RedAsh

Definitely an indicator that I should update when I find my topic on the second page of the forum... 90 second plank is close with elbows fully forward; I can do 90s with elbows in line with maybe the bottom of my neck, so just a bit further! Jumping lunges have plateaued at max 75 to 80ish in a session, although I think my technique has been improving and jumps getting higher so I've been progressing in some ways at least. Pull ups also plateaued at around 8-6-5, (I can occasionally squeeze an extra one out in the second or third set) so I can ALMOST regularly do 20 in a session but still a bit off doing 10 reps in a single set. Can easily do more than 20 in a session if I do more than three sets. I've been practising handstands without a wall fairly regularly and still fall over constantly, but starting to get the feel of small position changes to maintain balance. Slowly getting there. Did some poi and whips practice and definitely want to spend more time learning new things on poi (I feel like I haven't learnt anything new in years), and a lot more practice with double whips so I feel more fluent with those. First time lighting up my double fire whips last week! That was fun. My friends brought a fire skipping rope, which was most amusing. Diet's been up and down. Birthday party last night involved cake and people in my groups at work keep bringing chocolate and things. I don't have much, but I end up having a number of sugary snacky things a week. Overall diet is fine, I just need to be quite careful if I actually want to get down to 13% (haven't measured in a while but I think I'm currently still around 15%). Actual meals (aside from yesterday's birthday dinner) have been tofu stir fry, curries with extra vegetables and not much rice, haloumi salads, and general fish/chicken/beef with veges. I've also made a promise to my friend that if I haven't written 2000 words of my article by November 1st (slightly after the end of this challenge), she gets to keep $100 she owes me. That will definitely get my arse into gear. Things are ticking along.

Never tried bear crawling, this will be interesting. Need to find somewhere open where I can look ridiculous for 400m.

Hyup, I find I don't crave things when I'm alone and without food, but if I haven't had a decent lunch or eaten in a while towards the end of the window, I'm susceptible to temptation if temptation is around. Tonight my parents are coming to visit and we're going out for dinner, so need to make sure I'm comfortably satisfied before going out. Oof, just did a 50 second plank, that position is bloody hard! Switched to easier position for the second try, with hands instead of elbows in line with head, and could hold that for 2 minutes. Might try holding whatever position I can for 90 seconds and keep shifting my elbows forward until I get it.

I've missed the chance to get this published before I send in my scholarship application, but if I get it accepted in November then I can still ask the schol office to consider it as extra information, perhaps. End of this challenge aligns with a good date for that to potentially happen. An arbitrary date at least gives me a chance to work towards something, and I'd like to have November free to potentially participate in Nanowrimo.

Week of busy times at work and play has been (and continues to be) stressful. Preparing for an audit of a project that started this year at work, finishing off and sending clinical references for group members, and all the other things. Yesterday was a massive eating day. I don't think I would have gone much above 2000 calories for the day, if that, but it felt like a massive amount of food with a friend before my 8pm cut off time for IF. Ah well, it was a work out day. Aside from, had a few sugary things this week which don't add up to heaps but will certainly hinder my progress to 13%, so I'll find some lower sugar substitutes (I can pretty much sub green tea or apple cider vinegar for anything, I find). No ups to my exercise numbers yet. Today I will push for a 90 second plank with elbows aligned with ears, let's see if I can get that one out of the way.

Yup, just spent a few days not spending much time near a computer, still onto things! I feel like writing these clinical psych applications for others may be the breakthrough that I need to get my mind shifted towards actually taking things a step at a time for the article and getting it done, and I may be able to hash it out in a few hard days, so I'm still going to try to get it done by the end of the challenge. That can be my deadline.

At the moment (using plastic calipers and the JP-4 point calculation), I'm at about 15.5% body fat. It's slowly coming down. If I don't make 13% by this challenge (that's going to be quite difficult for such a short amount of time at the current rate) then I'll just keep going post-challenge until I hit 12 to 13% and then I'll consider what I want to do from there. Pull ups: Currently at about 8-5-5. Not long to go before I can do 20 in a session at least, and hoping I'll be able to get 10 in a single set in the near future. Jumping lunges: 75 during a session. Just need to squeeze out that fourth set and I should be able to do it, but not quite there yet (not with acceptable form, anyway). Planks: About 75 seconds max, usually about 65. I think I could get my goal of 1:30 if I did easier planks (fists in line with ears instead of elbows in line with ears) but I'd rather keep pushing for the harder ones. Hand stands: Slow progress but I'm still practising just about every day! I'm following the form tips from this scary Australian with the cold, dead eyes of a killer: Journal article write-up: Getting nowhere! The mental block largely comes from lack of motivation as there's no set deadline. The scholarship application itself and writing reference reports for a few of my trainees at work trying to gain entrance into clinical psychology will be keeping me busy for a little while though. All in all, aside from the article, everything is on track. Progress isn't very fast, but it's sustainable and in the correct direction, so I'm comfortable with that.

Sigh, it's not yet 9am and I'm craving pork chops. That photo looks really good.

Sumac and pomegranate chicken with quinoa salad. I experimented with stuff I've used before in a new combination and it turned out rather great! I like playing with unusual ingredients. I don't tend to follow recipes unless I'm baking, favouring the 'try it and see what happens' approach, although I love reading recipes/food blogs for ideas. Sumac is a dried, ground berry which has a tart flavour. Pomegranate molasses is also sweet and tart. This ended up tasting kinda Middle Eastern, sweet, sour, and fragrant. Was rather good and managed to get it to last a few meals, shared with the flatmates. Marinade: (very vague quantities as I mostly just chucked it in as a wished) Ground sumac, 2 tbspPomegranate molasses, 2 tbspJuice of 1 lemonPort, 3 tbspCrushed garlic, 4 clovesSalt and pepper, pinchMarinate chicken in the above for a few hours and grill (I usually bake first and then grill on high heat to get the nice char). Quinoa salad: 1 cup cooked quinoa1 Diced tomato1 Roasted red capsicum (bell pepper), slicedChopped parsleySmall handful of torn up salad greens

So I can hold a handstand for about 10 seconds every few tries. It's getting there. I'm cooking lunch a bit more regularly now, although still buying food a few days a week (just easier). I keep cooking extra and then the flatmates get to it and I don't have anything for lunch, but I like sharing so I will probably just combat that by making heaps extra. Now to think of things to make for this week's challenge. Had sumac and pomegranate glazed chicken tonight but not in the habit of taking food pics. New things! I have been musicking a lot this week so did less poi practice than I would have liked, but still been doing some. Need to get out the whips though! Requires more effort as I need to go to a park so I have room and can make loud noises with being irksome. Time to start setting things on fire soon, there's a fire night coming up. My shoulders are comfortably destroyed from wing chun tonight (really good practice, I have some hefty bruises), so I'm going to sleep well tonight.

Yup, Erin Morgenstern. It's very good. Damn bro-cep false impression of strength. 7-5-3 with pullups yesterday though, so (very) modest improvement. Asparagus forever! At the moment I've only got flaccid asparagus and it makes me sad. So the sub-challenge I seem to be finding the most fun/rewarding is handstands. I'm slowly getting there and I think I may actually be able to do full handstands by the end of the challenge. If I do, I'm stealing Blaidd's idea of rewards and buying myself a new single malt whisky (also because I got a $15 voucher from the Whisky Shop). Diet broke a little bit today and yesterday (party and shared lunch involving crackers, cheese and pate, and an amazing vegetarian pie) but whatever, back to normal from this evening. Interesting side note from doing these challenges this year: I'm getting a lot more attention than I'm used to from fairly attractive people, and it is nice. Not that I generally want to respond to it, but the attention is nice. Side note 2: feeling drained makes me crave dark chocolate and single malt whisky.

Excellent! Glad you're back on your (figurative) feet (literal can wait). You picked a very apt theme, with all the resurrections that happen.

Ha, thesisbending! Sigh, today I ALMOST did some thesis work but then decided to procrastinate by being really productive at work instead... It's gotten to the point where I can't just arbitrarily wait for the mood, I need to do actual scheduling, so I've set a write-up hour for tomorrow morning. Har har har, vertical punches are an actual thing Hoops are fun! Getting them to travel from neck to knees and back again is a fun exercise. IF is going well, and I shared a review article from a journal with my mother and she is now quite motivated to try it herself after chatting with her doctor! I seem to be in love with baby bok choy and asparagus at the moment, I'm having them with everything. Cannot get over that crispy sweet goodlyness. Tried flipping my hands to do chin ups instead of forward-handed pullups today, for a lark, and it's interesting how much easier they are (could do 8-6-5 of those instead of 7-4-3). Back to pullups next time. I'm doing a few reverse pullups after I stop being able to do any more, so those should help too. Handstands are slowly but surely improving. They're quite fun. Had a breakthrough after realising my arms were too far forward of my head, and balance has improved after bringing them back more. I will be a circus freak yet! Hmm, saying that makes me want to re-read circusy novels (Geek Love, and the Night Circus).

Sigh. I can hear you may be feeling quite deflated and demotivated, but it sounds like this will help you be even more on top of the game when your ankle tastes freedom again, and in the mean time you can have a creative upper body focus. Trinity will love you back to life.

Updates! Wing chun on Monday left me with hilariously destroyed shoulders, so I consider that a success. My fighting was a bit up and down (I was paired up with this big guy who does not at all hold back for the first half, which is awesome practice but leaves me tense and I have to loosen up over sparring with consecutive partners in the second half). Fun class, even if I didn't feel like I was in best fighting form. Ended up having sushi on Monday and beer last night so diet not off to a great start, but I'm going grocery shopping today so will stock up with all the delicious things that will be good for me. Daily intermittent fasting is going fine. Pull ups: I can do about 7 in a row, and 14 in a session (so 7-4-3) with acceptable form. Will slowly start stepping up but each additional pullup requires a lot of work, it's a slow progression! Planks: Can do 1:20 with a regular plank (hands aligned with head), and about a minute with extended plank (elbows aligned with head). I'm also going to use push-up based planks, with arms walked out instead of elbows down, to try and build up to a 90s extended elbow plank. Jumping lunges: I can do about 60 at the moment before I start feeling my soul burning out of my thighs. Handstands: Fun, doing them every day, slowly improving but it'll take a while. I'm OK with that. Poi: My friend just invited me to do a short corporate gig with him and some fire hoop people in December, so that's going to be great impetus to get back into practice! We'll be doing a lot of partner work so that will be good practice as well, partner poi is fun. These two are excellent. Currently my poi partner and I are great at solo stuff, but can only do maybe a third of the partner moves from this video, but will step up our game for this gig since we have the time to practice!

And empathy on random insomnia; I get it very sporadically but it feels like it's a few days before I'm back to normal.

Ooh, recipes. I get very zen when I cook, it's a great way to relax and I love cooking. Time for some new paleo staples so that I actually take leftovers to work!

Suuucks! So is that putting the kibosh on all forms of exercise, or just anything involving your ankle? Still, challenges are recyclable and if your ankle is being addressed and will feel better afterwards then overall win. Just bad timing!

Sounds like you've been nailing it! Man, weighted punches transitioning to unweighted feels like SUCH a difference. I do wing chun punch drills with weights for speed and then afterwards it's like my punches are motorised. Probably Elvis. And great theme song choice.

Hope so! It's mildly interesting, but it's a good stepping stone into much cooler sciencey stuff! Yay, neuro Avatar geeks! Ok... I love Azula. I LOVE her, she is amazing, and I love her. She is absolutely one of the coolest characters to come from the show (although I also really adore Lin Bei Fong in Korra). Sweet! Keep each other posted on handstand progress. It's amusing how different it is doing these when I'm well rested compared with after wing chun, when my shoulders are destroyed and I can barely hold myself up. Yes sir! Nice to step things up a bit. I feel like I'm biting off more than I can chew with 100 jumping lunges, but I'll push until I get there. Bring on the mini challenges!

Yuss, a fellow bender to spar with! I love that your exercise goals are physical things that you actually like doing; I find that makes all the difference, and it starts becoming a fun challenge instead of a slog. Best of luck! Channel some Ty Lee for bendy times.

Haaa, brilliant theme! Good weekly breakdown, sounds achievable. Look forward to your updates!

Thanks all! I finished my masters at the beginning of last year, what I'm currently working on is condensing the completed thesis into an article manuscript to try and get published in a journal. Not as huge, but more open to criticism! It's in cognitive neuroscience, examining how the brains of musicians and non-musicians respond differently to a particular auditory task, and what that means for how we process sounds. Balancing is so hard! My arms manage it, I just haven't managed to keep it balanced for more than a few seconds at a time. I'll keep working on it, it feels like it's slowly improving. Also, all good to be silent comrades in the same forum for these challenges, there's an overwhelming amount to read otherwise!

Yup, you're pushing yourself hard, but definitely sounds like stuff you'll be able to achieve! Look forward to hearing about your progress. I've got a pull-ups sub-goal as well so will be good to hear about progress with that too.

Excellent theme! Yoga is glorious, it's at once relaxing and challenging, and I use yoga breathing techniques all over the place. Good luck holding your own in front of your son at Tang Soo practice