AR's Return

[afflictionreckoning]

I've bounced back and forth on the forums. I've started many challenges and never finished. I was tempted to start a challenge in January, but decided to go it alone and see if I could have success on my own. As with challenges, my success was limited and I decided to try again with NerdFitness. I love this community and want to be a part of it, but I struggle to consistently post. My overall goal this time is commitment.

 

Goals:

1. Run 3 times a week: I had a lot of success with running over the summer and in October and December and even completed a Warrior Dash and two 5Ks. In the winter I was more inconsistent, mostly because it got cold and snow and ice cover the sidewalks. I know there are paths I can safely run on, so it's not a good excuse. I'm going to start running again, especially because I'm signed up to do a 10K in May and a Half-Marathon in July. (STA: 5)
2. Strength Training 3 times a week: Training at the gym was very successful during the summer, but since I've returned to Maine I haven't joined a gym due to finances and haven't done much strength training as a result. This is inexcusable. Strength training doesn't require a gym so I will need to come up with a plan and start training again. (STR: 5)
3. Log food every day: I have been relatively successful with this recently. It's really important for my health that I track my vitamins and nutrients and is overall helpful anyway. (CON: 2)
4. Check in at least 3 times a week: If I want to be a part of this community, I need to do this. (CHA: 3)

These are my goals. Though I'm not looking for a particular change, I will check and record measurements in the morning. It helps to have numbers to look at. Hope to get to know you all better.

 

EDIT: Totally forgot to assign attribute awards.

[Loren Wade]

Hey, it's you again! I'm so glad you're back!!! Hooray. 

[afflictionreckoning]

Thanks Loren. It's always good to be back. =)

 

I'm in need of a lot of inspiration.

[afflictionreckoning]

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Measurements & Daily Goals

 

Measurements:

• Height: 5'4
• Weight: 120.8 lbs
• BMI: 20.7
• Right Calf: 12.5 in
• Right Thigh: 20.25 in
• Hip: 33 in
• Waist: 29 in
• Chest: 30.5 in
• Shoulders: 16.5 in
• Right Bicep: 11.75 in
• Neck: 11.5 in

No pictures as of today. I ran out of time before I had to leave the house taking the above measurements and caring for my seedlings.

 

Goals Today:

I'm "teaching" from 2:30 to 5:30 which leaves me plenty of time to study, eat properly, record my food intake and run for the first time since December. A big storm hits us tomorrow and I might not have the chance to run for a few days, so I have to make this one count. (Yes, I know I could run in the snow, but my risk of breaking bones is higher than that of your average 24 year old and I don't want to risk major injury the first week of the challenge).

1. Run 3 miles (no time goal since it'll be my first day back, though a 10:30 mile pace would be preferrable).
2. No strength training today, planning for tomorrow when I get snowed in
3. Obviously record food on DailyBurn and in my personal journal (already recorded breakfast in both)
4. Check in at the end of the day to report my progress.

I'll be back on later tonight to report back and hopefully check in with some of you who are also doing the challenge. =)

 

Happy leveling!!!

[Loren Wade]

Hooray! Starting numbers. I'm so excited for you.

[afflictionreckoning]

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Daily Report

 

Today's Success:

• Got up early to take measurements
• Got up early to care for my seedlings
• Ran
• Solid 1 hr of study time
• Taught instrumental and played with a relatively new GC
• Practiced German
• Ate 3 solid meals and drank sufficient amounts of water
• Attended a community meeting
• Took my vitamins
• 15 minutes yoga
• Read (will do before bed)
• Updated Dailyburn and my food journal
• Checked in here and contributed to fellow Rebel challenge forums!

Today's Failures

• Drank coffee, and quite a bit of it
• I only ran 1.5 miles (only slightly disappointed)
• Didn't read the news (listened to NPR)
• Two of my meals involved sugary condiments (Oops...)
• One of my meals involved fried restaurant food (but it was delicious)
• No crocheting
• Didn't read a journal article
• It's almost 11 and I'm not in bed!

Overall, I feel good about what I accomplished today. My goal was to run 3 miles, but I knew it would unreasonable for me to expect that. Half that was pretty good and, weather pending, I'm going to try again tomorrow.

 

I could have avoided the sugary condiments, simple as that. I got pulled into an unexpected community meeting at a restaurant and had their beer battered chicken tenders (I have little regrets).

 

I might have been able to be more productive today, but I lacked a bit of time management. It may also take some time to rework exercise into my schedule. Overall I got quite a bit done, even though I taught for three hours and spent two at an unexpected meeting,

 

Tomorrow's Goals:

1. Run 3 miles
2. Strength training (likely the Angry Birds workout)
3. Log all the things
4. Report in here
5. 2 hrs productive studying

Weekly Progress:

1. Run: 1/3
2. Strength Training: 0/3
3. Log: 1/7
4. NerdFitness reports: 1/3

Looking good so far! Now I'm off to shower, read and sleep!

[Jakob Kopfeld]

Hello afflictionreckoning

 

I really like your goals, they are somehwat similar to what I had in mind doing this challenge. But the snow and my surgery interfered with my running goal, so I went with yoga instead. Good luck with accomplishing all that. Especially like the check in 3 days a week

[leighanne1941]

Awesome goals!  I am planning a return to running soon as well.  I took the winter off and it was the right decision as we had a brutally cold and then stormy winter here.  But I am itching to hit the road again.  I think 1.5 miles is a great first time out run

 

And I'm also aiming to become more involved in the community this time round

[afflictionreckoning]

Hello afflictionreckoning

 

I really like your goals, they are somehwat similar to what I had in mind doing this challenge. But the snow and my surgery interfered with my running goal, so I went with yoga instead. Good luck with accomplishing all that. Especially like the check in 3 days a week

 

 

Awesome goals!  I am planning a return to running soon as well.  I took the winter off and it was the right decision as we had a brutally cold and then stormy winter here.  But I am itching to hit the road again.  I think 1.5 miles is a great first time out run

 

And I'm also aiming to become more involved in the community this time round

 

 

You guys may have had the right idea. The winter hasn't been very kind and it looks like we're going to get a pretty nasty storm tonight. Guess I'll have to run early!!!

[Katinka]

What are you growing? Keeping my seeds alive is my life goal for this challenge, since every year I plant seeds, kill them, and then end up buying transplants for the garden lol. I planted two different types of tomatoes and some mint. The rest I'm doing as transplants this year, and I figure I can do more seeds next year if I actually get this to work. Happy gardening!

[afflictionreckoning]

What are you growing? Keeping my seeds alive is my life goal for this challenge, since every year I plant seeds, kill them, and then end up buying transplants for the garden lol. I planted two different types of tomatoes and some mint. The rest I'm doing as transplants this year, and I figure I can do more seeds next year if I actually get this to work. Happy gardening!

 

I'm growing a ton of stuff. Right now I've started onions, leeks, scallions, peas, celery, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, cabbage and spinach. I live in Maine so I might not be able to plant things until mid-May and it can be easy to start things too early. I'm not scheduled to start tomatoes until the third week of March. Be careful with mint, it can be really invasive. It grows fast and spreads every year.

 

The hardest thing with seedlings is you have to plant a lot of seeds and then "thin" them, meaning pulling out a lot of them. It hurts to sacrifice them, but it's better in the end. I just spent almost an hour thinning out my mustard greens to one plant per cell. Also, I use a spray bottle to water them, because it can be really easy to drown seedlings. Good luck! Gardening can be a difficult venture but it's worth it in the end!

[Jakob Kopfeld]

You guys may have had the right idea. The winter hasn't been very kind and it looks like we're going to get a pretty nasty storm tonight. Guess I'll have to run early!!!

Sticking to it no matter what the weather people see. That is truly admirable!

[Katinka]

Haha I know what you mean about the mint - my mom made that mistake when they bought their house 25 years ago, and she still hasn't regained control of that area. I usually just put mine in a giant pot outside to keep it from taking over

[Loren Wade]

Is it bad that when I read, "I'm growing a ton of stuff." that I immediately thought of weed?

 

Anyway, that's awesome that you're growing food. Seriously awesome.

[afflictionreckoning]

Sticking to it no matter what the weather people see. That is truly admirable!

 

Thanks, but as I'll explain in my update, it may not always be smart. =)

 

Haha I know what you mean about the mint - my mom made that mistake when they bought their house 25 years ago, and she still hasn't regained control of that area. I usually just put mine in a giant pot outside to keep it from taking over

 

That's what I do too. It makes a wonderful container plant and I grow in a community garden so I don't want to infect it!

 

Is it bad that when I read, "I'm growing a ton of stuff." that I immediately thought of weed?

 

Anyway, that's awesome that you're growing food. Seriously awesome.

 

Bahaha, so did my boyfriend. Thanks, I love gardening and I'm so glad I can get back into it despite inhabiting a small apartment. Likely, we'll have too much to ingest ourselves, but the local Food Pantry accepts donations of surplus from the community garden so no matter what it goes to good use. =)

[afflictionreckoning]

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Daily Report

 

Today was a bad day. From the start, it was one of those days where I just wasn't going to be as productive or motivated. We all have them and while I definitely didn't have a lot of success, I did battle furiously.

 

Today's Successes:

• Took some starting pictures!
• Many sprouts this morning; thinned out my mustard greens
• Delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast (and a lot of it)
• 1 hr of productive studying
• 2 mile walk in brutal wind, bitter cold and some strange combination of rain, sleet and snow
• Practiced German
• Crocheted some of my blanket
• Connected more with the NerdFitness Community
• Logged with DailyBurn, my food journal, Fitocracy and Runkeeper
• Read (will do after signing off for the night)

Today's Failures:

• Only 2 out of 5 today's goals completed =(
• Didn't read the news (listened to NPR)
• Only one hour of productive studying
• Didn't run
• Didn't strength train
• No scientific work
• Didn't eat dinner
• Didn't take my vitamins

First I'll share my starting pictures since all the cool kids are doing it:

 

 

So, let's talk about today. As one might expect, and as I myself expected, I woke up incredibly sore (good thing I quit at 1.5 miles). I looked at my sprouts first thing and saw I really needed to thin my mustard greens, so after dropping my boyfriend off at work I returned home to do that and it took quite a bit of time. As I spent time studying and, out of the corner of my eye, watching the conditions grow worse outside, I resigned myself to not running.

 

Sprouts before and after thinning:

 

However, during the NPR podcast, they were doing a story about exercise and commuting and they interviewed a woman who lives in Portland, OR who commuted by bike. During the interview they asked her about commuting in the rain and getting wet and she responded "What's the problem with getting wet?" It inspired me to weather the elements and at least go for a walk, but, as I would learn, there are a lot of problems with getting wet. I dressed warmly and wore water-proofed clothing, but I was still soaked by the time I got back. I fixed myself lunch, but about halfway through eating it I felt absolutely drained. That 2 mile walk in the cold and wet exhausted me to the point where I had to take TWO naps (something I never do) to make it through the rest of the day.

 

By the time I got up from the second one, it was too late to eat dinner or take my vitamins (I need to take them with food) and definitely too late to do strength training. My daily activities were limited to the least stressful and tiring: crocheting, practicing German and reading.

 

Needless to say, I'm incredibly disappointed. I had a lot I wanted to accomplish, but I've been fighting an illness for awhile and I think the walk outside gave it a chance to catch up to me. I'm proud that I talked myself into that walk (so proud that I promised myself an hour of video game time that I was too tired to cash in), but maybe it wasn't smart. If there's one thing I learned from being an athlete it's that just because you did something tough, it doesn't mean it won't come back to bite you in the ass.

 

So tomorrow I'm going to have to play it by ear. I have three lectures I'm scheduled to attend, one of which might be cancelled due to the weather (The other two are Webinars). I really want to do some strength training, running will be weather pending. Thursdays are always packed, so hopefully I don't succumb to whatever illness has taken advantage.

 

Tomorrow's Goals:

1. Attend 3 lectures (1 weather pending)
2. 1 hr productive studying
3. Strength training
4. Run? (definitely weather pending)
5. Log all the things
6. Check back in here

Weekly Progress:

1. Run: 1/3
2. Strength Training: 0/3
3. Logs: 2/7
4. NerdFitness reports: 2/3

[Jakob Kopfeld]

Practicing german? Wie geht es Ihnen mit Deutsch?

 

Two mile walk through the rain sounds like a tough one indeed. I hope you stay healthy. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Or something like that. On the other hand it's great that you defied the rain and braved the bad conditions and still went out. Good luck!

[leighanne1941]

Lots of good stuff in that update!  Don't let the negatives outshine those.  And consider your walk in the rain an experiment!  You learned that's it not always good to brave the elements.

[Eirlys]

Yay, pics and everything!!  Funnily enough we are a very similar height & weight

 

I love the fact that you have an overarching goal for the challenge, and that one of your sub-goals totally hooks into that.

 

Do you know what things put you off posting before? e.g. was it overwhelm, loss of enthusiasm, all-or-nothing-type mindset kicking in...?

 

If you don't mind me saying, I think that giving a long list of things you didn't do and putting them under a heading of 'failures' might start to undermine your excellent progress.  Looking at what you achieved, most people would call that a big day of SUCCESS!!

 

Perhaps if you used a psychological trick of re-wording e.g. even calling them "things for another day" to remove the negative connotation, that might be helpful? 

 

Anyway, I mainly popped by to say HI!!! and hopefully offer some modicum of support to help keep you engaged in your challenge.  

 

We're all cheering for you!! 

[afflictionreckoning]

Practicing german? Wie geht es Ihnen mit Deutsch?

 

Two mile walk through the rain sounds like a tough one indeed. I hope you stay healthy. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Or something like that. On the other hand it's great that you defied the rain and braved the bad conditions and still went out. Good luck!

 

Ich lerne und es ist gut. =) (That's pretty much the best I can do right now.) I don't regret braving the storm (anymore)!

 

Lots of good stuff in that update!  Don't let the negatives outshine those.  And consider your walk in the rain an experiment!  You learned that's it not always good to brave the elements.

 

Nope, being in the great outdoors isn't always the best!!

 

Yay, pics and everything!!  Funnily enough we are a very similar height & weight

 

I love the fact that you have an overarching goal for the challenge, and that one of your sub-goals totally hooks into that.

 

Do you know what things put you off posting before? e.g. was it overwhelm, loss of enthusiasm, all-or-nothing-type mindset kicking in...?

 

If you don't mind me saying, I think that giving a long list of things you didn't do and putting them under a heading of 'failures' might start to undermine your excellent progress.  Looking at what you achieved, most people would call that a big day of SUCCESS!!

 

Perhaps if you used a psychological trick of re-wording e.g. even calling them "things for another day" to remove the negative connotation, that might be helpful? 

 

Anyway, I mainly popped by to say HI!!! and hopefully offer some modicum of support to help keep you engaged in your challenge.  

 

We're all cheering for you!! 

 

Usually I get overwhelmed. I always have a lot to do and usually I get to busy to do fun things, like hang out with you guys. =( The other part is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so when the challenges aren't perfect I bail. I'm working on that because as you might expect it isn't just a problem with the challenges.

 

You're right "failures" is a bit harsh. I guess the reason I termed it as such was because even if it includes things that I haven't listed as goals, those are things I have worked to incorporate into my daily routine. I may be able to add exercise in, but if something else gets eliminated that isn't really a success for me. The success and failures list is for me to keep track of anything that's in danger of getting ousted from my routine (and prioritize as necessary).

 

Thanks for stopping by and offering your encouragement. =) I will reword it to something else.

[afflictionreckoning]

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Daily Report

 

For all the trouble I had yesterday, I certainly made the most of today. =) I'm still recovering from yesterday and I've been fighting some lightheadedness and a headache, but today was a major success!

 

Today's Successes:

• Three full meals!
• Got up early to care for my seedlings!
• Listened to NPR and read the news
• Listened to the JAMA podcast
• 1 hour of productive studying
• Attended three lectures (cheated a bit on one, it was wicked boring)
• 3 mile walk
• Strength training!
• Thinned my mustard greens, kale, cabbage and kohlrabi sprouts
• Practiced German
• Took my vitamins
• Logged all the things!!!
• Checked in here. =)
• Read (will do after signing off)

Things That Didn't Quite Work Out Today ( ):

• Drank coffee, no regrets
• Ate an unhealthy lunch (including a browinie   )
• Barely paid attention during lecture number 1
• Didn't run
• Probably won't intake enough water today
• No crocheting today

Today was definitely rough, but I feel good. I got a lot done: thinned out a lot of sprouts, read three scientific papers, attended my three lectures, went for walk and did my strength training along with quite a few other things.

 

I did a three mile walk which I mapped out ahead of time since my Runkeeper app is now a glorified timer. Oh wait, it's not even that because it crashed five times during my walk. My approximate time was 50 minutes. I was too sore and too tired to run. I learned from yesterday if I push myself too far I could sacrifice my productivity for the rest of the day.

 

I started slow with my strength training:

• 3x10 Wall Push-ups
• 3x10 Knee Tucks

It kills me to have to start at wall push-ups. During the summer I was doing three sets of regular (closed-fist) push-ups. I injured myself during the Warrior Dash in September and couldn't even do incline push-ups. =( Guess I have to start over.

 

Friday's are typically a rest day for me but I might take a walk. I have to stay up late though because it's magic and DnD night!!!

 

Tomorrow's Goals:

• Walk 3 miles
• Log all the things
• Report in here
• 2 hours of productive studying

I might be delayed in reporting in until Saturday morning depending on how late I'm at DnD. Happy Friday everyone!!!

 

Weekly Progress:

• Run: 1/3
• Strength Training: 1/3
• Logging: 3/7
• Checking In: 3/3 Complete

[IRISHodabred]

Great goals and way to go on the daily tracking! That's awesome that you're growing your own herbs. I need to do that once I have the space in our apt (hoping to find a house in the not too distant future). I would like to echo everything kevralyn said below. Keep kicking butt and know that you're doing what you can each day to move forward in one way or another. That's progress!!

 

Yay, pics and everything!!  Funnily enough we are a very similar height & weight

 

I love the fact that you have an overarching goal for the challenge, and that one of your sub-goals totally hooks into that.

 

Do you know what things put you off posting before? e.g. was it overwhelm, loss of enthusiasm, all-or-nothing-type mindset kicking in...?

 

If you don't mind me saying, I think that giving a long list of things you didn't do and putting them under a heading of 'failures' might start to undermine your excellent progress.  Looking at what you achieved, most people would call that a big day of SUCCESS!!

 

Perhaps if you used a psychological trick of re-wording e.g. even calling them "things for another day" to remove the negative connotation, that might be helpful? 

 

Anyway, I mainly popped by to say HI!!! and hopefully offer some modicum of support to help keep you engaged in your challenge.  

 

We're all cheering for you!! 

[Loren Wade]

AAALLL the successes. Seriously, great fraking job!

[leighanne1941]

Super productive day!

 

Have fun tonight

[afflictionreckoning]

Great goals and way to go on the daily tracking! That's awesome that you're growing your own herbs. I need to do that once I have the space in our apt (hoping to find a house in the not too distant future). I would like to echo everything kevralyn said below. Keep kicking butt and know that you're doing what you can each day to move forward in one way or another. That's progress!!

 

 

AAALLL the successes. Seriously, great fraking job!

 

 

Super productive day!

 

Have fun tonight

 

Thanks guys. =)