#don’t know if this counts as a lb but whatever

[time-for-crows]

How did the party city ghost lead to a weird evil dance off. I mean I can make the connections but what.

[oscconfessions]

ooo alright age hcs alright i have fun with these. i do have them all written down, with a timeline so i don’t mess up any logistics.

like ive said, throughout ii Mic is 14 to 17

and throughout ii Taco is 23-27 (21 when she joined)

the main bright lights are 21, LB is 23 (ii, not iii)

Yin-Yang joined ii at 13. 16 by the start of iii

Bot is 19, aging from the age Bow died

Bow is 20 in ii, mentally, 23 if we count at the time of iii

candle is 25-27, silver is 24-27, based on real people i know.

and i don’t think there’s any more particularly fun ones. happy getting mad about whatever ❤️ - 💥

.

[sariahsue]

Let Me Count the Ways

Chapter Fifteen - Akuma

[Ch 1] [Ch 2] [Ch 3] [Ch 4] [Ch 5] [Ch 6] [Ch 7] [Ch 8] [Ch 9] [Ch 10] [Ch 11] [Ch 12] [Ch 13] [Ch 14]

The park had been surrounded on all sides by wide stone buildings that had dominated the skyline, until they'd disappeared. Well, not exactly disappeared. They'd been shrunk.

When Chat rushed over, he found that the peaked roofs barely made it past his knees. The buildings sat in the middle of empty lots, all of them sheared off at their foundations.

Ladybug was already gently scooping up miniaturized people and herding them into the safety of the tiny buildings. "Do you see it?"

"Not yet." The skies were empty, but this akuma had probably been around for a few minutes, shrinking things in the distance. That was the flicker of movement he'd seen, he was sure. Everything had looked normal when he'd turned because he didn't realize he was supposed to be looking for something that was no longer there.

There were a few ways this could go. His first thought was a child wanting action figures. It would be easier than an adult wanting control over others, and it seemed plausible.

He caught the flicker of movement and the sinking roof one street over that meant the akuma had struck again. "There!"

Ladybug's head snapped up and followed his pointing finger. "Let's go."

In less than 30 seconds, they had eyes on the akuma. Not a child, like he'd hoped. A fully grown adult. In a really bad bug costume. Bright red, with a round head and antennae, two bulbous sections for the thorax and abdomen encasing his torso and hips, and an extra set of arms. He stood in the middle of the street with his back to them, stomping around and yelling about his paper being rejected by peer reviewers.

"A bug scientist," Ladybug said. She hung off the side of the building, like she'd stop repelling halfway down.

"An entomologist," he corrected, from his perch in the tree next to her.

"Chat Noir, you big nerd. How do you know that?"

He bowed as much as the branches surrounding him would allow. "My massive brain contains a lot of intelligence."

The akuma turned and saw them. The ranting changed from the deception and corruption of the scientific establishment and took on a wearingly familiar tone.

"Why don't you two come down here and give me your miraculous!"

Ladybug sighed. "That's our cue." She dropped and kicked off from the side of the building, pushing herself into a graceful arc and landing on the sidewalk with the poise an Olympic gymnast would envy.

Chat Noir couldn't help but whistle softly before he clambered out of the tree. Before his feet touched the pavement, Ladybug had been hit with a beam of power from one of the extra arms. Instead of shrinking–

"Ew!" she shrieked, sweeping a writhing layer of black off her chest and arms. "Ants!"

"Hey, Ant-tomologist!" he called. The akumatized man glared at him. Good. "Ready to be beaten by another little bug?"

Ladybug glared at him, too.

Which was fine with him, because the akuma had changed targets and was now waddling toward him, all four fists raised in what was probably supposed to be a menacing way. That costume. Really. Were those extra arms plastic?

His plan was simple. Throw out terrible lines, dodge equally terrible attacks, and keep him distracted while LB snuck around from behind and disarmed him.

Heh. Dis-arm. 

At first, everything seemed to go to plan. Chat Noir kept his lunges short and his steps backward long, so it looked like he was on the defensive. Antomologist took the bait, skittering forward, not watching his own back, opening himself up to whatever Ladybug was cooking up behind him. At this rate, they wouldn't need either of their powers.

And if they didn't need to split before timers rang out, maybe the two of them could hang out a bit?

He took another step back and tripped on the curb, just as a blast of white hot light was leveled directly into his face.

A red force of nature slammed into him at the same time the beam did, and Chat Noir was sent sideways and back, grabbing onto Ladybug for support as he was jerked off his feet. She was swinging them away, and the air rushed around them, and everything around them grew, reaching toward the morning sun, until Chat Noir was straining his neck to see the tops of the buildings.

They landed inside a dark, abandoned tree hollow. Hidden in the shadows, they could hear Antomologist laughing at them.

---

Author’s note: I literally had no name for the akuma until Chat Noir blurted that one out. I had nothing to do with it.

Tag list: @clawsout83 @trippingovermyfeet @tbehartoo @yoonjae20 @random-cartoon-fangirl @jasvalka

[whentherewerebicycles]

processing some weight gain stuff under the cut

okay. in 18 weeks of pregnancy I have gained 15 pounds, which according to the guidelines I was given is a LOT more than I’m supposed to have gained at this stage. based on my starting weight I am only supposed to gain 15-25 lbs total across the entire pregnancy, which idk people seem to be mixed on whether that’s actually realistic but that is what the doctor says. in the last two weeks I went up 4 lbs, and that was with a terrible cold that totally killed my appetite and made it very easy to not indulge in holiday food (I couldn’t taste anything). I am exercising a little less (30-45 min daily walks instead of 45-75) but not like, SO much less yknow? and I have also been tracking my caloric intake on an app to make sure I’m not going over (although I think my real motivation there is if a doctor gives me a hard time about weight gain I’m going to be like yeah well here’s 15+ weeks of data on my eating habits so you tell ME what’s going on).

the point is that based on a calories in calories out model I shouldn’t be gaining this much weight this fast but I am. that’s just what seems to be happening! so I think I just have to LET GO and accept that my body is going to do whatever it thinks is best to support the pregnancy. I can still make good choices but I need to decouple the choices from the outcomes. or like, I need to accept that my good choices will produce good outcomes (I’ll be eating nourishing food and moving my body regularly!) but those outcomes will probably not include weight loss or a slowing of weight gain. here is what I will continue doing:

meal plan every week—I might want to start thinking about meal planning snacks too esp as I am feeling hungrier during the day

eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day

eat very limited amounts of processed foods and watch out for added sugars

walk briskly for 30-45 min a day

go to this hourlong weights class at least 2x a week (ideally 3x) and tack on 20-25 min of cardio on the bike after

I could also try going to the gym more often to do low-impact cardio—like trying to work in a couple days a week where I do 45 min on the elliptical while watching an episode of TV. I do find that in the past doing a lot of that mindless low effort activity seems to help with weight maintenance and is pretty easy to sustain because I’m just like, as long as I’m moving it counts! I don’t have to be pushing myself super hard! this is probably most doable for me on the weekends (and if I’m at the gym already it increases the chances that I might decide to run too).

ok so here’s a rough plan:

sat & sun: walk dogs (30-45 min x 2) + try to do 30 min x 2 of extra cardio while watching TV at the gym (or when liz is feeling better I can see if she wants to go together or do pregnancy workout videos)

mon & tues: weights class one of those days depending on work schedule + 20 min extra cardio one day + 30-45 min walk both days

wed: 30-45 min walk

thurs: this is my busy/long day with work stuff and rehearsal, but I can usually squeeze in a 20 min dog walk and could try parking far away and walking into work on days when it isn’t raining to get another 20+ min in

fri: weights class + 30-45 min walk

and I gotta remember I can make the walks less boring by 1) driving to a random neighborhood and walking from there and 2) talking to friends on the phone instead of just listening to stuff.

OKAY. the takeaway is: I DO NOT NEED TO FEEL GUILT OR SHAME ABOUT THE FACT THAT I AM PUTTING ON A LOT OF WEIGHT. I AM FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS PREGNANT! THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT MY BODY IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING! I ALSO REFUSE TO LET DOCTORS OR THE INTERNET MAKE ME FEEL GUILTY ABOUT MY WEIGHT, BECAUSE I KNOW I AM MAKING HEALTHY CHOICES THAT ARE GOOD FOR MY BODY, MY BABY, AND MY MENTAL HEALTH. I ALSO WANT TO GENTLY DECOUPLE GOOD/HEALTHY CHOICES FROM SPECIFIC OUTCOMES. EATING WELL AND STAYING ACTIVE THROUGH MY PREGNANCY MAY NOT KEEP ME FROM GAINING “EXCESS” WEIGHT. BUT IT WILL MAKE ME FEEL BETTER IN MY BODY/SELF. IT WILL ENSURE THAT MY BABY IS GETTING LOTS OF GOOD NUTRIENTS. IT WILL HELP ME SLEEP BETTER AND FOCUS MORE AT WORK. IT WILL HOPEFULLY MAKE LABOR AND RECOVERY A LITTLE BIT EASIER TOO! I AM DOING ALL THE RIGHT THINGS AND IT IS OKAY THAT MY BODY IS NOT CONFORMING TO THE PRESCRIBED NORM. I TRUST MY BODY AND ASSUME IT HAS ITS REASONS!!!!!!!!!!!

[paigeb188]

if you’re reading this, hey y’all!

my name is paige and i just turned 21. i’ve been struggling with anorexia and the binge restrict cycle since i was 19. i’ve been thinking about recovering for awhile now. i’m so tired of feeling weak, being miserable everyday, and letting this take over my life. today, i decided to start to try and recover. this is a very scary thing, but i decided now is the time. im at my lowest weight (about 85 lbs) and truly want to get better, i want my life back.

to help me, i wanted to start a recovery blog. here, i plan to track what i eat and drink in a day, with calorie counts and pictures. and possibly just post whatever i’m feeling throughout this journey. i’ll check my weight every so often too and track those updates. my goal for now is just to start slowly upping my calories until i get to a good place that i want to maintain at, or until i start gaining. i plan to start low just so i don’t shock my body, around 800 calories, and add in maybe 100 calories per week. im honestly going into this blindly, i don’t know if things will change, but i’m just going to start somewhere and track my progress and weight gain and see how i feel going forward.

i hope that this blog will help to hold me accountable and motivated. i like tracking things and keeping progress and i want to have this to look back on. if you’d like to keep up or watch my journey, feel free.

thanks for reading and wish me luck :)

[just-rogi]

I just had a follow up with my dr after my blood work came back and she told me I need to get down to 135-140 lbs. 130 ideally. My BP is phenomenal my lipids and cholesterol too but I should cut out everything that isn’t water, and eat smaller portions and run more- god I get a drinkie once in a while as a treat but now I’m losing that too. Man I want to scream… its literally not fair bc everyone else can eat whatever they fucking want and be skinny, I’m literally 100% vegan eating exclusively rice lentils beans and LOTS of green vegetables. Like that’s fuckjng it Im not a French fry and Oreo vegan (tho that’s fine too it’s just not my regular diet). I eat intuitively and that means I usually never finish my meal or clean my plate so I don’t over eat. My ‘special girl treat’ is fucking fresh fruit. I TREAT myself by buying like cherries… I don’t drink soda (if I do it’s a v rare Diet Coke), I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t drink juice, I drink unsweetened iced green tea and honey or coconut water… I don’t even eat three meals a fucking day- I get like one or two bc I don’t get hungry until 4:00pm!! I don’t even eat desert super regularly because there just isn’t a lot of vegan options that taste good!!! I don’t own a car so I literally have to walk everywhere and would walk to work every day- rain or shine- 30 minutes there and back!! It’s not fucking fair. I’m tired. I’m angry. What the FUCK man I don’t know what to do! My dr doubled down during my follow up that I NEED to lose weight but I don’t know what more I can do!! Why do I have to eat less of my already super limited diet but my roommate can come home from work eat three hotdogs and Mac and cheese and wine and be healthy!! It feels like I’m fighting a fucking uphill battle constantly!! Like fuckjng hell!! I don’t know what to fucking do??? Like I literally don’t know what more I can cut out! It’s just not fucking fair I’m doing everything right! I’m also literally a size small in all my clothes!! I don’t know where I’d even lose 25 lbs from!! It’s just such fucking bullshit that I can be so goddamn on top of my fucking health and go to the doctor and get told I’m obese but other 21 year olds are eating pizza and drinking and are fine fuck me this sucks everything Sucks and I can’t even cry in my room with a tub of icecream about it bc I’m a fuckjng vegan!!! FUCK!! Like I’m NOT going back to counting calories I cannot do that again I won’t let myself- I’m mentally healthy FINALLY not throwing that away- but I literally don’t fucking Know how much less I can eat!! I hate it! I hate it so much!!! Why can’t I be mentally healthy and physically healthy at the same time! Why the duck is it that the second I recover from years of unhealthy restriction I’m told to lose weight!! Why can’t I do anything in moderation Jesus fuck it’s not fuckjng fair!!! Man!! Weight doesn’t matter and it’s not an indication of morality but I’ve fought SO hard to be healthy and eat a balanced diet WHY CANT I WIN ONE FUCKJNG THING!! Why do I have to be either obese or literally starving myself god fuck I was DONE with goal weights and calorie counting but for the second appointment in a row I was told I’m obese now and NEED to lose weight and will have a follow up in three months. There’s just no winning. I just want to eat my stupid rice and vegetables and beans and drink my stupid green tea and water and mind my business and be 130 lbs but that’s too fucking much to ask for I fuckjng guess FUCK great fuckjng time to start the fucking 1989 era again Jesus Christ man I’m just so frustrated especially when I see my roomates laughing and having fun big meals- one of my male roomates eats bacon Mac and cheese or half a meat pizza and that’s dinner and he’s fine! And I try so hard not to be jealous of people who can put anything in their bodies and be the bmi their doctor told them to be but GOD it’s SO hard to NOT feel shame and frustration after my appointments when I’m told point blank that I’m obese and need to drop 25 lbs I’m just fucking tired man

[hinakyuu]

Matthew has a BROKEN STERNUM?? Oh my God I don’t even care they lost I am so glad they did not let him play. I am SO glad that would have been the end of his career if he played. I’m very proud of the boys❤️ this year was a ride and who know what will happen next year. Matthew needs a LOT of rest to heal up poor ray of sunshine must be in so much pain I just know that’s painful to even breathe🥺. Quick question is this his first really serious playoffs injury?? (Not like all the other aren’t bad but you know what I mean)

And thank you for including me in this ride it was so fun and I’m really excited for next year (already😭) I really hope you all are around for next season because you all make it 10x more fun to be around❤️ oh and I hope Matthew wins MVP👀 i think he was voted in ooo exciting

the fact that the team had to help him into his gear. i could throw up. i don’t know how the fuck he managed to play game 4 like that and i’m not happy that he did. i guess i should just count us lucky he didn’t suit up for this game because i would feel even worse knowing what we do now :(

ah, to my knowledge this is the worst playoff injury he’s sustained. i know he got a concussion and hurt his hand when he was on the flames, but i don’t know the extent of those injuries. a broken sternum to me sounds even worse, but yeah. i’m just relieved it’s over and matthew and the team can focus on recuperating now

aww, bud!! you don’t know how happy i was (am) to be a part of this journey with everyone! it really was a lot of fun, even the sad parts had some silly to it, and all the people here made it worthwhile. you can definitely catch me in panthers lb all over again next season where we will all have so much fun 💖

well, whatever happens he was definitely my MVP haha (and, personally, also bob!! boberino!! bobattack!!)

[cj2accountlost]

As someone who has lived outside and inside the USA, mainly the USA during childhood, I can confidently say we don’t know either. Not to mention the whole North American news being big thing is just because North Americans still somehow think they are number one whilst also being heavily aware they aren’t. It’s disappointing even to ourselves. And genuinely please someone tell me how pounds abbreviates to lbs; I have never once heard an answer.

Furthermore, the recipe thing isn’t even a foreign issue. Everyone in the USA has clicked on those and have been disappointed by that at least once.

The daily pledge of allegiance has started to become optional from middle school to high school due to the amount of mixed/immigrant families moving to certain areas. According to my family members it still blasts over the announcements and is required for teachers as well as elementary students though. Oh and military time is just throwing am and pm out the window and counting 1-24 (1pm would be 13, 7pm would be 19, I think).

Finally, the gas thing depends on area from what I’m aware of. On the other hand those never ending road trips are a real thing. I have been on several. The furthest I have traveled, not on a plane, would be 3 states to get to another one. That trip took more than a day. Bathroom breaks, dinner/fast food, and whatever else did not do anything but add to the amount of hours.

Anyway if you’re from the US and you ever wanted to know what tumblr feels like from a non-USAmerican perspective (please note that the rest of the world is not a monolith either and none of these apply without exception):

Everybody’s talking about brands and stores you’ve never seen in real life. You generally assume they exist, but they might as well be one giant prank the rest of the internet is in on.

You find a post that just sounds wrong. It makes no sense. It’s like OP lives in a weird alternate reality. 9/10 times, it’s just some USAmerican Thing.

You’re still not entirely sure how much an inch is. Or a foot. Or even how many of the former there are in the latter. You maybe know your height in feet and inches.

You have no idea how much a pound is. You’d also like to know how the fuck pound shortens to lbs.

What the fuck is “military time”

Somebody talks about some legal process or something similar. They don’t mention which country’s legal system this pertains to. You know anyway.

People talk about politics. None of it pertains to you. Many posts contain guilt tripping. “How can you not care about this?? Why won’t you reblog this?? People need to know this about x candidate for y position!” You’re busy trying to stay on top of the political landscape in your own country.

You pick up some random slang from the internet. Monkey see monkey do. You’re called racist. You didn’t know it was AAVE. You learnt it from black letters on white background, not from the mouths of people whose faces you could see. How would you have known? You try to unlearn it.

People tell you that you must publicly denounce Chick-fil-A or you’re homophobic. You don’t even know what a Chick-fil-A is.

People say you don’t know LGBTQ+ history. What they mean is you don’t know USAmerican LGBTQ+ history. Nobody cares about your country’s history.

You’re “called out” on using an “offensive” term. It’s (a direct translation of) a completely harmless word where you live.

People expect you to have an idea of how far apart 2 USAmerican states are. You barely know geography past your country’s immediate neighbors.

You randomly switch between British and American spellings. Nothing’s real and there are no rules.

People talk about multiple hour car rides and you get twitchy just thinking about it. You suddenly understand why USAmerican cars are so big.

Somebody talks about school shooting drills. You only ever had fire alarm drills.

You see a cool statistic. The study’s only about the US. It’s unfortunately of no use to you.

People misuse/misspell words and names from your native language. It’s tiring.

(You feel sorry for the French. Nobody should be allowed to mangle the word déjà vu like that.)

You’re still not over the fact that USAmerican school children are supposed to say that pledge thing every morning. You’re never getting over that.

You still don’t know why the men are fresh or what the fuck a sophomore is.

Who the fuck pays up first and then fills up gas??? That’s made up, right??

Everybody has a weird obsession with some comfort food you’d never even heard of before you signed up here.

Fellow non-USAmericans, please add anything else you can think of.

[thesickestgirl]

I have a normal relationship with food and my perception of myself

Ever since I was young my dad was weird about food. I mean, when I was really young he was in the army and not home so I don’t even know. But then as I got older he eventually got fired for not being fit enough (I think?). After that he lowkey went crazy. Well, no. This man was crazy from the start. But he went more crazy. This time it was about food.

I remember in elementary school coming home from what felt like a long day, but what was probably just a ‘long day’ of learning multiplication. Whatever. I had math hw to do and I knew it would end with my dad yelling at me and me crying. My thought was “I should eat a snack BEFORE hw so that when dad makes me cry I can just go to my room and go to bed.” It was a rule to ask for food before you ate anything. I always thought it was normal to have to ask before you ate anything. Honestly I’m still not convinced that it’s not normal. I mean it does kinda make sense. If ur kid wants to eat a bunch of junk, they should ask so if it’s around dinner or smth you can tell them no so they’ll have room for dinner. But I had to ask before literally anything. If I hadn’t eaten in 3 days and I was starving, and I went to get something without asking, my dad would freak out.

I remember one time in 9th grade after my parents broke up. I was alone at my dad’s. My dad’s car pulled into the driveway while I was cooking ramen. I hadn’t asked to eat the ramen. I immediately freaked out. Thankfully I didn’t put the noodles in yet. I had only boiled the water. I was so scared my dad would get pissed at me for making something without asking. I was doing online school at the time and he was at work. I hadn’t eaten anything yet that day. It was like 5 pm. I just wanted ramen but I got so scared that he was going to yell at me about it. I got scared I was going to make him mad, and I don’t like being around angry men. He is the reason for that. My first thought was to get rid of the water and put the pot away and take the noodles to my room to eat dry. I picked up the pot, but too fast apparently, because it splashed the boiling water on the side of my lower stomach. It hurt so bad. I was crying. I didn’t want my dad to know. I went to my room crying and put ointment on the burn. I ate the dry ramen noodles.

I guess that’s just some backstory of part of why my relationship with food is weird. Here’s another part of it- I’ve felt fat for my whole life, but I’ve only BEEN fat for a year or 2. When I was in middle school I weighed around 110 lbs. I felt so insecure and big. I wanted to be less than 100. I wanted to be skinny. I started restricting, counting calories, fasting, and purging. I was cutting myself a lot too. I was just doing really bad. I was heavy into sh and ed instagram. I was literally 12. That’s so sad. Thinking about it being me isn’t sad, but like if it was any other 12 year old I would feel awful for them. Whatever though. So my disordered eating behaviors started around 2018/2019.

It got worse again in 9th grade. I was dating a girl who would constantly talk about how she hadn’t eaten in days and how skinny she was getting. I was jealous. I was super skinny at the time, but not good enough. I weighed about the same until the end of 10th grade. Or like the start of 11th grade. I started meds and I gained weight. I’m genuinely convinced the meds are what made me gain weight because I didn’t change my eating habits. It makes me so sad to know that if I never started these stupid fucking meds that don’t even work, I would still be skinny. Maybe. I honestly don’t know. It’s a hunch. Whatever

I’m now 170 something and I hate myself. I have a tummy, which I even had when I was skinny, but obviously it’s bigger now. I hate it. I started going to the gym w my fwb but we stopped talking because I got back w my ex (I mean it’s a W bc I have the love of my life but an L because I lost gym buddy). But ig the perk is, I got boobs. I don’t really know if it’s completely a perk. I mean I kinda like them and they’re really soft. Also I got my nipples pierced and it’s sick asf. If I didn’t have boobs it would look more weird. Whatever. My point is, I used to have a really skinny waist. I’ve never had hips, but I at least was skinny. Now I have no hips, no ass, and I’m fat asf. I hate myself so much.

I’ve been eating so much less lately. I mean when I do eat, I usually eat more calories. But I don’t eat more than a meal a day. I’m trying to cut down to nothing. I’m fasting right now. I’ve decided to go until tomorrow, I mean basically the day after tomorrow. I got a cute little app. I hope that I don’t fold. I don’t have money to be ordering anything and there’s nothing I desperately want here at my house, so I will probably do fine. As long as I drink a lot of water it should be fine. I hardly get hungry anymore. Idk what it is, but I’m really glad. I love it. I’m not losing weight yet because this started fairly recently and I don’t have a scale to know how much I weigh. But I can definitely notice the difference in how much I’m eating and I’m really proud.

This isn’t like…. And Edtumblr account.. I just felt like since nobody will find my page this is an okay place to talk about it. Idk. I mean it went on forever lol nobody would read this all.

Something else that kind of contributes to my issues in this department is that the love of my life also had food problems. He used to/maybe still does, maybe fast and purge, and occasionally work out. It makes me really sad to think about it, but also it feels like competition ? I know that’s an awful thing to say, that you view your romantic partner as competition. But I just felt if he was going to lose weight then why wasn’t I going to? I felt fat. And then after him I did talk to a couple gym bros and they also made me more self conscious about eating and working out. Whatever. I just felt like that part was an important contributor.

I don’t really have much else to say and I don’t know how to end this. More recently I’ve been an observer on edtwt…I just look at thinspo and save weight loss tips. I don’t post anything, god no. Also more recently, as I previously mentioned, I’ve had less appetite lately. I don’t know the reason for that. Maybe it’s because I feel so fucking depressed and suicidal. Literally all I want is to fucking die. I try not to think about it but it’s bad right now. Ermmm LOL sorry for turning emo right there. Anyways, my point is that I have less appetite and GOD BLESS THAT….

Seeing my psychiatrist today! Wish me luck

[superdupernutrition]

Get an Intense Cardio Workout Regularly

By: Paul Claybrook, MS, MBA

So maybe you are thinking: ‘how can I, a 50 lb. overweight couch potato go out and run for 20 minutes and get my heart rate to 65% of its max without having a coronary on the side of the road?’. Well, first of all don’t. You want to regularly get an intense cardio workout to be a healthy person, not a dead one.  So, take it slowly at first.

You may begin by walking a short distance every day and progressively increase the distance. Then, or in addition, increase the speed at which you exercise. If you try to go out and immediately start exercising the way athletes do, you’re going to hurt yourself. Start out gradually and slowly increase distance and or speed. Especially if you have a lot of extra weight, listen to how your body feels. It may take a month or more of diet and mild exercise before you are ready to go all out. If you don’t have much weight to lose, you may only need a couple weeks of mild exercise.  Just listen to your body.

https://SuperDuperNutrition.com

Great Activities for an Intense Cardio Workout

There are a lot of things you can do for cardio exercise. Some are certainly more beneficial than others. Just remember, if you can get your heart rate up for at least a solid 15 minutes, it counts as cardio.

Running

Running is pretty much the best it gets! Perhaps the most practical too since it can be done by almost everyone at any time. It’s also easy, if you focus, to keep your heart rate at the level it should be. Running is perhaps the best cardio exercise because you can directly control how much intensity you are putting forth. With sports and other exercises, you have limitations on how “all out” you can be. For instance, if your cardio is basketball, then if your team is down court passing the ball around, you just can’t give 100% because your movement is limited. Also, if you are on the bench then you are giving about 0% unless you are running in place.

Swimming

Swimming is a great choice too, but not practical for everyone. For instance, when I swim laps it is really controlled drowning. Now this is good from a cardio exercise perspective because, although I don’t move fast or efficiently, I have to exert everything I have just to stay above water long enough to keep air in my lungs. On the other hand there are those like my wife that exert little effort and glide through the water like a dolphin.  She has the technique down pat. For her, just swimming laps isn’t enough to get a really intense cardio workout because she is just too good at it. For it to be worth it for her, she would have to consciously swim at her highest level.

Jogging

Running is better than jogging; I won't lie to you.  Jogging is still a good exercise, particularly over long distances.  But for some people running is just a challenge they are not willing to face, and that's fine.  But anyone can.  Whatever point you are at, if you are constantly pushing for faster times, you can learn to run. But whether you are a runner (better) or a jogger (good), keep at it.

Sports

Sports are a fun way to exercise almost without even knowing it . However, keeping your heart rate up can be difficult or impossible to do depending on the sport and who it’s with. If you are playing a pickup game of basketball with some buddies who happen to be on the local college team, then you will probably get a great cardio workout. If you are playing with a bunch of old fat Kobe Bryant wannabes, then your workout may suffer. Also, no matter who you are playing with, golf, ping pong, and bowling probably aren’t the best cardio sports in the world.

Aerobics

Aerobics can be good, but not usually a great choice. Programs like p90x and Tae-Bo can be pretty intense, but oftentimes they are too focused on “having fun” or combining light strength training with light cardio. If you are going to do aerobics for your cardio workout, then you should be panting like it’s going out of style the whole time, and if you aren’t swimming in sweat by the time it’s over, you need a new instructor. Many a fat lady has done aerobics regularly and still managed to be a fat lady.

Being a healthy person requires cardio exercise, there’s just no way around it. However, being intense and pushing yourself is essential to getting the best results. You can time yourself and try to get faster, change your exercise routine every few months, or reward yourself for hitting a certain goal in speed or distance; whatever you need to be sure that you don’t fall into a rut. Exercise is an essential part of being healthy, but doing the same thing the same way every time will only get you so far.

How Long Should My Intense Cardio Workout Be?

Cardio exercise should last a minimum of 15 minutes, and the emphasis is on minimum. If you want significant benefit, you should be prepared to go for 20 minutes or more. Most people don’t find running particularly enjoyable, maybe do-able while listening to music, but they still do it; that’s what you must do. Having said that, there are 2 components to a good workout that you need to be aware of; intensity and duration. So although you might only go for 15 minutes, if you were to run at about 80% of your max heart rate the entire time, you would still get a great workout.

You can justify exercising for a relatively short period of time if the intensity is high (as long as it’s at least 15 minutes). The longer it lasts, the less intense it needs to be. So you could walk for 60 minutes or run for 15 and expect similar results.  When you do a cardio workout you ought to aim for about 20 minutes even though 15 is do-able. The reason is that most people find it difficult to stay intense for very long without distraction. It is very difficult to do. These types of people tend to do better listening to music, watching tv, etc., while they exercise. Therefore, their intensity tends to be a bit lower. In that case, we can make up for the intensity by increasing the duration.

The Frequency of Your Cardio Exercises

The “experts” say that you should exercise 5 times a week for at least 20 minutes and that’s a good rule to go by. That may sound like a lot, but consider that 20 minutes is only 1.4% of your day. Also consider that exercise will help you live considerably longer, so you’ll probably have more healthy days to enjoy anyway. This doesn’t mean that you need 5 days of cardio exercise though. Some of those days might be strength training. The healthiest way to exercise is a combination of both.

However, you should do cardio at least twice a week. If you only do one exercise though, make it cardio. Although strength training work-outs are great for helping you with flexibility and strength, they ultimately impact your heart very little. Big muscles won’t help you live longer or do as much internally, but intense cardio workouts do. Besides, if you can run for 20 minutes 5 days a week, your flexibility and strength are probably at least sufficient anyway. Cardio is the most important exercise to improve your length and quality of life. That being said, strength training is important too.

What Does an Intense Cardio Workout Look Like?

Cardio exercise is a sustained exercise that forces your heart to beat relatively quickly for an extended period of time. This is the most recognized form of exercise because it is easy to do, no assembly required. A cardio exercise must last at least fifteen minutes to provide significant benefit to your heart, but unless you are going really hard, this is not enough either. Most cardio workouts last anywhere from 20-60 minutes. The idea is that you force your heart to work really hard for a while which causes your it to build strength over time and become more efficient so that it actually beats more slowly during daily activities than it used to, and yet delivers the same amount of blood to your cells.

It also has other benefits such as expanding blood vessels, which further decreases the workload on your heart and your chances of heart disease. Your heart can only last for so many beats before it just runs out of life. So, although cardio exercise causes your heart to beat much faster than normal, it is only for a relatively short period of time. During the non-exercise portion of the day your heart will beat far fewer times than if you didn’t exercise at all.

Great Cardio Demonstrated

Let’s say your heart rate is about 80 bpm (beats per minute) during the day. You start exercising and after a few months your average heart rate is down to about 75 bpm. Although it may not seem like a huge difference, 80 bpm is the same as 42,048,000 beats per year whereas 75 bpm is 39,420,000 per year. Remember your heart never stops beating, but by only lowering your heart rate 5 bpm, you save your heart 2.6 million beats each year. Trying forming a fist 2.6 million times in a row and then decide if this is a significant difference. Let me give you another scenario to really drive this idea home. A resting heart rate of about 60 bpm beats about 16 million fewer times than a heart rate of 90 bpm over a lifetime.

The point here is clear; the more times your heart beats, the closer it is to stopping, no matter how healthy you are! However, you can get many more beats out of a healthy heart than a docile one. Good cardio exercise will allow your heart to beat tens of millions of fewer times in your life; thus, it will last you longer. And as you strengthen your heart, you will also increase the number of times your heart is able to beat before it poops out.

How to do and Intense Cardio Workout

To make it simple, a cardio workout is nothing more than a continuous activity lasting a minimum of 15 minutes and keeps your heart rate high enough. The “level” at which your heart beats for those 15 (or more) minutes is very significant in regards to how much benefit you receive. The longer you exercise, or the faster your heart beats, the more benefit you will get, to a degree of course. Having said that, this isn’t to say if you run for 2 hours you will get precisely 4 times the benefit of running for 30 minutes. In fact, quite the contrary. The longer you do cardio, the more benefits you will reap for your heart, but after a certain point the rate at which you gain those benefits decreases.

The following chart gives a general idea of benefits received over time for a cardio workout. Notice that the payback is always increasing, but over after long enough, the benefits are hardly even worth the time. That’s why ultra-runners, although healthy, don’t live significantly longer than other healthy people. Sure they spend hours a day running, but the most benefit comes in the first hour. After that, more running can almost erase some of the benefits.

Exercise Benefit Over Time

Determining Your Target Heart Rate

After you have exercised long enough you will be able to tell if you are exercising at the level you should be. Try to exert about 70%-80%  of what you could possibly give if you were to give everything you have. However, the rate at which your heart is beating is the best indicator of your workout level. First of all you need to determine your maximum heart rate. Simply subtract your age from 220.

Example

So if I am 26 years old, my max heart rate is 220-26=194. When you do an intense cardio workout you should reach roughly 65% or more of your maximum heart rate for a period of at least 15 minutes, but more like 20-30 is best. So, using the previous value of 194 for my heart rate,

194*0.70=136.

This is the lowest that my heart rate should be at for at least 15 minutes to get a “good” cardio workout.

Time vs. Intensity for Your Intense Cardio Workout

When you are doing cardio at about 70%, a short 15 minutes may not be enough time to give your heart substantial benefit. If you wish to do cardio at that level, 25-30 minutes would be more appropriate. Some folks like to stay right up at 80% such that a 15 minute intense run can give the same benefit (or maybebetter), than a 30 minute jog at the lower end of 70%.

So, if you are an intense person and can keep yourself pushing hard, you can get your exercise done faster and more efficiently.  That being said, there is nothing wrong with doing longer at a lower intensity.  This is especially true if you are training for long distance. If you prefer to do a less rigorous exercise like taking a brisk walk, that’s great too, but plan on at least 30 minutes. It is longer, but it is also easier and arguably more enjoyable.

Getting used to doing cardio

This may sound an awful lot of information just about how fast your heart beats during exercise.  However, if you monitor it for a while, you will learn what it feels like. As you exercise and take your heart rate at various times, you will come to know what each level of intensity feels like. You will also know what not-so-intense feels like.  When you can feel that you are holding back, just ratchet up your intensity a little bit until you know you are in the zone you need to be in.  Pretty soon you will just 'know' where your body is at.

Warm-Up Exercises to Prepare Your Body for Your Intense Cardio Workout

Everybody needs to get warmed up before exercising, especially those that need to lose weight and out of shape. Stretching is fine, but it’s over-rated. Here’s the reason. The point of “warming up” or “stretching” is to supply more blood to the soon-to-be effected area. When your muscles are “cold” it simply means they don’t have much blood circulating in them. They are warm when you do. Your body is smart enough to know that when you start using a muscle it needs to send blood there. Stretching does this.

Warming up is better than stretching

Another, more effective way, is to actually flex muscles that you are going to use. What this means is to do a quick, but light “workout” of sorts. For example, if you were going to play basketball, how would you warm up most effectively (think about how the pros do it)? Would you stretch out your muscles one by one and then run out on the court ready for a full-on game? Or would you do some practice shots, lay-ups, free throws, 3 pointers, and so on? The same applies to exercise. Here’s an example of what you might do before going running:

Trunk twists-10

Push ups-10

Sit ups-10

Squats-10

Calf raises-10

Do this 2-3 (relatively slow) times followed by a slow, deliberate jog for about 2 minutes.  Now you are ready to go on your run!

Listen to your body

For some, this is adequate for a full, intense 15 minute run. You may need more or even less. Again, listen to your body and determine what it needs. You could waste your time stretching your biceps, triceps, legs, etc. This could take a long time. That’s fine, but why should you stretch for 10 minutes when you can warm up sufficiently in about 3 minutes? Consequently, you should do this for two reasons. First of all it saves time; it’s just faster. Secondly, it’s more realistic. Stretching is not the same as working muscles. Working them lightly is just logically a better way to prepare them for use and it turns out that studies show this too.  Stretching, as opposed to “warming up” can actually slow you down.

Again, you may need to do more than this. If you are older, out of shape, or new to this kind of exercise you may not be ready for an intense run by just doing the above warm-ups. However, you still probably don’t need to stretch every single muscle in the traditional sense.

The Cooldown After Your Intense Cardio Workout

It is also important to “cool down” after exercise.  But this can be as simple as a brisk walk for a few minutes, say following an intense run. You may need more. Consider stretching too. Although stretching is not optimal prior to exercise, it is great following it. Cooling down is just slowing the blood flow to your muscles so it can gradually return to a resting level, sort of the opposite of warming up. It is particularly important at the end of an intense cardio workout to slow down before doing any stretching though. Don’t just stop and stretch because it could cause muscle cramps. Warming up and cooling down are important in avoiding cramps and injuries and reducing muscle soreness later on.

#workout #fitness #gym #superdupernutrition

[havroth-traveler]

Body Mod

I felt myself separating for The Whole, becoming <. Almost immediantly a solid stack of papers appeared before me. a moment later a black BIC pen condensed out of the smoke.  “Okay the ancient laws of the forbearers says that you must not complete the Body Mod.” The first page has the words “Essential Body Modification Supplement” in big, bold text.  The rest of the first page, and most of the second were hidden beneath a black bar.  “Hey, what gives with hiding information from me. the introduction is the most important part” I demanded from >.  “Ah, sorry, all of those bits are directed towards me, your “Jump-Chan” as people in the community might say, I left the important parts for you” he was right of course, I rubbed at one of the lines, and could make out a paragraph talking about how to measure time, and why 1 second is smaller then 1 minute.  I turned my attention the to non-hidden parts. Apparently this system defines the benchmark human condition as  ○ Strength: lift 225kg (approximately 500 lbs) ○ Sprint: 40 kph (approximately 25 mph) ○ Run: 20 kph (approximately 12 mph) ○ Endurance: 3 days without sleep Which definitely seems well above average, and my personal best... well I’ve hit the sleep line before, in Russia, and wasn’t a fan of ever trying that again.   Skill levels were also defined as powers of 10 hours of training, which again seemed faster then I expected but made great sense if I was considering this as a game system. The next section was much more interesting as it lists how training supplies or a mention effects skill growth.   ○ On-the-job learning (x5) ○ Focused self study (x2) ○ Poor quality or no training materials (x2 or x4) ○ Skill is beyond your frame of reference either magically or technologically (x2 if you have some idea or as much as x5 if you are flying blind)○ Competent or exceptional teacher (x1 or x0.5) ○ Excellent quality training materials (x0.5) ○ Skill is made easier by your understanding of more advanced concepts (x0.5) ○ Skill Mastery perks (varies) I’m not much of an exploiter, but even I can smell a system ripe for exploitation, even if I don’t know exactly how I’m gonna do it yet.  The next couple of pages made sense, how long it could take to learn a spell, or how perks might effect skill cultivation, and that ultimatly > determines what actions count as what.  Then came to a page with some bolded information. I would be using the “Baseline Mode” and the “Standard Start” which gives me 100 EP an “Essence” Whatever that is and the chance to buy more EP. The next section outlines some FREE perks, my near sightedness was wiped away, and after a few tentative breaths I could even feel my soul, and mind. Pretty Cool, its is pretty worrying that > felt the need to give me the power to check on my mind and soul. I hope that isn’t an ominous warning.  The very next page was labeled “The interface” as I read the words they peeled up off the page and started floating. “Hello, Welcome to The Interface, your portable jump tracker.” scrolled in front of my eyes, like a subtitle.  “You have been given a Character Sheet. Look here to open your Character Sheet” as a little icon that looked like a page appeared at the edges of my vision. I tried to focus on watching the icon, which inconveniently moved with my eyes, and a page appeared which briefly outlining all the choices I made for the Pokemon Jump, Like Survival Training, and the ability to blend into a crowd. This would definitely be more useful as I spend more time in jumps. Id hate to forget that I had a power just because its been 30 years since I used it.  The body mod packet was still in my hands. The front page, now blank, disolved, and I was supposed to select an “essence” that would give me perk discounts. so... an essence was kinda like a class. ● Essence of the Warlord (War):  ● Essence of the Scholar (Sch):  ● Essence of the Mad Doctor (Mdr):  Wife Suggested ● Essence of the Crafter (Cra):  ● Essence of the Assassin (Ass):  ● Essence of the Archmage (Arc): Sister Suggested ● Essence of the Brute (Bru):  ● Essence of the Superior (Sup):  Sister Suggested ● Essence of the Lich (Lch):  Wife Suggested ● Essence of the Vampire (Vam):  ● Essence of the Shapeshifter (Sha):  ● Essence of the King (Kng):  ● Essence of the Beast (Bea): ● Essence of the Dragon (Dra):  Wife Suggested ● Essence of the Explorer (Exp):  > Suggested ● Essence of the Healer (Hea):  ● Essence of the Elemental (Ele): ● Essence of the Druid (Dru):  Oh, > seems to have reached out to people. I hope that he gave then enough context to know what the suggestions meant. Explorer does seem like a safe reliable option, very consistent.  I don’t think I can think of myself as a mad doctor, or a dragon, though. . .  I can be like a dragon. I do like hoarding resources, and sleeping in my dark room, and just being quite.    My sisters suggestion of Archmage, is a lot like my wife’s suggestion of Lich. I don’t think of myself as a mage, let alone a dedicated researcher. But the people who know me best recommended it for me . . .  I circled the first big choice, Archmage. 

------------------ Body Mod

[madelineariah]

2023/April 8th - Perception

One thing I have come to understand is I am never going to present myself in a way that is considered “socially acceptable.”

If I am out and about, I tend to dress rather conservatively, I am very tactful and polite in how I speak, and I keep a respectful distance from people who I am not all that familiar with. I don’t wish to rub people the wrong way; therefore, I tend to wait for them to make the first move.

Nevertheless, people will cast judgments on me based on my being a transgirl – without even trying to get to know me. There was a time, about five years ago, that I was working in a retail store. As I was working, an elderly woman came up to me. At first, she seemed sincere – saying that I was beautiful and that my spirit was beautiful. I respectfully thanked her.

She then followed up by saying, “I will pray for you.”

Immediately, I felt so embarrassed that I had to struggle to keep my composure so I could continue working. It turned out this woman wasn’t being sincere at all; she was just ridiculing me because I was – in her mind – a filthy heathen who needed divine intervention to “cure” me.

I bring this up because to this day, I struggle to secure opportunities to improve myself and my situation – all because people aren’t willing to perceive me as trustworthy or as a good person due to their own prejudices toward transpeople.

I have lost count of all the times where people have essentially told me, “You would be treated better if you just go back to being male.” They do so in rather roundabout ways – telling me to “go to the gym more” (I weigh 145 lbs and was relatively fit before my health declined) or to “get a new wardrobe” (hinting that the wardrobe should be more masculine).

When I was able to work (again, before my health declined), I found myself being forced by society into more positions where I was less likely to interact with people. I found that if I did interact with people, those same people would then try to get me fired simply because they could. It wasn’t because I had wronged them in any way; it was because my being a “he-she” offended them.

One thing that terrifies me the most is, if my health does improve and I can start working again, that the bullying and abuse is just going to start again no matter where I apply to. In 2023, transpeople are so hated that promoting trans rights even indirectly can cause considerable backlash against a business. Businesses are no longer going to want transpeople to work for them, so I can expect more rejections than ever before.

The only winning move for me is not to play.

If I wish to survive, I have to come up with my own means of sustaining myself. I feel like I am under considerable pressure to develop a venture of my own that would allow me to improve the lives of others but does so in a way that they would never know who I am. It’s like, I have to come up with something amazing, but I am also not allowed to take any credit for it.

I don’t think life was meant to be lived this way.

When I look around and see so many people able to live their lives authentically – to truly be themselves without judgment – I feel such envy and pain. That’s something I will never have. Outside of my parents and maybe a small handful of close friends, I don’t think I will ever be accepted unconditionally.

Many people who claim to accept me do so for only as long as it is convenient for them. As long as I supply them with whatever it is they want at the time, they won’t hate me. When I get tired of that, I am no longer of value of them, and they tend to either ghost me or tell me what a horrible person they think I am.

It’s no wonder my self-worth is such a dumpster fire.

All I want is to be able to say “I made it.” I want to be able to arrive at where I need to be in my life in order to experience some sliver of happiness. I don’t know why that is something the world doesn’t want for me. Maybe I’ll never know…

[whentherewerebicycles]

weight talk under the cut

I got really out of my food and exercise routines during the months of the job hunt + big move + adjusting to new bleh work stuff (understandable) and my weight swung up quite a bit higher than it’s been in a while. but I did a pretty focused reset of my eating habits maybe six-ish weeks ago and I am starting to slowly see some of that stress weight come off. to be clear I like my body as is and while I have vague targets for where I’d like my ‘resting’ weight to be eventually I don’t diet or calorie count and I don’t stress too much about hitting certain ~milestones or whatever the way I used to in my lightly disordered eating youth. that said I think I do want to prioritize steadily and sustainably losing weight this year, for the following reasons:

health reasons (mostly my PCOS + family risk factors for diabetes and heart issues etc)

fertility reasons (moderate weight loss is supposed to increase chances)

🤰reasons (I’ve been reading about this a lot and if it’s within my control I’d like to make a concerted effort to not put on a lot more weight than I need to sustain a healthy pregnancy, especially since PCOS makes it really difficult for me to lose excess weight once I’ve put it on)

emotional reasons (this isn’t weight specific but: I feel a LOT better and sleep better when I’m eating well and getting a good amount of exercise. since I will have to go off most/all of my meds if I get pregnant I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to take care of myself in other ways!)

I don’t know how long the IUIs will take, but I have budgeted for up to 6 cycles and I think I’d like to focus my food/exercise habit-building plans on a 3-6 month timeline. gonna return to this later today to do some more journaling and planning I think! but for now I want to stop & recognize that I’ve made huge progress towards the goals I set back in the spring 2020, when I realized I needed to change everything about my relationship to food/exercise. I eat SO many more kinds of vegetables than I used to and have learned to prepare healthy delicious meals. I’ve virtually eliminated processed foods + refined carbs and sugars from my everyday diet and have figured out ways to make that feel positive rather than restrictive or punitive. I’m curious about food and interested in new foods in a way I never was before like, age 27 lol. and I’ve experienced a couple stress-related setbacks (where I relapse into old eating habits) and been able to gently reset/get myself back on track. I consistently get 5-7 hours of moderate intensity exercise every week and I’m going to work on gradually building up to an additional 2-4 hours of higher intensity exercise at the gym each week. and while the scale isn’t everything, I’ve lost between 25-30 lbs (it’s fluctuated a bit with stress) in a little under 3 years. which probably isn’t as much as I could lose with crash dieting or whatever but my goal isn’t to lose fast but to lose sustainably in a way that gradually lowers my ‘resting’ weight aka the weight my body seems to kinda settle into. that feels really good to me!!! an average of 10 lbs per year seems doable and sane and not punishing.

it doesn’t make a ton of sense to set weight loss goals given the uncertainty of babymaking lol but if it does take me a while, I’d love to try to use careful food management + more exercise to slowly shed 5-7 lbs in the next six months, just to get myself comfortably into the 160s. the periods in my life where I’ve been the most physically fit my resting weight was between 145-150 and that 150 range has always felt like a good weight on my frame. soooo just gotta keep doing what I’m doing! working on building those good habits! tuning out the noise of weight loss pressure etc! focusing on what feels good for my body and self!

[ellcrys]

fb memories man

snapshot of joanna from 14 years ago looooool

Let others know a little more about yourself. Re-post this as your name followed by "ology" IF I TAGGED YOU, PLEASE PUT THIS UP ON YOUR PAGE AS A NOTE AND TAG SOME OTHER PEOPLE! ***********FOOD-OLOGY*************** What is your salad dressing of choice? Caesar What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Dude, are you forcing me to choose? Food you could eat for weeks and not get tired of it? Anything that’s not a vegetable What are your pizza toppings of choice? Cheese and pepperoni What do you like to put on your toast? Butter! **********TECHNOLOGY*************** How many television sets are in your house? 3 What color cell phone do you have? RED! ***************BIOLOGY****************** Are you right handed or left handed? Right Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Umm… I don’t think so… What is the last heavy item you lifted? 30 lbs. during gym (weightlifting) Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope :D ************BULLCRAPOLOGY************** If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? NO! That would be so depressing... If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Destiny (My fellow Keepers know why :D) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? No. Are you kidding me? You’re gonna die if you do that… I like life. ************DUMBOLOGY****************** How many pairs of flip-flops do you own? Way too many to count Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Never Last person you talked to: My mom Last person you hugged? My mom **************FAVORITOLOGY**************** Season? Summer Holiday? Christmas Day of the week? Saturday Month? January ***********CURRENTOLOGY***************** Missing someone? Not at the moment Mood? Relaxed What are you listening to? Everything Burns (artist: Ben Moody ft. Anastacia) Watching? The computer screen Worrying about? Well, since I’m relaxed, nothing at the moment but once I get off, prob gonna be SATs, scheduling, and college shit ***************RANDOMOLOGY***************** First place you went this morning? Bathroom Do you smile often? I would think so QUESTIONS 1) Do you always answer your phone? Yup! Unless I’m busy or whatever and can’t get to it. 2) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? Someone who is clearly crazy 3) If you could change your eye color, what would it be? I love my eyes the way they are 4) What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Sonic? What the heck is that? 5) Do you own a digital camera? No, but we have a family one that we share 6) Have you ever had a pet fish? Yeah, but they kind of died on me… lol 7) Favorite Christmas song? Can’t decide 8) What's on your wish list for your birthday? Nothing at the moment 9) Can you do push-ups? Are you talking actual push-ups or crappy ones? 10) Can you do a chin up? Like, one. Hahahah, I’m so weak! 11) Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Um, depends on the topic 12) Do you have any saved texts? Yeah… 13) Ever been in a car wreck? Nope and hope I won’t ever be in one 14) Do you have an accent? My friends all say I do but I dunno… 15) What is the last song to make you cry? You expect me to remember this? 16) Plans tonight? SAT crap I have to do 17) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? No comprendo la pregunta…. 18) Name 3 things you bought in the last week. Lunch (at school), and that’s about it 19) Have you ever been given roses? lol, nope 20) Current worry? Stupid college shit, SATs, what AP courses to take next year, and school in general 21) Current hate right now? STUPID COLLEGE PLANNING!!! 22) Met someone who changed your life? All of my dearest friends have in some way changed me. LOVE YOU GUYS! <3 23) How did you bring in the New Year? I think I was sleeping… lol 24) What song represents you? I don’t think I’ve found the right one yet :D 25) Name three people who might complete this? Don’t really know. I’m doing it just because 26) What were you doing at 12 AM last night? Sleeping 27) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? My weird dream that I can’t remember 28) What did you dream of last night? Again, can’t remember 29) What’s your biggest fear? Umm… honestly, I don’t think I have one right now

[loverhymeswith]

May I request "asking your not yet lover to stay the night because you don't want to be alone" with Rick please?

Say You'll Stay | Rick Flag x Reader

Summary: Rick isn't himself after returning from a mission

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1,043 words

As usual, you track Rick down to the medical bay. The prisoners – or at least those left standing – are safely back in their cells and have been for some time now. Their leader, on the other hand, has spent the last hour being patched up after yet another mission went sideways.

“Is it true?”

At the sound of your voice, Rick raises his head and finds you leaning against the doorway. A pair of soft hazel eyes meet yours across the room, but that familiar spark is nowhere to be seen.

Your gaze travels over his body, silently cataloguing a host of new injuries amongst the fading scars. His tanned chest is a latticework of cuts and scratches and a thin film of sweat and dirt coats his skin.

“Word travels fast, huh?” The ghost of a strained smile forms on his drawn but handsome face as he tries to stand up. “Thought you clocked off at five? Don’t tell me you been waitin’ all this time?”  

“No,” you lie, pushing off the wall to offer him your hand. “I had to fill in some paperwork for Waller. God forbid her reports are turned in late.”

There’s nothing in Rick’s expression to suggest he doesn’t believe you as you help haul all 230 lbs of his weight onto his feet. He doesn’t need to know that despite your shift finishing a while ago, you’ve been anxiously awaiting the squad’s return. He certainly doesn’t need to know that since their return, you’ve been lurking outside this room, impatient for the doctors to finish up with him.

There’s about a dozen reasons why you wanted – needed – to see him. By now, you’re sure he’s noticed a pattern, noticed that no matter what time of day his plane lands, you find some excuse to be around. The reality is, Waller doesn’t give a shit about your reports. She'll cast her judgemental gaze over the files for a whole fifteen seconds before dismissing you from her sight.

Tonight, it’s different. Not least because you have to hear the words from his own mouth before you can truly believe it. Rick Flag is finally leaving ARGUS.

Once you’re satisfied that he’s not going to collapse, you drop his hand and take a step back. “So, you’re really doing this? You’re really quitting.”

Rick cocks his brow. “If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think you cared.”

You huff out a laugh. He has no idea. “Who else am I going to torment with my bad coffee and poor musical choices?”

A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth, but he doesn’t reply. Now that he’s standing, your attention returns to his physical condition and the patchwork of injuries decorating his body. There’s a particularly nasty puncture wound above his right hip that has been hastily stitched together, and you can tell he’s favouring his left leg. All in all, the Colonel is in pretty bad shape.

Breaking the silence that has descended over the small treatment room, you slip your car keys from your back pocket and jingle them slightly, before affecting a casual tone. “You want a ride?”

“My car’s in the lot.”

“I wasn’t asking about your car.”

His expression shifts, any attempt at masculine bravado fading as he scrubs a hand over his jaw and responds quietly. “Don’t wanna be any trouble.”

“Bit late for that,” you tease.

Again, he attempts to smile, but it doesn’t quite meet his eyes. Your stomach somersaults. You’d expected him to argue, to insist that he’s fine. He’s never been one for accepting help, content to struggle in silence if it means saving face. But tonight, it seems like the fight has left him.

“Sure you don’t mind?”

Careful to keep the worry from your face, you pick up his kit bag and toss a clean shirt in his direction. Whatever he was wearing before has ended up in a bloody pile on the floor. “Not as long as you put some clothes on.”

Other than offering you directions, Rick is quiet during the car ride home. It seems any trace of the old Rick has been left behind at Belle Reve. He’s never been a man of many words, but your tentative questions about the mission are met by grunts and shrugs as you navigate your way to his apartment on the outskirts of town.

You want to shake him. You want to know what really went down on that small island. What happened to turn your friend into this shadow of his former self?

When you pull into his parking space, Rick makes no move to get out. Coming round to his side of the car, you open his door and help him out, shouldering his weight until he’s steady on his feet again.

Continuing your stream of consciousness, despite receiving little to no input from Rick, you walk him all the way to his front door. He doesn’t comment when you follow him over the threshold.

The apartment is dark, illuminated only by the watery moonlight spilling through the kitchen window. With his back to you, Rick dumps his bag on the sofa and stands in the middle of the room, staring off into the distance.

Fighting the urge to go to him, you hang back by the door. “You gonna be ok, Rick?”

He grunts again, a non-answer. Instinct is screaming at you not to leave him, but it feels wrong to intrude on his grief – if that’s what this is. Imposing your presence won’t help anyone if he wants to be alone.

Trying one last time, you call across the room. “You know you can talk to me, right?"

Without turning around, he nods.

Your shoulders slump, defeated. “Ok, well I’m going to head home now. Call me if you need anything.”

The door is halfway open before you hear him softly call your name, halting you dead in your tracks. With your fingers still gripping the handle you glance over your shoulder and find him finally facing you. Despite the distance, you can see that his eyes are limned with silver, sparkling in the pale moonlight.

“Rick?”

He utters a single word in response, his voice so deep and raw that you almost miss it.

“Stay.”

Joel Taglist: @a-reader-and-a-writer @babblydrabbly @skvatnavle @sociiallydiisoriiented @yespolkadotkitty @heresathreebee @edwardbaldwin @fairchildflag @mayhem24-7forever @bewitchedignition @phoenixhalliwell @immyownlittlebitch @weallhaveadestiny @lavenderluna10 @kirsteng42 @katjnordstrom96 @s-u-t

[cookieleigh]

Day One

This is a hard picture for me to look at, and even harder to post. This is 275 lbs.

 For the longest time, I didn’t think it had gotten that bad. I was a little heavy, sure. I’d look at the number on the scale and think “this is only temporary”. I’d watch an episode of The Simpsons and Homer would get on the scale and the joke would be such a HIGH number and I’d think... well I weigh more than that, why is that funny?

I get winded walking around my apartment now. When did that happen? I look at a set of stairs and wince because I know how hard and fast my heart is going to be beating once I get to the top - and it scares me.

It’s time to make a change. I refuse to live like this anymore. I don’t recognize this person. I am tired of being tired. Everyone says that! I understand why.

I’m probably going to beat myself up for not being perfect, but my therapist says that as long as I do my BEST every day - whatever that means for me - then it counts. I’m going to try to work on that.

Thanks for letting me post this journey on the internet. I feel like if it’s out there, I’m not doing it on my own.

Goals:

Close my Apple Watch rings every day. 700/30/12

Monitor calorie intake (this is only because right now I struggle with recognizing how much I am actually eating! I hope that this will change because it’s tedious and I hate it)

Drink 2 Liters of water/day

Day 1 Update: We did that shit!