Stronkey Kong

Another day, another mile closer to Mordor!

Also, I did the maths...

At my current weight, which sadly is 300-ish lbs., if I walk the distance to Mordor I'll burn the caloric equivalent of 80 lbs of fat. Thus, at the end of this four year period, I could weigh 220 ish lbs if I stick to sedentary-ish maintenance calories.

The only trick is I'll have to be 300 lbs the whole time... so every five pounds I lose, I'm going to add 5 lbs to a weighted backpack and ruck, and probably look into some type of weighted vest, or...

Should I start making my own chainmail?

https://www.ironskin.com/tutorials/

This morning I walked my first 1.30 mi toward Mordor!

Unlike the hobbits, I haven't even had breakfast yet...

This week, known as Cheese Fare week, I've been preparing for Lent (which starts Monday), by fasting from meat (last week was Meat Fare week) and eating all the remaining cheese in my fridge.

We are not only called to fast from certain foods, but from other bad habits, taking upon ourselves some additional struggle (according to our abilities), pray, and give alms in order to distance ourselves from earthly matters and draw closer to God. I'm also planning out a whole new set of habits and routines that also dovetail with general fitness and health goals.

1.  I am now following a daily prayer rule... a more formal, daily commitment to pray with specific sets of prayers etc...
2. I also have to keep up with my Catechism class readings, daily scripture reading, and reading other spiritual works.
3.  I will be fasting from sleep  which just means reducing my sleep by reducing my overall hours with a wake up time.
4. I will be fasting from screens (except for work and necessity)
5. Fasting from inactivity-- i.e. get off my but and work or walk and exercise.
6. And of course following the traditional Orthodox Lenten fasting rules... i.e. mostly vegan, no oil except on weekends, and there are three days that we can eat fish.

To pull off goals 1-3, I'm going to be committing to a daily schedule.

12:00 am -- Bedtime -- be in bed, asleep or not.

6:00 am -- Wake up and do morning prayer rule. Afterward, coffee, read all the things.

8:00 am -- Exercise -- stretch, walk to Mordor, tack on some light calisthenics. -- I can also run morning errands during this time etc. Gotta be able to flex on this.

10:00 am -- Nap 30 min.  -- polyphasic sleep hack

10:30 am -- Light breakfast, then get ready for work.

11:30 am -- Leave for work. Regular work hours, noon-10 pm. Goal is to be home by 11 pm.

11:00 pm -- Evening prayer, then read or meditate until bedtime.

That's the general idea. I need to attend extra Lenten church services some mornings and evenings, so as needed I'll flex things for that.

For #4, I'm going to disconnect the ethernet cable for my TV and give it to my priest or someone in my parish for safekeeping... and I'll not be on here for the duration of Lent. I might still play video games on weekends, but only if I'm standing or sitting on a stool.

#5 -- yeah just walk to Mordor, exercise, and get outside... might have to start working in the garden, and I'll be working some overtime in addition to all the extra church services... yeah, I"m gonna be busy.

#6 --The fridge is almost cheese free, and I'm going to avoid shopping for the first couple of weeks and just live off the fast-friendly foods in my pantry until I'm absolutely out of something necessary. I have many pounds of vegan protein powders and a 50 lbs bag of jasmine rice in there. So I'll probably not even have to buy anything but fruits and veggies for the last few weeks.

That's all for now, I'm late for my nap!

Not much exercise. 

Diet,  not a focus I know,  but it has been getting better.  I've been just eating less and not being all wrapped up in concern for calories, protein and all that.

I've also been researching polyphasic sleep.  Sleep is one of the big struggles of mine, particularly oversleeping which cuts into morning walks and workouts. This week I'm experimenting with 6 hours at night of core sleep with a 20 minute nap before work to add a couple hours to my day. 

Other than that I'm focused on preparing my house and all for Great Lent. I'm also switching back to night shift in two weeks. I fell a bit behind on bible reading last week/ weekend but got caught up last night. 

1779

That's how many miles it is to Mordor... according to the majority of the first hits in a google search.  If I walk 1.21 miles a day for four years I'll hit that number. 

Now, there's an app or two ands a few other posts that give different numbers. I'll abide you nerds arguing over which is correct, but I like 1779, so I'm gonna stick with that. 

Hi all. 

I just popped in for an update. 

Workouts are lagging. I've been really stressed and not sleeping well the last couple nights... so my fitness tracker says, and so I feel. So i've been focusing on getting the rest I need to boost my training readiness before attempting another workout. 

We just did performance reviews at work. I asked for a raise and my boss actually smiled and seemed a little giddy. (Sigh. I should've asked for more) but he said he will support my request ands he thinks it's worth it). With that,  my four year debt payoff plan is getting easier. I had a good budget together for my current 40 hour work week, with plans to pad it with OT. Now if I just stick to that I'll be very comfortable on a much shorter, less precarious ride. 

This is the change I needed, to step aside and focus on long term goals. 

I'm gonna use this space to track workouts and a couple simple things... long term. 

Get stronk

Walk to Mordor

Stick to my snow-valanche debt payoff strategy

Read the a Bible... all of it.

I have four-year goals in mind... mainly because that's my debt payoff schedule. Except the bible, that's 1 year. 

More details to come. 

As for now I'm prepping for greyskull. I'm just doing similar bodyweight& light barbell or kb exercises to get muscles going again. 

Today I did 2 rounds of:

10 BW squats 

10 knee pushups

10 75# barbell rows

10 breath plank 

I'm not going to focus on diet or weight loss. These have not served me well. I'm focusing on performance and wellbeing. 

Welp.  Another holiday challenge is done.  

I hope everyone had a good holiday and wish you all a happy 2024.

As for me I'll working on the following this year:

1. Lose 50 lbs. 
2. Run 5k 
3. Do a pullup
4. Get good at dips
5. HEMA Military Sabre training (instead of nunchaku)
6. Career change maybe? (Probably some programming or similar)

Farewell Nerd friends...

And Shad's not wrong.  We just have to weigh his critiques against Bruce Lee's sweet, chuck moves. 

Though ultimately, nunchakus are a.m outside weapon for skinny guys. 

#mysideshurt

#bustinlampsanfishtanks

27 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

But...

Of course, no love handles.

#bruceleeiscoolerthanshadandimsureshadagrees

Today I learned the hard way:

Nunchakus and love handles do not get along. 

🤣🤣🤣

😓😓😓

🤣🤣🤣

Saturday workout:

Treadmill: Jogged 6x5 min intervals at 3.8 mph, with indefinite (5-10 min) rest intervals... just sitting.

Heavy bag: 10 min, casual drills. 

Prior to that I tested a sugar cookie recipe... meaning I ate 2 dozen sugar cookies in less than 48 hours o.O 

<sigh>

But all I ate otherwise was fish and veggies. 

Somehow I lost a pound. 🤷‍♂️

Did another treadmill workout last night. 

3x5min @  3.6 mph jogging with 2x 2.5  walking@2.8 mph in between.  Average HR was 160 bpm.

@Kishi, cuz at near 300 lbs, even slow speeds works heart, builds muscle and that's what matters. 

Thanks everyone!

Today my boss complimented me on how far i've come since we both started to working together. All I could think about is how much time I waste and how much I want to leave.  I wonder if that came across in my time when I accepted this pat on the back.  <smh>

I had a very busy weekend. Our church held a Christmas market fundraiser and I spent Friday evening and Saturday afternoon working the register in the cafe. Then church as usual on Saturday, then extra liturgy on Monday morning, followed by staying an extra 1.5 hours at work to finish a project. 

I did a 1 mile walk/run last week in my new treadmill and didn't die. So that's encouraging to do it again.... granted, I only jogged at 3.5 mph 🤣 but whatever. I'll take it.  Also trying to train my cat to walk on the treadmill. She seems to get the basic concept, and she'll walk if I hold her, but when I let go she walks a few steps then jumps off, but after seems excited and curious about the behavior of this machine. 

Lol.  My goal is to not go over 300 lbs this christmas. 

Rooting for ya!

After 10 years on NF, I hate to say it, but, I need a break from the forums. It's been great but I'm a little fatigued and not putting in the effort I used to, to be here and stick to my goals. But I figured I'll be around for one more challenge to say some goodbyes, let you all know what I'll be up to, and not just disappear. I'm not likely to quit entirely, or forever, but just taking an indefinitely long break.

So here's a list of my biggest priorities over the next few months.

1) Get spiritually swole: As I've mentioned in previous challenges, I am converting to Orthodox Christianity. Today marks the first day of the Nativity Fast, and with this comes a lot of prayer, fasting, reading/studying, and attending extra church services etc. Then Great Lent and the Catechumenate start in February/March. Then I'll be baptized on May 4 (love that it's on May 4). So that'll be another big bout of fasting, reading, prayer etc. So I'll be quite busy and focused on all that, and I'm planning to disengage from a lot of screen time.

2) I mentioned in the last challenge that I've hung up my heavy bag. I"m considering joining an MMA gym. The goal is to focus on karate for all around fitness, and be able to do some boxing/kickboxing for conditioning, and dip my toe into BJJ when I need to get humbled.

3) Running: for karate/mma and general fitness I want to be running/jogging regularly. For now I'll be working on that first mile, and hopefully working up to running 5k and 10k.

4) Strength training: I want to go back to a more bodyweight focused training and max that out before I set up the old power cage again. But also, do some clean and presses.

5) Trying to find a new line of work: I'm burning out in my current job/company. Doing the same job at another company may or may not appeal to me. IDK. I want to do something else. I recently was offered an adjunct teaching role, but I turned that down because of the catchumenate/Lent because I can't make the time commitments with that going on. But I can dabble, learn about, and explore other things.

So basically, this isn't goodbye forever, but I feel like I need to pull away from the forum and screens in general to recharge and focus on other efforts.

Hi all. Sorry for not updating and disappearing. This challenge has been tough but not a total loss.

Goals: (RESULTS)

1.  7am -- Get up and out of bed  -- This was not happening at all. So two weeks ago I quit caffeine cold-turkey... then two days in ordered a diet coke during a lunch run... then the next day a diet dr. pepper... because I totally forgot about caffeine in soft drinks. But then went until today with absolutely zero caffeine. I decided to pull the plug and have a cup of coffee because 1) it did not really have any substantial change in my health stats like heart rates, stress levels, and sleep quality (as measured by my fitness watch/app). The one benefit is that I know I can deal with life without 4-5 cups plus a large diet coke and then maybe a tea or what-the-hell-another-coffee. And with less to zero caffeine, I fall asleep easier, sleep better, and as a result can get up earlier... I did have several days these last two weeks where I got up at 7 am... though too often I chose to sleep in until 8-9. But at least I chose it rather than feeling anchored to the bed....
2. 7 exercises -- NOPE... DID NOT HAPPEN... Though if I got up at 7 am, I did do quite a bit of stretching in the morning.
3.  7 kilometers -- HAHAHA... NOPE
4.  $77.77 dollars -- my weekly grocery/food budget -- I actually managed to do this a for three of the weeks... if you don't count going for fast food during lunch... sigh... but at least I know how to lighten up the shopping expenses, mainly by leaning on my pantry stores and keeping it simple. However, I did find out that although milk is a still-relatively-cheap-staple, I have confirmed I am (mildly) lactose intolerant.
5.  7-to-7 -- fast from  7pm to 7am I feel like I actually did this half the days, but definitely paid no mind to it several days.
6.  7 things -- Find 7 things to give away or sell.  8 things from the kitchen. DONE.
7. 7 days a week -- HAHAHA... NOPE... 🤣 🤣 🤣 JUST NOPE.

FISHY UPDATES ( @Kalitraz )

1. River tank is set up and teaming with active danios (pearls, glowlight, and leopards) and corydoras. I put 4 of my leopard danio fry in there because I thought they might be getting big enough, and then couldn't handle it. Still have two healthy ones in their old tank.
2. Guppies galore: I have a 10 gal with a mix of guppy breeds... can't remember 'em all... and they are churning out babies. All are very young and not colored up yet, but the babies are all either lemon yellow or dark gray.
3. Endler's galore (another type of guppy): I saw some fry in my Silverado tub. I didn't see any in the green cobra, redline, or red-chested tubs, but they all have denser vegetation and I have limited time.
4. All my CPD fry crashed down to 3 or 4. They got bigger, so I moved them back in with their parents along with a bunch of dwarf emerald rasboras and kubotai rasboras. Not sure if I mentioned this previously, but I got a couple batches of kubotai and chilli rasboras... all the K's survived, but only one chilli survived.
5. Snails EVERYWHERE: My mystery snails laid a second clutch, though not a one has hatched yet. Nerites are laying eggs. I have pink and brown ramshorns reproducing everywhere, and of course pond snails taking over every tank.
6. SHRIMP!!! I think I forgot to mention I have a bunch of shrimp. I started with some cherry reds in with the CPDs etc. They are reproducing now and I have little baby red shrimp everywhere in that tank. I have yellows in another, and blues in yet another. Blue and yellow are hanging on, but haven't reproduced yet. I also had 6 orange ones in my guppy tank... but I only have one left.
7. Angelfish fry: I had about three dozen fry, but that population crashed to only 4. One of these has developed all the way to having the long fins and has a lot of dark splotches. I am curious to see what it'll look like grown up. The other three are lagging behind. And since then, the parents have produced another clutch, but I wasn't feeling too excited about raising another batch of AF fry so left them in the tank either the parents, the two platinum parrots I have left, the four Bolivian rams, the two mollies, or the five peppered cories in that tank ate them. <meh>

Pre-mini-challenge teaser:

I have purchased a small treadmill for the winter months, and have hung up my old heavy bag in the living room.

Also, I saw a video about why the way Italians eat and why they stay skinny (relative to other European/Western countries) and found some good strategies to implement that appeal to me. Apparently pasta is not as big a thing as it seems.

1.  7am -- I got up around 7:20-something. I'm counting it. It's the first day. It was hard. At least the hour number was still a 7. Frankly, I could have waited until 7:77 am, aka 8:17 for all you time-telling traditionalists out there.
2. 7 exercises -- I did some stretches, but not all 7. I was more focused on getting ready for church. And I went for a walk after church.
3.  7 kilometers -- I got 1.80 km walked after church today.
4.  $77.77 dollars -- I spent $54.39 at the grocery story, which is possible because I had a ton of stuff in the fridge already, and I only needed to get staples and a couple of other things.
5.  7-to-7 -- at the start of today's. I take it back this will be the hardest goal, especially on weekends when I am free to snack in the evenings.
6.  7 things -- Haven't started this yet, but I will probably put some kitchen gadgets I don't use in a box next weekend.
7. 7 days a week -- 1 day down.

I think a candy hipster would have a lot of long winded arguments for why candy corn is actually better than chocolate and probably knows the one candy shop where your can get it where its made from organic, locally sourced ingredients. 

I updated my goals. 

I poured 25 lbs of rice into a five gallon bucket and did my first rice bucket workout. 

Then I hung some rings so I can do rowing movements in my morning workouts.

On 10/16/2023 at 4:09 PM, Kalitraz said:

Here to follow along (and possibly for fishy updates?). GL with your new alarm time.

On 10/16/2023 at 4:50 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You got this.

16 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Oooh yes, I like this waking up at 7 goal, especially if it supports your other goals. What time are you aiming for to go to sleep?

The main reason is because when I start teaching (fingers crossed it doesn't fall through) I'm going to have a couple morning each week I'll have to be in class.

But yeah, I need to generally figure out mornings and working out and stuff. 

3 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Here for morning routines. You've got this!

Following. 

I just finished a bout of covid a couple weeks ago myself. 

I'd give it a 1/10 tho because I at least got a week off from work. 😁

Hope your recovery goes well!

Goals:

1.  7am -- Get up and out of bed  -- naps allowed whenever needed/possible to support early rises or nights with less than 7 hours of sleep.
2. 7 exercises -- do 7 stretches or calisthenics exercises every morning. 
3.  7 kilometers -- walk at least 7 kilometers every week (about 4.35 miles)
4.  $77.77 dollars -- my weekly grocery/food budget -- this will be the hardest goal.
5.  7-to-7 -- fast from  7pm to 7am
6.  7 things -- Find 7 things to give away or sell. Very likely just putting them in a box for a future church rummage sale etc.
7. 7 days a week -- follow my morning routine, 7am-7 stretches, 7-to-7 fast 7 days a week.

And, it's been a week and I didn't hear back from that recruiter... and I'm not concerned. I don't care if I do. Teaching biology seems like the thing to do. 

On 10/11/2023 at 12:23 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

That's so cool! I hope you really enjoy it!

Thanks! I've really enjoyed teaching in the past so this should be good. 

7 hours ago, Kalitraz said:

Congrats on the teaching side-gig! What will you be teaching?

Thanks!

Intro bio courses. I think the first one will be "Diversity of life" so evolution, ecology, organismal biology etc.