epiccurves

Well, this challenge is turning into a giant fail. I've been sick, so unable/reluctant to try many of the workouts in my condition. I've been stuck with whatever this is for weeks now, no sign of it going away anytime soon. No improvement, only further degradation. No health insurance or money with which to go talk to a doctor, either. I'll have to continue to wait it out, I guess, but it will impede my progress in terms of the workouts. I'm doing my best to stick to parts of the plan whenever possible anyways, but will not be able to keep up with this challenge in any official capacity until I kick whatever funk I'm in. I've mostly been able to stay on track with my eating habits and attempting to shift my schedule to better sleep habits. Haven't been inspired to work in the Lego room. I'll restart this challenge with a vengeance next time around. I may report here occasionally if I manage to make significant progress or have something interesting to say.

My last challenge went pretty spectacularly. I made a great start on some good fitness habits and finally got my blog up and running. I'm hoping this challenge will help me continue those trends. This challenge will be LEGO themed, helping me gather the building blocks for a better life. Also, the work in my LEGO room will help keep it fun. The Goals Minifigures - Health/fitness goal 1 - Continue fitness routine, plus more. Strength train 3 days a week, run 3 days a week, stretch every day. Also, add in a quick pole dance workout (~30min) 4 times a week, likely on run and rest days. +2 STR, +2 DEX, +1 STA Plates - Health/fitness goal 2 - Stick to a calorie budget such that I average between 1/2 and 1 pound weight loss per week. I should be down around 134 (hopefully lower) by the end of the challenge. Food will be paleo or primal for every meal I cook for myself, and with leanings towards those dietary guidelines on the rare occasion I may go out. +3 CHA, +2 CON Tiles - Health/fitness goal 3 - Go to bed no later than midnight and get up no later than 10:00AM every night I stay in. There are a few events coming up that will keep me out beyond those times, but the vast majority of my time is spent at home. I need to get back on a regular sleep schedule. +2 CON, +1 STA Bricks - Life goal - Get one area of the Lego World photo-ready and post it to the blog every week. It doesn't need to be perfect yet, but I do need to make progress. And my mother has been nagging me for pictures. +1 CHA, +1 WISI will start in earnest on the challenge tomorrow. Starting weight is 139 pounds.

Challenge Complete! Summary Harder: Life goal - Post to epiccurves.com blog once a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. Finding inspiration can be very tough at times, but I still managed to get all six posts up. +2 WIS, +1 CHA earned. Better: Fitness goal 1 - Stretch for at least 10 minutes, at least 5 times a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I stretched nearly every day, usually for significantly longer than 10 minutes. I've made significant progress on my flexibility. It's great to see real improvements. +2 CON, +2 DEX earned. Faster: Fitness goal 2 - Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training app. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I'll re-run the last workout to do a better job of it, but I definitely made some great progress in my running abilities, and had some fun escaping zombies while doing so. +3 STA, +1 DEX earned. Stronger: Fitness goal 3 - Strength train 3 times a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I've done all my strength workouts and gotten a great start on becoming stronger and making a habit of my fitness routine. +3 STR, +1 CHA earned. Overall grade for the challenge: A. This was my first challenge here at Nerd Fitness, and I think I've done pretty fabulously. I have a great start on some excellent fitness habits and have already seen tremendous improvements. I also managed to get all six blog posts up, though that took a bit more effort than it really should have. I'm looking forward to setting new goals and getting started on the next challenge.

Eek, I've been terrible about the updates, sorry! I have been sticking with the plan, though. I've been doing fabulously with my workouts and have made tremendous progress with my flexibility, though the very last few workouts have been thrown off some by me getting sick. If it was just congestion, I'd work through it, no problem. But this one has come with some light-headedness that worries me a bit when it comes to physical exertion. I've still done the workouts, but I've just had to take it easy a little. I wasn't able to run much of the last Zombie workout. I'll take a few days to rest and recover, and hopefully in a few days I'll be over it enough to try the run again so I can do it better. Challenge Complete! Summary Harder: Life goal - Post to epiccurves.com blog once a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. Finding inspiration can be very tough at times, but I still managed to get all six posts up.Better: Fitness goal 1 - Stretch for at least 10 minutes, at least 5 times a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I stretched nearly every day, usually for significantly longer than 10 minutes. I've made significant progress on my flexibility. It's great to see real improvements.Faster: Fitness goal 2 - Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training app. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I'll re-run the last workout to do a better job of it, but I definitely made some great progress in my running abilities, and had some fun escaping zombies while doing so.Stronger: Fitness goal 3 - Strength train 3 times a week. Status: Complete! Grade: A. I've done all my strength workouts and gotten a great start on becoming stronger and making a habit of my fitness routine.Overall grade for the challenge: A. I have a great start on some excellent fitness habits and have already seen tremendous improvements. I also managed to get all six blog posts up, though that took a bit more effort than it really should have. I'm looking forward to setting new goals and getting started on the next challenge.

Sorry for the slowness of updates. I have more difficulty sticking to a regular schedule when I don't have somewhere to be every day. I've been doing all my workouts, though, and finally got caught up on the blog. Saturday was a nice run, and Sunday I recovered from Saturday night's party. I had my sleep study Sunday night. Hopefully it will yield some useful results. The follow-up appointment is on the 14th. Saturday's stretch session was very short, but Sunday's was nice. I did my stretches at the sleep clinic before they put me to bed. Week 4 Summary Harder: Life goal - Post to epiccurves.com blog once a week. Status: On track. Finally got a fourth post up. I did end up writing about boobs. The next one will probably either be about puppy or working out.Better: Fitness goal 1 - Stretch for at least 10 minutes, at least 5 times a week. Status: On track. I stretched every day. Saturday's session was very short, but all the others were fantastic. I'm seeing some great improvements.Faster: Fitness goal 2 - Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training app. Status: On track. Week 6 complete. The running is easier now, and I'm running much longer sections of everything.Stronger: Fitness goal 3 - Strength train 3 times a week. Status: On track. I'm doing everything better. I'm stronger already and much more confident in my abilities. I still have a long way to go, but I'm sticking with it and getting better each time.Overall grade for week 4: A. All my fitness goals are going great. I'm seeing major improvements everywhere and feeling great. I do have a hard time sticking with the blog goal, so I need to keep it higher on my priority list. Week 5 has started very strong. My strength workouts on Monday and today were fantastic. I've upped the full plank and wall sit times to 70 seconds. I've also added reverse crunches (lie on my stomach, lift torso using back muscles) at the suggestion of some of my friends to help more with the core strength. 10 reps per set. Tuesday's run was fabulous, aside from puppy stopping me to be indecisive about his potty breaks and sniffing all the things. The running is getting much easier, and it feels good. Stretch sessions each day have been fantastic. I love seeing the improvements I'm making, and I'm feeling great for all of it. I've been spending far too much of my down-time sitting, so today I decided to replace my desk chair with my exercise ball. I'll be sitting on that as much as I can handle when I'm at my desk. It'd be even better if I would just get up and move around more, but the internet is just so tempting.

Wednesday's strength routine went well, and the stretch session after was good. Thursday's run was just ok. I did it around noon, and there were bunches of people hanging out along our run path, which I don't like, so I did the last half of the workout inside. It was disappointing. The stretching was good, though. From now on, I'll aim to do my runs when there aren't so many people out, either early, if I manage to get up, or after the sun goes down. Today's strength routine was excellent. I procrastinated in starting it, but I did it better than ever. I increased the side plank times to 1 minute each, and I think I need to increase full-plank time. I'm doing 30 seconds on the wide-arm hang now. My arms and back could hold longer, but my hands aren't strong enough yet. I also added leg lifts to the dip hang (bent knees for now, but I'll switch to straight legs when I'm stronger), holding for 20 leg lifts. I can shakily hold the flexed arm hang for about 16 seconds, and I'm working on getting that better. The squats are feeling good. I think I'll need to add about 10 seconds to my wall sit time, but for this set it was ok at 1 minute. I'm also definitely noticing increased flexibility during my stretch sessions. It feels good to know my hard work is paying off. I'll finish off week 6 of the Zombie running tomorrow, and put in as much effort as I can to seriously run as much as possible. Puppy and I are going to a party at a friend's house tomorrow night. We'll take Sunday to recover, I'll work on my next blog post, and Sunday night I have a sleep study. I won't hear all the results from it until the follow-up appointment on the 14th, but Sunday's when they gather all the data. I really would love to figure out what my sleep issues are so I can finally feel rested. I'm still not super-inspired for the blog post, but I'll come up with something. Possibly I'll write about puppy or food or my new workout routine. Maybe I'll just write about boobs. I do talk about boobs a lot, though surprisingly little here so far. We shall see.

Challenge Week 3: Complete Saturday's run went as I expected, the pathways were still too snowy/icy to run the full thing outside, I had to take it inside, so didn't get a great workout out of it, but I did ok. Sunday was a nice rest day. I stretched while I was in the bath, which was a bit awkward with the maneuvering, but it was warm and it felt nice. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I did feel much better physically for the break. Week 3 Summary Harder: Life goal - Post to epiccurves.com blog once a week. Status: On track, but in danger of falling behind. I didn't write a new post for this week. It's been hard to find inspiration. I'll need to work harder on this one to stay on track. Better: Fitness goal 1 - Stretch for at least 10 minutes, at least 5 times a week. Status: On track. I stretched every day. Stretching feels good, and I'm seeing improvements in my flexibility. Faster: Fitness goal 2 - Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training app. Status: On track. Week 5 of the app is complete. I didn't get to run as full-out as I'd like due to weather, though. I'll put more effort into this week. Stronger: Fitness goal 3 - Strength train 3 times a week. Status: On track. My lower body work is going great. The upper body stuff is difficult, but I'm making progress. Overall grade for week 3: A, but in danger of going down on the blog part. Physically, I'm feeling pretty great. It was good to have a rest day, though, as my left shoulder was starting to complain at me. Puppy isn't a fan of running on the salted sidewalks, and I'm not a fan of running through snow, so the running wasn't as good as it could have been. My strength routine has reached a level of difficulty that challenges me a good amount, so that part is good. I'm definitely enjoying how the stretching makes me feel. Next challenge, though, I think I want to incorporate some pole work, and make my workouts and stretching sessions sexier. Week 4 has started strong. My strength workout and stretch session yesterday were quite good. The rest day helped recover my shoulder a bit. The lower body work felt great, and the upper body stuff was tough, but productive. I increased my wide-arm hang time to 30 seconds. The flexed arm hang is still very tough. I need to work on it. I might need to add more core work, too, as I don't feel like I'm getting enough work in there. My run today was excellent, and stretching after was equally fabulous. I ran nearly all of the "free-form run" sections, except the portions where puppy needed to stop for potty breaks and being indecisive and really thoroughly sniffing various mysterious spots on the grass that were suddenly super duper interesting for no reason. Getting started on the stretch session took longer than I wanted, too, as puppy decided to run around and chew on all the things he knows he's not supposed to chew on. He finally did chill out long enough for me to get the stretches in, and I fit in an excellent stretch session for my lower body. Tomorrow I do another strength workout, and I'll start brainstorming for another blog post.

Wednesday's strength routine was excellent. I replaced the box squats with weighted squats. I have a backpack and several 6-pound jars of honey. I'm using 5 jars right now, may increase that if this gets too easy. The stretch session after was fabulous, too. I've made progress in my flexibility already, and I'm much closer than I thought I'd be to my splits. There's still much room for improvement, certainly, but I'm getting there. Yesterday's run was not so great. It had snowed, and not all the paths have been cleared yet, so there were some dangerously slippery bits I wasn't too keen to run on. Then my bluetooth headphones ran out of batteries halfway through, so I decided to finish inside. I still did the best I could, but with the limited space, that wasn't really much. Certainly wasn't as good of a workout as running outside. My stretch after was good, though. Today's strength routine was ok. I wasn't feeling up to as full of effort as I've been able to do for some others, but I still managed all three sets and a good amount of difficulty. Monday should be better, after some rest. Stretching will likely help me feel better. Tomorrow's run may be similar to yesterday's in environmental issues, as it has snowed more since then, but I'll still try it outside and do my best. Puppy's kind of excited about the snow and wants to play, but isn't too fond of how cold it is or how the pavement around here gets salted, and how that feels against his paws when he runs. I'd consider getting him some booties if I thought he'd tolerate them, but he'd probably chew them off before we even got out the door. We'll see how he responds to the run tomorrow. Worst case, we'll just have to move it inside. It's not ideal, but I can still get an ok workout if I try hard enough. Sunday, I'll try to walk more, weather permitting, and start on some cleaning. It may be my rest day, but that doesn't mean I have to stop moving altogether. I'll make it an active rest day, if I can manage it, but maybe take a bath in the evening.

Challenge Week 2: Complete Yesterday's strength workout was good, though I only did two sets. Full effort on everything, though. I'm liking the Bulgarian Squats, but may want to do weighted squats instead of the box squats. I'll see what I have around the house that I could use to implement those. My stretch session after was great. Today I started Week 5 of the Zombie 5k training, and it was a great run. I was a little reluctant to start, as it's a bit freezing out, but I'm so glad I did. I ran all the parts I wanted to and covered quite a bit of ground. I'll stretch out my legs tonight before bed. Week 2 Summary Harder: Life goal - Post to epiccurves.com blog once a week. Status: On track. Three posts are up now. I didn't get pictures, though. I'll definitely need to work on that.Better: Fitness goal 1 - Stretch for at least 10 minutes, at least 5 times a week. Status: On track. I stretched every day except once, but overall was still within my quota. I do think I can do better and stretch every day, though. I am feeling some improvement in my flexibility already.Faster: Fitness goal 2 - Complete the Zombies, Run! 5k training app. Status: On track. Week 4 of the app has been completed. I'm finally caught up such that I'm on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday strength, Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday run, Sunday active rest schedule, too.Stronger: Fitness goal 3 - Strength train 3 times a week. Status: On track. I've upped the difficulty of my routine to better challenge myself. I'm feeling strong and noticing small differences in how I move and look.Overall grade for week 2: A, but I can do better. I'm making great progress on turning my fitness routine into a habit. Stresses from life have tried to get in the way, but I've done an ok job of not letting it get to me too much. I'm back on the job hunt, which is not ideal, but I do have more time now to focus on my fitness. Puppy, at least, is glad to be able to spend more time with me. I need to focus a bit more on the blog thing, as it's the easiest for me to forget about.

My strength workout on Saturday was good. I replaced the regular squats with box squats (one leg on my step stool next to me) and the lunges with Bulgarian squats (one leg on the step stool behind me). I did ten reps on each side, and that seemed to be a good amount of challenge. I'll work my way up to pistol squats. I've been able to increase my flexed arm hang time to around 16 seconds, as well, with getting used to using my muscles that way and improved technique. My stretch session after that workout was fantastic, made great progress on my front splits and felt good about where I am with the rest. Yesterday's run was ok. I should have tried to run more, but I was tired and hungry and too warm when I did it. I finished off the Week 4 workouts, though, so tomorrow start a new arrangement of intervals. I didn't get around to my stretch session, unfortunately. I got distracted with Lego and puppy and chatting with my mother. I'll do a longer stretch tonight after my strength workout. I wasn't able to work enough in the Lego room to get pictures, but I did get the blog post up. I'll work more over the week to get things looking presentable.

Yesterday's run was ok. It was freezing, so I ran more at the beginning to warm up, but my puppy had landed wrong after trying to climb me like a cat earlier in the day, and for a short time had been limping a bit, so I didn't want to stress his leg. We mostly walked the last 15 minutes of the workout. He doesn't seem to be limping any more, so tomorrow we'll run more of the workout. My stretch session was short, but effective. Hit the key muscle groups. I think I'm making progress with my flexibility, though it's slow. Yesterday I went to talk to a doctor who specializes in sleep issues. I've scheduled a sleep study. Maybe now I can find out some of why I'm not sleeping well. I would love, just for once, to get a good night's sleep, and really truly feel rested. The job search is going pretty well. Applied to a few of my dream jobs, heard back from one already that my resume looked interesting and they want to gauge my programming skills. They sent me a quiz that I'll complete. Hopefully I'm not too out of practice. This job would be amazing. Today will be another strength day. I'll increase the squat and lunge difficulty until 8-10 per set is challenging me. Haven't quite settled on the variation I'll use yet. I don't quite have a good setup for weighted squats. Puppy is much too wiggly for me to try to hold him. I'll experiment this evening to see what will work. My stretch session tonight will focus on working towards the front and side splits, and work more on my arm mobility. My shoulders have had some issues in the past, and I need to be cautious not to overwork them until they can get up to speed with the routine. Tomorrow I'll work in the Lego room and polish up the post about my world. I may be able to get a few pictures, if the work goes well. The post will probably go up fairly late, or on Monday if I don't make as much progress as I'm hoping. Tomorrow will also finish Week 4 of the Zombie 5k training program.

Today's strength workout was good. I did all 3 sets, though I took my time with it so I could put full effort into each exercise. My best set for holding the flexed arm hang this time was about 12 seconds. It's definitely tough. I still think I should increase the squat difficulty. Maybe I'll try it with the next strength day. I'm definitely feeling sore, so I'll try to do a longer stretch session tonight and take a relaxing bath. Tomorrow is another run day. Well, the work stuff sorted itself out, in a way. I find myself on the market for a new job. I have a much better idea of what I do and don't want to do with my career now. I didn't particularly want to be unemployed again, as I still haven't recovered financially from the last time, but I'm not going to think of this as another inconvenience. I'm going to take the perspective that I now have the freedom to find the job I actually want, and I will not be accepting any more positions where I'm going to be miserable all day and hate myself for being there. I'm going to find something I'm excited about, something I look forward to doing every day. I've already applied for a few opportunities I've been dreaming about secretly, and I have high hopes for a few of them.

This week has been tougher to start, but I'm still sticking with it. Yesterday was my strength routine. I was feeling exhausted and a bit down from some work-related stress, so I only did two sets, but I put as much effort as I could muster into those sets. I replaced the pull-up bottom position hang with a flexed-arm hang with chin-up grip, top of pull-up position. The original hang was too similar to the wide-arm hang, and I like the feel of the wide-arm one better than the parallel one right now. Plus, the flexed-arm hang is much more of a challenge. The longest I was able to hold it last night was 7 seconds. I'll definitely need to work on that. Since I only did two sets, I didn't do side planks, just held full plank for 60 seconds each time. The stretch session after was relaxing. This evening, I started Week 4 of the Zombie 5k training. I was tempted not to, as work stuff is still stressful and it's been intermittently raining all day, but I knew I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't do the workout. I was very glad I did the run. Running feels good; puppy got lots of energy out; I got to relax my mind and just focus on the movement. I'll stretch out before going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow much of the work-related stress can be sorted out, at least for a bit. Not being completely miserable and feeling useless for 8 hours a day will certainly be an improvement.

I just have to say, it's not always as simple as that. Maybe for the majority of people, sure, all it takes is a clean bedtime routine and consistency. But even when I have that, and even when I'm in bed for 7-8 hours at the same times every night for weeks, I still never feel rested. I love sleep, but unfortunately the feeling is not mutual. Sleep thinks we'd be better off as friends, apparently. I set an appointment with a sleep doctor for this Friday, so hopefully he can give me some insight and schedule a sleep study for me. I would love, even just once in my entire life, to get one good, fully restful night's sleep. I just don't know if it's possible for me.

After more browsing today, I just found these. Could be worth a try.