CommanderFrou

Thanks for the encouragement Silver Feb 26, 2014 - Day 2 Needed the extra 45 minutes of sleep yesterday morning so I went to the gym after work, around 3:45 pm. It was a lot quieter than it was back in January (resolution season is always a hot mess at my gym), so I think it's safe for me to start going after work again. Maybe this will help me in my quest for balance. I thought working out in the morning was helping me but I think it actually brings me more stress since I have to wake up earlier, prep my whole day the night before (I don't have time to come back home so I have to shower and get ready for work at the gym), catch the right bus and finish my workout in a set time so I'm not late for work. I find that I also generally perform better in the afternoon than I do when I just woke up. However, I really like how quiet mornings are, and I love how productive and energized I feel when I get to the office after working out. Going to the gym after work is convenient but it also means I have to fight the urge to just head home and be a lazy potato. At least knowing the pros and cons of both, I can adjust my schedule depending on how I'm feeling that particular day. (Sorry, that was a long rant, but it feels good to put my thoughts down somewhere!) As for the workout, I finished it again! And with all the prescribed weights this time However my time was a little bit over an hour, so no improvement on that front. Doing alright on deadlifts. Chest press is getting a little easier, definitely seeing some progress there. Finally got those snatches down - I think my grip wasn't wide enough - but I was lacking a bit of power towards the end. Need to find ways to keep those energy levels up. Squats and V-sits, no problem. Good workout overall!

Ohh Starbucks, I feel your pain on that one. Here's a tip, which you may already know everything about in which case feel free to ignore me you can minimize the amount of sugar in your drinks by customizing the amount of syrup pumps they put in. For example, a Venti has 5 pumps if I'm not mistaken. From what I understand, if you have two flavors, you get double the pumps, hence the sugar overload. But you can totally ask for less syrup! You can start by having one less pump, see if you can tell the difference and keep going from there. You can also get a few pumps in regular low cal drinks like an americano and add a splash of milk yourself. Anyways, hope this helps and good luck with your challenge!

Hey Rangers! I was hoping to join your ranks for this challenge, but I'm sadly going to have to sit this one out because life reasons and things. However, I want to wish everyone a great challenge, I'm looking forward to cheerleading y'all on and stalking some challenge threads to get inspiration and ideas for the next challenge, when I am back in fighting shape Have fun!

Feb 24, 2014 - Day 1 After giving myself Friday off last week due to my body completely refusing to cooperate, I was hoping to be back full strength on Monday morning. However insomnia got the best of me. I still managed to drag myself to the gym but my performance was not great. I managed to (barely) finish in a little over 40 minutes. I think I even grabbed a lighter kettlebell by mistake but I was so out of it I'm not even sure what happened. I also decided over the weekend to skip the current challenge and wait for the next one. Despite doing well on my last challenge, I realized that I inadvertently sacrificed other aspects of my life that I shouldn't have, and I have to take a step back and make some choices. With work and school and training and food prepping, it's inevitable that at some point, some things will suffer. For the last few weeks, it was sleep. I really need my 7-8 hours a night, and for the last three, I only got about 5 or 6. I also realize I've been majorly slacking on school work. I take distance learning classes which require a lot of discipline and scheduling, and the amount of time I spend on it each week is not nearly enough for me to make the exams by my deadline (early June). But integrating more school work in my week means that I have to give up on something else. So my mini challenge for the next 6 weeks is to find some sort of balance. I was also having a hard time finding three specific goals. I think I'm gonna spend some time perusing other people's challenges to get inspired!

I'm not that advanced yet but just wanted to share my story! When I started working out for realsies in December 2012 I had an initial consultation with a trainer to set up a program and go through the basics. He taught me how to do a proper squat using the bar only and I thought it was the heaviest thing I'd ever lifted. A few days later I saw him again to go through the whole program and when we got to the squat rack he said "Ok, so what should we start at, 10 pounds?" and I said "What do you mean, you're actually going to ADD WEIGHT ON THAT THING?!" Yesterday, had a session with the very same guy and I set a PR of 3x3 at 170# We reminisced about where I started and I just felt so proud. I know I still have a very long way to go but the weak little nerd in me who always got picked last in gym class cannot believe I pulled this off. I'm 5'2" and 135 pounds and although I have never really been overweight, I have never been in shape so looking back on my progress feels huge to me. So don't give up people! It might take a while, I know I felt I was progressing slowly at times, but you can reach your goals! Here's hoping that in a year I'll be even stronger!

Oooh yeah, totally following you girl! I absolutely love the ambidextrous goal as well! When I was a kid I read a book where the main character was ambidextrous (I think it was a Courte Échelle book, did you ever read those??) and I wanted to be able to do it so bad, but I never managed it. Rooting for you!

Feb 19, 2014 - Session with my trainer. Although it was a Wednesday, we did my day 3 workout. Worked a lot on squat form and proper warm-up. Since I had him spotting me I was able to tackle on much heavier weights and I set a new PR! 3 sets of 3 at 170#! Booya! Compound row - 5 x 3 at 155# DB presses - 2 x 3 at 32.5# and 2 x 3 at 35# although I was reaaally struggling with the last set. Ran out of time after that so no 5th set and no time for deadlifts either. Now I need to actually work up the nerve to ask for a spotter when I do this workout. It sounds dumb but I am absolutely terrified of this. When I work out in the morning there are very few people in the gym and I feel horrible about asking someone to spend their precious gym time helping me out. Eeeeep

Week 6 wrapup! - Breakfasts - Nearly did 7 paleo breakfasts this week, but Sunday I had some cheap breakfast sausage from the grocery store that had all sorts of cereal-y filler things but managed to avoid the usual offenders - bread, sugary cereals, etc. My boyfriend even bought croissants and I did not have a single one! Although I did have a cookie later in the day. But that's not breakfast. Shhhh. - Workouts - Worked around my migraine to attend all three sessions plus Saturday bootcamp. Woot! - Water - Really starting to become second nature! I did pretty good at work all week, Saturday I may have been a bit under my goal, but Sunday I definitely hit it. I'm really proud of this one! So overall I am extremely happy with the way this challenge turned out! Here's my final summary. For breakfasts, I'd give myself a solid A. I struggled at times with the prep but I found out it was absolutely possible to stay on track in the mornings and resist the starchy, sugary temptations of usual breakfast fare. Going for this goal, I naturally settled into a 80/20 paleo diet for pretty much all my meals so this has been a really good learning experience. However I don't feel ready to go all out on a strict paleo diet for now. There are even a few non-paleo items that I'm considering bringing back into my breakfast routine occasionnally, like plain oatmeal and cottage cheese, because they work for me. But I feel like I'm much more aware now of how I react to certain foods and I'm able to plan my non-paleo meals a lot better and choose my foods more carefully. Success! For workouts, I'll give myself a A- for that one week that didn't go so well. I injured myself quite stupidly because I wasn't paying attention to my form and I let it get me down. I'm taking away from this challenge a lot of new found motivation and better planning skills, mainly because of the fact that I started going to the gym in the morning again. This makes it a lot easier to stick to my training. Hurray! For the water goal, I'll give myself a B+ because I have struggled with it and forgotten about it occasionnally, especially in the first few weeks, but overall I feel like I have started to build a good habit and I'm a lot more aware about keeping myself hydrated throughout the day. Annnnnnd finally, for my life quest, it took a while to get around to it, but I'm very optimistic about my current budget. My pay raise for the year comes into effect on March 1, so I'm all set to use that extra dough wisely.. although I might treat myself to a Fitbit with my bonus Overall this challenge has been an incredible experience, thank you so much to all of you who've encouraged me and shared your stories and tips and advice! I have a few things in mind for a future challenge, not sure if I will jump back into it right away - want to give those new habits time to sink in - but I'm ready to step up my game for the future. I definitely feel a lot more Shepard-esque than I did 6 weeks ago Good luck to everyone in their future endeavours!

Oops, got behind on updating my log over this very busy weekend, so here's a double log! Feb 14, 2014 - Day 3 Worked out after work exceptionnally because I had an impromptu late dinner on Thursday night and was still digesting by the time I woke up at my normal gym hour XD Thankfully, being a Friday and V day it was not too busy at the gym so my workout went well. Squats - 5x3 - 135#/140#/145#/150#/155# I think I did a lot better with these than last Friday, but the 155# squats were tough. 135-140 doesn't give me much trouble anymore - I think I need to get over the fear of going heavy and just start bigger (after a proper warmup of course). Compound row (I finally got around to looking at the machine's actual name hehe) - 5 x 3 - All at 140# Went alright. Not sure I was pulling back quite as much as I should've but it was difficult to tell. Romanian deadlifts - 4 x 6 - 95#/95#/105#/105# My grip strength definitely needs help! The bar kept slipping from my hands. Otherwise I think I did alright, hamstrings were nice and sore the following morning DB presses - 4 x 5 + 1 x 2,5? - All at 32,5# I was aiming to do those at 30# but this was my last exercise and somebody had just started using them so I went balls out and reached for the 32,5#. First four sets worked out but the last one.. not so much! I managed to struggle through the first rep, the second one only my right arm actually made it up and I made a few attempts at a third before calling it quits. Still, I didn't expect I would be able to get this far so I was pretty happy about it overall. Finishing all 5 sets is my new goal Feb 17, 2014 - Day 1 Time for all sets was 32 minutes. That's 6 minutes down from last week. Huzzah! Still shaky on the kettlebell swings but everything else went pretty smoothly. First superset, I only took two very short breaks during pull-ups. Set 2, totally killed those pushups! Did them a lot faster than usual, so I was pretty proud of that. Set 3 went well also, only had to stop a couple of times during the 20 lunges set (I really hate lunges!) because I was running out of energy by that point. Rowing machine display still not working so no idea on my progress there, but I did my 5 minutes anyways. Felt really energized on my way to work after which helped tremendously because I slept very little last night. So that was a nice boost! Next workout day is Wednesday, and I'm seeing my trainer (for real this time!). I expect him to scold me for not going heavier on the squats, but that's fair. I'm looking forward to see how much faster I can go with him breathing down my neck

Congrats my dear! You did so well, it was really inspiring to follow your challenge Lâche pas la patate and keep on rockin'!

How'd the weekend go? Keep us posted

Good job on completing the challenge! There's always room for improvement but now at least you've learned tons of stuff and you have a better idea on how to keep going forward. Good luck with your future challenges!

Awesome day Way to go! Good luck with the last few days!

Awesome! We'll be impatiently waiting for the juicy tidbits Nice way to close the challenge! Also, I totally want to get in on that next Planksanity challenge! I saw the last one too late and then got sick, so the timing was off for me this time. But I'd love to join the next one if I'm allowed