The Arruvia Conspiracy - Back to Basics

[Lara]

Awesome backflip!!!! Thanks for sharing the video!

[WhiteGhost]

23 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Nice run though! It's really awesome that you're back to your old pace and that it felt so good! But whoah that pace is FAST  

Yes, it is really fast and at this point I can only keep it up for spurts of 200 meters or so.  It will take me a long time to get back to where I can keep this pace up for a mile or more, and I may never get there again.  It does give me something to shoot for, though  

 

9 minutes ago, deftona said:

Yay for the backflip!  

Getting there   I am confident that this goal is going down by the end of this year  

 

3 minutes ago, zenLara said:

Awesome backflip!!!! Thanks for sharing the video!

I am really glad I have the video, because it makes it really clear where I need to improve.  I will try to keep getting videos of future attempts

[Mad Hatter]

FLIIIIP!

[Sloth the Enduring]

That was impressive.


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[annyshay]

You fliiiiiiiipped!

[WhiteGhost]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:16 PM, Mad Hatter said:

FLIIIIP!

 

12 hours ago, annyshay said:

You fliiiiiiiipped!

All the flipping!  Someday I want to be like @raptron and casually throw out things like #doyouevenflip  

 

On 2/24/2018 at 11:50 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

That was impressive.
 

Thanks! By the end of the year I want to be throwing even more impressive ones.   

 

OK, back to work today, and trying to get back into the routine.  I am not going to bother doing a write up of the last week, so just an update for today

 

Fitness

Nothing this morning - Monday is always early meetings so no time for a workout.  I want to do something this evening, but haven't decided what yet.  Maybe I will do the booty workout from the scout mini.

 

Flexibility

Oh man, I haven't done proper stretching for more than a week and need to get back into it.  I will throw it onto my list of things that need to happen tonight

 

Food

I have eaten mostly garbage and junk for the last week, topping off a few months of really dirty bulk.  The day we left from Sanya, my FIL looked at me and said "hmmm, you should probably start running again, you gut is as big as ever"  Starting from today I am back to clean eating.  On the plus side, last time I started working out I didn't take any before picture, so now I have a chance to do that for comparison...

 

Focus

Nope. I was pretty distracted most of the day, so breaks were had often, but even in spite of that, I was still able to be fairly productive.  Not too bad for a first day back from holiday

[Mad Hatter]

19 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

The day we left from Sanya, my FIL looked at me and said "hmmm, you should probably start running again, you gut is as big as ever" 

Ouch.  It's just great when family thinks it's perfectly ok to comment on other people's bodies... It's interesting how culturally different that is too, in Sweden that's not something you'd do at all while in Poland all I hear about is how this and that person looks...

[Ensi]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

 

The day we left from Sanya, my FIL looked at me and said "hmmm, you should probably start running again, you gut is as big as ever"  

 

Urgh.

 

Uuuuuuurgh.

 

UUUUURGHHHH.

 

Huoorgh.

 

HNNNGGGRRHHHHHHHHH.

 

UUUUUUUURGHHHHH.

 

 Haha. Your FIL should probably start checking his behaviour, it's as horrible as ever  He only saw a small glimpse of you, and you're so much more than what his one sentence could ever express. Keep doing your thing and enjoy your day

[Mad Hatter]

Also, #doesheevenflip?

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ouch.  It's just great when family thinks it's perfectly ok to comment on other people's bodies... It's interesting how culturally different that is too, in Sweden that's not something you'd do at all while in Poland all I hear about is how this and that person looks...

Here commenting on a person's looks is the national past time

 

56 minutes ago, Ensi said:

 

Urgh.

 

Uuuuuuurgh.

 

UUUUURGHHHH.

 

Huoorgh.

 

HNNNGGGRRHHHHHHHHH.

 

UUUUUUUURGHHHHH.

 

 Haha. Your FIL should probably start checking his behaviour, it's as horrible as ever  He only saw a small glimpse of you, and you're so much more than what his one sentence could ever express. Keep doing your thing and enjoy your day

Haha, this wasn't the only thing he said over the week and half we were with them, it just happened to be something he noticed and felt like he needed to comment on.  The real problem is that his comment wasn't innacurate

 

39 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Also, #doesheevenflip?

Awesome comeback! I totally should have used that 

 

 

[Lara]

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

The day we left from Sanya, my FIL looked at me and said "hmmm, you should probably start running again, you gut is as big as ever"

Oh. Wow. What. A. Comment.

[CourtnieMarie]

4 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Ouch.  It's just great when family thinks it's perfectly ok to comment on other people's bodies...

^truth. what you eat and how you look is your own business! plus, based on what I see you reporting on here, you're a healthy person regardless of gut size.

[raptron]

What are you considering for clean eating? A thorough scrub on all your foods?  I kid, I kid, but also what is your planned approach here? Just eating less obviously junky food? Whacha gonna replace it with?

 

And yay! Video is super helpful for these kinds of things, but also now I want to go out and flip off of boats! <3 I'd say your set could stand to be a bit more deliberate (spot something in front of you after you jump but before you flip) but woooo, flipping.

[WhiteGhost]

14 hours ago, zenLara said:

Oh. Wow. What. A. Comment.

To be honest, I am a bit surprised by the reactions here.  I must have lived here too long that I have become desensitized to comments like this

 

14 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

^truth. what you eat and how you look is your own business! plus, based on what I see you reporting on here, you're a healthy person regardless of gut size.

Well, I don't think he was suggesting that I was unhealthy, just that my gut (which had shrunk significantly over the last year) is now back to where it was before.

 

13 hours ago, raptron said:

What are you considering for clean eating? A thorough scrub on all your foods?  I kid, I kid, but also what is your planned approach here? Just eating less obviously junky food? Whacha gonna replace it with?

Good question!  I do wash all of my fruit before I eat it to get some of the pesticide off but I meant more along the lines of less junk food.  I am going to cut out candy and sweets (no more eating entire tubs of mini snickers bars and entire pies, which are both things that happened in the last couple of months).  I am also doing a sort of paleo-ish type thing where I reduce (but probably not totally eliminate) starchy carbs and replace them with more fruits and vegetables and healthy(ier!) snacks (protein bars and nuts).  I will also be continuing with intuitive eating bit where I only eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full (but not the part where I just stuff whatever looks appetizing into my gullet).  Tracking is also back on.  I broke out my MFP today and will keep track of what am eating to help me make adjustments as necessary.

 

13 hours ago, raptron said:

And yay! Video is super helpful for these kinds of things, but also now I want to go out and flip off of boats! <3 I'd say your set could stand to be a bit more deliberate (spot something in front of you after you jump but before you flip) but woooo, flipping.

Oh, that sounds like really good advice, but I am not sure how to implement it.  Given there is only a fraction of a second before I start rotating and I am already not rotating fast enough, wouldn't taking time to spot something use up valuable air time?  Also, I was deliberately leaning back into the flip to avoid coming down and landing on the edge of the boat, is that the kind of thing that spotting before rotating is supposed to help?

 

Today's update:

 

Fitness

Today was leg day, so I convinced myself that I really didn't want to crawl back into bed as much as I wanted to workout (win!) and got in a good workout.  By the end of it, my legs were dead but in a good way.  I also did the 5 minute leg workout from the Scout mini last night, which was murder on my quads but a good stretch afterwards really helped so it didn't affect today's workout.

 

Flexibility

I spent longer than usual stretching last night and it was really nice and I felt really good after.  I didn't do any shoulder stretches, focusing almost entirely on my hips, but a little on my ankles as well.  Forward fold is still awful, though  

 

Food

I cooked up a pot of chili last night in my Instantpot.    First I sauteed up some onions and green peppers in a spoonful of ghee, then added a couple cans of stewed tomatoes, a can of refried beans and a can of black beans and seasoned it all with chili powder, salt, and pepper.  I cubed up about a pound of beef and threw it in and put in on high pressure to stew for about 30 minutes.  When the time was over, I went to release the pressure and realized that the valve was already on release so no pressure happened.  The result was some really tough beef, but other than that it was really tasty.  I made about 5 servings worth, so some will be eaten later this week and the rest went into the freezer for later.  Tonight I am going to cook some goose breast and pair it with the leftover vegetable gravy from when I made the goose legs.

 

Focus

Not so good here.  I have been fairly productive this morning, but I still took quite a few breaks (probably more than necessary). 

[Lara]

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

To be honest, I am a bit surprised by the reactions here.  I must have lived here too long that I have become desensitized to comments like this

Probably. I used to get a lot of comments about my appearance in my hometown, and I got so used to them I didn't realise how rude that was. Then I've lived in several places where this type of comments simply doesn't happen, and now when someone gives me a comment like that it feels like a prick.

 

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I am going to cut out candy and sweets (no more eating entire tubs of mini snickers bars and entire pies, which are both things that happened in the last couple of months).  I am also doing a sort of paleo-ish type thing where I reduce (but probably not totally eliminate) starchy carbs and replace them with more fruits and vegetables and healthy(ier!) snacks (protein bars and nuts).  I will also be continuing with intuitive eating bit where I only eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full (but not the part where I just stuff whatever looks appetizing into my gullet).  Tracking is also back on.

Are you going to change one thing at a time or have you planned to go cold turkey?

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, zenLara said:

Are you going to change one thing at a time or have you planned to go cold turkey?

I am planning to go cold turkey, but with a liberal forgiveness policy

[CourtnieMarie]

i love liberal forgiveness policies! also awesome job on the chili! i have definitely forgotten to switch the valve to "sealed" before haha! something i have learned with the pressure cooker is that tomatoes will burn if they are on the bottom of the pot so i always pour those in last and don't mix them up  

[raptron]

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Oh, that sounds like really good advice, but I am not sure how to implement it.  Given there is only a fraction of a second before I start rotating and I am already not rotating fast enough, wouldn't taking time to spot something use up valuable air time? 

Nope! It doesn't actually take any additional time to spot, it's just a more deliberate use of the time you already have. It helps keep your head in a more neutral position, so that you can jump higher which actually would give you MORE time to pull around.

 

8 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Also, I was deliberately leaning back into the flip to avoid coming down and landing on the edge of the boat, is that the kind of thing that spotting before rotating is supposed to help?

You can actually still lengthen the flip even after the spot/set (by reaching your arms a bit further back). HOWEVER, it's not bad to err on the side of caution when you are playing with these anyway. So it's not necessarily BAD to lean back, but you can probably figure out how to do it more in the air with more practice. 

[WhiteGhost]

59 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

i love liberal forgiveness policies! also awesome job on the chili! i have definitely forgotten to switch the valve to "sealed" before haha! something i have learned with the pressure cooker is that tomatoes will burn if they are on the bottom of the pot so i always pour those in last and don't mix them up  

Very good to know  I will keep that in mind next time I need to pressure cook tomatoes.

 

28 minutes ago, raptron said:

Nope! It doesn't actually take any additional time to spot, it's just a more deliberate use of the time you already have. It helps keep your head in a more neutral position, so that you can jump higher which actually would give you MORE time to pull around.

 

You can actually still lengthen the flip even after the spot/set (by reaching your arms a bit further back). HOWEVER, it's not bad to err on the side of caution when you are playing with these anyway. So it's not necessarily BAD to lean back, but you can probably figure out how to do it more in the air with more practice. 

I am trying envisage what it will be like to spot right as I flip, but I think I am just going to need to find another opportunity to practice. There is a trampoline gym somewhere near the airport here so I will try to find it and go there soon. 

[WhiteGhost]

Today's update:

 

Fitness

The temperature this morning was above freezing (1c) and the AQI was down below 200 (151) so I decided to workout outside.  Over the last couple of days I have thinking about what I want to do for my next challenge, so I went down and tested out my upper body framework.  Overall it was good, but I found a few places that need tweaking.  It was mostly muscleup focused but to give myself a break between the 2 circuits I did 1 mile of wind sprints (110m sprint, 110m walk)

 

In the evening last night, Ghostlet and I came up with a game where he sings 100 bottles of beer on the wall and I have to get him to lose count by picking him up and swinging him around, bouncing him on my feet, flipping him upside down, etc.  It was a real total body workout and I got in tons of conditioning, mobility, strength and core work in.  I finally got him to mess up at 26 bottles, but we decided to keep going until he finished, and I was able to get 2 more points in before the end.  He said he wants to do this again tonight, so I may have my evening workout already planned  

 

Flexibility

I did pretty much the same stretch routine as the night before, focusing on opening up my hips.  It felt pretty good and helped to recover from the Ghostlet workout

 

Food

I cooked up a goose breast last night and paired it with leftover orange vegetable gravy.  I butterflied the breast and folded it open to effectively double the surface area and halve the thickness. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and seared it in a tablespoon of ghee, then threw it in the oven until it was medium well (I am not sure how safe undercooked goose meat is so I opted for more cooked to be on the safe side).  It came out a little tough, but not really tougher than any steak would be if cooked until medium well and the seasoning was just perfect.  The vegetable gravy was a perfect match and all in all it came out to be a delicious meal.  The hardest part was trying to get MFP to estimate the calories, so I ended up having to create my own recipe and upload it.

 

Focus

Doing my update first and then will get to work

[raptron]

I LOVE THAT AS A WORKOUT! Adorable.

 

Also goooose! Sounds good to me.

 

[WhiteGhost]

14 hours ago, raptron said:

I LOVE THAT AS A WORKOUT! Adorable.

I gotta admit, it is pretty great.  Not only is it a great full body workout, but it also is some great bonding time.  It reminds me a lot of wrestling* with my dad when I was a kid.  This will definitely be happening more

 

 *mostly us kids climbing on his back and him dumping us off onto the floor

 

Fitness

I had a conference call this morning so I didn't have time to work out.  I feel like I could use a rest day anyway, so it works out well.  I did a lot of underpants collecting last night, and already have a general outline of what I want to be doing for my next challenge.  Unfortunately what I want to do is probably way more than I can realistically do, so I will need to scale it back.

 

Flexibility

Did my regular stretching last night, and it felt like I might have maybe made a teeny tiny bit of progress on my front fold.  May have just been a fluke, though.

 

Food

I had leftover beef chili from earlier this week, but I added in some white cheddar and a Harbin red sausage and it was awesome

Harbin Red Sausage:

 

Focus

Not very focused at all today.  This whole week has been pretty bad for focus, I will need to improve a bit for next week.

[WhiteGhost]

Today's update:

 

Fitness

This morning was upper body day but it was still too cold to go outside so I did my Around-The-World workout again.  It felt really dialed in and I think it may have been the best ATW workout yet.  Handstands were especially strong and I felt like each time I kicked up into a handstand I had to intentionally pull myself back down because I wasn't falling over like usual.  Pullups also felt more solid, but it is probably because instead of trying to do 10 in a set I lowered it to 5+3+2 to focus on form and power.

 

Flexibility

Stretching was really good last night, I spent an extra 10 minutes just on front fold and discovered that if I try to increase the stretch by contracting my abs rather than leting gravity do the work, I can get a deeper more comfortable stretch.  I also tried the same thing for my other stretches (flexing into the stretch rather than letting gravity pull me in) and they all felt better.  I am going to be changing my stretching strategy based on this new discovery  

 

Food

I had leftover chili with cheese & Harbin sausage again last night, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.  Yesterday I didn't workout so I skipped the protein shake for breakfast.  Instead I had some cereal that claimed it was iron man food, but I think neither actual iron man athletes nor Tony Stark eat it, so not sure why they cal it that

I usually like to have granola, but it is expensive and hard to find, so I decided to just make some.  I did one batch for me which was plain and then one with chocolate chips for Ghostlet, who wanted some granola bars for breakfast.  I haven't had more than just a nibble yet, but it tasted about right.

 

For accountability I also had some sweets, because we had Shiroi Koibito in the house and it is pretty much impossible not to eat them.  If you look up delicious in the dictionary you... won't find these because they are a Japanese snack, but if you check a Japanese dictionary under Metcha Umai (or maybe Totemo Oishii) you would probably find a picture of these  

 

Focus

[Sloth the Enduring]

I’ll look for those.

It’s amazing how much money you save making your own granola.


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[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I’ll look for those.

It’s amazing how much money you save making your own granola.

If you can find them they are definitely worth a try. I like the dark chocolate filled ones best but Ghostlet and Mi Vieja both like the white chocolate ones, so if you can find a variety box I would recommend that.  If you can't find them, Puchi Cookies are almost as good

 

Re: Granola, the stuff I like is like $10/500g, which I find outrageous, plus it isn't always available.  I have been thinking I should make my own for ages, but it was always one of those "maybe someday" ideas.  Well, that "maybe someday" turned into "why not today?"