Jarric

Well done man, that's awesome! Sounds like you've been doing well on your goals too, despite being so busy.

Thanks! Pathfinder was great, very silly fun.

Narrator: But he did not get to it this evening Week 4 stats The decisionist 5/7 The muscle 7/7 The second-storey specialist 3/7 The cartographer 5/7 The camp-maker 4/7 The face 3/7 I don't really remember week 4 at this point, just posting what I recorded for completeness. Week 5 - stats after day 4 The decisionist 2/7 The muscle 4/7 The second-storey specialist 3/7 The cartographer 1/7 The camp-maker 1/7 The face 3/7 It's been a good week so far, but a busy one. Monday morning was fun in the gym with cleans - hit 72.5kg (160#) with a power clean + hang clean complex - and a standing broad jump competition. Work was busy and I worked late, but I managed to hit all of my goals other than drawing. Tuesday was very busy. Had the morning off to take my grandma for a scan, then decided to ride my bike to the gym and back to see if I could, as our car is playing up and needed to go into the garage. Turns out I could, though riding a bike for the first time in a year was tough! Work was then busy, but I had to get out relatively on time to rush of for Pathfinder (details at the end of this post). Got home late, and therefore to bed late. Wednesday I was up extra early after my late night, to cycle to the gym. The ride in wasn't too bad, but planning it for squat day was . One workout was 3 intervals of 5 heavy squats plus 100m ski for time, and the other was 5 rounds of 10 walking lunges and 100m runs. Then I had to cycle home! Anyway, I survived. Work was busy, with meetings and setting up a training session I've been planning I lost about 3 hours of normal client work, and ended up working until 7 again. In the evening I watched Questing Time and had 2 beers from my beer tasting box. Yesterday I went for a run first thing, which was surprisingly not shit after Wednesday's workout. Working from home meant I got a lot done, but still worked late and still battling to keep up. In the evening I cooked giant meatballs with a tomato broth and chilled on the sofa. Shared 2 beers from the tasting box with WW. Probably should have done some drawing for my goals, or even done some cleaning! * * * Pathfinder game - spoilers for the Fistful of Flowers adventure:

Just read the blurb, it does sound good. Let me know if you find any interesting tidbits, That's really nice, it made me smile

Thanks man. I don't think it's going to get any better before I go away on Thursday next week, but then I have 10 days where it's somebody else's problem, so it balances out. To be fair, I might not be quite so stressed now if I wasn't going away, because I don't want to leave a load of stuff for people, but that's how these things go. Trying to accept that I can only do what I can do, and that if things have to be left then that is what it is. Good, I think. Still mega busy, so I've been a bit of a zombie the past few days, but otherwise things have been good. I was going to do a proper update, but I need to get back to work . Hopefully I'll get to it this evening.

Well done on doing the scary thing! (I realise I'm about a week late on this, but well done regardless). Oh that sounds like fun - what's the book called?

Wednesday - Friday - week 4 days 3-5 The decisionist 4/7 A couple of weeks ago we got a beer tasting box, which I've been saving for when WW and I had time to sit down, enjoy them, and rate them. On Wednesday we did that - I only had 2.5 small cans of beer so that was very reasonable, and a nice way to drink. That is apart from the fact that I had quite a strong allergic reaction to one of the IPAs - after a couple of sips my throat started to close up adn I got a horrible chesty cough. It was quite scary for a bit, but I took some antihistamines and it eased eventually. No beer on the other two days. The muscle 5/7 Yep, shakes drunk after my workout every day. Crossfit Wednesday we had a fun bench workout, in which I set a new 1 rep max at 82.5kg (182#). Still just over body weight, so that's good. We also did a bunch of handwalking practice, which went pretty well, and some legless rope climbs - overall a really fun session. Thursday I procrastinated for far too long and only had time to run a 5k rather than 5 miles. Friday's Crossfit was block pulls, which was fine and I hit 145kg (319#) x 5, and then a disgusting workout of deadball to shoulder and air bike that left me walking like John Wayne. The second-storey specialist 2/7 Some token stretching after my run, noting on the other 2 days. The cartographer 3/7 I almost did nothing on this, but on Thursday I managed a token sketch sitting on my bed before sleeping. The camp-maker 3/7 Picked up some cat shit on Thursday morning, but nothing else. The face 3/7 I managed this on Wednesday. On Thursday I used up my remaining energy on a 1-minute sketch and couldn't be bothered to brush my teeth. On Friday I didn't even have the energy for that. This week has been a good week, but it's been mega busy. Finished somewhere near on time on Wednesday (having worked late on Tuesday), but then worked until 7 on Thursday and 6 on Friday. I'm just at a crunch time at the moment where I've got shitloads to do and only a week and a half to do it in before I go on holiday. It'll all be worth it I'm sure, but at the moment I'm tired and stressed, and when I get home I can't summon the energy to do much more than collapse on the sofa. If WW weren't here I don't think I'd even be cooking, as it is she's cooked most nights and I've done the washing up in a zombie-like state. None of that is really the reason I've missed posting on here. I usually post at lunchtimes, but on Thursday I was working from home and WW was off, so we had lunch together, and on Friday I went out for lunch with a mate from work. So there's been some nice stuff too, in between being busy at work. On Monday one of my colleagues has his last day. I'm bouncing backwards and forwards between being sad because I'm going to miss him, and being stressed because his client work will now fall to the rest of the team and it's not like we're not already busy. Hey ho, we'll find a way through. This is turning into a long post, so I need to get on and finish my tea and go for a run. I've already cut one run short this week; don't want to lose any more miles.

Tuesday - week 4 day 2 Yesterday was a good day. The decisionist 2/7 No beer yesterday. The muscle 2/7 Shake drunk after my run. I spent a fair bit of time procrastinating before the run, but I did get out for the full 5 miles (8km) including 4 x 0.5 mile intervals. The second-storey specialist 1/7 Did a very small amount of stretching when I got in from my run. Baby steps. The cartographer 2/7 Another token gesture - this time 1 minute inking over my 5-second sketch from Monday. Still, it counts. The camp-maker 2/7 Did some general tidying in the living room first thing. Really I was procrastinating when I should have been running, so it's not ideal, but at least a productive use of procrastination. I'm obviously a bit stressed at the moment, because the mess was bothering me and I couldn't leave before I'd dealt with some of it. The face 1/7 Teeth brushed before bed. I got to bed a little late again - probably the knock-on effect of having a really busy day at work, leaving the office late, eating dinner late etc. The evening was spent watching Critical Role (up to the first episode of 2023, which was fucking wild), so that was good.

I have! I actually bought this album a few weeks ago, and I really like it. I like the piano version, but I think the raw emotion of the original hits me a little bit harder. The piano version is sad, but the original is anguished. I know exactly what you mean. Thing is, if I update here every day and tick off goals in my journal every day, I don't forget my goals. I don't always do them, but I don't forget them... Very close indeed! We'll have fun with it though, it's just about doing what we reasonably can between now and then.

Monday - week 4 day 1 Yesterday was a good day. Still sad at times, and while talking to various friends about Willy, but I also had some lovely conversations with those people and that was great. It was also supposed to be D&D day, but we ended up cancelling last minute, so I used the time to catch up on here and to play some Skyrim. The decisionist 1/7 No beer yesterday. This was the last bank holiday of the challenge, but despite not working all day I wanted to start the challenge week right. The muscle 1/7 Shake drunk after Crossfit, and remembered the other one late afternoon. Crossfit was box squats, and I built to 90kg (198#) x 3 x 5. Felt heavy, but not too horrendous form-wise. Then we had 100ft (30m) yoke carries, and I built to a 205kg (451#) carry in 32 seconds. The second-storey specialist 0/7 Totally forgot to stretch, which really goes to show how out of the habit I am as I thought I'd hit all my goals. The cartographer 1/7 I did a literal 5 second sketch in front of the TV while I was waiting for my eggs to finish boiling. It's a total token gesture, but anything to get me back into the habit counts right now. The camp-maker 1/7 Spent a bit of time working in the garden - we've taken down the netting that we'd used to cover up the clover seed. WW did some weeding while I did that, and we brushed the path between us. It looks a lot nicer with some greenery on our little patch of dirt - now the challenge is to keep it free of weeds and cat shit. The face 1/7 Teeth brushed before bed. I got to bed a little later than planned as I left it too late to start boiling eggs for the week's breakfasts, which was in turn late because I was distracted by group chats planning my trip to The Netherlands. Still, got to bed at an ok time.

Sounds like you've got a good plan for game night eating. I think it's difficult because it's a situation where you can't control your environment. It's easier to not have snacks in the house than it is to have snacks in front of you and not eat them, but you don't have control over what's in front of you in a larger group. Glad the foot is a little better, I hope that continues for you.

I feel like this is something that everyone needs to work on. The fact that you are working on it puts you a step ahead I think.

Sorry I've not been around this challenge Rho. I miss him too. A gif felt like the right first response though.

Week 3 wrap-up Week 3 was a pretty tough one in all honesty. I worked really late on a couple of days, and had an all day meeting in town on Tuesday followed by a lot of drinks. Tuesday saw me up at 5am to make my run before getting the train, and getting home at 11pm and trying to have a late dinner before bed. Saturday was WW's birthday, so we went out for a meal on Friday night and spent Saturday afternoon at a friend's house for a barbeque. It was great, but a tiring end to a tiring week. Yesterday was one year since we lost Mr Willes. I still miss him hugely; he had such a positive impact on my life and was a big part of every day for me. I've spent a lot of time thinking about him, and what he meant to me. I'm grateful that I got the time I did get with him, but fuck it hurts now he's gone. I threw out all of my goals, exercise, and any hint of productivity yesterday, and spent the day being sad. We had Critical Role on the TV all day, and I played stupid mobile phone games until my battery died, then charged my phone and played some more. I think that knowing this day was coming has affected my motivation for everything for the last couple of weeks; it's certainly been on my mind. I was also doing my best not to let those feelings interfere with WW's birthday; I hate that these days are next to each other, because I know she misses him too and I don't want her birthday to be a sad day. My goal progress this week reflects my tiredness from work and my emotional fatigue this week. The decisionist 4/7 Drank on Tuesday, but not at home, so that doesn't count against this goal. I did however drink at home Friday after dinner, Saturday after the barbeque, and Sunday because I could. The muscle 4/7 Missed the gym on Wednesday after Tuesday's late night, and didn't run at the weekend, so missed out on shakes on those days too. The second-storey specialist 0/7 Don't think I did this at all. The cartographer 0/7 No motivation for art this week whatsoever. The camp-maker 0/7 Couldn't be fucked to do housework. The face 2/7 This might have actually been 3, but I can't remember. Either way, a sure sign I'm not taking care of myself as I should be. Week 4 will be a better one. It's not a great way to honour Willy's memory, given that I met him here and we spent a ton of time comparing our running, for me to not hit my goals and to skip my workouts. So this week, I begin to move forward.

Week 2 wrap-up The decisionist 6/7 Beer on Thursday of week 2 when feeling tired and hungry; no beer the rest of the week. The muscle 5/7 Remembered this on the weekend, thankfully, as it had been slipping a bit. The second-storey specialist 3/7 Must try harder. The cartographer 5/7 This wasn't too bad as it turns out, so that's nice. The camp-maker 1/7 No energy or motivation to do this goal. Need to work on how I approach this, or just forget it until I've got the spoons for it. The face 5.5/7 Missed one day and one morning, not ideal but not the worst.

Quick not-an-update update. Last week went ok goals-wise. This week has been really busy at work and goals have been a struggle. I'll try and recap on both weeks properly at the weekend.

Thanks man, it was a lot of fun!

Who the hell swims side by side in swimming lanes?! That's infuriating. Good job on this week so far man - even with that one binge, you're knocking those goals out of the park.

It's fascinating to hear your perspective on world events - the different sources you have access to really gives an insight that I wouldn't get from the media here.

This is a good position to be in. I hope they turn out to be a good fit for you, but worst case it's good interview practice. I like your affirmations. It is going to be ok.

Hey man, good job on sticking with your goals as best you can. I'm with you that a trip or a few late work days can throw things out, but it sounds like you're sticking to the spirit of your goals when you can't stick to the letter. That should make stepping back into your goals at the weekend easier.

Hope today is better for you, and that the exercise breaks do their job to make it better. Still no gif button?

Thanks! The girl on the left looks like she's having a whale of a time though. The other two not so much!

Friday - week 2, day 5 Friday was a good day. The decisionist 4/7 No beer in the evening. This was easy, because I was still feeling pretty ill and I really didn't want any! The muscle 3/7 Forgot this again. Now that the novelty of a new toy has worn off, I need to put a bit nore effort in to make this a habit. I did get in to crossfit though, for aome handwalking practice and then some casual rounds of bench press, pullups, and GHD situps. Working in with other on the bench I went for 70kg x 5, because that's what they were doing, even though that matches my 5RM and I thought it would be too heavy. I was pleasantly surprised to not only manage it, but to get 4 sets of 5 at that weight over the session. I think maybe the 4,000 calories I consumed on Thursday might have helped? The second-storey specialist 2/7 Didn't stretch. I left work on time because I was knackered, so I absolutely could have made time to do this, but instead I did very little indeed in the evening. The cartographer 4/7 Didn't feel like doing much, so I started on a fractal pattern using MS Paint and my laptop pen. Only got halfway through; might share the finished article here later if I remember. The camp-maker 0/7 No cleaning done. Had niether the energy nor the inclination. The face 4/7 Teeth were brushed after an evening of vegging on the sofa, and before getting to bed early.