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Me toooo.  Summer is rough on the sleep.

Saturday 27 April  Charisma: Went out for drinks and dinner with some old classmates from my second masters' degree.  Cooking: Cooked up some leftover fava beans to make a dip and empty the cupboards. At the same time, cooked up a bunch of mince to have protein filling for my wraps next week. Counting those as a single skill point. Also tossed a spicy pork sausage in the air fryer, which I had with lots of mustard, lettuce and gherkins in a tortilla for lunch.  Fitness: Had another go at a workout, still bumping up reps till I get to the maximum of the suggested rep range so I can up the weight and drop back to minimum reps for another build-up.  Media Production: You might have noticed I've been busy enough to not do this lately. Doesn't help that I don't have my wireless headphones. Either way, not good for a project that's about an album a day, but life happens. Back on the saddle, got the day's album heard and commented on.  Video Gaming: Had to wait home for cat food to be delivered during a widely determined timeframe (which wasn't adhered to, but whatever) so I used the opportunity to knock a few more games off my backlog. First up was WonderBoy: The Dragon's Trap, a loving remake of the old classic by Dotemu, folks who gave us Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. I really tried to get into it, but it's got that Metroid approach where you go around loops in the same world until you fight a boss and gain a power that allows you to access different bits of that world. Would have been fine, if it was a little more obvious where you're supposed to go. After a while I got tired of running around the same areas -with respawning enemies, mind you- and started losing focus, which started a spiral of frustration. I decided I didn't need that, so I moved on to the next game, Hero of the Kingdom 2. Visually, it was like a cheap rip off of Heroes of Might and Magic but I tried to give it a chance. The gameplay was extremely underwhelming though so I didn't spend too much time with it. Last up was Truberbrook, a classic point and click adventure that had a pretty decent point and click game flow of "be faced with puzzle, find item(s), use items to solve puzzle, proceed". Must have spent about 4 hours in before I completed it, with the delivery arriving shortly before the finish.  Wellness: So on Friday, the head lawyer had a long meeting with some cheapskate, noisy, spoiled clients and the soundproofing isn't that good, so I gave myself permission to go out for a walk, catch some sunshine and send off the bad vibes. I ended getting a bunch of beauty products, which I put to work the next day. Given my skin condition, the face cleanser and the moisturising cream were great and they made me feel great throughout the day. Also used my new luffa showering after the workout and I did grab a new bottle of medicinal shampoo, but that hasn't come into play yet.

Yes, making healthy eating choices helps us to lose weight as well as strengthen muscle mass. Be sure not to go for an intense calorie deficit, it will harm your muscle mass.    Around 200 to 500 calorie deficit is enough to stimulate fat cells. if your regular diet is 2500 calories then slowly reduce it to 2300, 2200, and 2000. Don't give an immediate shock to your body by reducing 500 calories overnight. It makes you a little weak and lethargic. go slowly and bring the good changes.   If you are confused about how to lose belly fat without losing muscles then you must follow a good diet plan.  

Welp, i did a stupid thing and screwed my sleep over  getting to sleep at a decent time but still waking up a lot. I've come to the conclusion is the increased light level making me wake up 6:30. Yay, summer. *insert gif of vampire hissing as sun here* if this keeps happening i may have to seriously consider falling asleep at stupid oclock (aka, 9:30pm) just to get enough sleep.    so i have a fun thing planned. Group meal with friends. I feel like i didn't sleep at all last night….not really what i was going for.  Thankfully it is a lunch thing so hopefully it will be fine. Hopefully 🤞🤞🤞🤞   had the worst breakfast so far this year. Protein bars are not a breakfast food in my book, but it was all i could manage. Today is not going the best.  i have marinaded chicken (i tried shwarma paste and yogurt this time, very nice) and fresh falafels and home made salsa in the fridge, so supper will at least be low energy.    and just to cheer everyone up after all that grousing.  I love this thing. So ingenious.

Thanks! Im having a lot of fun drawing them. Nice little art project for me

30 seconds squats - 🐝 (opted for 30 squats instead of 30 seconds - took 1m 15s or so)

I shoved mine in my battle log, segmented by challenges. But a page in a notebook or notebook app would work. I try to do 3 goals a challenge, one physical health, one mental health and one diet . Usually there are also a few others that are things i want to get done (like sort the bedroom, this has been ongoing for several months).   i found reading other peoples at the start of the challenge is a good way to get ideas too.    ps. Sorry for posting so many individual posts. Still struggling with the quoting thing….it is an ongoing learning process 🤦‍♀️

It might be worth doing the cal counting for even a day on the new diet, just to make sure your getting enough cals. I found i was seriously under eating on average (by vaguely 400calories, so not a small amount).  im on 1400kcal a day right now. I had to make my lunches bigger and still struggle to get that most days without having a snack or two in the afternoon and a load of fruit.  definitely worth working out your TDEE (calories you burn in a day), even if your not going to count the calories as it gives you some sort of idea where you are number wise. (You want to be eating 500 cals less than what you burn to loose weight)   link here.  https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-many-calories-should-i-eat-every-day-a-look-at-total-daily-energy-expenditure-tdee/   I have M.E/CFS so had to set everythig on the lowest exercise setting (and to be honest i suspect im below even what they expect from that. They could do with an even lower setting for people with med conditions 🤷‍♀️) So if moving around is tough for you, be aware of the possibility the number might be a but generous on some days (it expects you to walk 1.5miles a day. Dont know about you, but i definitely do not get that many (3.5k) steps most days)   anyway. Hope this wasnt too much. Just thought id include it as i personally found it helpful. Feel free to ignore if its not for you 😄

That sounds so positive. Sounds like a super goal