Let's do the thing!

I am two days back into my routine!
Seven days into the year!!
I am hungry for your news - tell me how you're all doing!

How is everyone doing? I have learnt that Thursdays are magically a terrible time to weigh myself as, having returned a lower result at my friend's house (Tuesday) I then returned a higher result at the gym on Thursday. Yes, apparently I magically gained 1.3kg in two days.

So I bought my own scales, they are en route to me now. I will set an alarm and only weigh myself once a week, on the same scales and at the same time of day.

I have had only soup for lunch today and yesterday, mostly because I bought it at the airport and if I don't use my frozen meals I can save the money of doing a big cook (the NHS like to pay us early for Christmas, making January very long!) until next wage packet.

Today I slipped a bit because I was sooooo hungry and soup just wasn't enough. But yesterday I went to the gym - returning my highest un-caffinated cycle length to date. And today I swam - the best thing I did there was not kill anyone who annoyed me.

A lot of people at work have also not been killed and I have not comfort or stressed eaten as a consequence of their foolishness.

....And I failed to make it over here for days on end, as usual, lol.

Hi guys! Hope all your celebrating or ignoring of celebrating went well. Let's have it for a check-in, shall we?







I said, LET'S HAVE IT FOR A CHECK-IN! The holidays have expired as an acceptable excuse!



I had some fairly uneventful days to end the week. Friday I was supposed to go to yoga but it was an early-morning class and mornings and I don't go together ever, so I totally failed. I did my home workout instead at a more normal hour though, so it was fine. Saturday was home workout again (the gym was closed over NY). Sunday I went for a walk with Alsha, about 6 km, so nothing major, but I was planning a big hike for Monday so I took it easy the rest of Sunday.

Yesterday (Monday) I did my massive hike, which was a little bonkers - it's classified as a 7-8 hour one-way stretch across the top of an 800 m hill, but because I am nothing if not over-ambitious, I went there and back again (so twice the distance, a total of 35 km, mostly steeply up and down hills, through lots of overgrown forest and mud like you wouldn't believe) and the whole thing took me 9 hours so I basically cut the estimated time in half, lol (and these are NZ estimates, they're usually pretty accurate rather than overly generous). The trail was incredibly muddy with few options to skirt around, so I was up to my ankles in mud a lot of the time. Mhmmm trenchfoot! The forests were really pretty and there was nary a soul around (unless you count a couple of feral goats - GOATS! - and lots of bunnies) but man, it was exhausting. Ngl, when I got to the other end, I was highly tempted to ring Alsha for a pick-up, because it wasn't really the kind of trail you desperately want to do twice, but the other end was in some tiny valley abandoned by humanity and there was no reception, so I had no choice but to stick to the plan and go back. More mud!

Aaaand because I am apparently mental, once I got back to the start of the trail, I then cycled the ~19 km home. Mind you, by that point the prospect of sitting (SITTING!) on a bike and just having to pedal a bit instead of walkingclimbingwalkingclimbing felt like sheer luxury, and most of the way was straight or downhill. When I got home, I took a shower, shoved all the food into my face and literally faceplanted on the bed and slept for 12 hours. It was fun and I'm glad I did it because I feel very accomplished indeed (I've done longer walks but over much more moderate terrain); but I'm definitely going to take it easy for a few days (actually I'm not particularly sore today, which is nice!).

Question first. I assume everyone's being low-key right now because holidays, and fitness goals are likely to become more Srs Bizniz in the new year, but I wanted to check anyway: Going forward, are you guys ok to continue with the daily(ish) check-ins, or would you prefer a weekly post where we talk about stuff we did the past week? I know I've not been super-regular with doing check-in posts, but if you'd prefer a more spaced-out schedule, I'm happy to go with that.


Ok, as for check-in... tell me how you're doing! Over the holidays you get three extra cheers for every movement that is made in defiance of food and inertia!



I've been doing quite a lot and really enjoying it (benefit of obligation-free Christmas... everyone else is busy so I have like a week of me time :D). On Monday we had a picnic at the beach with friends, so to make up for All The Food, I cycled both ways - about 20km roundtrip, with about 2 of those rather strenuously uphill. Cursed hills!



I basically crawled up it at snail speed, but I didn't get off to push, so I was proud of that. Also, after the picnic I went for a swim in the ocean, more for fun splashing about than exercise purposes, but it counts as such anyway because I maintain that swimming against waves and tide and stuff burns more energy *nods*



(Uhmmmmm, why is one of the first pics Google offers me for "ocean swim" THIS?????



It's not like I don't have irrational shark fear already! :p)

Tuesday I did my workout at home, mowed the lawn, and then discovered one of the garden beds really really needed re-digging, so I spent about an extra hour gardening. Let me just affirm how much I hate gardening, ugh.

Today I dragged myself out of bed early to go to yoga, which went really well - I had a teacher I'd not had before and she may just be my favourite for this type of class so far. Really good energy, challenges you without delighting in torturing you, and got a very nice momentum going. It was one of those classes where even if I didn't get all the poses just right, it felt easy to let go of all the mental/emotional shit and just breathe and be in the moment. So I came out feeling all peaceful and energised and relaxed.





I'd brought my swimsuit just in case I wanted to go wild and go for a swim after yoga, so I did that as well - the cool water after the super-hot studio was really lovely. I was going to push my usual lap count a bit higher, but it was super-busy to the point of crammed, so I didn't.

(Two pet peeves while I think of it: 1) Why is it that whenever someone speaks up in the middle of yoga class to make a lame joke or be otherwise disruptive, it's ALWAYS the one dude in the entire class? Ugh, men. 2) Can we all agree that if there's two people with roughly matching speed in the medium-speed pool lane and a third person comes in who is super-slow and disrupts the other 2 people's rhythm, when an entirely empty slow-speed lane opens up right next to the medium one, it's the third arrival who should switch lanes? Ugh, people.)

Food has been a mixed bag. Still lots of fruit and veg, but there has also been a LOT of cheese and cake and ice cream and empty carbs. I think I need to set a goal about cutting back on late-night snacks because I'm usually ok throughout the day including dinner, but if I'm up late (which I am often), I invariably end up stuffing somethink junky into my face at midnight.

You guys are all prob taking today off so it's really unfair of me to post this now, but I haven't posted for a few days and I'm not really known for tact so...

So I've been behind on my work out. Most days I EITHER stretch OR walk up the stairs but not both. Still better than I was last month I guess.

Food is weird. I either eat very little all day or I eat too much, and sometimes there's a lot of dessert around but other times it's ALL the mandarin oranges ever.

I did make progress on finding a gym. There's one that's 7 minutes from my house by streetcar (15 min total counting my walk to the streetcar stop and the 4 min average wait) and the website says it has resistance machines but there are no proper pictures so I have to check it out. It's a bit more expensive than the one that's closer to my house, but it does have a 12 month plan that's cheaper so I might pay for the first month and then if I like it switch to the 12 month plan. Cancellation fee is less than a month-by-month fee anyway so it's not a big commitment but it's still big enough to nudge me to work out (once I had a subscription to an AMAZING new gym at my old uni but I got a huge discount and it ended up being like 8$ a month and that wasn't enough to shame me into going).

How's it going, fitskimos? I am confused what day of the week it is, again. *does Tuesday check-in post on Wednesday bc why not*

I went to a hot yoga class yesterday (the regular high-energy, sweat buckets kind) and it mostly kicked my butt. Part of this is my own fault because I'd spent the afternoon reading in the sun and drinking cider, so I came into class with the energy of an overboiled noodle. Part of it is that it's a pretty advanced class and a) the teacher mostly uses the Sanskrit names of the poses, which I don't all know or remember, so I often lose my flow while figuring out what pose we're doing, and b) the teacher wants us all to die, lol. She's really good but very demanding.

So at some point she was like "now go into side crow if you want" and I'd never done a side crow before, but it is this:



...and my body definitely Does Not Do That, lol. I can do an approximation of a normal/forward crow (see below) but even that's kind of a wobbly mess. Oh well, maybe eventually. Good to have goals, right? :p



So yeah, I came out of that class kinda like this:



...but at least I did go (I really didn't wanna).

On a side-note, I'm still figuring out how people use this gym/the yoga facilities, and it seems like most of them don't shower there, which I find bizarre. I mean, most people don't even seem to use the changing rooms, they just drive to the gym in yoga gear, get back in the car after class and I guess drive home to shower? I would NOT want to sit in a car after a hot yoga class when you're absolutely DRENCHED in sweat. But this is the third time I've gone and the third time I've been the only person to change and shower on site. Is this weird? Do people not shower at gyms? Oddness!

Oh yeah, and food. We have soooooo much fruit in the house atm that I've mostly been subsisting on muesli and fruit salads (literally, my dinner last night was water melon, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines, apples, oranges, and kiwifruit!...oh, and cheese) but I have also been horrible about my 1/2 metre Kinder chocs because they are evil and sing to me from the cabinet.

Just a quick one. Today was fine exercise-wise - did my full workout, also mowed the lawn (which totally counts as exercise - our grass is... vigorous). Food was less successful. We went out for pizza for dinner, as we were trying to determine whether the pizza place up in the next town that claimed to be authentic Italian was actually authentic Italian (it wasn't). And a friend bought me 1/2 a metre of Kinder chocolate (yes. Half. A. Metre!!) so... I had to, y'know, quality control.

(wrong language, but this is the scale)



I have another stressful few days ahead - will try not to slack off and subsist entirely on delicious delicious chocolate :p

Why are Mondays! How's it going with y'all?

So I didn't do the thing yesterday because we went to a play then watched TV and I forgot.

I made sure to do the thing today. I'm really enjoying the warm feeling the stretch gives me now, so I'm hoping that will motivate me to actually do it more often.

That was short!

Friday here - I've been doing things but failing at check-ins. Better than the other way around, eh?

So Tuesday morning I went swimming as reported, AND then in the afternoon I went to check out one of the hot yoga classes (they let me trial it for free, which was nice). It was really good - super-challenging as I did rather jump in the deep end after 1 1/2 years of not doing it, but felt excellent afterwards. I did have lots of new person awkwardness, and having the studio be in a gym is still weird - to get there you have to walk past this looooong stretch of grim-looking people grimly pedalling on exercise bikes, lol. Made me think of you, Christine!
But yeah, the class was good and I want to go again. Will see if I can fit one in today - work is rather mental this week so I might not get to it properly until next week but if I don't go today, I'll at least try to work out at home.

On Wednesday I was going to let my muscles rest as I'd been so hardcore the three days before (where I did TWO hour-plus things each day), but then Alsha and I ended up going for a bike ride for about ~15 km, lol. It was really pretty and a new route, so that was cool.

Thursday was my doing-nothing day instead. I'd been really good and healthy with food all week, so yesterday I just shoved all the Indian ever into my face. Wheeeeeeee.

How's everyone else's week going? Are you kicking its arse?

How are we doing Fitskimos? I'm keen to hear from everyone else.



I was fairly meh about today: I tried to stick to my food plan but had a sandwich (turkey and cranberry on the fluffiest, yummiest ciabatta) instead of soup as we went out for a colleagues lunch and the soup in the cafe was Parsnip & Lemon XP
But apart from that I stayed on plan and when my chocolate/sweetie treat at the end of the day came to being either 2g over or 1g under I went for 1g less (one jelly piggy less).
Look how delish these piggies are - that was strong of me!


But in the gym I got on an exercise bike, tasting victory by getting the last one before a guy who was eyeing it up while I stretched my calves.



AND THIS HAPPENED!

(new personal best!!!)

I've failed at check-ins over the weekend because I was pretty much offline for three days, but I've done heaps.

Saturday I did nothing except for 10 chin-ups because I was in recovery from my horror work day. We did go to the gypsy fair though, which involved lots of walking.

On Sunday I went for a long bike ride - I tried to record it on mapmyride but the mapping tool is so finicky and inaccurate and doesn't have half the tiny trails I like to use, so I gave up on it. It was roughly 20 km (I need to get a km gauge for my bike because I do like to know these things exactly) and insanely pretty - I cycled along the railway route for a while, met Alsha and the dog at the river, walked with them for a bit, then went back to cycling and did a big loop along the estuary and beach and then overland back home. I kinda wish I'd taken pics but I also just wanted to ride, so that's fine.

I also did my full workout AND mowed the lawn, so it was a pretty accomplished day!



On Monday we went Christmas shopping, so that was a lot of walking around again (ugh, malls). I did my workout and then later decided on a whim to check out one of the local yoga studios, because I have been missing it. The place was really nice, more of a meditation retreat sorta place - big old sprawly house with big green grounds and old trees, and the room the class was in had huge windows so all the green was right there, which was lovely. The class was nice in terms of mindfulness and relaxation (which I know I don't do enough of), but I sort of missed the challenge of the hot yoga classes I used to do, where the relaxation is paired with a good physical workout. They also had really old carpet in the room, which did not get along with my allergies.

So today I was up insanely early for some reason and investigated other yoga options - there is a hot yoga studio about half an hour's train ride away, which I was going to check out even though if I liked it, it was going to get pretty expensive between the classes and the train fare :/
BUT THEN! But then I discovered since the last time I checked, we've apparently acquired a hot yoga studio right here too! So I'm pretty excited to check that out. They have exactly the classes I want and it's really close by. The downside is the studio is inside the gym (ugh, gyms) and is only available to premium members, so... I might end up with a gym membership just to go to yoga?? The price is actually quite good (better than it was in Nelson) but I'll see if I can at least trial a few classes before I slap down a wad of money for a year, lol.

And then because I was all bouncy to discover that and it was still stupidly early and work wasn't trying to kill me *knocks on wood*, I went for a morning swim and did 60 laps. Wheeeee!



Food-wise, I've been pretty good (rice & veggie stir-frys, mostly), although Saturday was my skip & cheat day and I ate all the creamy pasta and all the custardy dessert. And there's been weekend cake because caaaaaaaaake.

How's your start of the week going? Tell us everything!

IDEK if this will post right.

I didn't do the thing on Saturday because I was working all day and my friend came to watch TV in the evening and I figured I'd stretch after he leaves and that was like 11:30 pm and I only remembered at 1 am when I was trying to fall asleep.

Almost happened again today. It's after 2 am right now, but I made myself do 10 min of stretching before bed and I'm making myself write an update now.



Also my diet right now is basically whatever I can do to empty the fridge. I think I'm down to 4 eggs now and everything else can keep till after I come back from vacay, so I'm prob gonna have takeout or smthg cuz 4 eggs aren't gonna last me 1.75 days. I'll try to get smthg borderline healthy

yeah soz, it's Saturday here and my last post was.... Thursday? IDEK. how does time.

How's it going? I think we're due some mysterious details from Diana and a swimming report from Christine. Don't make me get out the whip, because I'm not sure I could hold it at present.

Anyway, let me tell you all about my horrible horrible Friday :p I worked for 18 hours (yes, eighteen - that's eight plus eight and another two) which included wrapping up my awful gigantic job before the deadline (I did) and pushing through a bunch of extra things so I'd get to have a three-day weekend.
I did not have time for anything that would have taken longer than 2 minutes because I was already bending the space/time continuum, so I got my 1000 jumping jacks and a few exercise ball push-ups in, but even that much was frankly a miracle under the circumstances.
I ate... the Olivia Dunham diet, lol. Muesli and Scotch. (Not together). Total health fail.





I've also been experiencing more phantom quakes than usual (a phenomenon that often happens in the weeks after a major earthquake and lots of aftershakes - you start to think the earth is moving when it's not, and of course sleep deprivation enhances it because your brain starts to fuck with you).

In short, it was one sucky hellmouth of a day/night.

So today (Sat) I was planning on going for a nice bike ride but a) I went to bed at 5am and when I got up at 11, I was still totally shattered, b) it's pissing down by the bucketfuls, and c) my fucking period came 2 fucking days early. Normally I don't mind exercising while on my period because I find it loosens up the muscles and reduces cramps, but not today, nope, fuck that shit. Today is my flopping around in zombie space and not doing a damn thing that involves anything more strenuous than petting a cat.

On the upside: THREE-DAY WEEKEND! During which I am bound to move again at some point. Probably.

I had a long and stressy but surprisingly successful day yesterday. Somehow squeezed in my full workout and felt really good afterwards. Got through almost my entire pile of work. Didn't have time to really cook so had a fruit salad and heaps of veg and uh, maybe some nuts? I don't even remember but it was accidentally healthy I think, lol.

Today I have a massive workload again but it should be the worst/last for the week as I'll be wrapping up my huge horror job. I want to make time for the workout again but I won't be mad if I can't, as I'm pretty happy with how often I've done it this week.



How are you, fellow fitskimos?

Is this okay? Am I allowed to sneak in because modly time-zones don't match mine?

This is a secret, mystery ninja post.

Because today should have been my skip day but work stuff makes gyming tomorrow complicated so it's tomorrow instead. I had roast turkey for lunch and I was sooo full I didn't eat my jelly this afternoon (long story, it's <100cal snack).

But I still forced my legs to cycle 6.86miles, they objected to nearly every inch but I survived. Just.

How's everyone else getting on?

omg I need a check-in post, so sorry if this is slightly early for you guys! The perceived peer pressure is definitely working, because I was having one of those 12-hour work days where I would normally totes have skipped the workout, but I wanted something to report so I divvied up my work into hourly piles and whenever I had 5-10 minutes left of the hour after doing the work, I'd do some stretches or squats or sit-ups or jumping jacks or what-have-you.

Well, I ended up having time left on the hour quite a lot, so I ended up doing my full workout piecemeal throughout the day (in fact, I think I did more than usual, because I did so much little stuff but still completed my full sets too!). Normally I prefer getting it done in one go (I do move around so I don't get stiff at my desk - which reminds me, I need to write an ode to my beloved exercise ball at some point!), but this felt like a more manageable way of doing it on a day where I would otherwise just have said "I can't take an hour out of my day today, so sod it."

So between all the work and all the mini-workouts, I feel proper exhausted now. BED!



How's everyone doing today? Come tell us so we can cheer you!

So here is my post of graphs and whatnot. I'll put in a cut because it's graphics heavy...

( Cutty-Cuttingtons )

My tips are... watch the news at the start. It gets me sufficiently angry that I give a bit more, you can work out the rage. I did quite well listening to Les Mis once or twice too but nothing works quite like the Trunchbull from Matilda (the musical) who just has no sympathy for how tired you might feel in "The Hammer". Alternatively you can be Matilda withstanding her physical challenges in "The Smell of Rebellion" (although it's got a slower start).

Good morning peeps! Just thought I'd throw up a post here in case anybody wants to check in today. For me, I've been doing some of this...



(The shovelling, not the flipping)

Also some of this...



And now I'm doing this...



But I did get in 3700 steps walking the Kid to school, and I'll get another 3700 when I pick him up this afternoon, so then I'll be doing this...



So how's everybody else doing? Got any accomplishments to report? Got an inner sloth that needs to be told to move along? We're here for encouragement/celebrations/berating, whatever you need!

And if nothing else gets you moving, just remember...

*slumps* Yo. Today I wanted to avoid work so badly that I did my workout while listening to the Moana soundtrack (it's so uplifting - thanks for sharing it, Lil!), then took the dog for a loooong walk, then walked to the shops and schlepped home all the groceries, then snacked on a carrot, and I bought asparagus for dinner.

So right now I'm like ALL FITNESS GOALS ACHIEVED, GO MEEEEE...



...BUT I really really feel like I deserve to collapse on the couch with a glass of wine and laze around until the Austrian elections happen, but instead I still have to do all the work I avoided by being fit and stuff. IT'S NOT FAIR. *sobs*

How are you guys doing? Anyone need a whip or a nudge?

Hello fitskimos!

Since several of us seem to be doing or considering fitness things, I thought it might be nice to revive this community as a place of mutual support, progress reports, moaning, and whip-swinging (as required). Whether you prefer the gym, a daily run, a home-based workout or some other exercise regime, the idea is that although we'll be doing different things at different times, this is a place to come for some cheerleading when you need it, some stern pressuring when you need THAT, and anything else we might want to discuss about fitness and health (which can include anything from favourite workout music to specific diets, etc.). Sometimes just knowing that you have a place where you can tell friends about that stupid looming workout can be exactly the push you need to actually DO IT.

A few years ago, when we used this place for the C25K running challenge, we had daily check-in posts, and I think that format might suit us for this new fitness endeavour too - obviously you don't have to work out every day if that isn't your regime, but that way we can get into a habit of coming here a few times a week and cheer each other on or get some motivation. If you're coming to check in and there isn't a post for that day yet, please make one, I don't plan to be particularly modly! Also please do start any fitness-related topics or discussions that may tickle your fancy.


For starters, I thought we could give each other a quick idea of what our current fitness goals are (whether it's just getting back into a routine or work on a specific body part, eat healthier, or whatevs), and what each of us wants out of this community... I think we all know each other well enough that we don't need to lay down specific rules, but just be respectful of each other's goals and processes (like, if someone's specified that negative pressure doesn't work for them, don't tell them to "drop and give me 30, you maggot-bellied weakling!" :p). Let's have it in the comments, and then... LET'S DO THE THING!

What is it about the second run of the week? On Monday, I did almost feel like Lola in aldiara's gif, zooming along with ease and with something approaching gracefulness. Today it was more like this:



Except for the part where she's passing other runners, because that didn't happen. Still, it's done, and it was not too bad at all. I was getting tired at the end but I could have kept going for a bit longer if I'd had to. I guess next week I'll have to. I'm not as worried about that as I was last week. (Damn you, Week 3, for your evil mindgames!)

So how did you all manage the second workout?