Quick Job Update
I've now been working for nearly 5 months and I am starting to fatigue regularly, especially my knees and feet. They are sore and I believe it's a combination of factors but boils down to being really unhealthy and not taking care of my body. So I am working on coming up with a plan to get into better health but as someone who is only a little knowledgeable about nutrition, I need help.

First step is to stop drinking Pepsi in the morning and maybe try eating. I have a slimfast suger free coffee powder and MyProtein whey powder so I will attempt to have a Protein coffee with toast in the morning for a few weeks. I'll have a superfood greens shake daily.

Now on to today. I just finished work and I have not decided if I'm going to draw or play Genshin Impact but I'm leaning towards drawing.

Wishing you strength in stopping soda, even just in the mornings, it can be hard. I *do* think it's a good idea. I don't know the powders, or the shake, but I know that soda every day is bad for the body - so stopping it in the morning is already a good step.

Do you need to have a protein powder? I wouldn't think that in your current circumstance it would be necessary and you can save money by not having something you don't need. If you want protein in the morning with your toast, try an egg. I don't know what your coffee powder is - is it just coffee with artificial sweetener added? I'd avoid articifial sweeteners like the plague - they are no good for you, and don't really help you lose weight. If you like your drinks sweetened (and I can't abide tea without a bit of sweetener, myself!), then opt for something like stevia. Don't forget to replace your morning Pepsi with something like water - you need hydration, and after not drinking anything for hours, definitely first thing in the morning. Is your shake a smoothie? Smoothies are great, and infinitely variable, and depending on what you add, you can get all the nutrients from vegetables you don't like to eat, by blending them up with something that disguises the taste.
As far as nutrition is concerned, well, I'm not a nutritionist, but in my view, real food is waayy better than packaged powders and mixes. There is a lot of controversy over what is the best diet - vegetarian, keto, carnivore, vegan, wholefoods, raw, low-carb, high fat, low fat - it's too confusing. If your current diet is not making and keeping you healthy, then you've got to change it. I have no idea what your current diet is (and by "diet", I'm not talking about anything that is calorie controlled but rather just simply what you eat) so can give no suggestions on how you can change it, but I'm sure if you have any questions, someone will have an answer. The only thing I'd advise at this point is to avoid pre-packaged food as much as possible. Often that sort of stuff contains things you don't want or need in your body, and generally it's also rather expensive. The other thing I'll say (okay, so I'm advising two things!) is if you're used to eating junk, don't go cold turkey and throw away all your junk. That will be hard; you'll hate it; and you're far more likely to binge on that "sometimes" stuff and then feel bad about it. Slowly reduce your consumption of it, or only have it on Thursdays (Thursdays were chocolate cereal days here), or just save it for a special treat.
Go draw something.

Hiraelle TopNotch thanks. Day one of the "health journey" went terribly. To be honest I need protein powder, at least for the time being, as I do not eat a lot. The coffee powder is a cheap coffee flavoured protein powder that was bought ages ago but has both egg and nuts in it (possibly) so my family can't take it as my dad is allergic to nuts and my brother to eggs. Mum is doing slimming world so won't take it.

I am going to try and drink more water so I bought a cheap water bottle (just under 700ml) and will be sure to fill it and set it next to my bed every night. I even covered it in Genshin Impact stickers of hydro characters to make it a bit more colourful and fun.

Our vegetables are coming along. Our onions should be ready in a few weeks but we didn't think to write down when we planted them so it's a guessing game as to when they're ready. The mustard plant is getting it's first flower and our tomato plants are nearly 3 feet tall and are starting to produce. Our other herbs are starting to grow also.

TopNotch there's another drink that I really like, apple juice. The apple juice my work sells is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, it's sweet but sharp and a little sour but it's from a drinks specialist (anzak, a local alcohol company). I've one that I can buy locally but it's not as nice. I might ask my manager if I can buy a few cartons. I also haven't drawn in 2 days [I think] because I haven't had motivation. I've got the itch to draw but all my images are rather complex (or at least that's what my brain keeps saying when I want to draw) and a lot [and I mean at least 75%] are inappropriate. Maybe I'll just draw another eye, I love drawing eyes from Genshin Impact, and work on my pencil art. I am going to buy a proper artist pencil set soon.
In regards to my money, I opened an ISA and if I stick to my plan, I'll have £1681 to £1701 buy June 2023.

I am for the gym tonight, all being well I find a pair of joggers that I can tie as I have lost nearly 3 inches along my waist.

Do you have a blender ? I first grind 2 big spoons of pumpkin seeds (the high protein green kind) a spoon of flax, chia and sunflower seeds, put aside in something else. then 2 big spoons crushed pineapple from a can, big spoon of yogurt, small spoon fine grated ginger, big handful baby spinach, 3 dates and 2 prunes add half a cup of milk and blend, add the ground seeds and another half cup of milk and blend. And have a banana.

Unfinished piece done tonight at the gym (after my workout). She looked like a yandere when I drew one of her eyes so I opted to leave the face till I go home.

Finished piece and I don't like it, she looks like a emo yandere but mum says it's good.

See what you mean. The face is twisted and the left eye is much bigger than the right. The neck and shoulders look pretty good, though. I thought the unfinished pencil sketch was good.

TopNotch I loved the sketch but the moment I added an eye it looked terrible, it looks nothing like the original. I'm not sure what happened but at some point during the drawing of the eyes she looked less like a cutie and more like a murderer.

I think 🤔 it might have been down to me rushing to finish it last night instead of leaving it and going at it in the morning, I also tried to draw Anos from "Misfit a demon king academy" a few days ago and it too looked bad.

I also need to decide on whether I'm going to draw in ✏ or 🖊, I like the look of ✏ sketching and shading but I love the bright, vibrant colours of 🖊... what to do? Also pencils are cheaper than pens, even for the expensive ones...

A decision has been made: I'm going to draw and shade in pencil but not colouring pencil as I like the aesthetics of black, grey and white. I love colour but I think, after looking at my Asuna drawing, that pencil is the way to go. Now I've never seen a manga in pencil but given my inability to draw my own ideas I may become a fan artist (but even that'll be hard).

I have a name brand set I'm going to buy, a set of 6 charcoal pencils is £11. If they are good then that'll be my supplier.

Now speaking of drawing...

I'm starting a "1000 sketches" and I intend to draw until I have 1k sketches in my file (this doesn't include my previous stuff). I'll only be drawing what I intend to keep so I'll be using my quality paper (300gsm). I'll not start until I get my charcoal pencils so I can shade so it'll be a while.

Since my plan to draw a manga [most likely] won't happen I'll have to come up with something else and I have a idea of what I'd like to do but I'll need to get much better at 1) drawing and 2) drawing my own designs.

Are you using guidelines for your sketches? You know, those that partition the general head shape into different parts of the head. A line for where the eyes are, a line for where the nose is, etc.
How are you sharpening your pencils? With a sharpener? Try using a knife instead, back in school we spent two hours learning to sharpen pencils with a knife, because it gives you much better results, even with cheap pencils.
As for manga: Usually, manga are drawn, inked, and then shaded either the same way, or by sticking screen tone on the paper and cutting it afterwards. If done traditionally. Look up screen tones, those things are amazing. If done digitally, there's software that comes with thousands of digital screen tones. Usually, only colour pages and a few very rare full-colour manga are done with pens, brushes, etc.
Basically, you sketch the panels with pencil and then ink them, either with a quill(?), a special ink pen, or with a brush. This gives the sharp, black outlines. Eiichiro Oda for example only shades with lines and doesn't use screen tones. He's the mangaka behind One Piece. Shoujo manga, for example, usually use an excessive amount of screen tones. Naoko Takeuchi who did Sailor Moon comes to mind.

Quick sketch tonight, tbh it's shit.

TopNotch I don't use lines, I should as I learned to at the start but when I'm copying I just go by eye.

tbh, it doesn't look that bad. There's some solid line work in there.
Try using guide lines, it forces you to think about how the face on the right, for example, is structured and helps you to develop an eye for placement of details. Don't neglect the basics, you'll only gimp yourself in the long run by developing bad habits you'll need to unlearn later down the line.

lofivelcro I think I understand, and thanks.

I finally did some reading. I continued with "how to talk to anyone" and am now starting part 5. I have pretty much memorised the first part, which is all tips to look like a boss but parts 2 to 4 I still haven't internalised. Tips on how to speak like a pro and how to seem like you are "similar"to your conventional partner. Speaking of reading, a new book store is opening up in my village so I'm excited 😊 🤗

Learning to speak like the people you're with is indeed a very important skill. You don't want to sound too snobby with one crowd or too dumb with another. I find I even tend to copy the accents of people I'm with, which used to embarrass me because I worried people would think I'm taking the mickey, but then I realised it was more to do with intonation and even speech rhythym, and it doesn't bother me now. Funny thing, whenever I came across American tourists in a non-English speaking country and I translated for them, they'd compliment my English - so maybe I spoke more precisely - but in an English-speaking country, I'd unconsciously broaden my Australian accent because they just seemed to love it! Sometimes, how you speak has a greater impact than what you say.