Ulsted

Another belated update (aka why is life so crazy?) So some big changes, but let's get the easy stuff out of the way. I missed one long stretching session, but I plan on doing more this week. I got a dvd that's called Yoga Tai Chi from our library and hopefully I'll be able to sneak some monk like training into my wife's routine. I packed 4 boxes this week since I got into a packing fit. So I am way ahead on this goal. I was a bit naughty last night as our small group group from Church had it's last meeting for the year and we had a potluck dinner. Totally got a bit more than one plate. Ah well. OK, now the real news. Since I am moving in a month and my contract with my Krav Maga school is up for renewal or cancellation, I had to make a tough decision. The commute is too far to be reasonable to continue there, especially if I find a job further north one day. I had to make the tough decision and cancel the renewal, so I will no longer be doing Krav for now. I am already making plans for what I will do in the future. There is the combat Sambo school just 15 minutes away from where I will live, so I am keeping an eye on that one. It's just a bit sad that I will not be able to continue Krav, but I will be able to really focus on my weak area, my ground game if I go Sambo in the future. We'll see.

Belated update: Sorry for the lack of activity everyone. This time of year gets crazy busy and I don't have as much time in front of the computer to do stuff aside from work. So I have been attending Krav Maga regularly. I am apprehensive about the future since it is going to be even harder to attend Krav in the future. If everything goes well, I will be closing on a house in a couple of months as some of you know. This will put me in an area of town that is far from my Krav school. I might also, for practicality's sake, try and transfer to an office more on my part of town. If this happens then going to Krav will not be a feasible option. I may have to take up training elsewhere or take up solo training again. Decisions decisions. I've been doing my morning stretches consistently which is really nice. I missed one long sessions this week however, due to the aforementioned busy schedule. I will stick to it though since it is a really enjoyable activity. No seconds still. We've cut down on eating out since that is our nemesis. I've been packing boxes, but it feels like we took a step back by getting out our Christmas Tree. Bonus side news: I found an adult park while exploring some of the areas around town. It has plyo boxes for jumping, various pull up bars, and sit up benches. I went and did a workout there Sunday and it was great. Reminded me I should work on pull ups since I can only do chin ups. Also, my wife found our body measurements from March of last year and we decided to update them and see how we improved. I dropped 6 cm on my waist, 4 cm on my hips and 10 lbs of weight, but maintained my arms and legs. 2% body fat drop too. My wife did even better overall. It's nice to see objective progress.

The first small gains are the best. That first hump is the most thrilling to get over. Now you're like a rock that started rolling, it will only be easier to move now.

11 below? Will you have opportunity to hunt mammoth in that weather? Better dress warmly and bring back a tusk.

Ha

So mid week update. I've been attending my Krav as usual. We were working single and double leg takedowns. I am glad that more ground work and takedowns are being thrown in since that is the one area I haven't trained a lot in. Also we had a mean warm up last night. We had to 25 burpees in the shortest amount of time. Ok, no problem, I got this I thought to ymself. I was the 2nd fastest with 1:07. Then our instructor told us we were going to do another round of 25 and we had to beat our time. For every second over, we had to do another burpee. The abject horror on our faces must have been great. I managed to get 1:04. I was literally sprawling to the ground to the down position for the pushup portion to make my time faster by fractions of a second. Needless to say, I slept well last night. Did a long yoga session on Monday with the wife. I am doing Rodney Yee's strength building yoga. At the start of the sessions I'm like "Is this really going to overload my muscles?" I must say, however, that after 30 minutes of holding these awkward positions, I start feeling it and shaking. I am working up to an unsupported head stand. I am excited about this since strong neck muscle= less likely to get knocked out with a blow to the face. I've been sticking to no extra portions. It is easy whenever I am at home since my wife and I cook fairly healthy meals that aren't large. We got one of those neat dry air fryer things that cooks food crispy without oil as an early Christmas gift and I am excited to start using it to make no oil sweet potato fries and healthy chicken. I'll need discipline to make it through the weekend as usual since eating out is where the portions get too large. My wife an I split plates, but if there are chips then God help me. Haven't packed a box yet. I have been doing this on Saturday when I have more down time at the house.

OK, so a belated update due to traveling and not having a computer at my disposal. I managed to go to Krav despite all of the schedule changes due to Thanksgiving. I just went on Monday since I got off of work earlier than usual. Did a bodyweight routine at the Hotel as well while traveling. I have been stretching everyday in the morning, but I missed one long session this past week. Now that traveling should stop I should be able to get back into long stretching sessions. I didn't go over one plate on any meal this week, even at Thanksgiving. I did steal a piece of a pumpkin roll, but that didn't count. It was nice not being so full I am miserable. Packed up another box. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be sorted through and given away/sold/donated.

So update for how the week went. Went to Krav of course. This week is going to have to be an exception since they are shutting down for the holidays. I will need to find a substitute for Krav this week since it is closed. Probably a body weight drill. Stretching has been nice. I have done some light to moderate stretching every morning and I am glad I did. I have gotten my wife to do some stretching via yoga dvd with me in the evenings. She was really glad I got her back into it. We're doing a yoga program designed for strength so it involves a lot of poses that put the muscles in a disadvantaged position. I haven't gone over 1 plate at all this week. I do need to make a decision on Tex-Mex places since the chips aren't something I thought about. I will not eat any past the first basket that my group finishes. Brought home a lot of boxes and we've gotten a couple boxes of out of season clothes put away.

The prodigal monk returns. Welcome back. Look forward to seeing you rock this challenge.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress again. I'm going to check out your tumblr. I am with you on combat sports being a way to change your life. Look forward to seeing your work on it!

Cleaning up the temple So I have a lot of immediate goals I want to accomplish, a lot of them are building up to about two challenges from now. If all goes well I will be in a house and I will start building up my home gym. Until then I need to do the best I can with what I have and be ready for that period. Harder training means easier fighting: So now that I am level 2 in Krav Maga, I need to start attending and training in those classes. My plan is to start doing the more advanced stuff at least twice a week. It is harder and more demanding than what I am used to, but that is always a plus. Training with those that are your superior only makes you better. Attend Krav Maga 2x/ week= +2 CON and +2 STR A willow bends, but does not break: Since starting Krav I've lost a bit of the flexibility that I gained when I trained in Karate. We stretch for injury prevention, but we don't focus much beyond that. I've lost most of my flexibility in my legs. I really want to regain some of that. My approach will be two fold. First, I will start stretching when I wake up every morning. This will help get the stiffness out of the body and it is easy for me to do. I will also stretch at lunch time during work. Secondly, I will do a serious stretching routine 3 times a week. I might work a yoga program at home. This also has another purpose, I want to get my wife involved. She loves yoga, but is not as motivated to do it by herself. I figure if I take on doing it then she will be willing as well. Stretch every morning for 5 minutes and Stretch for at least 20 minutes 3x/ week= +4 DEX More is more and less is less: To prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will challenge myself to have only one plate of food at every meal. I honestly get most of my excess calories by going back for one more of this or that. I don't snack so this is likely the culprit. I will keep it all to one healthy plate that is what I need. The real challenge will be if I accomplish this during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm going to build myself a mini challenge into this No more than 1 plate per meal, every meal= +1 WIS +1 CON/ Bonus No more than one plate at Thanksgiving and Christmas +1 WIS each. Life Goal It's easier to allocate than to relocate: I should really start getting ready to move. Luckily it is not far so I won't have to prepare too much since we'll be doing it bit by bit, but it would be easier if some things were packed away. I will start boxing at least one box of items per week. 1x box of belongings/week = +2 WIS and +1 DEX

Cleaning Up the Temple So I have a lot of immediate goals I want to accomplish, a lot of them are building up to about two challenges from now. If all goes well I will be in a house and I will start building up my home gym. Until then I need to do the best I can with what I have and be ready for that period. Harder training means easier fighting: So now that I am level 2 in Krav Maga, I need to start attending and training in those classes. My plan is to start doing the more advanced stuff at least twice a week. It is harder and more demanding than what I am used to, but that is always a plus. Training with those that are your superior only makes you better. Attend Krav Maga 2x/ week= +2 CON and +2 STR A willow bends, but does not break: Since starting Krav I've lost a bit of the flexibility that I gained when I trained in Karate. We stretch for injury prevention, but we don't focus much beyond that. I've lost most of my flexibility in my legs. I really want to regain some of that. My approach will be two fold. First, I will start stretching when I wake up every morning. This will help get the stiffness out of the body and it is easy for me to do. I will also stretch at lunch time during work. Secondly, I will do a serious stretching routine 3 times a week. I might work a yoga program at home. This also has another purpose, I want to get my wife involved. She loves yoga, but is not as motivated to do it by herself. I figure if I take on doing it then she will be willing as well. Stretch every morning for 5 minutes and Stretch for at least 20 minutes 3x/ week= +4 DEX More is more and less is less: To prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will challenge myself to have only one plate of food at every meal. I honestly get most of my excess calories by going back for one more of this or that. I don't snack so this is likely the culprit. I will keep it all to one healthy plate that is what I need. The real challenge will be if I accomplish this during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm going to build myself a mini challenge into this No more than 1 plate per meal, every meal= +1 WIS +1 CON/ Bonus No more than one plate at Thanksgiving and Christmas +1 WIS each. Life Goal It's easier to allocate than to relocate: I should really start getting ready to move. Luckily it is not far so I won't have to prepare too much since we'll be doing it bit by bit, but it would be easier if some things were packed away. I will start boxing at least one box of items per week. 1x box of belongings/week = +2 WIS and +1 DEX

Sounds to me that if you round this off with a good nutrition plan, then you are good to go. Sounds intense.

Re-Cap on my Goals Run 3x/week= +3 STA and +1 STA I started off the first two weeks without missing a beat and got my running in. I then suspended running for one week in favor of the Jumping rope for the challenge instead. I did miss one week because of the death in the family and the resulting travels for funerals and another half week to rest and recover for my Krav Maga test. Overall I am at 75% of my target days running. (2.25 STA and .75 STR) Complete the 200 Sit-Ups program I actually met this challenge about halfway through. Near the end I was just playing around with situps and core exercises. I ended up doing a max 250 rep situps. (+1 STA, +3 CON) Intermittent Fasting Twice a week I stuck to this well until last week before Krav when I was instructed to not Fast since it would effect my performance at my test (it was good advice). That's roughly 80% then. (+2.5 WIS, +.8 CHA) Don't waste time at work by blocking time wasting sites on browser Nailed this one since one I set the blockers in place it made it to where I couldn't fool around if I wanted. I got a lot more productive as a result.( +3 WIS) Total stat gains: +1 Lvl, +3.25 STA, + .75 STR, +3 CON, +5.5 WIS, and +.8 CHA

So summary and story time! I did my running this week. I had to go back to back MTW and did three days of sprinting Tabata style. I wanted to die a bit during those runs. I stopped all activity on Thursday to allow myself time to rest up for today. Core work was maintenance as usual. I couldn't squeeze out 250, but I think the sprints in the morninh took it out of me. I don't know if this was the "after burn" you supposedly feel after doing tabata trainin, but I felt drained on those days. Of course I got all the work done thanks to my web blockers. I fasted Monday, but found myself ravenous on Wedensday so I broke fast early and had lunch. It was my normal fast routine, so I think that is why. That, and th aforementioned after burn. Story time. So I had my Krav Maga level one test today. It went for 10 hours. 9:30AM to 7:35 PM. It was fun (hell) and I feel great (like garbage). I got my extra portion core workout since my abs and back muscles ache something fierce. I will sleep for ages soon. Overall I think I did well. Highlights: There was so much sweat and heat that even with the doors open we fogged up the mirrors and drenched the floors. I slipped in some sweat when doing a ground kick and did a nice fish flop instead. Knuckles are nice and skinned since punching a sweaty bag makes you slip and skin your knuckles easily. I found that I still have good round kicks even when exhausted. My clothes feel like I stood in a shower with them (almost all the guys were like me). It was fun, but and exhausting experience. I don't know if I passed or failed, I'm confident I passed, but it was cool to see that I could endure and stick it out.

Nice! Keep up the intensity!

So good news and mildly disappointing news. Mildly disappointing first; I have been instructed to not fast this week. My instructors were talking with us yesterday and since we're ramping up for the test, they instructed us to drink loads of water all week (or as I like to think of it in Fremen terms, become water fat) and to not do any IF fasting. I was surprised at how specific the instructions were, but they do have nutritional seminars at our school once in a while, like Paleo 101 and such. Apparently IF is something they think is good, but they advise not doing it close to a test date since we need to be at our peaks. They also suggested eating really heartily on Friday since I won't want to each much of anything of substance on Saturday lest I risk throwing it up during the test (I've seen that happen in class so I imagine this is good advice). Good news, I found an ab exercise that I will finish strong with. I am doing oblique crunches with punches. The punches forces me to hold and contract the muscles a bit harder and longer. It is a good exercise for me since regular crunches didn't affect that area as much. Overall I am trying to get prepared physically for the Krav test. Lots of rest, water, and nutritious foods.

So I got out and did my running. I went ahead and did the Tabata protocol. I wanted to die a little bit near the end lol, but I managed to do 8 sets of 20/10. With my warm up and cooldown included I ran about 14 minutes. Shorter than when I go for distance, but I sure as heck feel it more than just jogging.

Keep it up! As far as going the extra mile for not drinking, how about doing only water for this week? Just and idea.

It's neat to watch your progress. Kudos on asking a girl out. I certainly was never the person that exuded confidence when it came to that area so points for you getting out there. Keep up the progress this week and we're all looking forward to seeing how you end this challenge.

Get in there and kill it this week! Looking forward to seeing your progress this week.

I added some web blockers to my browser that limits my social media time per day. It has helped me a lot at work. Perhaps it is something to consider.

So I am observing the Fall Frenzy round 5 and thinking up ideas for going above and beyond. I think I shall do it as such. Instead of 2 running days per week. I am going for three. This will offset the week I missed running due to hip silliness. I am at 200 situps/crunches, I shall shoot for 250+. I do one 24 hour fast per week with another half fast. I will try and do two 24 hour fasts this week. Anymore would start pushing into risky zones imo. I literally cannot do more about cutting back on internet time at work with the blockers in effect. I will just do the best I can at work this week.

Update after a small hiatus. I didn't get any running in this week. We had a death in the family on Monday and I was bummed out and didn't run that day. The rest of the week I was on the road for the funeral. I plan on getting back to it this week to finish strong. With the funeral and the hip acting up the week before, I haven't run for about 1.5 weeks. I did fast though and it was good as always. Had some awesome pumpkin soup we make when it get's cold here. I am still able to do the crunches. I kinda feel in limbo here since I met my goal so early on in the challenge. No distractions at work since I was hardly there. I did finish near everything on Monday so that there wasn't a whole lot of stuff to do when I get back tomorrow.

Make sure you increase the reps once it gets easy. Looks like something that is quite do-able within 6 months. If you can, I would look up improvised weights to help you increase your strength. Even milk jugs filled with sand are good for squats, cleans, rows, and curls. Your calories for gaining muscle are good. Just make sure to get plenty of protein, but it sounds like you thought of that already.