[Leigh]

S'up Nerds!

 

It's been a minute... or you know... a few years. My bad! In recent events, I transferred to a better workplace, my bestie, my sister from another mister, the platonic love of my life, Kristi, got married and moved away, and the horrible creeping dread of my 40th Birthday is cackling and following me down dark hallways and  helping my cats trip me at 2 am.

 

So I'm going to make the most of the final year if my 30s and try and get my physical, mental and social health back on track.

 

To keep it simple, I'm going to be doing my absolute best to do he following this challenge.

 

- Limit my terrible Coke Zero addiction to one bottle per shift at work and one bottle per day at home. 

- Fill and drink my large green water bottle at least three times a shift at work and knock back three full glasses of water per day at home.

 

- Dig through the massive pile of Darebee workouts, print them off at work if my boss will let me and crank out one per day, five days a week. Including a warm up and a cool down.

 

- Fancy up my stupidly huge pile of Ramen for work meals with veggies, different kinds of proteins, and reduced the flavour packets by at least 50% because I seriously doubt anyone should be ingesting that much sodium daily. 

 

- Post up my starting stats on Monday of weight, BF%, pants and shirt size then see if I have made any improvements at the end of the challenge. 

 

 

I've got a goal of being able to fit into a bridesmaid dress for Kristi's wedding (the fun party part anyhow, since they got married at the Mayor's office in Dayton for her Visa) and look fuckin' hot in it if I can.  The last wedding I was in, back in 2010 I was horribly uncomfortable the entire time, my dress looked meh, and it ripped before the night was over, and I felt fat in it. 

 

I refuse to let that happen again if I can help it. 

 

Wish me luck Nerds! 

 

It's nice to be back

 

~Leigh

 

Tracking stuff:

 

I'm using an older model WW scale for measurements. I wish it had Bluetooth because it would be way easier to track things since the screen on this sucker is brutal to read, but it's more accurate/consistent than the shiny new scale I got last year. I have no clue if Body Water is a 5 or a weight so I'm just going to track it as is. I want to see if it goes up or down while I'm murdering my Ramen stockpile. I'm going to make sure I'm in the same outfit each week for tracking and to see if anything fits differently when I'm done.  Leggings are an XL, and shirt is an XL, both fit comfortably, don't dig in and are old enough in my wardrobe that they won't change size if I launder them incorrectly.

 

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Final Change
Body Weight	225.2 lbs	221.2 lbs
Fat Mass	85.8 lbs	92.7 lbs
Body Fat %	38.6%	41.9%
Body Water	43.9	93.7 lbs
BMI	35.8	35.7

 

Note: Week 1 was my cheap scale at home, Week two is the in depth scale at my gym. 

Workout tracking:

 

	Day1	Day2	Day3	Day4	Day5	Day6	Day7
Viking	3 sets	24 min 2.2 km	2/3 Sets	30 min interval jog	Nothing	Nothing	Leg day! + half hour walk
Assassin	nothing	25 hills walk + full body

 

 

Drink Tracking:

 

Pop Intake	Day1	Day2	Day3	Day4	Day5	Day6	Day7
w = work	h:1  w:n/a  b: n/a g: 3	h:0 w:1 b: 1.5 g:3	h:1 w:1   b:0 g:3	h:1 w:1.5 b:2 g:1	h:0 w:2 b:3 g:0	h:1.5 w:n/a b:n/a g:2	h:1 w:n/a b:n/a g:2
h = home	h:3/4 w:1 b:2 g:1	h:0 w:n/a b:3 g:0
goal: 1 each
b = water bottle
g = glass of water

[DarK_RaideR]

Hey hey, welcome back!

[Loveable_Bouncer]

I read your challenge before seeing your name, and went 'that is intriguing." 

So happy you are back and easy enough goals to help you move forward!

Glad you are in a happier life situation!

[Everstorm]

Getting "Sunglasses at Night" vibes from your title, which is extra funny because the single was released 40 years ago....  Best wishes for a great challenge!

[Leigh]

2 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Hey hey, welcome back!

 

Hey hey! Thanks, I'm highly amused that the first comment is by someone wearing sunglasses. 😎😎

 

2 hours ago, Loveable_Bouncer said:

I read your challenge before seeing your name, and went 'that is intriguing." 

So happy you are back and easy enough goals to help you move forward!

Glad you are in a happier life situation!

 

It is both a happier and sadder situation. Having to say good bye to someone I love to bits who has lived with me since 2010 was hard. She's way the heck in Ohio now and I don't know how to drive so it will be quite sometime before I see her again. Although I am now working at her former work place (we worked for the same company but different sites) so I have a pile of cool people who also know her so hilarious stories abound!

 

1 hour ago, Everstorm said:

Getting "Sunglasses at Night" vibes from your title, which is extra funny because the single was released 40 years ago....  Best wishes for a great challenge!

 

Ha! I actually forgot about that song completely. I was just blatantly ripping off the Blues Brothers. 

 

I've seen Dan Aykroyd in passing a few times and I was down in Florida to hit up Disney and Universal studios and they had their hilarious car and some look alikes out on the street. I geeked out... Just a bit... 

[Laghail]

Holy shit it's good to see you! Was just thinking of you this week as I dealt with snooty francophone customer emails.

[Leigh]

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Holy shit it's good to see you! Was just thinking of you this week as I dealt with snooty francophone customer emails.

I really hope it was in the sense of "Leigh must hate this shit as much as I do" and not saying I come off as Snotty Quebecois. 😉 

 

So I guess this is Day Zero and since it's the first day of my work week I'm going to track my goal progress starting today for food and water.

 

I discovered that there is an absolutely insane amount of broth powder in my favourite ramen vs basic Mr Noodles.

 

the tiny one on the left is basic vegetable Mr. Noodles and the two on the right are the two packs that come in my fancier ramen. I am absolutely going to dump all of them into these containers and dish out smaller amounts of flavour. I put in 1/8 TSP of the spicy one and 1/4 TSP of the chicken stock and it's more than enough for this bowl of lunch. 😎

 

 

Today's lunch is shin gold with added shrimp, corn, dehydrated vegetable soup veggies and just a tiny bit of margarine to keep it all slippery. 

 

I've got fresh green onions at home as well as broccoli slaw that I think I will add in on Tuesday so see how that plays out. Although I am bummed that I wasn't able to pick up more shrimp with this grocery trip, they were sold out. 😔 

 

I've managed about 3/4 of a work bottle of water which is no beuno for how far into my shift I am, but considering I knocked back a huge glass twenty minutes before coming to work this sort of makes sense. 

 

I've got a half a bottle of zero from my last shift so I'm going to finish that off and call it even if I don't finish three bottles of water. 

 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

17 hours ago, Leigh said:

Hey hey! Thanks, I'm highly amused that the first comment is by someone wearing sunglasses. 😎😎

17 hours ago, Leigh said:

I was just blatantly ripping off the Blues Brothers. 

Not like I sleep under that every night or anything... 

[Leigh]

Week 1 Darebee 

 

Viking!

Day1 Broken & Beautiful

Day2 Walk around my block  1.2 km

Day3 Archer

Day4 Walk around my block 1.2 km

Day5 Hip Strength

Day6 Storm Raider

Day7 Walk around my block 1.2 km

 

I like how they have training plans where you have a task for the day but can pick out of a large set of options for workouts. I threw together a Viking one and an Assassin one that I will likely do next week. I was originally planning on five days a week but all their training plans are 4 days tops.  Since this was all developed by fitness professionals I'm going to stick with their plan instead of winging it my way until I've tried a full week of the recommended. 

 

I'm curious to see if Google Maps is at all realistic for their idea of walking speed. I find I usually arrive at destinations way faster than expected so I'll see if their 16 minutes is a slow, medium or fast walk for me. I'm going to guess I can do it a fair bit faster than that without trying too hard. 

 

[Leigh]

Google maps is officially a slow walker, like Escort Quest level of slow, I would be a ball of rage if I was stuck behind them on a narrow path and I would very rapidly become the most impolite version of myself if I was forced to maintain that pace. I took it easy on my walk since I don't have good hill walking shoes on and I still managed a pace of 11 min/km. I think my top walking speed is about 8 min/km but that usually ends up with me sweating like mad and with shin splints or CECS or some sort of painful bullshit that murders my legs for an hour after.

 

I will have to revise my walk around my block plan for off days because I forgot, there are no sidewalks and a lot of traffic on the roads so that doesn't feel safe... I might just wing it on Thursday and wander in a different direction for X minutes then turn back. I will also likely need to pick up a new water bottle, I don't like halting in place to drink water but the mouth of my current bottle is too wide to be able to drink and walk without dumping half of it down my front, which I did, twice... I'll see what work has in stock for ones with built in straws.

 

But yeah, 2.2 km ish in 24 minutes.

[Everstorm]

7 hours ago, Leigh said:

Google maps is officially a slow walker, like Escort Quest level of slow, I would be a ball of rage if I was stuck behind them on a narrow path and I would very rapidly become the most impolite version of myself if I was forced to maintain that pace

😂🤣😂

[Leigh]

So today in "Things Leigh has forgotten" Ginger is spicy... it burns us precious and it makes lunch 1000x better. Although I will need to invest in a box of tissues if I want to keep eating it at work haha.

 

I was having a decent day until I got to work. The other assistant manager was out sick, the night time cosmetician was out sick and my cashier, who I had to stand less than 3 feet away from half the night is at work, you guessed it. SICK. 🤬😡 But she double masked and kept as far away as she could as often as she could. But bleh, seriously none of my co-workers has any kind of immune system and I've got a bad feeling they're all going to drop like dominoes from the virus someone started infecting the first few with. Weaklings, all of them.

 

 

I also had the great joy of stopping a thief just as I was locking the front doors so that threw off my closing routine and I wound up stuck at work for an extra 27 minutes which I didn't want to do. 😒 I have such conflicting feelings about thieves. One the one hand I could tell he was likely homeless or living in extreme poverty just by his appearance, and I will turn and look the other way if I see someone who looks like that snatching food. And he had a huge bottle of juice and some chocolate bars, which I would have normally said "take it and GTFO, don't come back" about but he just had to get his grubby little hands on a $300+ electric shaver. Like bro... you don't need that, you're stealing this to try and hock somewhere when it is absolutely COVERED in security devices that tag it to my store. No pawn shop will buy this, anyone foolish enough to buy this from you will get nailed for buying stolen goods and the stupid thing literally has a GPS tracking device in it that will alert the police to your location within like five minutes. 

 

Do not steal this. Just... just don't. Jail isn't a nice place and nobody wants to land there this time of year because like 90% of the population is sick and they're always overcrowded. Just take the damn snacks and go... 

 

So I broke all kinds of rules and procedures and ripped the damn thing out of his hands. But the worst part of it was, he saw me walk past him to go turn off the automatic doors and tried to sneak past me with those screaming alarm towers going off and the item right in his hands. Like man, don't. Don't try and give me some on the spot sob story about how your wife is sick. Stealing a razor won't make her well. Take her to the damn hospital, which is legit walking distance from my workplace and get her some help. The ER will absolutely dispense medication to people who are too poor to afford it if all they need are OTCs, and there are so many forms of assistance you can get if you need it. 

 

Stop fucking stealing!

 

end rant.

[Leigh]

Today was a good day and a bad day at the same time.

 

The Good™

 

I woke up earlier than normal and felt well rested, and was going to get ready and head to the gym. But it occured to me that I 1. didn't have any clean gym appropriate shorts/leggings clean for said gym trip, and 2. that I only have one pair of gym appropriate leggings... So I got a ride from my roomie and went to get shorts. I absolutely HATE shopping for any kind of pants other than pjays because nothing hit the trifecta of functional pants. 

 

The Trifecta of Perfect Pants

 

1. Tight enough at the waist to stay up when walking around with a bunch of stuff in my pockets

2. High enough in the rise to avoid flashing the world my terrible lower back tattoo and/or butt

3. Lose enough at the waist to not cut me in half when I crouch or sit down OR roll over and become those terrible ultra low rise early 2000s pants that don't fit anyone with any kind of a tummy.

 

Today I found out that Old Navy (the makers of the one perfect pair of leggings I own) had the entire store at 50% off. They also had the bike shorts version of my leggings in stock, in my size, and in multiple colours that I like. So I got three pairs of $24.99 leggins for $38.10 because I also got more off for having one of their 2024 totes.  So now Leigh has gym clothes again and didn't make her bank account cry for getting them.

 

I also very likely convinced one of my good co-workers to switch to my gym and go with me. So yay! First actual gym buddy so I will have local accountability for the first time ever  

 

That, sadly, was the end of the good part of my day.

 

The Bad™

 

The Cash Manager went home sick and has called out sick for tomorrow, so I have to switch my hours to cover her shift, not a big deal but it means I'm going to sleep in like twenty minutes instead of in three hours.

 

The full time Cosmetician is out sick, so I got paged a billion times to tell customers "No I'm sorry I can't recommend a face cream for you, I don't have the training to know what any of this stuff does and beyond telling you what I've tried and liked I  can't help." and "Sorry I don't know types of perfume/cologne smell like that discontinued and/or not for sale in Canada bottle that you have." and my personal favourite "No I can't tell you what the other stores have in stock. Why you ask? Well do you know what spices the family of four three blocks south of you have in their pantry? Why would I know what store not owned by my Store Associate has in their inventory. We're a franchise, not a corporate store. I don't have access because it's not mine and none of my business, literally."

 

My night shift Cashier is sick and might not be able to come in tomorrow night. The Cashier for tomorrow morning is also out sick, so I get to be three people until 2 pm tomorrow and my shift ends at 4 pm... My back up for the day? The idiotic Cosmetics Manager who can't remember how to print lottery tickets or update buss pass cards despite having been taught in full at least 10 times since I started working with her in January. And if the full time cosmetician is out sick again tomorrow, my shiny new gym buddy is going to have to be the Cashier, the Cosmetician and the Manager all at once 😅

 

The Ugly™

 

I got home a little while ago and attempted to do my Darebee workout for the day and just about pulled a Buzz Lightyear and had my arm fall off. Not literally, but ye gods I did NOT think The Archer would be that hard. Yikes. I got through 2 sets before I called it. If I'm going to be on cash all day doing nothing but upper body work I don't want to start dead tomorrow. I did that once back when I worked at Subway and working when you can't fully extend your arms out or lift them past T-Rex levels is a bad time.

 

 

[TiogaGirl]

Yikes, I hope your salary triples while you manage the work of three people!

Having a gym buddy absolutely rocks. I have been trying to sweet talk my best work friend to be mine, but so far no dice…

[Everstorm]

Congrats on the pants trifecta and a new accountabilibuddy!

[Leigh]

On 3/28/2024 at 7:16 AM, TiogaGirl said:

Yikes, I hope your salary triples while you manage the work of three people!

Having a gym buddy absolutely rocks. I have been trying to sweet talk my best work friend to be mine, but so far no dice…

 

Sadly no, but I don't have to do their work, just have to tell people "Sorry, that person is unavailable today" and then try and come up with a polite response so that they leave happy, or as happy as you can when someone says no. Good luck with the sweet talk

 

On 3/28/2024 at 6:50 PM, Everstorm said:

Congrats on the pants trifecta and a new accountabilibuddy!

 

Thanks! accountabilibuddy is working out quite well too, she's more amped to go than I am, and since she drives, I can just pop over to work on days that she closes and she drives us there and drops me off at home. Sadly the shorts have been a slight let down, they do roll down a bit when I move, but not anywhere near as badly as others I own, so I'm still calling them a win.

 

I've updated my first post for tracking stuff, some of it is just a guess since I spaced and forgot to get online daily to track things. I'm also likely going to be skipping the darebee stuff and just going to the gym a few days a week instead. I was overly ambitious about my free time, energy levels and my ability to put down a book and do other things.

 

Like I did the math and I read the equivalent of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, plus the Hobbit, plus Watership down in the past 4 days,,, >_>; I fell into a rabbit hole of fanfiction and accidentally stayed up and read a 114k book on Sunday night and only got like 4 hours of sleep before a busy day #SorryNotSorry 

 

As for gym stuff for today, I had a meeting with a trainer for body comp scan which was pretty cool but also proved that while I have lost a small amount of weight since 2020, I've gained more fat and lost a bunch of lean body mass which is no bueno. You know how in nearly all people one limb is stronger/heavier than the other due to things like being left or right handed, or muscle memory stuff? Turns out my arms are perfectly balanced. I feel oddly proud of this fact, just need to get my damn legs in line with my arms and I'm golden. I also found out I apparently don't use my glutes for almost anything, so I will be doing a heck of a lot of hill climbing and modifying how I do certain movements and lifts to try and stop forcing my quads to do extra work. 

 

Although I'm pretty sure I'm going to be literally butthurt for a while while learning how not to lift badly.

[Laghail]

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

 

Sadly no, but I don't have to do their work, just have to tell people "Sorry, that person is unavailable today" and then try and come up with a polite response so that they leave happy, or as happy as you can when someone says no. Good luck with the sweet talk

 

In the states we call that particular customer service smile "a shit eating grin." Not sure if that one migrated north yet. I've been entertain an Ottawa family friend for the last few days and made me think of you several times.

 

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

Sadly the shorts have been a slight let down, they do roll down a bit when I move, but not anywhere near as badly as others I own, so I'm still calling them a win.

 

Bodies are a scam and finding clothes for bodies is a double scam. 

 

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

Like I did the math and I read the equivalent of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, plus the Hobbit, plus Watership down in the past 4 days,,, >_>; I fell into a rabbit hole of fanfiction and accidentally stayed up and read a 114k book on Sunday night and only got like 4 hours of sleep before a busy day #SorryNotSorry 

 

Fanfiction is chickensoup for the soul. Until you hit the Vore fanfiction. That is arsenic for the soul.

 

Do you read progressive fantasy ever? The 'publish a chapter as it's written' progressive, not the 'women and minorities are treated like real people' progressive haha

 

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

 

As for gym stuff for today, I had a meeting with a trainer for body comp scan which was pretty cool but also proved that while I have lost a small amount of weight since 2020, I've gained more fat and lost a bunch of lean body mass which is no bueno.

 

I know this feeling. It's like the feeling of weighing in heavier than last time, but there's no excuses to hide behind!! With a scale I can at least remind myself that muscle is heavier than fat and water weight fluctuations are healthy and normal.

 

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

You know how in nearly all people one limb is stronger/heavier than the other due to things like being left or right handed, or muscle memory stuff? Turns out my arms are perfectly balanced.

 

Speaking of progressive fantasy, I need you to read this series. There's a very Leigh character who performs magics to symmetrize people's limbs to allow for more efficient healing. The first chapter is free, then the first 50 chapters are missing since they were published as book one in the series on amazon.

 

14 hours ago, Leigh said:

Although I'm pretty sure I'm going to be literally butthurt for a while while learning how not to lift badly.

 

Doms is the worst.