Syrcen

I had this post half 90% done and my computer crashed. Forgive any shortness. I have been playing Ark:Survival Evolved with my husband and out new gaming clan at clanAOD.net recently. It has distracted me from doing the reading in this forum and posting that I should be doing but other then the side quest it has not distracted me from my challenge goals. 1) On Monday I skipped breakfast and I took the leftover premixed salad and treated it as a bag of oddly flavored potato chips for lunch. I didn't even play ARK. I watched Lie to Me and Start Trek:Next Generation on Netflix. I had bought an acorn squash to add into the Fajitas this week but my husband never had a night flight so I didn't want to experiment that much. I will let you all know what I end up doing with that later. When I cooked fajitas for dinner yesterday I added mushrooms, 3 bell peppers, and onions. Apparently that is a go to vegetable meal for me. Or maybe I am on a kick. I had them yesterday and I sort of want some more today. I did include a 10 oz can of chicken so that it wasn't purely meatless but my husband commended it would have been better if it wasn't meatless. I didn't get credit for meat with less meat so next time I'll skip the chicken all together or just make some that can be added separately. Normally I fix this with a chicken breast per person plus half an onion and one bell pepper. Fajitas is the only food I tend to over spice so it might not hurt to do the meat as an aside. Or I might follow the NF basic cooking advice and make some strips of baked chicken to keep in the fridge. Technically I also ate half of a can of asparagus my son had for breakfast one day. Looking for a breakfast food my son asked for asparagus and I didn't miss such an opportunity due to breakfast norms. He must have liked the asparagus he tried last week. Boo for all of this talk of food. Now I want a snack. Oh I also bought normal red apples this week so that I wouldn't be tempted to reinforce hatred for green apples. SO much better. 2) I had some egg nog purchased before joining this challenge. Early this week I would down three glasses of water early in the day so that I could have egg nog with a water chaser in the evening,. It was great the first day. Not so much the third day. On the fourth day I gave the egg nog to my son for dinner. I am clearly not dehydrated. 100% success so far, assuming we measure the days from when I get up to when either the sun comes up or I go to sleep. Wednesday my egg nog was close to midnight but I think it counts. As I am the official judge and the only appeals judge the statement stands. If I am making the poor choice to be up at midnight I am not going to make this an issue. 3) My husband/son did not have work/school on Wednesday. I was also very lazy Monday. I did go to the gym yesterday. After ten minutes walking at 3.2+ my son needed a bathroom break. Upon returning I dropped my speed to 2,7 and played with the incline. Apparently +3.5 doesn't feel that much different even though it raises my BPM. 8.5 on the other hand has an immediate impact on how my legs feel. I was also surprised that negative inclines raised my BPM. I spent ten minutes playing with the incline before returning the 0.0 incline and continued for 5 minutes. That was 25 minutes. That counts even though I didn't take down the stats the whole time since i kept hitting buttons. I find it odd that my right leg seems more 'tired' then my left today. I prefer not to go two days in a row, but I worry if the weather is bad and my husband is home, will I be able to talk myself into going to the gym on Saturday. Originally he said he would go with me on Wednesday but that didn't work out. I will also be traveling next week I am debating how to fit one or two missed workout into my life. Doing 30 min and calling it two events is against the spirit of this quest so I might have to make up for that fast thanksgiving. I will likely need it more after the fact anyways. Did I mention I haven't been doing at much reading as I should? On an unrelated note I saw a quote online from an Infamous American Gangster. "Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but if someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me." Do you know who it is without looking it up? Al Capone. I know very little about him, but it's very interesting to think about that quote. Maybe I should look him up. It is true that even if you have power in a situation there is no reason or benefit in being impolite.

After looking at NF's 20 Min Hotel Work out, I had to laugh because lot of my hotel stays now are centered around trying to get my son to not jump and disturb people on the floor below us. Don't jump in hotel rooms, but it's ok to do 50 jumping jacks and jumping squats. That lead me to Youtube for low impact, often beginner exercises, sitting routine and eventually something entirely unrelated. Are You Sitting Too Much was perhaps more interesting to me because it including links in the description to cite their sources. I was most drawn in by the section when they focused in on the negative medical impact of sitting for 6 hours per day regularly. One point they try to make is that even if you are exercising the gains you make don't negate the truth of the losses this seems to cause. The solutions to this problem for desk workers are really upper management issues (like standing desks) but as an at home person my distractions are easier to address. How much less compelling would Walking Dead be if you were standing in the middle of the room instead of sitting? Would someone walking into the room actually give you a heart attack or would you just have to pause the DVR and take a moment. In trust for some people that might increase the fun. Would leaning on a wall be that much more stressful then sitting? That's something I will need to think about for myself later. 1) I haven't done much good or ill on this topic since my last post. I'm sitting on my laurels until they shrivel away at midnight. 2) As I am writing this I am finishing up the minimum water I needed for today, meaning that this week was 100% successful. This quest doesn't lean itself to very interesting writing, but if any of the readers would like for me to include random healthy things about water I would be happy to do that. I just assume most people here already have their reasons unless I head otherwise. 3) I did not go to the gym as planned on Friday, but I did go on Saturday. Weekly average is met. I found it odd that Wednesday I needed speed set at 2.7 raised my heart rate to over 140, while on Saturday I needed 3.1 to stay above 120 BPM. I was so close to 1.0 on distance when I finished my 15 mins that I dropped the speed to 2.0 and continues for just over another minute to finish that. No one was in the family section of the gym at that time so I felt free to move about. Because of my 'no issue' after Wednesday's incident on the second machine I did then jump onto a ski machine, but I picked a different machine because that first one was scary. I stayed on this one until the distance reached 0.1, which isn't much but it isn't part of my goal. I went over and picked up and held pair of 5 lb weights while I waited for my son to pick up some items in the kids play area. I literally just held them directly in front of my like some sort of platter for one minute, and this held them above me head for one minute. I'm sure moving my arms about would have been more useful but I just did what I wanted. My legs are slightly discomforted when I move around today but it isn't constant and it isn't so much that it makes me want to avoid moving. Oddly I keep catching myself wiggling and pacing like I unconsciously think I can 'walk it out'. I looked at a few of the assassin challenges and there is a lot of free form goals there. More interestingly there is also the first week/Level 1 of the Super Mario Brothers All Star Challenge that just closed. Many of the assassins either did 100 Jumping exercises of some sort or ate acorn squash this week. I know what an acorn squash is, but I can't say I know what it tastes like. What caught my eye the most is a recipe that called for them to be cubed, prebaked, and added into fajittas near the end. I marveled at the concept. I will be very suprised if I don't end up buying an acorn squash soon. Apparently a lot of us in the recruits section are unknowingly fulfilling the Scout's Mini Challenge. I am drinking more water and vegetables to hedge out other bad choices. Clearly we are not scouts and should not interrupt their conversation, but it's nice to know if your struggling with a minor change that it is something that even more advanced people have to work on. And I guess that means it's time to start over for week 2.

I am glad your both enjoying the thread. There is so much in these forums, so I will probably be linking other threads and curiosities from here as I go along. 1) Yesterday I had a green apple for lunch and little microwave burritos for dinner, so no progress there. My son likes green apples. I keep trying them. I'm pretty sure it's a sign of insanity that I eat them over and over, each time thinking 'Yuck, to sour. I need to remember not to eat them unless they are ripe. At least it wasn't a super bad day. Today for late lunch I had vegetable fajitas. I used some fiesta brand seasoning, a small yellow and green bellpepper, a small onion and two small chopped up baby carrots. A little olive oil to keep the stuff from sticking in the frying pan to much, and a a half handful shredded cheese. I made a second one for my son after he got home from school. I negotiated two bites before he begged off for hot dogs so I ended up eating that one about 4pm. For Dinner I just threw some salad into a bowl. It was just one of those premade salads in the bag at the grocery store. I had tomatoes but I didn't bother. Mostly green with a little purple and orange. That makes two vege meals and a salad this week. Anything from here until Sunday is bonus, but I do have stuff for more fajitas and that doing that without the meat was better then I thought it would be. 2) Yesterday I did fine. When I started to draft this post I still hadn't drank my second 16 ounce cup of water to meet my today's quota. I wasn't drinking anything else, I just don't have very good thirst instincts. I had a half glass of water this morning and It's been sitting here half full for most of the day. It's times like this that I wonder why I don't have more trouble with dehydration. The important thing is that I finished it and I am at 100% success so far. 3) I did go to the gym on Wednesday as I had planned. I pushed the treadmill heart button, hoping that would keep the BPM listed, and the treadmill asked for me to adjust my age from 35, click click, my weight from 185, click click click....click...click and hold...click click click. click, and my percentage from 85% (sure whatever) and 15 mins. Grab the handles and walk..faster..faster...OMG pull the stop! Quick start manual. Last time I was at the gym I was going way under 2 miles per hour to get in the BPM range I wanted on the same machine. I was over 3 miles per hour and it was registering my heart rate at 76. I lowered the rate to 2.7 miles per hour and was able to hold the bars a little better and brisk walked along with the monitors showing me around 145 bpm. Close enough. I like walking so specific muscles don't hurt and as long as I breath deeply I'm doing super. 2 minutes left on the clock and my phone rings. I answer the call while still walking. 1 min 35 seconds, I stop the machine and step away to talk to my property manager. My husband is military and we bought a house at his last duty station in Shreveport LA. We've been paying the mortgage and waiting for a tenant since April. We has an offer, but they asked for a major price reduction so we will have to wait and see. Another pair of ladies and their trainer had moved onto the treadmills while I was on the phone so I started investigating the other machines. None of them worked when I hit the start buttons. The trainer lady (realizing that she'd unintentionally tied up three machines for two people machine) came over to see what was wrong. Apparently the majority of the machines in the room have to have someone start moving them before they work. They make their own power. How very economic. I jumped onto a ski machine thing, put 10 minutes onto the timer and manual quick started the machine. I got my heart rate up to 120 and realized this machine doesn't just work your heart. I felt every swing in my calves. Let BPM drop to 90 because I was trying to figure out a method where the pain stopped. I pushed back up to 110. I tried this for 5 minutes but I have no idea of how much of that time was over 120. Five minutes of that was enough and the treadmill was still busy and I just wanted to leave. And all of the stats disappeared before I could write them down on the second machine and I didn't care. I was feeling a little worn on the treadmill but that was "not happy". Today I don't hurt that much and any annoyance isn't in my calves so apparently that ski wasn't as bad for me as it felt like it was at the time. I've walked until i have to count my steps to ignore my body's complaints or tried to walk off a sprain before but I rarely done something that hurts instantly that didn't end very poorly. I might try the ski machine again starting at one or two minutes again, but not at the end. I understand no pain no gain in principle but I expected a building discomfort that becomes pain. Not so much an acute onset of unhappiness. It gave me some things to think about. And I still need to go back to the gym tomorrow but I am not sure if I will bother with that any time soon or not. I am still pretty positive I am on track for success on this point. Regardless of any oddity in that visit I am going to count that as a session completed. Maybe next time I Today the first thing I found of interest in this forum was actually the avatar of the Assassin Guild leader Starsapart. It is am image of a woman doing what I believe is aerial yoga. There was a place in Shreveport where you could take a class to learn aerial yoga dancing and it seemed way beyond me. I had not thought about aerial yoga in a long time and have only seem it in youtube videos. It's very circus de soleil swingset light. I'm miles away from being motivated enough to join that but I wonder what sort of physical shape the veteran readers where in when they first started considering classes, or if they have been happy enough avoiding them and the associated costs. I am assuming being willing to run without danger behind you is a great first step and being willing to fork over more than minimum wage is the second. Maybe I'm wrong. My brain is way to random today. See you next time!

Quest 1) Today I had a can of asparagus with a light sprinkling of salt on top for lunch. It was actually very good. The last time I had asparagus it was more mushy then typical and because I grew up on canned asparagus I expect it to be pretty mushy. My husband doesn't tend to like asparagus so all the more reason it has been a while. While it doesn't impact the quest itself I did try a little self sabatoge today. I went to the store after my son returned for school where we bought salad, apples, pickles, bell peppers, more asparagus. A very health trip. Followed by a run through the Burger King for a pair of Whooper Jrs and fries. This evening I also had an evening snack of left over Key Lime Pie. New subquest- get the sweets out of sight! Quest 2) 100% so far. I've only drank water today. I had three 16 ounce cups before lunch and have since just drank more when I get thirsty. That totally counteract the pie, right? Quest 3) Maybe Wednesday and Friday? EDIT: I just did Nuala's Character Generator. It left me with some questions like. I wonder if I would like meditation. I enjoyed being able to check and uncheck the boxes for a little more 'what if'. Apparently I need to lurk the Scouts and Assassins forum, but I might want to try some skills taught by the Druids and Adventurers. I was suprised Ranger didn't take it due to my tendency to be inconsistent. If there are recruits wandering this forum it might be fun to fill it out yourself.

A quiz? Ok. 1. Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? Yes, it is achievable over a long period, at least in part. I looked up my recommended BMI on the CDC website, and 169 was my maximum normal weight range. As far as addressing fatigue and endurance there is no guarantee working towards less weight through diet and activity will be the entire answer, but it's a good starting point. 2. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? I believe they all work towards my main quest. I believe cutting out empty calories and adding in purifying water will help my system regardless of actual weight loss this challenge. Getting my heart rate up and building that muscle so I can better take on 'real' exercise without having to keel over is useful. And vegetable fajittas or a warm stew will be much better for my weight then a pair of Whooper Hamburgers with no onions followed a few hours later by a yummy slice of key lime pie. Some, but not all, of my quests have natural subquests. Trying new vegetables and new ways of preparing old vegetables might make the time go better, and have other benifits. Likewise while I am getting my heart rate up, I might be stuck by the idea to run an even mile at the end or use every machine one week. There isn't really any additional subquests for the drinking of water that I would consider. Those little sub-quests are more liek bonus achievements. I can take them or leave them. 3. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? Absolutely, but that would be unwise for me. I set goals at what I considered the minimum needed for real progress. I can go to the gym, and follow with a day or two of rest after. Three times weekly is more ideal, but I already lowered that to account for inevitable travel, etc. Going once per week will not likely even yield a habit. Assuming I eat between 14 and 21 meals per week, 2 meals is between 10% to 15%, ignoring the truth of snacking so I'm not vegetable crazy. And finally, my water goal is something I have done in the short term before with some success and some failure. I know that method works for me. 4. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? I plan to post in the thread about my meals and exercise results, plus I have a new notebook to use between the action and the post. If I am having a stressful time I may track my water intake for a couple of days on paper, but if I down two glasses of water before I can have any milk, egg nog, etc and then match the other liquids with water that goal is self regulating. 5. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? All three goals are graded on a pass fail sytem with a certain limitation to allow a mistake. The only reward is passing the goal itself. 6. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? If I injure myself, I will fail my third goal and I will be ok with that. 60% success is better than 0%. If I become so injured that I cannot eat a salad and drink water then I'll have greater concerns. If I'm ill, I can still likely meet all of my goals. If I can't then I will have to roll back into another six weeks. Goals are only worthwhile if they can be failed. There is nothing shameful to a failed goal if you tried hard. If there was no risk of failure that wasn't really a goal. 7. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? I planned for Thanksgiving and related travel by using weekly averages and providing a 'make up' credit for that week on my meals. My son has a few days off of school in November at other times, but he can eat a salad with his mother. 8. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? I do not believe there is a conflict. 9. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I guess I don't get to spend as much time on my PC playing games or watching TV. Forcing myself to make time for this stuff I don't particularly want to do is the actual challenge. If I prioritze them I have time. If I watch netflix instead of cooking dinner and I eat convenience food instead of vegetables I will only have myself to blame. 10. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? I am building several different habits that will likely support the main quest.

Hello Cotterpin! Since you hate chopping things I wonder if you have tried one of those food chopper gadgets with the big button on the top? The manual ones, not an electrical gadget. Some people don't like them, but some people do. If you haven't tried one, you might ask local friends if they have one you could borrow for a couple of days to see if you like it. My mom hated it, but my husband's mom has one and uses it all the time. I can take it or leave it myself, but it might be worth a try.

Thanks for the comments Raxie. I will keep dried fruits and nuts in mind as well.

Thanks for the tip Cottonpin. I will definately keep that in mind.

Sometimes when I run late, I can hear a voice from my childhood warning me against being "about a day late, and a dollar short." It's to bad it only encourages that rebellious streak where I do things at the last possible moment. I have been draggin' my feet on posting a thread. I drafted it a couple time but somehow wandered without posting. There is a simple reason for this. As far as my personal health, for years I acted as Super Villian, The Sloth Monster, showing others how to ignore problems until they go away or explode in their face. And now I get to have earned my very own Goa'uld! It looks more like a faceless blobfish and it's located on my stomach. Aren't villans just suppose to just get jail time? Or treasure? Doesn't a sloth monster deserve better then a parasite that takes over higher brain function and demands yummy pie? And where is my improved immune system? This thing it broken. In the past when someone mentioned my weight and suggested I at least try some random lifestyle change, I listened to a different voice in my head. That is a voice I believe you might have in yours as well. "Do or do not. There is no try." It seems a little childish of a 30 year old person to internally roll their eyes and reply "I guess that means I do not. Good thing Luke and I have nothing in common!" Recently I have been feeling an issue instead of other people just throwing unwanted input at me. Something needs to change. I believe there is only one reasonable option. That thing everyone's been telling me my whole life: Tapeworms! WORM SOURCES*: 1) Eating more vegetables. Specifically: Eat a (raw vege, not pasta) salad as a main course once per week. Eat a different noncorn/potatoe vegetable once per week.. Actual servings, not one 'health baby carrot' minced into a whole pot of other food. In the cases of a stew or mixed food item, at least one half of all of the provided food must be fruit/vegetable. So a thin piece of sea weed in a sushi isn't enough unless it's a vegetable sushi on the inside too. GRADING: Substituting two vege meals for a salad or two salads for the vege meal is acceptable. If a week is missed, failure. One acception on the week of thanksgiving. Eating two meals to make up for a missed meal in the week following will be allowed. 2) Drink more water. Specifically drink over 30 ounces of water per day. Also 50% of liquid intake must be water. I gave up caffine earlier this year, but I have been drinking a lot of milk, juice and a few caffine free soda options. I learned in prior attempts to trade caffine for water in my diet that I cheat unconciously. Drink all of the water in the morning and trying to see if mountain dew can be used for water poisoning in the evening. Not the way. GRADING: Pass if complete without missing more than one day per week, and never two days in a row. Anything else is failure. 3) Help blood flow. Specifically go to the fitness center and raise heart rate to between 120 and 130 on average twice per week for at minimum 15 minutes. I am aware that I need to add strength training too, but for now carrying 240 lbs on my frame is just going to have to count. Maybe I will do extra. GRADING: 12 Times Success, 10 Times Reasonable Effort, 9 or less, self diluted failure. Side Quests I set annual goals, and adjust quarterly. This year I moved so I recieved a second set in April ideas (that don't count much because they weren't written down. There is a limit to the number of goals you can honestly pursue so I cannot make to many new ones, but: 4) I will update this thead at least ten times. 10% percent per update. *That's a bad joke. I am already aware that tapeworms can be contracted from raw meat; not typically encouraged by vegetables, water and exercise. Enjoy a random link on the topic that I couldn't work into the post.. I'm not usually a joking person. I'll do better next time maybe. EDIT: For the sake of clarification, my main goal is to eventually not have a blobfish for a stomach. Additionally I need to address some fatigue and endurance issues. The best way to do this would be to loss weight from 240 lb down to at most 169. it took years to get here, so I assume it would be more than reasonable to take more than a year. That is a long time, but that's not my initial focus. Before I can loss weight, I probably need to address my tendency to have excess bad foods and not exercise. I plan to build some better habits and hope the numbers take care of themselves.