Fitness Fellowship 2026: Check-in 11

[sylvanwitch]

Welcome back to another week of gentle accountability, friends! I hope the days have been treating you well and that you've been finding time to breathe and center your needs.

If you're feeling it, please do share how your week had been, fitness-wise and/or otherwise. We're here to listen and not to judge.



Weight: 192.4, back to where it was for my Week 9 check-in, so a total of 20 pounds lost since 1 September 2025. Yay!

Exercise: I did yoga 4/4, strength-training 3/3, and walked every day. We got in a long stroll, in particular, on Saturday, when we attended an indoor gardening and landscaping event, and yesterday, I took myself out for a brisk walk in the warmish air. (Today, we're dropping from 59F to 17F, so there will be no walking outdoors, briskly or otherwise. ;-)

Eating plan: It definitely helped that I'd made a pan of onions, peppers, and mushrooms last Sunday. I ended up incorporating those into several meals, and it made for easy, quick, nutritious bowls and salads. I made another big pan on Saturday for this week. I did splurge on Friday night, but I walked it off on Saturday, and I'm mostly trying to be easy with myself where the occasional take-out meal is concerned. (In this case, it was veggies and hummus on a whole wheat sub roll. The content wasn't the problem--the portion size was, and that's all on me.)

Hydration: Yes!

Meditation: Yes!

Sleep: Mostly? These weeks are stressful at work, so I've been having some fairly unsettling anxiety dreams. It sucks to wake up worried about things being worse than real life already is, and for the most part, I'm muddling through it all, but honestly, brain, could you just give me a break when I'm sleeping?

The week ahead: More of the same, with hopefully fewer stress dreams. (I won't plan on fewer stressors because that's not in the cards for this week. *sighs*)



I'm sending us all the good vibes I can spare, so our week is a good one, full of little victories and things that make us happy to be alive.

Comments

check in

[oldtoadwoman]

We will see if it lasts or if it was just a random blip, but this morning the scales hit my lowest weight in six months. (Only by a little, but it still technically counts.)

I feel like I'm gradually getting a handle on work. (Mainly I have more ideas of what I should have done at the start of the school year and what I'll do differently if I'm back next year.) So maybe I can find more of a routine and less stress eating now.

Re: check in

[sylvanwitch]

I do hope you hear soon about whether or not they're bringing you back (the school and/or the company you work for). Continuity goes a long way to easing anxieties. And congratulations on the lower weight! That's awesome news, truly! Go, you! Keep it up! :-)

[cornerofmadness]

Started water aerobics tonight, it was fun

[sylvanwitch]

Oh, fantastic! I'm glad you were able to launch that program for your work. YAY!

[cornerofmadness]

Me too. I was the only one who had ever even been in water aerobics before. everyone was there going 'this is a WORK OUT!' well yeah, that's the point

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> It definitely helped that I'd made a pan of onions, peppers, and mushrooms last Sunday.<<

Yay mushrooms!

Weather here has been variable and is currently frigid with howling wind. :/ So I haven't been able to get outside much on some days.

Saturday: We went to Middlefork at the Mall. The flea market didn't fill the whole mall this time, but was still pretty big. We walked a lot and found some fun things to buy. I also checked out the Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange. :D

Friday: We went to the Home and Garden Expo. They had all the extra spaces opened up and a buffet going. :D Lots of walking, and we found plenty of useful information. It's a favorite event.

Also I did a bit of brush trimming, and moved the 16 jug greenhouses off the parking lot.

Thursday: I planted 6 hostas and did some garbage pickup outside.


Upcoming:

Tuesday will be the Bonus Fishbowl with a theme of "anything goes" so I'll be in my office most of the day.

Wednesday I need to cram in some outdoor work, because Thursday a guy is coming to stump-grind the parking lot, path to the east edge of the yard, and the one little bastard in front of the garden shed that we have utterly failed to grub out ourselves. There's still some stuff left in the parking lot that we need to clean up or move.

Weather is predicted to remain cold, howling wind, with random precipitation all week. *sigh* Wish us luck.

Re: Thoughts

[sylvanwitch]

I'm sending you ALL the good weather vibes I can spare, which is admittedly not many, since we' had snow and ice this AM and are expecting frigid and then roller-coastering temperatures this week. Ugh! My backyard was already underwater, and the new snowmelt is NOT going to help. Good luck, too, with getting done what needs doing for the stumpgrinder guy. Go, you for all that walking and what work you were able to do with the weather being what it is. And YAY for home and garden shows and flea markets and all the other good inside stuff that gives us a chance to walk when the weather outside is frightful.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> snow and ice this AM and are expecting frigid and then roller-coastering temperatures this week. <<

Yikes. O_O

>>And YAY for home and garden shows and flea markets and all the other good inside stuff that gives us a chance to walk when the weather outside is frightful.<<

I'm loving Middlefork. This is the second of their shows that we've hit and it's terrific. They're a now-traveling event made from the remnants of a show that got pushed out of its old venue.

I also love the fact that over the last several years, various styles of holiday market have spread around my area -- so many that we have to choose between ones on the same day. I usually pick the bigger ones or places we've known to be great in the past. Two of the best got snowed out last year, but we had gotten to others, so it wasn't a total disappointment.

[oschun]

I did pilates and walking in the week, and a lot of dancing on Saturday night, which was all good. But my stress levels are so high at the moment. I feel like I am being buried alive at work. It's relentless. I can't wait for the Easter break.

[sylvanwitch]

I'm so glad you got some exercise to bleed off some of that stress, and I can TOTALLY RELATE because it feels like total panic at the goat rodeo these days around here, and I cannot seem to take a full breath or get through a whole night without stress dreams. I am CLINGING to the promise of Easter break with the jagged edges of what remain of my fingernails, so please know, my friend, that you are not alone in this, for whatever comfort that might offer. Big, big *hugs*! Hang in there! We can do this!

[oschun]

Lol, I love the idea of a goat rodeo. And yes, that about covers it. I woke up at 5 this morning with my to-do list shrieking in my head. I don't even dream; I just process information. I think I would prefer metaphorical nightmares about being eaten by a tiger wearing the face of our headteacher or getting lost in a labyrinth with the least charming students that I teach.

Best of luck, hon.

[delphi]

I'm so sorry about the bad dreams (and do I ever hear you), but congratulations on what otherwise sounds like a really good week!

It's been pretty mild here, so I've been getting out on a lot of long walks, which has been nice, and I'm looking forward to spring produce hitting the grocery stores.

Meals - 5/7
Water - 7/7
Stretching - 7/7
Walking - 7/7
Fibre - 7/7
Sleep - 6/7

[sylvanwitch]

I am so happy for you that you've been able to get out for walks and that your week seems to have gone so well! That's wonderful! YAY! Also, I *so* agree with you about spring produce. We have "maple weekend" coming up this weekend and next, and I'm looking forward to heading to a local farm. It's not produce, precisely, but I always view it as one of the earliest signs of spring around these parts. :-)