[MaD MaLKaV] is a Warrior

[MaD MaLKaV]

55 minutes ago, Grymm said:

Also on the re-racking, is the problem coming in low and hitting the end or underside of the hook? 

 

I think one time I came in a little too low and the other time I came in kinda lop-sided.  The lop-sided attempt is the one that makes me think that I need to more seriously consider putting myself in the middle of the bar at the start, because one side was firmly in place but the other was up in the air almost hitting the next row.  Not sure how it got that far off.  It probably started a little off from not centering the bar well and then worked it's way to be a bit more off as I did 15 reps.  I noticed it seemed to feel a little off-balance, but it wasn't bad enough to throw me off-balance or make me re-rack early. 

[Grumble]

1 hour ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

 

I think one time I came in a little too low and the other time I came in kinda lop-sided.  The lop-sided attempt is the one that makes me think that I need to more seriously consider putting myself in the middle of the bar at the start, because one side was firmly in place but the other was up in the air almost hitting the next row.  Not sure how it got that far off.  It probably started a little off from not centering the bar well and then worked it's way to be a bit more off as I did 15 reps.  I noticed it seemed to feel a little off-balance, but it wasn't bad enough to throw me off-balance or make me re-rack early. 

 

Squats are not a speed sport. Take your time, stack the bar on your shoulders, center, then lift. Don't be in a rush to lift. You'll get it.

[Scaly Freak]

8 hours ago, Grumble said:

 

Squats are not a speed sport.

 

QFT

[MaD MaLKaV]

Well, last night was a personal trainer session, so I did all the stuff he told me to do and didn't log it in my app.  As I recall, we did assisted pullups, suspended row (that's what I call it; you get your feet under this thing to hold you up diagonally like you're going to do backbends, but you just bend over and lift a plate loaded pair of handles and pull them towards your chest), machine cable low row, and dumbbell shrugs (which really worked my grip holding the heavy dumbbells) supersetted with dumbbell curls.  I surprised we didn't toss in dumbbell rows while we were in the dumbbell section, but my sessions are only half an hour.

 

Tonight is the final weigh-in for my muscle building challenge.  I got surpassed for top prize by a couple of guys at other local gyms participating, but I'm still best in my gym.  We'll find out if I managed to keep it that way until the end.  I've been putting on muscle more slowly than when it started, but I'm still putting on around a pound a week.  Not positive if I'll still be able to fit in a walk tonight with the finale party taking up a chunk of time and still having to get home for dinner.  It only takes around 45 mins, so we'll see if I can still fit it in.  If not, I could always make it up by going to the gym Saturday, which is usually an off day for me.

 

I've managed to balance Plato and Rick & Morty.  I've done at least 30 minutes of reading everyday so far this week (over an hour Monday, when I was excited to get back to it) and still managed to make it through the entire first season of Rick & Morty.  I've been going to bed a little later than normal to fit in a few eps, but not so late as to jeopardize my 8 hours.

 

I'm still adjusting to the morning meditation session being 25 minutes.  I've sat through it everyday so far though, whether I get distracted or not.  Everyday I've had my fair share of distractions, but nothing that's pulled me off the cushion.  My feet try to fall asleep when I sit for 25 minutes, but they don't quite go fully to sleep, so I can still safely walk back downstairs afterwards.  I've also kept up all my grooming habits and counted all the calories.  Eating over a certain target is still pretty easy.  Not sure I could eat enough if I didn't have the protein shakes mixed with milk helping though. 

 

It's still too sweet, but I'm finding the off-brand protein powder a little more tolerable.  I just try to drink it fairly quick instead of pausing to reflect on it.  Still looking forward to my order arriving so I can switch back to the usual though.  My wife says it should be here Monday.  A fine example of a case where it would've been worth it to be a Prime customer, I guess.  Most of the time 2 days versus a week doesn't matter too much for anything we order.

 

In unrelated news, my Crunchyroll account still hasn't been upgraded.  I tried to upgrade it last Friday night and it took my money but didn't upgrade the account.  I've filled in the form to tell their helpdesk but haven't gotten any response.  I may fill in another ticket and attach the screenshot of the iTunes receipt this time to see if it helps.  They said it might take two business days, but it's been over three now.  Without the upgrade, I have to watch with ads and there's a wait on the latest episodes.  I'm watching Steins Gate Zero and Attack on Titan Season 3 this season, so I thought it would be worth the $6.99, but kinda lame paying it and not getting the benefits.

[MaD MaLKaV]

I've had the Steins Gate 0 op stuck in my head all week...

 

 

[MaD MaLKaV]

It's weird for me watching so much TV at one time.  I've got my Rick and Morty re-watch, two anime to keep up with (weekly releases), and Better Call Saul.  It's mainly cutting in to my time that I'ld use to read non-Classics books or make good progress in my classics.  I don't really remember the last time I had so much going on at the same time.  It isn't that much time though.  About two hours on the weekend to catchup on my two anime and Better Call Saul, then whatever free time I feel like devoting at the end of the day to rewatching Rick & Morty (so far, it's generally around an hour at the end of the day to watch around 3 eps).  My days feel fairly well booked most of the time without this extra TV watching, so it's impressive to see how much I can fit in around my other activities when I try.  I guess I did have to cut back my sleep from around 9 hours to around 8 to fit in some Rick & Morty daily.

[CourtnieMarie]

4 hours ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

kinda lame paying it and not getting the benefits.

revolt! that is awful and annoying.

 

nice job otherwise checking off your goals!

[MaD MaLKaV]

Good news!  Final weigh-in was last night, and I ended up putting on the most muscle of any male at my gym.  13 pounds.  So I won $250, plus I have 13 more pounds of muscle than I did 3 months ago.  They took my picture with a huge cardboard check and everything.  Lol.  I might even be able to see myself on one of the monitors around the gym now.

 

It's really weird doing well at some aspect of physical competition.  I've always been a bit bookish, and I'm used to academic accomplishments, but I've never won in sports or anything, so it's a pretty big change winning this competition.  I expected I had a chance, since being the noobest of noobs, I was bound to make good noob gains, but I'm still a little surprised I won.  Anyway, I guess it is an auspicious start to my weight lifting hobby.

[Grymm]

Congratulations!

[Grumble]

40 minutes ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

Anyway, I guess it is an auspicious start to my weight lifting hobby life.

FIFY

[JustCallMeAmber]

On 8/16/2018 at 11:19 AM, MaD MaLKaV said:

I've managed to balance Plato and Rick & Morty.

This may be my favorite sentence ever.

 

1 hour ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

Good news!  Final weigh-in was last night, and I ended up putting on the most muscle of any male at my gym.  13 pounds.  So I won $250, plus I have 13 more pounds of muscle than I did 3 months ago.  They took my picture with a huge cardboard check and everything.  Lol.  I might even be able to see myself on one of the monitors around the gym now.

 

It's really weird doing well at some aspect of physical competition.  I've always been a bit bookish, and I'm used to academic accomplishments, but I've never won in sports or anything, so it's a pretty big change winning this competition.  I expected I had a chance, since being the noobest of noobs, I was bound to make good noob gains, but I'm still a little surprised I won.  Anyway, I guess it is an auspicious start to my weight lifting hobby.

Congrats on all counts!

 

[Scaly Freak]

7 hours ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

Good news!  Final weigh-in was last night, and I ended up putting on the most muscle of any male at my gym.  13 pounds.  So I won $250, plus I have 13 more pounds of muscle than I did 3 months ago.  They took my picture with a huge cardboard check and everything.  Lol.  I might even be able to see myself on one of the monitors around the gym now.

 

It's really weird doing well at some aspect of physical competition.  I've always been a bit bookish, and I'm used to academic accomplishments, but I've never won in sports or anything, so it's a pretty big change winning this competition.  I expected I had a chance, since being the noobest of noobs, I was bound to make good noob gains, but I'm still a little surprised I won.  Anyway, I guess it is an auspicious start to my weight lifting hobby.

 

You realize this means you need to change your thread title? You are no longer trying. You are succeeding and winning.

 

 

[Grumble]

On 8/17/2018 at 5:06 PM, scalyfreak said:

 

You realize this means you need to change your thread title? You are no longer trying. You are succeeding and winning.

 

 

 

I was contemplating editing his title page to reflect that.

Cause @MaD MaLKaV, you're definitely an iron eating, muscle gaining, ass kicking, check winning warrior if I ever saw one.

[MaD MaLKaV]

Thanks for all the support!  

 

I finished my Rick and Morty re-watch this weekend.   That was fun.  I ended up missing my walk last Thursday, so I made up for it Saturday with a 3.6 mile hike.  I also missed my meditation Saturday, so I ended up meditating for 50 minutes on Sunday to make up for it.  My feet fell asleep, but I survived.  I ended up forgetting to brush my teeth last Friday night, so I'll just lose the points on that for this week.

 

# Week 1 Summary #

1) Go to the gym and lift some weights: +3 STR

2) Go to the gym and do cardio: +2 STA

3) Count calories in MyFitnessPal on phone: +1 CON

4) Wake up every morning 30 minutes early, so I can meditate first thing: +1 CON

5) Meditate every day for 25 minutes: +3 WIS

6) Spend 30 minutes reading from the Great Books of the Western World: +3 WIS

7) Floss my teeth: +1 CHA

8) Shave every day: +1 CHA

9) Brush my teeth at night: +0 CHA

 

Overall, a pretty successful week.  I'm still getting used to the long meditation sessions, but I'm hanging in there for them.  I'm not positive they benefit me enough to continue with it as a habit, but I'm giving it a fair shake.  

[MaD MaLKaV]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:06 PM, scalyfreak said:

You realize this means you need to change your thread title? You are no longer trying. You are succeeding and winning.

 

I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out if I could change my thread title to say "[MaD MaLKaV] is a warrior", but I didn't see an obvious way to do it. 

[Scaly Freak]

10 minutes ago, MaD MaLKaV said:

 

I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out if I could change my thread title to say "[MaD MaLKaV] is a warrior", but I didn't see an obvious way to do it. 

 

I think if you edit your opening post in the thread, you can edit the title as well.

[MaD MaLKaV]

6 minutes ago, scalyfreak said:

 

I think if you edit your opening post in the thread, you can edit the title as well.

 

Thanks!  That worked great.

[MaD MaLKaV]

In other news, Crunchyroll finally got to my support ticket.  It turns out they're having trouble accepting payments from iTunes.  They gave me a month free and told me to cancel the subscription through iTunes and subscribe through their site with a card if I wanted to continue my subscription.  That works for me.  I put off watching the latest episodes of my anime in hopes of getting this fixed, so I could watch them without commercials, so I'm glad they came through.  They were definitely behind on their goal of getting premium support requests handled within two days though.

[MaD MaLKaV]

So, I found out I have about an hour to waste at the end of each day during my Rick and Morty re-watch.  I like doing something fun at the end of the day, instead of piling more time behind my classics reading habit, so I might start playing World of Warcraft again.   I foresee having about an hour to commit at the end of each day, which is enough to make some progress.  There's a new expansion too, so lots of stuff to do as a single player.  I might be able to get a little time on the weekends, but mostly I'm watching the baby on the weekends, so the wife can get chores done, so I'm not going to hold out for weekend play time.  I think I could get my $100 worth of playtime out of grabbing the xpac and playing through it over the next two months. 

 

The big question is what do I want to play.  Do I just keeping levelling my hunter, who is already at level 110?  Or do I just level my druid from 108 to 110 and play that in the new content?  If I ever go through the work to get flying unlocked in the new expansion, it would be cool to be able to use Druid travel form.  My troll turns into a bat.  Or I could even level my Warlock from 105 to 110, then play the new content.  He's on a different server from my other characters, where some friends of mine used to play.  Sometimes they turn their accounts on near expansions, but I haven't seen any of them on Battle.Net chat.  It's been long enough since I played the 100-110 content, that I wouldn't mind doing part of it again.  Or do I make a new character and boost it to 110?  And then do I make a new mage and boost it to 110 (because my old mage is probably my favorite class but is only level 100, and I'm sort've tired of him being a goblin [undead FTW])?  Or should I make a Warrior (because I'm a Warrior now)?  Warrior is probably the only class in the game that I haven't played at all, but I've played melee a decent bit (feral druid, rogue, and death knight), and I know I kinda prefer standing back and getting a bigger view of things from a ranged dps perspective, so not sure I want to do that.  Oh, the options.  Well, gives me something to think about.  It looks like there's a way to try out classes at level 110 now.  That looks like it takes you through a tutorial rather than giving you a chance to try raiding or whatever.  I do especially like mage rotations for raiding.  I was always partial to arcane, but frost looks fun now too.  Of course, warriors look cool in plate armor.  There's always that.

 

Anyway, I think WOW isn't that bad a hobby as long as I restrict it to the one hour or so a night and it doesn't get in the way of my working out, reading, or meditating goals, so maybe I'll be doing that in some form or another.  I installed it back on my computer last night and will probably reactivate my account and buy the upgrade one of these evenings.  Unless I change my mind and decide to spend my spare time some other way.

[CourtnieMarie]

wow, so many questions

 

i think you'll have fun whichever path you choose!

[MaD MaLKaV]

# Week 2 Summary #

1) Go to the gym and lift some weights: +3 STR

2) Go to the gym and do cardio: +1 STA (missed Thursday because I had to work and didn't make it up on weekend)

3) Count calories in MyFitnessPal on phone: +1 CON

4) Wake up every morning 30 minutes early, so I can meditate first thing: +1 CON

5) Meditate every weekday for 25 minutes: +3 WIS

6) Spend 30 minutes reading from the Great Books of the Western World: +3 WIS

7) Floss my teeth: +1 CHA

8) Shave every day: +1 CHA

9) Brush my teeth at night: +1 CHA

 

Overall, a pretty good week.  I hate to adjust goals mid-challenge, but I'm adjusting my meditation goal where it is only weekdays.  I've had trouble fitting it in on the weekends, and since I'm considering dropping the habit, I think it would be useful for me to have five days that I meditate and two that I don't to see if I notice any difference on the days I don't.

[MaD MaLKaV]

I haven't had a chance to try squats again with the same weight, since the squat racks have been busy on my leg day.  I ended up doing the squat machine instead the last two weeks.  It's easier to pile more weight on to, but I don't have to deal with controlling the weight and re-racking it and all.  I think next week I'll wait for a squat rack to try the same weight that gave me pause last time, instead of taking the quick way out.  I have a podcast to listen to to kill time anyway, so a little waiting won't hurt me.

[Scaly Freak]

On 8/28/2018 at 7:24 AM, MaD MaLKaV said:

 I have a podcast to listen to to kill time anyway, so a little waiting won't hurt me.

 

Stretching. Best way to wait at the gym.

[MaD MaLKaV]

# Week 3 Summary #

1) Go to the gym and lift some weights: +3 STR

2) Go to the gym and do cardio: +1 STA (missed Thursday again because of work)

3) Count calories in MyFitnessPal on phone: +1 CON

4) Wake up every morning 30 minutes early, so I can meditate first thing: +0 CON

5) Meditate every weekday for 25 minutes: +1 WIS

6) Spend 30 minutes reading from the Great Books of the Western World: +0 WIS

7) Floss my teeth: +1 CHA

8) Shave every day: +1 CHA

9) Brush my teeth at night: +1 CHA

 

I had a bit of an off week. My alarm didn't go off Wednesday, so I didn't meditate. Then Friday I just felt like sleeping in thirty minutes, especially since I might be dropping the habit anyway. Those two days lost me most of my meditation points. Then during the week, I just felt like doing other stuff than read Plato. I had originally planned to just make it up by reading 3 hours straight on Saturday, but then Saturday rolled around and I stayed busy with wife and baby and never read anything. 

 

I'll get those habits back on track but not this week. I'm out of town on vacation and not trying to keep up any habits this week. I could probably.do some bodyweight exercises or something, but taking.most of the week off won't hurt too bad. I'll get back to it with personal trainer on Friday. I may still read some Plato this week. Vacation is relaxing and gives me lots of free time. I've been mostly social with family rather than reading this week. And I packed my floss but haven't used it yet. One week off from trying to do stuff won't have any long term repercussions though, so I'm fine with taking a habit vacation too. 

[CourtnieMarie]

definitely fine to swap reading for family time!! enjoy vaca!