MyLittlePony - Upside Down

[Paisley]

Hi , this is my very first challenge, hopefully I can do this and stick out the full 6 weeks and actually see some progress.

 

A quick overview of me :  I'm a 35 year old stay at home Mum. Originally Australian but currently living in the North East corner of the US.  I have two preschool age kids who take up most of my time.  I started losing weight about 2 years ago and have that sort of under control (always needs more work of course) but really starting to concentrate on the strength side of things now.  I starting lifting heavy things about a month or so ago but it's all still very new and scary.

 

 

I'm still getting all my starting measurements together and will update this on Monday with the final numbers but wanted to get my thoughts down on paper now.

 

starting stats:

Gender: Female
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 58 kg

 

measurements
wasit: 35 in
Belly: 36.5 in
Hips: 37.5 in
Bust: 36.5 in

Underbust: 30.5 in
Thighs: 21 in
Upper arms: 11.5 in

neck 13 in

 

Strength
Squats: 75lb 5x5 80lb 2x5
bench press: 50lb 5x5, 55lb 3x3
deadlift 125lb 1x5
OAR: 35lb

chest press: 35 lb 5x5

 

 

I figure I may as well play along as well so this is what I've come up with.

 

Race:  Elf
Class Ranger
Level 1
Attributes

STR - 3
DEX - 2
STA - 3
CON - 3
WIS - 3
CHA - 1

 

And finally onto the good stuff, the goals:

 

Goal 1 - hold a freestanding Handstand for 10 sec or more. DEX +4

 

I can currently hold a handstand for 2-3 sec and want to get this up to at least 10 sec,
it's taken me the last 4 or 5 weeks or so to get this far, hopefully in 6 weeks I can do the full 10 sec.

grading
A - full 10 sec or more; DEX +4
B - 8-10 sec;            DEX +3
C - 6-8 sec;             DEX +2
D - 4-6 sec;             DEX +1
F - <4 sec:              DEX 0

Goal 2 - do 1 pull up unassisted.   STR +4

As of this morning I can just move my elbows at the bottom of a dead hang, and I can do a negative but that's it.

 

grading
A - do 1 pull up unassisted;  STR +4
B - if I can get at least half way up unassisted ;  STR +3
C - 
D -
F - no movement from dead hang

 

Goal 3 - contain evening snacking to 1500 cal per week. CON +4

My eating habits are pretty good these days, well my three main meals are, its any snacking that occurs that the problem.  I can usually be pretty good during the day, but once the kids are in bed it all seems to go out the window.  So this goal is aimed at containing the damage that I do each evening.  I'm going to try and keep it to 150 cals each evening  (a simple dessert) plus a couple of glasses on wine of the weekend.

 

grading

A - all 6 weeks at 1500 cal;  CON +4
B - 5 weeks at 1500 cal;      CON +3
C - 4 weeks at 1500 cal;      CON +2
D - 3 weeks at 1500 cal;      CON +1
F - 2 weeks or less at 1500 cal.  CON 0

 

Goal 4 - Get my etsy site back up and running and make at least three items to put up on it. WIS +3

Everyone keeps telling me Oh that's so good, you should sell them whenever I make anything, I'll never know if it's possible until I try it so here I go.

 

grading

A - Etsy site is online with three new items listed;  WIS +3
B - Etsy site online with two new items               WIS +2 
C - Etsy site online with one new item                WIS +1
D - Etsy site is online but no items made or no Etsy site but at least one item made.  WIS + 0.5
F - nothing done. WIS 0

[castelluzzo99]

Wow, awesome goals! I'm also working toward a pull up, but I'm too far from it to use it for this challenge yet. Maybe the next one. I'm working on push ups at the moment. I want to be able to go all the way down full length. What is your plan to be able to do pull ups? According to I-Jo and others here, the assisted pull up machines aren't going to be very helpful in the long run. Here's a thread I started on this topic; you will find much wisdom therein!

 

Good luck!

[Paisley]

Thanks, I was actually reading that thread the other day and had seen all the negative reviews of the pull up machines so I actually went out and bought a pull up bar yesterday and am now thinking that I'll try the grease the groove approach instead but I'm just not sure how I'll measure my progress with that approach.

 

Push ups are also on my list of things I want to be able to do but I figured I should just concentrate on one thing at a time and pull ups won, hopefully once I master those I'll be able to focus on the push ups more.

[castelluzzo99]

Yeah, that's what I think! I'm working on pull ups, but I think push ups are more attainable for me at this point. One thing at a time! You go girl!

[fengor]

I'm looking forward to your etsy shop

[Paisley]

ah ha, the plot thickens, to add to my above goals, I've just signed up for a Spartan race in August, now I need to be ready for that!  I've got no problems with the distance so it's just the obstacles I have to worry about. And just to add to the pressure I'll be running with a bunch of crossfitters I've never met (well I've met one of them) who are probably all a lot fitter/stronger than me.....Hope I can keep up.

 

 

I just tried watching a few youtube videos from last years race and most of it seems doable, but there are a couple of types of obstacles I'm going to struggle with.  any rope climbing, getting over the  higher walls that you have to go over, the carrying heaving things around and the monkey bars.  Hopefully all the pull ups I'll be doing in the next six weeks will help to develop my upper body strength enough to get me through.

[chickie.monkey]

This sounds like it's going to be a great challenge for you. The nice thing about the challenges is that they are only 6 weeks long and it flies right by! One day I would like to do a pull up. I'd also like to do a push up, but those are so, very far in the future! So until I get there, I will be happy to cheer you on!

 

Can't wait to hear about your Spartan race. Depending on when in August it is, you might get another challenge in to get ready for it!

[Mac]

Welcome, fellow new Ranger!

 

FWIW, I think push-ups are far more readily attainable than pull-ups for most people. I've just gotten to the point where I can do full push-ups (a few), and I started last winter only being able to do them at a table-height incline, so I'm pretty proud of that. I'm nowhere close to being able to do a pull-up, but someday! I'd love to get a pull-up bar in my house, but for some reason all my door thresholds are surrounded by quarter-round molding, so there's no place for it to go!! Actually, I have one door without that molding, but it's my bathroom door, so I'd like it to be able to close, thank you very much.

[Paisley]

I too think Push ups are easier to attain than pull ups, I think I'm actually almost there being able to do at least 1 or 2 real push ups, but I'm still far from the pull ups.  I haven't actually tried out the pull up bar yet to check that it's going to work in any of my doorways, the people who owned our house before us were dodgy do it yourselfers and I'm a bit worried that I'll put the pull up bar up and the whole door frame will pull away, but hopefully it'll be OK.  As soon as the in-laws leave (they've been with us for the last week) I'll try it out.

[Robotify]

I'm right there with you on pull-ups as well as snacking. I wasn't able to do more than maybe three half-good push ups a year ago, now I can do them easily. It seems disheartening to hang on that pull-up bar and PULL and pull and wish I could get up there. It's all about steps in the right direction. Interested to see how you do!

[Syl]

Very much not fitness or even challenge related here but....PONIES!!!!! I <3 me some ponies! My whole house watches it multiple times a week. Haha

[Paisley]

Very much not fitness or even challenge related here but....PONIES!!!!! I <3 me some ponies! My whole house watches it multiple times a week. Haha

Sadly enough I haven't actually watched the program for many many years (My kids haven't gotten into it yet).  My username is actually based on a nickname I had back in Uni, based on the colour of my hair (usually very similar to dash's here).

 

 

Interested to see how you do!

 

Me too -  hopefully I can do it!

 

Well I had a last fling last night before I get into it Tomorrow.  It was our 9 year wedding anniversary and the InLaws are in town so we took the opportunity to leave the kids with them and have a night out.  Since we moved halfway around the world when my oldest was only 6 months old leaving all grandparents back in Australia We haven't actually been out without the kids, well, ever.  Anyway we took the opportunity to go out for a really nice meal, ate way too much, drank way way way to much, had a night out in a nice hotel, generally had a lot of fun.  Finished the night off by having a brunch of frozen yoghurt on the way home.  Now to get back to eating well and working out again.  Bring on Tomorrow!

[Paisley]

And it begins,

 

I've updated my first post with all my measurements (will try and get photos shortly).

 

I did my first workout this morning.

 

Swam 47 laps of a 25 meter pool in 1/2 hour then

 

Bench Press

45lb 1 x 7

50lb 1 x 5

55lb 3 x 5

 

Squats

45lb 1 x 7

65lb 1 x 5

75lb 1 x 5

85lb 1 x 5

80lb 2 x 5

75lb 1 x 5

70lb 1 x 5

 a bit all over the place I know - I started slowly to warm up as my groins been a bit twingy lately, then found I was really struggling at the higher weights today and had to keep deloading.

 

Dead lift

115lb 1 x 3

125lb 1 x 3

135lb 1 x 3

[lilbichy]

Awesome goals and great workout!  What kind of etsy store are you going to set up?  Anything MLP is fantastically awesome in my book!  (I dont watch the show either, just love the ponies!)

[fluffyrin42]

Great first workout - and good luck with your pull-ups!  I'm impressed with your swimming... 47 laps would have easily taken me an hour or so.  

[Paisley]

Awesome goals and great workout!  What kind of etsy store are you going to set up?  Anything MLP is fantastically awesome in my book!  (I dont watch the show either, just love the ponies!)

 

The store will be mainly sewn kids wear, skirts, dresses, shorts, Tshirts, hats maybe a bag to two, will just depend on what I make to start with and we'll see what if anything sells best.

 

 

Great first workout - and good luck with your pull-ups!  I'm impressed with your swimming... 47 laps would have easily taken me an hour or so.  

 I'm quite happy with the swimming, I haven't done anything since the kids were born but I managed to schedule swimming lessons for both kids at the same time and their teachers are happy for me to swim laps whilst they're in class so I've finally had a chance to swim again,  I'm loving it and I've managed to go from about 25 laps to 49 max in half an hour in the last 10 weeks or so.

[JonDixonYT]

Here we go!  Best of luck with all of it.  I'm determined to get a pull up done this challenge too, but I'm taking the negatives route.

[Rozska]

Good first work out! Good luck with everything! 

[goodbye_farewell]

That's a heck of a workout for day 1. Well done!

[fluffyrin42]

 

 I'm quite happy with the swimming, I haven't done anything since the kids were born but I managed to schedule swimming lessons for both kids at the same time and their teachers are happy for me to swim laps whilst they're in class so I've finally had a chance to swim again,  I'm loving it and I've managed to go from about 25 laps to 49 max in half an hour in the last 10 weeks or so.

 

That is fantastic progression!  Man... I need to get back in the pool.  

[thekatisalie]

That's a heck of a workout for day 1. Well done!

Ditto that! Wow!

[Paisley]

OK Day 2 is on track.  today was a rest day for lifting so the only real exercise was the odd attempted pull up.  I've set up the pull up bar in my bedroom doorway and every second time or so that I walk in I either attempt to do a pull up from a dead hand, or I do a negative.  I figure a combination of the two will hopefully see me through this pull up challenge. I then do a handstand and attempt to push off the wall and hold it, I actually got up to 5 seconds once today so that's a great start.

 

This evening I spent working on my first piece to go up on Etsy.  It's about half way complete, just need to figure out how I want to finish it off at the hem. so that' progress on goal 4, and so far I've only had two oreos (damn you in-laws for filling my house with junk food and then leaving) after dinner so goal three is good.  I feel like I'm starving like I always do but I don't need any more food so I'm trying to stay strong.

 

My win for today was at the playground this morning.  I actually made it right across the monkey bars a number of times.  last year I couldn't make it across even once so it looks like I'm definitely getting stronger.  Yeah me!

[proudmommy]

Congrats on getting across the monkey bars!  It's the little victories that I think we feel the most!

 

I think you're doing an awesome job on your goals so far.  I get frustrated when my in-laws buy a bunch of junk and leave it here too!--LOL--To be fair, the last time it happened, I was pregnant and frustrated at everything.  Plus, my mother in law has a very peculiar way of getting under everyone's skin, whether she means to or not.  Last time, she went to the grocery store and nearly everything she bought, we already had in our fridge/pantry!  Plus some odd things that we had no intentions of eating at all, and just took up room.

 

One good thing I've noticed about moderating calorie intake is that once you create the habit, it gets easier to keep up with it.  I started moderating my intake about 7 weeks ago, and now, I don't feel the need to eat as much as I used to, because my stomach has adapted to the new conditions.  Are bodies are wonderful machines like that!  So if you feel like you're starving for the first week or two, just remember--it gets better if you stick with it.

 

What do you think of Etsy?  I crochet a lot (well, not as much as I'd like, because I don't have tons of time for it), and I've contemplated selling my crochet projects, but I don't really know what kind of profit I'd get from my crochet projects.  From what I've seen, the only projects that make decent money require really good quality yarns, which means one heck of an initial investment with no guarantee of return.  Since I only do it for a hobby for now, I've only invested into cheaper yarns.  Does Etsy give you a good opportunity to get a good return on your time/materials investment?

[Squeege]

Holy Pony! You are rockin' this challenge. Straight up killing it!

[fluffyrin42]

OK Day 2 is on track.  today was a rest day for lifting so the only real exercise was the odd attempted pull up.  I've set up the pull up bar in my bedroom doorway and every second time or so that I walk in I either attempt to do a pull up from a dead hand, or I do a negative.  I figure a combination of the two will hopefully see me through this pull up challenge. I then do a handstand and attempt to push off the wall and hold it, I actually got up to 5 seconds once today so that's a great start.

 

This evening I spent working on my first piece to go up on Etsy.  It's about half way complete, just need to figure out how I want to finish it off at the hem. so that' progress on goal 4, and so far I've only had two oreos (damn you in-laws for filling my house with junk food and then leaving) after dinner so goal three is good.  I feel like I'm starving like I always do but I don't need any more food so I'm trying to stay strong.

 

My win for today was at the playground this morning.  I actually made it right across the monkey bars a number of times.  last year I couldn't make it across even once so it looks like I'm definitely getting stronger.  Yeah me!

 

That's awesome!  Such a good way to make sure you stay on top of it throughout the day.  You'll be to a full pull-up before you know it.