sterre

Day 8 update! Quest 1 Ran 5.2 km. (5.2/20 km for the week, 26/120 km for the challenge) There was a nice breeze tonight so it was more pleasant than yesterday, but still really hot. Quest 2 Completed day 8 of plank challenge: 5 sets of Around the World planks held for 10 seconds in each pose. (8/42 planks) Quest 3 Rest day. (2/12 weight exercises) Another set scheduled tomorrow.

Thanks! I haven't done my run for the day yet (because it's too hot in the afternoon), but I figured I'd update my measurements. Starting measurements Bust/Waist/Hips: 91.8cm/76.2cm/95.5cm Thigh right/left: 57.4cm/57.4cm Current measurements Bust/Waist/Hips: 92.0/75.3cm/94.5cm (+0.2/-0.9/-1.0) Thigh right/left: 56.0cm/56.0cm (-1.4/-1.4) It's possible that I mis-measured my bust last week (boobs are squishy and hard to measure), but taken at face value, that's an overall loss of 4.5 cm with 0.9 cm off my waist in a week. That doesn't sound too bad to me. I'm a bit surprised at how fast anything came off my thighs, but maybe doing squats and lunges tightened them up or something (it certainly feels like it).

For a long time, I missed chicken wings, but then I realized it was just the sauce that I missed. Then I found a recipe for cauliflower "wings" that are battered and baked and covered with wing sauce.

I'm vegetarian because eating meat is shit for the environment.

I'm currently reading Black Powder War by Naomi Novik. I picked up the first in the Temeraire series last week and went through the first two books already. I picked up the fourth and fifth books today because I was near the book store.

Day 7 (and 6 too, though that was uneventful). Quest 1 Ran 5.2 km. (20.8/20 km for the week) It was super hot, but I did it anyway (very slowly). Quest 2 Completed day 6 and 7 of plank challenge: rest day then 6 up and down planks. (7/42 planks) Quest 3 Rest day. (2/12 weight exercises)

Thanks! My rest day was quite relaxing and definitely worth the work before.

Day 5! It was really hot and humid today so my run was a bit of a chore. It looked like it would rain the entire time (there was some lightening and thunder), but nothing happened. The breeze picked up about halway in which made it more pleasant though. Quest 1 Ran 5.2 km. (15.6/20 km for the week) Quest 2 Completed day 5 of plank challenge: 3 simple planks, each held for 40 seconds. (5/42 planks) Quest 3 Rest day. (2/12 weight exercises) Tomorrow is a proper rest day and I will enjoy it (until I have to go to work).

I really hope it was typo-free since it's for an editing job. It should be though; I checked it pretty thoroughly (as thoroughlly as I could on the screen anyway). The good news is that the second time, it doesn't seem to hurt as much the next day (or maybe there's just going to be a longer delay). ...also, it's stupid hot right now so I'm just looking forward to the evening when I can comfortably do my planks and go for my run. I kinda wish it was tomorrow because tomorrow is my rest day for everything, but getting today's stuff done will just mean I've earned the rest that much more.

Thanks! I'm really starting to look forward to the rest day though. They get surprisingly difficult. I somewhat wish I'd checked this earlier, but I got kinda excited about my resume and cover letter (after I'd written the latter) so I checked it several times (including pausing to take a shower and coming back to it with fresh eyes) and sent it in! I basically looked at what they had in the job posting and made sure to include those relevant details (even though one of them was "experience with Microsoft Office, Excel and Power Point" which I don't usually put on my resume, but I can use them so... meh) and mentioned the things that didn't get a mention on the resume in the cover letter. Of course, I wrote my little email blurb (which was mostly a condensed highlight version of the cover letter with more details on availability), attached my cover letter and accidentally hit "Send" instead of "Attach file" for my resume. So I had to send a second email apologizing for that and including my resume. I'm hoping that they don't mind that sort of minor fuck up (and I probably would have liked to revise the email blurb again first, but it's probably okay) and respond positively. So that means: Life Quest Applied for another job! (2/6 applications/interviews)

Day 4 update! Got up early and didn't have to go to work so I got all the exercise for the day done before 10 am. I was still sore from the last time starting the BBWW, but I improved a little. Quest 1 Rest day (10.4/20 km for the week) Quest 2 Completed day 4 of plank challenge: 2 side planks on each side held for 40 and 20 seconds each. (4/42 planks) Quest 3 Completed 2 sets and a little more. (2/12 weight exercises) (1st / 2nd / 3rd set details): squats: 20 / 20 / 10 push ups: 8(2) / 7(3) / 3(7) lunges: 20 / 20 / 10 dips: 10 / 10 / 4 plank: 20s / 20s / 20s modified jumping jacks: 20 / 20 / 15 per side I did a bit better this time by adding parts of a third set and doing one additional push up on my toes in the first two sets. I got a bit tired by the end though. Life Quest Today I will be working on tailoring a resume and writing up a cover letter for a job I really, really want. I'll probably submit it tomorrow after getting some friends to take a look. So it's still just... (1/6 applications/interviews)

I would try banana ice cream, but my blender is on loan to my sister while I live on a different continent.

Climbing is so much fun! I did it for a year when I was part of my school's climbing club. Unfortunately, I don't know anywhere around here to climb. Good luck with your challenge!

Good to see that your kitteh isn't making a habit of distracting you in the morning to keep you from going out. Cats can be so tempting like that.

Hehe, yeah. It's a good pain. Usually it takes an extra day to appear, but I guess I'm "lucky" this week.

My ass was hurting all day from the BBWW yesterday and toward the end of the day, my pecs started to join the suffering. I did the plank challenge early though and spent most of the day excited about my run in the evening. I also went to a job interview and spent about an hour walking in the park nearby because it was a nice park and I'd never been to that part of town before. Quest 1 Ran 5.2 km (10.4/20 km for the week) Quest 2 Completed day 3 of plank challenge: 2 simple planks, one held for a minute and the other for 40 seconds (3/42 planks) Quest 3 Rest day. (1/12 weight exercises) Life Quest Went to a job interview. It turned out that a third party was doing the interviewing, but I think it went well. The job is a bit of an improvement over what I currently have, but I'll still keep looking and will probably apply for something else by the end of the week anyway. (1/6 applications/interviews)

Thanks! I think it's a pretty fun challenge (even though I didn't quite make it all the way to the end last time I tried it) and since it has built-in rest days there are a few days where I get to do tick off the box when I haven't done anything other than recover. Yeah, I'm not actually sure how quickly loss of waist circumference can happen or what a healthy pace is for that. I know for weight loss, it's something like 0.5 kg in a week that's healthy and sustainable, but since I don't own a scale that's difficult to measure and I don't care about that one as much because if I end up a bit muscly (hah!) then I might weigh more than otherwise and it's more important how I feel and fit into clothes and such. You're definitely right that I'll at least learn something here. Hopefully, I'll learn that setting clear goals and posting about them publicly will motivate me to keep on task as well as what sort of rate of waist circumference loss is reasonable to expect. Nice to meet you and thanks for the welcome! The first mini-challenge was definitely really useful for thinking about my goals and refining them so it was good to do early, I think.

That sounds like a totally reasonable way and sustainable way to eat well. iirc, diets that don't allow for "cheat days" tend to be diets that don't last. p.s. To add links, toggle the light-switch looking button in the top left corner of the post and put url=your url in square brackets followed by whatever you want to call your link and then close with /url in square brackets. I'm new here, but BBC code is pretty common for message boards.

Well, the bag will be gone if I just eat it out of the bag. That's why I put the stuff I want to eat in a bowl and put the rest in the cupboard.

I'm usually pretty good at moderating my snacks. If I'm at home and I have something like a bag of chips or box of cookies (well, I don't usually buy boxes of cookies), I'll put a few in a bowl and then put the rest in a cupboard. It's like if it's out of sight, I don't think about it.

Heh, I live in Japan now (near Tokyo though)! Everyone is either asleep (or should be) or just waking up when I'm online.Also, sorry, I'm late jumping into this thread. I just worked seven days in a row (though not like, 8 hour days so that's not much of an excuse... I also read most of a book in one sitting). Hi everyone!

Done! I'd looked at the SMART stuff before making my goals, but going through and asking the questions definitely helped me refine a few things here and there. Thanks, that was a pretty useful mini-quest.

I hadn't heard of the zombies run! app until recently, but it sounds like fun (and if I wasn't such a cheap-ass, I'd probably give it a try). One thing I noticed about training up to being able to run 5k after having taken a break is that it seems easier the second time around. I think it's because you have the mentality of "I used to be able to do this" so then it seems more natural that you should be able to do it again (once you work back up to it), whereas before running 5k straight ever it seems like this really big thing. So keep at it (in a nice, gradual injury-free way at your own pace)! It's an awesome feeling to get back up to running the whole distance.

Life seems to get in the way of so many good runs. I suppose I could try cramming lots of stuff in my knapsack and lifting that. It might be easier than always having to clear a large spot on the table for dips whenever I want to do the BBWW (it's a low table because Japan).

And I'm doing the SMART mini-challenge! Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? The main quest is probably a bit of a challenge. I think it's doable, but it might take more than 6 weeks and it might be a bit harder than I think. It's also possible that I might not be able to hit the actual target number I set (like I said in the OP, I've never been that thin post-puberty, though my thinnest is just about 2.5 cm larger), but to be honest anything within the A range would definitely be a victory for me and I'd probably call it good. I just thought it wouldn't hurt to be a touch more ambitious. 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? My three quests are all pretty related to the main quest and I don't think it should be too much. I'm maintaining the weekly running distance that I built up to before the challenge (which might be a bit of a challenge on its own just because of the heat) and then adding a bit of strength training on top of that. I know that when I try to increase distance and start strength training it feels like doing too much too fast, so hopefully maintaining the one and adding the other will be good. 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? I think that my quest goals are realistic. The main goal might take more than 6 weeks, but I definitely thought about selecting things I would actually do instead of things I probably really should do (e.g. I chose to aim for strength training twice a week instead of three times because I think I'll actually do two, but three is maybe a bit iffy). Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? My goals are measurable. I have a text file that I usually use to keep track of my workouts and I'll be updating my challenge thread with my progress regularly for the sake of accountability. 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€? I have grades based on 100/70/60% completion of my smaller quests goals and in the range of a few centimetres for the main quest. For my main goal, I still consider it a pass if I've lost even a single cm and there's a bit of a buffer for what I consider an A on that goal. While completing this mini-quest (and indeed, as a result of the next question), I've also decided to revise my grading of the plank challenge quest to give a range for an A (this will be now be 80-100% instead of just 100%). What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Since I'm grading most of my challenges based on how many I've accomplished by the end, in principle, I can make them up if I have to take some time off (e.g. I can work up to a slightly longer weekly running distance or add a third workout to later weeks). Upon further reflection, however, I've decided to add a bit more of a range to the A grade when it comes to the plank challenge since that one depends on work being done every day (except the rest days) instead of doing a certain amount by the end. 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? In principle, my anniversary falls on a scheduled run day. If necessary, I can move the run to the day before or after or I can try some longer runs earlier in the week to compensate for skipping it. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? Not really. I'm slightly doubling up on planks some days, but often they're different kinds of planks so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The weight goal might cause difficulties with the running goal if my legs are sore, but since I'm going for distance instead of time, I don't think that should be a huge problem. 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? Unless I get offered a full time job (which doesn't seem very likely since I haven't found anyone offering visa sponsorship), I definitely have time. If I get offered a full time job, I should still be able to manage since I run in the evenings (I already scheduled that around social engagements) and I can move my weight routine to the weekends if necessary. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? It's all pretty much for the main quest. I could possibly have used to add something about diet in there, but I couldn't think of anything specific enough that I actually wanted to do. The running isn't just something I do to widdle away at my waist and if I do well at this quest, I may make a running-related one next, but burning extra calories is definitely something that tends to help with that sort of thing.