sarakingdom

Formal tracking will resume tomorrow with the new week. But I have been doing fairly well on the evening routine lately. A little meditation, and a gigantic amount of sleep. (Really too much sleep, I can't sustain those late mornings during the work week. But a pretty clear sign that I have been needing the rest. The past two nights have been twelve hours in bed, ten of it asleep and two resting with podcasts or a video.) If I can keep my evening shifted slightly forward, I can maybe squeeze in ten hours in bed. Which is the challenge goal. I think, between the rest and the alternate lower workout goals, last week was probably a pass, even if it was not an unqualified success. And I think making the diet shift happen, that's probably another point in favor of a pass. (The scale dropped couple of pounds this morning and apparently I "look thinner". I very much doubt I do, but I'll take it. So I guess the very-low-carb experiment is still on.) Cowboy Bebop was a good pick this time around, actually. It's unexpectedly soothing, for a cartoon about bounty hunters in a wildly violent future.

At the very least, it's not helping right now. Best to cut it out. I got some great sleep. Really top-level sleep. I was going to do some reading in bed, but I was so tired I went straight to the "close my eyes and listen to podcasts" stage. It did take several of them, because I was ahead of my usual sleep schedule, but it counts as rest, at least. Then I slept for, I dunno, ten hours. Twelve hours in bed, it was glorious. I seem to have lost about a pound so far this week. My weight did bounce up after my carb-cycle day, but it was immediately back down to the previous day's weight after that, so that seems like a reliable number. That's with my calories at or above maintenance most days, so I think I'll have to continue the low-carb experiment, which seems like it's mostly an exercise in sneaking fats into things without hitting the blecch point. Not sure whether the carb cycle day is necessary, and I definitely had a hangovery feeling the next day, but my challenge theme says yes. There doesn't seem to be any harm in it, if this week's pattern holds true.

Updates coming soon. As is my switch back to decaf. Whoa, this week with regular coffee every day didn't work. Massive anxiety yesterday and today. I'm going to try to get a lot of sleep tonight, this is not okay.

Oh, you should definitely check out Cowboy Bebop! After The Last Airbender. Where are you up to on that? Sleep is the worst. I also really like being up early, but going to bed early is hard. And for me, if I miss the right window, I lose the mental awareness to get it right. The weekend did not help. I'm working on that.

We missed you, too! Man, I could stand to work on some randori principles, too.

I'm kind of behind on my check-ins. It's been a busy week, and I'm struggling with my to-do list. (It's also done a slight number on my bedtime most nights this week, which has a knock-on effect in the morning. Not enjoying that. I'm trying to get it right tonight.) I've gone very-low-carb this week, because I have some clues that my body manages my weight better when my diet is high-fat, and I also really want to get off some of the weight I've been grumbling about. So far, so good. A couple of pounds down, and actually getting hunger cues again. (Given how long I spent at calorie deficit not ever getting hungry, I sort of get worried when I stop feeling physical hunger, and that's been true for a while now, even though I'm eating largely at my TDEE. So I think it might be linked to fat intake.) Well, mostly good. I don't actually enjoy this high a percentage of my diet being fats, and I like a more liberal hand with fruit and vegetables, and I like some yogurt. But it's an experiment. Due to my challenge theme, keeping the cortisol levels low, my understanding is that I should slip some carb refeeds in there. Not something I have a lot of experience with, but tomorrow's going to be the first high carb day. I've got a lot of fruit that needs eating.

Paying for convenient healthy food is not a bad choice. You solve the problem the best way you can. And, okay, I don't pay grocery store prices for bagged salad, I pay Trader Joe's prices, which are pretty close to head-of-lettuce pricing, but if the bag of salad greens means I eat five salads a week, that's better than the salads I don't eat for a pretty minimal price change. If the bag of baby carrots and hummus means you avoid the chips, much better deal. My other suggestion, if you're packing snacks to take places, is to swing by Amazon for some cheap plastic takeout containers and silicone muffin cups. It's easier to go back to the bulk hummus if you can immediately divide it into five or seven cups for use during the week, and once you've got a basic snack-bento layout, it's easy to throw together without thinking about it.

I've been doing a lot of this lately, too. It saves so much damn time to make seven lunches instead of one. Mostly salads in the summer, but it's getting to be hot food weather. Good reminder, I should make a lunch this week, cooking's taken too much time the past few days.

It's getting dark much earlier than I expect, so my afternoon swim wasn't. And apparently they can swim. I missed the day there was a snake in the pool, fortunately. Mostly I just get a lot of deer very late at night. Er, around the pool, not in it.

Shandy is beer mixed with soda, usually Sprite. You are now in charge of cooking all the Monastery burgers.

Huh. That'd be cool. That's definitely new, that has not been the recommendation lately. But what a massive difference it makes in how I feel after my workout.

Are you sure? Are we monks, or aren't we?

Session #8: Smokin' Boogie After an orbit of the planet, I landed at the spaceport in Antoniadi Crater. The Linda's Luck was there, the Kua Fu, the Bebop, the Stormcrank, the Spider, and a dozen more I didn't recognize. The pilot of the Kua Fu was inspecting his landing gear when I passed him on the walkway. He looked up. "Hey. Sanjuro." I nodded. "Kua Fu." I didn't see Jet Black when I passed the Bebop. There was a tall kid leaning against the struts lazily puffing on a cigarette, and a yapping dog at his feet. I guess Black is settling down, kids and a dog. Last week seems like a pass. Even with the number of aikido-warmups-as-placeholders, I got in my minimum number of workouts, and the habits are roughly holding. (I don't actually feel too bad about the aikido warmups as a stand-in, given that 15 minutes of yoga was one of my alternatives. There's more strength benefit from the yoga, but I think of them both as short flexibility workouts.) Holy crap, it feels really good to have the strength training back in my week. (Actually, what feels really good is mixed strength/cardio workouts. Not recommended by trainers. But either one on its own, not very satisfying. Both together, like rowing or this martial arts conditioning workout, twenty-four hours of feeling awesome.) Some points for improvement: My morning meditation is not always happening, because it's not happening before I start work. I think that needs to be the next step.I had some weekend bedtime slippage that I forgave, because it was the weekend, but I really ought not do that. The good news is, I seem to be getting tired at more reasonable times now, and actually going to sleep. But, basically, I need to work on just plain getting into bed sooner. I should see what audiobooks I still have to get to.Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? No. Did I meditate? Yes. Was I in bed on time? No. If not, how late was I? An hour and a half. This morning Did I meditate: Yes. Did I hydrate: Yes, sort of. Did I do my aikido warmup: Yes. Did I exercise: No, aikido warmups as stand-in. Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: Yes Is the additional social activity picked: Not yet. Score: 5 pass, 1 fail Smokin' Boogie by Ukadan

Hrm, describe this. Swimming season isn't quite over yet, and I have a swim coming up later today.

Centuries of Britons can't be wrong!

I had a bat fall into the pool while I was swimming last night. I ended the swim quickly.

Session #6 & #7: Journey to the Inner System The hyperspace gate closes behind me, and I stretch, thinking about my post-training shower once I clear the other end. "Hey," says Yuri. The screen flickers and his face appears. His ship, the improbably-named Linda's Luck, pulls in beside the Sanjuro. "What are you going to the inner system for?" "Sightseeing," I say, leaning back in the pilot's chair with a yawn. "Sure," says Yuri. "Do a lot of bokken training to visit the Valles Marinerus?" "Girl's gotta do something to avoid going soft in space," I say. Yuri smiles. Not a comforting sight. "Guess we'll be seeing you on Mars, then," he says. "I'll buy you a little plastic souvenir lander with my two million woolongs." "If you've come into money, I'd think you could spring for dinner, Yuri," I say. "Consolation drink, maybe," he says, and the screen flickers off. Not if I get the bounty first, I think. Nice of him to give me a heads up about the competition on this job. Of course, it's not a surprise. Two million woolongs will be bringing everyone out of the woodwork. Mars is going to be flooded with bounty hunters. It feels good to be back in training. Last Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? No. Did I meditate? Yes. Was I in bed on time? No, I had some weekend drift. If not, how late was I? *mumble mumble* Probably not more than two hours. And then I slept in. Last morning Did I meditate: No. Did I hydrate: Yes (ish) Did I do my aikido warmup: Yes. Did I exercise: No. Aikido warmup placeholder. (But I swam later, so I did exercise yesterday.) Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: No Is the additional social activity picked: Yes Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? Yes, went swimming. Did I meditate? Yes. Was I in bed on time? No. If not, how late was I? Weekend drift again, maybe a couple of hours. This morning Did I meditate: About to do that. Did I hydrate: Yes. Did I do my aikido warmup: No. Did I exercise: Yes, mixed strength/cardio HIIT. Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: Yes Is the additional social activity picked: Yes. Score: 4 pass, 1 fail The In Crowd by The Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio

If your pool is closed indefinitely, then commit to one that's open. May as well be the Aqua Combat one! Saturday does sound like your best day, if you're too tired Friday. You might find that Friday is doable, and you have more energy than you think when you get there, but it may not be worth fighting that feeling every week. You pick your battles, you know? It sounds like a good class for you.

I would do it. Even if the combat side is mostly just aqua-aerobics, it's going to be some reasonable conditioning for what you do outside the water, and it gets you committed to the swimming you want to do. It's probably not much more expensive than just going swimming, that's got to be about €5 a session anyway. Not going away on the weekend, well, it's just three months. You can manage that, and do the birthday afterwards or skip just that one. I would only say not to do it if you have a pool that's closer to you (and a reason to make yourself go), and can get that hour of travelling back.

You underestimate my capacity for annoyance.

We occasionally did some defenses against kicks, not as a regular thing, but a handful of times, and yeah, basically this. The things I remember are: lots of irimi, because the power of a kick, like a punch, is at the point of full extension and the safest place with a kick is close to the person who's kicking pay attention to which direction the power of the kick is going, and do a lot of redirecting the power of that kick to solidify the safety of your position if a person on two legs is an unstable tripod missing their third point of contact, a person with their leg in the air is an unstable tripod balancing on a single point, so if you can find that safe place to stand, you have a lot of ways to take them downThis looks a lot like what I learned for straight kicks: And this looks similar to what I recall for roundhouse, but not precisely what I recall: (He has a few other responses to roundhouse kicks that look a bit more like what I remember. We didn't flip the person, IIRC.) While looking for those, I found a few videos of hapkido responses to kicks, and in a lot of cases, the initial reaction to the kick, deflect and take the attacker's balance, was pretty similar. A lot of the divergence is what an aikidoka and a hapkidoka do after that.

Session #4 & #5: Guitar Boogie Double Feature Last Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? No. Did I meditate? Yes. Was I in bed on time? No. If not, how late was I? An hour. Last morning Did I meditate: No. Did I hydrate: Yes (ish) Did I do my aikido warmup: Yes Did I exercise: No. Aikido warmup placeholder. Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: Yes Is the additional social activity picked: Yes Last Night Did I do some relaxing movement? No. Did I meditate? No. Was I in bed on time? No. If not, how late was I? Two hours. This morning Did I meditate: About to do that. Did I hydrate: Yes (ish) Did I do my aikido warmup: Yes Did I exercise: No. Checklist Is the music picked: Yes Is the comedy picked: Yes Is the additional social activity picked: Not yet. Score: 3 pass, 1 fail The thing I'm mostly noticing now is how impatient I am in the morning. Having to slow down and do all that extra crap is really annoying. But I also really need the stretching. Added hip opening stretches to my aikido warmup, because I need them. What is the solution to "I am annoyed by my new habit"? Guitar Boogie by The Japanese Sandmen

A bunch of NPR and Nerdist podcasts, mostly. It goes in phases. Some weeks I want the science, some weeks I want the straight-up entertainment.

"One of"? Try the best Batman who ever Batmanned.

Ha! For me, it's podcasts. Although I tend to do a little Twitter first. It's sort of my only Twitter time. But then it's podcasts or audio dramas. Alas, I don't think a regular morning wakeup time necessarily translates into a regular evening sleep time, for me.