Tils

On 07/04/2018 at 10:04 PM, Teirin said:

What do you think about the new album?  My physical copy hasn't arrived yet and I am stubbornly not buying an additional download copy.  I do love the two songs already released.

Well, you might have yours now I really like Phantom Divine and Amnesiac, and the rest is growing on me more and more with repeated listening - I had a very similar thing with Silverthorn where it took me a little while to get into most of them. But all in all a solid album - looking forward to hopefully seeing them on the next tour.

This has been a good challenge, if one where I've been almost completely absent. I guess not browsing on my lab computer did help my productivity, at least, heh. And I've felt good about having tasty leftovers for lunch, especially now the weather's getting warmer and I don't just want lots of hot food straight away.

One thing that's really struck me: at some point I've definitely picked up a habit of being hard on myself, regards how much exercise I should be doing, probably just from the world we live in. Consciously deciding to give myself days or weeks off is important, but I still find it really difficult and guilt-inducing, even when I know it's important. Something to work on going forward.

* Screams into the void of being terrible at remembering to post on forums. Also, computer problems. But mostly the first thing.*

Yeah, it's been a good challenge! I've been doing a bit more exercise than the minimum I set for myself, but stuff that I'm relaxed about and enjoy doing - the real aim of this was to not beat myself up over not eating perfectly or exercising always, and that seems to be working.

Also, new Kamelot album out today, so that's my afternoon / new media sorted

Delain and Kamelot! Awesome. Highly recommend all of we are the others. Their other stuff varies in tone a lot, but in a similar way to Kamlot's new stuff: the newer music is mostly darker and less orchestral. If you like metal as workout music, Suckerpunch is very good.

I've also found that daily workouts like pushups come and go, quality wise. Have you found there's a particular time of day that works best for them, or is it whenever there's time?

On 22/03/2018 at 8:24 PM, Kishi said:

 

I'd say no, but I couldn't do it with a straight face.  Come on in!

Yeees, in retrospect that was a bit unnecessary
 

First week going well. As the lack of updates has suggested, my internet browsing is in fact way down... hah, who am I kidding, I'm just terrible at writing updates. But I really am browsing less during work hours! Lunch prep also good so far (delicious, delicious leftovers.)

Really nice feeling like I can be more relaxed about exercise and food. My thinking is, I've got the habit more or less down - and as long as I keep going it won't really matter in a few years whether this week I went to four classes, or went to three classes and spent the fourth evening hanging out with my housemates and baking. And I'll probably remember the second one  I also went to the weights room, where I've been building back up after a brief intermission last challenge, and deadlifted my bodyweight for the first time ever! So that was very exciting.

And I've started learning to crochet - a small snake for a friend who recently had his viva...

*Sidles in late with no theme, nothing to see here...*
 

The last week's been a bit manic with work stuff, but hopefully I can still take part in this challenge.

I don't have a geeky theme (yet!) but I do have a challenge-y connection-y thing: these four weeks are going to be about refocusing, on how I want my life to be day to day, vs how it currently is.

Productivity: no off-theme internet on my computer during work hours. I'm a grad student, so I've got a lot of freedom to waste my time... but I want to get more done during the day and not panic in the evening. So, I won't be checking social media, news websites, or nerdy fitness forums that will remain nameless, during work hours. I can still use them on my phone if I need to contact someone or check something - but that involves getting my phone out my bag, and finding the site, and then all the font is tiny, and it won't load ... I think limiting surfing to phone will do fine

Prepping: At least four out of five weekdays, I'm going to have my lunch prepared the night before. Giving myself some leeway in case life gets in the way, but the few times I've managed this before it's felt really good.

Practice: Exercise-wise, I don't have specific goals at the moment. I just want to enjoy the physical things I can do, and not lose any of the progress I made during the last challenge. So I'll make it to at least three kickboxing classes a week, and do at least one other thing - could be a run, weights, a long walk, a swim, anything.

Progression: (yes, these p's are getting very tenuous...) Recently I've found myself rereading the same books, listening to the same music, or playing the same games in my off time. I like doing those things, and sometimes it's just what I want to relax. But I don't want to miss out on discovering new things I like. I'm going to spend at least an hour a week (the hope is that it'll be much longer once I get into it) this challenge doing something new - reading a new book, checking out a new artist, learning a new skill.

On 13/03/2018 at 2:23 PM, Kishi said:

NF monks are awesome and lovely - and you're one of us, so that means you're also awesome and lovely.

On 13/03/2018 at 2:23 PM, Kishi said:

Great job this challenge. We gonna see you next round?

Hmm, I think so. It'll be a bit less directed than this one - maybe more lifestyle related. Ooh, I should come up with a theme...

I think today calls for a summary post

So, for those just catching up, I met all my preparation goals, but due to circumstances out of my control the bout didn't happen, which I was told about 20 minutes before it was meant to take place. It was pretty disappointing, but there'll be something else - and now I've had the time to relax and take stock, I'm really happy with improvements I've made along the way, both fitness and non. Enforcing recovery days - pretty useful! Who knew!

Other takeaways:

- I did keep up my daily pushups right til today - it's a little thing but I'm proud of it, and I'd like to keep doing it.

- Meditation is hard (at least if you're as impatient as me)

- I know that if I have the motivation, I can make (proportionately) large changes with my diet

- NF monks are awesome and lovely - thanks again for your words of support!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm still feeling disappointed, but there'll be something else. I like the exam analogy. I may not get to use everything I've learned today, but what I learned and even the process of learning it was worthwhile.

So, an update on the goals:

Make weight: I weighed in on the day at 120 lb (yep, wasn't told until after weigh-ins). So I did achieve that goal - and honestly it was pretty neat knowing what results I can achieve with diet adjustments, if I really want. I'd like a bit more flexibility from now, so I'll keep an eye on starch and sugar but not worry as much. Hoping to balance out around 125, which is still a bit less than I was a couple months ago - maybe by gaining some muscle.

Stay strong: I've really noticed a difference in my pushups! The 10 I've been doing daily come easier, and I think my form is better. I'm going to try videoing them before the end of this challenge to do a form check (which I should really have done at the start... oh well ) and continue getting them in. And I've noticed other fitness improvements - I can do double kicks almost reliably! I ran 5k the other day in under 28 minutes - four months ago my PR was 33! While I want to rest, I don't want to lose the improvements I've made, so I'll also hit 2-3 classes and do at least one run weekly for the rest of the challenge.

Don't panic: I might change this to 'don't sulk' spend some time thinking positive thoughts about this whole experience. Picking out the bits I'm happy happened. Maybe try meditation again? I'd like to figure out that habit.

And keep going: This week's rest day will be Friday if I don't overrun today, today if not, or maybe both. Definitely keeping at least one weekly no-workout day in the future. Goal-wise my club's holding a ranking this weekend - I'd thought I might skip this one, but actually it might give me the focus and goal I need right now. After that, gonna work on some cool-looking techniques I can't do well and would never try in a competition - spinning, jumping, that kind of thing. Going to find that fun again.

My opponent pulled out.

She apparently got a concussion three weeks ago, and decided to hang on in the hopes of being able to fight right up until this morning. Which, obviously not a good idea.

Trying to remember that not getting to do a bout this time doesn't invalidate the work I've put in for it. That will probably get easier with time. Right now I'm angry, and disappointed. I think the best cure will be picking a new goal, something I can actually achieve.

But I wanted to thank all of you for your support over the last 3 weeks anyway - even though I didn't get to do the bout this time, it'll happen one day, and I'll have this experience to fall back on. And you guys made it so much easier.

Now I'm going to go be grumpy for a bit longer, because I'm not over this yet.

Weighed myself today after a good breakfast - 121lb. So that goal's met. There's a final class tonight to stretch, do slow technique work and talk strategy. And then tomorrow is the big day - nerves really starting to set in now. I think the scary part is that I have no idea who this person is - what height they are, how fit, exactly what their martial arts background is. I've sparred with people much more experienced than me, and even gone quite hard with some people about my size, but I always knew what I was getting into. But, I need to accept that I can't control any of that. I know what works for me. Just got to stay calm and do everything I can for those three rounds.

On 27/02/2018 at 2:27 PM, sarakingdom said:

How's it going? What are the effects of the rest day? Is your body recovering a bit?

 

Given how high impact and intense your training is, you might consider making your next challenge a minimum of two rest days. Maybe even three. A day of light stretching in between training would do a lot to let your joints heal and muscles rebuild stronger.

The challenge is going well! Mostly. The meditation hasn't really taken hold... I guess it's not a habit that comes easily. Maybe it's something I should look at scheduling more - set a time where I step away from things, maybe to a specific place. The rest has been good. Weight-wise I'm confident I'll be where I should be on the morning, and training-wise I know I've prepared as much as I'm capable of without doing more harm than good.
 

Making myself take a rest day has really helped with that. I haven't been waking up sore most days since starting this challenge (well, maybe after a couple of the circuit and sprint sessions :P)  And I think in the long run it'll help me to have a healthier relationship with exercise. I might think about that extra rest day for the next challenge. Or at least balancing the variety of my training - like if I go to a high-intensity sparring class one day, I won't do more than a gentle run or a technique-focused class in the days after.

These last few days I've been scaling back exercise a lot, just stretching and relaxation. The match is this Saturday, and I'm feeling nervous but looking forward to it. And however those 10 minutes turn out it'll feel good to not have that as a big scary fitness goal deadline, and to pick something new!

Wow, I have not been doing so well writing updates here. Fortunately that wasn't part of my challenge.

Exercise, pushups and mind-clearing all going well so far. I actually wound up having a couple days off last week - this week my rest day will be Thursday.

Last Saturday at training we did some sort of mock fights - multiple sparring rounds, roughly matched, with everyone else watching. The instructors decided I "lost" mine, but just barely, and while it's annoying I am kinda glad - it means I've been thinking critically about how I did, instead of just accepting that it went well. Think the main thing is a tendency to over-rely on coming in close and using my hands, instead of trying high kicks, which are worth more (in light-contact scoring) and can be more dangerous. A really useful experience.

On 13/02/2018 at 3:17 PM, Machete said:

Visualization could be a good adjunct to your meditation. It's like extra practice without using your body--sometimes your brain can't tell the difference. There's some science to it, though effects seem to be highly variable. Personally I've used it to win double gold at a Jiu-jitsu tournament with no actual physical practice 3 years ago (in one match actually using the same technique I learned almost entirely through mental imagery).

Interesting, I've heard of this before. Might have to give it a try. 

Currently for week 1:

Classes: [###]
Pushups: [####      ]
Runs: [#  ]
Focus time: [####      ]
Rest day: today! I plan on some stretching later, and maybe looking more into visualization, but for now I'm just getting down to business, to defeat the bugs in my code.

15 hours ago, PinkNinja said:

Hi!

I hope you're over the flu!
A mandatory rest day sounds like a good idea.

Yes, thanks! Ugh, the main symptoms went pretty quickly, but I never figured the blech-feeling would stick around so long after...
And I'm glad I've added the rest day. A good note-to-self that not wearing myself out is an important part of prep!

13 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

One of the hardest things to master is that rest is just as big a part of training as activity is. The body needs recovery time, not just for self-repair, but also for performance.

Absolutely - my brain knows it, but getting rid of the should-be-training guilt is harder! In fact - I might add that to my challenge. At least one day a week of complete rest, apart from the 10 pushups and maybe some stretching.

Hi there - this is my second ever challenge, and I'm choosing to poke my head in at the monks for this one. I've been kickboxing (american rules) for about a year, and in 3 weeks will hopefully be taking part in my first competition. It's very much a local and amateur thing, and is matched on experience and weight, but I'm still pretty nervous. So this challenge for me will be all around prep for that, and then recovery.

Goal 1: Make weight

The match is set at 121lb (weigh-ins right before) - I'm currently floating somewhere around 123-125. I can probably do this with dehydration but would prefer not! So for this I will be reducing carbohydrates generally, avoiding sugar, and limiting drinks to water, tea and coffee.

Goal 2: Stay strong

I've been keeping up with exercise reasonably well, flu and minor injuries aside, but I need to focus now. Until the match, I will run at least twice a week, including at least one sprint / intervals session, and I'll continue to attend 3-4 classes a week, with at least one being a sparring class. And I'll commit to at least 10 strict pushups a day, everyday - this has less to do with prep and more to do with wanting to improve the quality of my pushups. 10 is few enough that I can make myself do it and focus on quality, and who knows, I might end up doing more while I'm down there

Goal 3: Don't panic!

As I said pretty nervous... so this will be a meditation goal. For at least a couple of minutes a day, I'm going to practice clearing my mind and my doubts.

Goal 4: ... And keep going

I started kickboxing as a hobby thinking I wouldn't take it too seriously, that it could be a fun thing to do to switch off a couple times a week. The last few months, I've been training in some capacity 5-6 days a week except when ill. I've improved a lot, but I'm also starting to feel burnt out - constantly planning things around training, coming home late and exhausted most days, always having bruises, joint and muscle pain. After the match I'm going to take some time training lighter, and maybe spend time reading about martial arts and watching videos of cool techniques. I want to find the fun in it again.  ETA: in fact, I'll be starting on this from the beginning of the challenge, by making myself take a full recovery day at least once a week - nothing but some stretching and the aforementioned 10 daily pushups.

Well, I kind of fell out of the internet at the end there, but I did complete my challenge! I think overall I would award it a B.

The exercise routine, martial arts classes and carb measuring were all pretty easy to keep up (not counting the week of Ill Tils). I guess they were either habits I already had, or

not too far from my original behaviour. I also achieved my main quest - 124lb currently (irritatingly the matchup is now at 120... darn moving goalposts!) which I think the carb measuring in particular helped me with. It made me think more closely about how much food I was eating, and not just whether or not it was healthy (the content of what I eat hasn't really changed much.)

The handstand quest kinda tailed off. I did make some progress over the challenge, and I know I can do proper wallwalks and really steep wall-planks, which is very cool. But I got sick, and then I tweaked my back, and I lost the streak and with it the motivation. But I'm making excuses - I definitely could have found less intensive ways to work on handstands throughout the month. I think I'll come back to that one, maybe when it's warmer so I can practice outside.

The LUYL quest went a bit slower than I was hoping, but I did keep working on it throughout the challenge! I didn't even slightly make it through as much work as I was hoping, but anything is better than the nothing I was doing before. I'll be coming back to this one too.

Thanks for the support, everyone who commented!

Week 4 was indeed more healthy in that I wasn't plaguing everywhere, but less healthy in that when I was ill I seem to have mildly pulled a muscle in my back... by coughing. Somehow. So that's annoying. I still hit 4 kickboxing classes, a jump-rope session and a probably-bad-idea short weights session earlier in the week, but after a Friday class where even lower kicks were causing pain, I decided to give handstand practice / any resistance training a break for a couple days. Good news: after a restful weekend, there's less pain, and I'm ready to get back into exercise a little more carefully than before...

LUYL is going okay. I didn't manage to finish the chapters last week, but I had a good shot at them, and just having the encouragement to get any work done on those feels great.

And as far as the main quest goes, I'm down to 125lb (in the morning, before eating or drinking). I guess those few days of being unable to eat much except a couple crackers had an effect - plus maybe the carb measuring and exercise. The other club have said they have someone who could match with me at 123lb, which from here looks doable. I probably wouldn't want to stay at that weight, but I'm sure I can reach it in a month.

Last week: pretty successful in terms of getting back into the swing of things. Hit all my handstand practices and food goals, made it to training 3 times, and did the NF bodyweight workout. Here's to a slightly less frantic and more healthy week 4...

I like the sound of Plague Protocols - makes it sound much more all-under-control!

Minus a scratchy voice and a bit of sniffing, I'm back in it now! 5/5 on handstand practice so far this week and I think I'm really starting to see some improvement on the wall planks which is super exciting. I actually accidentally nudged my feet off the wall with my hands about a foot away from the base today, and was freestanding for a terrifying half-second! I still don't think I have quite enough space inside to try kicking up, so the real deal might have to wait to another challenge, but still!

I've also been to a couple of training sessions, making sure to take it easy, and have another tonight, so that'll be 3/3 for kickboxing. I think I'll stay indoors and do some bodyweight / simple cardio this weekend so as not to push my luck healthwise, but it feels really good to be back doing any exercise. Diet has been relatively easily to keep going. Haven't hit the books yet this week as I've been catching up on work, but I think I can find time tomorrow

 

And it was all going so well... This week went off to a good start: weights on monday morning, sparring on monday evening (which I have a mini-rant about, but that's for another time), regular training tuesday evening and weights wednesday. And then: flu. Painful coughing, chills, weirdly specific star-trek-voyager-themed fever dreams, the lot.

So I'm 2/1 for weights, 2/3 for kickboxing (really don't think I should try exercise tomorrow, this is the first I've been able to breath comfortably in 3 days), 0/1 cardio (likewise) 3/7 handstand practice (likewise). I'm gonna go ahead and say carb-measuring is a win, since I kept it going for the first half of this week and it wasn't really applicable for the second half. I'm so far 1/2 for book chapters, and hoping to finish the other this weekend.
 

A bit disappointing, but nothing I could have done - hopefully I'll be better soon and getting back into it.

1 hour ago, Mr_Willes said:

It's the disorder of wanting to do all the things, cause everything is shiny and everything needs work.

uh-oh... yeah, sounds familiar. And then I also get guilt or just plain feel weird and out of sorts if I have to skip something.
 

1 hour ago, Mr_Willes said:

We just had this great discussion, that we could really use an extra week day, so we could add in an extra rest day (or add in that extra workout you now just can't cram into your week).

*cough* no idea what you're talking about *cough*

Week 1 summary!

Carb measuring: 7/7! Plus a few, since my partner and I decided to do a bunch of meal prep for lunches this week, which involved weighing out rice ahead of time.
Exercise: 3/3 kickboxing - Sunday classes are always quiet so we did some focused technique work which was nice - 1/1 cardio and 1/1 weights.

Handstands: 7/7. I think this will be the hardest to keep up of my challenges, because it's so difficult to spot any kind of improvements. I can do a reasonably high wall plank, but can't walk my hands closer to the wall - and am kinda scared to try the pirouette bail!

LUYL: Spent a quality hour at the weekend working through a chapter of the other textbook, so 2/2!

I actually wandered by the weight room after training sunday night, but it was occupied (it's about the size of my bedroom, so occupied really means occupied, sadly). But I dropped by this morning before work instead for 5x5 squats, deadlifts, negative pullup and (itty-bitty dumbell) overhead press, so that's at least one this week

On 03/01/2018 at 12:30 PM, karinajean said:

hi! your workout schedule sounds like mine. I've got martial arts 3x a week and until recently I was also doing the running thing 2-3x a week and also trying to fit in bodyweight. I'm tapered down a little this month but know that drill welL!

Hi! Ha, it gets to be quite a schedule - I started with just the martial arts and then started thinking "well, if I did bodyweight exercise I'd have more power and cope better with the warmups, and if I had more stamina I'd enjoy the classes more"... aaaand then suddenly i'm exercising almost every day. 

On 03/01/2018 at 9:26 AM, Mr_Willes said:

Wow you have a super sensible challenge, very good!

 

For accountability i would make a short reusable check-in post. Just to be able to do a quick check in with a progress report. Make a list of your goals, how many you need to call this challenge a success and every day change it to reflect the progress you made.

 

 

Thanks, that's a really good idea! 

So currently we're at:

Carb measuring: 4/4 for dinners so far this week. I'm definitely ending up with smaller servings than I'm used to, so this was a good quest.
Exercise: 2/2 kickboxing classes so far - today was particularly cool, we did some combinations I wouldn't have thought of trying myself. Yesterday I went to the weights room with my partner and did 5x5 deadlifts, squats, dumbbell bench press and (my attempt at) negative pullups, and I did my jump-rope cardio on Monday. The last class of the week is Sunday which I have scheduled in, so everything else from here is bonus...

Handstands: I've hit 5-10 minutes of wall-planks, hollow body exercises and crow pose work each day so far, and have ridiculous DOMS in my shoulders to show for it! For the planks my feet are pretty high up the wall, but I can't figure out how to walk my hands closer... still, early days.

LUYL: I've worked through a chapter from one book, though most of it was stuff I had seen before. I want to look at one from the other book too this week, so let's say 1/2 for this week so far.