Report for you, ser

Reporting in -

It is the start of week three of this round of four week challenges. Week one was super strong. Zero misses. Last week ..  . . ehhhhhh.

Cassandra would be shamefaced.

My calorie intake has been on point. There has not been a single day - except for a planed day of indulgence, celebrating 3 years of being married, that I haven't been at or under my target intake, netting an average daily deficit of approx 500 calories.

Sticking to my meal planning on the other hand . . .that's where it starts to crumble. Work has, as usual, been in awful-overdrive. Busy season + mangers quitting + viruses in the system = cranky. Getting home late, I just don't have the will to argue with my husband when he says, "I don't want you to have to cook. Let me get you take out." I can't blame him - he will literally do whatever I want to do. But what I wanted to do in that moment was to not have to cook. Luckily, despite deviating from plan, I did manage to make healthy choices when it came to what I was eating, despite the take-away-ish nature.

There was no class option for me this last week, only because was on my own all week, with Husband out of town, so had to actually come home after work to let the dog out and spend some time with her. She doesn't really have separation anxiety, but I would like to keep it that way, and being alone for nine hours during the day was already stressing the poor pooch out enough.  So, no class was a gimme - didn't skip it, conscientiously did not schedule. Hit all my work outs but one this weekend.  Basically, my entire weekend's schedule got shot to hell due to unexpected events and terrible weather, so . . .  not an excuse, just a little self-realization. I apparently need to work on my ability to adjust based on changes in plan. Also, if I am being honest, the work outs I did do this last week I kind of phoned in. I usually work out upstairs in the bedroom, it's out of the way, I can play my awful work out music, I won't trip over the dog, etc, etc. But then, I feel terrible cause I am spending a precious hour of our time together clear on the other side of the house from the husband. Of course, the night I was like "hey, I will work out downstairs - I don't care if HE sees me all sweaty and ridiculous" I ended up feeling awkward AF and frustrated, because right as I was ending my first set, the Roommate decided to surface from the basement, get the dog all wound up so that she kept tripping me and getting in the way (when previously she was sacked out on the couch next to the husband) and then plopped down on the couch chilling in the living room for no particular reason. There was nothing good on TV, she was just playing on her phone. I didn't want to be a dick and ask her to bugger off, but while I am confident enough at this point to work out in front of the man I love, working out infront of the roommate is a completely different story.  . . . it was just so damned awkward and weird, and honestly, it might make me a terrible person, but I can't wait until we don't have a roommate any more.

Weeknight bedtime routine - once again, solid followed by some fail. I finally downloaded the Dragon Age 2 DLC. Defeating Corypheus was more important then sleep. And then last night was just back to my "i don't want to go to work, so if I don't go to sleep, tomorrow will never come, right" ill-logic.

So, now that I know where my weaknesses are, I can make a plan to sure up the defenses.

Going forward for my remaining 2 weeks, in addition to my meal plan, I want to create a "back up" plan, for nights that I am just too tired and miserable. Not sure what this will entail, but maybe have a stock of healthy canned soups or something microwaveable - not ideal cause hello high sodium and super processed-yness. But it's a safety net between 100% success and splatting on the ground in failure. I might also stretch my meal-prep skilllz, which have kept me winning the lunchtime game for weeks now, and try to stock my freezer with crock pot dump meals. Or, at very least, pre-prep my ingredients for what needs to be cooked. Cause, the main reason I decided to eat out on Friday was that while I was super excited to try the NF Rice and Bean recipe, the idea of spending forever cutting veggies made me want to flip over a table and burn all the cook books. Which would be bad. So, if I can keep little frozen baggies of pre-cut onions and peppers and stuff, cooking in the evenings won't seem such a chore.

I am not sure what my game plan is to get my workouts back on track. I have considered trying a different time rather then evenings, but that is a no-go. Mornings are the worst possible time for me and after a few attempts earlier in my NF journey to create the habit of waking up early, I realized that was just setting myself up for failure. Likewise, my lunch hours are already triple booked - that's the time I am SUPPOSED to be working on my writing, or working overtime to try and keep up with work and get some extra $$, or y'know actually eating. So lunchtime work outs are not on. I think I am going to start with adding some more fun music to my work out playlist. I am also finding the BWWs a wee bit frustrating. Push ups continue to defeat me, whereas everything else is getting boring. I don't want to deviate from the course, but I have got to think of something to make it both more challenging and yet less frustrating from lack of progress.  Maybe finally break down and buy the pull up bar so I can stop altering some of the exercises all of the time. Might also have to rearrange some of my loot - if I want to beat the challenge, I might need a new sports bra sooner rather then later. Until then, I just have to bully my way through, I think.

As for bedtime - I think I need to be more conscientious of scheduling down time. Actually put it in my plan "take some time to play a bit" or "sit and read". I acknowledge that work is super stressful right now. I acknowledge that sometimes I just need to unwind, and not feel like I have to be "responsible adult" every single second.



So, now for the recap:

Current work out Strength: My push ups have improved (slightly) since last time. Still not great, but moving my hands back to shoulder width has actually helped. I feel less wobbly and can get a bit closer to the ground. Also I am back to being able to do my warm up with out getting winded after the first two exercises, and have actually added time to the running in place and jumping jacks.

Current work out weakness: I don't have a pull up bar so basically any chin-up, pull-up or hanging drill is basically off the list of things i can do and I want to fix that.

Nutrition win: I am getting waaaay better at portion control and learning how to tell my stomach no when it is being a demanding bitch

Nutrition lose: I have somehow fallen off the water wagon. I was doing pretty well, at least on weekdays getting most if not all of my water goal. It was part of my walking at work schedule. Now I neither walk nor drink water.

Current favorite inventory item: My "quest log". It is a graph paper journal from Redbubble that has "Disgusted Noise" on the cover. It makes me smile every time I see it, and helps me keep a visual tab on my challenge progress, and keeps my work out notes, and big why, and warm up/work out series all in one place.

Current favorite "Fight" song: "Take 'Em Down" by Dropkick Murphy. It is perfect for my one dance drill, or just fast aerobic running/jumping, and also speaks to my current hatred of managers. Yah for getting work induced agressions out!

Current nerd activity: Aforementioned killing of Corypheus, and also bashing out three new chapters in my Harry Potter FanFiction.

Smutty literature recommendation: Recently did a re-read on "How to Ravish A Rake" by Vicky Drieling. Yah for Regency romance combing my history-nerdism with my illicit love of crappy literature. Some of the more winning characteristics are the fact that the cover art actually looks like the characters are described in the book, including outfit they are wearing - added bonus, the dress she is wearing on the cover is actually period-correct for the regency. Yes, my standards for judging romance novels are strange, and not particularly high.