First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 14
Daily Crunch Day 4
PD - 1 hour

Another day of not much. I didn't have a bad sleep last night but still felt drained today so I just let my body do what it wanted to do. It wanted toast for breakfast. :LOL: I let mum sleep in until about 10:30 and she's fine again, and thank you to those well-wishers. I gave the chair I bought yesterday a good wash. It's a pretty robust thing, the frame of it solid steel. The lever to make the seat move forward or back doesn't work but a screwdriver holding each side free while mum pulled the seat got it just the right depth for me, so that's nice. The fact that the lever doesn't work doesn't matter now that it's set for me. It's in my study now and it is so much more comfortable than what I had. I am very pleased.
Had to have a bit of a giggle about the tariffs and that wonderful 'formula'. Poor Norfolk Island, part of Australia's territory, got slugged with a tariff of 29%! Now, being 'part' of Australia, they can't levy their own tariffs but have to abide by what Australia sets, so why is theirs so much higher than ours? What do the Norfolk Islands (population around 2,000) export to the US? About $6,500 worth of honey and beef (via the Mainland). Yep, you read that number correctly. Such economic pirates! Of course, those countries who are actually in a trade deficit with the US got slapped with the minimum 10% which, like everything else, makes no sense. Ah well, we shall see what we shall see.
 
I read an article about those tariffs, it's due to administrative mistakes with goods from Norfolk in the UK or Norfolk in the US xD
Well really it's due to this administration's incompetent, because that would have been corrected by competent staff. I wonder if a certain someone had ChatGPT write his policies :chuckle:
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 16
Daily Crunch Day 6
Daily Gratitude Day 2
Treadmill walk, 30min, 4kph while reading

Mum's being here has, if not improved, at least varied my diet. No zucchini and no capsicum because she doesn't like either, and that knocked a few of my dishes off the menu. Started with baked oatmeal today, which I used to make for the children. With the weather cooling down, it's something I'll be looking at making for myself perhaps more regularly, now that I've worked out proportions that fit the baking dish I have. One more week of meals, though. I haven't repeated any meals yet but I'm running out of ideas...
My builder is coming by tomorrow morning to discuss the plans I got last week. And then...
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 17
Daily Crunch Day 7
Daily Gratitude Day 3

It's funny how one thing out of the ordinary can screw up a whole day. Really, today simply fled by. The builder came as scheduled at 11 and we discussed the newly-drawn plans. I wanted some things changed and clarified. He'll get revised plans drawn up, and a draft contract and things will go from there. He was gone before 12 but it seemed the whole day was just a bit off. Got a fair chunk of work done until my brain hurt, so that was good. Even managed to come up with a meal we hadn't had yet. But there are leftovers in the fridge that I can't freeze as they contain sour cream. Perhaps we can have them for lunch. Have to go shopping tomorrow. Mum wanted a hot chocolate but I have no milk. I am slipping as a host!
 
@neilarey @Matan @Louve Rose @PetiteSheWolf @Maegaranthelas @Fremen
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First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 18
Daily Crunch Day 8
Daily Gratitude Day 4

Had to go shopping today. Mum needed to go to a pharmacy so I decided we'd do a 'big' shop - as in, buy all those little things that I can only get at a certain shopping centre that's a 50-km round-trip away so I don't get there often (gosh). I had also intended to pop into the jigsaw puzzle shop to get me a present on the way back (only about 5km closer to me) but mum wasn't feeling the best so I didn't turn off but went straight back home. I'd also intended to pop into the IKEA to get a pan lid but mum insisted on wearing a heavy (to my mind) jacket when it was 23 degrees outside and hotter in the car and the last thing either of us needed was for her to collapse again either because of dehydration or anything else, so I decided not to bother stopping as she wasn't up to leaving the car and wandering around another shop. I'd suggested buying something special for dessert but she suggested making something that has to hang overnight so she obviously completely missed why I might have liked a special dessert today - one I didn't have to make. Oh well. Just another day, really. But I did buy myself a pair of nice fleecy pyjamas. The nights are getting colder. A couple of mornings ago, we already hit a minus temperature!
 
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First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 19
Daily Crunch Day 9
Daily Gratitude Day 5
Treadmill walk, 30mins, 4kph while reading
PD - 30 minutes

Firming up my plans for the next Great Experiment. This time, however, I can use the brains of the wonderful DAREBEE team because I so don't believe in reinventing the wheel. I may have to change the colour and otherwise adapt, but there are things I can use, and I'm quite looking forward to beginning this GE. I have decided that it will involve only isometric exercises. I do like them. Yielding and overcoming, with set time periods for each, culminating in an overall daily period of... well, we'll see. ;) This will all begin (D.V.) on Monday as mum leaves on Sunday evening and my life can start getting back to normal. Stay tuned.
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 20
Daily Crunch Day 10
Daily Gratitude Day 6
Treadmill walk, 30mins, 4kph while reading

Mum saw that I was working on my isometric programme so I had to explain what isometrics were - both yielding and overcoming - and demonstrate. Then she wanted to know about my work and what I had been doing and that brought a whole lot of stuff up that I shall have to look into further when she's gone. This morning shortly after I'd got up, I went into my study. The sun was coming in through the glass curtains (that side of the house faces north nor'east) and it was pleasantly warm and I realised how much I actually miss sitting at my desk and getting lost in my work. Especially now that the printer is on its own little cupboard and my desk is just for work and I have a new-to-me desk chair. My sleep last night was good but for some reason I kept almost rolling off the (narrow) air mattress. Be happy to get back into my own bed. Another new breakfast and dinner and my repertoire isn't even depleted yet - even given that a number of things I'd otherwise eat would not be to mum's tastes. I've rather surprised myself.
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 22
Daily Crunch Day 12
Daily Gratitude Day 8
Treadmill walk, 30mins, 4kph while reading
PD - about an hour

I had intended to make one thing for dinner but then found out I had no cloves so made something else which turned out very well. We racked our brains and made a list of the 14 dinners I have provided. Only one was frozen pizza. :LOL: The cheese sandwich she had when she got out from the hospital doesn't count. I am pleased that I produced a dozen different dinners, without ever dipping into those that I like but I know she wouldn't for various reasons. My veg box came today and in a paper bag were three lovely big white mushrooms and I used one in the dinner. I also received one persimmon. What do I do with one persimmon? Lots of rather large carrots so I'll break out my old juicer and run them through it and save the pulp in the freezer for when I feel like making carrot cake. I used to make a lot of carrot cakes when someone was in an orange-and-carrot juice phase, and I insisted on the carrot pulp being saved. Makes for a great carrot cake then.

My Great Experiment is all set to go on Monday. Quite excited.
 
NightWolf714 said:
The one time I've been able to have a persimmon, I just had it straight as a snack. No idea what you'd use it in. But they are soooo tasty!
Click to expand...
One of the houses I lived in had a persimmon tree in the back yard. I'd never seen them before. Learnt a very valuable lesson about not eating unripe persimmons!
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 23
Daily Crunch Day 13
Daily Gratitude Day 9

My freshly made-up bed is waiting for me. No rolling off a narrow mattress; no cracking my bonce into an unyielding surface; no lying on some masochist's fantasy of rocks and hollows. My bed. Mine own. Beckoning, beguiling...
 
TopNotch said:
My freshly made-up bed is waiting for me. No rolling off a narrow mattress; no cracking my bonce into an unyielding surface; no lying on some masochist's fantasy of rocks and hollows. My bed. Mine own. Beckoning, beguiling...
Click to expand...
One of life's greatest treasures
 
That bed was indeed beguiling - as in, charming in a deceptive way. I got to bed too late and woke too early and as a consequence did not have a great sleep in between. But, there's always tonight.

First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 24
Daily Crunch Day 14
Daily Gratitude Day 10
Daily flexibility
1-minute Meditation Day 1
Treadmill walk, ~30mins, 2km while reading.
GE #2, Week 1, Day 1 - Upper body #1: Front raise hold; wall push (overcoming); biceps curl (overcoming); push-up hold; dead hang; plank; hand gripper hold

The GE comprises only isometric exercises. Sure, a good workout programme would include both isometric and isotonic, but this is an experiment. Most of the exercises are yielding isometric so the ones that are overcoming will be labelled as such. Yielding exercises are for time (currently ranging from 10 - 30 seconds, except the planks which I cap at 1 minute) whereas the overcoming exercises are only 6 seconds a go.
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 26
Daily Crunch Day 16
Daily Gratitude Day 12
Daily flexibility
1-minute Meditation Day 3
GE #2, Week 1, Day 3 - Stretching/Yoga day. In keeping with the whole isometric theme, only static stretches and poses permitted. Inner Warrior and Gravity Hold.

Strange thing with the search function of workouts. When I inputted the correct name of the workout (e.g. Inner Warrior), I got back 12 results of which only one - and the last one at that! - was Inner Warrior. One other had the word "warrior" in it, but the other 10... Baffling.

Had to go shopping today. Almost bought a new coat but after carrying it around the shop for a bit, I persuaded myself that I didn't need it as I already had a serviceable coat. Dark purple might not be my preference (I picked it up free at the library one winter) but it's long enough and in good condition still. And from a distance, it almost looks black...
 
First Thing Water
Wall pushups Day 28
Daily Crunch Day 18
Daily Gratitude Day 14
Daily flexibility
1-minute Meditation Day 5
Treadmill walk, 30min 2km while reading
GE #2, Week 1, Day 5 - Lower body #2: single-leg balance hold; seated leg curl (overcoming); horse stance; leg extension hold; deadlift (overcoming); floor-assisted L-sit; hand gripper hold
PD - 40 minutes

Recently I bought some rather attractive A4 notebooks, and yesterday I opened one and looked at its beautiful, smooth, off-white page and hesitated to write. What if I made a mistake? What if I needed to cross something out? Wouldn't that make it look ugly? Eventually I put pen to paper and wrote. Today I wrote many more pages - seven pages to be accurate. And there are crossings out. There are caret marks and words scrawled between two lines. The pages don't look any less beautiful - if fact, now there are words on them they look more beautiful. It may seem a small thing - writing in a notebook - and it was. The big thing was beating back the demon of perfectionism.
 
First Thing Water
Daily Crunch Day 22
Daily Gratitude Day 18
Wake up! Mobility
1-minute Meditation Day 9
Treadmill walk, 30min 2km, while reading
GE #2, Week 2, Day 2 - stretching day: Limitless and Bowman

Also decided today that when I went to get another cup of tea, I would do 20 incline push-ups against the counter. Each time. My pot holds six cups. And when I left the study for any reason I would take at least 200 steps. And maybe perhaps do another few push-ups. Worked quite well today. Might try to remember to do this in the future.
 
First Thing Water
Daily Crunch Day 23
Daily Gratitude Day 19
Wake up! Mobility
1-minute Meditation Day 10
Treadmill walk, 30min 2km, incline 3, while reading
GE #2, Week 2, Day 3 - Upper Body #2 (I really love the overcoming chest press!)

Writing in my new notebook, I change pen colour every day. Yesterday was lime green (not my favourite), the day before was brown. Today was blue - not the navy blue that came before the brown, nor the sky blue that came before that but just... blue. Tomorrow I'm thinking hot pink. Or possibly purple. Red is for correction so I can't use that. Running out of colours - soon have to repeat. But it's nice to have a clear marker, showing how much I've written on any one day.
 
First Thing Water
Daily Crunch Day 24
Daily Gratitude Day 20
Wake up! Mobility
1-minute Meditation Day 11
Treadmill walk, 30min 2km, incline 3, while reading
GE #2, Week 2, Day 4 - Lower Body #2

Most days I get some PD done but I want to make this more scheduled, with a minimum amount of time spent learning. Not a huge amount of time - I reckon an hour is fine, even though often I go far beyond that. Some days, though, I do less. But henceforth, I shall aim for a minumum of one hour PD per day. To make it easy for me to see if I've hit that target, I'm going to use two icons - ⌛and ⏳ - the first meaning I used all my time, the second is not quite. Today:
⌛ PD

Use the pink pen today. Yep, that's certainly pink! Tomorrow I get to rest my eyes with black, and then I'm on to the last colour I have - purple.

Something happened this morning that makes me think my dog might actually have a working brain cell. As usual, while I'm hanging out the washing, I leave the door open because Creed normally follows me out. It was quite warm in the sun so I was optimistic of the washing's drying today (which it did). When I was inside again, Creed started whining. I wrote things in a notebook and he whined. I went to the loo and he was still whining. So I let him out. The chooks were already roaming around but he paid them no attention. He didn't go and lie down in the sun. Instead, he went right along to the laundry door and there, looking somewhat alarmed, was the cat! She'd gone out while the door was open and I'd not seen her (sneaky beast). Creed herded her back in and she seemed quite pleased to be returning. Then he followed her inside, sniffing carefully to ensure that she was all right. Satisfied, he then settled down. What a clever boy, realising that Footsy was not in the house! So yes, perhaps there is a brain cell there after all.

And look at that - a workout named for him! I guess I'll have to get around to doing it some day.
 
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