ChefOtaku

Look! I'm still alive! Sorry to be nonexistent all summer, but there's been weddings and funerals and conventions and vacations and birthdays and All The Things. Hello to all the new friends! I'm an Ann Arborite who sleeps in Whitmore Lake, and totally down to meet new awesome people. So whenever y'all want to come over and grill and play Cards Against Humanity (my impulse buy birthday present to myself ), you just let me know. Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk HD

@Tommy: if you've ever played Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity is like that, but for people with tarnished, jaded souls, and a sick sense of humor. Tons of fun! I've blocked off the 16th on my calendar, so count me in! Maybe I'll whip up a batch of spinach artichoke dip...

Fowlerville is certainly closer to me than Lansing, and I love me some games! CAH for the win, I could also bring my Uber-Munchkin setup (pretty much all the sets mixed together, decks require poker shoes and a lazy susan. =P ), or dozens of other games. All my weekends are clear at the moment, though I may get tapped to work Easter. Oh, and I would put money down on me losing the lifting competition.

I was wondering where that went... I'm down for karaoke, though I'm more of a watch and hold up scorecards kinda guy. Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk HD

Sorry it's taken forever to get back on here, the holidays were just absurd- family get-togethers, extra shifts at work, then I went to a music festival the weekend right after New Year's. (Hooray for a real vacation!) But life has settled back down into what passes for normal around here, which really just means smaller helpings of crazy. And I figured I'd at least close this thread out while I wait for my laptop to finish installing it's new OS. So, final results! #1- Workouts 3x/wk: Only missed 2 workouts, and managed to do my first-ever pullup! Saw incremental improvements in the workouts, but it wasn't a lot. +2 Str +2 Con #2- Real Food @home: This went well, it wasn't too hard, but it was good to put a focus on it to keep it in the front of my mind. The most difficult aspect was that after cooking at work all day, the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook more. Especially since I'm spoiled by all the fancy equipment and fully stocked fridge at work. +1 Con +1 Wis +1 Cha #3- Playing w/ Fire: Yeah... Utter Fail. I think I did maybe 2 hours total of extra practice... I still hit the Tues night practices at the dojo though. +1 Laziness #4- Dragon Taming: This one's a mixed bag. It went well, excepting the stumble just before Armageddon. My lizard-brain was definitely fighting me the whole way though. One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that having a Real Day Off tomorrow (no plans, no errands, etc.) is a trigger for "Let's get blitzed tonight!" And knowing that, I can work to keep it in check and break that habit. +1 Wis +1 Con Hey, the laptop's ready for a reboot, good timing! I'll just hit post now, otherwise I'll forget and it'll sit here waiting for who knows how long.

Experimental Schedule, Round 2 So, I've been told it's best to sammich bad news between 2 bits of good news, so... Good News: The Apocalypse didn't happen (again), as far as I can tell. Bad News: The Dragon slipped it's leash Tues night/Wed morn (yup, saw the sun rise...), and I'll be damned if I'm going to face the end of the world without a drink in my hand, so I surpassed my budget for the week. Good News: I beasted my BW workout tonight, bumping a few exercises a little higher. Motivation came from a mental combo of A) No apocalypse = no excuse not to get more awesome, and Slow apocalypse = "end times" = need to be badass to survive. The next week is going to be all sorts of hectic-crazy, but I will make sure to nail Saturday's workout, do an official End O' Challenge Report, and mull over what is in store for the new year.

Good to see you're still with us! I feel you on the mood&food relationship. Just watch out for the repeating cycle of crap mood->crap food->crap mood->crap food->ad nauseum. Had my own flop the other day, but we just have to put it behind us and keep on being awesome. Good on you for keeping active as much as you can. (How was the camping trip? At least that explains where you've been!) And I'm jealous of the mind training, I wish I had that much couch time! You are still going to come out ahead on this challenge, keep it up just a little longer!

Final week... and I'm also doing a little experiment: I've scheduled the workouts for Tu/Th/Sa, to see how that meshes with the work/life schedule. I'm liking Tuesday so far, since I'm usually done working in the 5 o'clock range, and sometimes have to go back in at 8 to help close down. So that's a good 2-3 hour window to come home and stay active instead of vegging out on the couch. (Win!) And now I can poke around the site while I wait for the phone to ring...

Hmmm, its been like two weeks now, EK... I expect an update with some epic vacation stories!

End of week 5! I may be a day late, but there's good news! Yes, I pushed the Friday workout to Saturday again (work literally used up all my patience/willpower/goodwill towards men), but after running my errands for the day, wrapping gifties for the work party tomorrow, and falling asleep reading on the couch, I made myself get up and do my workout, since I had absolutely no excuse. And because of that, I did my first pullup evar! [Dashes over to the Woot Room] Food was pretty good this week, I even brought home some baked acorn squash, and sauteed chicken w/ tomato hollandaise from work. (yum!) Poi practice not so much, it would be so much easier if it wasn't winter, and if I could see in the dark. I want to get some light up LED poi, that would make it much easier to practice outside at night. Dragon taming goes well, though next week is the most restricted, and I've found my lizard brain is pretty good at finding ways around my imposed restrictions. But still, I'll stick with it, the Stash-for-the-week plan seems to work pretty well. One more week to go!

It may have been the very first thing in my workout today, but I did it! An full-on wide grip palms-out pullup! I don't think I've ever done one in my entire life. WOO!!

Wednesday check in! Keeping it short cuz I actually have a couple projects on the burners at the moment, one of them literally! Today was relaxing AND productive: Yay for sleeping in and catching up on internetty time sinks, and I got my secret santa gifties for the work party squared away. BW workout went well, if a bit long again, but I got it done, with some improvement to the Inverted Rows. Got my "Italiano Chili" on the stove right now, and I've got a tab open to do what last-minute online xmas shopping I can. So I'm off to pay homage to the god of Commercialism! ThinkGeek here I come! =D

Hmmm... EK must be busy walking across the entire state of Texas while he's on his vacation...

Aaaand it's a week later. =/ Well, I'm not gonna lie, last week wasn't fantastic. I was just not feeling motivated at all for the exercisey goodness. Did my BW workout Weds, but I was all 'bleh' about it, ended up taking me longer than usual. And the Friday workout on Saturday just flat out didn't happen. And not because I was hungover or anything, just didn't feel any motivation. No extra fire practice either. Food goal was 90%- At the store on Thursday, was tempted to buy more hooch (even though I still had some at home), instead I got me a pizza, and it was nummy. And I didn't go over my limit, so a little more scratch in the jar. =) So, it was a mixed week, some ups, some downs. But, dust yourself off and keep going, right? Still not really pumped today, but I did do my workout (way earlier than usual too! ) so I won't let the laziness snowball.

Pretty good, got to toss a few extra dollars in the jar. And today, I just went ahead and bought this week's allotment, so I have it in my head that "That's my stash for the week, savor it, make it last." Always trying new strategies! No big news today, workout was good, still calling the pullup 85%. Actually finished it a bit quicker than ususal (but that's cause I'm expecting a couple friends to come hang out in a bit, so I was all motivated.) Food is looking good, currently nomming on my new favorite after-workout snack, apple slices w/ chunky peanut butter for dippin'. And there's BBQ boneless pork ribs in the crock pot for later. This week is looking pretty good, though I can pretty much guarantee the Friday workout is going to get bumped again, since there's a big houseparty Friday night. And these guys are said to throw some pretty wicked parties. (It's my circus buddies from work, so I'm inclined to believe them.)