Summer was my absolute favorite season growing up.

I was a nerd and loved school, but I also loved the freedom of waking up whenever, lounging around the house hanging out with friends, meandering all around town on some form of two feet or two to four wheels, getting into all sorts of trouble, and also frequent trips to the pool.

Well, as an adult, I’d love the hell out of some summer vacation time like that, and the only thing that I’ve got going for me is the frequent trips to the pool. Normally, I also have the meandering around town by my own conveyance, but even that’s been rough lately when it’s one hundred and freaking eight degrees (but it’s a wet heat!). You wouldn’t think that there’s a big difference between ninety-eight and one-hundred and eight, and there’s not, they’re both hot AF. However, when it’s one hundred and eight during the afternoon, it’s unbearably hot from just after sunrise to WELL after sunset, so the outside world is just… no.

Literally the only place it’s tolerable to be outside rn

So, I’m ready. Summer, I’m good. You can go home now for the year. A full month of well over one hundred degrees is enough. Next year, maybe we can agree on some slightly cooler mornings, and some highs in the nineties? Pretty please?

Enough of my whining about things I can’t change and let’s talk goals.

#1 Weigh 180.6 by the end of July

Survey says… nope. There are many other factors that have contributed to this – but the one thing I’m going to call out is that I went from walking a lot to not at all.

Maintaining is better than gaining, but it’s sure not the steady progress I was making last fall, winter, and spring.

  • Week of July 10th – +175 calories
  • Week of July 17th – +822 calories
  • Week of July 25th – -335 calories

That last week was back on track, and it’s because it finally clicked that the trainer is my summer substitute to walking. While it’s not nearly as nice as the fresh air, clearing my head, and pleasant conversation of walking, it does do the job to replace the calorie burn and I am getting to watch a lot more Bloodbowl games!

This month, I have lowered expectations. I’ll be travelling for half of it. Now that I realize I’ll probably be in Germany a few times a year, I don’t necessarily need to EAT ALL THE THINGS every time, but I know I’ll eat some of the things and I need to keep myself in check. I seemed to do okay last time, but I really think that committing to logging my food for this trip is a good thing. Even if I don’t abide by the rules every day, I can see the trends of my consumption and adjust in real time instead of my jeans just not fitting by the end.

Fitness? Or fitten dis EU salami pizza in my mouth? Hopefully both.

So, August goals:

  • Weight 180.3 by the end of August (it’s doable, I have a week and a half before I get on a plane)
  • Log my food daily, even while traveling

#2 – Strength Over Stamina

Here’s another place not walking is showing up:

Ignore week one, as I was on vacation, and I forget why week two was a little lighter, but week three and four (and continued on into August) are pretty steady with the training. But… my hours were more like 6-8 before and the only difference was a few walks a week.

In August, I’ll have to be crafty to keep up training but here’s my plan:

  • Three weights sessions per week, non-negotiable. What is negotiable is what this involves. I may not have access to a gym for weeks. My strategy here is to prioritize back and biceps on days where I have access to weights (either at home or if I can find something in Hamburg). I also have some partial weeks where I’m at home so I may load up Mon/Tue/Wed as lifting so I can have the rest of the week off.
  • Prioritizing biking and swimming while I’m at home (5-6 days) and running when I’m traveling (minimum of 3 runs per week)
  • Enjoy the hell out of walking everywhere in Germany while it’s cooler
Can’t wait to go tromp around Germany again!

#3 Not Ignoring My Surroundings

I cleaned off the vanity and the bathroom counter. I feel pretty good about this. I also cleaned out my pajama drawer because I wanted some new pajamas. This month I am out of town so much, I’m just going to pause this. I’ll say my goal is to clear out ANY one thing and call it a day month.

#4 Relaxing Hobbies

I did pretty well here!

  • Finish April Camping Trip pics – YEP! Moved onto Germany and London.
  • Catch up blogs: April Camping Trip, Day 1-4 Paris
  • Get back in the habit of playing guitar on WFH days – this has been middlding, but I’d say I play at least 2x week
  • Finish the set of geometric paintings – Whomp whomp. I thought I was closer to finished with these and I’m not. And I’ve been focused on other things like goal #5 🙂
  • Meditate 5x week – YEP! Most days before I get out of bed.

I won’t have access to much of the hobby things for most of the month, but here’s some goals:

  • Finish London photos. I doubt I get much further than this but if I do, decide whether to start Krause Springs, my last Cruise, or push through the rest of 2022 Paris.
  • If I can finish the photos in time, London travel blog
  • Play at least 4 Bloodbowl games (now that the league is on pause, I’m out of practice)
  • Get at least 10 hours into Persona 5
  • Meditate 5x week. Always good to keep up with this one on the road

I’ll get back to guitar and painting goals when I’m home for a while. 🙂

#5 Write Stuff

As of midnight last night, I finished the first edit pass. I focused on worldbuilding (eliminating places where the characters feel like floating heads), solving some of the problems I glossed over when I changed from third to first person, some smoothing of the style/tone (though I can do better here), making the ending a bit more meaningful, impactful, and showing more character development with it, and yeah, some fiddling with words just because I couldn’t help it.

I think I’ve now got something I’m proud to share again, and the last test is to give it the laying-in-bed-reading Kindle Test. So that’s up first. If it passes the test, I start giving it to test readers. If not, then I go back and solve more problems. So, my only goal this month is to share it with one other person.

So, August. You’ll be a weird one. Here’s what’s on tap:

  • Track all August, even on vacation, and try to be a reasonable human being while traveling
  • Bike and swim more while home, run at least three times a week while traveling
  • Weights three times a week, and do my best with the equipment I have on hand (or don’t)
  • Clean out a thing. Just one.
  • London photos and blog
  • Play more games
  • Share my book with one person

If I don’t melt, I think it’s doable. 🙂 Let’s go!