Darkfoxx 6: *Insert Something Witty Here*

[darkfoxx]

Damnit, I'm out of Die Hard movies to reference for my 'theme'. And my brain is broken this morning, so this shall forever henceforth be known as the challenge of no theme. 

 

--

 

I feel the need to kick things up a notch for this challenge. Last challenge, while I anticipated a hard go fraught with life changes, what I got turned out to be the status quo. So this challenge, even though things may change in an instant, I'm going to push myself harder. 

 

Main Quest

 

I'm still working toward the long-term goal of participating in Mudderella this next Spring and then thinking about moving on to Tough Mudder next fall and still have quite a ways to go before I'm in the kind of physical shape that either takes. 

 

Support Goal 1

 

To this end, my main fitness goal for this challenge is to finish the HasFit Warrior 90 challenge I've been doing now for 8 weeks. I'm over half way done, and can totally see this to the finish line. After Warrior 90, I think I'll join my NF compatriots and pick up kettelbells. The hubs wants to get in on the kettelbell action, too, and wants to have a couple sessions with a trainer under our belts before we go off injuring ourselves. I think this is a wise plan. 

 

Support Goal 2

 

I've been doing so well with food metrics that I'd like to keep that up. And I want to add in some of the biohacker tips I learned about last time from Dave Asprey into the mix. Currently, I'm doing a trial run of the nootropic supplement Alpha Brain paired with GABA at night to see if I like either or even notice any difference. I'll be moving from that to Huperzine, and Huperzine to Bulletproof Coffee. And then combinations to see what, if anything, gives my brain a boost. I will also be adding in other supplements periodically and aim to track those as well. I also want to add a mechanism here for tracking overall tiredness with an eye toward figuring out why and what I can do about it. Am I over training? Am I not getting enough XXX? Is it how I sleep? 

 

Support Goal 3

 

Ummm...... help? I'm drawing a blank here. Mini challenges? Something else? 

 

Nope. Got it. Now I remember ... I was thinking of swiping Fonzico's pushup goal.

 

So, like she says: 

 

Follow the NF 'How To Do A Proper Pushup' guide, which prescribes 4 sets of as many reps as possible 3x per week, increasing in difficulty when 20 per each of the 4 sets is reached. I will do the full run-through, starting with wall pushups and moving on to incline pushups and then regular pushups from there - and beyond. The article has links to a lot of really crazy variations that might be fun. 

 

This is of course on top of my regular HasFit workouts - I may need to add adjustments if HasFit kills my arms, but I will try not to. 

 

That Fonzico, what a lifesaver! 

 

 

 

Life-Related Side Quest

 

As we all know, I love me some food. And writing about food. My blog looks pretty (in a clean, minimalist way) but isn't terribly user-friendly in the 'actually finding what you're looking for' sense. Since I have a few readers now, it's past time I do something about that. This side goal is to clean up and re-structure the recipe listings on my blog so they're user-friendly. I'm working with a Wordpress template here, so I'm anticipating aggravation. 

 

 

 

Diet/Fitness Side Quest

 

Contact a trainer for kettelbells and actually go for 1-2 classes before starting without direction and injuring myself. This has the potential to turn into much drama. 

[BlamedCat]

stalk stalk stalk

[direrael]

Ooh, more food goodness! This is going to be a great challenge.

[darkfoxx]

Easy-To-Locate Post For Grading Purposes

 

Week 1

 

SG1: A

SG2: A-

SG3: A

LQ: A

D/FQ: n/a

 

Week 2

 

SG1: A

SG2: A-

SG3: B

LQ: A 

D/FQ: A

 

Week 3

 

SG1: A-

SG2: B

SG3: F

LQ: A

D/FQ: A

 

Week 4

 

SG1: A

SG2: B

SG3: F

LQ: A

D/FQ: A

 

Week 5

 

SG1: A

SG2: A-

SG3: F

LQ: A

D/FQ: A

 

Week 6

 

SG1: A

SG2: A-

SG3: F

LQ: A

D/FQ: A

[Fonzico]

Hey! That's MY goal, give it back! *tug* *tug* grumble... okay, fine I guess we can share :/

 

Jokes! I'm stoked to have a partner in arms (pun TOTALLY intended) for that one, we're going to be able to beat up our husbands in no time

 

As always, good looking goals. I'm super interested to hear your thoughts on the brain boosters.

 

Ok, now errybody jump on the kettlebell train! Hehehe apparently it's the workout de jour - I'm so addicted already though, I've been looking forward to my next class all week. There's something incredibly bad ass about literally swinging iron.

[darkfoxx]

A partner in GUNS  

 

So far with the brain boosters: meh. A few days I noticed feeling more energetic and I so far *do* feel less like my head is up my ass or in a fog every day, but I'm not sure if its attributable to the drugs .... and this whole thing is going to be subjective to the point that it's going to drive me crazy, I think. I'm sticking it out, though, dammit. 

 

I might have to add more pep pills in somehow -- maybe some nice Bs. Bs always make me feel a little cracked out and/or hot. We shall see. I have 1 more day of the Alpha Brain and then it's on to Huperzine. 

[BlamedCat]

Okay, listening to you from the outside here.. I can't help but imagine Fallout the game... I'm hearing terms like "dude, I have a few more doses of JET... but I'm switching to Buffout tomorrow..." *giggles*

 

Seriously though, I hope the stuff works for ya and you can see a difference 

[Jo2926]

Nice goals (tell me more about mudderlla, I've never heard of it)

 

Are you enjoying HasFit Warrior? I'm always looking for new ideas to avoid the gym and it looks interesting!

 

Good luck on the goals - I know you will ace it :-)

[darkfoxx]

Mudderella is a 5-7 mile obstacle course designed by women with 12-15 obstacles designed to test stamina and willpower. It's like Tough Mudder, just by women and slightly less intense. Obstacles include: crawling through mud under wires; trampolining onto a cargo net, climbing to the top and sliding into mud; crawling under netting up a hill; swinging from tire to tire over muddy water; balancing across a mud pit; muddy bog run; parallel wall walk; climb a cargo net; run across stability balls; climb a wall; run across floating platforms; scale a hay bale mountain; rope climb; leap off a 15' platform into water; crawl through tunnels; pull across a wall using hand and food holds; piggyback ride; climb through tunnels underground; swim underneath floating barrels; slide down a chute into water; and wade through ice. 

 

It's a team thing, with teams either being chosen pre-signup or at the event. Next year, events will be held in Kentucky, Mid-Atlantic, Minnesota, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Colorado, Vancouver, Michigan, NorCal, New England, Wisconsin, Tri-State, Austin, Virginia Beach, San Diego and Tampa in the US/Canada.

 

Perth, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane in Australia.

 

Yorkshire, London South & Scotland in the UK. 

 

As for HasFit Warrior90, I'm loving it. I love the structure and the workouts are varied enough to not get boring. Plus, he spaces things so you're pushing yourself hard but I haven't gotten an injury to the point I couldn't go further. I would highly recommend the program - plus, it's free! 

[direrael]

Hey, if you need any advice, I did a Tough Mudder in June. It was great, and I know you're going to have so much fun!

[darkfoxx]

@direrael: I might have to take you up on that. Right now I'm at the 'I don't know if I can go through ice and what is this business about being shocked? A wall?! I can't climb a wall?!' stage of general unease. I'm sure I big freakout will come at the end of winter.  

[darkfoxx]

Week 1 Day 1 Recap

 

 

SG1

 

I completed today's HasFit Warrior 90 workout for Week 9 Day 1 - Back and Biceps Workout + Chest and Triceps Workout - both were 10 minutes and kicked my ass. For some reason, overhead presses were killing my elbows today. I suppose with this workout, I did get a little pushup practice in, since it involved quite a few pushups - all done from the knees - reps of 5 slow/5 fast/5 ballistic. 

 

 

SG2

 

I added my daily food to My Fitness Pal - I'm darkfoxx there too - and added my supplement info to a spreadsheet (located here). Today was my last dose of Alpha Brain, and I have to say - (thankfully, blessedly, because it's so damn expensive) meh. I may have been less foggy during the past two weeks - I am certainly less foggy than I was a few days before the start of the trial (I felt like my thoughts were wrapped in gauze), but day-to-day I didn't really notice any changes (barring the first few days). Maybe that's what is supposed to happen?? I think maybe I'm expecting speed and what I'm taking isn't meant to be felt as a physical change. Not sure. I kind of think the GABA is good so far - I seem to be dragged down to sleep much more often than not and when I'm woken out of sleep by obnoxious work at 2 am, I'm kicking to reach the surface. 

 

We shall see what this Huperzine business does. 

 

Breakfast: DH's green smoothie 

Lunch: Leftover roast pork shoulder with a broccoli slaw/peach/sriracha lime dressing salady thing

Dinner: Eggs, zucchini, bacon & portobellos baked in a red pepper

The 'I Don't Have Enough Protein For The Day' Snack: 1 ounce plain almonds

 

Calories: 1,225

Carbs: 68g (whoo hoo)

Fat: 74g

Protein: 72g (whoo hoo)

Sodium: 1,078mg

Sugar: 27g

 

Food was good today. Carbs & protein were right on track. Go, me. 

 

 

SG3

 

I didn't get a chance to practice pushups today - the workout was pretty arm intense and I was drained at the end. 

 

LQ

 

I actually did a bit of work on this one. I think I may have found a way to add recipe sections to the blog - now to add tags or whatever it's going to take to make it all work. 

 

D/FQ 

 

No work here yet, but I won't start working on this until after Warrior 90 is complete.

[Fonzico]

Nice start! Good job with getting ahead on the blog business first thing! That's the sort of thing you usually leave until later...

 

Your dinner sounds amazing. Teh hubs doesn't really like peppers, or I would probably have stuffed peppers every week!

[darkfoxx]

I knoooowwww. I was proud of me, too! I had an extra 5 minutes yesterday that *could* have been taken up by blankly staring at my computer screen figuring out what project to jump on in the am ... but I thought, hey, wait. Let's actually get a jump on my procrastination goal *before* I get prodded by my NF buddies on week 2 ...  

 

I was lucky last night and the hubbs ate something ridiculous involving steak and cheese topped with mozzarella sticks for lunch (peer pressure, he says) and didn't really want dinner. He hates zucchini & mushrooms and I was banking on him not wanting dinner at least once in the next two weeks. Payoff! 

 

Today, my first order from US Wellness Meats is coming and I'm excited! I will let you all know how it goes, quality vs. cost-wise. (though I already looked, and they don't ship to Canada) 

 

On the peppers front, I think maybe I'm really not sensitive to them??? No stomach pain this time and no other bizarre pepper digestive issue to speak of. 

[Jo2926]

Great start! And lovely sounding food. What do you put in the green smoothie?

[darkfoxx]

I love, love, love the smoothie my hubby makes. We've been drinking this smoothie 5-6 days a week consistently since November and still aren't tired of it. We've thought of tinkering with the mix, but really like what we have. Recipe here. The only change from this recipe to our current day-to-day is the addition of the juice of 1 lime and we took out the banana to reduce the carbs. 

[Fonzico]

I knoooowwww. I was proud of me, too! I had an extra 5 minutes yesterday that *could* have been taken up by blankly staring at my computer screen figuring out what project to jump on in the am ... but I thought, hey, wait. Let's actually get a jump on my procrastination goal *before* I get prodded by my NF buddies on week 2 ...

 

I was lucky last night and the hubbs ate something ridiculous involving steak and cheese topped with mozzarella sticks for lunch (peer pressure, he says) and didn't really want dinner. He hates zucchini & mushrooms and I was banking on him not wanting dinner at least once in the next two weeks. Payoff! 

 

Today, my first order from US Wellness Meats is coming and I'm excited! I will let you all know how it goes, quality vs. cost-wise. (though I already looked, and they don't ship to Canada) 

 

On the peppers front, I think maybe I'm really not sensitive to them??? No stomach pain this time and no other bizarre pepper digestive issue to speak of. 

Way to avoid the cattle prod!

 

And YAY for MEAT! Thanks for thinking of me I just spend over $80 at the butchers yesterday, and was positively giddy with the amount of meat I got to leave the store with. Including beef for jerky!

 

And that's weird about the peppers.. I wonder what else it could have been setting you off before? Hmmm more data is required.

[Matt_72]

Yesterdays lunch sounds pretty spectacular.

That green smoothie is pretty damn green! I might have to give that a try.

[Skywalker]

Good to see you got your challenge up. I was waiting to get my full set of threads to follow. I laughed at your title - mine was titled Skywalker because I was going to enter a witty title and then forgot.

I thought you rocked your last challenge - you seemed to power along that warrior 90 program and your eating always sounds so clean.

Good goals - good luck (of course hard work makes good luck)

[darkfoxx]

Week 1 Day 2 Recap

 

 

SG1

 

I completed today's HasFit Warrior 90 workout for Week 9 Day 1 - Leg Workout + Ultimate 10 Minute Ab Workout - both were 10 minutes and the legs workout was really killer. I'm feeling it the next morning, that's for sure.

 

 

SG2

 

I added my daily food to My Fitness Pal - I'm darkfoxx there too - and added my supplement info to a spreadsheet (located here). Today was my first day of Huperzine - and my DH's first day of Alpha Brain - and I didn't really notice anything from the Huperzine. He felt a big difference from the AB (so did I on day 1) and he didn't feel any difference the whole time he was on H. So, we shall see what this all brings.

 

Breakfast: DH's green smoothie 

Lunch: Double-smoked bacon/vanilla honey cashew/fig/watermelon/lime dressing salad 

Dinner: Aged beef burgers with portobello bun, guacamole & carrot fries with Sir Kensington spicy ketchup

 

Calories: 1,392

Carbs: 94g (whoo hoo)

Fat: 71g

Protein: 76g (whoo hoo)

Sodium: 1,142mg

Sugar: 44g

 

Food was good today. Carbs & protein were right on track. Go, me. 

 

 

SG3

 

I did 4 sets of 10 incline pushups. I know the article says 20, but:

 

 

I did my pushups against the side of the couch after my workout while the oven was pre-heating.

 

 

LQ

 

Yeah, well, no work done on this one today - I looked at my blog, does that count? 

 

 

D/FQ 

 

No work here yet, but I won't start working on this until after Warrior 90 is complete.

[darkfoxx]

And before I forget, pictures from my sister's wedding are finally up. Mental note: if i'm ever forced to wear a bright ass yellow bridesmaids dress again, fake tan the legs. Damn they're day-glo. And I look like ass in this dress - but less ass than I would have if I hadn't been working out and Spanxed to within an inch of my life. Pics here.

[BlamedCat]

And before I forget, pictures from my sister's wedding are finally up. Mental note: if i'm ever forced to wear a bright ass yellow bridesmaids dress again, fake tan the legs. Damn they're day-glo. And I look like ass in this dress - but less ass than I would have if I hadn't been working out and Spanxed to within an inch of my life. Pics here.

bah, you're too critical of yourself.  You look great!

[Fonzico]

You totally pull off yellow, Miss I-only-wear-black. I'm with BC, you are much too hard on yourself. But that's how it goes, I know I'm more critical of pictures of me than anyone else is. As long as there's a part of you that recognizes that you are really the only one who looks through those mud-coloured glasses

 

Awesome day two! As usual, your food sounds SO good, and if you can eat food that wonderful, and get those metrics... well you must be doing something right!

 

And re: the pushups, I think the point was if you can do 20 per set, you need to make them harder. So maybe go to a lower incline where you only can do 10 per set?

[BlamedCat]

You totally pull off yellow, Miss I-only-wear-black. I'm with BC, you are much too hard on yourself. But that's how it goes, I know I'm more critical of pictures of me than anyone else is. As long as there's a part of you that recognizes that you are really the only one who looks through those mud-coloured glasses

 

Awesome day two! As usual, your food sounds SO good, and if you can eat food that wonderful, and get those metrics... well you must be doing something right!

 

And re: the pushups, I think the point was if you can do 20 per set, you need to make them harder. So maybe go to a lower incline where you only can do 10 per set?

I have to second Fonzio on all the above.  I could NEVER pull off that dress

and I'm critical of all my pictures...

 

And yes, to the pushups idea there.

[darkfoxx]

Lol. Fair enough, BC And I'm glad that she had at least 1 other blinding white bridesmaid to balance things out a bit  

 

I'm going to (but won't be in) another wedding this weekend - wedding gift pics coming - and I'm really hoping to fit into my "skinny" dress for it. It's of course black and I actually don't think I look horrible in it in pictures. I have yet to try the dress on because I'm totally scared it won't fit from all the back exercises I've been doing but should totally get on that before we leave Friday. 

 

Anyways ... trying not to be too critical: I'm counting the lack of tears as a success there  

 

And the salad from yesterday was from my new love, Nom Nom Paleo. This is where I've been getting my good recipes lately, and I've pretty much loved everything I've made off of her site. 

 

On a semi-related side note, I'm toying with the idea of adding recipe titles to the pics on my blog... I think it may help with Pinterest click through conversions. What do you think? Good look, or ridiculous?