otterbyte's third time pays all

[otterbyte]

Emboldened by all the returning rebels, I'm putting myself in the game and coming back to play. I missed the structure and the accountability, but most of all, I've missed you lovely people. So hopefully, and slightly shamefacedly, I'm going to try - for the third time! - to finish my last challenge. A few tweaks for the new goings-on and priorities in my life, but mostly the same. I'll include the original challenge below in a spoiler, but here's the basics:

 

Exercise:

• Muay Thai 3x/week. One of the changes that happened this year is that @Bighara and I switched from our school's Fitness Kickboxing class to their Muay Thai class. We've been going for four months now and I am completely blown away by how incompetent I feel at it.  Physically, it's not much more challenging, but mentally....whoa. I need to practice practice practice because I am just sad out there, people. 
• Strength Training 3x/week. On the days I don't go to class, I'm switching things up - normally I've been doing a bodyweight routine, but I got to a certain point with my progressions and just stalled. And I think the problem is that I'm simply not strong enough. So I've started lifting weights with Phrak's Greyskull LP variant, which is recommended for total beginners, which I am.
• Do a cartwheel. I could do these as a kid. But then I stopped, because...grownups don't do cartwheels, I guess? So now this grownup *can't* do a cartwheel. I plan to fix that this month. I'm going to go slow and do stupid-looking ones until I can do something that a person would look at and go, "I *think* she might be doing a cartwheel!" I'm not going for perfection, is what I'm saying. Extra bonus points if I manage to do cartwheels from either side (which I have never been able to do, I'm strictly a left-handed cartwheeler).

 

Diet/Health:

• 75-100g protein per day.
• 35+ hours sleep/week.

 

Life:

• Spanish. So, this past May I fulfilled a very long-awaited dream and took my kids to visit my family in Argentina. We were there for 4 weeks and it was everything I hoped it would be and I'm so very happy we did it. But now I need to solidify the gains in Spanish the kids have made by continuing to speak it. My eldest especially has gotten so much better and I want to encourage both her and her younger sister to keep it up. But it's on me, and I need to really push myself, because it's just So. Darn. Easy. to speak in English instead.
• FlyLady. Doing the Babysteps, oddly, was part of what made me fall apart last time. I just couldn't keep up. And so this time I'm going to be even more basic than that, and just commit to spending 15 minutes each day either decluttering or taking care of a Job Jar item that I've been putting off. Later I'll worry about systems, but right now I need to get out from all these 'shoulda-dones' staring at me all the time.
• Coding. One of the best things I got out of the challenges before was doing steady work on my freelance coding. And that's one of the things that has totally fallen apart. So this is a big one, I want to spend at least 25 minutes a day working on code. More is better! But that's my daily minimum. 

 

Wish me luck - I'm seeing this one to the end this time, come heck or high water! 

(this is some seriously high water, though, guys)

 

 

Spoiler

I don’t know if many, or even any, of you have seen the movie the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas and Omar Sharif. It’s full of anachronisms and silliness and a Spaniard playing an Arab, but, ignoring all that, it’s one of the best dungeon crawl movies ever made. You have a party that meets at an inn, is given a quest, fights monsters and goes into a cave to beat the final boss. Essentially. There’s lots of funny bits and thrilling bits and it’s a great popcorn-muncher of a movie. The main character goes from being a courtier to a warrior and learns a lot along the way, and I hope to do the same this challenge - or at least get further along my path.

 

My Goals

 

Exercise: Grow stronger

 

This will pretty much stay the same as last month. I’m going to vary the PT exercises at home a bit, as that was the only sticking part last time.

• 3 kickboxing days

• 2 Start Bodyweight days

• 1 BollyX day (or other cardio)

• 2 PT sessions

• 4 foam rolling or PT exercise days

 

Diet/Health: Calculate what you can’t see

 

75 - 100g Protein intake

Last month, for the second month in a row, I did well staying to my calorie counts, eating my fruit/veg, and drinking my water. I’ll keep doing those things, but since they’re already established habits, I feel I can let them go as goals. Now, as I end the “weight loss” phase of my diet and start the “muscle gain” part, I’ve set my daily calorie limit higher and I’m using the extra calories to try to get my daily protein intake to at least 75g, and, if possible, 100g. To this end, I’m now tracking the numbers. Since I don’t have weight loss to guide me any more, I’ll have to use body measurements and functional stuff like “how many X can I do now?” to figure out where I am. In other words, LOTS of tracking.

 

 

Average 7 hours sleep per night

So, I *thought* I was sleeping well. Turns out, I often was getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. How do I know? Got a FitBit. And the numbers don’t lie. I am very bad at sleeping. Less than 7 hours of sleep makes for a very grumpy me. So I’m going to aim to have a weekly 7 hour per night average. Since it’s weekly, I can catch up during the week  if I’ve had a bad night, but I need to meet the goal by the end of each week.

 

 

Life: Do what you ought

 

Spanish

Later this year, I’m fulfilling a *very* long-term goal of taking my kids to Argentina, where my family is from. They have never been, which means there’s a bunch of their family they’ve never met. Last year I lost two of my uncles one day after the other, and I realized my time is short and I have no more excuses not to take them. Money, time, travel complications...these are stupid reasons to not go. So we’re going. The tickets are bought and everything. The only problem? My girls don’t speak Spanish. Or at least not well enough to be comfortable with it. They *understand* it, but since I’m the only native Spanish speaker in the house, and growing up here means English is still my stronger language...well, let’s say I’ve been slacker mom when it comes to making them speak it. It’s just so much easier to speak English. Well, that crap ends now. My goal is to spend as much time as I can speaking Spanish to them this month. I’ll encourage them to do the same, but right now they just need to hear a lot of it. Spanish radio, Spanish movies, Spanish games...whatever I can do. I’m having a tough time figuring out how to quantify this, but I’m going to start where I am and work things out as I go along. Any ideas for how to ‘grade’ this one?

 

 

FlyLady

Years and years ago, I joined FlyLady.net. For those of you who’ve never heard of her, FlyLady helps you get your house organized, even though you are are a chronically disorganized person. Which I am. The program really helped me get my house under control for the first time in -ever- and I’ve since fallen off the wagon and, though things have never gotten as bad as they were, my house is no longer a place that makes me happy. Too many unfinished things, too much chaos, too much stuff. I plan to start back at the beginning with her 31-day beginner baby steps program. I’ve already done the first 4 days during this Week 0, so I should be able to finish by the end of the challenge.

 

 

 

 

[WhiteBeltBrowncoat]

Now I have the compulsion to go watch 13th Warrior and dig it my copy of Beowulf. Sounds like you've got some good plans going on. I'm interested to hear how flylady goes.

[raptron]

Welcome back! CARTWHEELS.

[otterbyte]

17 hours ago, WhiteBeltBrowncoat said:

Now I have the compulsion to go watch 13th Warrior and dig it my copy of Beowulf. Sounds like you've got some good plans going on. I'm interested to hear how flylady goes.

 

Do it! It's such a fun popcorn-muncher. And so quotable. And Beowulf (both the book and the movie) blew me away the first time, and they both reward re-experiencing. 

We shall see how flylady goes. I mostly just need to get crap outta here. With a flamethrower, methinks. 

[otterbyte]

9 hours ago, raptron said:

Welcome back! CARTWHEELS.

 

I know, right? I will have to pick your brain as to what should be my next tumbly goal. By the end of the year, I really want to be able to do a handstand, but it's all in service of my holy grail, the straddle press to handstand. Which I hopefully will achieve before death closes my eyes. (Because it would just be awkward for everyone involved if I wait 'til after that.)

[WhiteBeltBrowncoat]

 
With a flamethrower, methinks. 

Can I borrow that when you're done? I've got a garage full of crud that we've moved to three houses now.

[karinajean]

hey welcome back!

 

[Love_Of_Snuggles]

On 1/3/2018 at 5:21 PM, otterbyte said:

Which I hopefully will achieve before death closes my eyes.

 

I think before and after would be the mark of a master assassin though...

[otterbyte]

2 hours ago, karinajean said:

hey welcome back!

 

 

Thank you! Glad to be back!

 

 By the way, you need a picture drawn of your signature: 

Quote

mermaid ninja assassin. on a motorcycle. with swords. and knitting needles. and kittens.

 

[karinajean]

oh that would be INCREDIBLE. 

[otterbyte]

Okay, just sharing my 'current' cartwheel progress so we can all have a good laugh together....

 

 

I swear I thought...I thought my legs were straight up. 

[Mad Hatter]

Wheee carthweel! Because they're totally for grownups. 

[raptron]

Good to have a benchmark.

[karinajean]

UMMMM you got your head pointed at the ground and made your feet LEAVE THE EARTH I think that is a big success!

 

[otterbyte]

22 hours ago, karinajean said:

UMMMM you got your head pointed at the ground and made your feet LEAVE THE EARTH I think that is a big success!

 

 

And it wasn't even from slipping on ice! (This time...)

[juliebarkley]

If it makes you feel better, my cartwheels are much worse.

 

How are you doing on your other challenges?

[peelout]

1 hour ago, juliebarkley said:

How are you doing on your other challenges?

Ditto.

[Lilmissbri]

Hey hey!! I love the challenge. Following along!  Thanks for posting on my last challenge. Sorry I'm so delayed getting back to you. *sigh*

[peelout]

I asked if you were taking martial arts on my thread, but then came here and see you are.  Muay Thai is not a common MA in America.  Are you in America?  As I understand it, which isn't much, Muay Thai is a close proximity MA that utilizes most of all of the body including elbows, knees, etc.  How do you practice fighting?  I mean, with Tae Kwon Do and similar karate forms, you are generally a few feet apart and practice by throwing kicks and punches, never really hitting the persons head and mostly not below the belt.  But MT as I understand it is done very close which would almost require landing blows.  Seems this would be more difficult to practice than TKD sparring.

[otterbyte]

Yep, I'm in the USA, on the east coast near DC. The school we go to does TKD for the kids and Muay Thai for the adults. For the last almost 2 years, they've offered a fitness kickboxing class which does the basic MT punches and kicks on freestanding heavy bags, plus lots of conditioning work. @Bighara and I did that class for a little over a year, then switched to the MT class. 

 

We have a *lot* of pads. Usually after the warmup and conditioning, we pair off and one person puts on gloves and shin guards, and the other puts on a belly band and large muay thai pads. Then the striker practices combos (punches, kicks, blocks) while the catcher either just catches the punches or 'attacks' so the striker can defend. 

 

At the end of the class, we'll often have some free sparring (both partners with gloves and shin guards), but as a orange (2nd) belt, I mostly stick to practicing what we've done in class. The black belts will often go ahead and put on their headgear, chest protectors, and mouthguards and go to town.  They are an enthusiastic bunch, even though most of them are 40+, and they go *fast*. It will be a while and I'll have to be a lot more certain of my technique before I even bother buying the extra protective gear, 'cause I don't plan on needing it anytime soon.  

 

 

[peelout]

Sounds like a lot of work and a lot of fun.  I took TKD when I was younger, but from what I've seen of MT, it seems more useful.  TKD did not teach me must useful since most fights wind up being close in, grappling, etc.  TKD will teach how to give some devestating kicks, but there was no instruction for what to do if the attacker got close in.

[otterbyte]

On 20/1/2018 at 5:01 PM, peelout said:

Sounds like a lot of work and a lot of fun.  I took TKD when I was younger, but from what I've seen of MT, it seems more useful.  TKD did not teach me must useful since most fights wind up being close in, grappling, etc.  TKD will teach how to give some devestating kicks, but there was no instruction for what to do if the attacker got close in.

 

ya, it seems like the progression is:

 

TKD: stay over there where I can kick you!

MT: ok, now you're too close, I will elbow your face.

BJJ: aaaaand we're on the ground now, so I'm just gonna kneel on your neck.

[Manarelle]

Poke poke. Still with us? How'd the challenge go?