Erawka's training montage.

[erawka]

Erstwhile erawka is erstwhile.

 

News: I HAVE A NEW JOB! I PRESUMABLY WILL NOT BE WORKING MY LIFE AWAY IN MISERY! Plus, I will be able to bike to work a decent chunk of the time. Woot! Woot! A thousand times woot!

 

Anyway, I went climbing last night with an acquaintance I know from non-climbing contexts. It was great! She was a perfect climbing buddy. Supportive, fun, and willing to try things that are way too hard, just to see what happens. Which inspired me to do so as well. I got halfway up a 5.11b and gave some 10c routes a solid effort. I am improving, even with my occasional climbing schedule.

 

I went climbing outdoors last weekend. It was super fun, but a little rainy toward the end. Climbing outside is a little more nerve-wracking for me because it feels less controlled. (well, it IS less controlled.) There's an intensive mountaineering class that I'm interested in taking that will cover some of the rope and anchor work. It's in the spring. AND I'LL HAVE TIME TO DO IT OMG!

 

Grocery shopping today. In a cooking rut. Suggestions welcome.

[Hermione Gainser]

WOO! Congrats on the new job!! 

[erawka]

Last day of stressful work was Saturday. Then I promptly got sick. Feeling mostly better today, preparing the house for my parents' arrival tomorrow (eep!) -- mostly light yoga today. Some errands by foot. Unlikely that I'll do more than yoga and hiking while the folks are here. And that's totally fine. Hear that, stupid thinky brain? Totally fine.

[AgentsSka]

Totally fine.

 

Congrats on the new job!

[erawka]

WOO! Congrats on the new job!! 

 

 

Totally fine.

 

Congrats on the new job!

 

Thanks! Less stressful job = more happy erawka.

 

Did anyone else really love Steve's Winter is Coming post? I mean, yes. I am a sucker for GoT in general (to the extent I can say that as a books-only fan so far -- no particular reason other than lack of HBO access and a current obsession with House. I'm a one show at a time Nerd). But I really appreciate the notion that the holidays are a time to be more mindful of wellness rather than "meh! it's the holidays!" This isn't a revolutionary concept, but having noticed that trading a bike commute for a car commute added some additional erawka, this is a really timely addition to the getting my me back campaign that New Job has kicked off. So, hell yeah, Steve. I'll take that pledge. I'll add some bits of my own, too.

 

Holidays gather, and now my watch begins.

 

It shall not end until my goal is met. I shall take no weeks off, miss no workouts, justify no overeating. I shall wear no stretchy pants and win no glory. I shall live and die by my commitment to becoming a better rock climber, and I shall meditate as the peaceful warrior that I am. I am the sword in the darkness. I am a leaf in the wind. I am the Watcher of my body. I am the fire that burns against the apathy, the light that brings my momentum, the horn that wakes my habits, the shield that guards the realms of my health.

 

I pledge my life and honor to the Holiday Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. Take that, suckas.

 

So to clarify: I've been marinating in stress for a long-ass time. If you count law school (and you should), something like six years of AAAAAAAA!!DEADLINES!!PASSING!!BAR EXAM!!STRESSFUL JOB!! So low key is key. I loves me some rock climbing, but I probably shouldn't do it more than a couple times a week. Even though I want to climb all the things, overuse injuries are really common among climbers since we tend to overuse a lot of tiny hand and finger connective tissue bits. Even though I want to ruck all the things (so as to get conditioned enough to keep up when I join Rad Mountaineering Group), I probably shouldn't set up a program where I'm rucking an hour a day because I've been a desk jockey for a while now, and that's going to be a little much. What is going to matter most is reliably doing those things a bit and more reliably doing yoga and meditation.

 

Thankfully, I've got about five or six days coming up with the folks, who really like doing some of those things. And the brother may be on board with some climbing gym times. But truly, the next two weeks (which is my off time before starting New Job) need to be about teaching my system not to panic at every little thing, getting a lot of sleep, and gentle movement. I haven't been to the doc lately, but I'm showing all the same symptoms that I did when I got my adrenal fatigue AKA HPA axis dysregulation diagnosis. I'm certain these last few months, which have been truly abysmal, fried some of the progress I made in 2014 and early 2015. So when I take Steve's pledge, I intend to do a lot of walking (loaded and unloaded) and a lot of yoga. Climbing and lifting are just gravy. Fun gravy! Exciting gravy! Gravy that I love! Gravy that is not actually gravy in the sense that my long term fitness goals revolve around getting better at this amazing climbing gravy! But for the short term: gravy. Short term gravy. STG.

 

In other news, AGT is out of the picture. He was helpful for a time, but $$. And also the not listening to my goals part. And scheduling was becoming difficult. Mostly the last two, actually. Anyway, no more trainer. Which is Totally Fine. I've got my Long Term Goals and my Short Term Gravy and my little something every day to be a happier, fitter, saner nerd.

[jstanlick]

Thanks! Less stressful job = more happy erawka.

...

teaching my system not to panic at every little thing, getting a lot of sleep, and gentle movement... 

 

Awesome post!!! Even more awesome life changes!! That sleep thing is super important, but the less stressful job is HUGE!! I lost 10 pounds by simply switching jobs. In fact, my training isn't as good as it used to be, but the weight is still better.

 

So happy for you!

[erawka]

Yesterday: 5 mile hike with the fam.

 

Today: Yoga and amble through the wetlands with fam. Not sure how long the amble was, but according to the parental pedometer, we made our 10K steps.

 

Dinner is modest and mostly healthy: salmon, roasted root veg, brussels sprouts, salad, cheesecake.

[erawka]

Another successful day of hiking, although I fell hard on some ice. Mileage unclear, but I feel good and tired.

[erawka]

So the fall on ice resulted in some lingering knee pain. Ended up rescheduling today's climbing plans on account of said pain. Might hit up yoga, might just rest up.

 

Saw The Martian yesterday. I enjoyed the ride. We didn't mean to see it in 3D, but that was what was showing. I really want to see more movies. I might try to catch a matinee this week while I'm luxuriating in my spare time.

 

The little indie bookstore near my house is closing. This is sad, but also expected. They were not awesome, although their TPB sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction section was pretty decent. I cleaned them out of a few of my faves that didn't survive the purges over the years. I might swing through again with my Goodreads list.

 

Back on the YNAB train. That software is the bomb. It's a little trickier with a temporarily irregular income, but whatevs. I've got everything I need, so it doesn't help to complain.

 

GF went for a run and I have some much-wanted quiet time in the house alone. Having the whole fam under one roof is great, but I feel obliged to entertain. I've definitely been missing my chill time.

 

It's been cold, and it's a damp cold. The furnace is struggling. Need to get it serviced. I also think the temp sensor is not up to snuff. Off to google that and attempt some DIY antics.

[Hermione Gainser]

I'm so excited for your increase in rest and spare time.  Luxuriating in it is exactly necessary.  I must warn you, though - once you start, it's hard to ever go back to SOBUSYALLTHETIMEAHHHHHHH.  Not a bad side effect, imo  

 

Glad you had fun with family! 

[erawka]

I'm so excited for your increase in rest and spare time.  Luxuriating in it is exactly necessary.  I must warn you, though - once you start, it's hard to ever go back to SOBUSYALLTHETIMEAHHHHHHH.  Not a bad side effect, imo

 

You are gonna be right. For now, I'm pretending that it'll never end. Fingers in ears LALALALA style.

 

Went bouldering last night. Bouldering is so much harder for me than top rope! Probably because I'm of the ectomorph/elvish/stringbean persuasion, and the fast twitch bits are not exactly my forte. Still, I went with a couple friends I hadn't seen in a while, and it was nice to catch up. I topped out over a couple routes, which was scary but good.

 

Today I didn't really have my act together for a morning yoga class, so I'm going to try to catch the evening one. There will definitely be a walk in my future today, maybe a trip to the gym with some nominal lifting and definite sauna time. In order to be able to do the mountaineering program without slowing everyone down, I need to be able to do a pretty challenging local hike with a loaded pack of 25 pounds. I haven't done much rucking lately, but I have the lead time to do a little training, so I'd best get on it. All that to say, my walks need to be loaded from here on out. I probably won't start the 25 pounds for a few weeks, but it's definitely going to help to get used to a pack.

 

I'm considering buying into the Academy. Have any of y'all done that?

[erawka]

Welp, done joined the Academy. I think, given all the climbing, I might wind up questing as an assassin. Even though I'm always a Ranger in my heart. There are a few quests that will take me a few days to complete. So, in the spirit of tracking and accountability:

 

1. Taking Measurements: GF wants on board with this too, but likely will not make the time until the weekend. She also wants to take measurements in the morning rather than after work, which I think is reasonable.
2. A week of eating at Level 5. Level 5 involves very rarely eating sweets, 12 out of 14 days without empty processed carbs and 12 out of 14 days with a veggie at every meal. This is essentially day one, which, on account of being my birthday, hasn't followed these guidelines. Something to work toward.
3. Logging food: I logged today. I need 6 more consecutive days of logging to complete this quest. I'm going to keep trying MFP on this, although I might try the pen and paper method too.
4. Water: 3L of water for 5 out of 7 days. That's probably more than I'm drinking now, although I drink the shit out of some herbal tea. Better get tracking on that.

I'm trying not to jump the gun too hard on this. I did do the Recruit Workout today before lifting, and I was surprised at how tough it was. I sort of brushed it off, but it turns out my push-ups could use a little love these days.

 

Tomorrow: Morning yoga, evening climbing, logging food, drinking water. I love love LOVE not working right now, and I'll be very sad on Tuesday when that comes to a screeching halt.

[erawka]

About halfway there on the water consumption for today, maybe a little over. I've been taking a lot of my water in the form of herbal tea because it's pretty dang cold in my house. Drafty ole bungalow.

 

Logged everything so far, on track to knock off a day at Level 5. It feels funny to talk about eating in terms of levels, but it works.

 

Went to yoga this morning, and it was a very nice practice. I usually go to the Vinyasa class, but this Hatha class was nice as well. A little gentler. It's a lovely start to the day. Climbing later tonight. I'm climbing again tomorrow evening, and I hope that I don't overdo it. I haven't done two days in a row in a while. We'll see. My fingers feel better -- I gave them quite a workout on Monday's bouldering session.

 

I might be getting close to ready to go back to work. I'm a little lonely today.

[Hermione Gainser]

I feel like there's only so much time not going to work I can have. I mean, I enjoy it and all, but I like having a nice schedule and a place to be... and interacting with people some. It's good for the mind, I think. Mostly. 

 

I love morning yoga.  I'm thinking about doing the 10 for 10 "challenge" my yoga site has.  I feel like 10 minutes is easily doable in the morning since I already spend at least 10 minutes stretching anyway.  And it has such a calming effect.  Also a big fan of morning meditation. But that's less doable because zzzzzzzzzz  

 

Diggin' the academy stuff! I'm glad you're liking it! And very glad you got a nice surprise from one of the workouts. Nothing better than a pleasant surprise  

 

OH! And I forgot to mention in the update on my thread that I took your (former trainer's) advice and accumulated some time in the ATG squat position yesterday at the gym between segments of stuff I was doing. I only did 2 minutes but they were in 1 minute increments and I probably could have gone longer.  I think that will be very helpful going forward. So thanks!

[erawka]

I feel like there's only so much time not going to work I can have. I mean, I enjoy it and all, but I like having a nice schedule and a place to be... and interacting with people some. It's good for the mind, I think. Mostly. 

 

I love morning yoga.  I'm thinking about doing the 10 for 10 "challenge" my yoga site has.  I feel like 10 minutes is easily doable in the morning since I already spend at least 10 minutes stretching anyway.  And it has such a calming effect.  Also a big fan of morning meditation. But that's less doable because zzzzzzzzzz

 

Totally. The weekend has been delightful since GF is around and friends are not at work. I'm definitely ready to take on a new social scene, having recharged a little too much.

 

In a perfect world, the standard work day would be an hour or three shorter, allowing morning yoga enthusiasts the time to go get our stretch on before rolling into work. The gym doesn't have any yoga classes that are early enough to get me to work on time but late enough to be reasonable. I'm looking for something in a 6:30, but no dice. Stupid standard work day.

 

Still plugging along on the NFA nutrition quests. I've had a little trouble logging food, and I'm trying out a notebook instead of MFP. So far, I like it way better. Qualitative data instead of numbers for me to obsess over = enough data for this objective. Plus, I have a cute little notebook that I want to use for something. PLUS, I don't actually like MFP that much. It's overwhelming and oddly time-consuming. Hormones are hormone-ing, and staying away from sugar is its usual difficult self. Getting enough water on board is check and double check. At least half of my H2O is coming in the form of Celestial Seasonings' Candy Cane Lane tea. It's the bomb. Minty and vanilla-y and somehow both cooling and warming at the same time. Yum.

 

GF and I did BF% measurements. Yikes. I have gained about 4% since I last measured BF%. I mean, I traded my bike commute for a car commute of the same duration, I ate my feelings about Hard Job, and there you have it. There are some other factors, like the whole HPA axis dysregulation thing and intermittently working with the trainer, but for the most part, this makes sense. It's disappointing for sure, but on the whole, my life got less healthy from middle 2014 until now. So there's that. At least New Job allows me to bike some or most of the time (unclear which but it's something).

[erawka]

GOD DAMN IT. I tweaked my back bad. Not in the gym, either. Lifting the dehumidifier of all the stupid things. Spending my last day of free time before New Job gently walking, popping ibuprofen and grumbling.

[jstanlick]

GOD DAMN IT. I tweaked my back bad. Not in the gym, either. Lifting the dehumidifier of all the stupid things. Spending my last day of free time before New Job gently walking, popping ibuprofen and grumbling.

 

That really sucks. A back pull can last a while too and it affects everything you do. But, at least a dehumidifier has a little bit of weight to it. My worst back injury came after I was done giving my daughter a bottle when she weighed maybe 10-12 pounds. She was in my arms and I stood up. That was it. I spent the next month and a half trying to stretch my back out and get rid of the pain. Back tweaks can happen at anytime. I hope it's getting better.