Patchwolf wakes up early…

[Silas Randwulf]

Keep your eye on the big pictures like how your clothes fit and how you feel. You are smashing it!

This. Numbers can be useful, but they aren't what actually matters. what matters is how your life improves day-to-day. 

 

And duuude! Your tracking is so much more intense than mine, that's crazy! Killing the no soda still, keep it up!

[Effie_]

ALL the awards for making good choices and letting your wife have fun!

[terrormortus]

Nice job with the no soda. And like Silas said, intense record keeping. I am in awe. 

[Thorns]

Oh the record keeping's easy.  I use MyFitnessPal and the android app for the same (ios app also available).  All I have to do is remember what I eat long enough to get a quiet moment to record it.

 

Went out today and got some swanky new running shoes:  Brooks Ravenna 4 in an electric green and neon yellow.  I love them, and they fit like a glove.  Until now I've been using cross-trainers for my running.

[CourageousKate]

Ooh! Nice shoes! I'm interested to know how you feel about running in them vs. your cross-trainers. (I'm trying to talk myself into trying my hand at running at some point... it's a very long conversation.)

 

Glad to see you've been keeping up your goals with your long weekend! I think it totally counts to make up your word count Tuesday.

 

Kill it at bootcamp tomorrow!!!

[Thorns]

Okay, two things.  First the food update from yesterday

 

Food Log: 2013-06-10 (Day 8 of the challenge)

 

Breakfast at home (Calories)

* Woolworths Homebrand - Pikelets , 1.4 pikelet (25 g) (83)  -- I finished off my youngest son's breakfast.

Sutotal (83)

 

Lunch on the go

* Generic - Grilled Sausage Sandwich With Caramelized Onions , 1 large sandwich (500)

Subtotal (500)

 

Dinner at a Pizza Restaurant

* Homemade - Homemade Pizza, 8 slices (1,200) -- hard to find caloric information for a local pizza joint, so this is an approximation.  I'm just hoping it's a good one.

Subtotal (1,200)

 

Snacks

* Nairn's - Oat Biscuits - Fruit & Spice (20g), 1 biscuit (43) -- I was starving between lunch and dinner.  Managed to limit myself to one of these, though.

Subtotal (43)

 

Total: 1,826 calories

Exercise: none.  Just incidental lifting and walking.

 

Now for boot camp this morning.  Got there late -- first morning after the weekend is hard, as I have to get my stuff together and make school lunches for the boys (who are 7 and 5, and thus too little to make their own school lunches), but once I got there, it was straight into it.

 

• Planks, 25 seconds, short break, repeat 4 times.
  
• Extended planks, combined with back taps. (Hold the plank, reach with one arm behind you and tap the small of your back.  Don't rock your hips from side to side.)  As many reps as possible in 25 seconds.  Repeat 4x.
  
• Station Exercises.  Do each station 1 rep.  When you finish, come back and do each station 2 reps.  Then 3, 4, etc.  Solid work for 5 minutes.
  
  • Sprint between two traffic cones (approx 20 meters apart).
    
  • V-Crunches
    
  • Jump Squats
    
  • Swan Dive Pushups
    
  
  
• Swapping Station Exercises, 20 seconds each swap, repeat for 4 sets each
  
  • pushups
    
  • sprint full court and back (make it in 20 seconds).  I made in 17, 17, 17, 16 seconds.
    
  
  

 

Tonight on the train ride home I'll get in some writing.

[vortexofsleep]

Love the shoes!

Using the train ride to write is such a good time management trick to get your writing goal in. I'd love to have a train ride to use for my Japanese flash cards. Plus I love trains, so added bonus. I need to live in a city...

[Effie_]

Oooooh I need to add in back taps...

[Thorns]

Mini-Challenge #2 (Reposting here for ease of memory):

 

Eat at least 75g of protein a day and 85g on work out days. If you are already eating this much or more- add an additional 10g to what you are already eating.

 

Now, the easy (or hard) part- eat it! Eggs, meat, fish, nuts, hummus, beans, soy, whatever you consider "healthy" sources of protein. Successfully complete 5 days (does not have to be in a row) and you earn +1 CON.

 

Challenge accepted.

[Thorns]

Food update

Breakfast on the way into work (Calories)

* Home Made - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap, 1 wrap (200)

* Goulburn Valley - 350 Ml Orange Juice, 350 ml (149)

Subtotal (349)

Lunch at work

* Sumo Salad - Mediterranean Lamb and Haloumi Sumo Bowl, 1 bowl (519)

Subtotal (519)

Dinner at home

* Homemade - Homemade Pizza, 5 slices (750) <-- Leftovers

Subtotal (750)

Snacks on the way home (Boo!)

* Reese's - King Size Big Cup, 1 Package (400)

* Reese's - White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, 1 package (2 cups) (220)

Subtotal (660)

Totals 2,238

Today's Goal 2,010 + 252 (exercise) = 2,262

Just made it...

Total Proteins (Mini-Challenge #2)

13g - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap

03g - Goulburn Valley Orange Juice, 350 ml

35g - Sumo Salad Mediterranean Lamb and Haloumi Sumo Bowl

09g - Reese's - King Size Big Cup, 1 Package

05g - Reese's - White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, 1 package

--------

65g Total <-- Not quite. Will definitely do better tomorrow.

Edit: Oh, totally forgot to include this... I wrote 254 words yesterday on the train ride home. Good progress.

[vortexofsleep]

Aw, man!  Why are there no SumoSalads here?  They look awesome!

 

I'm going to have such a tough time with the protein mini challenge. 

[CourageousKate]

Oh wow. Backtaps are awesome. I will try those... next week. Also, patch, I completely misread

 

 

• Station Exercises.  Do each station 1 rep.  When you finish, come back and do each station 2 reps.  Then 3, 4, etc.  Solid work for 5 minutes.

 

as STALLION Exercises. And thought of this.

 

You are doing great on food! I'm really impressed with your protein mini-challenge results. I'm with Vortex... I'm not sure about 85g of protein, although I'm pretty sure I'd feel awesome. 

 

Looking forward to seeing you make the mini-challenge!!!! Also to seeing HOW you did it. I can't seem to fit enough protein into my days...

[Thorns]

Major update coming later, Bats.

 

Just wanted to share today's coolest exercise.  We did these at Boot Camp this morning:  

 

It's harder than it looks.

[Effie_]

Holy shiiiiiit Spiderman crawl. I wanna do that. I gotta get to that. It'll be way after this challenge, but man. That is Batman. I want to creep people out by being able to do that really fast (imagine that shit in a haunted house during Halloween season....). 

[Silas Randwulf]

Lamb salad? Yes please! that sounds awesome!

 

STAY OFF THE REESE'S! But good job otherwise lol. You gotta nail that protein goal these next 5 days to complete the challenge, but you can do that no problem! If you notice your'e a bit short just fry a couple eggs, eat some nuts or something to tip the number over.

 

Spiderman crawls seem like they would wear me out immediately haha

[Thorns]

Spiderman crawls rock your core something hard -- especially when they're the last exercise you do in boot camp.  My kids will love them and do them effortlessly, because they're kids and have more energy than they know what to do with.

 

I'll rock the food update after dinner (and avoiding the sweets on the way home). I tried picking a path that went nowhere near any, but it's nearly impossible.  My next tactic is to arm myself with a banana or something similar to munch on while I walk.

 

Day 9 goals:

•  Boot Camp attended!  2 out of 2 possible for this week.  5 out of 12 total done.
• Soft Drink:  Zip.  Nada.  Even during my bloody 3-hour meeting this morning (hate hate HATE those).
• Steps: 9,106 so far.  The trip to the train station and home will easily add another thousand.
• Words:  none yet.  I'll update when I get home (planning on writing on the train).

 

Boot Camp was mostly boxing combos today.

• Jab-cross-hook-cross for 3 minutes (I don't do hooks, so instead I did a quick shuffle to the side and a straight punch.  It actually works me more, because instead of moving just my arm, I moved my whole body)
• Jab-cross-jab-cross-hook-cross for 3 minutes
• Jab-cross-jab-cross-hook-cross-hook-hook for 6 minutes
• 100 hammerfists
• 2 punches each, a half court run and do 2 jump squats, 4 punches each, a half court run, 2 jump squats, 6 punches, run, 2 jump squats, 8 punches, run, 2 jump squats, 10 punches, run, 2 jump squats,  (repeat 2 times)
• Working in pairs, knee strikes (knee rises above your own waist).  1 each leg, then both you and your partner ran a quarter court, then 2 each leg, then run, 3 each leg.  Five minutes,  I think me and my partner reached 14 each leg, but they were all delivered with power rather than speed.
• Full court travel -- jump forward, drop to a push-up, leg splits in the plank (both legs out, then in).
• Return full court travel -- Spiderman crawl, with an uneven pushup (one arm out in front, the other close to your body) at each "step".

[Thorns]

Okay, food update from yesterday.

 

 

Breakfast on the way into work (Calories)

* Home Made - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap, 1 wrap (200)

* Original Juice Co. - Black Label Chilled Juice - Orange, 600 ml (255)

Subtotal (455)

 

Lunch at work

* Sumo Salad - Man Salad, 1 Large (669) <-- double the protein

Subtotal (669)

 

Dinner at home

* Woolworths (Aus) - Beef Sausages With Herb and Garlic, 425g (1,063)

Subtotal (1,063)

 

Snacks on the way home (Boo!)

* None!  Too distracted playing Ingress

Subtotal (0)

 

Totals 2,187

Today's Goal 2,010 + 621 (exercise) = 2,631

 

 

Total Proteins

13g - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap

05g - Original Juice Co. - Black Label Chilled Juice - Orange, 600 ml

51g - Sumo Salad - Man Salad, 1 Large

52g - Woolworths (Aus) - Beef Sausages With Herb and Garlic, 425g

--------

121g Total <-- Smashed it!

[Thorns]

Ugh.  Boot Camp this morning was HARD.

 

Let's see if I can remember the sequence:

• on the mat, alternating hand-foot touches (back off the mat) x2
  
• power jacks (jumping jacks with a body weight squat on the downside) x4
  
• In-and-Outs (extended plank, jump your feet out to the sides, then back into the middle) x4
  
• 20s rest
  
• repeat each exercise above, increasing each exercise to 4/8/8.
  
• 20s rest
  
• repeat each exercise above, increasing each exercise to 6/12/12.
  
• 20s rest
  
• repeat each exercise above, increasing each exercise to 8/16/16.
  
• 20s rest
  
• repeat each exercise above, increasing each exercise to 10/20/20.
  
• water break
  
• Move to station exercises.  Do as many reps as possible on each station for 1 minute straight
  
• body weight squats
  
• standing chest presses with a 4kg (8.8 lbs) medicine ball
  
• chops with a 10 kg (22.5 lbs) dumbbell
  
• extended plank combined with 1-arm rows (3kg (6.6lbs) dumbbells)
  
• lunges combined with shoulder press (4kg dumbbells)
  
• medicine ball slams (4kg medicine ball)
  
• 2 laps around the basketball court
  
• standing shoulder press with a 10 kg dumbbell
  
• water break
  
• back to the mats.  Repeat all 5 sets of hand-foot touches, power jacks, and in-and-outs.
  
• water break
  
• back to the station exercises.  This time each station is 45 seconds.
  
• back to the mats.  repeat all 5 sets of hand-foot touches, power jacks, and in-and-outs.
  
• back to the station exercises.  This time each station is 20 seconds.
  

[Silas Randwulf]

Bootcamp Breakdown-and-weep-when-you-leave-this-place camp keeps looking harder and more insane to me. It's hard for me to even see myself doing a tiny version of most of those exercises at this point, let alone the full versions and that many all at once. So Batman.

 

And way to DESTROY that protein goal man, holy cow. I struggled to get what I did yesterday and just ate stuff when I wasn't hungry to get the protein. I want to try one of these salads. Sadly, no Sumo Salad in little ol' Newfoundland . 

[Thorns]

Sumo Salad is awesome.  It's winter here now, so I'm tempted a lot more by hot food, but those Sumo Bowls are just the ticket.

 

Just to make your mouth water, here are the ingredients: Lemon & Herb Marinated Lamb, grilled haloumi, baby spinach, tomato, cucumber, red onion, fresh oregano.  Tossed with steamed brown rice, red & white quinoa,with a spiced lemon dressing.  It's lunchtime now, so I'm going to go eat one.  Might get extra lamb in there today to hit that protein challenge.

 

And MAN!  I was almost sucking air by the end of that boot camp.  Spent my rest period on one knee, in the "beaten but not down superhero pose" any comic book fan is familiar with (I've collected comicsa my whole life, and even now work directly upstairs from a comic book shop).

[Silas Randwulf]

Ok, it's 12:43 am here now, I haven't been hungry all day, but now I want to jam that huge salad in my face. Thanks a lot Patch >_> haha. That sounds so good though. I'd eat one if I had one, and I've been in bed for like an hour and a half haha. Definitely hit up that extra lamb tomorrow! I know I would haha.

 

 

Spent my rest period on one knee, in the "beaten but not down superhero pose"

I s'pose you did! I'd probably have spent it in the "help me I'm dying, crying, and paralyzed" pose haha.

[CourageousKate]

Major update coming later, Bats.

 

Just wanted to share today's coolest exercise.  We did these at Boot Camp this morning:  

 

It's harder than it looks.

I've done the knee-to-same-side-elbow planks before, and THOSE kill. I will have to try the Spider-Man Crawl (and then the Dead Spider Curl-up-in-a-ball). Patch, you are consistently amazing me with how much you are just annihilating your health and fitness goals! 

[Thorns]

That's good to hear -- and the timing is good too, cause I'm feeling like crap (emotionally) today.  Willpower failed last night (more on this in a moment), and I've realised today that I've lost my train ticket (high value ticket -- cost me more than $500 and I still had more than a month of travel left on it.)  Couple that with some idiots at work who are trying to call me unhelpful when I can't tell them how to configure their own application (which I've never worked on) so that it points to a different one of our test environments (oh, and no one's getting paid for this work, either), and I'm feeling a bit crappy.  Oh and everything seems to be mounting in urgency all at once -- more urgent than usual, to be honest.  I hate the end of Financial Year madness.  Be glad when July rolls around.

 

So your compliment is very much appreciated.  I can at least smash the hell out of my boot camp goal.

 

Food for Day 11:

 

 

Breakfast on the way to work (Calories)

* Home Made - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap, 1 wrap (200)

* Boost - Banana Sports Smoothie, 610 ml (403)

* Boost Juice - Protein Booster, 5 g (20)

Subtotal (623)

 

Lunch at work

* Sumo Salad - Mediterranean Lamb and Haloumi Sumo Bowl, 1 bowl (519) <-- didn't need the double lamb, Silas.

Subtotal (519)

 

Dinner after picking up the boys

* McDonald's Australia - Mighty Angus Burger, 1 burger (709)

* McDonald's Australia - Large Fries, 0.5 serve (252)

Subtotal (961)

 

Totals: 2,103

Allowance for today: 2,010 + 775 (from exercise) = 2,785

 

Protein Challenge

13g - Home Made - Bacon & Scrambled Egg Wrap, 1 wrap

34g - Boost - Banana Sports Smoothie, 610 ml

04g - Boost Juice - Protein Booster, 5 g

35g - Sumo Salad - Mediterranean Lamb and Haloumi Sumo Bowl, 1 bowl

45g - McDonald's Australia - Mighty Angus Burger, 1 burger

16g - Mcdonald's Australia - Large Fries, 0.5 serve (252)

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

147g Total <-- Made it.  Challenge met 2 out of 5 days so far.

 

So clearly my willpower failed when hitting the McDonald's drive-through.  I used the last of my willpower and got the meal with water instead of coke, and then let the kids steal half my fries.  Better than going whole hog, but still not good.

 

On the plus side -- and I'm looking hard for the pluses, knowing I'm down.  We're in week 2, and I'm already 50% complete with one of my goals (Boot Camp attendance).  Falling behind on my writing, but I'm nearing the end of the first part of the story that's demanding to be written.  Normally I'd go back and do some self-editing when I complete the part, but that will only put me further behind my goal, since most editing is removing unnecessary words rather than adding them.  Not sure what to do about that (yet).

 

Oh and another plus... my thighs are getting... ripped?  I noticed it last night when I was changing pants.

 

Looking forward (and very scared) to my wiegh-in on Sunday.  Feel like I've almost killed myself in workouts -- and every day this week I've been under my caloric intake goal so I should post a good loss... but what if I don't?

[Silas Randwulf]

 

That's good to hear -- and the timing is good too, cause I'm feeling like crap (emotionally) today [...] So your compliment is very much appreciated.  I can at least smash the hell out of my boot camp goal.

 

[...]

 

I used the last of my willpower and got the meal with water instead of coke, and then let the kids steal half my fries.  Better than going whole hog, but still not good.

 

[...]

 

We're in week 2, and I'm already 50% complete with one of my goals (Boot Camp attendance).

 

[...]

 

Oh and another plus... my thighs are getting... ripped?  I noticed it last night when I was changing pants.

 

Sorry you're having a bad day man, that sucks. Especially dealing with idiots at work, that's one of my least favorite things in life.

 

But also, no coke, giving up half your fries, GETTING HALF-WAY THROUGH A GOAL ALREADY, and noticing positive body changes? Sounds like an alright day to me! Stick with it that's all. Constantly give up half your fries, constantly refuse the coke, constantly work at the boot camp and you'll notice more positive body changes. The struggle is always going to be there. You're always going to slip up. But you're always going to kick your own ass afterward, pick yourself up, and soldier on too.

 

Side note: isn't the leg thing awesome?! Such a weird thing but that's where I've lost most of the fat and gained the most muscle so far too and it feels amazing! I was all focused on my gut when suddenly, LEGS.

[Magnonymous]

 

Looking forward (and very scared) to my wiegh-in on Sunday.  Feel like I've almost killed myself in workouts -- and every day this week I've been under my caloric intake goal so I should post a good loss... but what if I don't?

 

 

Don't be scared. Regardless of what the scale says, you're kicking the ass of all the things you need to do to get to a healthy weight.