Jarric

#fuckthetories I'm guessing you've looked into this more than I have, but is this currently just a plan or something that's definitely going to be implemented? And can you get round it by applying for a visa before the new rules come in? (Appreciate that might only give you a couple of months.) If there's anything I can do to help on that front, just let me know mate. I think I just might

So I've started thinking about my Squatmas plans. I'll likely get a day pass or week pass to a local 24-hour gym, because my Crossfit gym always has odd hours over Christmas. But I'm also away from home, staying at the in-laws from Christmas day until the 27th. So it might be that I do Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, rather than Christmas Day and Boxing Day, or it might be I also find a gym near the in-laws ?‍♂️ Weight wise, I did 50 reps at 50% last year, so this year I'd love to do it in a single, unbroken set. For deadlifts 50 at 50 was a little easy last year, so I want to challenge myself to 50 reps at 100% body weight. * * * Funnily enough, yesterday was squat day. I'll be mostly following the programming at my Crossfit gym in the lead-up to this, which won't be particularly high volume for squats, but I'll try and sneak a few extra reps in. Yesterday was: 107.5kg (~237#) x 3 97.5kg (~215#) x 5 87.5kg (~195#) x 7 That was followed by a 10-minute AMRAP of 1 x clean, 3 x handstand pushups, 5 calories air bike, which was actually quite a nice one really. * * * Yesterday was a good day, but a long day. Work was mega busy again. In the evening I came home, had dinner, and pretty much went straight back out. I went over to my parents' to sort out my dad's bank accounts, a tedious task which really had to be done before someone scams him out of all of his money. So that took 2 hours. Then when I got in I needed to set up my docking station on my new computer, so that I could work from home this morning. That took another hour plus change, for no other reason than the dock was being randomly temperamental. I'd just convinced myself that it wasn't compatible with my graphics card, and then I unplugged everything, plugged it all back in, and it worked fine! It was after midnight when I got to bed, so when my alarm went off at 05:50 this morning I thought better of it, skipped my run, and got some more sleep.

@Artemis Prime beat me to it, but @bigm141414 can be credited for nerds getting a great many new things . Come to think about it, Squatmas might be right up his street though... Awesome! Yeah, it's a bit of a tough ask itlf you're working out from home - I'm not sure I could get together a quarter of my weight with the dumbbells I have Ok, I've started doing a couple of carch-up sets while they're small, and I'll try to get up to the 5's when I have tea number 5 this evening! Go for it! The more festivities the better! You're right, it sounds so harmless... I'll probably give in at some stage, but I do also quite like just writing everything in a pocket journal (even if I have to do my own plate maths). Yeah, I'm the same - I quite often buy a 1-week pass to a 'normal' gym over Christmas, because my Crossfit gym is rarely open at a sensible time. There is at least a PureGym within walking distance of my house now, so that gives me a cheap and reasonably well-equipped option. In honour of Willes indeed.

Good to have you! Did you have anything in mind for anything special leading up to it? I'll definitely be sharing my squat & deadlift progress in the next few weeks, and it would be cool if other people do the same. Oo, fitnotes looks so good! So much data that I clearly don't really need Please do drop in and talk about squats, it would be cool to have the build-up! Ah that's a cool idea. A squatmas advent calendar. I'm sure there's a better pun for it, but I haven't got there yet. I've got a herbal tea advent calendar, so I'm sort of tempted to join you.

Date Weight Weight change 23/10/2023 174.1 -2.3 30/10/2023 171.8 0.9 06/11/2023 172.7 0.8 13/11/2023 173.5 -0.8 20/11/2023 172.7 -1.4 27/11/2023 171.3 0.5 04/12/2023 171.8 11/12/2023 18/12/2023 25/12/2023 01/01/2024 Up half a pound on last week, and it's no surprise. I wasn't particularly strict on calories at the start of the week, and then Friday night I hit a new calorie tracking high score at the office Christmas party . On top of that I skipped one run at the weekend and cut the other one short, so that's a few hundred more calories I didn't burn. This week includes at least 2 Christmas parties, and I won't spoil them by worrying too much about my weight while I'm at them so I'm just going to have to be extra disciplined for the days in between them.

Travel is a real killer! Good on you for losing a chunk of the last lot of travel weight, it's always tough after a bit of time out of routine Beautifully put

If anyone's interested in a bit of Squatmas fun this year, feel free to come and join me:

I don't really have the energy for challenge goals this time around, so I'm thinking of just showing up, checking in here occasionally, and trying to cheer everyone else on. One thing I'll definitely be checking in for is Squatmas. If you're not familiar, here's an explanation much better than I could put together: Although Willy's no longer with us, I think that this is a great tradition that should live on. I encourage everyone to do some lifting at Christmas, take a video if you're able, and come here to talk about it. If you can't do it on the day, do another day nearby, and if 50/50 isn't a good fit for you, pick reps and weights that sound good. It's all about being together for a last big lift of the year.

That one took me just slightly too long to get

Oh, well now I'm interested to see what actual custard tastes like. Still not sure about egg in ice cream though Love these - please keep them coming

I never knew, until today, that there were ice cream recipes that included eggs - it feels wrong to me somehow. I don't know why, maybe because I don't like custard? Wow, I'm gonna need one of those too please. ?

Hi all, I wasn't following along with this challenge, but as you're extending it for the rest of the year I feel like it's a good time to jump in. If nothing else, I could use the extra motivation/accountability to get through Christmas party season, because there's always a surfit of food and booze available at this time of year. This is what's been occurring over the past few weeks, since I bought a new set of scales: Date Weight Weight change 23/10/2023 174.1 -2.3 30/10/2023 171.8 0.9 06/11/2023 172.7 0.8 13/11/2023 173.5 -0.8 20/11/2023 172.7 -1.4 27/11/2023 171.3 So I'm down almost 3lbs in 6 weeks, but I'd really like to hit -1lb/week for the rest of the year. Guess I'm shooting for 166lbs (11 stone 12lbs) by new year's day!

I've never tried eggnog, and quite frankly it scares me. What's it like?

I'm very partial to some Spanish-style chicken in a slow cooker. I haven't used this exact recipe, but this is the kind of thing I mean: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-spanish-chichken You could probably get away without browning anything in the pan, which I would tend to do as I like my slow cooker method to be 'put everything in, turn on low, bugger off to work for 8+ hours, serve, eat'.

Week 5 scores: The documancer: 4/7 Dropped off updating here towards the end of the week - not for any real reason that I recall, it just didn't cross my mind. The face: 3/7 Thursday might was a late one - out for a comedy night, a few beers, and then when I got home I decided to watch Justice League (which was exactly the sort of generic superhero movie I was expecting it to be). Anyway, after that I didn't end up brushing my teeth that evening, and that ended up snowballing into every evening for the rest of the week. The muscle: 7/7 Calorie tracking is going strong and I lost another 1.4lbs this week. Calorie goal was 18,400 for the week (2,629 daily average), and I actually hit 18,627 (2,661 daily average), so it seems like the goal is currently about right. I can't remember if I did any studying on Friday, but I definitely didn't on Saturday or Sunday - I spent most of each day on the sofa, cat on my lap, watching NCIS. Think I may need to make studying a goal for next challenge, because this assignment is due by 17th December. I did at least do my normal exercise at the weekend. 5 mile run Saturday morning - including 5 x 0.5 mile (800m) intervals at 10k pace, and on which I hit a Strava 5k PB - followed by climbing. Then a 9 mile run on Sunday, with a pace target which really pushed me. I'm liking the new running program at the moment, it's nice to push and to do something different. Overall it was a really nice, chilled weekend, but as a result of being chilled I now need to focus on study quite a bit more!

Not bad - I deliberately set the bar low and was reasonable at clearing it. And my weight's trending gently in the right direction, so that seems to be working. Unsure whether to add more to the next challenge, or just to gently roll out of this year. How was your challenge?

It very much is - you know where to find me I didn't know that; that's cool! I really like the pattern you've created from it too.

I don't know if you mean online or in general, but I've been feeling this too. I'm mega busy and not interacting with people as much, but also it feels like people just aren't around as much either? If you do want someone to talk to, in a wildly inconvenient time zone, feel free to drop me a line.

Wednesday - week 5 day 3 Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was squats, and I hit 105kg (231#) x 3, followed by 95kg x 5 and 85kg x 7. Still a little way to go before I'm hitting new PBs, but it's positive. The WOD was a nasty little number - 5 rounds for time (time cap 5 minutes) of 5 front squats and 5 cal air bike. I went with 40kg for the squats, and after the first round I thought I'd gone to light. Oh no no no my friend, by the second set of squats my legs were screaming at me and everything got very slow indeed. I managed to eek out a finish in 4'45", and it was brutal. The rest of the day were normal day off things - walking WW to work, practising French, going to buy eggs from a local farm, drawing, studying, bouldering. The drawing was a start on a portrait of my character for Liminal; I'll probably share him when he's done (though he's a bit off looking right now so I hope I can save that. I only managed an hour of study before I was so knocked out that I gave up and had a nap instead, but it's better than nothing. Bouldering was good, but cut short as WW had forgotten to take her keys to work and I had to rush back to let her into the house. In the evening I took the leftover roast turkey, a couple of onions, some kidney beans and some chipotle chilli honey, and made a sort of sweet burrito bowl, served over brown rice with coriander. It was rather good for a 'throw together what we have in the house' kind of meal. I updated here at lunch time, teeth were brushed, and calories were tracked. I was pretty hungry in the evening so I allowed myself to go 337kcal into my buffer, for a total of 2,637kcal for the day. That leaves 1,631 in the buffer for the rest of the week, a chunk of which I'm going to use tonight going to see a comedy show. I've planned out all of my food and I'm at 2,702kcal (402 from the buffer), and then I'll have a few beers I'm sure which will all come directly from the buffer as well. It's my only planned night out this week though, so I can probably balance it.

Tuesday - week 5 day 2 Yesterday was a good day. Went for a 6-mile run first thing - 2 miles easy, 2 miles tempo, 2 miles easy. Early days on my new running plan, but so far it feels fine. Work was mega busy, with a total curveball thrown at me first thing which really disrupted my day. I was working from home though, so I was able to crack on with stuff and, through working a bit late, finish the urgent thing that really needed doing. Thankfully WW cooked for us while I was still working, so we were able to get away for RPG night. WW's going to be running Liminal for our group for the next few weeks - an urban fantasy RPG set in modern day Britain and very much based on the Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovich. It sounds like a lot of fun, and the artwork in the rulebook is beautiful: Last night was character creation, so we went through who each of our characters were and how we formed as a crew. I'll be playing Marcus Edwards, a former doctor who was forced out of the profession after he got too close to uncovering a vampire nest running the hospital where he was working. Mark now serves as emergency doctor to those members of the Other World that would really rather not explain their wounds, or their unusual physiology, to a regular doctor. Update here was done at lunch time, teeth were done, and calories were tracked. I would have been spot on with calories had I had one less mini gingerbread man, which put me a mere 35kcal over.

Monday - week 5 day 1 Week 5 already? How did that happen? Yesterday was a good day. Crossfit was fun, if tough; deadball loads (I worked up to 80kg/176# at about chest hight), then deadball to shoulder and handwalking for time. Work remains busy, but I'm concentrating on only doing the really important stuff, and I'm getting help with some bits. The backlog this leaves is going to be pretty crazy, but that's a problem for next month. In the evening WW cooked sort-of-paella, and we started watching the new series of High Rollers D&D (I seriously recommend this if anyone wants to get into a D&D stream that isn't currently hundreds of hours in). We only got to watch 40 minutes, because I had to go and do some studying - another thing I really need to catch up on. Food was tracked - 2,600kcal against a target of 2,300 so that's 300 used from the buffer (but how could I turn down lovely the pain au chocolat that WW bought me?). Teeth were brushed, and I updated here.

Depends on your lore - in D&D yes, because I think you're sort of breaking the attachment between the negative energy powering the zombie and the corpse. In Pathfinder 2e undead are technically summoned, and are dismissed when they're killed, so you should be able to re-summon them. For your Shaun of the Dead style 'remove the head or destroy the brain' zombie, I would think that once you've destroyed the brain it remains destroyed, so there's no real chance of it reanimating. Hope the virus clears up soon (your virus, I guess a zombie virus clearing up would be bad for your novel).

I mean, she is pretty great... Thanks mate, I'll pass it on. We should catch up properly sometime soon.

Hey, you're not wrong about those gifs! I thought they'd broken up years ago. I really loved The Man Who and Invisible Band - I remember learning the chords to a bunch of songs of those albums when I was first learning to play guitar. I was going to suggest that this might be a good strategy. If you're hoping that you'll be back to exercising fully next challenge, it would be sensible to have a plan B of things you can do if recovery is still ongoing.