Jarric

Aww, thank you Puck, that's really sweet. And don't worry, I'm friends with @Mr_Willes so I don't get creeped out easily Let's press on through week 3 together - we've got this!

Sorry to hear about the rough weekend. I hope BFF's BF is ok.

Week 2 results Wow, I sucked at updating last week. Here's where I ended up with everything. Draw every day - 10XP Drawing is good for me mentally, or at least I feel better after 20 minutes drawing in front of the TV than 20 minutes of playing mindless phone games in front of the TV. And the more I draw, the better I get at it, and that's good (and in fact, one of my goals for the year). 1/7 = 14%. Well, I barely thought about this in all honesty. Need to get back on this. Brush teeth twice per day - 10XP It's amazing how bad I am at this when I don't have the accountability of the forums. This is something that's easy to do when I'm feeling good, and incredibly challenging when I'm struggling. I still haven't worked out if I can reverse cause and effect, and make myself feel better by brushing my teeth, but as a minimum it would be nice if they didn't all fall out. 2/7 = 29%. Just as bad as last week. Even early in the week when I thought I was feeling good, this was a clear sign that things weren't as good as I hoped. It only got less likely as the week went on 6 alcohol free days per week - 10XP I've put on a bit of weight over the last few months. I'm still not overweight, and I'm the strongest I've ever been so that's good, but I'm at a higher body fat percentage than I would like. It's also getting to the point where I need to lose weight or buy more clothes, and I can't be bothered to buy clothes. The best way to deal with this would probably be to track calories, but I don't have the energy for that right now. Instead I want to target the two things that I do too much when I'm stressed - drinking alcohol and snacking. Just being mindful about those things should be enough to keep my weight in check, even if I don't really lose much. For alcohol, I like drinking with friends, but one day per week is enough, and I don't need to be drinking in front of the TV in the middle of the week. Part of this goal will also be to plan when I'm going to drink at the start of the week, so that I'm not blindsided by events at the end of the week. 4/6 = 67%. Another goal unchanged from last week. But again I didn't drink on days I otherwise might have done, so this goal is doing something. I shouldn't have indulged on Friday evening after I got home from the supermarket, but I'd managed to put the idea in my head earlier in the day and I couldn't shake it. One snack per day - 10XP Following on from the goal above, I think it's reasonable to snack a bit, but it's not reasonable to snack every time I go downstairs to get a cup of tea (I drink a lot of tea), so one thing per day sounds good. 3/7 = 43%. So doing about as well here as everywhere else. Exercise every day - 10XP This is something I pretty much do anyway, but it's just to make sure that I don't skip a workout on a weekend, or that if I have to rearrange things on a weekday I actually do rearrange them. The general plan is Crossfit Monday, Wednesday, Friday, running Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and bouldering on Sunday, but as long as I'm doing something it's all good. 7/7 = 100%. A success, and something to be pleased about! Overall it's not been a great week, but I'm surviving, and sometimes that's the best you can do. On Thursday I had a few to drink while playing Pathfinder. We're coming to the end of our Mummy's Mask campaign, and I actually thought that it would end that night, so I cracked out a bit of the good whisky. Turns out that this combat's going to take a bit longer than that, so it'll be this week that we either save the world or spectacularly fail to do so. I did stay up drinking too late though, which was inadvisable at best. Friday ended up being a late night too. We went to Tesco after work, and having spent the day talking myself into getting a 4 pack of beer I did just that. By the time we'd got home and I'd cooked dinner (a rather lovely cauliflower cheese with ham, served with garlic green beans on the side) it was 9pm when we started eating. So I didn't drink a huge amount, but I think I was up until 1am by the time I'd chilled out and dragged myself to bed. On Saturday I hit Parkrun in the morning, and did a load of D&D prep. Then I went up to London to see a orchestral/circus performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells (which, if you've not heard of it, you might recognise as the Exorcist theme music). It was a beautiful day, we had a couple of beers beforehand and wandered around a little street festival, and the performance itself was astounding. Watching the circus performers, I would love to be able to do a tenth of the stuff they can. Amazing motivation right there. That ties nicely in to something I've been thinking about, I want to learn to do a kip up. You know, one of these: I'm very disappointed that I couldn't find a gif of Buffy doing this, given that I've spent most of my life calling it a 'Buffy flip' I think with a lot of practice this is something that's achievable, and I've found a GMB tutorial so I'm gonna start working on it. So another late night on Saturday, complete with some extra beers I really didn't need when I got home from London. On Sunday I went bouldering. It wasn't the most dynamic session in the world, but I turned up and did the thing and that counts. Then it was time for D&D. We started with the party in combat with a giant skeletal amalgamation of a monkey and a parrot - that thing hit hard, but the party managed to take it down. Then they stumbled into a ghostly pirate captain by the name of Captain Fogbeard, for a really interesting combat where I got to play with legendary actions for the first time ever, but where I notably failed to kill any of my players. Adventuring on, the party heard a beautiful female voice singing to them, and two of them felt a compulsion to walk towards it. @iatetheyeti's character, Rip, managed to make his saving throw after initially being charmed. Then decided that the voice sounded interesting and walked right into their pit trap anyway . At the bottom of the pit he discovered the missing crew that the party have been tasked with finding. There was something wrong with the crew though, they were just staring, glassy-eyed, not making any sign of recognising Rip. So Rip decided to slap the captain (named Captain Ophelia Balls - don't let your players name the NPC's kids!) to snap her out of it, and we ended the session as the captain raised her sword and prepared to run Rip through. Ok, I've been rambling for long enough, but the one final thing I need is a plan for week 3: Draw every day - On Thursday I'll have to do this on my lunch break as I've got Pathfinder in the evening. On Saturday I need to do it early as I'm going on a pub crawl with my other Pathfinder group. Brush my teeth every day - just do it* whether I feel like it or not. Alcohol - only drink for the Pathfinder game on Thursday and the pub crawl on Saturday. This fails my 6 alcohol free days rule, but keeps me above 80% and is therefore still a pass. One snack per day - again just do it* Exercise every day - standard week, run to and from Parkrun Saturday, boulder Sunday *

I have done that! I've also torn a shirt on a door handle - I have no idea how I managed to get it so thoroughly caught that I ripped it, but I was quite upset about that one. And thank you! I think we're both very much in the place of needing that - fingers crossed things let up soon.

Good work on the food plan - it's hard to work out a plan when you're so busy, and it looks like you've managed a good one.

Thanks! I don't feel entirely back on track if I'm honest, but thinks are getting done. Thank man! Yeah, it's always encouraging, and it reminds me to move more.

I'm with you on the latter part of that, no so much on the former. My trouble is that if I'm not kept to time during a workout I can easily spend nearly 2 hours working through stuff, checking my phone, catching up on Discord, and generally getting distracted!

Monday W2D1 Monday was a good day. Went to Crossfit in the morning, where we had squats, which I kept fairly night as my back and hips still aren't 100%. That was followed by Russian dips, pistol box squats, and double unders. I suck at skipping, mainly because I'm not interested in it, but the Russian dips were fun and I snuck in a couple of muscle ups for good measure. Work was mega busy; I ended up working until almost 7pm just trying to stay afloat. In the evening I chilled on the sofa, did a little bit of drawing, updated here and did some stretching, before getting an early night. 1 snack had, teeth brushed, all good. Tuesday W2D2 Yesterday was a good day. Hips were feeling bad first thing, but I still went out for my running drills and they felt a little better when I'd warmed up. Work was crazy again. I finished at 6pm, an hour later than I should have done, and that made us really late for Pathfinder. Having turned up late for Pathfinder, we also managed to forget the bag with our character sheets and dice, so it wasn't a great start to the session. We ended up just roleplaying a bit between ourselves and not really doing much plot stuff, which is always fun. As soon as I got home it was time to crash out. Teeth were done and just the one snack, but I did miss out on drawing for the day.

Ah, sorry to hear you're feeling it too. Fingers crossed that we'll both get it together this week. Thanks man, onward indeed!

Week 1 results Draw every day - 10XP Drawing is good for me mentally, or at least I feel better after 20 minutes drawing in front of the TV than 20 minutes of playing mindless phone games in front of the TV. And the more I draw, the better I get at it, and that's good (and in fact, one of my goals for the year). 3/7 = 43%. A lack of focus this week on this goal (and really all of my goals). Not much to say, except that I plan to do better in week 2, and really try and focus on doing something, even if it's just a 2 minute sketch. Brush teeth twice per day - 10XP It's amazing how bad I am at this when I don't have the accountability of the forums. This is something that's easy to do when I'm feeling good, and incredibly challenging when I'm struggling. I still haven't worked out if I can reverse cause and effect, and make myself feel better by brushing my teeth, but as a minimum it would be nice if they didn't all fall out. 2/7 = 29%. Not great, and a clear sign that I was struggling mentally. It might have been 3 rather than 2, but I've also been crap at tracking things. This week will be better. 6 alcohol free days per week - 10XP I've put on a bit of weight over the last few months. I'm still not overweight, and I'm the strongest I've ever been so that's good, but I'm at a higher body fat percentage than I would like. It's also getting to the point where I need to lose weight or buy more clothes, and I can't be bothered to buy clothes. The best way to deal with this would probably be to track calories, but I don't have the energy for that right now. Instead I want to target the two things that I do too much when I'm stressed - drinking alcohol and snacking. Just being mindful about those things should be enough to keep my weight in check, even if I don't really lose much. For alcohol, I like drinking with friends, but one day per week is enough, and I don't need to be drinking in front of the TV in the middle of the week. Part of this goal will also be to plan when I'm going to drink at the start of the week, so that I'm not blindsided by events at the end of the week. 4/6 = 67%. I failed this on a single beer, that I had at lunchtime on Wednesday with a colleague to get out of the office. So in a way, not too bad. On the other had I had a couple of days worth of beer on Thursday, so it probably evens out! In honour of this goal I didn't drink at the weekend, when I could easily have had a whisky in the evening, or a beer at grandma's, so the goal is doing something. One snack per day - 10XP Following on from the goal above, I think it's reasonable to snack a bit, but it's not reasonable to snack every time I go downstairs to get a cup of tea (I drink a lot of tea), so one thing per day sounds good. 5/7 = 71%. Given how the week has gone with everything else, this went surprisingly well. Exercise every day - 10XP This is something I pretty much do anyway, but it's just to make sure that I don't skip a workout on a weekend, or that if I have to rearrange things on a weekday I actually do rearrange them. The general plan is Crossfit Monday, Wednesday, Friday, running Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and bouldering on Sunday, but as long as I'm doing something it's all good. 5/7 = 71%. I never dreamt for a moment that I would fail this goal on any week. Too many late nights, too many lazy mornings. Overall not a great week, but I'm feeling more positive this week and I plan to do better.

Had a good weekend. Saturday I went to Parkrun in the morning. I took it fairly easy as my back and hip were still feeling janky, but it went ok. Other than that we wandered round some shops a bit, and generally chilled out. I genuinely can't remember what I did for most of the day, but relaxing was probably a good thing. On Sunday I got up and went climbing. Generally it felt pretty ok, though again I was being a bit careful with my back and hips. When I got back I made scrambled eggs and it was time to get ready for D&D. I had a good time running D&D. It's a very different feel from the normal Ranger group, I think in part because the players don't know each other as well, and in part because the adventure is a bit shorter and a bit more linear. Still, I'm definitely giving them a decent challenge - I nearly killed a couple of them last session. And I'm still being surprised by them, like when the ranger cast speak with animals and animal friendship and beast sense in order to pull off a ridiculous bit of surveillance/observation which ultimately gave a group a lot of time to plan that they wouldn't otherwise have had. Which is good, because again, this adventure is challenging. After D&D we went over to my grandma's house for her birthday dinner. Was really lovely to see her, and to see my uncle and cousin whom I haven't seen since Christmas 2019. In the evening I chilled out, did some stretching, prepped breakfast eggs, and got an early night.

I'm afraid that delusion runs deep regardless of whether I've been drinking.

Sounds like a different plan - I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Ok so, my random workout plan thoughts:

Little Bit is going to be a great cook when she's older, and have a much better understanding of food than the vast majority of people. It's lovely to see.

If you find anything good for this let me know. I have two wall sconce lights in my office/spare bedroom, which would have been bedside lights but are no in a stupid place because there isn't a bed there anymore. That's a great bit of mindful eating there; clearly you don't need the calories after stocking up early in the week, so good on you for recognising that rather than just eating out of habit. That's not a bad start though; you managed to get down to that last challenge so it's good that last challenge stuck. Oh I love looking at how people build workout programmes; what have you got so far?

Well done on the downward weight trend! Glad to hear things are returning to normal at work. Could you potentially use a microphone and speakers in class, if it's going to be really hard to hear you otherwise?

Out of interest, are you able to do that movement unweighted, or is it a complete no go? If you can do it, and if this is the sort of thing where strengthening the muscles will help, it might be worth going unweighted or with something really like (like a tin of beans)? I do like bottom up kettlebell press/hold - it's so much harder than the normal way and so good for stability. Is the bruising just from holding the KB in place, or from motion?

OH HELL YES. This is a thing we need to do.

Friday was a good day. I got up quite late after the all day drinking on Thursday, so I didn't go to Crossfit. It's rare that I skip a Crossfit session, and though the extra sleep was probably a better idea in this case I still don't like it. I was feeling a little flat all day, understandably. I did some training at work which was long overdue but I haven't had time for, which was easier than having to do my normal work. At half 4 we had out end of week catch-up, so I had a couple of beers on that and a bit of a chat with colleagues, which was good. In an alarmingly sensible move I stopped drinking after the 4-pack of Jagged Edge, and just chilled out for the rest of the evening. I cooked something approximately like pork schnitzel, but possibly more like pork goujons or pork nuggets. Nonetheless they were very nice, and I served them with a potato salad to use up some of the mountain of veg we have from our wonky veg box. Not much achieved in the way of goals - I didn't end up drawing in the evening and I didn't do my teeth either - but I did get to bed about 11 after watching the women's final of the Olympic sport climbing. Again, a sensible bed time to set me up better for today.

Thank you ? Haha, well I'm glad I can be a terrible influence there then And thank you, hopefully things will turn around soon. Today feels better, but maybe it's too early to tell. Thank you, I do hope so. And unlikely I think . But if I do manage to get some songs together for it and actually practice playing them there's always a chance (danger?) that I'll bust them out on a drunken Zoom call or something.

Week 1 update - Tuesday to Thursday I'll be honest, I've lost track of things somewhat. I don't know why I'm not in a great place this week, but I'm very much hoping to get past that soon. After the late night on Monday, I slept in on Tuesday and didn't run. In the evening we went to an open mic night that my brother-in-law was playing at. It was really nice to see BIL and SIL; I don't think we've seen them in about two years as they live about 100 miles away and that's a lot in pandemic times. We had a nice evening, though I was really tired and we got home quite late. The best bit was probably driving home; I felt really inspired to get a couple of songs together for an open mic so WW and I were just singing to each other, acapella, and trying to work out what I could arrange for acoustic guitar in a reasonable way. Wednesday I got up and went to Crossfit. It was a proper back heavy day - d-balls, yoke carries, good mornings and ab roll outs - so I took it super easy as my back was still really tight. In the evening we went for a historic tour of a local town, which was really interesting but also really weird to spend time wandering around a town that I used to spend time in as a teenager when I was at college. So many memories, so many of them truly weird. I watched Questing Time in the evening, and again stayed up too late in front of the TV. Thursday was an interesting day. I again missed my run after Wednesday's late night, but this time I had an excuse. I went into work briefly, but then went out with a few people from the company for a charity cricket event. Now I can't play cricket at all, but I knew I was counting my failed attempts as my exercise for the day. The bar opened at 12, and we played 3 games of cricket whilst drinking slowly, and then spent quite a lot more time drinking and largely ignoring the teams that got into the finals being stuck playing in the rain. I left there just before 6 (so 6 hours of drinking in), went home, and started drinking at my Pathfinder game (the Mummy's Mask campaign). It was a really fun evening, aided by many beers, and I went to bed around midnight. The trouble is that alcohol is a magical substance which allows you to borrow happiness from tomorrow, and after 12 hours of drinking I have felt somewhat flat today. It was worth it still, but I certainly haven't felt as dynamic as I could.

Thank you! Lack of sleep is definitely a thing - I am not prioritising sleep nearly enough. It's a vicious cycle though, because when I feel bad I don't want to go to bed early and find myself staying up late watching mindless TV. Love that film, Gene Wilder was a treat.

Hope you have a good holiday mate - it sounds like getting away for a bit will be good for you (particularly with all the fires!)

All of these feel like exceptionally good decisions.