Fitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in Two

[sylvanwitch]

Greetings, Fitness Friends!

How has the week been for you--ups, downs, triumphs, struggles? Please do share in the comments how you've done with reaching for and/or achieving your goals. As always, you are welcome to adjust those goals to what best suits you. There is no judgement here.



Weight: 195.6, down one pound from last week. Yay!

Exercise: I did yoga four times out of four pledged, strength-training three times out of three pledged, and walked every day. I also made sure we got outside to walk twice, once in the evening in a neighborhood with sidewalks and streetlights and another in the early afternoon on Saturday, a nice long ramble by the river.

Eating plan: We had a splurge meal on Saturday evening, but even there, I kept to reasonable portions and felt good about my choices, particularly since we'd gone for a long walk earlier in the day. Otherwise, I'm eating as cleanly as possible, lots of fruits, veggies, and whole foods whenever possible.

Hydration: Yes.

Meditation: Twice out of twice pledged.

Sleep: I was mostly good. I had one weeknight when I was later than I should have been getting to sleep because I didn't want to stop reading my ebook, but otherwise, I was good about keeping to my no-screens bedtime.

The week ahead: More of the same, with hopefully further outdoor opportunities.



I'm wishing for all of us a good week of rest, health, and vitality!

Comments

[delphi]

That sounds like a fantastic week - congratulations! I'll be crossing my fingers that the weather is suitable for more time outside this week in your neck of the woods.

For my week:
Meals - 7/7 (albeit with some close calls)
Water - 7/7
Stretching - 7/7
Walking - 7/7
Fibre - 6/7 (ran out of chia seeds, and so did the grocery store)
Sleep - 3/7 (a slight improvement on the week before!)

This week, there's a lot of work stress happening, so I'm focusing in particular on getting out for some fresh air and brisk walks wherever possible.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you! It's not looking good, re: walking weather. We have a winter storm warning tonight into tomorrow, with very cold temperatures and lots of blowing and drifting, but thank you for the sentiment. :-)

You are doing SO WELL! Yay! :-) Seriously, look at all those 7/7s! And with work stress on top of it--that's epic! YAY!

[oschun]

I hope you've had more opportunities to be outdoors this week.

The beginning of last week was stressful for me, which negatively impacted everything else, but things improved later in the week and I managed a half hour walk on Saturday and an hour walk on Sunday. My diet was mostly good and I did batch cooking of a range of wholefood, plant-based dishes on Sunday - which I've really appreciated this week. I'm also getting better at looking after my kefir scoby and having some every day in the form of an ayran drink.

[sylvanwitch]

I have not, sadly, been able to get outdoors, and we're under a severe weather warning for tonight and tomorrow. On the up side, I'm sure school will be closed. On the downside, it's supposed to be zero degrees, with a -12 wind chill, which is too cold for me, even if my nifty new ski pants came yesterday.

I am so sorry you're suffering stress, and I'm super proud of you for making good meals on Sunday for the week. The preplanning is key to making sure we can take care of ourselves when we're unmotivated, exhausted, and/or frustrated and stressed. I hope things have improved on the stress-making front and that the week goes smoothly from here on out.

[luzula]

Go you with your adherence to your goals! \o/

I have been to that personal trainer now. I think he was good. He gave me some exercises that were really interesting, focusing on the back of my shoulders and between my shoulderblades and how not to end up in a hunched-forward position. Which meshes well with what I've read, but it was very helpful to have a session in person. Also he taught me something I didn't know, which is that if you stand with your feet parallel and with a stance that's a little broader than your hips, and then try to push your feet out towards the sides (kind of hard to describe in words), and then bend your knees and go up again, you will be stronger, because you are activating other muscles for leg-bending than the ones on the front of your thighs.

Otherwise I am good! I'm exercising and have been skiing as long as that was possible (the snow is gone now), I'm working outside, weight is okay.

[sylvanwitch]

Thank you! And GO YOU for seeing the personal trainer and learning so much good stuff!

I think I know what you mean about the move you're describing. I'm imagining it as a yoga move and can definitely see how that posture shift would change the muscle ratio. How exciting!

One thing I've learned from doing yoga is how just a tiniest adjustment of posture changes *every*thing; it's astonishing! (It also makes me wonder how any of us go about in the world without constantly throwing out backs out or pulling a muscle or pinching a nerve! Lol!)

YAY for exercising and skiing (when there's snow) and working outside! That's all wonderful stuff! YAY!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Gosh, I forgot about this.

Let's see, I got a latch installed. I've broken down most of the brushpile beside the driveway. Today we went out to an event and walked around for a couple hours.

Re: Thoughts

[sylvanwitch]

No worries! I'll leave the light on for ya! :-)

YAY for getting that brushpile taken care of and for getting in some good, quality steps while also enjoying a local event! That's the best kind of rambling, I think!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>YAY for getting that brushpile taken care of <<

Yeah, most of what's left will be hauling the bigger branches to the ritual meadow, and raking up leftover twigs.

>>and for getting in some good, quality steps while also enjoying a local event! That's the best kind of rambling, I think! <<

I get in a lot of walking while doing chores, but it is much more enjoyable to walk around looking at things. We try to catch street fairs in warm weather. A local mall is planning a Valentines sale in early February that I'd like to catch.

Re: Thoughts

[sylvanwitch]

I know what you mean about wanting things to look at. We took our time meandering around our local Sam's Club on Saturday because the weather outside was frightful, but the store was less busy than usual for a weekend because there was a football game scheduled for that afternoon. We're not sportsball followers, so it was perfect for us to get some steps in. We also have a mall not too far away, which gives us about .8 miles per loop, but that gets boring after a while. Maybe they're having a "sidewalk" sale, though, for V-day. I'll have to check it out!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I know what you mean about wanting things to look at. We took our time meandering around our local Sam's Club on Saturday because the weather outside was frightful, but the store was less busy than usual for a weekend because there was a football game scheduled for that afternoon.<<

Good idea! We used to visit Sam's Club, but when we got a Costco in the same town, switched to that.

>> We also have a mall not too far away, which gives us about .8 miles per loop, but that gets boring after a while.<<

It's nice when malls welcome walkers.

>> Maybe they're having a "sidewalk" sale, though, for V-day. I'll have to check it out!<<

Good bet. Ours is holding a Valentines sale / show in early February.

Re: Thoughts

[sylvanwitch]

I envy you your Costco. Our nearest is an hour and fifteen minutes from here. Last spring we drove over and got a membership because they're building one much closer to us. It's supposed to be opening in late spring of this year. Fingers crossed that it does--we liked the Costco experience much better than the Sam's Club. once Costco is open here, we'll cancel our Sam's Club membership.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I envy you your Costco. Our nearest is an hour and fifteen minutes from here.<<

Ours is about an hour away, but it's in a town we visit often. We live in rural territory so every shopping trip requires a drive -- even our address town is about 10 minutes from home.

>> Last spring we drove over and got a membership because they're building one much closer to us. It's supposed to be opening in late spring of this year. <<

Yay!

>>Fingers crossed that it does--we liked the Costco experience much better than the Sam's Club. once Costco is open here, we'll cancel our Sam's Club membership.<<

That's what we did, compared the two. Each did different things better, but Costco treats employees much better and also has an eatery. They even have a huge walk-in refrigerator for produce.