Christmas is coming, thankfully

I love Christmas. I always have but this year, I'm really looking forward to it. Not because of the gifts, not because I'll get to see the majority of my family, not even all the time I'll get off of work (well, maybe that's some of it). Christmas to me is a joyful time (not to sound all Hallmarky) for me.

People are generally in a better mood (and I hate people). They come together more for this holiday than any others. A lot more people get into the decorations. It might even have to do with the religious aspect of it because of my religious background but I don't really celebrate it that way. Either way, it's just a feeling I get. A feeling of happiness and togetherness. It doesn't hurt that my wife does a lot more baking at this time of the year so I get to come home from a rough day at work and the house smells wonderful.

It's been a rough couple of months for me as my best friend has ceased pretty much all communication with me and won't really tell me why. With most anyone, I could have just walked away and said whatever but she has a lot of her own personal issues and I worry about her. I should be able to step away because half my thoughts go to well she hasn't cared about me at all in that time. Hasn't asked how I was doing, what's going on, ect. It should be easy, but I can't just walk away. She's had a crap life and I just can't put me abandoning her on top of all that. So I jump back and forth between missing her and being angry at her. It's been a rollercoaster of a last couple of months.

Work has been a little rough as well, not only the usual BS that I have to deal with on a daily basis but work was where we met and got to know each other, so it's a daily reminder that she's gone. Although these days, I appreciate going into work a little more because it keeps my mind a lot more occupied to where I don't think about her nearly as much.

So with my rollercoaster of emotions for a little bit now, I'm looking forward to the joyous time of the year. For those that don't know, I have Christmas songs on my playlists that I listen to all the time. They always put me in a good mood when they come on, even in the middle of July. Now when they pop up, I can really use the cheering up and now that we are in November, it just reminds me how close we are. It's also the time of the year that people release new Christmas albums and I go through new releases every weekend so I'm even hearing an album here or there.

To be honest, because I listen to Christmas music all year round, in small doses, I rarely just play all Christmas music. I can see myself listening to my Christmas playlist a lot more this year. I've actually thought about playing it on my way home from work a few times already but I didn't. I didn't break the seal yet. We'll see if I last until after Thanksgiving.

Ho Hum!

I'm still working out. I don't remember if I said before but I've been doing 6 miles after work and 15 miles on my days off. For the most part, I stick with it. I do occasionally just don't because I'm not feeling it. Actually, most of the time, I'm not feeling it but I still force myself. It helps that I have mile goals set it my head depending on the day so I usually get that. I even rode for 20 miles one day last weekend, rode hard too. Cranked on my workout playlist, shut my eyes and rode. It was rather enjoyable, I wish it could be like that every time.

Generally, on Fridays, I listen to New Releases so I don't push as hard but I still put in the 15 miles, usually just a few minutes longer than I usually do.

I finished up the Star Wars challenge sometime since my last post. I received this in the mail yesterday.

It's pretty cool, I really like it. I've been putting all my miles now on the Route 66 one. I think I'm going to put those pages on my side bar somewhere so you can just follow along there.

I mentioned I was listening to my New Releases this morning. Beth Crowley's new album was pretty good, lots of lyrics kind of hit home. I really enjoyed it and added the majority of it to my playlists. Coldplay's new one however, was a waste of my time but I'm not a huge fan of theirs but I do have some of their songs that I like so I'm a lot more critical when listening to them.

Cheri goes for her annual MRI today. I'll be her driver because they have to drug her up to get her in the MRI tube. We're hoping nothing has progressed because she stopped doing the MS drugs awhile back. She still takes LDN which helps with the symptoms but we don't know much about it. The MS drugs side effects were too much for Cheri, she couldn't function doing her daily tasks because of them which is why she quit. I think every MS drug has treated her that way.

Sunday Catch Up

I've gone another week without posting but I promise, I'm still going at it. I haven't been quite as consistent this week but it's been an off week for me. Work is even busier (not production wise, just for me) so I've had to really force myself to do something because most days I just want to go home and chill.

Here's what I accomplished this week.

• Monday (9/9) - 3.12 miles walking
• Tuesday (9/10) - 5.03 miles on the bike
• Wednesday (9/11) - 1.54 miles walking
• Friday (9/13) - 10 miles on the bike
• Saturday (9/14) - off day/show
• Sunday (9/15) - 15.08 miles on the bike

I rode the bike on Tuesday because I had a class at one of the plants closer to me so I wasn't near the park near my work but since I was close to home, I came home and hit the bike. Thursday was the only day that I couldn't just get myself motivated.

Now that I have separated both of my challenges, I don't get too far each week on the Star Wars one.

I am over half way complete now though so there's that. The only thing I unlocked this week was this.

I unlocked it earlier in the week. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue doing the Star Wars challenges or not. I like them but I'm liking the Route 66 one as well.

Of course, the Route 66 one is huge so it feels like I make very little progress but I knew that going in. I might do a city like Paris or maybe even Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon after the Star Wars one for my walking.

Here's where I am on the map, I'm just outside Pontiac, IL. The red balloon thingy is a pace marker which I haven't really investigated into what that really is. 

There's also this.

I didn't mark down a specific weight to start at but I was just over 300 lbs. I know it really doesn't seem like much but I haven't really changed my eating habits. I still eat out a lot so just adding some motion in my life is helping, even if it's slowly.

Sunday Catch-up

I'm still working out. I wasn't as great this past week but I did alright.

Monday (Labor Day) - Road the bike for 15.04 miles

Tuesday - Walked 3.05 miles

Wednesday - Walked 1.55 miles

Thursday - Day off, rain

Friday - Walked 1.54 miles

Saturday - Day off, show day.

Sunday - Biked for 15.07 miles

So not too shabby. I should have walked on Thursday. It rained really hard but it was finished by the time I left work. I was afraid I'd end up on the other side of the lake when it started again and I would have been screwed. Hind Sight says I probably would have been ok.

I unlocked this earlier in the week from the Star Wars Conqueror's Challenge.

Other than that, those have been quiet. Now that I'm doing the biking on the Route 66 one, the Star Wars one has slowed down.

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I started a new blog for myself. I titled it Mental Health. It's a private blog so there won't be an address or anything but it's a place to put my private thoughts about my Mental Health. I've struggled with a few things recently so it's a place for me to unload my feelings.

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Not looking forward to work tomorrow. My partner in crime there has left. She did a lot for me, work and personally. She took a lot of stuff off my plate which allowed me to get a lot of stuff done that I didn't have time for and we made a great team and I'm going to miss that. She was also very good for my head because she was very good at getting me out of bad moods which work tends to put me in. I'd like to think that we were both good for each other in that aspect. So tomorrow starts work life without Lex and I am not looking forward to it.

the Weekend

I had a good weekend, exercise wise. I rode the bike 3 times. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I put up 7.5 miles on Friday, 10 miles on Saturday and then on Sunday I was wore out and was only going to do a couple of miles but I got on and started to think about work and got annoyed and ended up cranking out 6 miles in 25 minutes which is definitely faster than usual. 

I've gone almost 24 miles across Chicago which is barely 1% of the journey. Yikes!

I'm loving the maps on these real locations. It gets the map nerd in me excited.

At the end of the weekend, I have exercised either walking or biking for 8 straight days and I plan on walking all week. Even though it's supposed to be in the 90's

2 Challenges

 If you've been following, you know I've been doing the Conqueror's Challenge. Well, I went ahead and joined a 2nd one. I'm still continuing to do the Star Wars one but now I just add my walking to it and the new one I'm doing the biking. I did all 4 days of hiking this week. 1 day I did a lap (1.5 miles), 2 days I did 2 miles and yesterday, I knocked about 2 laps (3 miles) so I'm definitely making progress. I unlocked a few things earlier in the week.

I unlocked the next card as well as this description card.

I like cards better because this stuff I know from the films but I do still get excited when I unlock things.

Here's how I'm doing at the end of this week.

You can ignore the time goal, I wasn't really sure what to put when I signed up. I am 39% complete though so I'm slowly getting there. Now that I'm taking the biking out of it (from here on out) it'll go even slower.

I mentioned I joined a new one for my biking. Here it is.

Yep, that's right. Route 66. It's 2279.31 miles. This will take me a long time to complete but I'm going to enjoy the postcards. Like the one I received today after putting 7.5 miles in on the bike.

I kind of already know Chicago a little bit considering I live less than a couple of hours from here. I've been up the Sears Tower a bunch when I was a kid, but it's been a really long time.

I'm looking forward to this one but it might take a long time.

8 days in

 It's been 5 days since I posted, don't worry, I haven't stopped. I went and walked on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was having issues with my SI Joint on Tuesday. About half way through the day it started hurting. I took some Ibuprofen which usually makes it go away but it didn't even make it better so I took the day off. It was still hurting on Wednesday but not nearly as bad so I still made the walk. Just a little slower. I also unlocked this from the challenge.

I like these virtual cards. I'm crossing my fingers that I actually get the cards when I finish the challenge but I'm pretty sure I don't. I also unlocked this today.

This is the 2nd postcard that I've received. They are alright but nothing special. Just a glimpse into the story basically. I also unlocked this today, not even sure what they are. Kind of a glossary to the rebellion.

It comes with 4 pics attached.

So, as you can tell by what I said above, I did climb on the bike again this morning. I did another 6 miles. Tomorrow is a show day so I probably won't do anything. We'll see if I do the bike again on Sunday.

I weight myself this morning as well, 294.6.

6 of 7

I took off yesterday from exercising, as I said I was going to. I got up this morning and figured I'd get on the bike. I wasn't really feeling it so I only went 3 miles. I did go faster than I did on Friday. The reason I went 3 miles was that I needed 2.8 miles for my 1st postcard on the Conquerers challenge that I mentioned in my last post.

Pretty cool, kind of a storyline postcard. I wasn't sure what to expect since this isn't an actual place. This also popped up saying I unlocked it as well.

For informational purposes apparently.

I'm enjoying it, and hey, it motivated me to do something today. So there's that. 

I go back to work tomorrow so the plan is to walk at the pond for the next 4 days.

6 out of 7 days last week I exercised. I credit that to the fact that I'm not overdoing it and only doing a few miles at a time. Usually I get all gung ho and do too much and burn out quickly. 

So far so good.

5 Straight Days

For those that don't know, I work 4 10 hour days so I work Monday thru Thursday. I said in my last post that I walk close to work because I get really lazy after a 40 minute drive home. Well, I did great this week at walking. Had a couple of days where I really didn't want to and ran through excuse after excuse in my head not too, but ended up going anyways. I walked all 4 days which is a great start, especially for me.

The trick was, motivating myself to walk on the weekends. I got up this morning and it dawned on me, why do I need to walk. I have an elliptical bike in the basement. So I hopped on it and rode a little over 6 miles. I had to push myself, I've been having some back pain since yesterdays walk so I didn't push myself real hard. I just kept a slow and steady pace and rode for half an hour, which is what I usually walk.

I also found a site that is really cool, if you can afford it that is. They have all these challenges. You pick a challenge and then can track where you are in the challenge. They have a ton of cities that they actually place you on a street map. You can unlock postcards of points of interests when you pass places. 

They also do fictional places so I chose a Star Wars themed one. (Race bib pictured above). They have 6. With my 6 miles today and a couple of walks in the last couple of days. I unlocked this stuff.

The first is a virtual card, which if you know me, I love cards. I just wish it was a real one. The second is part of the story of the challenge I'm on. The challenge that I'm on is 87 miles and once I've completed it, they send you an actual medal with the challenge design on it.

I do plan on taking tomorrow off from exercising. We are setting up at a card show, which I do most weekends these days so I figured that will be my 1 day off a week.

So far so good.

Here we go again

I started working out again, I know, you've heard it all before. I've started blogging multiple times because I started working out so like I said, we've all heard it before.

The issue I've always had is I get off work at 4. It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get home. Which means I'm sitting down all the time so by the time I get home, I don't want to exercise. There's a county park just down the road from work that has a path around a lake (pond) but getting off at 4, I was afraid I'd walk and then by the time I get home, shower and eat that it would take up my whole evening.

I googled the pond and the path around it and it's only a mile and a half so I decided to try it out last week. Just do 1 quick lap and be on my way so I didn't feel like I was getting home so late. It's only a mile and a half but I figured it was better than nothing.

So on Monday last week, I hit it on my way home and it was kind of nice. I do the lap in just under 30 minutes and get on the road to get home so it's definitely doable. I was going to do it Tuesday but I ended up not leaving work until almost 5:30 then the same on Wednesday but I did hit it on Thursday. The weekend I planned on going out in the morning around the neighborhood but I never did. This is where I usually sluff off and just stop going but after work yesterday, I walked it again and then today happened. 

I wasn't feeling it at work today, my legs were tired and I was already pretty hot and sweaty just didn't want to go but I made myself. That was already not my norm. On the way, it looked like it was going to rain so again, I was thinking maybe I shouldn't go, but I did it anyways. Yeah me!

So that's 4 times in 2 weeks. and 2 days in a row this week. We'll see if the trend continues.