Blaze

Geez. I think my cat must have sat on the space bar for my last post from last night. It took me ages to clear out all those extra lines today, but it looks much better. And I found a different workou from Darebee to try. It's called Catepillar/Butterfly- not quite as cool as the Assassin's Workout, but I like it. You can find it here. http://darebee.com/workouts/caterpillar-butterfly-workout.html

Okay, so the one thing that I did track last week was wall-sits. I was aiming for two minutes total, and it took me several tries to get there, but I wouldn't have had to stop there. Cool. I will try to track more stuff as best I can this week, and I'll let the rest of you handle the strategizing 'cuz that's WAY over my head. Go Averagers!

It doesn't make sense to me. I had to Google AMRAP and AMSAP, so I kind of get it, I think. But how do 5 pull-ups equal AMRAP14? And 10 push-ups equal 33 of anything? Is it reps combined with the seconds it took you to do it? And if I did an hour long Zumba class that included squats or other trackable exercises, how would I even begin to track that?

I'm active, just really not sure how to log what I do. Can someone 'splain or give an example?

Well well well. Things have not gone entirely to plan. But there's improvement. Input Control - I have not tracked every single day and every single food, but I've tracked at least half the food I ate this week, and that's a definite improvement over not tracking anything at all. And there's been a general downward trend in my daily morning weigh-ins, although I stayed over at a friend's house last night and couldn't weigh in this morning, but it's generally encouraging. Output Control - I misplaced the charger for my garmin Vivoactive fitness tracker and only found it late yesterday so that device has only tracked steps for today, but my iPhone can track steps as well, even if it only gets the ones I take while carrying it. So rough estimate of steps for the week is..... hmm, it's actually pretty close to 70,000 despite that I barely did 5000 steps yesterday. Lots of rain through that off. For today I just hit 10,000 so I'm off to a good start for this week. Yay! I went to Zumba on Tuesday, and I went to the club again on Thursday and used the elliptical machines in the movie room to watch Maverick and get my steps in. This weekend I've been out of town for most of it so didn't get my weekend workout in. But on both occasions I did go, I didn't much feel up to doing the Assassin's workout as well. Truth be told, when I looked at that thing in earnest, well I'm really not at that level of fitness. I'll aim for Tuesday and Thursday at the gym this week, and the weekend may be a bit dodgy again, lots of activities planned, but going twice a week - again, that's better than only going once or not at all, so IMPROVEMENT! Time Control - I'm getting better here as well. Really focusing on lights out by 11:15, which means I've got to be in bed in less than 10 minutes, but I can make that. And last week I actually made it into the office before some of my co-workers. They seemed surprised. I should like to continue surprising them until they get used to seeing me there on time and are more surprised if ever I'm late. And let's see. This is my review of the previous week's work, so I think that counts as three for the week. Here's to another week of improvement! P.S. - This thought popped into my head earlier in the week, and makes a good motto for me. Don't procrastinate. Assassinate!

Thanks! Progress is happening. I know I have some self-control issues with the biggest part of the challenge, the food. My self-control seems to disappear in the evening when snack cravings attack. Right now this has involved having a bowl of cereal or something. I tried just doing a sugar-free iced tea last night but that didn't work. More cereal around 10 pm. I've got fruit. I just need to convince my brain that fruit is a better option than anything chocolate-related. Or else... put some chocolate on my fruit? I realize I need to put some parameters on how success is measured, and I also need to set my bounty for success. I already know what I want - the third season of Game of Thrones. Yes, I'm behind on this series, and I already know all of the spoilers, but I'm loving it. Season Three shall be my bounty upon successful completion of challenge! THAT should really motivate me.

Today has been a pretty good day. I made it to church pretty much on time. Yay! In the afternoon, I hiked three miles, and took some creative alternate routes while I was at it. While I was out there I hung off a tree limb for 10 seconds just because. Later I went shopping and managed to not buy any snacks in the check-out except for ONE piece of extra-dark chocolate. Then I created a new recipe of the sort that I love - super easy. It's a pork stir-fry and I've got three meals worth of leftovers to look forward to. And all the while I've been doing these things today. I've come up with some sort of a plan for this challenge. I've already stated my overarching goals in my first post, although it was all pretty vague. Here are my specific goals, and all three seem to have 2 parts to them. INTAKE CONTROL - I've been a member of Weight Watchers for quite some time. But I really don't like to count points. However, counting points meshes with my goal to be totally accountable for what I eat. Therefore. I WILL track my points every day. If I do not track the points, I must at least write down the food. I tracked today and came out at 31 points. 30 for the day plus one of my weekly anytime points. So that's excellent to start. AND along with this I'll also track my water intake with a goal of at least 60 ounces per day. Today I don't think I quite made it. OUTPUT CONTROL - I have a membership at a gym, but lately I've been going only once a week, if that, do take a zumba class. That changes for this challenge. I will go to the gym three days per week, with a plan to complete at least one set of Darabee's Assassin's workout while I'm there, if it's a Zumba night, and at least three if it isn't. I've got it saved on my phone so I'll always have it with me. The schedule will be Tuesday night, Thursday night, and either Saturday morning before choir, or Sunday afternoon following church - which gives me some flexibility on the weekends. AND I also want to up my daily steps from 50,000 weekly, to 70,000 weekly. I've been pretty consistent with my walking and hiking so I think I can do that. TIME CONTROL - That sounds way cooler than it is. It's a strange one, but you'll note how I celebrated being almost on time for church this morning? I'm almost on time for work most days as well. And that's because I tend to stay up late and then have trouble getting going in the morning - NOT a morning person and hating coffee doesn't help with that any. So I will be punctual. Bedtime/lights out is 11:15. Used to be my bedtime goals was 11:30 but that doesn't work so good, and 11:00 still feels too early, so I think it's a good compromise for working toward 11pm. I'm going to work on not using my snooze button, but the second part is that I will get out of the house by 7:25 am on weekdays . Boss has enough to complain about without me being a few minutes late every day on top of that. BONUS - I do better when I post regularly. So I will post my progress at least three times per week. These are my stats to start: Weight = 209.2 Bust = 47 Chest = 39 Waist = 43 Midway = 47 Hips = 45 Thighs = 26.5/26 Knees = 17/17 Calves = 17/17 Upper Arm = 14/13.5 Forearm = 11/11 In conclusion, I saw this today and it made me happy. And I'm all about happy, so I'm sharing the joy! Good night!

I feel like I totally belong on this team. Also... I have no idea what I'm doing. Just saying.

I was in the Assassins Guild quite some time ago, but I've been an Adventurer since then. Last night, however, I watched Assassin's Creed - because Fasbender! And since I know I need to change things up with my challenges, if you all don't mind, I've returned for this round, and maybe longer. I want to Assassinate my challenges and I want to be the boss of my body... Wait no, that's not quite right. 'Want' and 'need' are purposeless words, like 'try'. A great being once said 'Do or do not, there is no try.' If I say I need to, or want to, do something, but then don't take the steps to achieve that something, then what's the point? I'm forty-seven years old, sneaking up fast on another birthday and a big hiking adventure trip to Glacier National Park, both in August. I've been stagnant with my weight-loss for too long and I've never really been committed to it, or to improving my fitness consistently. This needs to change. During this challenge I WILL BE the master of my body, I WILL OWN every bite of food or ounce of liquid I consume, and I WILL HAVE FUN! Stay tuned for more details, once I figure out what those details are. And in the meantime, please enjoy some Fasbender. I know I always do.

I just did the retrospective thing and I guess I did pretty good over all, considering how sick I was for half the challenge. I gave myself a C for my dieting - I know what works now and I just need to keep at it a bit more faithfully. I gave myself a B for walking. Even sick, I only missed one week of the goal, but I feel like I could up my steps to maybe 12,000 a day. I solidly earned my F for the bending challenge. Did bend at all. But I received an A+ from myself for my playing with string goal. I learned how to play 'Hello' by Adele, a couple new poi moves, and I'm almost done crocheting my new shawl. Yay! That's one element of this challenge where being sick actually helped.

I have a really pretty shawl I'm working on, so that's motivating. And I've been sick so I haven't felt like doing much else, so that means I'm making good progress. This week I've got four 10,000 step days already and I'm definitely improving. Just a stupid cough and generally sniffy-ness. Trying to get back on track with the Simply Filling plan. It worked so well for a week, but a week of bad stuff while I was feeling so miserable has side-tracked me somewhat. I'm determined to lose though, so I must be strong! Probably shouldn't have had that donut this morning tho...

Thanks for your warm and healing thoughts! Though I am still full of phlegm and coughing at inappropriate times, so hard sometimes that I almost P my pants, I'm getting better. Today I made my 10,000 steps traipsing through the woods. It's a small words so I just went around in circles and all the little trails but I felt very adventurous day nonetheless. And at the end of it I saw a hawk! Which makes any day better! Tomorrow I'm going to try and get back to my simply filling plan. Well I've been sick there's been a lot of comfort foods and convenience foods that don't really fit the program. I don't know what it is about being sick but it's really not conducive to making healthy choices. Most healthy foods turned me off. I haven't worked on getting Bendy this week, obviously, because just getting out of bed was an accomplishment. But I'll see what I can do on that front as well. When I was hiking today, I tried to add extra moves like walking along logs, or under logs or scrambling over logs if they were convenient. And at the playground, once all the children had deserted it, I practiced the dead hang from a bar and lasted 12 whole seconds. Yay me! What I have done this week is play with string. I have crocheted quite a bit and I have played my ukulele as well. Not so much with the poi, but I'll keep at it. Here's hoping for a good week three, Adventures!

Challenge on hold. I'm so sick it's ridiculous. Two good things to note tho - I lost 2.5 pounds this week, per my weigh-in on Wednesday, and I finished my taxes. Yay!

Russian twists? Oh goody, my most least favorite exercise…

Well well well. The only thing I've been doing like a cat the past few days has been sleeping. I came down with some kind of nasty phlegm-y throat-ache-y thing on Wednesday and it's been hard to get much done in the meantime. But on the whole, this first week hasn't been too bad, stats-wise. I've stayed fairly true to my Simply Filling plan. Although there was that baked potato with ALL the fixings yesterday, plus a chocolate chip cookie for dessert, that was one meal out with a friend and won't break me. As for my prowling about, I got 10,000+ on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and somehow miraculously on Thursday as well. That's 5 days of 7 and that's on target for my goal. Bendy activities haven't happened so much because I'm achey and did I mention phlegm-y? And I've lacked motivation for it, although I've at least tried some wall-braced backbends to get used to that upside down feeling. I MUST work on arm strength this week. Honestly I don't expect to be able to do the move in just 28 days, but I'd like to see SOME improvement in my ability. Lastly, I have played with string. The current crochet project is coming along slowly but surely, I've practiced some new moves with the poi this week, was even using a tea bag as a tiny poi at work to try to work out how to do an over-the-head thing that's tricky. Also my neighbors are probably thrilled with my ukulele playing, but I'm getting better on the chords for "When I'm Gone", aka The Cup Song.

Ah. THOSE stones. I passed those miles back. And then i got lost, just a little bit. Okay, here I am back at the stones again. This magical gizmo I bought from a second-hand wizard says I've walked twenty-five mice. I think it must mean miles and not mice, because I don't have more than three mice on my person at the moment. And they haven't walked at all, they're just along for the ride. So, heck. I'm just gonna sit on the edge of this pyramid-type thing and catch my breath. Give me a minute....

So where do I track how many miles I've traveled looking around in this giant field of stones for a bunch somewhat different looking stones?

Why oh why did this challenge have to coincide with employee appreciation week at work. Monday was bagels, Tuesday was Girl Scout cookies, and today there's donuts. Why can't they appreciate us without junk food??

I did a test back arch last night to see what my level is. It's not good. Soon as I figure out how to post the picture, I will. I can get my butt off the floor, that's good. I can get my shoulders off the floor about 2 inches. But my head will not be leaving the floor anytime soon. So after that experiment I tried to do some reverse planks to help increase my arm strength in that general area, and I probably should be doing tricep dips too, so I can push myself further off the floor. I'm also going to be working on the arch part by practicing against a wall, which I could theoretically do you on my breaks at work. We'll see what progress I can make this week. A friend invited me out hiking yesterday so I got over 11,000 steps. Yay! She also invited me out for coffee/tea afterwards so I had to got my first treat of the challenge. I get 49 points per week and I think I used eight of them on the skim chai latte. I'll see if I can keep my points down today. And finally the practiced some ukulele last night. I'm learning the cup song also known as When I'm Gone. I learned it a few weeks ago but I'm still trying to get the hang of it. But it's nice because at least I know all the words are ready.

Thanks for inspiring my cat theme!

Simple is great, I'm learning that myself because I keep making things too complicated. Good luck with your challenge!

In February I stepped back from Nerd Fitness and did some personal challenges of my own for the month. These went pretty well. I stayed off Facebook for the whole month, got rid of over 400 things (thrown away, given away or sold) in my apartment, I only bought food from Aldi or Walmart Market (except for 5 allowances eat out with friends), and I dd a bible devotion every day. Since these weren't fitness or weightless oriented goals, I did them on my own but I had great success. Then I tried to set some new goals for March, but they aren't going quite so well. Since they're weight and fitness related, I'd like to make a success of these next 28 days, like I did in February. So I'm back! I was looking to find a theme to go along with my goals for this new challenge, and had almost on settled on something lame involving rocks, but then CAT TAKEOVER caught my eye on a bunch of threads. I have a cat. I love cats. I once wrote a poem about my resemblance to a cat. Snow leopards are my favorite animal of all time. Cats make a way better theme than the rock thing, so here goes! Be Finicky Weight Watchers has a program called Simply Filling, which I've tried before with some success, but couldn't stick to for very long because I'm highly dependent on pre-packaged foods. But for these 28 days, I'm going to do my best to follow the plan AND I'm going to allow myself the weekly bonus points for food that doesn't fit the plan. That's the only stuff I need to track, non-plan foods like special treats, and for that I get 49 points per week. Goal: Eat from power food list and track anything that isn't on the list, at least 20 days out of 28. Go on the Prowl I've been trying to walk at least 10,000 steps a day in March, and I've been doing pretty good at it so far. So I'd like to continue on with this one. Goal: Walk at least 10k steps per day on at least 20 days out of 28. Get Bendy I'd like to be more flexible, and because I'm an office worker stuck at a desk all day and then sitting most evenings at my computer as well, I know my back could use some stretching, so I'm going to train to do a proper acrobatic type back-arch. I'm nowhere near able to do it, but I'll post a picture of my best effort as a 'before', and then we'll see how much I progress by the end with an 'after' shot. For my bonus challenge, I want to have some fun... Play with String To distract me from lack of sweets and snackage for the challenge period, I'm going to either crochet - I have a couple projects that it would be nice to actually finish, practice my ukulele - I picked it up last year and I want to learn lots of songs to play for our trip to Glacier National Park in August, or learn new moves with my poi balls - I got those at a Renaissance fair but haven't done much with them, but now that I've made some room for practice, I'd like to get better and maybe even create a routine. I should spend time on at least one of these every night for at least 20 out of the 28 days. And now, just because I can, and I want to... Good night!

Things didn't go quite as expected but it went well enough. So there's this...