x Valkyrie x

This s my take, as well! I'm very rarely going to go out to dinner and get a salad, and that's ok! But when I know I'm going out, or I know I want that big bowl of ice cream after dinner, I plan accordingly. I've been learning i dont need it all to feel like ive had enough- a few days ago, I was DYING for some ice cream, but I was already pretty much at my calorie target for the day, so I had one small scoop, and I felt satisfied and not even a bit guilty.(but sometimes the big bowl is worth it...)

Thanks!! I may modify to incline pushups on my stairs so I can get the whole range done, but I was pretty happy with just not having muscle failure land me on my face. Also, how sore are your legs from all the lunges?? I just did another few sets and I'm super sore! I'm torn between resting and letting my legs recover, and doing more lunges, cause I'm super competitive and if we can't beat the Horde this time, I want to at least catch up to @Artemis Fernweh, who has gone beast mode for our team!

Oh man, do lunges for the alliance, we're behind!

I love this so much! (But I love all thing bullet journal haha)

Um...wow, Merlin is cute when he's calling me a hero...I see your fascination now =p *cherishes gif forever*

Today I'm resting a bit. I'm going to try for some lunges for the glory of the Alliance, but otherwise, taking it easy physically and just gonna get errands done. I get to take a drug test today for my new job, yay! =p I was doing some thinking - I'm pretty addicted to my scale. But I know there isn't a magic number that's going to make me feel like I've reached the top of the mountain. And since I'm focusing on functional training, I should see some increased muscle mass and a change in my body composition after a while, which means the scale isn't necessarily an accurate reflection of the changes I'm making. So I took measurements, and that's how I'm mostly going to track that side of things. I'll keep my measurements here, since it's more continuous than my challenge log, and I'll remeasure every week. Hopefully I did this right, I've never really done it before... Bust: 38" Chest: 32" Waist: 30" Hips at the iliac crest: 37 1/2" Midway: 36 3/4" Thighs: 25" B L Arm above elbow: 11.5" R Arm above elbow: 11.5"

Thanks for your input guys! I think the way I'm doing it - eating clean most of the time and portion control- is working for me, so I don't see a reason to switch it up at this point.

Wolf, how did you get into gaelic? My boyfriend is Irish and one of my girls over there plays gaelic and wants me to give it a try when I move over there. I looked for a gaelic team over here and there isn't a single one in my state! It looks so fun!!

Day 2 of the challenge and of Spartan training finds me very sore all over, yay! My abs are sore, which is the proof I needed that the bear crawl hang was working more than just my quads (though I couldn't tell at the time because all I could feel was my legs on fire). Day 1: I ran, lunged for the mini challenge and hiked (where I was assaulted by swarms of baby grasshoppers!). Day 2: I did the spartan body weight workout with extra lunges for my challenge. Day 3: I will mostly rest, with some lunges thrown in, because on Day 4/Wednesday I'm facing my fear of team sports and gonna give the local indoor soccer place a try. I don't wanna overdo it all at the beginning of the week because I still have 2 days of strength training this week. Building in rest is harder than anticipated, as I want to do all the things!!

You get bonus points for not murdering the dog! +25 Patience!

Does anyone do intermittent fasting? I just read the NF beginner's article and I'm intrigued. It's a departure from the conventional knowledge I've been operating under my whole life, but I've learned repeatedly in recent months that conventional knowledge is often unsupported by science, so I'm tentatively interested in IF. I'm curious if anyone is doing it and if they've seen a difference, and the pros or cons they've experienced.

Yay! We need you!!

Woohoo go you! For the glory of the Alliance! (I'm way too into this competition...) Great job on getting it done when you didn't feel like it.

Love your goals and congrats on your upcoming marriage! I saw something about visits and moving...are you guys long distance? I'm long distance with my boyfriend, and when I went over to him for an extended 3 month visit, I gained 15 pounds because I was in "visit" mode...so I understand what you mean about the need to eat better when you're together!

Gnomes! We must rally and use our bonus to catch up to the vile Horde! We are, as of this moment, exactly 1,000 behind! That seems a daunting number, but with our bonus, we can and we WILL close the gap!! Show them what we're made of! Also, don't forget to multiply your reps by 1.5, it makes a huge difference!

Mmm I LOVE peach season!!

Hello, visiting the Warriors from the Rangers - I like your theme!! Also, great goals! Good luck with your challenge! =)

I did it! It was hard, I didn't want to, but I did it!! 5 pushups (I couldn't do the full range of motion, but I did what I could as a real pushup, instead of doing the modified pushups, we'll see if that works for me) 30 second plank (I did 2 x 15 seconds because I always feel like my back is sagging after ten or 15 seconds...side planks are so much easier for me) 15 squats (subbed plie squats for the last set) 5 lunges (B)* (added some extra lunges to both lung variations because it's lunge week!) 5 side lunges (B) (I'm limited in how deep I can go because of tight hip adductors, but I felt it loosen up by the 3rd round) 30 second bear crawl hold (what fresh hell is this!? I hate this one so much. I did 2x 15 seconds because my quads started to burn too much to tolerate!) Performed 3 sets with minimal rest between sets, took me 8 country songs, which I reckon is about 25 minutes. Cool Down: Warrior One 2x30 secs (B) (this is a cool down? My quads doth protest.) Triangle Pose 3x15 secs (B) Hip Flexor Stretch 2x30 secs (B) Looking at it written like that, I'm not sure why sweat was literally dripping off of my face by the time I finished(Just kidding, I do know...it was the bear crawl hold and planks...). I feel like an over-cooked noodle, so I guess it was effective! *hobbles to add lunges to scoreboard* I will see what other lunges I can do later today... *(B) = bilateral

I feel tired this morning... I woke up super early and talked to my honey in Ireland, than went back to sleep. Now I'm like, "skyrim sounds more fun than working out." I'm wondering if I should rest today, barring lunges, or maybe once I do my lunges I'll feel able for the rest of the body weight circuit I'm supposed to do.

You can do it!!!!

Hey guys, I wanna make sure I'm not cheating! I went for a hike, and as I was climbing an incrediby steep part of the trail, I thought to myself, "self! You're totally lunging in the wild!" I counted about 40 lunges before we decided to slide back to the bottom and take the easier trail. I didn't count any other hill climbing,only the one very steep part where I was actually legitimately lunging...can I count them? It seemed like very functional training to me, but I just want to double check.

Today was a banner day of sweat-inducing activity! I ran 2.5 miles in 31 minutes with my C25K app cheering me on, resulting in a personal record time of 12:24 minute mile, and copious amounts of sweat, because even by 9 am it's really, really hot here. I proceeded to drink something like 10 x 20 oz of water, blowing my goal out of the...ahem...water, because I was so stinking thirsty, and I knew I was going for a hike this evening with my best friend and didn't want to be all dehydrated and exhausted on the trail. Then I completed 145 lunges throughout the day, and including an extremely steep section of mountain path where partway up I realized, "hey, I'm lunging!!" and counted to about 40 before we gave up and duck walked/slid down the hill again for the easier part of the trail. Talk about functional training! We followed that up with a cold corona and lime each in my friend's backyard and watched the sunset reflect against the mountains and talked about books. It was lovely. I've tracked it all in my bullet journal Quest Tracker, and I'm about to track my food for the day. I haven't been so sweaty in a really long time. It was fun! Tomorrow I'm supposed to do my strength training routine for the Couch to Sprint Spartan training program...it calls for 5 push ups. HAHA it thinks I can do a push up, never mind plural! That's so funny. Well, I'll do my bestest at push ups, though they may be modified. P.S. woke up this morning...my middle hip area is pretty sore...must lunge more.

Oh my goodness!!!! Yay congrats on the student loan, that is amazing!! And congrats on camp!!!! So fun!!

Wow 100 lunges already!! Go you!! *rushes to lunge more* Also, sore ribs/sides/upper back is all normal when getting into running - your body has to use lots of muscles to stabilize you while you run, and if you're breathing really hard there are muscles in your neck/shoulders and chest that help you breathe more! (I saw an opportunity to geek out, I took it...sorry not sorry! :p)

I hope that's not too much information at once, if you'd like I can you show you some pictures of my set up so you can get a feel for how it looks. I think it took me about 20 minutes to set my journal up the first time because I was figuring it out, but now it feels second nature.