vic-torus

Ack, procrastination! Anyway, time to report (I have no idea about "winning" the challenge or whatnot, but I'll feel that I've truly gotten through it if I report formally, so here we go.) Goal One: Break my long-standing plateau and get my weight below 220 pounds (through healthy means- lots of fruits and veggies, less processed crap, etc.) Results: This is the goal that I did best in- actually, I'm happy to report that I flew past this goal, and ended the challenge weighing 215.2- that's 10.6 pounds lost during the six weeks of the challenge, eek! 200, here I come! [Next challenge goal? ] Definitely an A- that's 1 Stamina, 1 Dexterity, and 2 Constitution, hooray! Goal Two: Walk three times a week, adding up to at least five total miles Results: I really enjoyed all the walking, and actually discovered a few really beautiful parks near my house... unfortunately, then Mother Nature intervened via the Snowpocalypse. Now I've had to do my walking around my college's indoor track, Target, etc., and can't really track mileage anymore... but the hours added up, so I'm hopeful that the miles did too. Overall a B here- that's 1.5 Stamina, .75 Dexterity, and .75 Wisdom (since walking time has always been thinking time for me). Goal Three: Perform 10 properly formed pushups, increasing my total up from pretty much nada. Results: Fairly good... my initial strategy had been moving gradually off of knee pushups, but then fellow Adventurer Laureleye suggested I try a strategy from Vic Magery instead, and do the pushups onto a gradually decreasing stack of magazines. Well, the magazines turned into textbooks, since that's what's lying around my house right now... and it's worked! I'm down to just my giant physics book now, which is this close to arms parallel to floor. The new method throws off my original grading rubric, but I would call this another B, since I'm this close. Earned here- 1.5 Strength, and 1.5 Dexterity. Level-up Goal- Dedicate five minutes a day to spiritual reflection. Results- Believe it or not, this is the goal that I struggled with the most. I'm full time in college, married and raising a special-needs child, and work weekends cashiering, so about halfway through the challenge I sat down one night and then realized I had utterly no idea how to relax. I got my bearings and did a little better from there, but I still need work. Overall, I would give myself a C, though I would almost say that this goal is still ongoing (I'll get the hang of meditation yet!) And oh yeah, that's 1 Charisma and .5 Wisdom. Thoughts: - My husband and i are definitely buying more produce and less processed food, which is a huge change for us. We still have a few soft spots that would likely make nutritionists cringe (cheese comes to one, as one example), but we're getting there. Gary's been great, actually- he hopped on board and has been working out alongside me, and adjusting our dinner portions to more sensible ratios. Maybe he'll wander onto here sooner or later! -Due to school, I only ended up participating in one mini-challenge, the one about posting on others' threads. Actually, I completed that challenge somewhat inadvertently; I guess you could say I found the rattail. I never did formally post in the veggie mini-challenge, but I have grown to appreciate spinach and sweet potatoes even more than before, so there's that. -I bought my first dress with a waist in years yesterday! Hopefully more good things are to come. I would love to be near, at, or even a little below 200 when I get my associate's, so we'll see. I have to thank you all for welcoming me here, especially Laureleye and newcs for assuring me that my long rambling updates were fun reading and not a chore, whew! I shall definitely see you all for the second challenge of the year; the rush of those ten pounds off is rather addictive.

Thank you for the love! Thankfully, the ickiness seems to have mostly passed, except for a cough- unfortunately, I fear that I have now gotten the husband sick, whoops :/ (Thankfully, there is enough Doctor Who news going around the web to keep his spirit up now.) I'll have to find out what these goblet squats are, because the name amuses me. (I've tried squats with the bar a few times, but ended up hobbling around weirdly for a few days afterward; I don't think I was quite ready yet...) This is all rather addicting: I still have to do out the math and submit the report for this challenge, and I'm already thinking of challenges for the second one, hahaha...

I can't improve on any of the great advice given above, so I'll just add- get your rest when you can! The universe will be a far friendlier place for it. Congratulations!

Hello everyone I'm certain that many of you thought I was dead, or feared that I had abandoned ship; I am happy to report that this is mostly not the case. As far as being dead goes, i should learn that sometimes a promise turns into a jinx: pretty much right after making the above post promising to update, I found myself dealing with blizzards, Hondas with shot brake pads, and a brutal illness that still has me wheezing. (This is the part where my mother recites the old "best made plans" spiel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.) As for desertion, I am happy to report that, as mentioned above, I have been following along in spirit these last several weeks if not necessarily in digital presence. Since the above crises have conspired to limit my computer time to schoolwork only, I have been keeping track of various goals in the aforementioned Handy Dandy Notebook; now, on this last day of challenges, I find myself grateful to Washington and Lincoln for awarding me this opportunity. (Admittedly, I probably should be drafting a paper on how Jack London was influenced by the Realism movement. But, well... I don't wanna. *Blows raspberry*) Without further adieu, let's see what wisdom comes forth from the Handy Dandy Notebook (gotta stop calling it that): Goal One: Bring my weight below 220 pounds (starting weight: 225.8) Results: Goal One, I am happy to say, was blown right out of the water. I don't know if it was getting filled up with all the healthy food or what, but I stepped on the scale this morning and was looking at 215.2 pounds! Admittedly, I've still got a long way to go with nutrition (and that damn jumprope, which likes biting my toes!)... still, though, this is definitely an A, and I love the opportunity that I'm looking at now. A weight under 200 seems within my reach now; I don't hold much stock in BMI, but a weight under 200 would finally bring that number below 30, finally removing the "obese" label from my health chart. Hooray for that! Goal Two: Walk 30 minutes three times a week, for a total of at least five miles. Results: This one became tricky after Snowmaggedon descended on my area; unfortunately, without anywhere outdoors to walk, I was stuck on indoor tracks and hallways or store aisles. I'm happy that I found a substitute walking area rather than shlubbing my way out of the goal, but I'm annoyed that I could not track my mileage for the rest of the challenge. Ah, well; I now know that I walk at about a 3 mile per hour pace, so 3-4 half-hour walks a week should have me covered. (Plus, I can now tell you where to find pretty much anything in six or seven local stores.) Then there was the Fake Hike Incident: one day when my linear algebra class got out early, I decided to turn my usual half-hour jaunt around my school's walking track into an hour-long walk, just to see if I could handle it. Needless to say, I came out with some impressive blisters, and a new disrespect for aged footwear. The optimist in me does point out that I got through it though, and the leg muscles weren't too upset about the strain, which is definitely worth noting. (Presumably this snow will melt sooner or later. I want to hike, not browse!) Anyway, I would put this goal in the B+/A- territory (heck if I know how I'm supposed to score that). Goal Three: Do 10 military pushups with proper form. Results: Well, switching from the "wean off of knee pushups" strategy to "do full pushups, getting closer to the ground" throws off my grading scale somewhat, but oh well. After weeks of religiously doing the BBW Workout, knocking out my pushups on a dwindling pile of textbooks, I have found myself unable to work out at all due to illness-induced congestion. So, this morning, just out of curiosity, I tried doing ten pushups with no textbooks at all. I'm pleased to say that I got through all ten of them, but I could definitely feel my form slipping near the end, so I guess that translates to about a B overall. I can't complain, though; that's still a heck of a lot more pushing-up than I could do at the beginning of this challenge! Level-Up Goal: Set aside five minutes a day for spiritual reflection. Results: Here is the one that I struggled with for a period. I was doing great-great-great-BAM! Every school assignment fell into my lap, and after about a week of this I sat down and realized that I had no idea how to relax anymore. With that in mind, I went back to actively setting some time aside for myself each day, to either reflect on the universe or tune it out in a form of pseudo-meditation. My sanity immediately shot back up, reminding me why I set this as a goal in the first place. Overall, I would give myself a C based on falling off the wagon for a period, but getting back on it and appreciating it. (Unfortunately, my kale sprouts developed mushrooms, which was pretty creepy.) Some other thoughts/reflections/rambles: - Next time, I have to be better at updating the challenge thread! I regret that I didn't get to post in others' threads as much either, and only completed one mini-challenge, too. On the bright side, if I live through all this nonsense going on right now and get to graduation in May, I would call that a pretty nice level-up on its own, so there's that. - I have grown to love spinach even more, especially with onion and garlic. (A dash each of cumin and nutmeg makes wilted greens sing.) - The husband and I were out shopping last time; he looked down at the checkout lane and said, "You know, this is the least amount of processed food I've ever seen in here." That might be more satisfying than the weight loss (I've known plenty of skinny people who've eaten like crap; my mom claims they're on their way to scurvy)... anyway, that was pretty cool. (I confess, I still have a weak spot for Anna's ginger thins; they make a nice light dessert with some chai tea.) - As a neat side effect of the pushup goal, my squats have gotten pretty good; I'm up to 30 in the BBW Workout, yay! Both my current and hopeful future college have pretty nice weight rooms, so maybe I'll try doing weighted squats sometime soon. I have improved a lot in the lunge now, too (up to 17 each circuit), and can do a 45-second plank with some consistency (just not right now with the breathing trouble). My belly is still pretty blobby, but it's got these weird little cave-ins here and there, giving me hope that abs might lie in wait beneath. Speaking of which... - I did actually take a few "before" pictures when I signed up for this challenge; I suppose I'll take an "after" picture tomorrow morning when I'm semi-decent, and compare. I don't remember how the "before" pictures looked, so this will be interesting. (Maybe I should take a new picture at regular intervals until I reach my long-term weight goal, then put them all together into this bizarre flipbook- sorry O_o...) So anyway, I suppose that's that... I hope that everything still actually "counts", despite a dearth of postings in this thread. (I'm just glad that this post appears somewhat coherent, and isn't just rambling about fractals, or tarantulas, or my son's crush on Rachael Ray... the Whatever-itis is messing with my brain, I swear.) Posting this is making me realize how much I appreciate the atmosphere here, so I intend to hang around a little whenever I can; the challenge may be over, but the march to health is hopefully not! Again, 215 is too deliciously close to 200 for me to rest now This probably won't be the last post- I have math to do out, I might perhaps post those pictures, and of course answering any responses. However, it is the last update, and it's turning into a feature-length trilogy (again). Cheers for now- il faut que je parte, et merci.* (*Don't be fooled! This is one of exactly two sentences I know in French; it seemed more appropriate than "no sir, that is not the red box." Anyway, it should mean "I have to leave, and thank you", or this beginner's phrase book is going out the window into the snow.)

Hell naw! We are nerdy kin, we are (On a semi-related note, my husband doesn't know what the word "adiabatic" means, but it pleases him somehow.) Good to hear that you don't mind my long ramble-y updates I fear the worst one is yet to come, though...

I LIVE! The first week of the college semester + mine and my husband's birthday in the same week = insanity, absolute insanity. (The emoticon "O_o" would describe it best, I feel.) However, as mentioned before, I've been keeping track of everything in my Handy Dandy Notebook (Oh God, it's even blue), so I'm still here even if I'm not, um, here. Anyway, now that I'm caught up to the first onslaught of assignments, I shall hopefully avoid falling off the face of this Earth again; this short blurb is all I can give for now, as I have a class to get ready for, but I can finally give a nice full update later today, after linear algebra. I shall be back soon! (Quite possibly muttering "PV=nRT" or "I'm nobody! Who are you?" in a vague haze, but I'll be here nonetheless.)

Alright, update time... unfortunately, the school crush has already unoffially begun; the semester starts Tuesday, and the professor already has reading up on Blackboard! Ack. Goal One: Good news here, I think...I stepped on the scale on Friday, and it showed me 221.8 pounds. That's absolutely wonderful overall, but I couldn't help but fret that I was perhaps losing too fast, or it was water weight, or whatever... I'll just stay the course and see what I've got at the end of this week (and this is the free-food school week, so hoo boy). Packed lunches will hopefully make life easier. And if the scale is legit, then yay! That's only two pounds left to chip away at the plateau. Goal Two: Last week's walks were pretty cool- Gary and I found another little park down our street, that we had somehow been oblivious to this entire time. It's right next to a habitat reserve, and even has a stream running through it, home to a huge family of really hungry ducks. We'll definitely be back. Anyway, my recorded miles came up just a wee bit short thanks to a cold snap later in the week- 4.97 miles. I would like to hope that walking around inside stores, etc. would give me that extra 0.03, so I guess I'm okay. (And I still walked a half-mile to knitting group when it was something like 20 degrees out; I felt kind of badass, if a little stupid.) Goal Three: During the BBW Workouts this week, I've been doing the aforementioned pushups over a stack of textbooks, about one foot high. Going down that far, I've been able to do all ten (though by the third circuit I'm shaking), so tomorrow one of the books is coming out and we'll see how I do. Level-up Goal: This one's been a little tricky, but getting creative has helped. Reading some outdoorsy poetry yesterday had me psyched up about hiking come spring, so it was neat tying everything together for a bit. I'm hoping to do Mount Monadnock sometime in late spring, which sounds mostly relevant to Goal Two but will also, I believe, reap the fruits of this goal's labor too. In the meantime, to get into that spiritual vibe, I've started sprouting some seeds indoors and also have a little ivy plant; perhaps bringing the outdoors indoors a little will keep me focused on this goal. Other thoughts: -If you suddenly find yourself at Denny's, order the Fit Fare Omelette, it's really good and definitely one of the saner things on the menu. (This dude plus a cup of coffee turned a potentially stressful brunch into awesomesauce.) -The "mommy belly" might just be starting to cave in a little bit, I think. Hooray! -This isn't a goal, but a weird little side thing like the jump-roping, but if I could make it to 45 second planks in the BBWW, that would be pretty sweet. Right now, I can do a 35-second plank like, once. Out of the whole workout. Anyway, that's all for the moment. This week may be the biggest challenge to- er, the challenge- to date, so stay tuned! The updates may continue to be a bit infrequent, and turn into novels when they do come; to keep track of it all in the meantime, I've been toting around a little notebook with me, and writing down EVERYTHING. I expect there will be physics problems scribbled in the margins soon enough.

Gosh, you're all making me excited about the prospect of gardening! There's still half a foot of snow on the ground around here, but I found a peppercorn-sized kale sprout in my dirt-filled shoebox this morning, so I guess it's a start. Hopefully lettuce and spinach will be following soon; after the thaw, I'm hoping to partner with my father-in-law and get some sort of family communal garden started.

Thanks, all! It's true, having Gary on board has been awesome. He really has been wonderful for my motivation, too; feeling like somebody's mentor helps blunt n00b-induced cold feet when I'm dithering around a workout. And while I think he would run screaming the other way if I ever tried to spring a 100% Paleo lifestyle on him, he's also been pretty cheerful about the increased veggies (he's been adding carrots to his salad, and cooling it on the ranch dressing, for example)... I could see the two of us eventually enjoying a 75/25 or 80/20 Paleo diet, with the emphasis on loading up on the good stuff and letting in indulgences when there's room. The young'un would be the tricky one; he's autistic and a very fussy eater, but he gets a little nip of whatever Gary and I are eating at the table, and sometimes takes a taste, so we'll see. (At least he's finally warmed up to fruit, and will occasionally nip a carrot or bell pepper; a year ago, that would have been asking way too much.)

Haha cool, newcs is a ninja! The recipe she linked to looks awesome (as do those crackers, by the way.) I've also found this recipe, which also looks pretty yummy, and this coconut flour bread recipe. I'll note that the recipes for grain-free bread mostly consist of nut flours (think of a decadent French torte, made with ground nuts- mmm) and contain a good bit of egg; that protein structure is going to be essential in gluten-free baking, also, several gluten-free/grain-free recipes I looked at called for a smaller pan, to hold the bread in form while it's baking. (From what I can gather in comments, it seems most recipes that call for a smaller specialty pan can be baked in a regular loaf pan, and will turn out predictably stumpy but still delicious.) I've also seen several gluten-free recipes that feature either lentil or quinoa flour; I don't know if these two flours would pass the "Paleo test", but they might be worth checking out too- at the very least they would be crammed with protein! (I'm not currently Paleo myself, but I could see myself eventually moving towards an 80/20 Paleo lifestyle, and also find the idea of gluten-free/grain-free bread fascinating as a bit of a cooking nerd. If so, then the fresh yeasty whole-wheat loaves can be part of that 20 percent, yum...) These are both wonderful! And that plushie is adorable (I'm such a sucker for plushies). That is all.

Alright, now that the day's almost over, time for a proper update: Goal One- Well, I caved in two days early, and stepped on that dratted scale... now I'll just have to wait until Saturday, as I suppose five day intervals might be reasonable. Anyway!... down to 224.4 pounds, and I'll bet a little bit of that is beginner's water weight but I'm still pleased. Keeping up the healthy eating appears to be paying off: admittedly, tonight was the "treat" dinner of the week, but broccoli and cauliflower and carrots went into the fondue along with fresh bread, which helped matters considerably. I still clocked in around 1,700 calories for the day, and yet I feel really full... despite being lighter than it used to be, "treat dinner" is actually living up to its name, rather than making me want to make every night of the week "treat dinner". Goal Two- On the way; got my first walk of the week in with the family, heading to the supermarket and back. (I grabbed a lovely organic mango while I was there; I'm the only one in the family who really likes mangoes, so it's ALL MINE, hahaha...) These walks tend to be meandering things, rather than hardcore fitness treks, but hopefully they're a start- I'm hoping to dial up the intensity in a week or so, after something of a "warm-up" phase. And I did log in 1.43 miles towards the five-mile a week goal, so yay! Goal Three- Did the BBW Workout today... with the husband! He's becoming interested in getting in shape too; perhaps we shall see him on these boards soon. Anyway, I managed five proper pushups on two circuits (husband says the upper arms were parallel to the floor, and I trust him) ... The rest of the circuit's pushups were knee pushups, but as mentioned above, they don't seem to be doing much anymore. Laureleye's challenge thread had a great link to Vic Magery working into full pushups by doing "baby" pushups over a stack of magazines, and then slowly decreasing the magazines down to a full pushup; I think that I'll try this next time, perhaps with the ridiculous pile of college textbooks threatening to overtake the living room. (I should stuff one or two of them in the bowling-ball bag I use for rows, for that matter; either way, make them work for their keep- and their ridiculous pricetags, blegh.) Level-up Goal- An attempt at meditation came to an abrupt end last night, when our son came crashing into the room with his Dream Lite and decided to fall asleep right there. This is why I set the goal time at five minutes to start *sigh*... it was still sort of peaceful, lying back and staring at the fake stars on the ceiling for a few minutes; not particularly revelatory, but I suppose it might still count. I'll try again with the meditation after he's in bed this time. Other thoughts- the idea that Gary (my husband) might be wanting to start on the healthy path with me is quite exciting- I love the idea of having a "battle buddy" right in the same home. He has to modify the BBW Workout quite a bit for now: he'll be staying on two circuits for now, while I'll be moving to three on Wednesday; he can't hold himself up for very long yet, so we've swapped in wall pushups/crunches and reverse crunches for the pushups/planks, and he has to balance with a chair while doing the squats and lunges. And yet despite all that, and the fact that he was panting and sweating by the cooldown, he says that he really enjoyed it and was sort of hyper all day after that! And then he went on the walk to the supermarket too... I hope that we can feed off of each other, and again, perhaps you'll all see him around in a bit (Quick edit to add- I've written another book again, I do apologize! I fear things will get even worse when the semester starts, and I have access to the school weight room... oh, dear.)