RBW Return

[realbrickwall]

Well, with only ten days left in my rural retreat, it's time to think about what I'm doing when I go back.

Short version: beasting it out.

Long version: uhhhhh...

So, here is where I make some goals. I kind of don't know what I want to shoot for. Right now I'm barely managing to work out at all, so I'm starting to lose track of what kind of gains I should be expecting. Thus, the following is entirely a crapshoot.

GOAL 1: Retire the belt.

I've been using a belt to measure my progress as far as my fat loss goes. I was doing very well, but I hit a plateau almost a month ago. I've been struggling just to maintain my loss at all, due to stress and lack of ability to decide WHAT I'm eating (I can only decide how much, and that's hard to restrain yourself on). However, that excuse is, one, an excuse, and two, about to go away. I am currently on the last pre-installed notch of my belt, and it's a little snug. In six weeks, I want it to be too loose at this tightness. I know for a FACT that this is realistic.

REWARD: +3 CON, +1 CHA

GOAL 2: Kip-up

Yeah, I wanna do a kip-up. That's hard. I need to practice. I think I'm fit enough (though absolutely nobody has given me any good idea of how fit you should be to try this), but it's a skill. And practice hurts. I think anyone in the medical profession would smack me upside the head for doing this, but they don't need to know, eh? Unless I go to the ER. I'll fess up then.

REWARD: +1 STR, +2 DEX

GOAL 3: Group training

I have made great progress training by myself, but everyone knows that training with others is a good idea. Period. Thus, I need to engage myself in regular group exercise. This might be a martial arts class, a climbing group, or even hunting down the university's parkour club. It might be MULTIPLE of these. I'd add yoga class to the list, but I know I don't want to pay to do group yoga regularly. It's just not as high on my goals list.

REWARD: +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 STA, +1 WIS, +1 CHA

LIFE GOAL: Direction

I have no idea what I'm doing. I need a real plan. Or something. I don't even know how I'll grade this, but I'll try.

REWARD: +3 WIS

Yeaaaahhhh...I'm pretty worried about this challenge. But as long as I keep working, I'm going somewhere good, even if it's not as fast as I'd like.

[cammocat@gmail.com]

I think it is actually super awesome that you are worried. If all of your goals were easy and you knew you were going to do awesome, they wouldn't be very challenging!

You are going to do great, dude. I think that your goals are all really solid and varied, which I dig.

For your direction, maybe pick a bunch of random things and give them a go or do some research. It could be there's something awesome you are destined to do, you just haven't found it yet. I felt that way with entomology - I had no real direction, and then I found a beetle in a stairwell and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I think if you find something you care about, the plan will fit into place. Can't plan a route if you don't know where you're going. Unless the journey is super awesome, and involves snowboarding down a mountain and riding a bitchin' horse across a plain and I forgot where I was going with this.

[Siferiax]

Sounds like you'll have a challenge, this challenge

For your direction I second what Thundra already said

Good luck this challenge!!

[realbrickwall]

Madam, I do not snowboard. I ski.

The problem is, I've already invested a lot of time and money (other peoples' money, at that) into a direction. I feel like I'd basically be the scum of the Earth if I didn't do my best to stick with it. But I've been presented with evidence that it just might not be a good idea. And, unfortunately, I'm not far enough along any other avenues for them to make good options at this time. All of this is as far as I can tell. I'm really hoping that I can gain some new insight on the matter. Really really hoping. Because I don't want to be stuck working for $8 an hour with no tips and a family that justifiably hates me for the rest of my life.

Also, I care about too many things. I like writing. I like drawing. I like guitar. I like language (my current direction). I like linguistics. I like parkour. I like acting. I'm rediscovering my passion for the hard sciences. If I were some polymath who was actually GOOD at all of them, hey, no problem. But I'm not. I'm mediocre, and mediocre does not pay the bills. Or contribute much to humanity.

Blah blah blah angst blah blah blah problems that I'm sure everyone has blah blah blah, you get the idea. I just feel like I've been coasting and accepting that I'm going nowhere instead of trying to do something about it. I've gotta switch that around.

P.S. you should update your signature. You're level 2!

[Siferiax]

I look at it this way. I may not like my current job, but it pays the bills and keeps me on my feet.

Meanwhile I try to figure out what I REALLY want out of life. (and like you I also enjoy a lot, but am average at all )

Isn't that an idea? To keep going where you're going to make the most out of that, instead of constantly switching directions? Then when you do figure it out and find that one thing, you can slowly switch your focus.

Try new things, get better at old things. Keep experimenting when you can without switching to something else with 100% of your time.

If that.... made any sense to you...

[Happienumber]

I second kibcy. I also have a job that's not "what I want to do when I grow up," and although I feel that it's sucking up my time occasionally, I know its just keeping me afloat while I swim to shore. Have you ever heard of coursera? Its a website full of free college courses. It sounds like you're already in college [?] so the format should be familiar. Its a no-risk way to try out new subjects and see if they are fun without wasting money and/or daytime hours on a course at school. For an online course, at least the ones I've tried, these require a significant bit of effort and can really give some good hands-on experience working with a subject. There were several courses that I started because the topic was "Shiny" and something I thought I was fascinated with, and ended up dropping because the details were simply not up my alley. Edx.org is another free resource that has more intensive courses, but less of a selection. One of the courses on there has renewed my interest in programming [One of my majors is EECS, so programming has always been a "tool", but not anything I particularly enjoyed as a science in and of itself. The edx course has brought a WHOLE new dimension to my other studies. You might even find a subject that enriches your current path in such a way that you end up continuing that way, just with a broader scope.]

There are likely ways to combine your interests as well. Like language+writing/hard sciences = translating great literature or technical papers into other languages.

[Devyn]

Great job on the goals! I think it's great that you're giving up measuring yourself with your belt. Through making progress, weight loss and toning is the reward of your goals and obsessing over it can take the fun away! For direction, maybe try taking some classes in things you like? Or reading books on it? Or looking for a new job? I'm not all that certain where you need your direction to go...

[PitBull_Liz]

Just wanted to pop in and say good luck on your goals. Figuring out what you want to do with your life is hard.

[Kishi]

I'd just like to point out that the kip-up is a supremely badass skill. It is. The raw explosiveness of it, controlled as it is, is incredible.

And, yeah. Direction is nice. But it can leave you too. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter what direction you have - they're all equally good (or bad) in the long run anyway. The true test for you in this six weeks with this particular challenge is to determine what choices you can ultimately live with. I'm not sure if you're looking for a week long direction or a direction for life. Either way, I hope you find it.

[realbrickwall]

Have you ever heard of coursera?

Oh, man, I'd seen that website and lost it. Thank you! I always think "man, I wish I was in college again". Well, now I can be. I just need to get someplace where I can realistically take courses (sharing 2 internet cables between 5 people and having only one 30+ minute block of free time per day is not conducive to proper studying). It's not a solution, but it's helpful.

I really appreciate all the support, guys. Whether or not I succeed at this challenge, I promise at the very least to not disappoint.

I'd type more but I have to go work.

[Wolverine]

I ended up in field different from what I studied in school. I think the vast majority of people do.

As for "what makes you happy"... sometimes what makes you happy isn't a job. I searched long and hard for a career that I thought would make me happy, turns out for me it didn't exist. Now I do something that pays well and that I don't hate. I love the company I work for and my coworkers. That's enough for me. A different way to look at it, but as soon as I stopped looking for that ultimate career I found that I was exactly where I was meant to be.

[Siferiax]

Now I do something that pays well and that I don't hate. I love the company I work for and my coworkers. That's enough for me. A different way to look at it, but as soon as I stopped looking for that ultimate career I found that I was exactly where I was meant to be.

I can second this! I have this book "I could do anything I want, if only I knew what it was" (I believe it's called). Anyway it had this exercise to write down the job from heaven and the job from hell for yourself. My job from heaven was pretty much a working environment rather than what I would be doing, haha!

I haven't quite found it yet, but that's okay, I have nice coworkers at the moment

[realbrickwall]

I think I hurt my...hm. I appear to have lost count.

My extremities are all responding negatively to heavy work, thanks to me overdoing it while lumberjacking today (okay, splitting firewood, but still). And sometimes just hurting randomly. I'm hoping this will be better by tomorrow so I can at least TRY to do a workout, but I have to take it easy.

Seriously, this week and next week are pretty awful. I only hope I can recover from the routine-wrecking diet-destroying awfulness that I've been suffering and will be suffering for the first third of this challenge.

Well, by "only hope I can" I mean "will definitely". Setbacks are setbacks, not game-overs.

[Nuala]

Lumberjacking? That sounds like a hell of a training. I think Rocky trained splitting firewood! And yeah, I firmly believe that you will definitely recovers. Good luck and happy to see you again

[Siferiax]

What Nuala said. Splitting firewood is a workout all its own!

I'm sure despite set backs you will get there. You have the right mindset!

[realbrickwall]

Lumberjacking? That sounds like a hell of a training. I think Rocky trained splitting firewood!

...that makes at least two things from the Rocky montages that I've done (besides running, I mean). Now I'm worried this ends with me punching meat.

But splitting wood is fun. I definitely see why people like sledgehammer workouts. I might pick one up when I get back to the states.

[Kishi]

Hey, if that meat did something untoward, then you owe it a punching. Punch the heck out of it, man. I'm telling you, as a puncher, that punching meat is satisfying - like your own personal free tenderizing service.

Just saying. And yeah, firewood counts. It's what keeps my dad in shape in his old age; just goes out and cuts things all day long. It's legit.

[Fear]

All this talk about lumberjacks brings to mind this... due to some language, probably NSFW.

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself!

Keep working at it RBW! And I'm with Kishi, if the slab of meat did something wrong, feel free to tenderize the heck out of it with your fist!

Also, uber excited to see your progress with the Kip Up! It's on my list as well. Perhaps next challenge.

Stay positive and keep working towards your goals!

Fortune Find You!

~Fear

[Happienumber]

Boy, how did I miss kip up as part of your goals?! That's so beastly! Go get em!

[realbrickwall]

So, I've signed up for some courses on coursera.org. None of them start until after this challenge has ended, but even getting my mind back into "I'm going to school" mode feels like it will be good for me. I can't wait to learn again! And hopefully I've learned my lesson and will stick through the maths and sciences, because I really do like them.

I will take videos of me failing to kip-up, but I can't today. The gym, and therefore my pads, are unavailable.

[Happienumber]

So, I've signed up for some courses on coursera.org. None of them start until after this challenge has ended, but even getting my mind back into "I'm going to school" mode feels like it will be good for me. I can't wait to learn again! And hopefully I've learned my lesson and will stick through the maths and sciences, because I really do like them.

I will take videos of me failing to kip-up, but I can't today. The gym, and therefore my pads, are unavailable.

w00t! So happy for you! Which ones are you taking?

and can't WAIT for the videos. Even attempted kip ups are epic.

[realbrickwall]

w00t! So happy for you! Which ones are you taking?

and can't WAIT for the videos. Even attempted kip ups are epic.

In January, I'm taking two Calculus courses, and in the end of the month, a course on astrobiology (the science of life applied to extraterrestrial environments). Later in the year I'm signed up for a course on musical improvisation, and some courses on video games as they relate to modern culture and stuff, but I hope to add some more sciencey-mathy things as they come up, and I'm sure they will.

Attempted kip-ups basically consist of a weird jerking motion followed by a cry of pain as someone's spine hits the ground with the body's full weight. If that's your kind of thing, then you will enjoy my videos.

[Siferiax]

In January, I'm taking two Calculus courses, and in the end of the month, a course on astrobiology (the science of life applied to extraterrestrial environments). Later in the year I'm signed up for a course on musical improvisation, and some courses on video games as they relate to modern culture and stuff, but I hope to add some more sciencey-mathy things as they come up, and I'm sure they will.

Sounds like you have some cool courses lined up! The astrobiology one sounds really interesting!

[Happienumber]

I'm signed up for that musical improvisation one too! Those all sound like a ton of fun, good for you!

As for the kip up: owch!! Don't hurt yourself!

[realbrickwall]

Blargh, I hate internet deprivation.

The little exercise I've been able to get in the past couple days has at least kept me secure in the knowledge that I am successfully maintaining. I can still perform at the levels I barely reached a few weeks ago. But I'm really not advancing. Blech. Only a couple more days of this shit.

Getting a little more comfortable at my 7th belt notch, but I did not eat healthily today, or get exercise. Big village festival means lazing around and eating horrible food. Honestly, I think I need to try intermittent fasting to break this diet plateau, because food choice is going to be impossible for another two weeks.

Had a long talk today with a friend (one of the other volunteers, and the only one I really get along with) about life directions and philosophy and history and the human condition and shit. It didn't help me find direction much, but I'm really starting to realize that the way I'm going is just not satisfying, and may never be satisfying for me. Not any kind of epiphany, but baby steps are just as important in self-evaluation as they are in fitness.

And, seriously, all those goddamn sweets and stuff are making me feel like crap. Tomorrow is meat and vegetable Monday.