Kagemusha

So far all is going according to plan. Resisting the urge to fine tune and alter my quests. Simply going to add things as I go along most likely. Exercise is minimal. Although I do get between 40 minutes to an hour of cycling in for my commute, and every other day I play about an hour or two of tennis or table tennis. But I've found that once exercise is consistent it stops having an altering effect and just maintains. Wanting to slowly add more exercise and specifically create an exercise time. Started push up challenge. Max rep is 5 without pause. 15 in session. (3, 2, 3, 2, 5) Eating so far has not been great but it has been at home for dinner. I'm wanting to invert my original system and give myself an eating out ration rather than an eating in quota. Ends up being the same but for week one I can eat out 6 times and by week one I can eat out once. This includes lunch since I have a bad habit of rolling down to the McDonalds for lunch if I feel the need to soothe my self. 5 rations left. Morning Mobility has been minimal but I have taken to at least swinging my arms and legs around and using a resting squat whilst brushing my teeth. Will look into a firm routine soon so that I have something set that I do each morning. Might rope the partner into joining me but they despise early rising.

In the spirit of approaching all of this like a game I realised that in every RPG I have ever played I never finish with my first character. That first character is for messing around, figuring out the mechanics, realising what can and can't be done and in some instances figuring out how to maximize the resources that get given to you. So I'm doing just that; I gained some real world XP about the game system and am restarting my challenge with more focus. First time round I made mistakes and couldn't continue. This time around it might be the exact same thing but I'll learn that little bit more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One realization is that I have a very strong tendency to push against limitations and either need to give my self reasonable wiggle room or none at all. I also love to measure things and record things so this might simply be a fact finding mission more than anything else. Aiming for a solid foundation and a successful challenge. I might even try out the RPGification thing and 'roll' up a character and start leveling. But, I don't think that is likely. I'm not gonna give a long intro like last time. Have a profile for that. Short and sweet: I'm not happy with my current fitness levels and not happy with aspects of my body; Join the club, I know. What I want, in a general sense, is to be more physically able again (maybe even improve on my peak but no pressure) and shed a few centimetres around the waist line in particular. When I get home tonight I will do some measurements and post them as a start point of measurable change that may or may not occur. Long Goal: Get my waistline closer to 90cm. It's been bugging me for years and has steadily increased to the point where I am constantly aware of it and very self conscious of it. The only way to really fight that Battle of The Bulge is dietery habit changes. To that end I will have one Quest Line being dedicated to food and a push towards healthier eating habits. In addition to the dietary habits I want to get back into a good morning ritual and will be continuing my wake-up quest from my last challenge with the attachment of a morning mobility regime that I will aim to do everyday. Nothing strenuous just a basic warm-up for life as it were. Too often I sleep in late and before I'm even awake I'm on my bike cycling to work and it's slowly wrecking my muscles and joints. As a third quest I want to focus on my upper body strength. The challenge quest will be strictly related to push-ups but I will add any other upper body work I start doing. Maybe pullups somewhere in the future. Doubt i can even hang from a bar at present let alone pull myself up on one. -------------------------------------- Main Quest : Waist Measurement of 90cm (35 inches or there abouts) Quest Line One : Healthy Food Habits Eat out less, cook real meals more, change lunch habits at work.I want to stagger this quest so as to build up to a good system. Week 1 : 1 meal cooked at home. Week 2 : 2 meals cooked at home. Week 3 : 3 meals cooked at home. Week 4 : 4 meals cooked at home. Week 5 : 5 meals cooked at home. Week 6 : 6 meals cooked at home. I tend to get very lazy in the evenings and going out for sushi, curry-rice, ramen, or udon is just far more attractive than taking time to get ingredients and cook meals. Not only is it worse for me it's definitely worse for my wallet so I want to jump on it and keep with it. After the challenge I will hopefully be in the habit more and will continue. Home cooked meals mean that I can control my portions more and be more in control of what goes into the meal. To start with I just want to succeed at making these meals and I'm not too concerned whether it's a nice salad with chicken breast or a pasta with creamy cheese sauce. It's cooked at home it's good. The ideal situation is healthy meals but any meal at home is bound to be better than eating out more often than not. My partner and I tend to eat out a lot and I think that will be the main derailer here. That and my propensity to have a rather bare fridge. Measurability : Plain and simple it will be a pass or a fail. I will allow myself one fail week that is any week except week 6. If in week 4 I only cook three times that counts as a fail. 6/6 - Perfect 5/6 - Good 0-4/6 - Fail This quest line will have sub quests that include shopping for the week and eating everything I buy. I'll keep track of that and try to post about it if it's postable. I was also really interested in the hunger scale thing i saw in Athena's (I think) challenge and want to make a note of recording how I feel before and after each meal of each day. I tend to eat out of habit rather than hunger and want to be able to record and see how this looks on paper. Quest Line Two : Return to Mobility I've gotten increasingly despondent with being less and less physically able to perform tasks I consider fundamental tasks, as well as having persistent aches and pains that I know are just caused by muscle atrophy and flexibility reduction. To this end I want to return to having a morning ritual that includes waking earlier (during the week at minimum) and performing a basic morning mobility exercise. I've been eyeing the MovNat stuff since it's just my kind of thing so I will build a routine and perform it each morning and possibly build a more strenuous routine later that links in with Quest Line Two. I will also record my sleeping and waking hours just as a point of interest for this one. The aim is 0600 wake ups that will cause a natural shift to earlier nights. This gets easier in Summer here because it starts getting hot enough to sweat around 0500 (if it gets cool enough to even stop sweating during the night that is ) Measurability : I would say that anything I'm doing about 80% or more of the time is something I habitually do. To this end I will take each day passed as a point and by the end if I have not done it 80% of the days then it will be a fail. 42/42 - Perfect 34/42 - Good 0-33/42 - Fail Quest Line Three : Push Up Challenge I have '100 push-ups' app thing on my phone and I previously used the sit-up version of said app and it did improve my core. So, I want to make use of the push-up challenge and see if I can hit 100 consecutive push-ups by the end of it...which admittedly seems crazy to me presently but I want to have a challenge that is a literal challenge to me. Measurability : By the end of week six I will do a max effort test and see how many pushups I can perform in a set time. Likely 2 minutes. 100+ - Perfect 75-99 - Very Good 50-74 - Good 0-49 - Fail Giving myself a lot more wiggle room on success here and I may even be underwiggling. --------------------- Post Script : I also want to try and keep some manner of food diary and will likely post it here so that I can be called out for eating too much or too little of things.

Fell off the wagon well and proper a few days (maybe weeks) back. Didn't get back on so it's trundled off without me. That being said I'm getting back up and walking instead. Wagons are for lazy people anyway Jokes aside, I definitely failed to keep up with any of my quests but I succeeded in doing more than I would have done if I hadn't started at all. I'm writing this challenge off as a false start; I'll still do the fitness test this weekend (possibly Monday if the weekend ends up to full) and use that as a good baseline for later challenges. I've encountered my issues and have a better idea of what is lacking in my fitness. The fundamental issue, as I think is always the case with all of us, is not fitness but mental well-being and healthy habits if we're honest. I was far too over-ambitious and made things too complicated. I need to start small and start simple. Create the space for healthy habits and build that foundation strong. Next challenge is going to be a lot simpler. It's going to be more realistically achievable. As much as this challenge has not been met or accomplished it certainly hasn't been wasted. I passively get more exercise a day than I was getting in an average month just a few years ago. I eat better. I sleep better. All in all I've been on an upward trend. Next challenge is the plan now. I'm going to make an effort to have a workout plan put together and already implemented before the challenge so the challenge will be keeping up with a workout rather than floundering around and trial and erroring one. "Gamers don't die. They respawn."

In general I can sustain the combat mode for a month or two without too much wear and tear. Was mostly just a bit of self flagellation that happens rarely these days. Should sleep normally tonight. With any luck I'll actually be tired and actually sleep. The reminder to be mindful of injury is a good one. Gotta remind myself all too often that my body can't do what it used to do even if it thinks it can. Slow and steady, rebuild without crumbling the foundations and all that. In my "old age" I've mellowed out quite a bit and generally retire for bed around 22h00 and only wake up 3 or 4 times in the night. Sleeping used to be a nightmare for me. Last night was not the anxiety style insomnia but rather just an irritation with my body that it was not feeling tired. Combine that with a series I was rewatching to catch up to the new episodes so I could continue the series and I wanted to just keep smashing the episodes. Was tempted to go for a walk until sunrise but thought it more prudent to at least lie down and rest my eyes before the next day started. Have been very scarce on your challenge page, but it's busy enough and a good listen on the radio once and a while. Even if I don't add anything. Faulty receiver on this radio methinks.

Check on all fronts. I did binge watch on Netflix and only get to sleep at around 4 or 5 so waking up at 6 might not have technically counted because I didn't really sleep. 3 sets of bbww with some added exercises. Only water for hydration. Did morning mobility exercises and threw in some intermittently during the day. Even danced around my apartment like a silly fool just for some cardio. We'll see how the day goes. Feel excellent I do. My body does tend to go into combat mode if I don't sleep and this is how it feels.

Mobility succeeded...not much else. Had a lovely meal out and drank some grape juice and a delicious hot chocolate. No regrets. In a funk about the sleeping and waking last few days. Not a main quest and mostly just trying to get things going.

Morning mobility : check Workout : 3 sets bbww - check Water : Nothing but water - check Waking at 0600 : Not quite but was out of bed before I needed to be which is good. ------------ The body weight workout was good. Worked up a sweat and definitely felt it in my legs. Knees complained through the 1st set but got better by the 3rd. I think I need to do some pre workout half squats to lubricate that joint a bit more in the warm up. Intermittent fasting is kicking in well enough. Generally eat breakfast around 0700 and then eat again around 1700, sometimes again at 2000. I was looking at Athena's hunger rating chart that she is using, and think I want to be more mindful of how full or empty I feel. Yesterday I didn't feel hungry until I was sitting down to eat my 2nd meal at 1700. And I was full way quicker than expected and stopped eating. Then finished the meal later at 2000 when I felt a little hungry. This morning I ate breakfast out of habit rather than hunger. I've always found that I am healthier and happier when I only eat when I'm hungry. When I'm in a bad place I tend to just eat habitually and constantly. So far goes well. Tonight is a run in the park. Looking forward to being barefoot and grounding myself with some grass. Even if I have to keep moving or the mosquitoes will eat me alive.

Had a weekend in the shelter. Many slips all over the place. But just gonna focus on the positives. Still keeping water as a majority hydration liquid. Had some grape juice, and orange juice. Even had a can of coke. All in all small slips that serve no purpose to hang onto. The general habit of water is being built up and so far have only had water at work the whole challenge and that's where most of the bad liquid habits start. Morning mobility is becoming more habitual even if it's not formalized. I stretch and loosen up each morning like I used to. Many of the chronic pains in my back and neck are improving. Could do with a little more of a set routine but that will come. Did not wake up well most of this weekend but only 1/4 of the mornings was a 'lazy' snooze wake up. Others were planned to be non 0600 mornings owing to late nights with people and sleeping in with the partner I see less often and they like to sleep in more. Supportive snuggles beat out discipline plans most times. So far the main work outs are not happening. I think I need to create a workout that happens at home since more often than not my excuse is that I don't have the time or inclination to go all the way to the park to work out. On top of that the mosquitoes are intense up there. So, modified bbww will be the plan Monday, Wednesday, Friday. ​Still cycling plenty and getting more walks in to counter the muscle discrepancy and knee pain. Feeling better in general. Feeling fatter and slower in the bad moments but in general more positive about how the body is feeling.

Ended up deciding to stop feeling sorry for myself and do my morning mobility exercise at work in an empty office. Whichever way the horse is dragging me I might as well get some core exercise out of getting stable while I'm down there. I think the respawn analogy is really the best one. Just gotta think of it more like one of those punishing roguelikes that you play with the expectation of death so that you don't mind dying and just jump straight back in with experience. Looking at your quests there I think skip days are also a great idea. Gonna stick with my theme and keep adjusting rather than pushing through with the bad plan.

Missed my morning wake-up, skipped my evening exercise, and skipped morning mobility. I did drink water so, it's not all bad. Waiting for the horse to stop dragging me before I get back on it.

One of the oddities of Japan is that it's a cash based society in a big way and more often than not I'm carrying all the money for the month on me at one time. No danger of muggings and even if you lose your wallet you can be pretty certain that it will show up in a 'koban' (little police stations near train stations) within the day and you can get it back. For the most part of course. Crime does happen and people do steal of course but it's more of an exception rather than the rule as I'm used to it back home. Often I shop on my way home from work so I'm contemplating supper by that point. I know that shopping on an empty stomach leads to bad choices and try and exert some will. Yesterday I bought nothing but good stuff. Was an oddity really. Although I still got a snooty look from an elderly gentlemen. Maybe my choice of chicken breasts and frozen veg was offensive to him. The other danger is that I keep basic ingredients for baking and cooking around the house and very easily can fabricate some brownies or pancakes without much thought... admittedly far better than a chocolate bar but still difficult to cut out entirely. Although I do use protein powder as a partial flower replacement at times so it's not all bad. I make enough that if I live a near ascetic lifestyle (which I did for a time) then I can easily put away between $1,600 - 1,800. And living rather indulgently like the last few months still keep 600 or so. Of course it all depends on lifestyle choices. I know others who live from paycheck to paycheck and run out of money near the end of each month. For travelling my job is not ideal since I classify as a government employee so the longest period of "holiday" I get is between 28 December and 5 January or there abouts. Weekends are non working thankfully but not much can be done in a weekend. And we get 20 days paid leave but are discourage from using more than 3 days in a row. So money is viable but time is less viable. That being said I know many people who visit 5 or 6 countries in the area in the year or two they are here. It's a great platform to jump over to Vietnam or Thailand. Korea is close too. There are private companies that also hire teachers here and they are far more comfortable with regards to having holidays but more often than not you make peanuts. Sometimes about half of what a JET makes and they work odd hours when they do work. It's not a bad life and the cost of living is not that bad...although it's getting worse with time. Compared to SA I earn about 3 times what I could expect from the same work but everything is about 2 times as expensive.

I realized the necromancy after posting. Should have likely checked the dates of posts before commenting

Went to bed way too late last night and skipped my 0600 wake up. Then snoozed my 0730 "get ready" alarm until 0750. Still got to work on time but was not an ideal morning. Will be back to normal tomorrow. As I always say: "Good balance is not about standing still; good balance is about rapid recovery from instability". Which in this context means that yes I lost my balance but I'll just tap my foot on the ground or use my limbs to stabilize and get right back on it. Did a evening workout on the wrong day but it was barely a decent workout so wouldn't even count it. Proper one will be tonight. Water goes well. ---- Observations. I have noticed that I am craving sweets and snacks more this week and this is usually my bodies response to losing weight. Sees it as a bodily threat that my fat supplies are being eaten into and wants to regain homeostasis and all that. Still avoiding the bad liquid calories but have been eating badly none the less and feeling a little wretched in general. Morning cycles are feeling like more of a strain so I'm definitely lacking something in my diet. Going to try boost protein levels and try to be more consistent about eating greens.

Just had to post that I initially decoded that as carrying a club (like a bludgeoning weapon) whilst running. Which would obviously aid in meeting new people because people are always nicer when you carry a big stick I find This of course is probably a reflection on South Africa in general that going for a run with a stick is pretty normal and standard practice really. At least for me it is.

Hey there Xena, yeah the pre-run warm-up was not exactly a stellar one if I'm honest so the stiffness was to be expected. I'm torn ligaments in the past and damaged tendons so I'm unfortunately all too aware of how little blood they get and how slow they heal up. I've been resting them up and just warming them up a little each day and stretching them. Feeling fine enough today and will be doing a little sprinting this evening. Starting with a walk and good warm-up this time No new shoe. In fact I ran barefoot since I wanted to return to that simplicity again. Was on grass and slightly compacted earth so it's better for my knees and joints than running on the paving in shoes. Also gives me a kick to run around barefoot outside, in Japan. I do know that when I used running shoes once upon a time they wrecked my knees a little because of said drop from heel to toe. It is entirely likely that the shoes I wear daily are shortening the tendons and being barefoot for the first time in a while was a stretch for them. Never been much of a runner. More of a dwarf. "Very dangerous of short distances" as it's said. I did long distance hiking and short distance sprinting but never really did much in between. Did a 3k "marathon" a few months back after minimal training and was surprisingly fine with it. Very surprisingly. Don't see myself doing much running really. Will see how I do on my test and how I feel with it all. I aim to return to a state where I could hike indefinitely with a heavy pack, was always something I enjoyed and in my current state I can't even do it without the pack. Short distance speed. Long distance endurance. I'm thinking the Ranger class is most appropriate with my aim to get in Anti-Poaching. The general rule of thumb is about 8km/hour indefinitely.

Giving myself a swift kick in the arse today. Additionally I'm gonna follow my own motto and change this bad plan, hopefully for the better. I'm editing the original plan keeping the old plan struck through so that previous posts make more sense I'm not happy with my lack of accountability and rather than putting it off until 'the next [insert time here]' I'm going to buck my trends and make the change now. Mostly I want to try bring my quests more in line with daily measurability. I want daily light exercise that is focused on mobility and movement with alternating heavier exercises every other day. Going to err on the side of easier rather than harder so that I can finish this quest and have successes rather than failures.

Oddly enough teaching English in Japan...I've a habit of doing many odd jobs. The massage was a stop along the way because I loved massage. I've been massaging for nearly 12 years now. Only did it 'professionally' (being paid) for about 2 years. I do recall that during my training that I did before trying professional my instructors were fascinated by many of my self-taught techniques and suggested I start teaching. Maybe it's somewhere in the future for me, but I never really know. Good to hear you are enjoying. Keep protecting your back and never neglect to do a good warm-up before a massage. At one point I was doing a few hours of massage everyday on top of martial training and never even thought about warm-ups and never picked up any issues because I was just physically fit enough and conditioned to keep going, in some sense I was 'always warmed up', but then there was a long hiatus and when I massaged I didn't warm up and started picking up little aches and pains and all those things. We know that warming up is good and important but so often we forget just that one time... Keep us posted on how things are going if you want to do so. Always nice to get down on paper the little successes.

ã“ã¡ã‚‰ã“ãよã‚ã—ããŠã­ãŒã„ã—ã¾ã™ï¼ I'm also a fellow worker in Japan. Also aiming at joining the Rangers. Can only assume that it is far too much to hope that you would be close enough to be a training buddy. Excellent quests. Nice and measurable, and great building blocks. Keep at it. Keep recording most importantly. I myself am using this first challenge as a measurement exercise more than anything else to see what needs work. Or rather confirm what i know needs improvement. I'm personally not a fan of 「ãŒã‚“ã°ã£ã¦ã€ã€€(do your best) since it implies that you are not already doing so, but I will say 「ファイト!ã€ã€€(Fight!) since that to me means that we should all keep going.

Welcome! Good looking plan and I especially love your main quest. I think there is no greater goal than to be happier with ourselves and in ourselves. Being pain free is something only those with pain can really appreciate. I wish I could express to younger me just how lucky they were to be pain free back then. Hopefully future me can tell present me that it's possible to get back there too. The energy stuff is always tough. The old saying that you've gotta use energy to gain energy is always difficult when the starting 'capital' is low. Just building up consistency in what you will go along way to helping on that front; every time you get that 10 minute stretch in each morning you are building up that energy potential and improving the mental capacity too. Even if it feels like we are running on empty it's good to remember that we are increasing the capacity and making it easier to restore that capacity so that we have more energy, both mental and physical, to expend later on. Agree with whitewineandcathair that baking can be good for you and agree with you that keeping that one thing that genuinely brings you joy is exponentially important. Never give up baking. It's so important to know what is going into our food and baking means you are in such a good position to be getting healthier snacks than those of us who lack the skills or equipment. Keep at it. I look forward to following your success.

Solid plan. Excellent thinking and preparation. Especially the exercise with burnout avoidance. So often I've tried to dive back into exercise and then pulled out due to injury or exhaustion. Self prepared meals are always a good life choice too. I think you're gonna do great and if you stick with this plan you'll definitely feel and notice a difference. Habit formation. Consistency. Great stuff. It's posts like yours that make me realize that I over complicate my challenges to set myself up for failure. Keep it Super Simple and all that.

I too suffer the 'curse of talent'. Pick things up really quickly and easily and reach a middling ability in them rapidly then plateau something awful and general give up. Each time it happens it reinforces that mentality that this is the way I am and it can't be changed. Although we never notice the things we do stick at longer than usual because it's natural for us to focus on the stuff we gave up on; the stuff that reinforces that identity. I'm suffering with my challenge at present. Been letting things slip and each time I have to do something for the challenge I use the previous slips as ammunition to shoot down what little motivation I have to keep at it. I think the reasons are numerous but mostly some of my quests were not well put together and on the whole I'm not making myself accountable. Another thing I need to focus on is positive measurements; avoiding the habit of measuring failures and rather measuring success. That way I can see that this week I succeed 14 times out of 21 and then next week I have a 'highscore' to surpass in a way. Push it to 15. Progress is always progress and it show us that we are not actually plateauing even if we think we are. Even a lack of progress can be a motivator because it shows that we are being challenged and that means we have to work at something for a change. Working at something is hard for me. Probably hard for you too. So many things come naturally and often I find myself dropping things even faster when they don't suddenly snap into place and make sense. I've never had to work hard at anything for very long and I think that is why talent is a curse I think. How's the exercise going? I've been missing a chunk of my body weight work outs (and silently beating myself up over it). But even if I just do 1/3 it's better than 0. Also, I love that feeling that we get when the muscles feel used. I miss that feeling so much it makes me want to exercise just to get it again. Eating plan looks good and sounds very doable. It's a pleasure when healthier eating is enjoyable. Although those snacks and sodas slip in at the slightest opening if we're not careful. One of my quests is drinking only water and avoiding all of those liquid calories. I have not measurement system except measuring slip ups...which kind of set me up for slip-ups. And after that first slip up it feels less bad to slip-up again. I'm now mentally tallying each time I resist a liquid calorie rather than when I slip and have them. So far doing great in my opinion. My slip ups have been things like orange juice and I have actively resisted sodas at least five times now. Taking walks with a camera is a great quest. I think it should be a passive quest for everybody. At one point I was cycling exclusively almost everyday and seldom walking and when I had to walk I realized that my alignment and musculature was all messed up. Walking is the most underrated exercise in existence and needs to be done so much more these days. Beach walking more so. Never been a coastal person but even I love a good walk on the beach. Hope it's all going well pinkie. Give us a sitrep when you get the chance. We're all rooting for you. Keep at it. Every little bit counts and we never really give up anything, just take breaks.

Good advice there radioedit, I'll try that out with my push ups. Really suffering with all the muscle atrophy that snuck up on me...plus the extra weight. Powerpc, I wish you luck on your quests. They look good and they look doable. Pasta is also one of my weaknesses. Just so easy to cook and so simple to eat. Building that routine on the bike is good too, it's really all about routine I find. I've taken to designating an exercise time and on those days where I'm comfortable in my gaming chair and think that it would be easier not to get up and go exercise I get up and go anyway. Even if I just walk around and don't feel up to exercise I am creating the time and space in which exercise will happen when I'm in a better space and more able to do the exercise. The motivation is external, which I've always found is less effective than an internal motivation...but that being said it's always better to have any motivation than none at all. External motivators diminished in my life and having to find internal motivation is seriously tough sometimes. Keep at it. Keep up the consistency. Keep measuring your progress and your activity and keep posting here. This forum works well as an external motivator for me...even a little of an internal one too since I have to think about things more when I post them.

Sounds like you've got a good plan for this challenge. Nice and simple. A good focus on building that consistency, something I struggle with myself so my next challenge will look a lot more like this one methinks. As soon as I read your first goal my mind went straight to natural movement. There's a lot of stuff on YouTube and around the web about it all. I've been using it to alleviate my years of sitting badly and generally having awful posture. I used to be a wild child (up until about the age of 20 or so if I'm honest, still not quite an adult I like to think) and climbed trees and rolled around on the floor a lot and never suffered from my 8-10 hour gaming stints every other day. Then I accrued injuries and the wild child died and the sedentary child/adult hybrid was born. Fast forward 8 years and I have pain in a good percentage of my joints and often have to stretch after more than an hour in a chair or I suffer for it later. Longish story shorter, I'm now trying to return to that playful natural "exercise" that simply involves 're-wilding' myself back to that natural movement. Things like resting squats and rolls are great ways to realign everything in the body. At least i think so. So if you wanna have a look at it and maybe incorporate some of it into your daily exercise a quick google search will find some good basic stuff. Eating better is also all sorts of good for us. I've always been a little anti the philosophy of completely cutting something out of our diets, unless of course that something is refined sugars or liquid calories. Those things are just plain evil. I think the trick is finding a good balance and ensuring we get all those macros. You say you're feeling tired with a limited carb diet and from what I've read that is pretty normal for the carb withdrawal phase since the body has to convert over the internal systems for generating energy. Give it another week maybe and see how you feel. With me I always find that my energy levels get better and better the more exercise I do whilst reducing any stimulants like sugar or caffeine. Give it another week, if you're still feeling like a zombie then consider getting some healthy carbs in there. Sweet potatoes for starters. Sleeping is a crazy beast in my opinion. So many of us have such disparate habits. For most of my life I got about 2-3 hours of sleep a night. I had severe insomnia and couldn't initiate or maintain sleep very well. Got to the point where I had anxiety and panic attacks when it was 'bed time' as a child because bed time was an awful long time spent lying in a bed unable to sleep and unable to switch off. I hallucinated and and waking nightmares in the dark. Eventually sleeping for 20 -30 minutes and then being awake again for an hour or two then asleep for 30 minutes to an hour. The second the sky started lightening I was up and about. I've mellowed out in my 'old age' and now get a good 6-8 hours of minimally interrupted sleep, but cannot sleep any more. My one partner on the other hand could sleep for 12-14 hours and probably go straight back to sleep, she can't function on less than 8 hours of sleep where I function almost better on less than 6 hours. Something in my system just works. My other partner can't go to sleep before midnight most nights and generally sleeps between 3am and 7am work days and weekends 3am until 11am. All makes for some odd sleeping habits all around. This anecdotal evidence is leading into my sleeping habit transitions. I spent years measuring and testing and experimenting. To the point of timing sleep and doing some pretty crazy stuff to condition myself to sleep. I've found a good method has been to enforce a waking time that is non negotiable and never changes, weekends included. Holidays even. This initially needs a single alarm at that time and an expenditure of will to get up immediately. And start doing things; dishes, laundry, exercise. After a few weeks you start waking up before the alarm. Your body adjusting to that alarm like we would adjust to the sun rising. Slowly bringing us out of sleep. This leads to good mornings. The secondary effect is that our bodies start realizing that since that wake up time is set and unchanging it needs to initiate sleep when it needs it. This way every evening I start feeling sleepy quite consistently at the same time and then go to sleep. I fall asleep within minutes (most nights) and only wake 2-5 times a night now. I am more relaxed about it if I have to work late or have emergencies in the evening. So no alarm is set for those mornings but usually the body wakes up anyway if it is rested enough. Just realized I'm blathering rather a lot. You say you probably sleep too much so maybe sorting out a sleeping regiment might establish the times involved. Too much sleep I find makes me very lethargic and too little sleep makes me grumpy (grumpier). Laundry monsters suck Mine has a habit of distributing it's innards all over my apartment and then the effort of cleaning up all those pieces and then doing laundry takes a lot of willpower. At least yours is neatly in a cage ready to be fought. Keep at it. Sounds like a good challenge to develop those consistencies and the muscle/joint alignment to get back on the path to wellness. Keep at it.

As is my way I am endlessley back tracking on things and not following through with things I say I'm going to do. For the most part that's just me thinking something will be a cool idea and then realizing it isn't and then being far too comfortable with dropping it as dead wait. "Malum consilium quod mutari non potest." - It is a bad plan that cannot be changed. So all of my plans are changeable. Ramadan idea got scrapped fast. Dawn is just too early currently and I don't feel the need to expend willpower on it. Maybe next time around. For now just focusing on the challenge at hand. Did not do the morning sets, but I did get out of bed at 0600 straight after my alarm. Well...almost. Did spend a dangerous moment cuddling my partner and thinking that I didn't need to get up. But I got up. Did some laundry and dishes. Ate some breakfast. Switched on the PC and played games. I will fit the sets in as the day progresses and do the bbww tonight. Body feels pretty good considering I ran 2 miles last night. Achilles tendon was tender when I woke up but that went away with a warm up. I have also been doing some physio-therapy on my shoulder issues by strengthening the spinal muscles and stretching the pectorals. Has been helping a lot; less shoulder pain and the spinal pain I've had for the last few weeks seems to be going away too. Always nice to have things happen. I've been thinking on ways to improve this challenge but have decided that I will simply keep note of the good and bad aspects of the challenge and use that knowledge to make a better challenge 2 next time. This one will do for now. Feeling like the push-ups may be the end of me, but considering that I have been doing very little to actually improve them yet I'm sure I will notice a difference in the future.

Sunday Report Push-ups in 2 minutes : 30 knee incline push-ups, Failure before 2 minutes - Shoulder issues have left far more weakness than I even realized. Gonna have to work hard on this one. Sit-ups in 2 minutes : 50. minimal rest. 2 mile run : 22:51, average pace 11:26/min, no stops, no walking. Felt good but was very slow. Knee gave minor issues half way but subsided. Achilles tendon felt strained. Push-ups 0%0% Sit-ups 65%65% 2-mile run 0%0% Came just short of getting onto the scoring section of the run and feel that incline push-ups should count half a push up so not there either. Weeks Exercise plan. Monday: Morning - push-ups 3 x 4, sit-ups 3 x 20. Evening - BBWW 3 sets Tuesday: Morning - 2 mile run Wednesday: Morning - push-ups 3 x 4, sit-ups 3 x 20. Evening - BBWW 3 sets Thursday: Morning - hill run Friday: Morning - push-ups 3 x 4, sit-ups 3 x 20. Evening - BBWW 3 sets Saturday: Full rest Sunday: Evening test.