[DarK_RaideR] does the thing and shuts his mouth

[DarK_RaideR]

This challenge is brought to you by Ghoultown and Hard West

 

As far as fitness goes, I’ve got my workouts in line but I can’t say the same about my nutrition. Sadly, that is the foundation upon everything else is built and unless I tackle it in a serious manner, everything else is just useless flopping about. As per the Rules of the Rebellion, you can’t outrun your fork and I’ve been undermining my performance far too long with bad eating that’s in turn piled on the pounds to kill my aerobic capacity and make all things gymnastics harder. Therefore, I’m making nutrition the single goal of this challenge.

 

Looking back to my greatest successes on that front, two things did the trick: the Zone diet and planning ahead, whether that was batch cooking or pre-planning my meals the night before so I could snipe my macros. Building on that, I’ve compiled a list of the foods we most commonly have readily at home into zone-compliant meals. The idea is to spend some time every night and plan my meals for the next day. I can weigh and pre-pack them immediately or the next morning.

 

Two things I gotta look out for is one, meals not prepared at home (delivery, restaurants etc) and two, Eastern Orthodox Easter which is a major holiday (as opposed to Christmas, we go the opposite way) and focused heavily around food. As long as I take a moment to think over what I’ll have, apply the 30/30/40 analogy rule and not eat more than what I originally put on my plate that’s a success.

 

Not really a theme, but Ghoultown’s song above kinda struck home with it’s no-choice story;I have no option but to succeed here because outrunning my fork is a game I can never win. Other than that, I’m also getting into Hard West, which is kind of a “Wild West meets X-COM” videogame. Might drop some of its narrative here since TEW just won’t run on my computer anymore. Can’t promise I’ll update daily, but I will note my progress on every day.

 

[deftona]

Well would ya look what we have here. A surprise challenge! Following  

[shaar]

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following.

 

In the US, Orthodox Easter often comes a week after Western Easter, so that my Orthodox friends can buy all their easter candy the day after Western Easter and save money. Some years they are the same week, and my Orthodox friends all bemoan paying full price.

[DarK_RaideR]

59 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

my Orthodox friends can buy all their easter candy

Other than the occasional chocolate egg, Easter round these parts has nothing to do with candy...

[DarK_RaideR]

1 hour ago, deftona said:

Well would ya look what we have here. A surprise challenge! Following  

Welcome! Glad to have you.

 

1 hour ago, shaar said:

You betcha!

[Mr_Willes]

I like your Easter!!!

 

And if you need someone to call you dickhead if you screw up on your challenge I'm your man. We can turn it into a PvP. I'm also on a pretty strict eating pattern.

 

And you said you needed extra stamina, 25 burpees if one of us screws up and the other doesn't?

[DarK_RaideR]

4 minutes ago, Mr_Willes said:

I like your Easter!!!

 

And if you need someone to call you dickhead if you screw up on your challenge I'm your man. We can turn it into a PvP. I'm also on a pretty strict eating pattern.

 

And you said you needed extra stamina, 25 burpees if one of us screws up and the other doesn't?

Nah, those games are just making it complicated and signing up for the guild mini is enough of an extra already. Just keep me accountable. No excuses, no kind words to candy-coat any fumbles.

[Mr_Willes]

Roger that commander!

[deftona]

21 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Other than the occasional chocolate egg, Easter round these parts has nothing to do with candy...

 

Ah, roasted pterodactyl. An Easter classic! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Other than the occasional chocolate egg, Easter round these parts has nothing to do with candy...

I have experienced Orthodox Easter before, but with Antiochian, rather than Greek congregations.

[Teros]

3 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Sadly, that is the foundation upon everything else is built and unless I tackle it in a serious manner, everything else is just useless flopping about.

 

Yep, that's how I've been feeling about whole30s.

 

 

 

Had to.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I can’t tell, what’s the dead thing on the spit?


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[Endor]

 

3 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Just keep me accountable. No excuses, no kind words to candy-coat any fumbles.

You got it. It's high time you cleaned up your nutrition, especially now I probably weigh less than you   Not so much pasta and pastry would be my advice from what I've noticed to date. 

 

You did do well on zone last time so although a lot of work I think that's a sound strategy if you can stick to it. Maybe commit to a weigh in once a week on Monday morning as well?

 

9 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I can’t tell, what’s the dead thing on the spit?

I would assume the thing on top is a goat given he's Geek an all. The thing on the bottom rather surprisingly appears to be a giraffe appendage....!

[Endor]

1 hour ago, Endor said:

Geek

Ha ha unintentional typo but probably relevant  

[DarK_RaideR]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I can’t tell, what’s the dead thing on the spit?

Top spit is a whole lamb. Some symbolism about Jesus as the Lamb of God there, but I'll leave the details to @Tanktimus the Encourager.

Bottom spit is much more death metal stuff, it's the animal's organs wrapped in its own intestines.

 

1 hour ago, Endor said:

Not so much pasta and pastry would be my advice from what I've noticed to date. 

Sound advice. That and eliminating sweets. And upping my protein intake.

 

1 hour ago, Endor said:

You did do well on zone last time so although a lot of work I think that's a sound strategy if you can stick to it. Maybe commit to a weigh in once a week on Monday morning as well?

Batch cooking was one thing, but now that SRLF is also in the mix, I gotta go with what she's cooked. Hence the nightly planning, a method dating back to my MFP days of day-to-day meal planning. Weigh in is a good idea, might do it daily if I remember to but I'll try to keep Monday as a must do.

[Endor]

1 minute ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Weigh in is a good idea, might do it daily if I remember to but I'll try to keep Monday as a must do.

I find once a week is a bigger motivator because you get to see a big movement and experience a sense of achievement. Photos might be a good idea too, I've been taking them but haven't compared...yet. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

3 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Top spit is a whole lamb. Some symbolism about Jesus as the Lamb of God there, but I'll leave the details to @Tanktimus the Encourager.

Bottom spit is much more death metal stuff, it's the animal's organs wrapped in its own intestines.

 

Sound advice. That and eliminating sweets. And upping my protein intake.

 

Batch cooking was one thing, but now that SRLF is also in the mix, I gotta go with what she's cooked. Hence the nightly planning, a method dating back to my MFP days of day-to-day meal planning. Weigh in is a good idea, might do it daily if I remember to but I'll try to keep Monday as a must do.

It's also because the crucifixion and resurrection took place around the passover feast, wherein a roast lamb is eaten.

 

 

Also, lamb tastes really good.

[Emerald Eagle]

9 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Other than the occasional chocolate egg, Easter round these parts has nothing to do with candy...

 

Your Easter looks like it would be much easier to do zone than our Western easter traditions. I've already eaten too many hot cross buns! Following for Crossfit, and for some nutrition inspiration

[Endor]

56 minutes ago, EmeraldEagle said:

hot cross buns

Nooooooo, don't say those words, I have major weakness issues! I almost bought some yesterday!

 

[WhiteGhost]

Here!  

 

That roast lamb looks really good, I had a mini version of that a couple of days ago (just the breast/ribs section).and it was tasty  

[DarK_RaideR]

The Old West was a hard place. The only thing in abundance was poverty. And firearms. Combine alcohol and hopelessness with greed, envy, lust and pride and death is often the result. Crude cabins stood alone in the wilderness, cut off from the outside world. People knew to mind their own business. But isolated, they grew ignorant and superstitious. Some said the devil walked the earth. Said lost souls haunted and possessed the living, pushing them past the edge of sanity. In this harsh and dangerous country, no one had it easy. Including your family. You were six years old when you traveled the Oregon Trail with your mother and father. Food was scarce. And your father, despite being a fine tracker and a crack shot, failed to find any game. It was as if every animal on the trail was spooked by some evil force. Your old man found a small village and tried to trade equipment for food. But this village was overrun by outlaws. They took your mother. And decided to trade you and your father to white slavers. But he managed to break free, told you to hide and set out to save her. He snuck back in town, taking the outlaws out one by one, but once he got into their base, she was nowhere to be found. He saw a box though. It caught his attention, so he opened it hoping for a clue. The simple wooden box contained a head. Your mother's head.

 

Afterwards, your father found one of the gunmen still alive. The dying man rambled on about some unholy obligation, about promises made by the devil himself and the rewards they would find in Hell. You and your father were still alive, but all your supplies were destroyed. No way you'd make it to Oregon now. Your father decided to stay put and build a little life right there. Many years passed and you grew up. You became a man. So the two of you took over the ruined railroad building and tried your hands at farming. The soil was dry and the land was dangerous. You spent ten long years scratching out an existence from the dirt. Now you were grown, you figured the two of you should try for Oregon again. It's what mother would have wanted.

 

And thus begins Hard West's tutorial (which is basically navigating you through the "rescue") much like I've been using these last few days to think through my challenge, hammer my usual food items into zone-compliant meals and a list I can use to quickly look up pre-made food options. Also, I realized Season 2 of Westworld premieres on April 22, shortly after the end of this challenge, so more clues that my Wild West vibe is on point. Still owe it to myself to watch the 1973 movie, but if you haven't seen the first season of the series, make it a priority.

 

Last night SRLF split up the beef I bought couple of days back and cooked it into two versions: one is with pappardelle and red sauce, the other with some lemon sauce. The former has the pasta mixed with it in the pot, but she made some linguine separately to go with the latter. There's also some leftover groats with seafood and raisins, as well as chicken patties/burgers in the fridge. Not counting the leftover seabream, which she's saving to re-cook in some saucy manner. Those were my building blocks and today's schedule called for work at the office and an evening seminar at the bar headquarters.  sliced a banana, put it in the freezer overnight and made sure to save some time in the morning so I could boil some basmati rice.

 

The Plan

• 5 block Breakfast (8:00, at home): Smoothie with frozen banana (3 blocks of carbs), half a liter of milk (2 blocks of protein and carbs), a teaspoon of tahini (3 blocks of fat) and 6 almonds (2 blocks of fat). The missing 3 blocks of protein were filled with 90gr. of cheese I munched on while blending the smoothie.
• 5 block Lunch (until 13:00, at work): 150gr of lemon'd beef (5 blocks of protein), 15 tablespoons of basmati rice (5 blocks of carbs) and I'm counting the olive oil used to cook the beef and make the light sauce as the meal's fat.
• 1 block Snack (until 18:00, probably before going to the seminar): A boiled egg (1 block of protein), half a slice of wholegrain bread we use to make french toast (1 block of carbs) with a teaspoon of light mayonnaise on it (1 block of fat)
• 5 block Dinner (until 23:00, most likely back home): 150gr worth of chicken burger/patty (5 blocks of protein) and rounding up the rest with a salad for carbs. Fats will come from either or a combination of olive oil and avocado. Since it takes a ton of lettuce-y stuff to fill in 5 blocks of carbs, I might replace some of it with any leftover basmati rice
• 1 block Snack (before bed): About 250gr of yoghurt (1 block of both protein and carbs) with a teaspoon of tahini (1 block of fat)

It's probably just me having a placebo effect, but I'm kinda feeling my belly de-bloated after breakfast. Let's see how this goes. Oh, I also weighed in at 86,6kg this morning. I'm probably more, because my scale is a bit off, but it's the one I'll be using to measure progress.

 

Not sure if I mentioned Tuesday's rowing class, that was 20' for distance at 28 s/m and 75% pull which is exhausting. Wasn't feeling it at all, my average was 26 s/m for 4.128m total. I talked to SRLF about potentially dropping out of rowing classes, I feel like I have the skill nailed down to a good point and would like to spend the time she's rowing on doing other stuff, like working on my many weaknesses. I also want to do more "regular" workouts, because as it stands now we do one rowing class, one yoga class and one Open/regular workout per week.

 

18.4 was announced and we watched it having breakfast. I had told my coach at the start of this year I'm predicting a benchmark WOD and he dismissed the idea, but here's Diane with some extras, even if I was predicting Fran instead. For those of you who haven't drunk the Cool Aid yet, here's the Rx version of 18.4

For time, with a 9' time cap

21-15-9

Deadlifts (225 lb.)

Handstand Pushups

Then 21-15-9

Deadlifts (315 lb.)

with 50 ft. Handstand Walks between sets

Scaled version goes 135 and 185 lb on the deadlifts, with hand-release pushups and bear crawls instead. Dave Castro was aware that most people won't even make it to that point, as was NC with the tips. She said we're all actually going in to score max reps, not finish this, so either do Diane (the first part) but not full force to save strength for part 2 or just try to get the best Diane time you can. In my case, I have mentioned how my HSPU skill has receded greatly due to extremely sparse use (and piling on some extra weight on my frame) so I'm going scaled here too. Since the hand-release pushup version is not Diane, the plan here is to go hard, keep moving and aim for max reps at a steady pace.

[Endor]

Dude that scaled version is going to punish you hard. Those hand release pushups are waaaay harder than standard pushups.

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[Teros]

I wrote a story for my final project for school called Voodoo Cowboy.  I think that the western desolation is a rich area for lore.  Enjoying man. 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

3 hours ago, Teros said:

I wrote a story for my final project for school called Voodoo Cowboy.  I think that the western desolation is a rich area for lore. 

Stay tuned to see how the story unfolds...

 

Ok quick update before I forget all the info in my head. Writing this on my phone so I'll try to keep it short.

 

Ate as planned on Friday, though I skipped the last snack, which is fine. Weighed in a whole 1,5kg lower the next day at 65,1 and Saturday's eating was like this:

- 5 Block Breakfast: A pananacake using 1 banana (3 blocks of carbs), an egg (1 block of protein) and a spoonful of tahini on top (3 blocks of fat). Big glass of milk about 0,5L (2 blocks of protein and carbs). Filled in the gaps with 60gr of cheese (2 blocks of protein) and 6 almonds (2 blocks of carbs)

- 1 Block Post workout snack, packed from home: a hard boiled egg (1 block of protein), half a slice of wholemeal bread (1 block of carbs) with a teaspoon of light mayonaise (1 block of fat). Also managed to refuse the protein "chocolate" bar the SRLF got for herself and didn't like.

- 5 Block Lunch at the SRLF's place: Guesstimated this with a whole chicken thigh for protein, some lettuce/rocket/feta cheese salad, two small spinach pies and 15 fries (yes, I counted those). Think the oil in the salad and whatever the fries had soaked up was enough for fat.

- 1 Block Snack: Went to meet my best friend and his gf at a pub. They had a pitcher of beer on the table, I settled for a 330ml glass of Brewdog's Punk IPA. That's slightly over a single block of carbs, no fat or protein but givem tje situation it was the best I could do.

- 5 Block Dinner: 150gr of leftover lemon-sauced beef (5 blocks of protein) over a carefully served amount of couscous with grated cheese, broccoli and other veggies for the carbs. Dat came from the oil added to the couscous during the cooking process.

- 1 Block Snack: A glass of soy milk (1 block of protein and carbs) plus 3 almonds (1 block of fat)

 

Back at 86,1kg this morning, but not really minding as I feel the good sensation of eating well

 

Gave 18.4 a go on Saturday morning, only pushed my midsection as I tried to keep rigid for the deadlifts and pushups. Bear walks were no problem, but I had nothing left in me for the heavy DLs. I wasn't feeling low on energy or underfed and given that my 1RM is at 150kg these shouldn't give me that much trouble. Ran into the time cap with just the final set of 9 heavy DLs and a Bear walk left, so I'm probably redoing this in order to finish it.