'why'.   Enough preamble. Here's the plan: Walk every day. This can be an outdoor walk, or I can use the elliptical. Minimum twenty minutes. Extra points for forty minutes or more. Pace doesn't matter at this point. Work on reviewing Italian every day  Do one thing off my to-do list   That's it. Trying to keep it simple.   I will close with a bit more melodrama (what can I say, I love it), in the form of something I sometimes say to myself: Death is coming, Severine. Do something that brings you alive.

No advice on a specific goal number but gaining muscle means the scale may not move as much even though you're making progress!  That's probably obvious but it's important to be conscious of it so you don't get discouraged. ❤️ I've used measurements to help me see progress that is marked in centimeters instead of pounds. It helped me push through a plateau in 2022.     On board for another round!    I'm training for a sub 35 minute 5K race (🦃Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving) so my activity level is ramping up this challenge. I'm about 15 pounds from pre-pregnancy goal weight but I'll be happy with half that by the end of challenge.

fleaball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Hi   Also, this is now my favorite motivational poster.