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Big Show prepares to escape lockdown


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Happy new challenge!

 

The end of lockdown is theoretically in sight - there's currently cautious talk of some things reopening in March, so my aim for this challenge is to get myself where I want to be when this happens.

 

My main focus is still weight loss and that's going well so far this year, so I want to build on that momentum.  I'm not far off hitting my lightest weight is 2017, and once I've shifted enough weight I can look at hopefully trying my first ever deliberate bulking phase once the gyms reopen again.  So with all that in mind, my goals for this challenge are:

 

1) Keep total calories within +/-500 of my weekly calorie total (exact figure depends on my weight that week) - I made progress during the last challenge with keeping this tighter, so I'm hoping to push on with that during this month.

 

2) Hit my weekly step target - ideally I'm aiming to average 7000 steps per day, but if there's excessive snow (for the UK) then I'll adjust things down for the days when it's possible to get outside much.

 

3) Work out four times per week -  I'm gradually building up my running again so ideally I'll be running twice a week and then doing some kind of bodyweight or dumbbell workout for the other two in preparation for the gyms hopefully reopening at the end of lockdown.  I haven't done any resistance training since before Christmas, so I aim to use this challenge to ease myself back in to it.  But if circumstances present other options instead, I'll settle for doing a different workout instead.  I feel that the main thing is the four times a week aspect.

 

LQ) Read more books - I finished two books in January; I want to finish another two by the end of this challenge.

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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Gosh the thought of backing away from lockdown... be still my beating heart.  Fingers crossed for you dude!!

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i am not waiting for a hero.  i saved myself long ago.

Level 58 Bard & Monk of the Furious Heart

STR.55  DEX.43 STA.48 CON.51 WIS.53 CHA.65

"Well...in the end, it boils down to two simple choices. Either you do or you don't.

You'd think with all the problems in this world, there'd be more answers. It's not fair...
...But that's the way things are. The choice is yours."

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Image result for big show gif

 

We're still in Code Orange (or whatever they call it) which is barely any different than Code Red, so I feel you on the Lockdown Woes 🙄

 

But let's conquer our goals anyway!

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[Level ??] Rurik, the Wayfinder

Class: Gloomfall Gunslinger  (Artificer/Gunslinger)

BRUTALITY 11 | FINESSE 10 | VIGOR 11 | INSIGHT 14 | WILL 13

Equipment: The Alchemist greatcoat armor, Longshot adventuring rifle, Slicer & Dicer dual blades, with adventurer's pack containing an alchemist's kit.

 

"Rangers have to at least give up on pants. It's a special rule we enacted after Rurik became a Guild Leader.” – DarK_RaideR

"Did I just get my ass kicked by a member of Metallica meets History Channel's Vikings?" - Wild Wolf

"By the Well-Oiled-and-Meticulously-Groomed Beard of Rurik!" - Tanktimus the Encourager

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Whoo! Following per usual :)

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Level 87 Wood Elf Druid

Druid: || 59 | 60 | 61 | 61.5 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 8485 | 86 | 87  ||

Ranger: || 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 ||

||Char/RPG||
STR: 57 || DEX: 59 || STA: 52 || CON: 47 || WIS: 59 || CHA: 59

 

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Hey everyone, thanks for following!

 

Just nearing the end of my standard Wednesday-Tuesday week (hey, it works for me):

 

Tuesday weight: 114.8kg - glad it's back down in the 114s, but really want to see a 113 now!

Monday steps: 3860 (7068 over target for the week) - quite surprised it even got this high to be honest!  Finally stopped snowing today though, so hopefully in a couple of days I'll be back out there.

Monday calories: 1765 (997 over target for the week) - carefully kept them down but I was genuinely starving by dinner time.  Same thing happened again today - need to make sure I have a more filling lunch if I'm going to keep on trying these carb-free breakfasts.

 

Today after work I did my first attempt at a bodyweight workout.  I adapted the NF BBW and then simplified it even further as I'm so out of practice and shape: 5mins bike to warm-up, then 3 rounds of 10 squats, 10 press-ups, 10 lunges, 15s plank, and 20 jumping jacks, then finished it off with another 5mins on the bike.  As expected, I suck at press-ups and my various thigh muscles were very keen to remind me that I haven't done anything since before Christmas.  But that's why I kept it simple, and to also give myself no excuse to sack it off.  An "easy" workout is better than no workout, and now I have a starting point!

  • Like 4

Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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1 hour ago, Big_Show said:

carb-free breakfasts

What are you having? I'm on 2 boiled eggs and half an avacado, then a handful of almonds around 11am. Usually carries me through to Lunch.  I'd like an alternative though if you've got some good ideas!

         Endor, LVL 45 Half-Elf Ranger 

PR and Motivation Log | Current Battle Log 

      

                    Feb-March 2022 Challenge

   

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On 2/9/2021 at 10:34 PM, Endor said:

What are you having? I'm on 2 boiled eggs and half an avacado, then a handful of almonds around 11am. Usually carries me through to Lunch.  I'd like an alternative though if you've got some good ideas!

 

Around half ten I've been having a couple of slices of ham, a slice of cheese, and a boiled egg.  It seemed to be ok, but I'll need to reassess if I keep getting starving in the afternoon.

 

---------------------------------

 

Wednesday weight: 114.8kg - same again!

Tuesday steps: 3268 (5336 over target for the week) - still averaged nearly 6000 steps per day despite the snow so it wasn't a bad week after all.

Tuesday calories: 2044 (489 over target for the week) - snuck in under the bar at the last moment there.

 

This week has left me annoyingly over the trendline:

 

image.png.b36510038e75f499586e140fa92ec1b4.png

 

but I'm taking in solace in the fact that a) my weight was in the 114s for six days last week, whereas it had only dipped into that range twice before, and b) when I dropped some stuff round for my parents and my sister last week they all commented on how much thinner I was looking, especially around the belly.  And the new shirts I got given for Christmas now fit as well (I tried them on last night).

 

So this week the mission is to get into the 113s!  I've got a four day weekend (using up some of my annual leave allowance before it runs out at the end of March) and we're cooking ourselves a bit of a fancy meal for Valentine's Day on Sunday, so I'm going to have to pay particular attention to my calories before and after all that to make sure I don't go wildly over.  At least it's finally stopped snowing and it's veeeery slowly starting to melt, so hopefully we'll be able to get some decent walks in over the long weekend too.

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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Thursday weight: 114.6kg - moving in the right direction.

Wednesday steps: 2933 (1067 under target for the week) - nice lazy evening.  Got a four day weekend so should smash this one this week.  Might adjust the target upwards as well if all goes well.

Wednesday calories: 1994 (543 under target for the week) - very carefully gave myself a nice big buffer heading into aforementioned weekend, especially as we are going to make apple & blackberry crumble with ice cream for dessert on Sunday and I intend to eat a LOT of it.

 

Today after work I had to go post a birthday card so it would get there in time for the weekend, so I decided to get my mudclaws out and turn that walk into a run!  Much easier than trying to fit it in tomorrow, and running over snow-covered grass on the nearby rugby field is actually a lot easier & safer than teetering over the icy pavements right now.  It's been sunny all day so the damn stuff is finally starting to melt, and the temperature should finally get back up again over tomorrow and Saturday.

 

Still sub-zero temperatures so breathing was fun by the end of it all, but I successfully completed my first attempt at a 4min/1min run/walk split - 2.15M in 22:49 @ 10:34/mile average done and dusted.  And now I am safely back on the sofa in comfies with a massive bucket of tea.  Job done.

 

Lockdown latest: they'll be announcing the prospective plans for how we emerge from it all on the week beginning 22nd February, so my first target is simply to get to that week while gradually phasing resistance work back into my routine, then hopefully I'll get my timescale for getting back to gym workouts.

 

Weight-loss latest: while I have my overall plans to get down to 110kg and then other potential ideas, I'm trying to shut them out of my head and just focus on getting into the 113s.  Keep the focus more on successive short-term goals and then hopefully the big ones will creep up on me before I realise it.  That's the theory, anyway...

  • Like 3

Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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That beard has gotten quite bushy since we did trivia!

 

What books did you read?

Current Challenge

# 39#38 | #37 | #36 | #35 |#34 | #33 | #32 | #31 | #30#29#28#27#26#25 | # 24 | #23#22#21 | #20 | #19 | #18 | #17#16#15#14 | #13 | #12 | #11 | #10#9#8 | #7 | #6 | #5 | #4 | #3 | #2#1 | Battle Log

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On 2/11/2021 at 7:50 PM, Endor said:

Impressive beard! 

 

On 2/11/2021 at 8:48 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I approve the beard 

 

19 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

That beard has gotten quite bushy since we did trivia!

 

 

Be glad I was wearing a cap, my hair is abaout as long as well, just it sticks up instead.  Lockdown is not friendly to my excessively hairy genetics...

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Friday weight: 113.1kg - 1.5kg down from last night!  After a carb-free dinner last night I drank rum & then wine and woke up very thirsty so I'm pretty certain most, if not all, of this is just good old-fashioned dehydration.  But it is really good to see the number again!  Be very interesting to see what it says over the next few days though - this is why I have to weigh myself every day, one reading per week just makes me wonder if it's a fluke or an error...

Thursday steps: 6376 (1309 over target for the week) - guess that run got my steps up higher than expected.

Thursday calories 3097 (17 over target for the week) - very disappointed with this.  Dinner involved these breaded chicken steaks we get in a pack of six, so we usually have two each and then a side of veggies instead of a carb portion and that's plenty filling.  Last night we tried a bag of frozen mediterranean veg that's just supposed to roast nicely, but it turned out to be mainly tiny bits of peppers and lots of them either shrunk or just disintegrated, so we were both left still hungry by the end of it and ended up eating the remaing chicken steaks.  Which were supposed to be breakfast today.  And then I would have been 248 calorie target for the week still.

 

On the plus side, today I kept getting distracted when I started thinking about my afternoon snack and now it's nearly time to go start prepping dinner (balsamic chicken with noodles), so I've just saved myself all those calories back again!  Very handy.

 

It's been a nice day off so far - I did my parents' shopping this morning, made myself a delicious bacon roll as a reward, we went for a short walk, and then I just tried a dumbbell circuit that randomly cropped up on my FB a few days ago - Men's Health's 7-7-7 Home Dumbbell Workout.  I did 5mins warm-up on the bike, grunted & lumbered my way through three circuits with 5kg dumbbells, then panted for 5mins on the bike to get my breath back as a cool-down.  It definitely felt better than doing a bodyweight workout as they just plaind don't inspire me, so I'm going to give it another go on Sunday.  Assuming the Bulgarian Split Squats (for which I emphatically do NOT have the innate sense of balance required to perform gracefully) haven't left my legs a solid mass of DOMSy pain...

 

19 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

 

What books did you read?

 

Thanks for asking, I realised yesterday that I keep forgetting to mention these!

 

In the previous challenge I started of my rereading James Smith's Not a Diet Book, which was a really good reset for my weight-loss ambitions and helped me start getting the basics right again.  I also read Joe Marler's Loose Head: Confessions of an (un)professional rugby player, which was a really interesting memoir by athe England prop who still plays for Harlequins, the rugby team I support.

 

I decided this year to try having both a fiction and a non-fiction book on the go at all times so I have an option for whatever mood I happen to be in at the time, so I got myself a copy of Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living (it was on sale for £1.89 on my Kindle so it seemed like fate!) to read through - I haddn't realised that it was literally a quote/lesson for every day of the year, so I've just finished catching up to today's lesson and plan to continue reading it gradually throughout the year.  It's definitely whet my appetite for a more in depth book about Stoicism, so I'm going to try one of them later on in the year.  Any recommendations would be welcomed!

 

This means I need another non-fiction book to replace it, and both my other books are currently on Kindle, so as it's currently LGBT history month I used this as an excuse to buy myself Paul Baker's Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language.  It should be a really interesting read, both in terms of the linguistics and the history, so I'm really looking forward to it arriving tomorrow.

 

My current non-fiction book is Robin Hobb's Blood of Dragons (Book four of the Rain Wild Chronicles).  I've been struggling to find the enthusiasm for this series, but I'm finally on the fourth and final one.  I enjoyed all three of the previous trilogies set in this world and each of the individual books once I'd finished them, so I don't know why I'm finding it such a slog.  If I wasn't keen to read the subsequent trilogy (set back with other characters I find more interesting) I suspect I might have given up by now, but I'm now determined to finish it off so I can start something else.

 

Hmm, this post turned into a bit of an epic and my laptop is being annoyingly slow - I'll pop back after a reset and add the links to the books in case anyone's interested (EDIT - now done).  If you made it this far, thanks for reading!  Go get yourself a bacon sarnie as a reward.

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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10 hours ago, Big_Show said:

This means I need another non-fiction book to replace it, and both my other books are currently on Kindle, so as it's currently LGBT history month I used this as an excuse to buy myself Paul Baker's Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language.  It should be a really interesting read, both in terms of the linguistics and the history, so I'm really looking forward to it arriving tomorrow.

 

Ooh, vada this dolly omi in need of a bona crimper, my duck, isn't she nice... but that riah, I would just die!

I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever.

Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge

Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6,  #7#8, #9#10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23

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10 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Ooh, vada this dolly omi in need of a bona crimper, my duck, isn't she nice... but that riah, I would just die!

 

Give me a few days and I'll know how to respond to that 😃

 

20210213_154355.thumb.jpg.5ef6667bd128ba1e67f4b1d0215eada1.jpg

 

It just arrived!

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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Ok, so I got very lax at updating over the weekend.  So first of all, here's the state of play at the end of my week:

 

Wednesday weight: 114.5kg

Tuesday steps: 7307 (12,304 over target for the week)

Tuesday calories 2129 (681 over target for the week)

 

My weight was all ove the place last week! From Friday at 113.1kg, it went up to a more believable 113.8kg, then 112.5kg the next day (after two rugby matches and a 6hr zoom birthday games party for a friend during which copious wine was consumed), then on Monday after our Valentine's Day treat meal (which was absolutely delicious!) it was back up to 115.1kg (a whole 2.6kg heavier, which is just ludicrous) and today it is back down to 114.5kg again.  I'm hoping it'll settle itself back into the 113s again over the next couple of days and, seeing as I'm looking visibly slimmer and more tshirts have started fitting again, I'm still taking the win.

 

This weekend has no rugby and absolutely no other plans, plus all the snow has gone and the temperatures have rebounded into the low teens, so we're planning on being as active as possible after last weekend's laziness.  More steps would be good, although I still managed two runs and two DB workouts in the last week so I'm not feelind bad about that front.

 

I have also made progress with all my books, so I'm remembering to work on that goal too.  My goal for this week is to try to stay more up to date with both this thread and everybody else's as I seem to keep lurching wildly from one extreme to another right now.  Some threads will now be three pages longer than they were last time I checked... 😅

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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22 hours ago, Endor said:

That's great! You're trending in the right direction and seems like you've got a good balance at the moment.  Doing well mate 👍

 

Cheers mate - when it feels like I'm treading water I keep reminding myself that I'm still 5kg down from the beginning of this years, and 10kg from last July, so that's all tangible progress.  Just need to press on now!

 

------------------------------

 

Thursday weight: 114.0kg - heading down again!

Wednesday steps: 4323 (2677 under target for the week) - parents' weekly shopping done, then retreated to the sofa for the evening with a bucket of tea and my books.  Nice and chilled after the stress of supermarket shopping.

Wednesday calories: 2485 (52 under target for the week) - made a good start to the week, determined to nail it this week.

 

Today after work I headed out for my run - I've decided to keep the run/walk intervals at 4min/1min for another week, but I added another half lap of the rugby fields which handily worked out as another 5mins on to my route, so today's was 2.72miles in 28:23 @ 10:26/mile.  Wildly out of breath by the end of it, but it's more progress from last week.  Gonna do plenty of stretching over the next few days then repeat it after work on Monday.  And now the snow's gone we'll be getting some decent walk in over the weekend as well, which will be nice.

 

Not much else to add today really, just plodding on through at the moment until we start finding out next week when the lockdown starts easing.  Lucky I've got so many books to get through really!

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Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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Made it to the end of another work week!

 

Friday weight: 113.6kg - 😍

Thursday steps: 6983 (2694 under target for the week) - gonna bump this right up again over the weekend.

Wednesday calories: 2482 (107 under target for the week) - was originally aiming for a bigger deficit, but these week's Drag Race UK was the Snatch Game episode so I decided to have a couple of glasses of wine while we watched it.

 

Today at work has draaaaaaged, but it's finally over!  Went straight out for a walk with my podcasts and extended my regular route slightly (able to do this now it's finally properly light in the evenings again), and now I'm just kinda at a braindead loose end on the sofa.  Cooking a "Risnotto" for dinner later on (basically a version that you don't have to stand over stirring endlessly) so hopefully that should turn out nicely, and then probably this week's WandVision.  Really looking forward to getting some decent outdoors time in over the weekend, been cooped up for too much of the last fortnight.

  • Like 3

Big Show: Human Swift Hunter

Respawning. One day at a time.

Battle Log: Operation Wedding Suit - Take 2

Previous challenges: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 

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