#All my calculations and the lose it app had me at reaching my goal by like Nov 7th-10th so I thought this was such a long shot wtffffff | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mysugarstory-hw1 · 3 years ago

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It is really difficult to avoid sweets as a child and I have always had a sweet tooth. I have a skinny fat body type and after years of training and working out I was able to gain weight, but I am unable to lose the fat regardless of the training because of my unhealthy diet plan. A common rule for bodybuilding is that the body is built 80% in the kitchen. My goal is to reduce fat while gaining overall weight, which is a specific type of weight loss by reducing my sugar consumption. I have been trying to lose my upper body fat, but I am unable to control my sugar cravings. This summer I had finally made a decision to reduce my sugar and monitoring the consumption for the assignment was particularly beneficial. The plan to achieve the goal was regular weightlifting, running and a high protein diet with a minimal sugar quantity.

I have experienced various harmful effects of sugar on my body including weight gain, increased acne and an increase in anxiety/depression. A survey conducted of 8000 people shows that men consuming more than 67 grams of sugar a day were 23% more likely to develop depression than men who consumed less than 40 grams per day (Kubala,2018). In the U.S added sugars accounts for 17% of the total calorie intake for adults while dietary guidelines suggest limiting added sugars to less than 10%. If I have a can of coke with both my meals, that itself is 78 grams of sugar. I used to have sugary drinks multiple times a day which were the main source of sugar in my diet. My morning coffee from Starbucks is a medium size Caramel Macchiato which alone has 33g of sugar. I have completely stopped drinking any of the aerated drinks and have switched to alternates such as vitamin water and a dark roast with no sugar.

The application I used was MyFitnessPal as it allows me to track my calories in an effortless manner. I was able to quickly add all my meals and never had a problem finding a specific food item. The application has the nutrition data for most fast-food diners and it also allows you to save your own custom-built meal. I could find every food item on the app, even if it was a traditional Indian cuisine dish.

I usually cook my own breakfast, so I created a custom-built breakfast meal on the application containing different dishes so that I am able to add my meals every day without selecting all ingredients individually every time. In college, it is difficult to have all ingredients at home, so I had to custom make some of my meals according to the ingredients used in the meal.

Another major benefit of MyFitnessPal was that it allows you to input your workout details in your main page calorie count. This feature helped me track my overall calorie deficit or surplus. The application automatically detects my total steps and reduces the calories burned appropriately from my remaining calorie goal. This makes it really easy for me to track my caloric deficit diet as I don’t have to calculate my calorie intake – calories burnt separately. I wear an apple watch which tracks my workouts and MyFitnessPal reads that itself as I allowed the application to do so while setting up.

A feature which made me decide that this application is right for me was the nutrition data. It provides me with all the nutrition where I can set a goal for my protein and sugar consumption quantity and see the total amount of sugar I have consumed in the day/week. I have not used the application for more than 3 weeks, but I believe that this feature is fundamental in the long-term use of the application. This is what allows the user to track their progress for a period of time while seeing the days you did not meet the goal separately. I would be able to see the specific days I did not follow my diet plan well on the weekends. The bar graphs displaying the data are also very efficient in easy tracking of the users weekly nutritional data.

After tracking my meals on MyFitnessPal for 2 week I realized that I did not follow my diet for 1 or 2 days in the week, which were usually weekends. I decided to dedicate 1 day as cheat day or day off as I was unable to track my consumption of sugar for the days I went out. Tracking my sugar consumption for the week and not inputting the correct values would lead to a misrepresentation of my progress in the long run. I feel my body has reacted well to being on a no sugar diet for 6 days a week.

Another situation where I found difficult was actually inputting my meals every day. From the 4th day of me tracking my meals, I usually forgot to add my meal either because of a busy schedule or maybe I just forgot. I did input 2 or 3 days of meals at once, in such a situation I don’t remember exactly the smaller meals I might have had but only added the bigger meals for those days. This leads to a case of misrepresentation for example, if I had a lemonade but forgot to input it, that could make a big difference in my total sugar consumption for that day or week. The application however is actually very efficient as it sends you multiple to add meals and meet the daily goal.

How the calorie count works on MyFitnessPal is Calorie goal – food + exercise = calories remaining. Instead of viewing the total number of calories remaining I would rather see calories consumed. Knowing about the number of calories remaining was not of much help as I was not able to tell my right calorie goal. The calorie goal was decided while setting up the application according to personal goals, height and weight. I don’t think I built my calorie goal just right by including the correct details. I do not know the exact number of calories I should be consuming to gain weight but be low on sugar and fat. It is a complicated diet plan and I believe that the application could have a smarter and more efficient way of calculating the calorie while explaining the reasoning behind that number. The reasoning motivates the user to meet the goal once they are aware of the reasons to consume or burn those specific numbers of calories for the day.

A feature which might help the application improve could be a junk burn feature. The user can input a cheat meal and the application should send a reminder saying, “Walk an extra 468 steps for the medium fries” or “get in that workout to earn yourself a lemonade”. If the user is having the craving for a specific unhealthy meal, they could input it and know the extra work they have to put in to earn it. Personally, I would have benefitted from this feature as I would be motivated to exercise better to earn my craving for the day. This keeps you consistent with your goal and motivated to keep tracking your calories.

My expectations going into the assignment were very different from my actual experience. I believed that using the application would make me more conscious of my eating habits, looking back at my meal consumption. In the past I have followed a meal plan, but I have been unable to be consistent for a long period of time. I was expecting that the application will help me be consistent with constant reminders and with the nutritional data. However, I don’t think that MyFitnessPal was able to motivate me to be consistent. The intrinsic motivation is fundamental to achieve goals like mine. I had quite the opposite experience as I stopped inputting the unhealthy food I had as I did not want to see that on my weekly data. When someone is aware that they are breaking their diet plan and eating something sugary, the self-acceptance demanded by the application is difficult to meet. In such situations I usually input only the healthy meals leading to misrepresentation.

A lot of unexpected benefits of the following experience were reduced anxiety and a better sleep cycle. If I experience any kind of exam stress, sugar can trigger anxiety for me or possibly aggravate it. Reducing my sugar intake clearly improved my sleep cycle as I was able to fall asleep earlier and had no broken sleep. Consuming sugar at night could make me stay up for hours while in the day, once the sugar rush went, I could suddenly feel sleepy. I was able to monitor such behaviors only because I was tracking my sugar intake which I could later compare to my sleep or stress behavior for the previous day. I realized how I should consume sugar in a smarter way and avoid it at specific times.

Overall, the experience with MyFitnessPal was really beneficial as I learnt a lot of new facts about my diet details. I did not know how unhealthy some foods were which were high protein, rich in fiber and no sugar. There were days where I did not meet my calorie requirements for the day and I realized how I need to change my diet plan by adding more meals with a higher calorie count. I have almost reached my goal of reducing sugar as I can see results of losing fat. I will definitely continue using MyFitnessPal as I work towards my goal.

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maryellencarter · 4 years ago

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So for about ten days now I've been playing around with the budgeting app Mint (along with a Google Sheets yearly budget template and a lot of manual work with a calculator, a calendar, and a succession of blank Google Docs because that's just the kind of person I am), and so obviously I have some Thoughts.

* I picked Mint because it's the budgeting app all the financial reviewers talk about, because it's run by Intuit who also own TurboTax so I knew their security and interface would be good, and because it does not come with built-in shaming over any of your ~unnecessary~ purchases.

* Mint is a free app which makes its money by offering you sponsored ads for financial products it thinks you might like, and getting paid by the advertisers when you accept one of the ads. The most intrusive location for these ads is on your dashboard, feed, whatever you want to call it, where the ad tile is required to be the third tile down and cannot be shuffled to the bottom or turned off.

* (There is also a desktop browser version, Mint.com. I have poked it very slightly but couldn't get it to do anything useful. More on that later. I don't remember noticing how the ads are arranged there.)

* The app's general design is very sleek and intuitive, what I'd expect from the parent company of QuickBooks and TurboTax. Other than the intrusive ad tile, it lets you rearrange everything however you want.

* Mint is designed around importing transactions from your bank account for you to do budgetary stuff at, so obviously security is really important, which gives Intuit an edge up on the competition because I'm already used to trusting them with my tax returns. It only seems to sync new transactions during banking hours, which for someone like me who does most of their shopping on Sunday is kind of frustrating. It also won't let you edit or recategorize a transaction till it's finished "processing" a day or two down the line. I don't know if these pitfalls are common to all budget apps but it would probably make sense if they are.

* One thing Mint does that's incredibly handy for me is it lets you put all your recurring bills in one place and even sync them with your phone calendar. I actually had to turn off the phone calendar sync because it was alerting me constantly on the day before payday when I couldn't do anything about the bill that was due on payday, but if you can find the setting to change the alert frequency it might be useful. And having a nice chronological list of what the fuck is due when, is extremely helpful to my brain, because previously I was trying to remember everything in my head and I kept losing bills.

* Going down my tiles as I have them sorted in the app, I don't have much to say about that list of transactions itself, except that you can recategorize them and split them into different categories -- which is handy if the rent included $105 late fees which you don't want befuckening your future averages, or if you bought groceries and also a barbecue lighter at Walmart, to take two recent examples.

* You cannot, unfortunately, rename or edit categories. On desktop only, you can supposedly add categories, but you cannot then use those categories in any of Mint's other functions, which really defeats the purpose. And their ideas of what categories you might need are pretty... idiosyncratic, not to say WASPy, so e.g. I'm currently categorizing Patreon income under "Reimbursement" because the other options were things like "Investment Income" and "Returned Purchase". And transfers to my savings account can either be "Credit Card Payment" or "Transfer for Cash Spending".

* (I suppose I could put my savings under "Investment: Deposit" or something similarly grandiose, but that seems like... a lot for the 31 cents rounded up from getting a pizza at Little Caesars.)

* Anyways. So then, after the obligatory ad tile, comes a nice colorful pie chart of my spending for the month, which I can open up and tab through to look at all the categories. I saw one finance blogger saying you should use the Miscellaneous category for some things rather than getting too granular, but I like seeing the little individual entries for my haircut and my cloth mask and my pharmacy copay. (That last one's going to be a more substantial pie slice now that I can actually afford to start taking most of my meds again. Turns out my prescription for diabetic test strips expired, though, so I have to get ahold of my doctor and get a new one sent over, and I'm looking skeptically at the copays. :P I've been ignoring my diabetes since January, it can wait a little longer till I'm financially caught up from COVID.)

* I can see list-style breakdowns by category and merchant, too. This is one of the few places in the mobile app that my income shows up, other than the actual paycheck transactions. The desktop version has some more places to budget projected income, but the handling is clunky as hell.

* Next up is the tile where I've been spending a lot of my time, Budgets. This is your basic "envelope method" where you create, say, a budget for haircuts and another one for groceries. Each budget has to be for one of Mint's pre-created categories, and when you have a spending transaction in that category, it puts the expense against that Budget. The desktop version has you also creating a line item for expected income in Budgets, and then becoming stroppy when you attempt to adjust parts in the wrong order, so I prefer the app which simply tells you e.g. that you have spent $900 of an allocated $1000 with an airy unconcern for whether the $1000 has arrived in your bank account yet.

* My single biggest frustration with Mint is that you cannot create Budgets based on user-created categories, nor can you delete, rename, or even collapse categories in the list. So if I go to create a new Budget for, say, "Housewares" to account for the $1 barbecue lighter I finally bought (I have large hands and a tall jar candle that has burned down farther than I can reach, okay, it was a necessity), then I'm stuck scrolling all the way up and down past "Investment: Capital Gains" and "Kids: Child Support" before finally settling on "Home Supplies" because it doesn't really seem like a "Home Furnishings".

* After Budgets comes Accounts, which just shows me my current net worth across all my accounts. I actually unlinked my savings account because it was confusing the hell out of me to see a 31-cent transfer out of checking paired with the same 31-cent transfer into savings, so this doesn't show me anything I can't get through my bank app, but if I had current credit card debt or non-retirement investment accounts it might be more useful.

* (I have not linked my 401(k) to Mint. I haven't even figured out how to get into my 401(k), either before or after it transferred to a different handler a couple months back. I feel like those are problems for a later time than "okay how much groceries can I buy and still pay the rent".)

* On the desktop version of Mint, you can also put things like your car in under your net worth as Property. I tried that, found that I both did not believe their Kelly Blue Book valuation at all (it didn't have any option to take into account "was totaled two years ago and looks it but still mostly runs") and that I find it extremely stressful to have non-liquid property listed as part of my net worth. Interesting to know. You learn all sorts of shit about yourself when you try to manage money.

* Next there's a tile that attempts to break down my "cash flow" by month. It doesn't seem to have noticed the Paypal transfers on which I was largely subsisting for the three months it was able to pull from my bank account, even though they show up fine in Transactions, so it's deeply confused about whether my cash flow is Healthy or Unhealthy. For now, with my acquisition of a second paycheck for August, it seems to have settled on Healthy. I might turn that tile off though. It doesn't really... offer much, I guess?

* I have turned off the tile that shows me my free credit score. That's a problem for a much later me. Right now I have more urgent problems, like catching up on my deferred car insurance and my deferred cell phone bill and my deferred healthcare deductions.

* You also can't turn off the tile for the Mint "Life Blog" or the one asking you to rate the app, but at least they sit at the bottom of the app as you scroll down.

* The desktop version also has an entire segment not found in the app, for "Goals", where you can supposedly put in your outstanding debts and figure out payment schedules for them. It sounds really good in principle, but I found that section of the site unworkably glitchy, on both laptop and iPad; I couldn't even get past the screen where you try to first enter one of your debts, as it required me to choose answers from two dropdowns neither of which would actually do anything. I was able to get an estimate from the "saving for a rainy day" goal, anyway, by putting in the amount of a debt and telling it I'd like to save up that much money in a year, but that's nothing I couldn't have done with a calculator and a bit of mental effort.

* Jumping back up to the top of the app, one other thing that does intermittently drive me bananas about the app is, when you put in a bill you get a dropdown where you select how often it should recur, but then it... doesn't recur. You have to manually put in the next occurrence. It's still a handy list of upcoming bills, but I actually had to resort to my phone calendar (which properly handles recurring events) to get a good visual on future months' bills.

* And because there is nowhere to put in your projected income and get a nice projection of "On X date you will have $XX in your bank account", or even better a daily graph of your expected cash flow so that you can see "yeah don't put that $300 in savings you'll need it for rent in two weeks", I've been reduced to, as mentioned above, manual daily projections through the end of the year using my phone calculator, phone calendar, Google Docs, and eventually my damn iPad drawing app (came with a Bluetooth stylus I never got working) because I couldn't find any physical graph paper.

* So. Um. Summary. I guess it's a good app? It's very sleek, it has nice charts and graphs and a good interface. But it thinks you can do a lot more with it than you can actually do. Its main uses for me are probably going to boil down to "stop forgetting bills" (the rolling list format works a lot better for my brain than the phone calendar format, even if I do have to re-enter data every time I mark a bill paid) and "finally figure out how much I spend on food really".

#budget #mint app #app reviews

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seagreen-meets-grey · 5 years ago

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When Lightning Strikes Ch. 7

When your life is nothing but a cloudless sky, lightning can come and strike you so unexpectedly, you won’t even know what hit you.

Or: When Hiccup and Astrid meet, it is as if lightning strikes.

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13] [Chapter 14] [Chapter 15] [Chapter 16] [Chapter 17] [Chapter 18] [Chapter 19] [Chapter 20]

Crossposted on ao3 and ff.net

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Destiny and fate were interesting concepts. The idea that there was one sole purpose to one’s life, one goal that would guide the way to fulfillment – it didn’t make sense to Astrid. She didn’t believe that there was only one main road in life, one that lead her to whatever fate awaited her. She understood the thought behind the sentiment, about how whatever struggle one had to overcome, their choice would be the one they were destined to make. The right choice, after all.

But making choices was what determined the road. Life was a labyrinth to her, one with innumerable turns and crossroads and junctions, and every single one opened up to new paths to take. People could tell her all they wanted about how the roads she decided to take were the ones destined for her in the end – she would keep rolling her eyes at them and live her life by the standard that she was free to create her own paths and laugh in the face of destiny.

Facing her choice between marrying Eret and going for Hiccup proved her take on fate again. She could either decide to go one way or the other, both paths resulting in different, lifechanging avenues anew.

Blinking the little sleep out of her eyes that she got last night, she thought of the dress hanging in her wardrobe, in-between everyday clothes like a swan in a pig stall. She rolled around in her large bed, so empty without Eret next to her.

She could still change her mind. Take the other road. Plunge into the unknown. But then her phone rang, the loud tune pulling her the rest of the way from her slumber, and she reached for it with a sigh. She stared at the name showing up on her screen until her phone went quiet and notified her that she had one missed call.

Throwing it away to the foot of the bed, she grumbled and pulled the covers over her head. Three and a half hours were way too short to be rested. Not a minute later, her phone started ringing again, muffled by the blanket it had landed on. Astrid rubbed her forehead and stretched her arms, closing her eyes for one last moment. She couldn’t prolong this forever.

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After leaving his house in a hurry that afternoon, Hiccup jogged around the building to where he had parked his car. He fumbled with the keys, shivering from the wind and the increasing amount of cold rain drops landing on his neck and rolling down his back.

He ducked into his car and dropped the keys only twice before he started the engine. It stuttered, spluttered and lurked a few times in tune with his stomach.

“Come ooon,” he pleaded, “don’t leave me hanging, don’t–“ His eyes fell on the fuel gage and with an exasperated groan he let his head fall on the steering wheel, jumping when his forehead honked the horn. For a minute, he sat there staring at the rain now pelting against the windshield, entertaining the thought of rotting away in his useless car for eternity.

A bright flash in the sky and the faraway sound of thunder shook him from his reverie and he felt determination flood back into his system. Grabbing his keys and pulling the zipper of his jacket up to his face, he got out of the car and had half a mind to lock it behind him before sprinting off to the next bus station.

Out of breath and cursing the puddles on the street that had soaked his feet through his shoes, he reached the stop, dashing under the small roof. In the company of a woman playing on her phone and a moody-looking teenager listening to loud music, he tapped his feet impatiently. According to the schedule plastered to the wall behind him, the next bus downtown should have arrived one minute ago.

Hiccup couldn’t stand still, pacing back and forth in the crammed space, earning judging looks from the teen. Wringing his hands, he stuck his head out every other second to see if the bus was somewhere to be seen. Five minutes passed, eight minutes, ten, twelve. Still no bus.

Swearing colorfully under his breath, he kicked at a pebble that had the misfortune of lying there on the ground. He could feel every second fly by, forever lost to him. Chancing another peek down the street, his heart leaped into his throat when a vehicle came around the corner.

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The deep gray blanket of clouds parted on their way to the hair salon, one lone ray of sunshine breaking through. Ruffnut cursed and blindly reached to the backseat, producing a pair of sunglasses from the mess that was piling up everywhere in her car.

The beam fell on Astrid’s face. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the way it warmed her skin for too short a while until it disappeared behind the clouds again. The dark sky did nothing to soothe her nerves. Every forecast she’d repeatedly checked over the last week had predicted sunshine and warmth, only for the weather to pull a one-eighty on her now. She didn’t like the taste of rain in the air, feared that the wind would mess up her hair later the moment she stepped outside.

She sent a silent thanks to her friend when she parked right in front of the building. Should it start raining while they were inside, they’d need only seconds to reach the safety of the car.

The sound of scissors and hairdryers and the smell of various hair products greeted her when they entered the hair salon. Most of the chairs were occupied with women with tinfoil in their hair, reading a magazine while they waited for the color to seep in. A handful of stylists were working their magic with several other people, washing and cutting and chatting away.

“Good morning, can I help you?” A young woman with long hair somewhere between dark blonde and light brown appeared from a side room.

Astrid opened her mouth but Ruff beat her to it. “Astrid here needs to get laid tonight, so please make her hair look dazzling.”

Recognition flashed on the young woman’s face and with a smile that meant she’d met Ruffnut before, she waved Astrid over to a comfy looking chair in front of a big mirror. In it, Astrid watched Ruff wave at her before she left the salon, off to pick up the veil from the cleaner.

“I’m sorry for my friend,” she said when she set down. “She doesn’t know how to be normal.”

“Don’t worry, I met her before. She came here last week to ask who’d be doing your hair and tried to talk me into dying it pink. I figured you’re not a fan of pink.”

“Not at all.” Astrid shook her head. She wasn’t surprised. In fact, she’d wondered why Ruff had been so anti-chaotic during the whole ordeal so far. Maid of honor or not, she was still Ruffnut Thorston, and this little pranking attempt of hers gave Astrid some sense of normalcy, for which she was immensely grateful. She was anxious and stressed enough, and even though walking out of here with pink hair – if Ruff’s prank had worked – had ended in murder, it helped her breathe away some of the stress.

“Now, Miss Hofferson–“

“Call me Astrid.”

“How do you want your hair today, Astrid? I’m Marie, by the way.”

Astrid looked at herself in the mirror for a moment. “Honestly? I usually have it in a braid or ponytail because it’s practical. I don’t care much about hairstyles.”

Marie wiggled her fingers with a grin, obviously excited. “Alright darling, I got you covered. Let’s do this!”

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It wasn’t the bus.

Hiccup’s shoulders sagged, only to go rigid again when it dawned on him that the bus wasn’t coming. He turned to the schedule again and let his finger run down the plastic cover, stopping under the information for when the next bus was supposed to arrive. It was more than an hour until then.

Cursing himself for moving to the outskirts of the city and even more for not filling up his gas tank sooner, he stepped back into the rain and walked down the street in quick steps. Fumbling out his phone with cold fingers, he typed in his destination and let the app calculate the time needed to walk there.

When he came to a crosswalk and looked up to check if he was good to go, he saw a long vehicle stop at the bus station. Oh great, it seemed like the universe had it out for him. He uttered a long sigh, fully aware that it was too late for screaming and waving at the bus driver while running back like an idiot.

The app had finished loading the calculation and the time display on the screen sent another wave of anxiety through him. Even if he ran, he wouldn’t make it on time. If only he had a car…

In a moment of clarity, he raised his hand and smacked his face. Why hadn’t he thought of this before?! While looking up the number of Berk’s cab company, he reached for his wallet with the other, only to come up empty.

“Figures,” he groaned and turned on the spot to run back home.

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“And I was like, can someone please tell me why men are all imbecile spawns of hell?! No offense, honey, I know you’re getting married today, but boy, they can suck my non-existent dick.”

Marie had been working Astrid’s hair for nearly two hours now, first washing it and then trying a bunch of different hairstyles until they found one that they were both happy with. Ruff hadn’t yet shown up again and Astrid was wondering what was taking so long at the cleaner. She hoped her maid of honor hadn’t decided to rent a boar on the way to make the ceremony interesting.

“It’s okay,” Astrid assured Marie, “I know what you mean, believe me. Before I met Eret, I was in a situation similar to yours. I had already settled for staying single forever because I thought being in a relationship meant losing my independence. But there are good ones out there.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Marie reached for a tube of haircare oil that smelled of coconut and summer when she combed it into Astrid’s hair. “But right now, I don’t care about any of them. Maybe one day, I’ll bump into a Shawn Mendes kind of guy and he’ll be nice and perfect and not like Kevin at all.”

Astrid smiled at her through the mirror. “Personally, I wouldn’t go for Shawn Mendes. But regardless of that, you should know that you don’t just bump into the perfect guy and everything immediately works out just the way you want it to. Relationships need work and the myth of the one perfect person for you is just that – a myth.”

Marie smirked. “I sense a story coming. Dish, girl, dish.”

“There’s nothing to dish. I just realized lately that when you think you found the one you want to spend your life with, someone else can sweep right in and show you the truth.” Astrid didn’t know why she was telling her this. She didn’t even know this girl. But maybe that was the reason; she could just talk this off her soul and remind herself that she was doing the right thing.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened. I decided to not throw this relationship away because of these uncertain feelings I have for someone else. Because if I dump Eret now and try things with the other guy and that doesn’t work out, I’ll just regret it because I threw away a life of happiness and comfort.”

Marie was quiet for a minute, running her fingers through the strands of Astrid’s hair one last time to make sure every hair was where it was supposed to be. The bell over the front door jingled and through the mirror, Astrid saw Ruffnut walk in, holding up a clear bag with the veil.

“Well,” Marie mused and put her hands on Astrid’s shoulders, “I hope that everything works out for you.” She gave the chair a twirl. “Go get him, girl!”

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Ignoring the mess he’d made while searching for his wallet, Hiccup called himself a cab while he ran back outside and didn’t stop walking. If he already started heading in the right direction, it shortened the route the cab would have to take, right?

The guy on the other end of the phone informed him that it would be a few minutes until a cab was available in his area. Hiccup didn’t care anymore, his stress level already through the roof and unable to rise higher – or so he’d thought.

As it turned out, the way he had to go wasn’t necessarily the way the cab was coming from. One mile later, his phone rang and a bored-sounding cab driver asked Hiccup if he still required his services or if he got the address wrong.

Apologizing for the misunderstanding, Hiccup told the driver where he was. He didn’t dare to walk away from his spot this time. But standing still was even worse than realizing he was at the wrong place. He kept looking at his phone without really seeing anything but the time, almost dropped it a few times and then once for real, paced around a lone trashcan, his head swiveling up and down the street in search of the cab. He messed up his hair – see, good thing he didn’t put any energy into combing it – and was soaked by the time the car pulled up at the sidewalk. The driver only raised his eyebrows at Hiccup’s state, and had this been a less stressful situation, he would have apologized for getting the seat wet.

He told the driver the address and promised to pay double if he made it quick. The man only shrugged and floored it while Hiccup grabbed the handle on the door and glanced at the clock for the umpteenth time. Although he was finally moving faster towards his destination, he now really started to panic.

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As soon as Astrid and Ruffnut left the hair salon and made it back to the car without a strong gust of wind ruining all of Marie’s hard work, Astrid wanted to go back inside. The atmosphere in the salon had been weirdly peaceful and calm, and as long as Marie hadn’t been done with her hair, Astrid had had an excuse for not being somewhere else right now, for not moving forward with the day, for not facing the source of her nervousness.

Not much later, she was having breakfast at her parents’ house. Her father was quietly reading the newspaper, occasionally sipping from his giant mug of coffee. Her mother was listing all the things that still needed to be done and arguing with Ruffnut who was lounging in her chair, smearing chocolate spread all over her shirt.

When Wilma glanced at her watch, her eyes widened and she stopped trying to get Ruff to rub the chocolate off her shirt with a washcloth. Standing up, she started to simultaneously clean the table and collect several makeup utensils from all over the house. All the while, she was ranting about wasting time, Ruff doing a bad job by not dragging Astrid out of bed earlier, about the weather, and at some point, while she was disappearing upstairs, Astrid was sure she heard her blaming politics.

Her dad looked up from his newspaper shortly to roll his eyes with Astrid. When Wilma came back downstairs, Ruff planted herself in the doorway.

“You!” She poked her finger in Astrid’s mother’s chest. “Give me that.” She snatched the utensils from her hand. “Now go and scream into a pillow or something. I got this.”

Wilma put her hands on her hips and looked like she was about to dive into a lecture that started with young lady, but Astrid’s dad interrupted her.

“Let’s all just keep calm, okay? We still have a lot of time on our hands. Why don’t we just have breakfast without ripping each other’s heads off, and then we worry about what comes next.”

Wilma wasn’t having any of it. “A lot of time? Have you looked at the clock recently, Frederick?”

While her parents continued bickering, Astrid gave up resisting the fuss made around her and let Ruff apply her makeup in-between bites of bread rolls and scrambled eggs. She had just closed her eyes so that Ruff could give her a touch of eyeshadow to cover any evidence of lack of sleep, when she heard the front door open.

“Hello, everyone!”

“See?!” Wilma snapped at her husband. “He’s ready!”

“Not at all,” Eret answered and Astrid couldn’t contain a smug smile. “I just came here to give you,” he put a hand on Astrid’s shoulder, “an update. I just met your aunt Ruth and she told me she brought three of her lady friends along.”

“What?! She can’t just do that. Do we even have enough room for more people? And why would–“

“Wilma!” Frederick interrupted her.

Eret continued as if her mother wasn’t in the room. “She said something about them all being lonely and needing some company tonight, I don’t know. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Thanks,” Astrid mumbled. Eret might have sounded completely calm to everyone else, but there was a tension at the edge of his voice that was obvious to her. It kind of grounded her, knowing that she wasn’t the only one feeling this way, and that her nervousness didn’t stem from her being uncertain about what she was doing. (Which she wasn’t, because she had made her decision and was sure about it, alright?)

“I told Dagur to rearrange the seating a bit, I’m sure he’ll figure it out.” His hand left her shoulder and she heard him turn around before he added, “Oh, by the way, Dagur’s sister isn’t coming, he said she’s on vacation with her new boyfriend. Which means that Dagur’s without a date tonight, so I can finally hook him up with Theresa!”

She smiled at his jaunty enthusiasm. Ruffnut was still not done with the eyeshadow – Astrid was only slightly concerned about that – so she blindly reached her hand over her head for Eret. He squeezed it once and she felt him coming closer to her face, but Wilma chose that moment to barge back into the conversation.

“Don’t you dare! No kisses! Traditionally, you’re not even supposed to be here. So get out and get yourself ready! Then at least one of you is.”

Eret laughed quietly but she could feel her mother’s deadly stare even through closed eyes. Astrid had to have inherited it from somewhere which meant Eret knew the extent of the Hofferson Death Glare. He said goodbye and the front door fell shut behind him.

Astrid’s heart was beating uncomfortably in her chest and her head felt dizzy. Taking a deep breath and refraining from biting her lip lest Ruff yelled at her for ruining the lipstick, she willed herself to calm down. That stone in her gut meant that she was generally nervous, nothing more.

Only when she dropped a glass of orange juice a while later did she pause to think for a second, but that turned out to be a mistake. Thinking made her go down the route of impactful decisions again and it had a tiny voice in her mind ask her if maybe signs of the universe were real after all.

_______________

They were moving excruciatingly slowly. Every time a car or even a bicycle passed the cab on another lane, it made Hiccup’s knee twitch. The driver looked at him in the rearview mirror oddly from time to time and seemed to have forgotten about the extra money Hiccup had promised to pay him if only he stepped on it.

When the car came to a full stop on the road, Hiccup threw his hands up in frustration. “Seriously?!”

“Traffic, man,” the driver said lackadaisically, leaning back in his seat and drumming his fingers on the stick shift in a bored manner.

Hiccup wiped a hand over his face and pulled his phone from his pocket. It was clammy from his soaked jeans. The app told him that it would take him sixteen minutes to reach his destination if he walked. Less, if he ran.

Crawling halfway over the center console, he peeked out the windshield to gauge how long the traffic jam would go on, ignoring the sideways glance of the driver. Upon seeing only very little movement far ahead, he gave the man a few bills and climbed back to his seat to get out.

“Hey,” the driver called after him, “that’s not double!”

Hiccup stuck his head in again to call back, “And I’m not there on time,” before he slammed the door and navigated his way through stuck cars until he reached the sidewalk. Orienting himself once more, he figured out the fastest way to the venue and started to run.

His days on the couch, the lack of healthy food and his relationship with exercise in general quickly came to bite him in the ass as he had to stop one street over to catch his breath. As winded as he was and as much as he’d love a raincoat right now, the thought of Astrid lent him a new wave of energy.

Ten minutes later, the place came into view, one final sprint away. He just had to pull himself together one last time.

_______________

Putting on the dress was a feat on its own. She couldn’t pull it on over her head because it would ruin her hair so she had to step into it and have Ruff close it on her back. The zipper was thin and the fabric sat tight on her so, naturally, her skin got stuck in it several times before her mother took over. She sent Ruff away to do her job and make sure everything at the venue was ready and going smoothly.

“We’re going to arrive to either a perfect arrangement or a crime scene,” Wilma mumbled when Ruff was gone.

“Don’t forget the fire, the explosions and the wild horde of boars,” Astrid added. “And her brother.”

Now that they were alone, her mother seemed to calm down considerably. All that was left for them to do was to drive to the wedding. Astrid wondered if it was her who was shaking or if it were her mother’s hands that delicately stroked over her back where hopefully no trace of the zipper was visible.

“This is really happening, hm.” Her mother’s voice was no further above a whisper, more than twenty years’ worth of nostalgia sewn into it. “You’re finally leaving the nest.”

“I’ve left the nest years ago, mom.”

“But you were still a Hofferson until now.”

“I’m keeping my name. I’ll stay a Hofferson.” When the issue of last names had come up, Eret had suggested she take his. But the Hofferson inside her had screamed in protest, unwilling to give up her family name and the notion of independence by making herself all his. She knew that he’d never think of her as his property, but it still didn’t sit right with her to change her name. So she didn’t.

Wilma came around to stand in front of her and Astrid was surprised at the strange sight of tears welling up in her mother’s eyes. She figured it made sense for her to get emotional on a day like this, but she’d never seen her cry before.

“You know that you’ll always be my little girl, right?”

“I know, mom. Come here.” She pulled her mother into a hug and the two of them stood like that for a long while. Astrid felt like a little girl seeking out the safety of her mother’s arms. Right here, right now, she didn’t have to worry about decisions and destiny and consequences and whether she was making the right choices for herself.

She felt the arms around her squeeze one more time, then her mom straightened up, took a step back and gave her daughter a firm nod that conveyed more than Astrid could ever put into words.

“Are you ready to do this?” Wilma asked, voice both breathless and strong.

Astrid knew what it meant; she could see it in her mother’s eyes. She took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Her father was already waiting outside. Her mother fastened the veil in her hair and gave her the bouquet before she opened the door for her and lead her to the car.

When they neared the venue – which was a generic party hall rather than a beautiful old mansion, but it would do – there was no fire to be seen, no wild animals disturbing the scene, no Thorston twins’ shenanigans. Ruffnut was, for once, trying to contain the chaos instead of causing it, which Astrid had to give her a lot of credit for.

Her dad parked the car and opened her door. With a steely resolve, she climbed out of the vehicle and held her head up high. Nobody had to know that mere days ago, she had still been contemplating running away and leaving the man waiting for her inside, friends and family by his side.

She noticed the storm clouds in the distance, hanging lower than the blanket of ashy gray that had accompanied her on her way to the hair salon that morning. Her chat with Marie seemed like it had been years ago. Astrid squinted her eyes and watched closely as the clouds moved forward, passing a row of houses. They were coming fast. She hoped they wouldn’t ruin the photos her parents wanted to take with her before the ceremony and all the ones she had to take afterwards.

The photographer was already waiting for them, leading them to a set of trees decorated with white and rose gold ribbons and flowers, and the letters A and E made of wood hanging from a branch. It wasn’t the most elegant decoration, but it was more than Astrid had expected her maid of honor to organize. In all honesty, she kept waiting for sex toys to fall out of the trees or a banner that said all kinds of dirty things.

But the photos turned out great and the storm kept a distance during all of it. It was time to head inside and face the road she had decided to take. On her way to the building, she was still chancing glances upwards, waiting for a pigeon to fly by and drop a present on her head. But there was no bird shit and signs from the universe weren’t real.

The music started when she stepped over the threshold, walking arm in arm with her parents. The guests all stood, ohs and ahs sounding from every corner as she walked down the aisle. Eret’s eyes flitted over her appearance and fixated on her face, smile as soft and proud as his gaze.

She gulped, taking her place next to him and giving a tiny wave to her parents when they left her to take their seats. The officiator started talking but she barely listened. For some reason, her eyes kept wandering over the rows of guests, searching for an anker she knew wasn’t there. Finally, she looked back at Eret, and the ceremony went on.

_______________

Something was strange about this place. Hiccup couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was there. It was hard to concentrate on anything while his brain and body were begging for oxygen, his muscles were jittery and exhausted and all he wanted to do was lie down on the pavement and sleep for days.

But he didn’t have that luxury. All he could think of was arriving to the wedding on time, before she could say I do without him telling her how he felt. Maybe it would make a difference, maybe it wouldn’t. But he’d rather do it while there was still a chance of it making one, despite it being a naïve hope.

Bending over and wheezing for air, he collected his senses. Just do it, the Shia Labeouf in his mind shouted at him. A determined jolt went through his limbs and he straightened up, jogging down the driveway of the centuries-old mansion towering in front of him.

His hand was shaking as he lifted it to the doorknob. Ignoring the strange tug at the back of his subconsciousness still trying to tell him something, he opened the door.

_______________

The officiator, an old school friend of her dad’s, held a long speech about true love. She could tell that Eret found it a bit cheesy, judging from the looks he threw her every now and then, but that, ultimately, he saw himself in the man’s words.

Astrid caught comparatively little of the speech. She heard sentiments about solidarity, trust and togetherness here and there, but her mind was elsewhere. She was assessing her feelings, trying to make sense of the whirlwind of emotions kicking and jumping through her heart. There was nervousness, naturally, whereas she couldn’t care about the attention of the crowd any less. Then there was a mixture of giddiness, bubbling about in her chest, and a touch of fear as she was boarding a ship that would set sail as soon as she said the words. She could then only stay on that ship forever or jump into the cold, relentless ocean to escape.

Behind her eyes, the tiredness was beginning to press against her skull. She’d gone to bed so early last night, but when she’d been lying there alone in the silent darkness, she’d become a victim to her own doubts. For fear of dreaming of Hiccup and the porch again, just when she’d closed the gate to that road, she’d tossed and turned in her sheets for hours until exhaustion finally won over.

In the morning, she’d known that she had dreamed about something, although she couldn’t remember what it had been. All that remained was a faint feeling of easiness, lingering like a warm glow coating her heart. She couldn’t help but think about the possible what-ifs again. What if she said no? What if she had told Eret weeks or even months ago that she didn’t feel ready for this yet? What if she had never agreed to come with him to Dagur’s party?

Rain was rapping against the windows now and from where she stood, she could see the branches of the trees bowing to the wind. Someone switched on a second row of lights.

“And now the rings,” the officiator’s voice cut through her thoughts. Eret’s cousin, a small boy in dress pants and suspenders, jumped up from his seat at his cue and carefully carried over a tiny white pillow with the rings on it.

Astrid took a shaky breath. The officiator spoke again, leading up to the traditional questions.

In that moment, her attention was diverted when the door to the room opened. Her heartbeat stilled for a second when she saw a tall figure enter. She didn’t know why she was simultaneously disappointed and relieved when she recognized her cousin Beth’s husband.

“Do you,” the officiator started, calling Astrid back to the situation. Hearing Eret say I do suddenly pulled her down to earth and planted her feet on the solid ground, and the door stayed closed.

“And do you, Astrid Hofferson, take this man as your husband?” When she opened her mouth, she couldn’t imagine a different answer. She’d built this relationship with Eret and got her life together with him. She didn’t want to throw away all they had grown to be and what she’d come to call her life, where she felt safe and secure and loved and where she was happy, happy with the way things were.

“I do.” The roaring applause of the guests turned to white noise as Eret pulled her to him. She grinned into the kiss, feeling the waves lap against the ship’s hold as it left the harbor and the space between her and the dock became too large to jump.

This was what she’d wanted for longer than what she refused to think about anymore. Ignoring the still lingering notion of what if, she wouldn’t allow herself to think about another man while she was now married. However, although she knew she’d made the right decision, that didn’t mean that the entire Hiccup-conflict was immediately resolved. But it would soon be, because she couldn’t do this anymore now, and she wouldn’t. That brief chapter of her life had to come to a close.

She didn’t have time to further think about it, shaking hands and sharing hugs with every guest in the room. Photos had to be taken inside, and when it was time for the soup to be served, her face hurt from smiling.

When the rest of the dessert was being carried away by the catering staff, the band asked everyone to join the newlyweds on the dancefloor. Astrid had to take off the veil since it reached all the way down her back and wouldn’t survive the night if she kept it on. Then she danced with Eret, with her parents, with Eret again, with his grandparents, with Ruffnut and Dagur and even with Beth’s husband who told her about his weak bladder and apologized for taking a bathroom break in the middle of the ceremony. It was an incident Astrid didn’t want to be reminded about, for a reason different to what he might be thinking.

After a while, the party became a blur, people mingling everywhere and with everyone, drinking and laughing and dancing. Astrid was listening to her neighbor Larry telling her great-uncle Greg some story about a man that had once lived across from him and who he swore had been an undercover cop, when her mother tapped her on the shoulder. Astrid leaned in closer so she could hear her better over the music and the ruckus of conversation and frolicking party guests.

“There’s a young man outside asking for you.” Astrid frowned, in her mind going through all the people who would want to talk to her who weren’t already here. Her mother gave her a meaningful look and Astrid could tell she had a suspicion who it might be. She felt her heart rate go up at the implication.

Biting the inside of her cheek, she turned around to head outside.

“Astrid,” her mom called after her and met her eyes with a serious expression. “You made your decision. Don’t throw that away now.” Earning strange looks from Greg and Larry, she held eye contact with her daughter until Astrid walked away.

The rain had let up, quietly drumming on the canopy over the patio in an even rhythm. She heard thunder roll in the distance and inhaled the fresh air. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind but she was sure she didn’t want to change anything about her decision – only for that foundation to tumble the moment she saw him.

Her heart quivered in her chest. The sight of him leaning against a wooden beam, soaked in rain and rumpled from the wind, knocked her next breath right out of her so unexpectedly that she lost her voice for a second.

He noticed her and turned around, those green eyes shining like emerald beacons in the night when he set his sight on her. “Wow, you look…” He gestured at her dress with the little splotch of sauce on it, at her hair that was flowing down her back in waves, with small flowers woven into it.

His gaze set her cheeks on fire and she averted her face, biting her lip to keep it from breaking into a wide grin. “Thanks.” She glanced back at him and let the smile loose, anyway, twisting it into a smirk. “Not bad yourself.”

Hiccup looked down at himself, a bit of water running out of his hair and down his face at the motion. “Fancy, huh? I made an effort to get the November rain look right.”

“You know, I think that outfit goes with an umbrella.”

“One might think that,” he said in such a dry tone that it made Astrid snicker.

His face lit up at the sound and she could see the small gap between his front teeth when he cracked that lopsided smile she found so adorable.

She cleared her throat, snapping out of the bubble they were creating. “So… What are you doing here?”

He sobered up at her question as well, raising a hand to rub his neck. “Well, I…” He seemed to be struggling with his words, every line of his face immerged in countless everchanging emotions. “I wanted to come by and, um… And tell you…” After a beat of silence, he ran a hand over his face and gesticulated with the other. “I was at the other place first, but no one was there except some plumber guys.”

Astrid grimaced apologetically.

“I think they were as confused about me as I was by them, so we just stood there gaping at each other for a minute until one of the guys asked me what I was doing there. They told me about the water damage but didn’t know where you were now.”

“Sorry, we told the guests but didn’t send out new invitations. Where did you get the address anyway?”

A light blush covered his cheeks. “Saw Heather’s invitation. Anyway, so I looked up where events were held today, used a few of my dad’s contacts; most of them probably think now I’m some kind of stalker. I got it down to a few possible places and checked them all. Crashed a wedding, a bingo tournament and a funeral. Apparently, I look like the dead guy when he was young, because his widow fainted when she saw me. I think I yelled something about waiting for her in the afterlife and disappeared as fast as possible.”

Astrid burst out laughing, picturing him awkwardly talking his way through the situation, moving his hands and shoulders with every breath, eyes wide like a deer in the headlights.

“Yeah, so then I checked here and asked that woman out here if I was at the right place.”

“That was my mom, by the way.”

Recognition flashed over his face. “Makes sense. You have the same nose.” He blushed. “Sorry, that probably came out weird.”

Trying to figure out if he was serious, she pondered inviting him in. She was conflicted, because she really shouldn’t.

An idea popped up in her head. It was crazy, absolutely insane and, above all, very stupid. What if, she thought, what if she just threw everything to the wind and ran away with him, right now? Looking into his eyes, out here alone on the patio, it seemed possible.

But then reality came back to her in the shape of the ring pressing against the skin on her finger. It was like a punch to the gut; it doused her heart in gasoline and threw a whole pack of matches on top. Rushing for the fire extinguisher, she decided she wanted him around as a friend, if not to prove to herself that she’d made the right decision.

“Hey,” she said, “do you want to come inside? I’m hereby officially inviting you so don’t listen to Dagur, he can’t throw you out. I’m the bride, I have the last say.”

Hiccup’s eyebrows scrunched together and her smile faded. “No, I better leave.” He took a step closer.

“Why? Because of Dagur? Don’t worry, I can reign him in.”

He shook his head. “No. I mean, yes, but no, that– that’s not what I mean.”

“Then why not?” She mirrored his movement, ever drawn to him like a magnet. He took another step towards her, deep green irises glinting in the light of the patio. She could see the long scar on his chin, could count the freckles on his skin, wanted to feel the stubble on his jaw. Her fingers prickled under the phantom sensation conveyed by her imagination.

He slowly raised his hand to put a strand of hair behind her ear, stroked lightly over her cheek, leaving trails of tingling fires. Thunder grumbled directly above them and the clouds burst, releasing an ocean upon the earth. He leaned in until she could make out every shade of green in his eyes. His lips touched the corner of her mouth and her brain shut down.

It took her a few seconds to realize he wasn’t standing directly in front of her anymore. Her hand automatically went to the spot where he’d just kissed her. It tingled and crackled like it was loaded with sparks and she didn’t know how to speak.

“Goodbye Astrid,” he whispered, voice cracking, when he sent one last sad smile her way before turning around and walking away.

The sight of his retreating figure knocked her brain out of its stupor. “Wait,” she called out, running after him into the rain. “I’ll see you around, right?”

He looked back at her with eyes so full of pain it broke her heart. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” With that, he left, hands buried in his pockets, head hanging low on his shoulders. There was one more sound of thunder in the nearer distance, but Hiccup took it away with him.

She stood there for a long while, hair and shoulders gradually soaking through, and stared after him until he had long disappeared from her sight. She knew he would always be her biggest what-if.

With the last drops of rain running down her face, she went back inside to her wedding.

_______________

- End of Part 1 -

_______________

#httyd #hiccstrid #fanfiction #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #eret #ruffnut #when lightning strikes #modern au #a bit of angst with a dash of drama #or the other way around #maja writes #ff #fic

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retrocelly · 6 years ago

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Congratulations, Captain (Jamie Benn)

Warnings: fluffy smut (is that a thing?)

Word count: 1,749

Jamie had a lot on his back. He had playoffs coming up quick and he was doing everything he could to keep his team in the picture. You were there for him when he came home after a hard loss just as you were there to celebrate a well-deserved win. Tonight, it would be all celebration.

When Jamie found out he had to miss a couple games due to an injury, he was beyond frustrated, and rightfully so. However, the team held up pretty well without him which helped relieve some of his stress. Tonight, he was back in the game and you couldn’t be more excited for him. You sat on the couch in yours and Jamie’s shared home, a Benn jersey adorning your body and a bowl of popcorn next to you.

Jamie scored in the first period, putting the stars on the board and ahead 1-0. You got up quickly and cheered. Then, he got a powerplay goal in the second and you clapped loudly which echoed through the empty house. Finally, with the clock ticking down, Jamie scored his third goal on the empty net with only seconds to spare. Not only did he get a hat trick, he got the Stars’ first hat trick of the season on his first game back. Not much would’ve made you prouder.

You immediately texted your boyfriend a series of all-caps congratulations texts along with an excessive amount of emojis. Jamie, always stoic, responded with a red heart and a “see you soon.” You realized that tonight you would need to wait to celebrate, seeing as the team was currently on the trip back from St.Louis and you wouldn’t see Jamie for at least a couple of hours.

As disappointed as you may’ve been about having to store your enthusiasm for later, the following few hours could be put to good use. After all, Jamie definitely deserved a proper welcome home.

You spent the following hours alone getting ready for Jamie’s return. You went through the entire routine, making sure that your legs were clean shaven and smooth, adding a loose curl to your hair, and using your most waterproof eyeliner to add a light cat-eye. You completed the look with a new set of blush pink lingerie that Jamie hadn’t seen yet and covered yourself with Jamie’s jersey.

You spent the rest of the time lounging around the house. When Jamie texted you that he was around 20 minutes out, you sent a quick text that read “can’t wait. I have a gift for you when you get back. xx” Jamie wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t the most intuitive when it came to hints, so you weren’t surprised when you read the notification on your messages app; “you didn’t have to get me anything, baby. you’re too good to me.”

Jamie finally came through the front door, his feet dragging with exhaustion. He called out for you, but when he didn’t hear any response, he figured you must’ve gone to bed. With a careful eye, Jamie examined the living area, looking for a neatly wrapped box or any sign of a gift. When he found nothing, he shrugged and headed up to your shared bedroom.

The room was illuminated only by the bedside lamps, giving off a relaxing glow that made Jamie feel at home. He quickly spotted you sitting on the edge of the bed, a tired smile resting on his face. He walked over to you, leaning down to rest his forehead on yours. As his hands fell to your waist, Jamie recognized the athletic material of his jersey.

“Sleeping in my number tonight, Y/N?” His voice was raspy like it always was after games, what with all the shouting and exerting.

“No,” you replied easily, leaning back from Jamie’s touch. “Just wanted to wear it for a bit cause I’m proud of you, but mainly I wanted to wear this.”

Jamie’s eyebrows furrowed at your statement as you reached for the hem of his oversized jersey. When the material was lifted high enough for him to see the intricate lace that adorned you, his expression shifted to something between an appreciative grin and a knowing smirk. You threw the jersey somewhere off to the side, watching as Jamie’s gaze moved over your body before meeting your eyes.

“You’re way too good to me, Y/N,” he spoke as he moved in to kiss you. Before his lips could meet yours, you put a hand on his chest to stop him.

“You deserve it, captain.” You moved your hand to the back of his neck, reveling in his quiet groan as you leaned up to seal the kiss.

Your lips moved against his easily, his hands going to cup your ass. You let out a soft gasp as Jamie lifted you off the bed, allowing his tongue to move into your mouth. You didn’t bother fighting for dominance, he always won anyway. Instead, you settled for pulling at his hair as he laid you down against the headboard. You gave a particularly hard tug to Jamie’s hair and he tilted his head so that he was biting lightly at the pulse point just below your ear. You moaned at the gesture, your body arching into Jamie’s.

“Tonight’s supposed to be about you, Cap,” you chastised halfheartedly, “so how do want me? Where do you want me?”

You felt Jamie let out a heavy breath onto your skin, causing goosebumps to raise where his lips once were. He looked at you, his pupils blown out with lust.

“I have you exactly where I need you, baby.” You pouted at him just a bit and he gave you a look.

“Are you sure you don’t want your cock in my mouth?” You batted your eyelashes at him, “I mean, after tonight you’ve earned whatever you want and then some.”

Jamie gave you a smile, leaning in to kiss the tip of your nose.

“That sounds like a nice thing to wake to tomorrow morning, but tonight all I want is to be inside you, yeah?”

You were vaguely aware of the cocky smirk on Jamie’s face along with the sound of his belt landing on the floor.

“This is a pretty one,” he muttered, his finger running along the strap of your bra, “is it new?”

You gave Jamie a nod, grinding your hips up into his as you spoke.

“Mhm, got it just for you. ‘Cause I know you like this color.”

He gave you a chaste kiss on the lips which you recognized as his way of thanking you for thinking of him. You refocused your attention, as did Jamie. Both of you reached for the others respective remaining clothes, separating and shimmying until each of you was naked.

Jamie quickly returned to you, one hand holding the back of your thigh as he sunk into you, his jaw falling slack.

“Fuck,” he let out, dropping his head to rest on your shoulder.

He pulled out slowly before pushing all the way back into you. You moaned at his movement, one hand tangled in his hair and the other gripping onto his bicep. Jamie repeated the same slow, calculated motion, allowing you to feel every inch of him as he thrusted forward. Your nails were leaving small crescents in their wake, ones that you knew the boys would chirp him for, but that didn’t matter to you right now.

You tried to split your focus between Jamie’s cock moving deep inside of you and the feeling of his tongue against your neck as he sucked hickeys on to your skin. When he wasn’t on the ice, Jamie could be a very patient man - a virtue he was currently demonstrating by maintaining his slow thrusts. He moved one of his hands up to your breast, alternating between pinching and flicking his thumb over your nipple.

You were letting out a steady flow of moans and whimpers into Jamie’s ear, causing him to lose his breath every now and then.

“That’s it, Y/N,” he groaned, “let me know how good I make you feel. Fuck, you sound so pretty with your pussy around me.”

His words caused you to moan particularly loudly, which only spurred him on.

“You like it like this, baby? Nice and slow, huh?” You nodded your head quickly as he continued to thrust before simply burying your head into his shoulder. “You feel so good wrapped around me. So tight for me.”

Jamie’s steady pace was quickly driving you closer to your orgasm, but you still needed to feel him closer to you.

“Jamie,” you called, interrupting yourself with a breathless moan, “kiss me.”

He was quick to oblige, his tongue dancing with yours as you neared your finish. A particularly hard thrust caused you to whimper into Jamie’s mouth and he brought his finger to your clit to help you along. He rubbed circles in time with the motions of his hips, making your eyes roll back and your head spin. You broke the kiss, taking in a large gasp before returning it with an equally loud moan.

Jamie just stared at you, his eyes locked onto the way your lips parted. He was quickly nearing his edge as well, but he always liked to see you cum first. After two more thrusts, the knot in your stomach came undone. You could feel yourself tightening around Jamie’s cock as a string of curses and praises fell from your lips.

At the sight of you completely blissed out and the feeling of you cumming around him, Jamie allowed himself to pause and spill into you, a guttural groan finding its way out of his throat. He continued to push into you until the friction became too much.

Instead of pulling out though, Jamie wrapped one arm firmly around your torso to hold you in place and rolled onto his back. You let out a content sigh at the shift, still sensitive from your orgasm. You melted into his bare chest, heavy eyelids closing as Jamie rubbed your back softly.

“You played so well, Jam. ‘M so proud of you.” Your words were slurred with oncoming sleep, but Jamie seemed to understand them.

He hummed in response, muttering out a raspy “I love you,” which you gladly returned.

You fell asleep with Jamie still inside of you, his heavy breaths lulling you to sleep - thoughts of the next morning already filling your head.

#jamie benn #jamie benn imagine #Jamie Benn smut #dallas stars #dallas stars imagine #nhl imagines #hockey imagines

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rika-kihira · 5 years ago

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interview with Red Bull: The Origin of Strength

In honor of Rika’s birthday, we are sharing the translation of Rika’s latest interview, done with Red Bull. Please do not repost without credit. Thank you to Juro for translating. All the photos were taken from Red Bull’s website ☺️

- original interview: https://www.redbull.com/jp-ja/athlete-interview-rika-kihira

[The Origin of Strength] Rika Kihira revealing her own way of fighting among the next generation’s top athletes.

Like a shooting star, Rika Kihira made her appearance in the figure skating world and established various records. (In this Q and A special session, also featuring her natural self), we will discover how this girl refines her performances and raises them to a level of their own.

At the moment, in Ladies figure skating field, we could say “Triples” are Rika Kihira’s specialty.

In her senior debut season of 2018-2019, from her landing 3A+3T combination at the Ondrej Nepela Trophy up to the Grand Prix Final, she had won 6 international competitions.

Yet, this 16-year-old marvel already had the vision of investing in the “real battle” of quads. She will disclose the root of her unparalleled performances and how to sustain momentum.

►Utilize all efforts to improve jumps’ quality

Q: (To produce the best performance), what is indispensable in terms of training?

A: “Torso training + rotation training”

Regarding light training, I have warm-up exercises every day, and roughly 1 hour each section of torso training, about 2 times/week. If I don’t do torso training, my body will experience shakiness when rotating on air. Next, I can’t do without rotation training. I practice double jumps on ground, and axis stabilization as well. I can be aware of whether my condition is good or bad by assessing the quality of those 2 training sessions.

Q: (To produce the best performance), what is indispensable in terms of body-care?

A: “Stretch every day. Acupuncture and electric therapy twice a week”

Of course, I stretch every day. I make sure to get acupuncture, electric treatment, massage, etc twice a week. I practice every day, and sometimes when my muscles feel constricted, my body balance will be tampered with, and fatigue will accumulate. If I leave it as it is, there’ll be injury, so body care is indispensable.

Q: (To produce the best performance), what do you pay attention to in your daily life activities?

A: “Minus 0.5kg right before competition”

I try to control and calculate my nutrition balance and calories intake every day. In order not to spoil my jumps’ conditions, I also try, to the best of my ability, to adjust my weight every day little by little. Eventually, -0.5kg right before a competition works out best for me, speaking from experience.

Q: (To produce the best performance), what’s your “power food”?

A: “Mochi (rice cake)”

High calories of mochi can be broken down and transformed (into energy) quickly, and it is just right for mornings like those before a competition, when I only want to take in carbohydrates. I eat 4 mochis with only soy sauce as topping. (After eating), my body doesn’t feel heavy, and I can exercise properly, so I really like mochi.

Then, about 1 hour before my practice after breakfast, I usually drink Red Bull. Specifically, on days that I cannot reach the body conditions I’m pursuing or when I can’t focus… on days like that, I can pull off a good performance (with Red Bull).

► 16-year-old, already rich in experience, Rika Kihira on mental control

Q: For the best showdown (To produce the best performance), what’s happening in your mind (as you prepare)?

A: “I envisage the situation when I dare to fail”

Well, it’s about people who support me. “If I fail to land this jump, everyone will be sad”. I give myself a moment to dare thinking about this…In that case, the thought that “I will definitely not fail” can bounce back at me powerfully.

Q: How do you pull through in moments when you don’t succeed, or when you’re feeling down (To produce the best performance)?

A: “I will think that the mistake is an important experience for my present self.”

When I make mistakes, I think as positively as possible that “This mistake could be a necessary experience for my present self”. It’s good that I can make this mistake early, and that I can fail in advance.

I am the type that can become stronger if there’re things that make me go “I dislike being in this position”, and my emotion can switch immediately, because I think that although I mustn’t forget the “kuyashii” feeling, if I lose confidence, things will become even more stagnant for me in future competitions.

Q: (To produce the best performance) How do you set your goals?

A: “All the jumps shall be the jumps I want to jump at all costs”

Ranking aside, I also place emphasis on proceeding towards my ideal performance. That said, if there’s only a vague impression like “It’ll be nice if I can perform the whole routine with no mistakes”, I’ll likely make mistakes somewhere.

If I think “I just want to jump!” at every jumping pass, the total result would turn out good. Since I’m in a world where no mistake is allowed, my goal is a performance that could allow me to perform with the thought that I have no other point to improve beyond this.

Q: (To produce the best performance), when you’re away from home, what is something that no one expects you to bring along?

A: “Japanese food set”

I bring things like packaged rice, mochi (laugh)…, misosoup, furikake (dried rice seasoning), dressing sauces. Those are Japanese food, right?

Q: (To produce the best performance), how about taking on challenges?

A: “Uhmm”

I always try to challenge competitions as how they flow naturally, so maybe no (laugh). I also make effort to have an (positive) attitude towards life, so that I don’t have to be on edge all the time, or even when there’s something that makes me nervous, I could still revert into a state of mind that helps me smile and surpass the nerves.

In the past, I used to be very nervous in competitions, but recently, I already have a concrete image of how to jump, and such, so I’m not anxious anymore.

► Surprisingly, this maturing skater is also very natural in private.

Q: (To produce the best performance), how do you spend your days-off?

A: “My only days-off are New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve so… (witty laugh)”

I go out for “hatsumoude” (visiting the shrine on the New Year’s Day), or to visit my relatives. Then, while travelling by plane, I work out the sleeping time to adjust myself to the time difference, and in free moments, I watch movies. (laugh)

Q: (To produce the best performance), what kind of movie do you watch?

A: “Japanese school-life and love-life movie”

The loud clashing noise (gashan) in action movies, or rustling and thumping noise (hara hara doki doki) in horror movies is scary, so my heart can’t handle it (laugh). So it’s better for me to watch movies with which I can relax at the same time.

Q: (To produce the best performance), what kind of music do you listen to?

A: “back number and ikimonogakari” (Japanese bands)

I don’t dare to listen to music with up-tempo (quick beat), and I usually listen to music that resembles a gentle push to my back (silent encouragement) when I have worked hard.

Q: (To produce the best performance), is there anything you want to stop doing, but can’t stop?

A: “It’s not like something I can’t stop doing, but since it’s sleeping…”

I feel like there’s a wall within me. Before competitions, usually on the first night in the hotel, my sleep becomes shallow no matter what, and on the next day, my legs will become dull. Even when I can drift into sleep, when I wake up and check the sleep monitoring app, I was woken up for 7 times even…

Q: (To produce the best performance), is there any habit that you want to fix?

A: “It’s natural!?”

As an athlete, I can’t remember my subconscious reflects, but (in daily life), as far as other people tell me, I’m quite “wild” (spontaneous), though this seems to be changing (laugh). I have also been told that I’m not good at conveying my thoughts into words, or “I don’t understand what you’re talking about”.

There are times when I reply seriously to friends’ jokes, or laugh at the wrong subject, or even laugh 1 beat slower despite not saying anything interesting. (laugh)

#rika kihira #translations #interview #Interviews #season: 2019-2020

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candysims4 · 6 years ago

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Let’s talk about ads!

I'm getting several messages (some without the slightest education) complaining about ads, as I've said several times I've never had problems with ad.fly/shorte.st but I see a lot of people saying they have.

Unfortunately the little money I receive (on average 7 dollars, but in a few months does not reach the minimum to transfer, 5 dollars, so I do not receive every month) is needed for me, in my situation every penny makes a difference.

What I thought to resolve this situation would be to add ads on my site (ads by google, which are safe and non-invasive), would not put many, at most 4 per page long and 2 on small pages. You guys will have the option of not enter in shorte.st and I don’t will lose to much. I have a really big debit (more than 1.000 reais) to pay but I'm really worried about you guys and your safety.

But in wix.com it is not possible to put ads in free accounts, like you can see in the screenshot bellow:

I would have to put the premium, luckily it is in promotion (50%) in the annual plan, in the amount of 174,00 reais, which is the equivalent of 45,06 dollars.

The discount is only valid if you pay the entire year at one time, however there is an app (Called RecargaPay) that I use to pay my bills and bank slip and in it has the option to install any bank slip, I have generated a ticket and put in the app to see how much the taxes for divide would be, and the value was 213,24 reais that still is cheaper than outside the promotion (which is 328 reais, a discount of 134,76 reais) and would give to divide up to 12 times of 17.77 reais.

In addition to getting the possibility of placing ads the website would load faster which would be better for everyone, pricipally those without a good internet.

But for me to put this will be heavy, so I thought of putting a goal in ko-fi so that who can donate to help me pay.

I made a calculation and what I would give with the ads on the site would be the same or a little bit more than in shorte.st and I would not have to be cursed for using shorte.st any more.

I'll leave a poll here in this post to decide with you whether to upgrade or not. But I can not leave much time as you can see in the screenshot bellow the promotion ends on June 21 at 7 in the morning, so I thought to leave until the 20th until 1′o clock to give time to pay.

If you accept and help me pay I will show receipts and everything else, and as soon as the site becomes premium I will add links to ALL of my cc without ads.

VOTE HERE!

See you guys soon, XOXO

#important #please vote #poll

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rolypolywl · 6 years ago

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Hello, and welcome to Roly-Poly weight loss. I’m your host, Roly-Poly.

Welcome to day 22!

And today is a weigh in day, so let’s see how that is going…. 270.

Not bad!

So today we’re going back to our routine, so let me start the timer.

Okay, so today I want to talk about step tracking. Now, if you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve heard that you’re supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day. Many fitness trackers, including my fitbit, have that as the default setting, so it seems pretty important.

Now, if you’re coming from a sedentary place, like many roly poly people, 10k steps just seems like a huge number! I was certainly not hitting that number when I first started walking.

In fact, I set my first fitbit at 5k steps, and worked up to getting that number. Then 6,000, then 5,000. There are still plenty of days when I don’t hit that number.

Now, when I was working at a more active job, and climbing all those stairs I’ve mentioned, I was usually hitting 6,000 consistently, and with a little effort I could hit 7,000 in a day.

I also, as I’ve mentioned, walked 5ks, which are 3.1 miles. If you have a particularly sedentary day, only hitting 1,000 or 2,000 steps, that hour of walking will bump you up to 7,000. At least it did for me.

I could only hit 10,000 if I was up on my feet all day, or walking in a 10k or something like that.

Roly Mama, in fact, has 5,000 as her goal, because she isn’t doing those long walks, and that’s a reasonable goal for her to hit in a day, provided she does a half hour walk.

Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, our numbers are pretty typical.

“The average American walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, or roughly 1.5 to 2 miles. It's a good idea to find out how many steps a day you walk now, as your own baseline. Then you can work up toward the goal of 10,000 steps by aiming to add 1,000 extra steps a day every two weeks. If you're already walking more than 10,000 steps a day, or if you're fairly active and trying to lose weight, you'll probably want to set your daily step goal higher.”

But the’re still encouraging us to get to that 10,000. And Self pushes it even further.

“Fitness pros have been citing 12,000 steps as a new target, which begs the question: Is 10,000 steps just not good enough anymore? ” They interviewed two trainers who encouraged people to aim for 12,000 instead of 10,000.

MyFitnessPal sums up the issue pretty well.

“When you’re just starting an exercise program, you may not have the confidence or ability to get anywhere near 10,000 steps (even if you go for daily walks). This lofty goal might backfire as consistently falling short of your goals may discourage you from exercising. If you swim or cycle, those activities don’t register as steps, so your count for the day won’t accurately reflect in your activity level. Plus, if you get 10,000 steps just from walking to and from work, you may feel best when you get 15,000 or 20,000 steps per day, instead of stopping at 10,000. Ultimately, “tracking step count is highly individual and there’s no perfect number,””

Now, we’ve looked at research in the past that says that that half hour a day walk is what we need to become more healthy. If that only equals about 3,500-4,000, do we really need to hit 10,000 a day? That’s three half-hour walks a day! Or 12,000?

When you’re coming from a sedentary place, that seems insane. And just waiting for us to fail. Even the idea from the Mayo Clinic of adding 1,000 steps a day seems like a pretty steep incline. Do we really need to hit that target? And that quickly?

Well, it seems like the answer is no. And kind of yes.

Let’s start with “no.”

First, let’s look at where that 10,000 number comes from. Some scientific study, right? Yeah-no.

This article from The Atlantic actually gets to the origin of this number.

““In 1965, a Japanese company was selling pedometers, and they gave it a name that, in Japanese, means ‘the 10,000-step meter.’” Based on conversations she’s had with Japanese researchers, Lee believes that name was chosen for the product because the character for “10,000” looks sort of like a man walking. As far as she knows, the actual health merits of that number have never been validated by research.”

Yeah, that’s it. That’s where the 10,000 number comes from.

So now let’s look at the “yes”.

Now, since then, people have actually initiated studies that seem to validate this number, but Self points out a problem with that.

“It's important to note that while research in this area can provide interesting insight, there are some limitations. For example, if a study only looks at the benefits of 10,000 steps and doesn't compare it to other step counts, the research can't conclude how much better 10,000 steps is for a specific health outcome. (Or if there's even a difference at all.)”

For example, in one study, “overweight participants were asked to walk 10,000 steps daily for 12 weeks. The 30 participants who consistently reached that goal lost weight and had a decrease in anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue.”

But, aside from the fact that a pool of 30 people is insanely tiny to draw data from, the study doesn’t seem to have tested other areas. Maybe people who hit 7,000 consistently also had less weight, anxiety, and fatigue, just not as much.

Similarly, “A study where 355 participants were asked to take more than 10,000 steps a day found that there was a decrease in blood pressure among participants after six months.” Which is great news, but again there doesn’t seem to be any control group at a lower step count.

And that’s important for a number of reasons, as the Atlantic points out.

“That nuance can mean a lot to people who want to be less sedentary but aren’t sure how to start or whether they can do enough to make a difference, says Lindsay Wilson, a clinical professor of geriatric medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “I don’t think setting the bar at 10,000 steps is a very successful way to approach exercise,” she says. “Some people are not walkers. They don’t have safe neighborhoods, or they feel unsteady on sidewalks. You need to be more creative. Is this a person who needs to go to a gym class or the pool, or sit on a stationary bike?””

And Self adds, “It also depends on what other activities you're doing in a day. If you take an indoor cycling class or do a strength training workout, you may not rack up as many steps as you would if you went for a run or walked a lot one day. That doesn’t mean you’re being unhealthy or that the other activities you’re doing don’t "count"—especially if you're hitting those 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.”

So are there any studies that look at lower step counts? Or just being more active in general? And, it turns out, the answer is yes!

For example, Self notes “One study showed that participants who reached 7,500 steps or more were less likely to report poor sleep, while those who reached 5,000 steps or fewer were more likely to report poor sleep.”

That shows a benefit at just 7,500 steps, up from 5,000. So that’s promising to those of us who are looking to incrementally increase our activity!

Harvard Professor I-Min Lee performed a study “observing the step totals and mortality rates of more than 16,000 elderly American women.”

As she explained to The Atlantic, ““The basic finding was that at 4,400 steps per day, these women had significantly lower mortality rates compared to the least active women,” Lee explains. If they did more, their mortality rates continued to drop, until they reached about 7,500 steps, at which point the rates leveled out. Ultimately, increasing daily physical activity by as little as 2,000 steps—less than a mile of walking—was associated with positive health outcomes for the elderly women.”

So there you have it, in this study, an increase as little as 2,000 steps showed improvement. If you’re the kind of person who struggles to get to 5,000 steps, don’t feel like you’re a failure for not getting to 10,000.

““I’m not saying don’t get 10,000 steps. If you can get 10,000 steps, more power to you,” says Lee. “But if you’re someone who’s sedentary, even a very modest increase brings you significant health benefits.””

Now, all that said, what can you do if you do want to increase your daily step count? Tracking your steps on a pedometer or fitness tracker can help, and adding a half hour daily walk - like we did for No Zero Day May - can certainly boost your numbers.

If you’re in the moderate area - 6,000-8,000, you should consider the app, StepBet.

It looks at your past activity and calculates an “active” and a “stretch” goal for you. Actives at minimum are 7,000 and Stretches are 9,000.

Then, you join a bet! Usually costing about $30-40 to enter, the standard format is 6 weeks, needing to hit your stretch goal twice, your active goal 4 times, and with one “free” day. If you can make those numbers for the whole time, you win a chunk of the pot!

There are also variations, such as shorter, 4 week bets, no stretch days, no free days, and similar. I loved doing these, because it was great motivation to get that last thousand steps in before bed if I was a little low.

And the extra money at the end was nice! Sometimes I only made $2 back over my bet, sometimes $10! The great thing was the guarantee. If you won you bet, you would always get your money back. They’ll forgo their own cut to make sure that all winners at least make their money back.

So if you complete the steps, you can’t lose!

And, as you finish stepbets, you become more active, and your active and stretch goals inch higher. It’s a great way to slowly (over a month, not a day), increase your step goals.

Again, however, the minimums are 7,000 and 9,000, so if you’re just hitting 5,000 a day comfortably, and stretching to 6,000, this might push you too far.

If you still want a little extra stepping motivation, but StepBet isn’t right for you, check out Charity Miles.

Regardless of your step count level, it will work for you. You pick the charity you want to support from your list, start up the tracker, and get walking! Or running, or biking, or whatever! They track all kinds of activities. And when you finish, their corporate sponsors will donate money to the charity of your choice!

You can even join teams and help support or compete against each other.

It is a great way to add an extra motivation to getting your daily exercise or steps!

And that’s it for today!

This has been Roly Poly Weight loss. As always, I am your host, Roly Poly. Please share your experiences with the hashtag #StepCount. You can even share your step goals or achievements. I’d love to see them!

And please join me next time!

#RolyPoly #exercise #weigh in #weight loss #losing weight #weightloss #workout #working out #fitness #Health & Fitness #Stepbet #CharityMiles #StepCount

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lyannasnow · 6 years ago

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a hiatus for a healthier life

I know I have not been on here lately, but honestly that is a good thing.

I recently became really honest with myself and admitted that my issues with confidence, self-esteem, my weight, and just my overall depression were not going to change unless I changed them. Thus, I became serious not only about losing weight but also changing the unhealthy habits in my life. Having lost so far 13 pounds, I think I am doing great.

I am now drinking more water, exercising every morning when I wake up, and again in the evening, eating only 1,200-1,300 calories a day, spending half an hour each day thinking (not on phone, computer, or reading, just being present in my own mind), I am off all electronics a half hour before I go to sleep, and have been keeping a regular sleep and waking times, even on weekends.

It is a lot of changes, but honestly, I feel so much better, physically and mentally. Of course this also means I have been on tumblr less, not only due to my goal of using less technology, but also because my desire to me on here has lessened.

I realize now how much I used tumblr to feel acknowledged, how much it was a coping mechanism of using strangers to feel self worth, but a failing system that ended up making me feel like an addict, always hungry for more. I realize now that this addicting for tumblr satisfaction hurt me, making me turn away IRL relationships and options for socialization.

I am not trying to diss tumblr as a whole, just my relationship with it. Through my weeks of this process I have realized that I was addicted to tumblr, and I honestly feel like a new person. I want to spend time away from tumblr to make sure the compulsive need for it is fully out of my system.

If anyone is interested in the free apps I have been using that I 100% owe my mental and physical change to, it is these:

Fabulous - an app focused on changing and creating habits. From this I have been drinking more water, have a healthier wake up routine, and have a better relationship with technology. It uses brain focused techniques and lets you develop at your own pace. This might be the most life changing app I have ever had.

Lose it! - a wight loss app that adjusts your daily calorie count based on your goals and progress. It separates your daily calories into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to help keep in mind your daily goals. It has a large menu of nutritional facts for food, allows you to scan a barcode directly into your daily meal, and you have input the ingredients of any dish you are making to calculate the calories of any meal. It not only keeps track of how much weight you have lost, but looks at your trend and lets you know how long it will take to reach your goal. I am only 396 days from my goal of losing 126 pounds.

Seven - a seven minute workout app that while it does have a lot more options if you pay, is still great on the free mode. It has one base work out of tradition exercises (jumping jacks, push-ups, squats, planks, etc.) and every day has one free workout ranging from all sorts (sore core, yoga stretch, cardio, back flex, etc.) which allows you to do something a little different every day.

I really owe a lot to these apps and I so love that they are free and a look forward to the other changes they will help bring to my life.

#personal

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financiallymint · 7 years ago

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Top Money Apps Every College Student Needs

Apps are the cool way to finance.

First you have that stroke of ‘ok I need to get my sh*t together’ and start sorting our your money. Then you move it online and have some fun automating the entire process (yes it’s fun). The thing is, there’s more and more of these apps out there, and they all seem to do the same thing.

I tested quite a few of the apps and have a few favourites that I think are especially helpful for students. All recommendations are my own – not a single affiliate on here.

Coinkeeper

My money diary. As the name suggests, it’s basically an app that tracks your spending and income and helps you follow your budget. It’s got a simple but nice design using coins and different colours to show you where you’re at with your budget (yes, red = bad). Every time you spend money, you pop onto the app and drag your ‘Bank’ coin to the ‘Grocery’ coin, for example. There’s also a nice desktop version.

Pros:

Control – only you put in the expenses and you decide how much

Very simple and easy to understand

Budgets are part of your expenses so it’s easy to see how you’re doing (see how the little coins fill up?)

Cons:

Easy to forget to put in an expense

Hard to record refunds

What I’d use it for: As I said before: my money diary. It’s great for those just starting out with budgeting as it helps you manipulate the expense system to the grain, and it forces you to be conscious about your money. It’s also great for those who are excessively controlling (#me) and need to know where every single expense goes and when.

OnTrees

Another cool budget and spending app. This one, unlike Coinkeeper, connects with your bank and uses the transactions on your bank account to calculate expenses and income. Might take some time to understand how it works, but once you do it’s simple to use. Also has a desktop version.

Pros:

No need to manually enter any amounts

Pretty nice graphs and designs to see how you’re doing

Cons:

All expenses are bank transactions, so you can’t add an expense you made with cash

Budgets are separate to your expenses

It automatically puts your expenses into categories so you have to keep readjusting them into the right ones.

Your expenses are your bank transactions (not great for people like me who has several bank accounts with several debit cards)

What I’d use it for: Once you grasp the basics of tracking expenses, OnTrees is good to get an overall view of your account transactions. Also it makes it easy to see if you’ve got unexpected expenses or a £100 seems to have disappeared from your account.

Money Dashboard

Basically a more flexible version of your bank account. It all syncs together and you get to see all your transactions on one app. The big plus for me is that you can see each separate bank account and compare the transactions between them. You just have to set up each tag so that the app knows which expense is what (the times I had to tell it that Matched Betting was notentertainment…)

Pros:

Several bank accounts on display

Handy planner and calendar to plan for bills, etc

Budgets work as a percentage – I like that

Cons:

Have to manually tag everything the first time you use it

No reports

Takes time for everything to sync (could also be because of my bank account)

What I’d use it for: MD is the budget app for everyone. It’s easy to use and makes expenses easy to track. Once you know your way around a budget, MD will help you keep track of it and you won’t need to use anything else. Also has an easy to use desktop version.

MoneyWiz:

A pretty advanced budgeting software and app. Takes time to set up but really helps you get into the nitty gritty of your finances. Also connects with your bank but you still have the flexibility to manually add transactions and even refunds. The interface is pretty user friendly and easy to understand – especially on Macbooks (I tried it on the university’s one).

Pros:

If you get the Apple version it all syncs beautifully between devices.

Can create some pretty cool reports – trends, net worth, forecasts, etc

Easy to see the budgets and will tell you the bills coming up

Cons:

It can get a bit overwhelming, especially when starting up.

Gotta pay – £2 (there is a 7 day trial)

What I’d use it for: Only used this one a couple of times, and more as a software than an app. Good to have a very in depth overview of your finances thanks to the very detailed reports. For the very personal finance pro who wants everything to sync together and have an overall picture of the money.

Chip

Nice app that helps you save. You connect it to a specific bank card and it’ll just randomly take out some money and save it onto the Chip account. Funny design: settings are basically talking to a bot. Not sure if I like that yet but it’s interesting.

Pros:

Helps you reach your savings goals faster

Easy to understand

Easy to cancel the transfer if you don’t want to save

Can set goals in the app

Cons:

Lack of clear interface: just have a chat and that’s it

Can’t attach several bank cards

What I’d use it for: To save up for a small goal. You don’t even notice the money leaving your bank account so it’s great to have that little extra for your goal. Personally I’ll use it for little luxuries or a short trip somewhere – the big goals need to be calculated carefully.

Revolut

Great app for those who travel a lot round Europe/change currencies often. You connect your bank account, top up your Revolut account and can easily switch from one currency to another without getting charged any foreign exchange fees. The cool part: you can very easily send and receive money from others, and they don’t have to have a Revolut account! (tried and tested myself) And if you want to take it to the next step, order the card and use it in a shop – really great for traveling.

Pros:

Very easy to exchange currencies and no fees

Very detailed: can see the exchange rate, your several currencies, etc.

Great to send and receive money

Cons:

Need to keep topping it up

Ordering the card costs £5

Free cash withdrawals are limited at £200 a month – after that you’re charged.

What I’d use it for: Weekend and short trips to another country. The quick and easy way to exchange currencies means you don’t have to plan too much ahead. Having the card helps, although you can’t withdraw as much as you like – there’s a better one below.

Debts Break (Apple)/Debt Payoff Planner (Android)

App to track all your debts (the Apple and Android version are pretty similar). You insert the different debts you have with their interest rates, amount left and date started. It also has a payoff plan (highest interest debt first, lowest remaining balance first, etc) and the coolest part: a calculator. You can even create reports and compare how you’re doing with each debt. Pretty sweet.

Pros:

Easy to understand and nice design

Has all you need to organise debts

Gives you a clear picture of your debts and how you’re doing, especially with reports

Cons:

Doesn’t connect with a bank account or debt provider

Can’t add recurring payments that don’t have starting or ending balances, e.g. phone bill

More payment options: bi-weekly, bi-monthly, etc.

Ads are annoying af

What I’d use it for: As the name suggests, this app is great to put all your debt and loans on one app and sort out the payment plan. Great to get started and understand how your debt will be doing in the future.

Starling Bank

Truly in love with this app/bank. It’s basically your normal bank, but only on mobile. You sign up, get verified and they send you a debit card. Every time you spend money you get a notification and you can very easily see how much you’ve spent and where it’s all gone. Oh, and did I mention no commissions when traveling abroad?

Pros:

No added expenses when taking out of an overseas ATM

Very easy to keep track of where your money went – no more ‘where did those £50 disappear to?’

Easy to get an account – no papers and weird hassle, just a video and photos of your documents.

Can directly set Saving goals into the app

If you lose the card you can block it very quickly from the app

Sleek design – I like it

Cons:

If you lose your phone you’re pretty much screwed.

No desktop version

What I’d use it for: I use this bank app all the time, mostly for travels. The ‘no commission’ rate and good exchange rate make it flawless when changing countries. You could also use it for your daily expenses so you can quickly see what you’re spending your money on. Or even for your Matched Betting side hustle.

Excel spreadsheets

Yes, it’s not an app but I honestly believe everyone, student or not, should have their very own excel spreadsheet to update every week/month/year. The apps are great for the small stuff, Excel is great for the big stuff. You want to have your goals set, your budget set and a way to track every month. Here’s mine:

Pros:

Highly customisable

Good to get an overall simple annual/monthly report

Easy to experiment with

For setting goals and comparing to past months and years

Can save a huge amount of data

Cons:

A little old school – manually input everything

No automatically generated reports

What I’d use it for: I use Excel spreadsheets for end of the month and end of the year reviews. Since I have so many bank accounts and different cards, it’s a good way to put everything together on one page. Great for forecasting and planning: ‘how long until I pay off all my debt?’ ‘how long until I can buy that laptop?’, etc.

And I recommend creating your own spreadsheet instead of downloading other people’s templates. Or downloading them just to see how other people do it and getting a bit of an idea of which system works best for you. Make the spreadsheet your financial buddy, the one that knows your darkest and deepest secrets but that also helps you accomplish your biggest ambitions and goals. No one else has to understand it, just you.

The Economist Espresso:

Of all the finance news apps out there, The Economist is my favourite. Short and to the point – if I want to find out something more I’ll do a bit of extra research.

Pros:

Easy to keep up to date with the daily news

Very short articles – easy to read and understand

Notifications if it’s something important

Cons:

Gotta pay £2.29 a month (there’s a 30 day free trial)

Not very in-depth

You don’t need to download every app on this page, but it’s worth checking out a few of them. Automating your finances makes the process way less time-consuming and monotonous – once might say it even makes it fun (the satisfaction of seeing the coin stay green). Imagine if one day Financially Mint had it’s own app…

Which app are you thinking of getting? Comment below your thoughts…

Oh and if you have no idea where to even get started with your money and budgets scare you, how about checking out this sweet and simple 6 day course to help you get on track?!

Read more like this over at Financially Mint

#mobileapp #financeapp #moneyapp #financialeducation #financiallymint #moneyhacks #savings #budget #studentonabudget #universityhacks

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natur-body · 4 years ago

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The Ultimate Guide On How To Use MyFitnessPal

Most of you I’m sure have heard of “MyFitnessPal”. It’s an amazing macro tracker app that helps you reach your goals, instead of guessing what you’re eating throughout your day. Before you read any further if you need more help with learning about macros I recommended you read “Understanding Macros” to get familiar with macro intake, how much men and women need per day etc.

There’s A LOT to learn, so start there then come back and read how to use this app to reach any goal you may have!

In order to track meals I suggest you buy a food scale first! You can’t estimate how much you’re eating all day! If you would love to learn tips and tricks to meal prepping read 10 Tips On How To Successfully Meal Prep.

report this adWhat are macros?

Macronutrients are what make up the calorie content of food. The 3 categories of macros are your protein, carbs, and fats. To reach your goals in an effective way it’s great to track how much protein, carbs and fats you’re eating every day! Every person needs a different amount. I do have a macro calculator that’s provided in my post here. “Understanding Macros”. Every calculator you find isn’t 100% correct, it’s just a rough estimate that will help you along the way.

Why is it important to track?

I believe you don’t need to track your food intake for the rest of your life, however I do recommend trying it and sticking with it for at least a couple of months. I think it’s important for us to get familiar with what we put into our bodies and exactly how much. Our body may only need 70 grams of fat per day, but you may be eating 110 grams or over, and that’s how you gain body fat. It can also be difficult to lose weight because you’re eating more fat or carbs then you really need. I don’t believe in cutting out any carbs or fats because we’re human and we need good fats and good carbs, and of course some treats here and there because LIFE! I know that since I started tracking my food intake, I’ve become more familiar and understand what it’s like to live a balanced lifestyle. It taught me I can have a slice of cake and eat it too, but to not go ham for the rest of the day. I really do truly believe it turned me into having a better relationship with food.

I haven’t tracked my food since COVID started happening. So it’s been 5 months. I’m sure I’ll get back to it again, but I promise you, you will see more results doing this just because you will be more on point with how much protein, carbs and fat you eat in a day. It’s not a lot of work if you start meal prepping ahead of time, that way your week is easy for you. Just grab and go with your meals that are already prepped and tracked!

Setting up My Fitness Pal

1. Download the app for free. You can upgrade and get more perks but free does the job.

2. Open the app and make an account or login from Facebook or email.

3. The app will ask you some questions before getting started. Goals, weight, age, etc. Enter everything to the best of your ability.

4. When you estimate your macros and get the numbers, add them directly into the app. Head to more > nutrition goals > calorie, carbs, protein, and fat goals. Here is where you will enter them manually with the percentages given. Just keep in mind that you will have to round to the nearest 5% increment unless you download the premium version. So your macros most likely won’t be correct 100%, so just make sure you memorize them and keep track that way. You will either have to eat more or less than what’s stated on the app, but no biggy!

5. You have the option of naming your meals. So the way it’s set up, is “Breakfast”, “lunch”, “dinner”, snacks”. You can name them differently, like meal 1, meal 2, pre and post workout snacks, ETC. For someone like me who is always trying to put on weight, breakfast, lunch, and dinner don’t really mean anything because I’m constantly eating, so I go off of meal 1 and so forth. Head to more > settings > diary settings > custom meal name.

6. Get familiar with the app and click around. You have the option of tracking your steps and water intake. Figure out how you like it and make it personal.

How To Start Tracking

Alright time to get tracking! 1. Click on the diary button at the bottom of the page! You will notice it will be organized with your saved settings. Woohoo, time for the fun part. 2. Click which meal you’re having and hit “add food” .

3. You can search for foods, scan them with products that have a barcode, or manually enter the code if the scanner doesn’t work.

3. Adjust the serving sizes. You have a couple different options like grams, ounces, 1 cup. etc. They sometimes will be different on each product. Most will have serving size per gram, but sometimes it won’t be there.

4. Complete the diary at the bottom when the day is done.This automatically saves your meal for the day, so you can go back and see what you ate on a particular day.

Keep Note:

– My Fitness Pal remembers foods you eat often, so you won’t have to scan in every single food item you eat on the daily because it will be entered already. You can adjust the serving size no problem if you eat less or more one day.

– Make sure when adding in stuff like pasta or rice, make sure it’s cooked and not dry. Serving sizes at the back of the product your scanning will usually have whether the serving size is cooked or dry. You can also type it in manually in the search button aka “cooked basmati rice”.

– You can search fast foods as well and even some pubs! The app has come a long way, so they usually have everything on deck. If they don’t have something, you can either try to find the food and estimate, or not add it in as a treat meal, and forget about it.

– You can manually plug in a homemade recipe and have the macros for a certain dish. This part is time consuming because everything you put in the dish you have to weigh out and whatnot for the macros per serving of the dish, but it’s pretty neat. This way you can make clean healthy dishes at home, and know exactly what you are eating; macros and all!

Tracking Motivation And Questions You May Have:YOU HAVE YOUR OWN PERSONAL PLAN

You have your own plan that’s built right on your device that you use EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! And it costs 0 dollars, so no excuses! You have access to your calories, macros, steps and more. You have the ability to change goals like gaining weight, maintaining etc, no problem! You want to lose weight, change the settings, you want to now bulk up for the winter? Change the settings! It’s your own personal food diary.

THE POWER OF TRACKING

Tracking your macros isn’t a diet, but it’s a way to have balance in your life, but also beware of what you’re putting into your body. There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself, but some people are like “Pft I only had 5 Oreo cookies”, but you plug that into your app and you see how much sugar you just ate as well with the fats, carbs and calorie intake. This app isn’t for being obsessive over what you eat, but more of like “oh sh*t, I eat a 3/4 cups of ice cream per day and I’m putting that much sugar into my body.” It’s more about knowing how much food you’re consuming, it helps with your fitness goals, and it’s great to actually know how much sugar and junk you’re consuming per day.

IT GETS EASIER, SO DON’T SWEAT IT

Do you think that tracking will take up a lot of your time? Let me just tell you, maybe for the first week or 2 it will take some time getting used to and plugging in all your foods, but once you start plugging away at the things you eat on the regular basis; everything gets recognized and saved! So you won’t have to scan stuff every day, unless it’s a new meal or new snack that you haven’t already put into the app.

PLUG YOUR TREATS FIRST THING

This is my favourite tip that I use all the time and helps me stay on track better! If you’re serious about tracking take this tip! This app isn’t about not being able to enjoy life, because believe you me, I love my ice cream and chocolate bars. I don’t have a crazy unhealthy snack or dinner every day, but when you know you might have a bowl of some delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that night, plug it into your app in the morning, so you can work your way around your macros for the rest of the day. This is a great way to stay on track and know you won’t be over your macros! Yes, you’ll most likely have more sugar that day than any other, but it’s fine. It’s a treat for a reason! Same goes for a treat meal! If you know you’re ordering in food for dinner and you know what you’re having, plug it into your app! That way you just work your day around the rest of your carbs and fats to stay on track.

Sometimes when you’re with friends and family having some delicious meals off plan, that’s totally fine. Don’t sweat about not being able to track every single thing or meal when you’re with your loved ones.

YOU’LL LEARN WHAT REAL SERVING SIZES ARE

This is basically what I said about the Oreo cookies. You see on the package that the serving size is really only 2 cookies, but you end up having 3 more … You end up seeing how much fat and sugar are in those tiny cookies. Example, I just plugged that into my app now. 5 Mint Oreo cookies are 350 cal, 50 grams carbs, 17 grams fat, 0 protein (obviously) and 32.5 grams of SUGAR! Yikes! You will realize that by doing this you end up only sticking to the serving size per package if you have a sweet tooth. 2 cookies is enough for me and it should be for you too!

DON’T GET OBSESSIVE, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN

Obviously you want to track every day to the best of your ability, but not every day is going to be perfect. There will be days you are out living life and for your last meal you couldn’t track it, that’s ok. Or there will be days you’ll be under or over your macros and that’s ok too! This journey should be fun trying to hit a certain amount of macros per day, but understand it’s NOT going to BE PERFECT!

SHOULD YOU TRACK CONDIMENTS AND SAUCES?

Look, I’m not the type of person that will weigh out ketchup and other condiments. Being mindful helps too! Ketchup does have sugar in it and if you’re a ketchup lover like myself, you need to be careful! If it’s an unhealthy pasta sauce I will try to estimate the grams. If it’s just salsa, small amount of ketchup, mustard, I will not track those. Mayo I do track loosely. Again, it’s not always perfect. Do track your oils to the best you can!

HOW DO I TRACK PASTA?

There’s no easy way of tracking pasta. You will have to weigh things separately. Jamie and I usually do simple beef pastas with some sort of a yummy tomato sauce that we just add extra flavour ourselves. We weigh out the beef on its own, cooked pasta on it’s own and then mix our own separate pasta in a bowl to mix with the sauce. I don’t track the sauce, since it’s a simple healthy sauce.

HOW DO I TRACK WHEN EATING OUT?

Like I said before it’s easy to find McDonalds, Subway etc on MFP app, sometimes you can even find a certain pub on there when you search the name, however if you CAN’T find the restaurant you’re at and you do want to track, estimating is fine. If you’re eating a chicken wrap with a side of fries, just search chicken wrap and there will be a ton of options, don’t choose the highest calorie or the lowest calorie one, choose one in between and for the fries just guess that one too! It’s better you try then not at all.

Restaurants these days do have the calories on the menu too, so that is also helpful! Try to track your booze intake too!

TRACK YOUR DRINKS TOO

I do enjoy a few sips of juice here and there, but I don’t go out of my way to buy it. Juice can have loads of sugar in them, so if you are a person who loves their juices, do track them too! Sometimes when you don’t see results in the gym, it may because you’re sugar intake is too high!

Track your booze too! There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off to enjoy life because we all know I preach about balance, but if you’re a person who drinks every single day, you may want to see how much your calories add up by every drink you have.

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF

For someone who wants to see any type of results you need to be honest when you plug things into your app. For your treat meal, if you have more than you should and you know you’ve overdone it, still track it, but next day it’s back to the grind! You won’t see results if you half a$$ your tracking! Either you’re in it for bigger results, or not!

I hope you guys found this helpful! If you have any questions, I’d love to help to the best of my ability! If you’re serious about losing weight or gaining muscle mass this is a great place to start with tracking your food! I’ve only stopped tracking for now, because I’m just living life during COVID and just maintaining my figure. When I do want to bulk up I use the app because it’s so helpful! Like if you’re suppose to eat 2600 calories for the day with a certain amount of protein, carbs and fats, how are you supposed to guess? You honestly can’t! You could be way under one day and way over the other day and everything when it comes to results in the gym involves CONSISTENCY! You have to be consistent when wanting to see any changes!

#fitness

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change-conquer · 4 years ago

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Since this is my first posting let’s start with some basics of who I am and why I’m starting this blog. First and foremost, blogging isn’t typically something I would do. I’ve dedicated my career as a Clinical Social Worker to helping others, so I figured why not see if I can use my personal life to do the same. Wait before you go wow what a great guy there’s a selfish piece to this puzzle as well. I need something to help keep me motivated and accountable. This blog will contain all aspects of my life I’m trying to improve and keep me accountable. I plan to write weekly blogs and just see where it goes from there. Just like the people I work with I’m human, my life isn’t perfect and I want to improve myself. I think that’s enough boring crap about me. I’m sure as this blog continues more of who I am will be revealed. Part of these weekly blogs will be giving updates on my success and struggles to achieve a ME that I’m happier with.

This isn’t all about health but it is a major component of what I want to improve. My entire life has been a struggle to manage my health properly. I’ve always been athletic but I’m addicted to food and I guess you could say eating. We all have different body types. My brother for example could eat junk food nonstop every-day for a year and continue to look the same. Mine is more along the lines of just thinking about a snickers bar packs on 10 pounds of fat. Now I either put on muscle or fat very quickly so when I’m in a good healthy routine I have the potential to look like a body builder…. Spoiler alert I’ve never had enough motivation and willpower over my food addiction to achieve this. The working out piece kind of goes in spurts as well. Few months here than a month or two of laziness. This is kind of how it goes for me. Well news flash I’m sick and tired of this never-ending cycle.

Last year I was doing decent with my health goals, but after October I plummeted. I’ve put back on about 20 pounds, I’m not working out regularly, I’m drinking alcohol a few times a month, my portion sizes are increasing, I’m eating like shit and my clothes are getting snug. What the hell am I going to do about it instead of being a whinny bitch on this blog you ask, well good question. My ass is back at the gym and I’m walking or working out on my lunchbreaks. To help keep myself on track and motivated I’ve joined The Conqueror. This is a virtual race that uses your steps and exercises to race various trails. Once you complete the race you will be mailed a medal and if you paid for the appeal you will receive that as well. I initially chose this company because I loved that for every 20 percent of the race you complete a tree will be planted. Some of the races have fun virtual postcards they send you and fun markers that make the trail famous. I’m racing my Wife on Hadrian’s Wall and Appalachian Trail. I just split my time between the two challenges. In the 10 days of doing the Appalachian Trail I’ve gone 71.2 miles. In the 8 days of doing Hadrian’s Wall I’ve gone 32.2 miles. I can’t believe through walking, jogging, spin class and weight lifting I’ve accomplished 103.4 miles. Full disclosure the program has a chart to use to help you convert the time you worked out doing various things into distance. Sounds like a great start but I’m also having some struggles. I’m only drinking about 60 oz. of water a day with a goal of 32 oz. prior to all meals and snacks. I’m not following Paleo and my portions are struggling. I’m constantly thinking about food and when and what I’m going to eat. Even as I write this I’m thinking, “I ate my lunch an hour early because I felt hungry. How long does that mean I have to go before I eat a snack.” In addition, I’m trying to do more self-care, which hasn’t been the most successful due to forgetting to incorporate these new habits. As I slowly introduce these I’ll tell you more.

Let’s talk about money since I guess it’s what makes the world spin round. Looking on the outside in I assume it appears I’m financially well off. I have nice things, I can afford to do most things I want and buy things I want without much worry. I recently started thinking what will happen long term if I continue my spending habits and how differently would my finances look if I made some changes. My wife and I recently built a house and have some landscaping and a basement to complete. Last year it was incredibly stressful trying to buy things for the yard and house, so this year we developed a plan. We are allowed two trees, A rain barrel and a shed and of course basic maintenance needs. Were already paying a little more than owed each month to help reduce the amount of future payments, so nothing there is changing. My only other debt is student loans and my car loan. How long do I really want to be paying on these? I calculated if I stick to a strict budget I could have it all paid off in a little under 4 years. Not too shabby I thought. Then yesterday I came across this idea for saving. Here’s the basics each week you put aside a random amount of money between 1 and 100 for 100 weeks. No number for that 100 weeks can be repeated. By the end of the 100 weeks you will have a total of 5,050 dollars. If you’re interested and want more information it’s called the 100-envelope challenge. I just made some changes because I didn’t want to use 100 envelopes. I haven’t had any struggles with my financial goals but so far, I’ve paid off 1,100 in debts and saved 253 dollars.

We all have difficulties with our relationships myself included. Sometimes I feel aloof from my wife, sometimes I want to shake sense into my family or my friends and I’m constantly frustrated with the actions of others, yet I don’t say a word. To help improve my marriage, which is already amazing I’ve decided we need to make dates more official. We do things together all the time but it’s never hey let me take you on a date. We subscribed to this game called Hunt a Killer this month for the next year, so this will be 1 official date night a month. We also have an adventure date night book that we stopped using when the pandemic started, but that’s another option as well as many other things. This week we actually had a couple movies we wanted to see so we planned 2 dinners and two movie date nights for this week. We split a meal at a Mexican restraint and watched the new Wonder Woman movie on Wednesday. Kind of funny but we were the only people in the theater and I the last running show. When we left there were no workers. We think they forgot about us and left for the night. I want to reach out more to the friends I already have. I feel I have a hard time being satisfied with the friends I do have and part of this is due to losing contact and not ever doing much with my friends. I want to change this. This week I’ve reached out to three friends. I’m also working to be more assertive and set boundaries.

Next, I want to grow intellectually. I’ve been studying Spanish off and on for years and just have never been able to become fluent. I’ve been using an app called Duolingo and listening to Spanish songs with English subtitles to help me achieve this goal. I want to learn to do more things, so I’m going to push myself to learn how to do something new each month as well as read one educational book. This may end up being a magazine since I’ve come across some pretty great magazines that I feel could help me with this. I’m also going to push myself to go to places and events where I’ll learn new things.

My last area of self-improvement is to do more adventuring. Each moth I’m going to go somewhere I’ve never been. Whether it’s hiking, backpacking, camping, snowshoeing, ect. I’m also going to start preparing for my next big trip. In December I went on my honeymoon to Costa Rica for two weeks and I’m already itching for my next big adventure.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I know it’s long and I think future posts will be much shorter as I’m not going to be trying to explain as much. I plan to try to incorporate some funny stories as I work towards conquering a better self to keep the posts lively.

#change #personal improvement #positivity #health #goals #finance #relationships #better me

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zentherainbowunicorn · 7 years ago

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Everlasting Party - Mystic Messenger Time Loop AU (pt 37)

<- Previous Chapter | Chapter Index | Next Chapter ->

Summary: You’re caught in a time loop during the 11 days leading up to the RFA’s party unless you can do… what, exactly? 13+

After about 7 and a half hours of time spent on this one freaking chatroom, I present to you: Chapter 37! Holy lord the chatroom was endless and yet it's only around 800 words T_T It is about the longest chatroom yet, rivalling Chapter 30's chatroom. Much thanks to Masdevallia on AO3 for being a wonderful beta, and to you guys for the nice comments and tags :) I'm always so happy to see a new notification sitting in my inbox~

Itty bitty 'spoiler' for the very very beginning of Day 5 Seven's route. If you've played Jumin's route though then you're definitely fine. Anyway, enjoy!

You’re nearly startled out of your chair when your phone goes off, then almost drop the phone itself trying to see what the notification is for.

1:48am – Jaehee Kang is now online.

1:48am... God, you’ve been working on this for almost two hours already, yet it feels like you’ve barely made any progress. True, some of the underlying structures to Unknown’s encryption are the same, as you’d hoped, and you’re pretty sure you know how long the key he used to encrypt the log is. But you’re starting to run out of ideas on what to do besides just checking every possible key in a brute-force attack, and that would take far longer than just a few hours. The new computer you cobble together each new loop is powerful, but not enough to do that many calculations in so short a time period.

1:50am – 707 is now online.

Seven! Perhaps you should log in. He might have something to say about the hacker. You log in and quickly scroll up to read the past messages before joining the conversation. It looks like earlier in the night Yoosung logged in to complain about a weird alarm sound that his phone made. Hmm. You don’t recall your phone making any odd sounds. When Jaehee logged in a few minutes ago, she mentioned hearing an obnoxious alarm sound as well. Now she appears to be chastising Seven for encouraging Jumin to pursue another cat project.

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You set your phone down and turn back towards your computer, which is still running the log against a series of possible decryption keys you’d given it earlier. At this rate it’ll be days before you finish decrypting the log – time you don’t have, unless something changes. Seven did mention he’d work on decrypting it as well… but he also seems to have a lot on his plate. And anyway, it’s unlikely Seven would share the decrypted log with you. The goal now is to figure out where Unknown is on your own so you can solve some of these questions yourself. If you can figure it out before you’re reset, you’ll never have to hack into the RFA’s app to retrieve Unknown’s log again since you can just memorize the information.

You think about your conversation in the chatroom earlier and smile a little to yourself. Seven did notice something odd with the messenger, but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t suspect you at all. Most of your initial attempts at extracting the log from the messenger had ended early because Seven would realize something was wrong and block you from the app, but judging from your recent conversation he’s not even sure what information you’d retrieved when you hacked the RFA application earlier. It would be fun to see his face in person if you told him you, too, hacked into his app. He mentioned wanting to come see you at Rika’s apartment, which is a nice thought, if impossible. Having someone else in the apartment has got to be better than sitting around here on your own. And you’ve really grown to enjoy some of your conversations with the RFA’s hacker. Quirky though his sense of humour might be, he’s made you smile on days where you were questioning what exactly you were putting all this effort into learning how to code for. In fact, you’ve been smiling more as of late, even daring to make some of your own jokes in the chatrooms instead of just typing in responses you know will make the days continue. Maybe he’s rubbing off on you.

You lean your chair on its back legs and stare up at the ceiling, rocking back and forth precariously with your foot anchored to the desk. It would be nice to be able to work together with Seven on how to solve this issue with Mint Eye and Unknown, too, instead of trying to take this on by yourself. But this is just how it has to be, isn’t it? Every couple of days without fail Seven will forget your previous conversations, forget the code he taught you, forget the jokes he told you. You’ve been pushing this series of days to the limit trying to find ways to avoid having the exact same conversations with everyone day after day, but no matter how much you change your own actions you’re inevitably drawn back to the same topics, the same phone calls, the same sequence of events. It’s like an elastic; no matter how much you push and stretch at the boundaries, it always snaps back into place just as it was before.

The foot that you’d been pushing against the desk to rock your chair back and forth catches on air and you gasp as you suddenly lose your balance. You try to sit up and right the chair, but it’s too late so you thrust out a hand to break your fall instead. There’s an immense clatter and a sharp pain in your wrist as you’re deposited unceremoniously onto the floor.

Ow. Ow, ow, ow. That was really stupid. You roll off the upended chair and put a hand on the floor to push yourself up – ow! You flop back onto the floor and carefully bring your hand up to your face, the one you’d used to break your fall. It throbs a little, and when you try putting pressure on it there’s a prickling pain in your wrist. Wait. You didn’t seriously sprain your wrist, did you? You use your other hand to sit up and study the injury. It doesn’t look bad… but it definitely hurt when you tried to put your weight on it. Goddammit, this is your dominant hand, too. Can you still type with a wrist injury?

You curse your foolishness under your breath. How stupid can you be to hurt yourself at a time like this? You couldn’t have done this later, after you’d decrypted the log? Of course not, it just has to be now, when you’re on a time limit. Still grumbling under your breath, you stand and pick up your chair with your good hand, then wander into the kitchen to get some ice for your wrist. This had better not slow down your progress with decrypting Unknown’s log. You glance at the window he sometimes breaks through and frown. And it damn well had better not prevent you from escaping if Unknown drops by.

Well, whatever, you think, angrily reaching into the freezer for some ice. A few more hours and you’ll be reset anyway and won’t make this stupid mistake again. You’ll just put some ice on the damn thing for a little while and then—

...There’s no ice in the freezer.

Goddammit.

Of course there isn’t. You haven’t had a reason to make ice in Rika’s apartment this loop, so why would there be any ice here? The fridge doesn’t have an ice-maker, either, so you’re fresh out of luck.

You slam the freezer door shut again and lean against the kitchen counter, holding your injured wrist away from your body awkwardly. Would cold water suffice…? Probably not. No, that’s a stupid thought. You don’t even have ice trays to make ice with in the apartment. You suppose this means you should go to the convenience store and pick up an ice pack or something. They’re open 24/7 so it doesn’t really matter that it’s past two in the morning. Maybe they’ll have something you can wrap around your wrist to stabilize it, too.

Luckily you’d already put your shoes on beforehand, so you don’t have to worry about doing that with one hand. You consider locking your computer before you leave in case… in case what? In case Unknown comes by? Whether or not your computer is locked would be the least of your problems if that were the case. No, better to let it continue to try decrypting the log while you’re out. You’ll only be away for a few minutes. You shove your phone in your back pocket and carefully scan the hallway before leaving the apartment. Your injured wrist throbs slightly as you punch the button to summon the elevator. Honestly, it had to be today of all days that you fell off your stupid chair. If you weren’t so determined to finish decrypting the log this loop, it would almost be easier to force a reset than deal with it.

...One of these days your reliance on the resets to get you out of trouble will surely come back to bite you. If, indeed, you ever get out of this loop.

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#fanfic #fanfiction #mystic messenger #707 #seven #jaehee kang #cheritz #everlasting party au #rainbow unicorn stuff #holy christ this took up so much of my time #i would get home from work #edit this #sleep #repeat #arghh #I wonder if there are more improvements I can make to my template to be even faster...

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