Jarric

Lol definitely. I feel like neither of us get a lot of chill nights, must be Rangerbrain! Thank you man!

Hope you feel better soon dude

Very much like this in the UK - in order to qualify as a solicitor you have to do a couple of years in practice after you finish your law degree, so those places are highly competitive and highly under-paid. This is so awesome man, you're gonna love it.

Yesterday was a good day. For dinner I cooked balsamic glazed sausages with roasted red onion, red pepper and plum tomatoes and served with mash potatoes. I overcooked my glaze so it ended up more like balsamic treacle, but it tasted pretty damn good! Snooker was fun, and we won 4-1 on a match we really needed a good result on (they were the only team to beat us in the first half of the season, couldn't let them beat us at home as well). I made a point of drinking slowly over the course of the night - still ended up having 4 pints of Guinness but that kept me in my calorie goal nicely at 3,169 kcal. I did some of my hip exercises whilst dinner was cooking, which made finishing them when I got home a bit easier. An early night was out of the window though as snooker finished really late. I went to bed at about 20 past midnight and got a solid 5 hours sleep, plus half an hour of dozing before getting up for Crossfit at 6. Teeth were also done yesterday, so 4/4 for goals there. ====== This morning Crossfit was pretty hard work. I've not had much sleep this week and I'm still coughing some (though the cold is slowly getting better), so I wasn't feeling like pushing particularly hard. I even considered skipping it, but decided I needed to go to Crossfit more than I needed an extra hour in bed. The WOD was 5 rounds for time: 8 box jumps, 12 med ball cleans. I went higher than anyone else on the box jumps at 24", so that felt pretty good despite being one of the slowest in class. Cleans were with a 9kg (~20#) ball. That was followed by 5x10 Romainian deadlifts superset with 5x10 glute bridges - I built both from 40kg (~88#) to 75kg (~165#, also ~my body weight). Tonight's plan: Grocery shopping Eat venison burgers Do Acrobat workout (hangboarding) Watch the rest of the Critical Role - Monster Hearts one-shot Do hip exercises Brush teeth Get a really early night

Thanks dude, the rest of the week will be better! Yeah, it's always a nice surprise. Good luck tonight!

I'll definitely see if I can find that!

Nothing says modron like a Texan accent! And obviously the light-hearted fun-loving bard would be gruff and British I love everything about that story. Need to watch the movie now!

Yeah, you're right of course, it's just annoying! The run wasn't that bad actually, it cleared my head a bit. Glad I took it slow though!

I knew one of you Brits was gonna ask for this! And you know what? I'm totally game, sir! I'll post the video I'm gonna be "mimicking" and then post a little video of me "doing the voice". Hopefully I don't disappoint I look forward to it! (to be fair, it'll definitely be better than if I tried a Texan accent).

I've not tried this one specifically myself, but GMB are generally pretty good for ROM routines: https://gmb.io/shoulder-mobility/

Yesterday was a good day. Not a very successful day challenge-wise, but a good day. Drinks with old friend were really good fun, we just chatted for hours and drank weird beers which is pretty much my ideal night out. Mostly ended up talking about work as we're both in the same industry and used to work together, but I don't mind that once in a while. Stayed out quite late, so on my way home I grabbed a sandwich and a drink to have as an impromptu dinner. The woman on the checkout pointed out I could add a snack to get a meal deal, so I just mindlessly grabbed a chocolate bar. Ate the sandwich on and the chocolate on the train home, and then when I put them into MFP (along with the evening's beers) I found that it put me over my calorie target at 3,369 kcal. The stupid thing is that usually I'd just say no to the snack, but being drunk and not thinking I picked it up instead, and that chocolate bar was the difference between success and failure. Really annoyed at myself about that. When I got in it was late and I was tired, so I did not do hip stretches, and I stumbled to bed without brushing my teeth. In fact the only goal I hit was the exercise in the morning, and I don't get points for that because I didn't complete the goals below it. So yeah, clearly days without a firm plan throw me. Should be easy enough to get 6/7 for all goals this week still though. ====== I slept a little better last night, think I slept through from just after 11 to 4.45am, and then dozed in and out until 6. I was all ready to get up and go to Crossfit before I realised that today is Wednesday, so I'd be running instead. When I realised I didn't have to be at a class at a specific time I proceeded to dawdle for the best part of an hour, and got out for my run at 7.05. That meant an easy 3 mile run rather than the 7 on the programme. Not sure how I feel about that really. I'm coughing a lot so an easier run might not have been the worst thing, but on the other hand I'm running Nuts in 2.5 weeks and I really want more miles under my belt before then. Tonight is snooker and my second high calorie day, and I'll get my stretching in around that (probably a little before snooker and a little after). Will try and get a slightly earlier night as well.

I've never understood how you eat so little - your calorie numbers scare me! Life is definitely not fair. I just know I feel worse when I skip a workout or miss work, so I'd rather push through and get stuff done then stay at home and feel sorry for myself. I will say I could have pushed a lot harder in yesterday's workout though if I wasn't sick, so I'm showing up but it does still affect me. I'd have liked to see you do that workout, it would suit you! I had a great time thanks, update to follow. I will certainly do my best to inspire. My major obstacle is days when I don't plan the time to stretch - failing to plan is planning to fail and all that.

If it makes a good story, then I'm gonna say yes. Firbolg are giants/giant-kin, and you can get half-giants, so why not? I like Nemek, good job on making him look big and masculine within your anime style.

It is, keep focusing on those! Good on you for coming here and updating even when you didn't feel like it. Hope you get to recharge soon.

Ok, so we're gonna need a video of that...

Good start to the challenge man, that's loads of pullups! Stay safe man, hope this doesn't last too long for you.

Walking sounds like a great goal to help with your stress, and reading and anything else you can do to get some headspace. I know throwing logic at anxiety isn't always that effective, but I still wanted to assure you that you won't end up homeless. Landlords want tenants; they're just losing money all the time the property's vacant, and they want tenants like you - adults with full time jobs who aren't going to wreck the place. And if you get to the end of your tenancy and you haven't found somewhere to go, you don't have to leave. You're /supposed/ to leave, but if you don't they have to go through processes of serving notice that can allow you to stay in your current place for months after the tenancy has expired. It's not ideal, but you won't be out on the streets.

Hi Steve, this forum and your blog posts have had a massive hand in me becoming the person I am today, so I'm really interested to see what an NF challenge looks like for you. ^I feel like this response needs more recognition.

Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit done as I mentioned, work was ok, and after work I went to see Hopalong and play snooker. As he was cooking I wasn't entirely sure where I'd end up with calories, but I left plenty of leeway for the pizza I ended up having, and finished the day at 2,370/2,410. When I got back from snooker I did my hip exercises. I dawdled on them a bit and ended up going to bed at midnight, which is quite a bit later than I'd like. Teeth done before bed so all goals checked off. ===== Today is proving a bit of a challenge. I kept waking up last night coughing/unable to breathe, so I'm a bit short on brain power right now. Got into Crossfit for strict handstand pressups (mostly off 2 ab mats, got a couple of reps off 1.5 but that was hard), chest to bar, wall facing squats, and pause OHP. Pause OHP is brutal, but it is a good simulation of deficit HSPU, so I get why we did it. I was late for work this morning. I just wasn't present and paying attention - I got half dressed in jeans before remembering I needed to wear a suit, I spent far too long trying and failing to pack my work bag - I was just all over the place. So I'm meeting an old friend for drinks tonight after a meeting, which would make this a high calorie day. But I have had a thought - if he only wants to stay out for a couple I might be able to call a medium calorie day (2,830, splitting the difference between my highs of 3,250 and my lows of 2,410). If I can do that I can afford a second medium calorie day at the weekend, which will make my long run much more manageable. Gonna play it by ear and see what happens, but that's definitely an option.

Well done on getting your lift on. Keep that momentum going, don't rush, and take care of yourself. I think I said it before but I'm proud of you for looking for recognising your own issues and looking for help. I like Prince Elazer! He's got a bit of a firbolg nose going on if you don't mind me saying. The texture in the hair's seriously good.

It is indeed! Good first day man, keep it up.

Hey dude, welcome back, it's good to see you! Lets have this challenge then!

I don't know, "fall off walls" is also good for OCR (and bungee jumping I guess?) What's that gif from, I recognise it but can't place it. And thanks dude. Knowing that I'd have to report to you on if I went out or not did really help.

So, thoughts on zero week: Hip Rehab - I think I hit 5 of my 7 sessions. Goes to show why this is the base of the ziggurat, it's really important but I find it really hard to stick to unless everything else I do is continent upon it. Tooth Care - I missed one of these, for no real reason. Definitely shows why it's still a goal. Exercise - This went really well, I was really surprised (and pleased) that I managed to drag myself out for my long run in the storm to make it. I also discovered that sprints are much more fun if you sing Bodies by Drowning Pool whilst you do them (warning, only works for a couple of minutes). Calories - I went over on one day, but still got under my target average of 2,650 at 2,617 for the week. The scale says I've lost 5# this week from 12 stone 1 to 11 stone 10 (169# to 164# or ~76.65kg to ~74.39kg). That's obviously a fluctuation so I'll try not to put too much thought into it, if I had to guess I'd say it was caused by eating earlier on Sunday with a big lunch and almost no dinner (usually have a big dinner around 7pm). Extra Credit - Did 2/3 of the workouts. In some ways this looks like it might be a real struggle to fit in, in other ways I feel like finding time for 3 x 10 minute sessions over the course of a week shouldn't be that hard. We shall see Overall - Pretty good I think for a zero week. I've got the beginnings of a cold which I'm hoping won't come to anything more than a sexy deep voice, but otherwise I feel really confident for week 1. ===== Week 1 So the plan for this week: High calorie days are provisionally Tuesday (I've got to travel for a meeting so I'm having beers with an old friend afterwards) and Wednesday (snooker). Might make long run day on the weekend a struggle, but we shall see. Threshold run Wednesday, long run Saturday, short interval run and bouldering Sunday Crossfit MTTF Extra Credit - The Acrobat Thursday, Fighter Saturday, Bard Sunday This morning at Crossfit was ok. Started with deadlifts - build to a heavy 3, deload 10% for a 5, deload 10% for a 7. I was feeling a little ropey as I slept poorly last night and have this cold. I worked up to 130kg (~286#) and between how it felt and the coach telling me my back was starting to round out I stopped there - would have liked to have gone for 145kg (~319#) had I been feeling better. Remaining sets were at 117.5kg (~259#) and 105kg (~231#). The WOD was 5 rounds for time of 20 double unders, 10 kettlebell swings, 2 hang power snatches. I did single unders with a few DU attempts, 24kg kettlebell and 35kg hang power snatches. It actually felt quite good and I even got 9 DUs amongst my singles (only 91 less that the Rx!) so I'm pretty happy with that. Tonight I'm off for a snooker practice to get used to my new cue, which should be fun. Hopalong's cooking dinner, so it's a little outside of my control, but I've tried to leave calories to spare in preparation.

Thanks dude! Steal away! I based the idea off a dungeon drawing tutorial; I can dig it out for you if you want. I will warn you it took me about 2.5 hours to draw it though! Running in the rain is fun, it feels very rangery