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I hear you on feeling like you're just treading water, and pretty well exhausted of that.  The only thing I can really tell myself is that at least the struggle is keeping me from falling into even worse condition.  Maybe if we can just hold our ground long enough, we'll have a breakthrough.

Congrats on your promotion!

Happy anniversary!   I agree.  Assess what is a reasonable expectation for the summer, and set goals accordingly so you don't lose momentum.  The NF creed "it's a dial, not a switch" applies here.  Just dial it down 😃

❤️ hang in there

Aaaaand we're back!   The cruise was amazing - we went with two other couples and celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary in Bermuda! The whole week was just relaxing and chill, with probably too much drinking and fine dining. 🤫 But we got to make our own sushi, and I finished two books, and we visited beautiful Horseshoe Bay, which were all highlights.     It's been a bit of a struggle to get back on track since we got back on Thursday. But today I'm back in LoseIt, tracking calories again, and I've been getting my steps in. Oh! Speaking of steps - I actually hit my 10k step goal every day on the cruise. The two at-sea days I went running in the morning so that I'd be sure to get my steps in; so I'm sure that helped counteract the drinking and appetizers and desserts... uh... a little.  😇   The next couple weeks are going to be chaotic - we have: - 1 week left in challenge - 2 weeks until school ends - 2 1/2 weeks until we leave for Oklahoma (for another 2 1/2 weeks)   I'm tempted to just scrap NF for the summer because we have so much going on over the next couple months, but I'm going to try and stay on, even if it's low effort. I don't want to lose the progress I've made and have to start over again in the fall (or worse, next January)!    

Ahh, yes, the joys of not knowing inside other people's brains unless they tell us! Glad you spoke about it. Also interested to hear your resharings of that - I have a lot of 'shoulds'!

Week 4 Stats 2 runs, 1 NF bodyweight workout. And I'm still paying for the Saturday's run 😕 no journaling I did get one run in with neighbor/running buddy this week. My Saturday morning run went really well, but yesterday and today I am completely sapped of strength... 2 miles of continuous running/jogging is too much too soon, I guess? Also we had company yesterday evening (fun was had by all! 😊) and we all went to bed much later than usual so that's probably a factor.   My journal didn't leave my purse all week. Clearly not a good place for me to put it as I forget it exists. 😕   I've been thinking about how I want to tackle my high blood pressure. My most recent attempt to come off my medication did not work.  All the things that help blood pressure management (diet, exercise, stress management etc) dovetail nicely with weight loss advice so it's a win-win if I can start making progress. The question is where and how big, or rather how small, to start? Because this simple challenge isn't exactly going as planned, so I need a more actionable plan.

Wow, it's the last week. I didn't sit down to draw anything last week. I think I can manage to get another portrait done tonight since game night is cancelled for a final baseball game. [While I was composing the rest of this post, I was notified that the baseball game has been postponed (probably due to the heavy rain we got throughout the morning), and while one player repurposed their evening plans already, 3/4 of my players are available, and I want them to get back on the road away from Tsolenka Pass.]   This weekend I visited my mom, and we put to use one of my dad's recipes to make jam. That ended up being a lot of work, but even so I'm gonna do it again a couple more times to help her put to use ingredients and supplies he'd saved up. We'd made a stop at the store for purified water so that the sterilization of the jars wouldn't leave mineral deposits, and we had a fun moment carrying four jugs out where we both were doing arm exercises. It was so fun, I think I could trick my brain into focusing on the fun and doing that again.  As for yesterday, Cidran had a moment when he fell into a miserable mood, and after I sat with him without distractions, he let me know his teeth had been hurting since his trip to the dentist. It cleared up a lot of the bad air to know what was going on beyond my ken. We listened to Dr. K that evening, in which he discussed the shame we take on by holding on to "should"s and the avenues toward overcoming that hurdle. I don't have the best absorption and retention, so I'd have to dwell on it longer to be able to internalize and reshare it. 😅    Hope you're having a chill day, Maerad 

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH How is there only a week left in this challenge already?!?!?!   Well, the quick updates - I caught another respiratory infection, yay, but I did get notification that I am officially promoted to Department Chair for next year! It's a whole $1,000 raise, haha, but I'll still take it, especially since the extra required workload is honestly pretty light. My son has finally gotten to start his baseball season after the first few games in a row were all cancelled. It's frustrating though because I swear he was doing better last season and for whatever reason this season he has decided to be scared of the ball? Not sure how to help that except lots and lots of backyard practice. Baby Girl has managed not to catch my cough, yay, and is doing really well staying upright all by herself if we put her into a sitting position. Pretty sure that (assuming she weighs enough) the doctor is going to tell us next week that she can start trying solid foods so we're excited for that! Otherwise we're scrambling to find a kennel for the dog because our normal family dogsitters backed out and the camping trip is coming up fast (it's THIS Friday through Sunday). But my sister-in-law had one of those bassinets that is meant to go on the ground anyway, so she's letting us borrow that which will be a perfect solution for the "how to sleep safely with an infant in a tent" dilemma.  Challenge Update: Quest One: Keep Nutrition Up (and Keep Pumping!) Eating and water are both like, mmmm, I'd say 70% right now. Going to need to come up with a better way to do this for sure.   Quest Two: Movement We got 1 walk in on Friday when there was a surprise sunny break and we were out and about town anyway 👍 It was shorter than intended but hey, at least we got it in.   Quest Three: Re-discover My Humanity... Quilting - currently at 5 blocks complete for the swap (with 6 and 7 not far behind honestly). Haven't touched Baby Girl's quilt though and I might wait until after the camping trip to do so, since I got nervous about getting the swap blocks done in time. Kitchen - Cookie goal reached! My son got very upset about not being able to help with the last batch of cookies, so we baked another one faster than I expected to and I froze #3, 4, and 5 out of that one. Yay!   Travel research - looked up a bunch of stuff in Oaxaca City, decided I didn't care what was in the other places because Oaxaca seems so freaking awesome to me, and then my husband said that given the fact we are currently ahead on our budget goals, maybe we could expand and go to 4 places this trip?? So I still am going to look up our other ideas to see what's there. Quest Four: ...Without Forgetting August Spanish 1, Unit 1, Week 1 - essentially no progress since last post honestly, just found a video I'd include and that's about it   Spanish 2, Unit 1, Week 1 - excellent outlining, Monday through Wednesday totally complete and Thursday is in progress 👍 plus I've even started outlining week 2 a bit because I got distracted

Well done on the challenge. One thing I've done that  helped was  to continue the challenge goals from the previous challenge, but just up the difficulty a bit. Or just continue with the same goals, maybe just adding one new one. For me anyway, I feel like it takes a while to establish new habits.