Kishi

Goal: 3/5

Oops. Got a little too busy for my own good yesterday and got lost in doing stuff instead of sitting still. That wasn't the goal.

Strength-wise, it was a leg day yesterday. I've traded out Hinging and Lunging for now in favor of Hip Thrusts and building toward what's called a Nordic Hamstring Curl. A few reasons for this:

1. Since I got a bee in my bonnet about getting back to swinging a 32kg kettlebell, I've been hitting swings a couple times a week, which means I'm working a dynamic/explosive Hinge pattern twice while everything else is getting worked once. Add in a dedicated Hinge day and the Hinging I need to do for Farmer's Carries and Suitcase Carries, I just got the sense it was a bit much. More is only better up to a certain point and all that.
2. Hip Thrusting has direct carryover to grappling.
3. The Hamstring Curl is reputedly another bulletproofing exercise for the knees. I'm building up to it at the moment and it's a long way off, but I've noticed that my knees actually do feel better on days that I do the related work.

Grappling was good yesterday. I got paired with a hot-headed two-stripe white belt who was half my size for class, who really tried to take charge of how things were going to go between us. I let him. I'm not getting paid to be an alpha or whatever. Although, when we did situationals afterward and his game plan fell apart and I pretty much just passed and swept him at will... well, I won't bother denying that I was deeply amused. Could have probably subbed him if I really wanted to, but I don't really care about that kind of thing so much now so I didn't pursue it.

Only had one possibility of getting subbed, which I managed to foil, but I don't really understand what survival looks like. It's a behind-the-back kimura, which is basically a shoulder lock applied with the arm facing down/toward your feet. I've figured out one survival mechanism for it, and I know the block for it, but I was hit with it in a position where I couldn't achieve the block, and I had to use my position to stop it. It was a near thing, and I honestly think if the clock had run any longer, I might have gotten got with it. It's something to research further, which is proving a challenge for the moment, but if I can sink some time into it, I'm sure I can figure it out.

But, uh, yeah, haven't gotten submitted in the past week or so. Not even by the colored belts. That's... a good feeling. I like it.

Anyway, today is today. I gotta catch up on some work for the cases. As usual, circumstances beyond my control have affected my ability to actually close the cases and make decisions, and it's annoying, but it's nothing new. In terms of the writing, the story took a turn I didn't necessarily plan on and I think I need to assess where I am and where I'm going and if my characters make sense here. Softer work, not exactly the same as putting prose to page or plotting and planning, but I think it's good to do it now rather than later.

Sheeeeeeesh that didn't go smooth at all. I mean it was the right thing to do, for sure, but it sounds like you really had to roll with the punches on this one.

One trip down, I guess.

On 12/6/2023 at 8:43 AM, shaar said:

By the time I was heading home though my energy started to dip pretty heavily so I spent the afternoon chilling with the cats and putting together dinner (garlic parm chicken tenders with egg noodles and a delightful WALDORF SALAD from the ol TRADER JOES) I still feel like I'm fending off some kind of sickness, especially with Ao being sick over the weekend, so today is definitely a stay-at-home day, with maybe some light lifting in the afternoon.  The rest of my holiday errands can wait until tomorrow.

Yeah, take it easy. Something's apparently making the rounds. We think it's a cold down here; we specifically do not think it is COVID. But, you know, that's still out there too.

Hey man, slow and steady wins the race. You can put up PRs and such later.

20 hours ago, Mistr said:

I like your challenge goals. Doing a set of small things to make your life better can make a huge difference.

Right! Because it's not just the one thing, it's the one thing interacting with all the other things, and everything changes.

17 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Such an important thing for me to learn in many contexts.

Me too. I'm still learning.

*

Goal: 3/4

As vaguely alluded to in my response to @Tanktimus the Encourager, I overdid it a little on my shoulder exercises yesterday. Mr. Toes has some shoulder thoughts, like I said, and I've applied one of his drills with great effect - a seated dumbbell rotator cuff raise. Done slowly and with much intention, it can be a bit much for a shoulder that isn't prepared, but if the shoulder is prepared, it's a good drill and my shoulder feels a lot better. He has some other drills too, but they require some extra equipment, namely an adjustable bench which I don't have. I tried to mimic some of it, specifically by assuming some plank positions and that meant using my shoulders as a support. I didn't hurt myself in the moment, but it didn't feel quite right and I got a sharp little twinge in my right shoulder later in the day, which tells me that I probably need to back this off for now. Might come back to these movements later when I get access to a gym again, but I'm not doing that until I need to do it, and I'm not going to need it for a while.

The concern in doing those extra exercises was that I was worried I'd get too strong in the one exercise I could do and that this would cause imbalances of some kind in my shoulder which might lead to injury later, but thinking further about it and what I'm doing already, and researching it a bit further, I think this was unfounded. See also the part where my shoulder got mad at me.

Beyond that, there wasn't much to yesterday. The job has expanded further on our work from home options, and now if I can get my caseload down to a certain level, I basically can make it so that I only have to go to the office twice a month as opposed to the 4 times a month I'm doing now. That's a pretty incredible offer, but the catch is that I have to get my caseload down, which means a lot of the outcome is tied to people and situations that I don't control. Not likely to happen in the near future, but it's possible, and it's not bad to strive for inasmuch as I have any say in it.

But, uh, yeah, that's that for now. Probably will not go to write with my friend since I didn't make mat time on Monday. That was spent scoring a cheap pair of dumbbells for my rotator cuff work here at home. I'm itching to get out there tonight, so, I'm going to respect that.

Goal: 2/3

So far, so good. Got the chance to actually cook something for my friends last night as our normal cook needed a break. Busted out the instant pot and made some shredded chicken for tacos. Came out a lot better than I thought it would, since I went to buy frozen chicken breast and it didn't finish thawing before I started cooking. Bit of a whoopsie doodle there, but it did work, and now I have another recipe for protein to go with my usual Spiced Beans And Stuff that I make for dinner. I'm not sure if I'll sub in thigh meat in later iterations or not. Really depends on how my blood numbers move at this point, but I could stand to get some more variety in there. Thankfully, those are stable enough for the moment - could be better, could be worse.

Not much else to report. Knee stuff is going fine, although I'm realizing that I may need to adjust my dosage a bit. Mr. Toes, to his credit, treats the knees as a part of a system of joints, and further to his credit he believes in approaching them from the ground up. Literally. Start with ankles and calves and go on up from there. He presents his program as a kind of multi-step series of exercises which all ultimately combine to bulletproof the knees over a long period of time, and crucially, you don't need all of his exercises to experience benefits. Which is something he himself recommends, and I've experienced for myself. Back when I was working on my shoulder this past year, I came across some of his mobility recommendations which weren't a good fit for me at the time, and it caused me to dismiss him. After some time and some healing, I came back and tried it again, and found it quite suitable.

Which means I don't have to do everything all at once. I can scale it back and take benefit, and come back later as I need to. If I even need to.

That's cool to realize.

Yeah man, it's time to chill and rest. Take it easy.

Goal: 1/2

The name of the challenge gives away the whole thing, really.

Basically, I've hit a point where I like myself more the more I meditate. I'm successfully carving out space for myself to make it happen - only 4 minutes at a time so far, but it helps. I want to stick to that amount for the rest of the challenge. As I've observed, small changes applied consistently without flash or fanfare create some truly substantive results.

Also, between it being the end of the year and my own theological leanings, it just feels right.

Beyond that, right now I'm just solving a bunch of optimization problems, mostly having to do with joint health and actively working to feel better. The writing's doing well; I've found myself adding organically to my cast of characters as I've needed to without having to bend or break the existing ones to Make The Plot Happen. That's something I wasn't sure I believed in myself enough to do but I'm really happy it's happening.

One other thing is that I'm doing more to take care of my place these days - regular vacuuming and cleaning of even some spaces is actually really good for me, and it helps me feel accomplished in a way that doing my job does not. I've also been kind of crafty lately in that I made a cloth mallet out of a cast off chair leg and some scrapped sweat pants. A cloth mallet is a conditioning tool for the Iron Shirt stuff that I asked my brother about and finally getting that made was good. Also, I've finally learned how to step away from the job to go for short walks over the course of the day, including getting my errands done early, so when I get to the end of the day, I don't have all this extra stuff to do to get in my way for getting down early.

I'm not saying that the meditation is doing all of that, because I don't think it is, but it's taking place in the context of all this extra stuff I'm doing right now and it's... helpful, I think.

But, yeah, that's things for now. Happy to round out the year with y'all.

Lately I've been doing turmeric, black pepper, and cinnamon in Greek yogurt along with some stevia to sweeten. It is... probably a bit much for most people, but I find it to be warm and earthy and satisfying, and also hopefully anti-inflammatory. It's good stuff. I bet it'd do well with some honey in it too, but my macros get mad at me if I go that far.

Sorry for the loss.

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

With stopping the adulting.

53 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Yes, this. Typically by diving into a book or video game.

Or music. Or doing art (badly). Whatever frees you from the chains for a bit.

1 hour ago, Sovalis said:

My card today was Gluttony from The Oracle of Oddities. I'm taking it to mean resting and recovering and treating myself well today. If it's a little indulgent, that's okay for today. 😉

Nah. I'm inclined to think that we are trained into a mindset of austerity with ourselves and that what we need in terms of recovery to a baseline of wellness just happens to feel like indulgence.

Or maybe you're actually being indulgent, IDK. Either way, I support it. Glad you're able to get the time you need to recover.

1 hour ago, shaar said:

GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! My throat is sore this morning and I'm all like OH NO please please don't let me be getting sick.  Rest mode today is in effect. Couch + movies + video games + lots of tea.

Yeah, if there's one thing I don't like about this time of year (for all that I do like it), it's that I'm never sure if I'm getting sick or if It's Just Allergies. Totally feel you. Hope the rest day finds you well.

On 11/29/2023 at 8:10 AM, shaar said:

I need to cut off the stupid little thing in my head that says "shaar you're not doing enough" because holy crap it's always there and in my heart of hearts I know I am doing just enough. I'm currently going for more consistency than anything and not really chasing after any kind of set program, just habit building and getting the work in.  And it's plentyyyyy darn it.   My shoulders are hella sore today too so take that, not-enough-voice.

Hell yeah. More is always better up to the point that it ain't anymore. At that point, more is just more. At which point, "Less is more." You're doing plenty just by showing up and moving. And hey, if you do decide to do a program of some kind, then you'll be walking in with some data and you'll be able to hop right to it rather than having to take time to ramp up. That is hecking convenient. So where you are now is great for you in the long term.

Makes sense. You gotta do what you gotta do, and it sounds like you got enough going on in the real world that'll take doing without the added effort of being here.

Happy to see you as long as it works for you. And when it works for you again, we'll be here.

Right, fine, fine, I'm awake.

Goal: 24/28

Not bad. Not bad at all.

The last three days were holidays, and so they were shoo-ins for getting down and up on time. And with that, the challenge comes to a close.

On the whole, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm trying to get myself to the point that I get down to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time, rather than an hour or so before my alarm. That tells me that my internal clock is set such that I'm going to be up sometime before the times I'm getting up. I need to figure out what my circadian rhythm actually is and, you know, honor it.

That's going to be a longer term project than I'd like to admit. When the work week started up again, my night life came back with it and I've been staying up later as a result. I get up in time for work again but I'm getting up late again as a result. 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

My knees are doing better on the whole and I'm actually going to be changing some stuff up as far as my leg training goes to better facilitate healing in the joint. I've gone back to Overcoming Gravity and found some additional information that I think I can use to make my knees strong. It'll mean walking back some of the weighted work I've been doing, but I don't think that I mind. I see this as a chance to repair some places that I didn't know I could, and I think that fixing up weak links in the kinetic chains are going to let me get more strength out in a healthier and happier way than just beating up my muscles and hoping for the best. Dunno how it's gonna go; I'm charting some relatively unknown territory here.

Hmph. As if that's enough to turn me away.

Anyway, challenge ended and I wasn't here to say job well done to folks, which is frustratingly common for me these days. I'm thankful for all y'all what stopped by on your rounds, though. Y'all having the grace to reach out even as I don't does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. Although it is certainly under-appreciated inasmuch as I do anything about it.

My thanks to @Mistr, @Scaly Freak, @Sovalis, @Tanktimus the Encourager, @DoubleTrouble, @Whisper, @Chaser Avens, @spiralpoet, @Jackdaw, @shaar, and anyone else I missed along the way.

A quiet holiday challenge awaits.

Goal: 21/25

Keeping up with it so far! Had to go in for an anchor day at the office yesterday and elected to move my wake up time another five minutes to 8:50, because it just felt right to do so. So far, I'm holding steady. Although I must say I'm surprised at how much harder that 5 minutes has been so far, and I don't really know how to account for it. I've been making a point of getting down earlier the past couple days which I thought would help, but it may be that I've acquired a sleep debt that I hadn't tracked, and this extra time is being used by my body to pay that debt. It would track some. I know that I tend to have at least one night on the weekends when I sleep long and deep beyond what's normal, and I've assumed that it was just me catching up, but it could be that there's a longer-term deficit that I'm starting to get after a bit at a time.

Dunno. I suppose I'll see as I go.

A few days into Mr. Toes' Knee program and I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with the couple sessions I've done. I can't point to dramatic results just yet or anything like that, which I wasn't primed to expect (and I wouldn't want to prime anyone to expect if this is what you choose to do). OTOH, I experienced some pretty swift adaptations to the exercises I'm able to/choose to do right now, and having gone out to BJJ a couple of times this past week, I've noticed that my knees aren't as sore afterward as they have been. Moreover, they feel pretty smooth out on the mats, and doing this in combination with the other stuff I'm doing right now, I'm moving around with a lot less pain than I've conditioned myself to accept.

And as I've said pretty repeatedly, feeling good feels good. I'm just glad I found a combination of things that helps me to do the stuff I want to do in a way that makes me feel the way I want to feel. It's hard to articulate the satisfaction I get from that, to say nothing of all the ways it filters out into the other stuff I'm doing.

I made the mats the past couple of days, which was about all I could do before the Holidays hit. Only gave up 1 tap in the past couple of days, which didn't feel good in the moment until I pointed that out to myself, at which point I got a little bounce in my step.  There's a tension between my goal of giving up less taps and my desire to impose my will in these scenarios (ie, being offensive and submitting others), and I need to work on that some, but being aware of that tension and naming it is the first step, and it helps to figure out what the next step is. Which... I don't know what that is, yet. May just be grinding it out for a while and it may just be figuring out how to start integrating offense and defense both. One thing I notice is that these survival postures tend to funnel opponents into the same places over and over again, and I find certain escapes/positions pretty easily. May need to figure out what constructing an attack looks like from there, or how to better navigate the No Man's Land between the opening and the end game, which is where the Survival postures happen.

It deserves some thought. I'll have time for that this week, at least.

Goal: 19/23

Monday caught me by surprise as far as getting up on time, but the other two days went all right. I slept in some on Saturday but I took the W on account of being up in time to do mat stuff. Sunday, the striking work was cancelled for an in-house tournament for our kids, so there wasn't a hard time for wake up. I slept long and late, but somehow still got up before noon. Which is a good sign.

Umm, let's see. I took up the Knees Over Toes method as a warm-up for my leg training, and actually, it's a fair bit shorter than I thought. I even added on a good 5 minutes of backwards walking and it was still a relatively short piece of work to get everything warmed up and firing. I liked it. Mr. Toes coaches that no matter what your range of motion, you are to avoid pain. Exertional burn is what you want, but you must avoid pain. Even if that means you wind up with a small range of motion, that's still considered effective and acceptable. One thing that bugs me is that he offers a bunch of statistics and studies without any citations to back them up; I'm comfy with it overall as it tracks with some of my own research from a long time ago but writing it out, it occurs to me that I should be checking up on this stuff. "Trust but verify" and all that.

Still, it's a good start. I'm looking forward to it today, if that gives you any indication.

But otherwise, not much to report. Worked on my writing some. Made time for my folks. Stuff like that.

I hope you are sufficiently soft with yourself today.

Goal: 17/20

Everything worked out somehow. I'm still not quite sure I understand how, but it did. Even though I made all my usual mistakes as far as working too hard too late and fixing dinner too late, somehow I still managed to get down to bed for about 7 hours of sleep on time.

Look, man, I don't know how it happened either.

Got up on time this morning, did some writing - the novel planning requires me to bring back a character that I originally had to scrap, so finding I got a place for her after all is pretty exciting - and was gonna make mat time except that I got in some trouble with my job and had to navigate it. Basically, I tried to gently argue/question one of my superiors in a thorough and detailed way, and this was seen as me trying to assert my judgment over theirs. "You gotta learn to see it from their perspective, Kishi," my boss said. Yeah, ofc. I keep forgetting. I'm just a cog in the machine, and my job is to do what I'm told.

As hard as my emotions were to manage around all that, I managed to settle them all out to smooth things over with all the necessary parties. I'm pleased with myself for that, now that the emotions have settled out. My heart and my head are definitely not in it today, though. If I didn't need the money, I wouldn't work tonight.

Um, in research news, I found that Mr. Toes has a website! He says on his website that his rehab protocols are generally sought by people who have other things going on, and so they're designed in such a way that they can be integrated into anything else you got going on. He also has books! I found a copy of the knee ability zero book and it's a no-equipment method that takes about as long as a good warm-up, and even incorporates some stuff that I'm kinda sorta doing already. Which means that I'm probably going to integrate his work into what I got going on, at least for the next week or so, just to get a feel for it and see if it helps.

Also, gotta make a point of buying his books.

On 11/15/2023 at 9:57 AM, sarakingdom said:

I had my first visit to the ophthalmologist. OH MY GOD GUYS WHY ARE ALL THE JOKES ABOUT INVASIVE EXAMS ABOUT COLONOSCOSCOPIES THAT WAS COMPLETE CYBERPUNK TORTURE. The next time they want to examine my eyes, they're gonna have to go in via my bum. But my eyes are extra fine, so maybe I will never ever enter that dungeon of eye poking ever again.

Gotta admit. Didn't see that coming. :'D

On 11/14/2023 at 6:31 PM, Mistr said:

The big win was finally finishing the basement remodeling project. I put in the cellular shades and secured the bookshelves to the wall. Then put away all the tools and vacuumed the floor. DONE!

I like the photos! It looks really nice, and for my sensibilities I think the shades work just fine. Do those shades block light even under full sunlight conditions (like afternoon/sunset)?

19 hours ago, Mistr said:

Could you share a link to the Knees Over Toes videos?

Sure! I'll even do you one better and share what I've found so far, in case you're interested.

Here's the link to his channel. He's also been making the rounds in fitness influencer space recently and so you could pretty much just pick your guy and get a pretty good overview of what he's got.

Most recently in my research I came across this video by Will Tennyson, who seems a decent and evidence-based fellow. What I like about it is that it basically showcases the latest developments in protocol as far as the mobility standards that Mr. Toes has hit upon and how they seek to get there. They don't really spell out a routine as such (they monetized that via an app, yay~), but it seems a decent overview.

Um, here's a video by Chris Raynor MD, an orthopedist who basically signed off on the method. You can also find PTs/DPTs who review the method and what professional folk I've seen so far seem to say that he's good or at the very least that the exercises he uses have a solid basis in science and good potential for rehab/prehab. (fun fact: Dr. Raynor also interviewed Bill Maeda, whose methods I'm using now and while I haven't sat down and watched it yet, the title for that interview seems to indicate a favorable review as well, which. Bigger yay).

Last video is by the Goal Guys, which is the one that's actually given me the most pause recently because I trawled the comments section looking for programming. They eventually admitted that they applied Mr. Toes' workouts 3 times a week, and I'm given to the impression based on what they showed that they continued with other training while that was going on. That really sets me back on my heels a bit as far as my conviction to stay my course because, I mean, if it slots in that easily? Then maybe it makes sense to bite the bullet and spend some money, not just on the program, but also on access to a gym again as the program eventually pushes for some specialized equipment that I just can't make space for right now. Hell, I could probably use my FSA for that too, in which case the gym effectively becomes free.

*

Goal: 16/19

So far so good. Worked a bunch of overtime and managed to get down at a reasonable hour. Now to see if I can do it again.

Had my 3 month followup with my doctor to go over my labs and basically, it's all good. There's a little bit of concern about my blood glucose and A1C, as I've switched my macros up - a little lower protein, and lower fat, so I had to make up the difference in carbs to keep my energy up. I haven't gone pre-diabetic yet but I'm at the very highest end of what's considered normal, and it's cause for concern. We went over some strategies as far as how to get that under control, which summarized would be to up my protein some and to take in more fiber around the time that I'm eating carbs. She was impressed when I told her I was averaging about 40-45+ grams of fiber a day and actually advised against more for the moment, opting instead for some supplementation to help get that under control. So, all in all, not great, not bad. I basically overcorrected one way, so now I gotta swing it back a little bit.

At least my thyroid's good. This whilst regularly eating dairy kind of pushes me toward the conclusion that I was probably misdiagnosed with Hashimoto's, or else it's a mild enough version that it's not really relevant. Apparently the thyroid can be pretty touchy around gluten regardless of whether or not it's Hashimoto's. Which, IDK. Just leaves me thoughtful.

My other thoughts are in my response to @Mistr, FWIW.

Anyway, today's plans are casework and training breaks and working overtime since we still have that right now.

6 hours ago, Jarric said:

Can you just say to people 'I will be going to jiujitsu at this time on this day, please plan around me?'

You'd be surprised how far this ask doesn't get with normal people.

On 11/13/2023 at 7:23 AM, The Most Loathed said:

It's just a good thing for me to observe from time to time. My time constraints are of my own device and short of winning the lottery (so I don't need to work or work much) , I need to do better at working within the same constraints that I currently have day to day. 

Felt this in my soul. Pretty sure if I won the lottery, I'd probably take up volunteer work somewhere just to give me something to do. But yeah, I have a hard, ah, time with time management. So, if it helps, you're not alone with this struggle. I'll root for you here too.

Goal: 14/17

Oopsie-doodled my way into staying up too late last night. Too much overtime and too much interesting stuff to watch on YouTube. Mostly for me that means watching video game stream replays and cooking shows, but the streamers by far take up a ton of time and I could probably do without them.

But I don't wanna, so I'm just gonna have to deal with it.

Still, OT's gonna run out some time this week and there's no telling when we'll have the budget for it again. Thanks, Congress! t(-_-t) But OTOH, it gives me my time back, and that's not bad. IDK. Kinda wish I could have more money and more time. Kinda wish our COLAs actually kept up with inflation. And as long as I'm wishing, why not a 4-day work week and worker control of my workplace, but. It is what it is.

Um, in "feeling better feels better" news, as I've been getting stronger, I've been devoting more time to hunting down pain in my body and using exercise to treat it. One coach whose work has intrigued me lately is "The Knees Over Toes Guy," who has demonstrated some pretty remarkable results rebuilding his knees after 4 (!) corrective surgeries which failed to give him back his function. My knees aren't near that bad, but they're under a lot of strain given the BJJ, and while I'm having some luck with his cues and explanations as given in his videos, they don't fit as neatly onto my present training as the other stuff I'm doing for warm-up/cooldown/flexibility. I'm kind of on my own to figure this out and I'm wondering if I should sign on to his programs for a time to get this dialed in. But OTOH, I don't want to? Like, I like what I do now. I feel like I'm dialed in really well and I don't want to upend this if I don't need to. And I'm not even convinced that I need to.

But that's where my head's at lately as far as training goes. I suppose I could go down the rabbit hole with this one too like I did for Maeda to figure out just what the actual eff was going on there... and, actually, writing it down, that kind of sounds like fun.  Maybe. I'm getting some good results off the few minutes a day I do of knee work based on his protocols so really it's an optimization problem more than it's anything else. I've gone from daily nagging pains in some places to intermittently nagging pains, and I want to go further and feel better.

It's surprising to acknowledge to myself that I like where I am and what I'm doing and that I don't want to change something for once. Huh. Just when I thought this journey had no more surprises.

Yesterday morning was all right.  I hope today finds things well too.