kawatan's "Unremarkable" Dungeon

[kawatan]

(Name that roguelike, get a bunch of cooked lizards!)
 
The interesting thing about the "unremarkable" dungeon is that it's really not unremarkable at all, but it certainly can feel that way. These goals aren't all that "special": watch what I eat, exercise regularly, and do something other than stare at a computer screen all day every day (and use that time in front a screen productively). 
 
Last challenge I think I tried to take on too little in terms of health/fitness and too much in terms of Real Life Improvement. Also, my birthday is near the end of this challenge. LET'S DO THIS.
 
1. Relentlessly track food: everything that isn't water or unsweetened tea that passes through my mouth should be recorded. 
I find that just keeping myself accountable tends to keep me in line in terms of goals - I don't eat huge enough meals to worry about the nitty-gritty of counting exactly how much rice I eat with my family, but if I'm not tracking that yes, I did eat many tiny chocolates today, that's where I go wrong. Tracking can be here or on my challenge Twitter, but I should be reporting here at the end of each day.
+3 CON 
 
2. Angry Birds  three times a week, combined with Molding Mobility and Starting Stretching for their warmups and cooldowns.
Self-explainatory. Deceptively simple. My body is ready. I did MM and SS regularly for a week last time as an Assassin Mini-Challenge and I'm ready for them to be part of my daily life.
+3 STR +3 DEX

Spreadsheet here.
 
3. Morning and evening skincare and dental care every day this challenge.
Just like last time. 

+3 CHA
 
4. Do up to three productive things every day, and keep track. 
"Productive" can be two hours of studying for my actuarial exams, applying for a job, two hours of (learning to) script/code in SQL or Lua, or doing some major cleaning around the house: cleaning the bathrooms, deciding what in our bookshelves is worth getting rid of, thoroughly vacuuming both floors, the stairs, and thoroughly cleaning the vacuum machine itself afterwards, etc. (Tentative list here.)

+3 WIS
 
Other goals I'm not going to give myself points for but I'll track anyway: do all the Assassin Mini-challenges, record for my Youtube channel at least once a week, finish my fanfic for the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure reverse bang challenge, lead and/or edit an episode of Roguelike Radio, and do more research for my future marine ecology/evolution themed roguelike (yes this is going to be a thing and it's gonna be awesome).

[Nuala]

Welcome back Kawatan! I like your goals. Simple but effective. What will you use to track your food? I used Myfitnesspal (and will use it again), the first weeks are a pain but once you have your ingredient/food list ready, it's really fast and easy to use.

 

I saw that you were looking for an accountabilybuddy, have you seen this group open by StephaneLandry

 

http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/topic/29114-iso-someone-to-do-this-for-me/

 

You should definitely team up

[kawatan]

Welcome back Kawatan! I like your goals. Simple but effective. What will you use to track your food? I used Myfitnesspal (and will use it again), the first weeks are a pain but once you have your ingredient/food list ready, it's really fast and easy to use.

 

I saw that you were looking for an accountabilybuddy, have you seen this group open by StephaneLandry

 

http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/topic/29114-iso-someone-to-do-this-for-me/

 

You should definitely team up

I just contacted Stephane; hopefully we'll get to work together! 

 

You know, it took me this long to find out that MFP is a website as well as an app (I don't have a smartphone). I think I will try it, but if I find that just writing down what I've eaten here on the thread or on my challenge Twitter works, well, that works too.

[wassermelon]

I like your goals, too! I'm working on 1 & 3 myself.

 

Good luck starting today!

[Dorothy]

Great goals. Good luck with starting off strong today!

[joedog]

Sometimes "unremarkable" is the way to go. I was trying to come up with super-awesome-creative goals but then I realized, "Hey, I just need to keep lifting, walking and controlling my eating."

 

Good looking goals and good luck!

[Elder]

Hah!  I found you.  Love the goals they are similar to mine so I think we will make great buddies this challenge.  I also believe I found you on Twitter too so I can patrol your progress.  

 

How has Day #1 gone so far??

[0x4d482a]

What if I'd rather have elven waybread? cooked lizards do get old

[kawatan]

What if I'd rather have elven waybread? cooked lizards do get old

Heehee! Much worse nutrition values for the weight, though. (Though if I really cared about that, I guess I could up my Herbalism and get some stomafilia herbs. ...Maybe I should do a gardening challenge sometime in the future...?)

 

Anyway, today's progress:

 

Food: tracked on Twitter: @kawachallenge. A lot of rice. No snacks, though, which is an improvement! EDIT: There was also a mango after I posted this. I actually haven't eaten all that much today, and felt hungry - like real, stomach grumbling, water isn't helping hungry. So there was a mango. Better that chocolates, at least. And yes, I totally redid my evening hygiene routine after it. 

Exercise: tracked on the spreadsheet. Did it in circuits, which amped up the difficulty, but I think I'm gonna stick with it. Already moving on to the next level for planks. Lots of work to do for pushups (which I expected). Need to work on form in general. Mobility/stretching work was tough; my posture's really gotten terrible. That's why we work on fixing it though, right?

Hygiene: I'm good today. 

Productivity: 2 points today: one job app, a thorough vacuuming. Was really hard to motivate myself after exercise to do anything else. Gotta get better!

 

Tracking:

Food: 1/42 tracked

Exercise: 1/18 workouts

Hygiene: 1/42 days

Productive: 2/90 total points

[starpuck]

Heya fellow Team Bodyweight buddy.

 

Man, I may have to steal one of your goals for next challenge.    I am SO lazy at night- I just want to play my video games and toss into bed.   Often forgetting to remove the days makeup and do a final brushing of the teeth.  (Hides in shame.)   ((Hides in more shame when I confess I have zero cavities and no fillings lol...))  

 

Love the goals though.   Very well though out.   Will keep checking in on you here!

[kawatan]

Food: Oatmeal, coffee with soymilk and Splenda, homemade fried rice with beef, onions, garlic, and bell peppers. 

Exercise: Rest day. Good thing too, because I am sooooooooooore. Molding Mobility and Starting Stretching helped, but I probably need to do more reps of them the day of my next exercise (tomorrow) to make up for it.

Hygiene: On point.

Productivity: Three points, some with weird sources; I was part of this contest a while ago to get my face added to the indie game Maia (they felt they needed more females than they got from their crowdsourcing backers, which is an interesting thing.) I finally - like, MONTHS AFTER HAVING THE INSTRUCTIONS SENT - got those pictures taken and sent. I also posted on the Internet about an ancient turntable my family has, asking if it was salvageable or if I should just get rid of it (the advice was to get rid of it). It's significant progress towards getting rid of a lot of our excess stuff. I also did a bit of studying and job searching - neither is enough on their own to really count for separate points but together I made some tentative steps, so I'm combining them.

 

 

Tracking:
Food: 2/42 tracked
Exercise: 1/18 workouts
Hygiene: 2/42 days
Productive: 5/90 total points

[Paradigm]

Your goals look great! I have total respect for the programming learning as well! I'm a strong believer everyone should learn at least a little, with it's importance in our lives these days.

On a less geeky front though, you seem absolutely commited and I look forward to watching your progress!

[Kishi]

Looks like things are off to a strong start over here. Very good.

 

Also, just want to note: you wouldn't want to be a remarkable assassin. They get caught. You wanna be stealthy. And I bet you're gonna do it.

[kawatan]

Food: Roasted carrots, baked fish sticks, broiled tilapia and shrimp, edamame, brown rice. Coffee with non dairy creamer and Splenda.
Exercise: Did it all. Harder to get myself to start, easier to get myself to finish. Proper pushup form is haaaaaard.
Hygiene: On point.
Productivity: Three points, some with weird sources (yes again). Cleared out a lot of junk mail piling up in our living room. Applied for a job. Had a long, useful talk with my mom about my emotions and my goals, which was sorely needed.

The reason this is going up at 5 AM: My partner's visiting tomorrow, we're going out to Brooklyn to do some exploring. Being me, I wanted to dress up and get pretty and be all awesome....thing is, nothing in this house fits anymore. (I've gone down from a size 12 to a small-for-a-size-8.) So after spending time tearing the house apart to find anything remotely fashionable, I finally sat down to paint my nails - and of course was an idiot and managed to spill some on my carpeted floor. I have been scrubbing (and scrubbing and scrubbing) since, and then had more polish mishaps (no spills, just terrible application), and now have finally gotten my nails done. They come in five hours. I wanted to do makeup. Bluh.

 

Things that will probably happen tomorrow: I will be very tired but very happy. There will be window shopping and possible actual purchases, now that my partner and my parents know that I no longer fit into any of my clothes. There will be lusting after All the Nail Polish (it's a hobby). There will be doughnuts. The doughnuts may or may not be in order to imitate a certain mangaka. (If you know who this is without having to look it up, I will be very happy.) There should in theory be some other kind of foodstuffs, too. We will get lost. We will walk a ludicrous number of miles. It will be an adventure. 


Tracking:
Food: 3/42 tracked
Exercise: 2/18 workouts
Hygiene: 3/42 days
Productive: 8/90 total points

[kawatan]

I haven't been here. I'm so sorry.

 

So Thursday went almost exactly as I said, other than the fact that I wore the wrong shoes and thus was kind of limping a bit by the end. My right ankle was especially unhappy with me. (I also lost a rather beautiful blazer because I'm dumb.) I also ate, uh, a lot:

three doughnuts (well, more like one doughnut plus four half doughnuts), all DELICIOUS

some pernil (Cuban-style roasted pork) and tostones (squashed then fried plantains)

a handful of chocolate covered peanut butter balls

some olives and pickles from a farmer's market

some orange jice

I had leftover pernil, tostones, and pickles that I brought home.

 

Friday, my feet were recovering, and I did my Angry Birds/Molding Mobility/Starting Stretching trio. I also did laundry but otherwise wasn't productive. I had the leftover pernil, some orange juice, a pickle, some collard greens with bacon, white rice, pan de sal (a Filipino bread roll), and a hopia baboy (a Filipino savory pastry).

 

Today: I did some ironing but otherwise got nothing done. Leftover collard greens and bacon, a mango, another pickle, another pan de sal, some pan fried kingfish.

 

My sleep schedule is really messed up, ugh. And I'm not eating well any way you slice it. (I'm giving myself points for remembering everything and keeping track, because knowing you're eating poorly is half the battle, really.) At least I'm keeping up with the hygiene and workout habits so far. I don't know what the source of my current "funk" is, but I'm just...not excited about the things I actually have to do, and only minorly happy with the things I distract myself with. It's hard to explain and I wish I knew a way out.

 

Anyway, time to attempt to fix that sleep schedule. We will see what tomorrow will bring.  

 

Tracking:
Food: 6/42 tracked
Exercise: 3/18 workouts
Hygiene: 6/42 days
Productive: 10/90 total points

[kawatan]

Food today: braised squid in vinegar (lunch) and a thrown-together hash of pork, potatoes, blackeye peas, onion, garlic, and tomatoes (dinner), all with white rice. NO MORE SNACKING THIS IS GOOD.

Productivity: One job app, going to church and talking to my dad (which was good for my sanity and so I'll call it a win). Still procrastinating as a whole though; that number should be 15 by now if not higher. Sigh. 

 

Tracking:
Food: 7/42 tracked
Exercise: 3/18 workouts
Hygiene: 7/42 days
Productive: 12/90 total points

[Kishi]

Take it a day at a time. Life isn't about getting all the things done, it's about getting things done well. Whatever satisfaction you can take you ought to take when you can.

 

I'm no good when it comes to funk-breaking. I generally just soldier through and when things get better, they do. I hope it'll be the same for you.

[kawatan]

Food today: leftovers of the hash, string beans, pan fried tofu, brown rice, a small glass of sweetened iced tea....and a single tiny chocolate. Ugh, where did my self-control go?
Productivity: Some cleaning. I'm also going to count recording for Youtube from now on. Reading Steve's recent articles about happiness, productivity, and pursuing what you love has inspired me, and frankly, I think I'm more cut out for entrepreneurship than working under others, especially considering how passionate I am about games.

Workout: started much later than I should have, but ROCKED IT. 

Minichallenges: gained +1 STR for last week. This week, the planks count, maybe I'll do crunches on my off days, we'll see.

Unrelated news: It's girlweek. That explains at least a little of my funk last week, and why I'm breaking out despite my hygiene going well. .

Tracking:
Food: 8/42 tracked
Exercise: 4/18 workouts
Hygiene: 8/42 days
Productive: 14/90 total points

[kawatan]

Food: noodles with sesame oil, fish balls, a handful of shortbread cookies, Greek yogurt with mango, coffee with creamer but no sugar, beef bulalo (a Filipino clear broth soup with beef, beef marrow, bok choi, string beans, and eggplant), brown rice.

Day off for the exercise.

Job app and some cleaning done. Job fair on Thursday!

 

Tracking:
Food: 9/42 tracked
Exercise: 4/18 workouts
Hygiene: 9/42 days
Productive: 16/90 total points

[starpuck]

Looks like you're hanging in there despite the moon time issues.   I am dealing with the preemptive strike on that as well, so I hear ya.  LOL.

 

Your goals are coming along nicely.  

 

Feel like ya got some momentum?

[Kishi]

Filipino cuisine officially sounds like the best thing. That is all.

[Nymeria]

4. Do up to three productive things every day, and keep track. 

"Productive" can be two hours of studying for my actuarial exams,

 

 

Which exam are you studying for right now?  I passed P last winter, and I just passed FM yesterday (woot!).  If you're working on either of those and want any advice, I'd be more than happy to give it.  If you're further along than that and wouldn't mind sending any advice my way, that would be great, too. 

[kawatan]

Uuuuuuuuuugh. I fell off the wagon in a big way. I don't know why this keeps happening, guys, but I'm really sorry. Time to haul myself back on. I have generally been keeping up hygiene wise, at least...

 

Wednesday:

I don't remember what I ate. Bleh. 

Did get my workout done, some cleaning, and recorded an episode of my Minecraft LP. 

 

Thursday:

Job fair. I'm going to count all three points, because that was exhausting and I got my resume into the hands of a dozen people. 

Food: some yogurt, a pastrami and rye sandwich, some pickles. Yes, that was it.

 

Friday:

Got a call back from the job fair, for a sales position in an insurance company. Further research suggests that while they treat their employees well, it's pretty much commission-only, which makes me really nervous. Still, better than doing nothing with my resume. Interview's on Tuesday. Otherwise got nothing done.

Once again, don't remember food.

Worst of all: didn't work out. I can't even justify why: I just...couldn't bring myself to do it, or something. I'm really disappointed in myself. 

 

Saturday:

Global Reddit Meetup Day! A fun picnic in Central Park, met a few interesting people but it was hard to make any lasting connections due to it being so massive. No real productivity points, just a rare chance for me to deal with other people casually and socially, which was a good change of pace. I may end up coming back for some of the regular (and less massive) meetups when I need social interaction.

SO MUCH FOOD: puto (a Filipino steamed rice cake, a little sweet); some coconut juice; an interesting crunchy salad with ramen noodles, cabbage, carrots, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, and a dressing with soy sauce and sesame oil; a bit of carrots with hummus; a handful of craisins; a handful of Marcona almonds; a handful of pita chips; a small slice of Oreo ice cream cake. Somehow I resisted the pizza and other than the coconut juice I also resisted non-water drinks, which I'm pretty proud of. 

 

Today:

Church and Malaysian food with my dad. A few mishaps due to my allergies - seriously, who drops an egg into pan-fried noodles with seafood and white gravy? - but still delicious and fun. Besides the noodles, there was some beef satay, a bit of pineapple fried rice, and some roti with a curry dipping sauce.

Also recorded an episode of Roguelike Radio. After posting this, I'm going to go finally clean the bathroom. *sigh* We actually don't have some cleaning supplies I need; guess I'd better get some tomorrow. I was really hoping to make that a weekly habit.

 

Here's to getting back on the wagon, I guess!

 

Tomorrow I'm taking FM. I don't know if I'll do well - I get tripped up easily when it comes to options - but we'll see. 

 

Food: 12/42 tracked
Exercise: 5/18 workouts
Hygiene: 14/42 days
Productive: 24/90 total points

[starpuck]

Keep at it there chica! 

 

Falling off isn't failing.    Not getting up is failing -and you've already gotten back up!   

 

Keep us posted.  We're here to vent at, scream at, plead for cheering, whatever ya need.

[Kishi]

It's okay. Tired is going around. I don't know why, but as long as we don't let it beat us, I don't see it coming to any harm.

 

Dig deep! You have further in to go here.