TansyPants

ARGH SO MUCH FAIL! So, it's been a few days. I havent done yoga since Monday, i've had two nights involving booze (one of which also involved mass quantities of really good cheese and oops, were those mini sandwiches? Yeah I ATE THAT. Also, the in building gym I was so insufferably smug about? Currently there's loose drywall all over the floor and dudes in coveralls crawling around the vents in the walls. #HVACIssues. So yeah. Total fail on those counts, though somehow I've come in under calories anyway? I did finish sewing a bolero jacket, and lining it! Which is the weirdest kind of topographical reasoning... but hey, it worked! I also made a white cotton eyelet pencil skirt, underlined in pale pink satin. It is the girliest thing I've ever owned. Also, I seem to have lost weight in such a way that my hips are the same size but my waist is like... 4 inches smaller or something... my skirts all fit weird. things made by me are here if anyone wants to browse. I also had my first technical phone screen yesterday. Fingers crossed they thought it went well... They asked a bunch of questions about AJAX and web sockets, and the internals of regex which things I know very little about. (Subsequent research shows grep is all kinds of awesome! also finite state machines.) But I think I nailed the threads vs processes thing and Depth first/breadth first search stacks vs queues and event driven programming. So... We'lll see. I never claimed to be a web engineer. Also, my phone auto corrects regex to "reggae" which was possibly the most entertaining thing I got out of the interview. Anywho... that's where I'm at. I'ma go put the short ribs in the oven and settle in to doing another online code challenge pre-interview thing.

First week round up: Gym: 3/3 A Yoga: 4/4 A Balanced Meals: Turns out I eat one full meal a day and a BP coffee. But 7/7 meals were balanced W30 style! A Calorie Tracking: 7/7 A Programming: 5/5 A Job Stuff: 2/1 A+ Weight change: -4lbs A+ I'd better get on it and get my yoga done today! Don't wanna spoil my straight A's!

Got home super late last night, so this is a belated update. Programming: Yes, including a lecture on the history of hash tables. I learned something Workout: Yes (Even though I reeeally didn't wanna go. Mondays are hard. I walked 9k steps too ) Calorie Tracking: Yes Weekly Job Stuff: Not today cals: 1591 fat: 37 (low) carbs: 92 (Alcohol is a horrible horrible thing!) protein: 147 bang on point. Weight: 185.2!

Go Kath! You nailed it! It's hard realizing that you're not *yet* the warrior you always thought you were inside, but you're taking huge steps and they'll get easier as you go on! Loving the story too!

Managed my yoga this morning and hit my protein goal. Other than that my day was eaten by making up a wearable muslin for a bolero jacket. This version is a dark grey pinstripe wool blend. If it works out well I may be able to wear it to job interviews. The "real" version will be made up in embroidered silver satin. I have three weddings to go to this June and nothing to wear, so this will be something dressy and not too warm to wear over my fancy dress in the evenings. I have yet to pick a pattern or fabric for the dress (or dresses?) though. One of my goals for this year was to improve my sewing, so I decided to buy no clothes for a year and sew everything myself. Which is great in theory, and lots of fun. But it's hard to plan a summer wardrobe when I'm hoping to be a very different size/shape by then! On the bright side, I'm learning how to adjust patterns to fit my bust and emerging biceps

Had family for dinner tonight. Spent the day cooking like a mad thing and didn't eat til 5pm (oops) But I got my yoga done, made beef pot roast, roast sweet potatoes, paleo yorkshire pudding, pannacotta and blueberries with ginger, earl grey infused gin, herb mayo, chipotle mayo, tahini sauce, spaghetti squash, ginger zucchini soup, and steamed green beans. Also walked another 5 miles. And my house is looking pretty clean, so that's nice Also made an easy $40 looking after a neighbors dog for a few hours My legs are still super sore and I'm starting to feel a bit stiff in my chest and shoulders. Fun fun. If I thought this pain would last, I'd buy a femme funnel/she-wee. Sitting on the toilet is agony.

Yay me! First technical phone screen scheduled for next week! Also, I weighed in this morning down three pounds! I also got up this morning and lifted even though my legs were super shaky. I ran into two issues today: The first is that the stronglifts 5x5 app defaults to increasing weight by 5lbs each workout. Unfortunately I'm using dumbbells and because I was a fool and entered the weight of a single dumbbell as my weight... Today I jumped by 10lbs instead of 5. Also, it's WAY too hard to lift two thirty pound dumbbells onto my shoulders to do squats! this is what the rack is for! I benched 50lbs though, which is awesome (for me, anyway) I failed the last rep of my first set, but nailed the second and third and fourth. Huzzah! The fifth set was a shit show. Spent a while working on CS:APP, made soup and spaghetti squash and went for a nearly six mile walk. IT'S SO NICE OUT!! A bit over on calories, but I lifted today and I'm running a pretty extreme deficit. Programming: Yes Workout: Yes Calorie Tracking: Yes Weekly Job Stuff: YES!!! cals: 1614 fat: 79 carbs: 62 a little high protein: 161g Excellent! I seem to be falling into a routine of BP coffee, large lunch, snack or nothing for dinner. I guess that makes it intermittent fasting. It seems to be working for me

Yoga is excellent Part of my current challenge is doing yoga for ten minutes every morning. For strength and flexibility and peace of mind. I hadn't actually thought of it in terms of asthma management, but that's awesome That's great to hear that parkour doesn't take so much strength. I watch a ton of videos on youtube of it and always think it looks like the ultimate freedom. Maybe it's time to go try it myself

Lifting taught me that ALL bathrooms should be equipped with those hand rails. Just finished my second StrongLifts 5x5 workout and am in the same boat. It gets better, and weirdly, working out when you're sore seems to mitigate the pain over the next few days.

Hey! If you're interested in more low carb recipes/ learning to cook a whole weeks worth of food in 4 hours once a week check out reddit.com/r/xxketo and check out the side bar, or head over to http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2013/12/29/whole30-2014-week-1-meal-plan/ I'm also asthmatic and struggle with breathing while working out or running. Parkour looks like so much fun, but right now I can't run more than a block or two without puffing on my inhaler. When I'm fitter, I will go free running with you and jump over and off of things because man, what's more fun than finding out you live in a giant play ground and you're fit enough to really have fun with it?? Best of luck with your challenges! TansyPants

An excellent day! Woke up, did my yoga (goal 1), had a modified BP coffee (butter, egg yolk, whey protein) Did some coding practice (goal 2) and then a coding challenge (goal 3) Walked to the bank, not the close one, the one 1.9 miles away, and then back again (goal 4) Ate an excellent lunch (goal 5) of left over burger, avocado and broccoli. Finished sewing a slip cover for our nasty second hand couch. Not actually challenge related, but nice all the same! Got an email from the company who's challenge I completed and they want to set up an interview!! (goal 6) Ate chocolate in orgy of combined excitement and anxiety. Went for another walk (my legs keep stiffening up. Getting back into lifting is paaaainful) Contemplated picking up fried chicken (I was peckish, hadn't met my protein goal and I was celebrating, damnit!) but resisted and instead made a pinterest board full of gorgeous fit women for inspiration. And now it's the end of the day and I have achieved all my goals, and walked 10,000 steps (my average while dog walking was 30k+, but since I quit that my average is now 3k sad.) and I'm still meeting my calorie goal (well, if you balance out the calories burned while walking) and tomorrow I have a phone call with a recruiter to schedule an interview!! (OMG I am shit scared and also so excited I can't stop twitching.) and I'm sitting here drinking a protein shake to get my numbers up (goal 7) before I go to bed Yay me! Programming: Yes Workout: Yes Calorie Tracking: Yes Weekly Job Stuff: YES!!! cals: 1570 fat: 94 carbs: 69 a little high protein: 115g Good!

My social life. If I go out to see people it inevitably ends in late night cocktails. If I don't go see people I get sad and depressed and can't be bothered doing anything. So far my solution has been to suggest things like, let's all go for a walk in Central Park, or visit the yarn/fabric store or how about you come over for dinner at my place. I also have an alarm set for 8.30 to tell me to take melatonin/zma which help me get to sleep around 11 instead of suddenly realizing it's 2am and im not remotely prepared for bed.

Great story kath! And great work so far! Good luck with the mental health stuff! Personally my experience with keto/paleo hybrids is that my mood and energy levels sky rocket. Keep up the hard work I'm looking forward to the rest of the story!

Challenge accepted! And Done!! http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/63942-tansypants-big-adventure/?p=1455670#entry1455670

Challenge 1: getting smart Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? Yes. 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 think it's doable. There's variety, but not overload. 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? They are realistic and scaled small enough, though the weight loss one is sort of a stretch. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? Yes they can be measured. I'm using myfitnesspal for calorie and weight loss tracking, and the 5x5 app for workouts. I'm also recording my days here! 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€? Grading A-F based on results: number of lbs more I can lift, number of lbs less I weigh, number of companies I've interviewed with- bonus for getting offers! What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? health comes first. If I need to spend the day in bed with tea I will. And then I'll make up the hours of programming/workouts missed during the break between challenges, or on weekends. 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? Did not, but don't forsee the need for any modifications. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? Nope and nope. 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? Yes, being unemployed has advantages. I'll need to reassess when I have a job! Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? Multiple habits, but they support each other: being wealthy has a positive correlation with health and longevity. Plus, fit, beautiful people get paid better. It's all linked up.

Today I hit all my goals! Got up and hit the gym: Deadlifts 5x1 at 50lbs Squats 5x5 at 50lbs OHP 5x5 at 30lbs Dumbells make everything more awkward. Also, I walked up four flights of stairs before realizing I'd left my inhaler and keys in the gym, so walked back down and then up 5 flights to get back to my apartment. Huzzah for random, leg trembling post workout cooldowns! Experimented with the BP coffee this morning. Added an egg yolk and a scoop of unflavored whey protein. Also had creatine in my morning glass of water. Spent a few hours programming and whiteboarding. Less kitty interference today as my BF was working from home and they bugged him instead. Took a break for lunch (beef stew and green beans), had a quick bit of... ahem... recreational exercise, and then sewed most of a slip cover for the grotty second hand couch. Took a walk, picked up burger toppings, came home, made dinner (1/2lb beef burgers with grilled onions, mushrooms, home made chipotle mayo, home made ketchup), cleaned up, helped the BF sort out his macros - he's 6'5" and has started lifting weights. He's freaked because he just saw 200lbs on the scale for the first time. He's weighed between 160-180 in the four years I've known him thus far and has decided to pack on some muscle before he gets old enough to make it harder. Now I'm about ready to head to bed. Today feels pretty damn good Programming: Yes Workout: Yes Calorie Tracking Yes: cals: 1623 fat: 111g carbs: 43g (net: 24g) spot on protein: 117g much better.

Thank you all! Of course, in the spirit of challenge, my yoga app has decided to crash every time I try to open it. However, I persevered and did 8 minutes of the SuperHero workout. If you haven't tried the apps from six to start yet I highly recommend them. They did Zombies, Run! and Walk and Zombies C25K and also superhero- where you're wearing mechanical battle suit that needs to be calibrated with deep squats and punches, and have it's battery charged with crunches before you can climb (mountain climbers) out of the spaceship you're in and fight (uppercuts, with laser weapon and explosion soundtrack) the aliens that are attacking. Really quite excellent, but very hard work! I especially love the pilot yelling "Brace for impact! BRACE!!" while you're doing wall sits. Hopefully by tomorrow the yoga app will be working again or I'll just do a sun salutation of my own devising. Punky, if you like the description of my ideal job, I highly recommend reading http://benhewitt.net/ He lives my dream life in Vermont and is an excellent writer. On the Goals front, today I: Ate: BP coffee Lamb steaks with spaghetti squash, sweet potato and mushrooms, drizzled in the juice out of the beef stew I made yesterday. home made chocolate (butter, sweetener, cocoa) Not ideal. Pretty sure I was actually thirsty and didn't need sugar. Calories: 1435 Protein: 56g - about half of what I should have Carbs: 50g - about twice what I aim for Fat: 107g - about right. Exercised: 8 mins of "Tin Man" or 150 calories (the app claims, anyhow) Programmed: practice white boarding mostly, and some code katas on HackerRank. Thor supervised the white boarding. Elbereth helped me with my reading: And Gabby looked cute and kept my lap warm:

It's true! So close, and yet... So much harder than sitting on my butt.

In 2013 I went Paleo, Started lifting weights three times a week, quit my sedentary cafe job (all the free pastries and lattes I could drink and 13 hour days that were 50%+ sitting on my ass) to take up dog walking- 5 hours a day of walking around in the sunshine, rain, hail, whatever. It was glorious and by Jan 2014 I lost upwards of 30lbs. Then I moved to an apartment with an in building gym (but a crappy one, hamster wheels and smith machine) and therefore quit my gym membership because "Hey! In building gym!! How lucky am I??". Then I quit dog walking to take up studying programming full time. I was still eating mostly paleo/keto, but I was drinking more, and I never did use the in building gym. And it turns out that eating makes sitting on my ass for hours more bearable, and now it's 2015 and I've gained about 20lbs back again and I vowed never to see 190 on the scale ever again but the other day IT APPEARED and OMG I really gotta bust my ass and fix this. So right now I'm studying at home (with an in building gym right down stairs) and tightening up my keto/paleo diet (ie. drinking less and not eating out) and my main goal for this challenge is to lose weight and start to feel STRONG again. To do that I will: - Get in the stupid gym and deal with the Smith machine Monday, Wednesday, Friday. - Do 10mins of Yoga every morning (I can do this in my own apartment while the coffee is brewing in the morning. There is totally no excuse to skip this.) - Eat Whole30 style meals for lunch and dinner: half a plate of veg, palm size protein, thumb size fat. Breakfast will continue to be BP coffee. My secondary goal is to get a programming job. I'm talking to companies now, and hoping to start interviewing in the next week or two. This would be a primary goal, but even money making has to come second to health I think. To do that I will: - Spend a minimum of 2 hours each weekday working on algorithms/data structures type interview problems or whiteboarding pseudo code. - Initiate a conversation with a new company or do an online code challenge or an interview every week. Starting: Weight: 189lbs Strength: Very low. Will do a baseline run tomorrow. Job Status: Unemployed. End of Challenge Goal: Weight: 2lbs/week over 6 weeks... 177 by end of challenge. Strength: Squat 100lbs Job Status: Employed Ultimate: Weight: 150lbs Strength: Squat 1.5 x bodyweight, Bench bodyweight, Deadlift 2 x Bodyweight, Get my chin over a bar! Job Status: Retired to a farm in the country where I can work remotely if I want to, eat fruit, veg, meat and dairy from my own land and spend hours riding my horse around the forest/beach/countryside. This last point is really my motivation for losing weight/getting fitter/earning more money. I really want to retire ASAP and be fit, healthy, independently wealthy so I can do what actually matters to me, and not just what I can get paid for. Pretty sure living off what I can grow on my farm and spending days weeding, milking, riding, splitting firewood, shoveling horse shit, swimming, and taking long walks in search of wild mushrooms is about as good as it gets, and also that it will probably keep my weight in check on it's own!! Wish me luck and self discipline! TansyPants, the horseless, farmless, city living country girl.