Loanna

Oh, sometimes the jiggly thing is caused by water retention. I do not know how to successfully get rid of excess water. I've tried various approaches (drinking more wather than needed, drinking small amounts of alcohol -for the dehydration factor-, eating more -to get rid of metablic excess water-) and saw no results. After that, I just focused on getting stronger and stopped stressing about being a bit puffy from water retention. It has been better since. Imho, Vintage gave you the best advice you can get. Try to be stronger, fitter, and eventually you'll achieve that look you are after.

If you ever travel to Bilbao, give me a shout It is all way to the north of Spain though!

Indeed! One has to accept life as it comes and not stress too much about trivial stuff like "oh, I missed 3 workouts". It could be worse! You just have to keep the good habits when the stressful situation finishes. Anyhow, time to recap and grade this challenge... 1) Let’s lift!: lift like someone else's life depended on it (4 STR, 1 CHA) I missed 3 workouts out of 18, not bad at all! This one is a B. Even though I suffered a "lifting plateau" and last week was a mess, I am satisfied with the progression so far. I increased the weight I lift in every exercise (Squats, Deadlifts, BP, Push press and Pull-ups) and I am sure I am stronger now compared to when I started. 2) The 80% of me: eat real food (3 CON, 1 CHA) l made this one as well, so an A. However, this is not enough for what I want. During this challenge fat% has been consistently creeping up and now I'm at 23% when I used to be around 22%. That 1% needs to be "released" into the wild: last dive I had trouble sinking, and had to ask for 2kg of extra weight. I hate carrying lead blocks around, seriously. Even though they need to travel for personal development, I rather leave them at home and dive lighter.... 3) And now: relax (3 STA, 1 WIS) C: I failed soooo hard, hahaha. Most of the days I managed to get up before 8, but in no way did I acomplish the goal I set for this one. I've been hovering around 7, some days 7:30, so it is still an improvement. Howeverk, this has caused some issues, like trying to go to the gym in the evenings after work and, as a result, performing poorly. I always stayed too late working, or whatever-ing that I though couldn't wait until the next day to be done. Also, if I hadn't ignored the wise advice I got here (set an alarm to go to bed) things could've been different. Remember kids, make sure you follow good advice. Life Side Quest: Do something fun! (2 WIS) Yep, totally aced this one. I booked one "day worth of fun" every week and was not dissapointed except for one day, but that's another whole Pathfinder story. I woul'd loved to spend some time painting, but if I had to choose spending free time with friends of alone I always chose the former. I am going to incorporate "time in solitude" though, as I am missing it a lot. And that is all! As I mentioned in the ZAP thread, I won't participate in next challenge. I want to improve the lifting and thus will continue working out, eating healthy stuff and trying to forget about work at least one day per week, I just won't set goals for every aspect of it and will settle with habit development

Yep, totally agree. Actually, I'm going to skip net challenge. Will keep with the habits, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing now and getting better at it. But I can't consider it a challenge. Most probably will open a daily battle log to have data to work with, but nothing else until I finish my PhD.

This last week has sucked... a lot. No workouts, crappy sleeping, crappy eating, not much fun. Just work, work, work, 14 h hours of work everyday... Not a good way to finish the challenge Will measure and weigh in on Sunday, see how disasterous this last week has been....

I've found that BP with the bar feels a lot like arm work, as well. At first I thought that maybe I didn't know how to engage chest mucles properly, but now you mention it... I don't know. I was planning on talking to a very good instructor here at my gym (he used to compete in lifting for the Basque Country, very experienced and helpful guy), see what he recommends. I'll post any advice I get! Thanks It is very rewarding to see the numbers go up!

Weeep, writing is keeping me super busy, so I always forget to update.... Last week was a bit weak: I got a cold, and I gathered strenght to go to the gym too late everyday. That meant that I was lifting stuff at 21:30 ish, and not so motivated as when I do that in the mornings... Anyhow, lifting is "almost" going as expected. Bench press: 30kg (66-ish lbs). Squat: 40 (88 lbs) Push press: 28kg (61-ish lbs) Deadlift: 35 kg (78 lbs) Asisted Pull-Up: 15kg (3 reps), the rest with 30kg I'm stuck with BP. I've been increasing weights by 1.5 Kg every week, but with bench press is like... gah, I can't. I'm trying to just increase number of reps at 30 kg and see if I can move to higher weights later on. Probably something related to being a girl (slower muscle development), but still frustrating! The eating part is under control. The protein part at least. The rest... I don't know. I didn't want to weigh myself during the challenge because If I see fat % going up I might obsess and eat less. Wich will most likely impair lifting performance. So, for now, if I'm lifting heavier then I'm happy. Sleeping is going OK, and so is life quest. Overall, I'm really happy about how this challenge is turning out!

Gratz on getting classified for Brazil As for the jeopardized quest, how about you tell us which room you want to change this week, and we ask about it endlessly? You might work on it just to shut us up

I've found that writing down the weights of my lifts on my arm so I can see them while at the gym makes a huge difference...Yesterday I was checking them and thinking "just one little disc more and I'll make that 30 kg turn into a 32..." How weird is that for motivation

Ah, but you travelled! Tapas (or pintxos, as we call em where I'm from) are not the healthiest but they are really, really good! I think it's okay to try local food when you visit other countries, even if that messes up a bit with your goals... Not like it happens all the time!

How did it go? Lifted all the heavy things and moved towards your goals?

Gah, I wanted to. But I am so broke at the moment (not that I think it's expensive). I'm considering joining at some point in the future, tho

Oh, that Molly Mac Pack may not look sexy but might be one of the more clever pack designs I've seen to date!

Hehehe, you could get a net hammock and wrap yourself with a military blanket Anyway, if you get to experiment with different set ups let us know!

This thread could use a little bit more updating! I'm doing fine, I just can't find the time to update this, I'm such a mess... Anyhow, small sum up: The Lifting: Cool stuff, a always. Progress has been slow but steady, I like what I see when I compare the starting and current weights. Bench press: 22 kg (50.7 lbs) --> 30kg (66-ish lbs) Squat: 28 kg (70.5 lbs) --> 38 (84 lbs) Push press: 18kg (39.6 lbs) --> 24.5 (54-ish lbs) Deadlift: 25 kg --> 30 Asisted Pull-Up: 30 kg --> 15kg (only 2 reps, but I'm sooo happy about this) The eating: I've been neglecting this part a bit. I'm eating high on protein, but not as high as I wanted to. This upcoming week I'm going to fix that! Also, poor food choices have resulted in bloating and feeling heavier overall. Jeans are tight where they shouldn't.. I need to get this back on track again... as well. The sleeping: Yay! I've managed to get to bed early and consistently wake up early. I think this is under control for now Aaaand that's it for now. The side quest is going allright as well: night diving and visited a friend of mine to participate in her village's celebrations great fun!

Ahh, yes, I'm very lucky! Here most of the towns have a public sports center. For a very small fee everyone living (or working) in said town gains access to the facilities. In my case it's swimming pool and boulder for the minimun fee and a for a little extra I can sign for one activity. Most of the times I chose to get acess to the fitness area that is like the average gym, but they offer spinning, Aikido, Self defense, TaiChi, some other things I don't remember, waterpolo... lots of stuff. I did consider to get a set of barbells, but got almost inmediately scared off by the prices of that kind of gear here. Plus my guess is that training at home will make a bloody mess of the wooden flooring.

Hey there! Mine is a DD Hamock Travel/Bivi. Got that one because the lining is waterproof and you can use it as a vivac if there are not enough trees around. It rains a lot here andit's very humid most of the time. I've used it mostly in pine-tree, beech and oak forests, most of them with lots of ferns and wet fallen leaves all around. Also by the seaside, with a tarp covering the upper part because it gets really cold and humid at nights. With the waterproof ones you really want to get some kind of breathable, insulating something for comfort inside the hammock, like a military blanket or sleeping bag, if that's your thing However, for climates that are less humid I'd choose one with breathable lining (I've heard Green Hornet ones are good). As I said, a very cool piece of gear that allows for many camp setups, either combined with camping tents or under a "roof" made with several tarps...

Congratulations! every little bit counts! By the way, a pice of equipment you might be interested in (maybe as a rewardfor future challenges): a jungle hammock, if you don't own one already. Got one a few years ago and won't ever go back to camping tents!

Have fun in Valencia! I'm sure you will find something to do apart from going from party to party

I really admire your dedication to waking up so early. Every day. The only reason I can imagine for being awake at 4:50 is... that I'm going back home.. to sleep. So, way to go!

Yep DL, that's it. Although I miss the running (this challenge is more about developing strenght, so I'm just "on walk" for this 6 weeks). I've found out that if the workout ahead is lifting stuff I don't mind waking up at 6 am to be able to get it done first thing in the morning To me that's something. Plus, it is incredibly rewarding when you put that one extra weight disc in the bar (even if it is a 1.25 kg one, hehe)!!

Aight ma'am! [Runs towards Albeus, scaping the zombies of missed workouts] Actually, it's just one missed workout, and I replaced the lifting with BW exercises. But still.... it's just not the same, doesn't feel as awesome. Might need to reconsider my allegiance to the ranger's guild

I'm sorry to hear that Hope you get better

Hahaha, totally worth being late to work for wardrobe work! And wait till you start to donate clothes not because they won't fit anymore but because they fit too loosely! As for the ankle tenderness... I strongly advise some serious resting, if you let me. Feet hardware (all the little bones and tendons) is very delicate, and needs to be taken care of.