Roch

Update 1/26/2013: Goal 1: Still fighting inconsistancy with times and what not, but that is more a matter of wishing things were more structured than actually having it be a problem of completing exercises. Nevertheless, because several people now have cautioned me against too frequent weight training (even though its low impact beginner workout) I've decided to amend this goal to be EITHER completing 1 circuit of the BBW or completing 30min of a low impact cardio (eg. family walk) Preferably this will be alternating days, but depending on weather and time constraints doing the BBW 2 days in a row is permissable. As a somewhat combined notion, the other day the girls and I went to the park and played on the playground, at which I did some... angled pushups? I'm sure there is a more appropriate name for them, but it was on one of those pullup bar sets, I was on tip toes and leaned in to do pushups while semi-standing. My older daughter thought it looked silly, and happily voiced this thought to the world. She was probably right. Goal 2: Still doing only 2 circuits, I've decided that I'll do better in the long run if I do the exercises with correct form, and increase reps than it is to simply "do 3 circuits" merely to satisfy the goal. Goal 3: I was tempted to ammend this goal as well, because I've still been so exhausted. But I realized that I could just increase my carb intake in non-grain manifestaions to try to boost energy. Sweet potatoes will likely be taking a supporting role in more meals. Goal 4: My song list thus far is: Oh Shennedoah, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Wabash Cannonball, Oh Susannah and scales. Muscle memory is starting to kick in as I am noticing myself thinking less and less about the notes,and more about the pace. Instead of thinking "this finger goes there" I'm thinking "play this note". Well.. not quite, its more like "draw while pressing this key" because I'm not reading music as such, but a kind of tabbed version of songs. I suppose I should start teaching myself to recognize the notes as well so I can associate the notes with the fingering too. Today I weigh: 343lbs

BadWolf, ya, it was intense, when I saw Steve's new article about free weights versus machines I thought "pshaw, even free weights have nothing on a kingsize laytex foam mattress"

I had an interesting discussion with a friend who came over for lunch the other day. She is used to buying skinless, boneless chicken breasts for something like $2/lb. She was thrilled at the lunch we had of shreded chicken tacos that was made from a whole organic chicken. She said that the flavour was superior (in part because of the organic, but maily because of the addition of all of the parts of the chicken especially the bones/marrow during cooking) The whole organic chickens are about the same price as the boneless skinless chicken breasts. However, as I said before, the whole chicken was more important than the organic, so whole non-organic are less than $1/lb. She was excited to be able to spend LESS money and get MORE nutrient dense and therefore, BETTER food.

Update 1/20/2013: Goal 1: The other day I didn't do the circuit(s) because I was moving matresses all day and found myself with sweat pouring down my face and body in far more copious amounts than even when I exercise. I decided "well, this counts as my exercise today". Yes... that was me rationalizing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I exerted the same (likely more) energy with the matress hauling than with my exercises, but heaven forbid I actually exercise twice in one day! Anyway, the next day I actually had more mattress hauling to do (I won't get into the details) but thankfully I didn't succumb to the sam rationalizing. Goal 2: I have been away from doing more than one circuit for a few days, I was lucky to have done one, let alone 2 or 3. Many days I felt alright about it, because I had pushed myself to do the circuit at all when I didn't want to and was satisified. However, a couple of days ago while doing my circuit (and planning on stopping with just the one because that was the new habit I was in) near the end of the first circuit Flux Pavillion's song, "I Can't Stop" ( ) popped up on my workout mix. Providence to say the least... So I got back to 2 circuits. I'm still debating whether to go on to 3 on Tuesday or to focus on busting out the 2, or to just add more reps to things with 2. We shall see. Goal 3: I'm not sure about where to go with this one right now. Steve (btw. for any of you who are wondering, he is great about getting back to personal emails from people if you contact him, so don't be shy) suggested to me that one of the reasons I may be feeling so exhausted as of late is because of Paleo Carb Withdrawl. In short, my body is used to sugars being more easily accessable in my bloodstream and isn't as johnny-on-the-spot about processing proteins as it should be. This isn't a big deal and should self correct within a couple of weeks. The question is whether I adjust my carb intake to help ease the transition or if I tough things out until my body normalizes. Both kind of suck in their own way, so its something I still have to figure out. Goal 4: Way behind on this one. No new songs, and not significant progress on any of the ones I "know". I need to re prioritize this back into my life, because right now its not getting the attention and effort it deserves. Keep fighting hard everyone, I continue to pray for great successes on all fronts.

Laureleye, I considered the BBW (hilarious acronymn double entendre by the way) is intended to be interspursed amongst cardio..ish things. However, one of the reasons I've been successful in regular excercise at all is beause of the simplicity and brevity of the BBW circuit(s). Also, when it comes to building habits the more regularity of things the better, so if I"m doing one thing one day, and another thing the next day it is hard to keep up either, even if I regularly alternate. I guess I really don't know what I would do when it comes to the non-weight cardio days. Its too cold and icy to go for walks right now (which also precludes most outside play stuff). I don't want to pay for a gym, nor am I at all interested in what gyms have to offer. And things like jumproping in the basement sound like the precise makings of something I would dread out of frustration and boredom. Thanks for the insight.

Update 1/17/2013 Goal 1: It seems more frequently that I'm doing the circuit(s) in the evening instead of the morning anymore. There were a couple of days where I almost didn't do it at all however (yesterday for example). I spent all day at a knifemaking class (www.doveknives.com) with a master bladesmith, which I don't need to tell you, was awesome. So I left home at 7:30am and got home at 7:00pm, and was immediatly attacked to read stories and listen about my girls' day (which I in no way complain about by the way) Anyway, after bed time, I got into bed myself. Thankfully my younger daughter asked for milk, and when I was downstairs I let the dogs out before kenneling them. While waiting for them to pee I busted out a quick circuit. Thanks God for little girl's wanting milk at night. Goal 2: For a couple of days now I've only done one circuit, which totally feels like cheating, but thus far still satisfies my goals. I really need to get back into the the 2 so I can move up to 3 but in the mean time I should be content that I'm at least getting the one circuit done. I know that consistancy is much more important than progress. (that sounds really strange to say...) Goal 3: For lunch yesterday my knife instructor invited me to lunch, so I gratefully accepted. At lunch I had a club sandwich. First of all, I freakin love club sandwiches. Secondly, this may have been the best one I have ever eaten, in all sincerity. It had roast beef along with the requisite turkey, bacon and ham. It was soooo good. While eating it however it struck me that this is the first time I've eaten bread in....a month? I don't really miss it, the grains that are harder for me are still rices, in their various manifestations. Which by the way, I had some wildrice with roast pork the other day too. So I only have one more grain allotment for the week, but that should be more than enough. Unlike last week with my popcorn late at night mistake, at least I'm making the most out of my grain "splurges" this week. Goal 4: I havn't practiced in a few days now, I definitely gotta get back on that with regularity if I'm going to serenade all my adventurer bretheren by the end of this challenge with sea shanties and civil war hymns. Prayers continue to be offered for all of you for continued motivation and success. Keep it up everyone.

"To have no time for philosphy is to be a true philosopher"- Blaise Pascal I chose this quote to share today, because I've got to keep that nerdy philosophy reference going strong, but it also was a source of a little revealation as well. Change "philosopher" to "person bettering themself" or something along those lines, and "philosophy" to "bettering one's self" and I think we've got somethign that we can all shoot for. I know that Steve often rebukes people who give excuses that they can't excercise or eat right because 'they dont have time" and rightfully so. My point however, is that if we are truly integrating excercise and proper eating of real foods into our lives, into our very identities, then we can truly say "I don't have time to go to the gym." Why? Because I'm busy playing rugby with my kids, because I'm busy going on a hike with my friends, because I'm busy making a meal for my family. I don't have time to excercise because my life is already full of positive, healthy, and enjoyable activity. My we all continue to shoot for that goal so that some day our identies are so intertwined with healthy, active and productive activities that we no longer have time "to excercise."

Since you are doing the recipe challenge, which I find an exciting way to explore good foods by the way, you may want to post the recipe and your critical review of it. I'm sure many of your fellow adventurers would be happy to see what worked and what didn't so they can add some new recipe's to their repetoir as well.

"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion." -Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel I just noticed how much of my inspirations are coming from philosphers, if we keep up at this pace I could offer an honorary degree in Philosophy of Quotes or somesuch prestigious merits.

1300 seems awfully low, especially when you're doing laps like that. If you are interested in being able to keep the energy up and be able to take (or even better dishout) a nice hit, I would recommend focusing less on the calorie number and more on the nutrient density of the foods. Cut out sugars and grains and eat more protein (regardless of the calorie number) and you'll be smashing pretty lil faces in the rink in no time.

thanks for sharing, and ps. I was totally right about crotch-foot, he is my superhero of choice right now.

welcome and congratulations on your progress thus far. Personally I'm much more interested in your third goal than your second. Afterall, the types of foods we are eating(and not eating) is much more important than the volume of the foods we eat. Not to add more homework or anything, but the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat is pretty interesting. Plus, an added bonus is that if you hate math then you don't have to do all the number crunching for calories. Incidently, if you love math, then you can go all out and crunch the numbers about important nutrients and hormone absorption from fats and proteins!

Guess I'll be the one to ask, fundamentally I'm uninterested in politics, but I am always interested in passions sufficient to engage people into action outside of their comfort zones. So please, do tell, what cause(s)?

something to consider for the money goal, which could also give you some added benefit by decluttering your life, is to sell some things that you don't need/don't use any longer but would have value to someone else. I just recently sold (well, bartered for house painting labor) my old electric bass and amp. I literally hadn't taken it out of its case in... 5 years and hadn't played it in probably 10. But now I have something I needed (help with painting) and the bass went to a kid who was excited to learn it and accompany his guitar skills. $34 dollars is a small enough figure that you could probably take care of getting that money with a few books or movies here and there, $2.50 or $3.00 per item adds up quickly. Of course you could always go all out and sell some big ticket item for like $125 and get 4 weeks worth of savings out of the way.

Welcome. Laureleye said much of what I was going to, however I would also suggest changing your goals to be assertions of reality rather than wishes. So change "I want to..." to "I will..." For one it makes the accountability increase. Afterall, even if you didn't lose x weight or eat x protiens or whatever, you could still say "well I still WANT to.." More importantly however, the way to change things about ourselves is to change ourselves. If you become someone who WILL do these things, then, well.. you will. Best of luck.

Wow. I swear, every other thread I read someone talks about how an injury (particularly back) threw them off the wagon. I'm not sure if I should feel blessed that I havn't had an injury, or that I should feel guilty for being fat and lazy despite one. Nevertheless, because of your continued back problems that seem severe enough to have prevented working out this past week, why don't you change up the goal to accomodate for days when your back just can't take more intense workouts like zumba etc. Perhaps just a walk. Perhaps just some arm exercises. In the end, doing SOME workout is better than no workout, and unless you need to be in the hospital, even with a hurty back you can probably do some sort of excercise in a given day.

Welcome. I never drank to excess, but these days I find myself drinking even more rarely and whenever I do now I always think "crap, booze is expensive". That being said, you should give yourself an additional goal: "Figure out what to do with all the extra money you've saved from not buying alcohol and cigarettes." heh.

"A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that is unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push." -Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Nunc fluens facit tempus, nunc stans facit aeternitatum." "The now that passes produces time, the now that remains produces eternity." ―Boethius, The Consolation of Philoosphy

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.†―Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

The theme is a great idea. Nothing like making things fun to make you do them. Also, congratulations about the church attendance, we won't get far if we focus solely on our bodies and not on our souls.

I've never lived in Fitness before, but I've visited. The chairs are really small, but some of the people seemed nice. I'm considering moving there myself someday.

Perhaps something like this exists already, but if so I havn't found it. Nevertheless, this thread is meant to contain various inspirations: anecdotes, quotes, memes, motivational/demotivational posters, really whatever you'd like to share to help encourage others ranging form the most cliche to the most profound. Please feel free to share. “Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.†-Stephen Pressfield, The War of Art

"Unfortunately, I got back to college and hopped off the wagon. I gained most of the weight back that I had lost. Boo." Moral of the story? Drop out. Heh, just kidding. Keep up the good work, reclaim what is rightfully yours. Some advice for getting rid of the pop: drink water keifer. Its bubbly, and fermented (but not boozey). Many natural eating people, paleo folks included. surmise that cravings for sweet things are actually cravings for fermented things. The added benefit is that you get that nice carbonated mouth feel that you may be missing from pop, you also get some flavour (you can even add vanilla etc. to mix things up even more) and you are also getting regular probiotics. Its super easy to make at home, you just need to get a hold of the grains, which aren't expensive. http://www.culturesforhealth.com/?a_aid=4db87e0a0c0e3&a_bid=792ff26f

oh, also: Have you read the book The War of Art? It obviously has to do quite a bit with the creative process, but I think that regardless of your profession/lack of profession it is a fruitful book. Fundamentally the author, Steven Pressfield, discusses what he calls "resistance" its the thing that keeps us from excercising, from working, from creating, from praying. It manifests always as reasonable things, but its always there to throw you off. Its the thing that is starting to get on your trail in week 2. Kick its ass. “Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.†Steven Pressfield, The War of Art