iatetheyeti: Spartan Rising

[iatetheyeti]

5 hours ago, Jarric said:

Wow, that's cheap venison, nice one! Glad you enjoyed your Christmas, it sounds really fun.

 

With the jury duty, I have a feeling that you can't use up holiday days when you're on a jury, in the same way that you can't take holiday if you're signed off sick. I might be wrong, but it would be worth looking into online or someone like Citizens Advice Bureau might be able to tell you more.

 

Hope work's better today .

 

ETA: Here's the government advice page on jury service if you haven't come across it already: https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/taking-time-off-work

 

 

You know, I didn't think of that. I'll have a word with personnel first, see if they know anything more, and if not then I have a rough idea of where my local CAB is, so I'll pay a visit. Heh, if it means I get holiday days back then I can't complain!

 

And thanks for the link, I had a few saved from the page I had to confirm my attendance, but I've not had a chance to stop and read through until now.

 

[iatetheyeti]

I think this is that time of year where I’m supposed to reflect, but truth be told so much of this year has blurred together in a mess of disaster that I don’t really know what happened.

 

What I do know is this:

 

At the start of the year I was tired of living as prey to my depression and anxiety and bad habits and determined to start anew, to carve something out of the black hole 2015 had created which was worth keeping.

 

And I tried.

 

I tried and failed and tried and failed, and then I tried again.

 

I kept trying through financial trouble, through changing jobs, through losing friends, through poor weather and fair. I kept trying through stress and illness and when death touch my life.

 

At this point, I don’t question why, every time I fail, I stand up and try again.

 

I might lose hope, I might feel desperation, I might wonder if I’ll ever break the cycle, but I keep trying because I know where I want to be, and I know that I’m capable of getting there. And every failure brings me one step closer.

 

But you know what?

 

All of that, and I’m ending the year with hope for the first time in a long time. That hope has come from the actions of the people around me, the people that have helped lift me to my feet and given me a push so I can start running again. When I was starving, people gave me food. When I was broke, people funded me, helped me with basic hygiene and household supplies, offered me shelter.

 

I’m ending this year overwhelmed with gratitude.

 

I’m ending this year with the realisation that maybe all of this bad luck has garnered me some good karma, and I view it as my duty and pleasure to pass that on in any small way I can. I’ve learned how much even little gestures can brighten things immeasurably, and that’s something I want to pass on.

 

And, you know, even with the rain of punches life has given me this year, it’s not like nothing good happened:

 

• Made a fairly succesful comeback to NF, a place that’s become a home away from home

• Switched from a mentally and physically damaging job to one that is infinitely better for me and has real prospects for advancement

• Got to spend a weekend with some truly wonderful NF folks

• Used my 20 seconds of courage to sign up for a Spartan Sprint

• The generosity. All of it.

 

I don’t know what life is going to bring me next year. Right now I’m standing on the edge of a truly monumental decision that will have a major, lasting impact on my life. It could be good, it could be bad. Either way, I’ll shape it to make it work for me.

 

What I have to tide me over is a list of certainties, things I know I’ll get to experience:

 

• My friend’s hen weekend and, later in the year, her wedding

• The aforementioned Spartan Sprint

• Moving home

 

And who knows what each and every one of those will lead me to?

 

(a new job, re-entering uni, and an end to my five year streak of being single would be nice!)

 

Really, if 2016 was the Year of Scrabbling, then 2017 is going to be the Year of Opportunity. I’m going to make it so.

 

As for how I’m ringng in the New Year…

 

That’s extra nerd cred, right?!

 

I finally answered one of those ‘come back for another free trial’ emails from Netflix, so I have entertainment for the night. I’ve got plenty of cider, alternative hydration, snacks (...that first board of veg and meat has been devoured since that photo was taken. And those massive chunks of salami? 9p, 9p, and 5p thanks to xmas eve reductions!), a good book, and the determination to not only sort out my green/black deck (which is what I’m setting up for in the picture), but to put together a fantastic punch-in-the-gut red deck to take on my brother when I venture over to the east coast.

 

No work tomorrow, and hopefully no phone call to ask where I am (considering I told them I wasn’t doing it…).

Back to it on Monday, which is likely when the usual dialogue will resume.

[iatetheyeti]

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: ✓

Boss progress: N/A today

 

Reading Tracker

(0/15)

Current read: Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson (50%)

 

===========

 

Alrighty, so a few changes to reflect my imminent dive back into challenge-land. I’m keeping this up and running as the meat and bones of my journey, the challenges are going to be for the things I’m either struggling with or new things I introduce (or both).

 

As of now, my Move quest line has been shunted into challenges. I do my tidying, and then I get it all messy again. That’s… well, not quite what I was aiming for. Get tidy, keep tidy, pare down my belongings, and prep for moving. That’s the aim.

 

The Spartan quest line will be split. New dailies are:

 

• Drink 1L of water/juice alongside coffee + tea consumed > Remove ANYTHING ELSE (exceptions will be considered for alcohol)

• Two meals daily minimum (meal defined as one source of protein with at least one source of carbs) > No sweets/chocolate, cake once per week only (and only if bought from reduced section)

• 10 push ups daily > 10 regular > 9 regular + 1 divebomber > 8 regular + 2 divebomber etc

• Boss fight: Acquire 14 tins of veg

 

So mostly the same, but with a little more guidance.

 

Mental Health quest line dailies will look like this:

 

• Get dressed every day

• Complete self-care checklist morning and night

• Meditate for five minutes daily

• Spend fifteen minutes on a hobby daily

• Add something to the Rescue Kit

 

The Rescue Kit is something I’ve been building for a little while, but sporadically. It’s basically a folder with bits of advice, inspiration, check lists, and suchlike. Something to break out in case of emergency.

 

Aaaaaand we’re introducing a reading tracker, because last year I didn’t read anywhere near enough and it really made me quite sad. Funnily enough, working longer shifts means I have more time to read, and not just because it helps me structure my time better. I get a lunch hour, and therefore time to shut out the world.

 

===

 

And in other news, I’m in the weird position of feeling like utter crap and feeling kind of excited. The former is down to whatever weird illness continues to plague me, something which I’m really hoping to see the doctor about next week. The latter is down to the latest NF development.

 

Yeah, I signed up for Rising Heroes.

 

(thanks to my little brother for the funding for the first month (apparently I owe him now, but we'll work something out), it’ll be interesting to see how I figure out a way to afford to continue the membership... )

 

It sounds like exactly what I need. So I’m going to throw in for two months, and if it turns out that it doesn’t quite fit the way I’d like to, then I’ll go for the money-back promise and cut my losses.

 

[iatetheyeti]

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: X

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: X

Boss progress: N/A today

 

Reading Tracker

(0/15)

Current read: Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson (65%)

 

===========

 

I’m a little more with it today, although this bizarre headache hasn’t gone away. It’s the same kind of pressure you’d get on your sinuses with a bad head cold, but it’s all around the backs of my ears and the base of my skull.

 

No one has any clue what that’s about.

 

Two days off to look forward to, which means I’m going to have some time to actually organise and sort myself out before heading back to work, and then being off for a week.

 

Exceptionally tired, but I’m putting off bedtime until 11pm or thereabouts as I need food and that food needs to digest at least a little.

 

[Baldilocks]

Hang in there,  Do you know how to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  (No animals were hurt in the reply to your post) 

[iatetheyeti]

22 minutes ago, Baldilocks said:

Hang in there,  Do you know how to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  (No animals were hurt in the reply to your post) 

 

Exactly so! Definitely one of my favourite sayings  

[iatetheyeti]

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: [pending]

Boss progress: Complete, next stage pending

 

Reading Tracker

(0/15)

Current read: Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson (70%)

 

===========

 

Slow, slow start today.

 

Alarm went off at 8am.

 

Ignored it.

 

Woke up again at 10am.

 

Went back to sleep.

 

Woke up at 11:15am, panicked, rolled out of bed, and set off on my daily mile for Rising Heroes. Managed to do the whole thing quickly and without rain (bonus!), before getting back and settling down to coffee and carrots.

 

I mean, it’s weird, but it’s better than the alternatives.

 

Plus I have a whole shit ton of carrots right now because of overstock problems at work. They were selling hundreds of bags for 5p. I bought two. One old dude filled his trolley entirely. I mean, whatever works, right?

In the time since I’ve slowly, slowly gone about my dailies in between episodes of River Monsters (last episode I watched was about a species of pacu that turned from vegetarian to meat eater and, when it grew large enough, took to biting off penises from any passing man). I have had productive bursts, one of which saw a small portion of my living room cleared and tidied, another of which saw me complete my plan for my cross country trip. Now I just need to plan for the rest of that week, and hopefully a visit to the doctor will be possible.

[Jarric]

 

Sounds like your productive bursts made for quite a productive day all round. Hope you enjoy Rising Heroes, I look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

[iatetheyeti]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

 

Sounds like your productive bursts made for quite a productive day all round. Hope you enjoy Rising Heroes, I look forward to hearing how you get on with it.

 

When I focus, I really focus, apparently! I'm hoping for a repeat today, considering I did almost exactly the same thing with my wake-up despite my good intentions...

 

So far RH is going well, considering it's early days. The starting missions are easy to work in to my existing routine, and although the FB group is ridiculously busy, I've actually been able to talk to a few people. Plus I've found my first Rebellion-based wingperson, so there's that!

 

[iatetheyeti]

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: ✓

Boss progress: Complete, next stage pending

 

Reading Tracker

(0/15)

Current read: Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson (80%)

 

===========

 

Last night I did not sleep well. It started off with the pain in my right leg ramping itself up again, then added in some waves of nausea for now recognisable reason, and then overheating despite the room being cold enough to see my breath.

 

Fun stuff.

 

That led to another late rise as I made a valiant and ultimately useless effort to catch up on some sleep.

 

I can only hope tonight will be better seeing as I’m back to work tomorrow.

 

And yet I didn’t have an unproductive day. I took a short walk, I cleared another patch of the living room, and I’ve even managed to find a language buddy through the RH FB group. Messaging a stranger is weird, but things seem to be going ok just now. We’ve actually got a fair bit in common, which is nice.

My plan for the rest of the night is basically to relax, read, eat, and make a plan of attack as far as my language based exploits go.

 

[iatetheyeti]

 

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: X

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: X

Boss progress: Complete, next stage pending

 

Reading Tracker

(1/15)

Current read: House of Chains - Steven Erikson (7%)

 

===========

 

I feel like my body is just attacking itself at this point. I was fine until I got to work, and then my wrists started twanging, then my legs started screaming, my knees felt like they were crumbling, the headache came back, my bad elbow started going…

 

I think rather than continue to phone up the doctor and get told there aren’t any appointments any time soon, I’ll phone up as soon as I get back (can’t tomorrow as it’s Sunday, then away for three days) and get an emergency appointment as this is beyond a joke now. I can’t cope.

 

Fortunately I did my push ups before leaving the flat…

 

Everything else is sort of falling into place as a daily routine, which is nice, as it means I’m beginning to automatically make time for these things. Just need to push through and not let this three day non-holiday throw me off track.

[Rhovaniel]

Take care of yourself, Yeti! Sounds like you've got a lot to cope with. Maybe your body is telling you to slow down and rest up? At any rate, I hope you manage to get that doctor's appointment soon.

 

 How are you finding the Steven Erikson books? I'm in need of some good reading material...

[iatetheyeti]

On 1/7/2017 at 10:05 PM, Rhovaniel said:

Take care of yourself, Yeti! Sounds like you've got a lot to cope with. Maybe your body is telling you to slow down and rest up? At any rate, I hope you manage to get that doctor's appointment soon.

 

 How are you finding the Steven Erikson books? I'm in need of some good reading material...

 

I'd agree, but I'm already taking it easy and ever since moving to the deli my job is far less physically strenuous... so I have no clue.

 

I'm only part way through book four, but I would absolutely recommend the series! I'm unashamedly hooked, have to say  

[iatetheyeti]

 

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: X

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: [pending - aim to complete on retiring for the night]

D3: [pending - aim to complete on retiring for the night]

D4: ✓

D5: X

Boss progress: Complete, next stage pending

 

Reading Tracker

(1/15)

Current read: House of Chains - Steven Erikson (85%)

 

===========

 

Today was slightly disastrous, but I think I managed to get through alright in the end. A few things pending, but I have a solid enough plan for them. Lots of travelling and surprise shark week have tried their best to throw me off, but so far I have persisted.

 

Going to do my best to keep to my dailies and my challenge goals over the next couple of days despite the fact that this is going to come under heavy fire from my family, particularly in regards to food choices. Still, it’s my life, and they will not convince me to live it their way.

 

Honestly, kind of looking forward to going to bed tonight…

 

Need sleep, need a rest, need some me-time.

[iatetheyeti]

Quest Chain: Spartan

D1: ✓

D2: X

D3: ✓

Boss progress: N/A for today

 

Quest Chain: Mental Health

D1: ✓

D2: ✓

D3: ✓

D4: ✓

D5: X

Boss progress: Complete, next stage pending

 

Reading Tracker

(2/15)

Current read: Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson (60%)

 

===========

 

On one hand, I enjoy lengthy journeys. If I’m driving, it’s great to turn the music up and sing along, to get to decide where and when I want to stop. If I’m on a bus, it’s great to watch the world go by, to see snapshots of new places. If I’m on a train, I love that I can read without fear of it making me feel ill, so I can plug my music in, stick my nose in a book, and the hours just fall away.

 

On the other hand, germs are everywhere and if you’re one person with a lot to carry, well, it sucks to be you.

 

I went to the east coast with a backpack and an empty bag.

 

I returned to the west coast with a full backpack, a TV in one bag, and another full bag and only one spare hand to carry it. It wasn’t so bad on the train, and it wasn’t even so bad when I had to wait an hour between trains because I could just sit down. But between the train station and home? A mile with a heavy backpack, the weight of a TV resting on one shoulder, holding a third bag on the same side because the other hand is acting as a buffer between the TV and my hip?

 

Yeah, no, that hurt.

 

And my cold is so much worse, the cough has settled fairly deeply, and I slept like crap last night.

Resting up for today, trying to get back on track tomorrow.

 

[Jarric]

Oo, that sounds rubbish. At least you can count it as exercise for the day; I'm sure that comes under rucking!

 

Rest well, I hope the cough clears up soon.

[Charlie_Quinn]

What Jarric said, that's an epic ruck! Sounds like it was a really crappy journey home, but on a positive note, you managed to carry all of that on your own. That's a pretty damn impressive show of real world strength right there.

[iatetheyeti]

5 hours ago, Jarric said:

Oo, that sounds rubbish. At least you can count it as exercise for the day; I'm sure that comes under rucking!

 

Rest well, I hope the cough clears up soon.

 

Heh, you know, I never even thought of that! I think that's exactly what I'll do  

 

Cough seems to be letting up a little today, and I'm hopeful that if I keep myself as warm as possible and don't do anything stupid, it'll continue on that way.

 

 

1 hour ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

What Jarric said, that's an epic ruck! Sounds like it was a really crappy journey home, but on a positive note, you managed to carry all of that on your own. That's a pretty damn impressive show of real world strength right there.

 

I guess it just goes to show that building even a faltering habit of exercise pays off! I didn't really think much of it at the time, but comparing it to all the times where I've had the same amount or even less to carry and got a taxi instead of walking... Progress  

[iatetheyeti]

 

Simplifying things a little for this February reboot. For the moment it’ll be a tick list of things I’m aiming to be completing daily, with a few extras I’m not currently covering in my challenge. It’ll build from there to be exclusively focused on Spartan training with anything else covered in challenges, for the time being.

 

[] Mobility (heavy focus on wrist/toe touch mobility until further notice) ✓

[] Burpees (starting at five daily for this week and the next, seven the week after that, nine the week following, and so on) ✓

[] Walk ✓

[] Push ups ✓

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Until such time as I have moved and settled somewhere, I’ll be sticking to bodyweight training. For one, it’s far more convenient even though I have something of a home setup for weights. For another, it means I won’t have to stress out so much on the volume of food I eat. Yes, I still need enough to live and thrive and the like, but not quite as much as I would if I was lifting.

 

I move in May. I don’t know when I’ll get settled somewhere new (I mean, I’m hoping for May, but…). So that’s a good amount of time to make some decent progress, and I’d like to think that’ll only help me when I eventually do get back to lifting.

 

And it should definitely help with this Spartan business!

[Mr_Willes]

Good to see you back with a challenge. Sending you hugs and best wishes on the moving thing!

[iatetheyeti]

[] Mobility (heavy focus on wrist/toe touch mobility until further notice) ✓

[] Burpees (starting at five daily for this week and the next, seven the week after that, nine the week following, and so on) ✓

[] Walk X

[] Push ups ✓

[] Mini workout ✓

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mini workout as in short workout, really. Still working on bringing my calorie intake back up to what would be considered a normal, safe level (eating has never been such hard work!), and until such time as I’m satisfied that my body is able to cope with it, there won’t be any regular kind of workouts going on.

[iatetheyeti]

 

+1 resurrection cast...

 

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and trying to figure out how I can go about setting myself up for success in this new chapter of my life, and while ultimately I’m still relying a lot on opportunity and circumstance, I’ve managed to pull together something of a plan to help engineer those opportunities and circumstances.

 

At the moment, the most important areas of my life can be broken down into five distinct categories: nutrition, physical fitness, mental well being, education, and hobbies. These are my five pillars, and I intend to build them high.

 

 

Nutrition

I know how I should be eating and how I want to be eating, and I know what kind of diet my body does best with. And I also know I am not eating for the best version of me. I am not making informed decisions about my diet, I am letting whims and emotions make those decisions for me, which never leads to anything good.

 

There are a lot of things to fix in this area, but I’m starting small:

 

• Breakfast and lunch prep: overnight oats for breakfast has been working wonders for me so far, and I’ve had some success with preparing three or four cooked lunches in advance as well.

• Seven portions of fruit and veg daily: this shouldn’t be a problem for me, I like to eat veg, and I like to eat fruit when I can afford to.

• One litre of water daily: in addition to coffee and tea consumed, that is.

• Balance: that is, eat less on rest days, eat more on days where I work out, and eat more still when on days where I’m working out and going to work.

 

In the past week I’ve had enough success to give me the confidence that these are habits I can well and truly get hammered into my brain.

 

 

Physical Fitness

Somewhat surprisingly, my arms are looking pretty good. I guess being a one woman moving machine did have benefits other than saving money. But a couple of days ago I got out of breath walking up a hill. That’s not what I’m looking for. I strongly dislike the fact that I appear to be struggling to do things I used to be able to do without thinking about, aside from anything else, it’s not massively inspiring for my struggling mission to get in proper shape in time for the Spartan Sprint. But, again, I’m starting small and building from there:

 

• Daily walks: not only will it get me out of the flat and let me explore my new neighbourhood, but it will go a long way to ensure I do not get out of breath walking up a small hill again.

• Daily burpees: Aroo!

• Twice weekly bodyweight workouts: these, along with the running being tracked in my challenge thread, should bring me back up to a reasonable kind of shape within the next four weeks. I considered doing more, but decided against it for the same reason I’m only running twice a week. Illness sucks.

 

Fortunately with this particular pillar I can adapt whenever I need to, meaning that no matter what circumstances I’m faced with I can and will do something to match.

 

 

Mental Wellbeing

It goes without saying that this is of the highest importance. Thought while it’s the most important one for me right now, it’s also the one I struggle with most. I’ve got a meditation goal in my current challenge, and I also have a goal for getting myself out of the flat on my days off. I only have one further goal at this point, and that’s not one I’ll be discussing publicly at the moment.

 

 

Education

If I want to get into the environmental conservation business then I really need to know my stuff. While at this moment in time I can’t quite afford to go for the degree I want to go for, what I can do is utilise the internet for free courses and the like. The first stage of that will be research into just what I need to be aiming for.

 

 

Hobbies

An idle mind is a panicky, depression-laden, pity partying mind, and an over-worked mind is a headache. It’d be nice not to need reminding that there I things I love doing that I haven’t done in a while, but such is life. For just now, these are the things that bring me calm and contentment:

 

• Daily gardening: whether it’s my food garden or the random patch of weed-encrusted concrete that serves as my actual garden, doing something every day will be relaxing.

• Guitar practice: five minutes at least, every day. Even if it’s only tuning and scales. Something is always better than nothing.

• Knitting: three times a week, maybe more should the mood strike me. I have a couple of projects that have been abandoned midway for months now. Finishing them would be great…

• Reading: nightly. When the laptop goes off, the books come out. It’s actually something I’ve managed every night since moving, partially due to how loudly my deaf downstairs neighbour listens to her TV, preventing me from sleeping as early as I’d like.

 

 

 

And that would be that. There’s more than enough to keep me busy and balanced on a daily basis, and at the moment that’s exactly what I need as sitting on the sofa wallowing and demotivated is the other option. At the moment I have no in between. Not good.

 

I have no progress plan at the moment, that’s something of a wait and see deal. For now, let the battle commence and let’s see if I can’t make some of this budding potbelly vanish, settle my mind, and start building the life I actually want.