Incantor's Incantation - All Your Chant Are Belong To Us!

[Incantor]

I don't have the energy to come up with new goals so I'm just going to repeat the same ones from the previous challenge and hopefully I will do better than last time.

 

Mission one is to go the gym at least twice a week.  No specific goals there, I just want to go and do whatever I feel like that day.  Cardio, strength training, swimming, whatever.

 

Mission two is to do some sort of light activity on at least two days that I don't go the gym.  This can be bodyweight strength training at home, stretching/yoga, going for a walk, etc.

 

Mission three is to eat mindfully.

 

Last time I did not choose a life quest, I think I will do one this time but I'm not sure what to pick so I'll come back to that later this week after I figure out what I want to focus on.

 

The chant continues...

[Incantor]

Today - had my session with my PT.  Really want to get back on this wagon and make it there again this week.  I need the momentum because she'll be out of town next week so I'll be on my own.  I did good with the mindful eating today.

[Teros]

Same is fine as long as it's working.  Slow and steady wins the race.  What exactly is eat mindfully?  Will you be keeping a food journal?

[sicil]

Love that you're sticking it out. Don't feel like you have to do a life goal - a few of my squadmates aren't going that route and are focusing on fewer goals at once. This might be the way to go if you're focusing on maintaining in the first place.

[Incantor]

Same is fine as long as it's working.  Slow and steady wins the race.  What exactly is eat mindfully?  Will you be keeping a food journal?

 

If you follow the link to my second challenge in the sig, it has more detail about the goals and about what is going on with me in general.  I cut and pasted the OP of this thread from my final summary in that thread, lol.  But the original post had a lot more detail.

[Incantor]

Love that you're sticking it out. Don't feel like you have to do a life goal - a few of my squadmates aren't going that route and are focusing on fewer goals at once. This might be the way to go if you're focusing on maintaining in the first place.

 

You may be right, I'll think about it.

[emptyknight]

How's the challenge going?

[Incantor]

Thanks for asking!  I made it to the gym one day last week.  Did my home stretching/calisthenics type thing one day.  Was about half and half with sticking with the mindful eating.  That one is really difficult if you are not eating alone and everyone else is wolfing their food down and then staring at you as you chew.  I'm trying to eat slow anyway and just give up when they are done.  Easier said than done.

[sicil]

Thanks for asking!  I made it to the gym one day last week.  Did my home stretching/calisthenics type thing one day.  Was about half and half with sticking with the mindful eating.  That one is really difficult if you are not eating alone and everyone else is wolfing their food down and then staring at you as you chew.  I'm trying to eat slow anyway and just give up when they are done.  Easier said than done.

 

Nice! Glad you're still with us! I agree its very hard to try to eat slower and not pace yourself with others. It must be subconscious. Hope your week 2 goes well!

[Incantor]

I had a good day today with mindful eating.  Still haven't made it to the gym yet, shooting for Thursday.

 

Last weekend I had to put my car in the shop because the plastic housing of the fuel pump had cracked and apparently it was spraying gasoline on the underside of my car.  Serious stench in the cabin.  At first it was faint and I thought I was imagining it.  I got one of those tree air fresheners in strawberry.    Then I decided I was not imagining it and took it in to get fixed.  Now it is fixed but it smells like strawberry gasoline.  Yummo.    Two weekends before that I had to get my shifter cables replaced.  It's like a little self-destruct sequence triggered when the car passed the ten year old mark.

[Teros]

Hmmm Strawberry Gas.  Yeah, all the parts are interconnected and when 1 pieces starts breaking, it makes a chain reaction. 

[Incantor]

The strawberry is finally starting to overpower the gasoline smell, yay.  This failure was completely unrelated to the shifter cables, well other than just from the age of the car and the fact that it has to live outside in the Florida heat and never in a garage.  Poor baby.  It's going to start giving me major headaches because all the plastic parts have become brittle and rubber parts have dry rot.  Probably about time to trade it in, but I have to wait until that gas smell is completely gone first.

[Incantor]

Alright, last week I did not make it to the gym at all.  Suck.  But I did do some off-day exercises/stretching and I'm on a roll with the mindful eating and portion control.

 

The guys at my work ordered some fresh oysters at lunch one day and I had never had them so they foisted some off onto me, I think expecting to watch me squirm and refuse, or try them and be all grossed out and spit them out.  But I liked them.  And they gave me more.  Isn't that sweet?    So I decided I wanted to have some this weekend and went to one of the fanciest restaurants in town, sat in the bar, and had oysters.  $18 per half dozen oysters.  Mindfully.  They were amazing, tasted like surfing.  I enjoyed examining the shells, each one was different although they were all the same variety.  Worth every penny.  I think I may start planning a plate of those as a reward at the end of challenges where I can give myself a B or better, as some extra incentive not to slack unnecessarily.  Well, challenges in-season, of course.  Wouldn't work for the summer.  But I should find something similar for those months.

 

Today I went to the gym for my PT session.  Last night I noticed that the definition is moving up my legs and now I can see some in the quads.  Yay.  So we did legs today!  I told my PT that I had been kind of beating myself up for showing up so infrequently but at least I've kept doing a little.  She said its ok to be in a holding pattern now and then, and pointed out that I haven't regained my initial loss and am still making slow progress which shows that diet is under control.  And that in fact she thinks it was a good thing because the easier schedule helped my knees recover.  She's right, I can feel that my knees are a lot more stable than they used to be.  My weak/hyperextending joint tissues are frustrating, because my muscles can push a lot more weight, but my joint tissues are really sensitive and I have some habitual bad use patterns which contribute (which I'm working on), and joint tissues take so much longer to improve.

 

Today she had me doing some sets of BW squats.  When I have done them for her previously, I had issues with trying to hinge from the knee instead of the hip, and once I got the hang of that, my weak knees tended to angle inwards, especially after a few reps when I got tired.  But this time she was very happy with my form.  So my half-hearted off-day practice here and there actually did help, and BW squat form is one of the things I have practiced the most. 

 

All in all I'm feeling better.  I think my car is done smelling like raw gasoline.  Looking forward to my next PT appointment on Thursday.  I have the next two weeks scheduled for double sessions, hopefully by the end of this challenge I'll be doing that consistently and can move the goal posts to three times a week.  I think the afternoon rains may have finally stopped, too.  I'll feel a lot better about swimming again when I'm not paranoid about the possibility of electrocution.

[sicil]

Alright, last week I did not make it to the gym at all.  Suck.  But I did do some off-day exercises/stretching and I'm on a roll with the mindful eating and portion control.

 

The guys at my work ordered some fresh oysters at lunch one day and I had never had them so they foisted some off onto me, I think expecting to watch me squirm and refuse, or try them and be all grossed out and spit them out.  But I liked them.  And they gave me more.  Isn't that sweet?    So I decided I wanted to have some this weekend and went to one of the fanciest restaurants in town, sat in the bar, and had oysters.  $18 per half dozen oysters.  Mindfully.  They were amazing, tasted like surfing.  I enjoyed examining the shells, each one was different although they were all the same variety.  Worth every penny.  I think I may start planning a plate of those as a reward at the end of challenges where I can give myself a B or better, as some extra incentive not to slack unnecessarily.  Well, challenges in-season, of course.  Wouldn't work for the summer.  But I should find something similar for those months.

 

Today I went to the gym for my PT session.  Last night I noticed that the definition is moving up my legs and now I can see some in the quads.  Yay.  So we did legs today!  I told my PT that I had been kind of beating myself up for showing up so infrequently but at least I've kept doing a little.  She said its ok to be in a holding pattern now and then, and pointed out that I haven't regained my initial loss and am still making slow progress which shows that diet is under control.  And that in fact she thinks it was a good thing because the easier schedule helped my knees recover.  She's right, I can feel that my knees are a lot more stable than they used to be.  My weak/hyperextending joint tissues are frustrating, because my muscles can push a lot more weight, but my joint tissues are really sensitive and I have some habitual bad use patterns which contribute (which I'm working on), and joint tissues take so much longer to improve.

 

Today she had me doing some sets of BW squats.  When I have done them for her previously, I had issues with trying to hinge from the knee instead of the hip, and once I got the hang of that, my weak knees tended to angle inwards, especially after a few reps when I got tired.  But this time she was very happy with my form.  So my half-hearted off-day practice here and there actually did help, and BW squat form is one of the things I have practiced the most. 

 

All in all I'm feeling better.  I think my car is done smelling like raw gasoline.  Looking forward to my next PT appointment on Thursday.  I have the next two weeks scheduled for double sessions, hopefully by the end of this challenge I'll be doing that consistently and can move the goal posts to three times a week.  I think the afternoon rains may have finally stopped, too.  I'll feel a lot better about swimming again when I'm not paranoid about the possibility of electrocution.

 

Hang in there! As your PT said, its the small victories that you should focus on, rather than dragging yourself down. And yeah, maybe your body just told you to step it down a while while it recovered. Squats are hard to get in good form! My toes keep on flipping up, as my PT likes to point out all the time.

[Incantor]

Made it to my second appointment this week, yay.  Core today, sore tomorrow, that's my motto!  LOL.  But really I won't be sore until Saturday probably.     We have my schedule set up so I have twice weekly appointments for the next 3 weeks I think, which is as far as we can schedule right now.

 

Since my appointment on Monday, I've been stretching and doing stuff like working on my squat form (by just doing it really slow and trying to keep my balance and alignment at every point in the movement) while making coffee, random calf raises, that sort of thing.

 

Mindful eating has been pretty good, but I would like to aim for plate-of-$18-oysters level of mindfulness with everything I eat and drink.  Again it is much easier to do when alone than when attempting to participate in a social meal, but I am trying to just have that awareness of what I am eating and how full I am even when I'm listening to someone's joke.  I don't think it's reasonable to expect to be able to do that perfectly all the time, but I'm aiming for as much as possible.  Which principally consists of recognizing when I am NOT and correcting myself, sort of like when you are working on your posture you have to just try to have correct posture all the time and notice when you are slumping and take action.  Just have to keep at it.

 

Hey sicil, thought you might like to know that the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate is on sale on Steam for $5 until Oct 7.  I'm thinking of buying it, even though I'm not sure if I could actually play it again.  Usually even games I used to love I find unplayable when I reinstall them (I'm looking at you, Diablo 1).  But it is such a cool idea to do this to Baldur's Gate that I'd like to support them.  And I can imagine myself playing it a little!  Maybe. 

[sicil]

Made it to my second appointment this week, yay.  Core today, sore tomorrow, that's my motto!  LOL.  But really I won't be sore until Saturday probably.     We have my schedule set up so I have twice weekly appointments for the next 3 weeks I think, which is as far as we can schedule right now.

 

Since my appointment on Monday, I've been stretching and doing stuff like working on my squat form (by just doing it really slow and trying to keep my balance and alignment at every point in the movement) while making coffee, random calf raises, that sort of thing.

 

Mindful eating has been pretty good, but I would like to aim for plate-of-$18-oysters level of mindfulness with everything I eat and drink.  Again it is much easier to do when alone than when attempting to participate in a social meal, but I am trying to just have that awareness of what I am eating and how full I am even when I'm listening to someone's joke.  I don't think it's reasonable to expect to be able to do that perfectly all the time, but I'm aiming for as much as possible.  Which principally consists of recognizing when I am NOT and correcting myself, sort of like when you are working on your posture you have to just try to have correct posture all the time and notice when you are slumping and take action.  Just have to keep at it.

 

Hey sicil, thought you might like to know that the enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate is on sale on Steam for $5 until Oct 7.  I'm thinking of buying it, even though I'm not sure if I could actually play it again.  Usually even games I used to love I find unplayable when I reinstall them (I'm looking at you, Diablo 1).  But it is such a cool idea to do this to Baldur's Gate that I'd like to support them.  And I can imagine myself playing it a little!  Maybe. 

 

Great job on the appointments and the mindful eating! Little steps will pay off!

 

I'm thinking against it. While iPad support is totally rad, I'd much rather mod the hell out of the existing game. Here's a good article on all of that: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-03-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-review

[Incantor]

LOL, thanks for talking me out of it.  I probably wouldn't have been able to stand playing it again after 15 years anyway, especially going back to the AD&D 2 ruleset.  But what I always loved about Baldur's Gate versus subsequent games is that they had those scripts you could assign to your NPCs that gave them rules for how they should act.  Like you have a rogue, you can tell him to hang back and plunk arrows, or you can tell him to be all stealthy stabbity.  The cleric can run in wielding the hammer or she can hang back and cast.  Modern games never seem to give you that level of control over the behavior of NPC party members.  Modding the original game isn't really an option as I don't think I have my BG1 discs anymore and if I do, I have no idea where they are.  And modding usually irritates me anyway, it's a lot of headache in my experience unless it is a pretty new game and the modders are keeping their stuff patched up.

 

So back to fitness stuff, last night I was nekkid about to get into bed (sorry TMI) when I put my hands on my hips and realized that they had shrunk a bit and were more firm then squishy.  Yay!  I'm kind of tempted to go over to the gym today and do a little something but I am worried about overdoing it right when I am starting to feel better.  Part of me thinks I should just stick with the plan and go back for my next appointment on Monday, but the other part thinks that's me being lazy and I should go today too.  Not sure which part is going to win that tug of war.

[Incantor]

I decided not to go yesterday.  I was afraid if I try to ramp back up too soon I might burn out.  Today I was out in the sweltering heat for awhile and it just saps me so much, I've spent the rest of the day inside, cursing my AC system for its inadequacy.  I am so over this.

 

At any rate, now I am going to force myself to go pack my gym bag for my PT session tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

 

Edit: OK, gym bag is packed and next to the door.  Hopefully I will notice it before I trip on it on my way out!  Trying to psych myself up for tomorrow's session.  Must be about time for some fun on that assisted pull up machine!  I love that thing.

[sicil]

LOL, thanks for talking me out of it.  I probably wouldn't have been able to stand playing it again after 15 years anyway, especially going back to the AD&D 2 ruleset.  But what I always loved about Baldur's Gate versus subsequent games is that they had those scripts you could assign to your NPCs that gave them rules for how they should act.  Like you have a rogue, you can tell him to hang back and plunk arrows, or you can tell him to be all stealthy stabbity.  The cleric can run in wielding the hammer or she can hang back and cast.  Modern games never seem to give you that level of control over the behavior of NPC party members.  Modding the original game isn't really an option as I don't think I have my BG1 discs anymore and if I do, I have no idea where they are.  And modding usually irritates me anyway, it's a lot of headache in my experience unless it is a pretty new game and the modders are keeping their stuff patched up.

 

So back to fitness stuff, last night I was nekkid about to get into bed (sorry TMI) when I put my hands on my hips and realized that they had shrunk a bit and were more firm then squishy.  Yay!  I'm kind of tempted to go over to the gym today and do a little something but I am worried about overdoing it right when I am starting to feel better.  Part of me thinks I should just stick with the plan and go back for my next appointment on Monday, but the other part thinks that's me being lazy and I should go today too.  Not sure which part is going to win that tug of war.

 

 

I decided not to go yesterday.  I was afraid if I try to ramp back up too soon I might burn out.  Today I was out in the sweltering heat for awhile and it just saps me so much, I've spent the rest of the day inside, cursing my AC system for its inadequacy.  I am so over this.

 

At any rate, now I am going to force myself to go pack my gym bag for my PT session tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

 

Edit: OK, gym bag is packed and next to the door.  Hopefully I will notice it before I trip on it on my way out!  Trying to psych myself up for tomorrow's session.  Must be about time for some fun on that assisted pull up machine!  I love that thing.

 

 

Sigh, I'd totally play BG again. I'd play it long time. Still one of the best and baddest games ever. But then, I'm really into modding and hacking. The BG community has been around so long that their releases are pretty stable, as long as you stick to the key mods.

 

Hurray for non-squishy hips!!! I think it's good that you listened to your body and not ramp up so quickly. It takes a while to get back into it.

[Incantor]

Thanks for the support, sicil!  Did not trip over my bag this morning, went to my appointment today, did shoulders/uppers and got in some good time on the assisted pullup among other exercises.  My arms feel like overcooked noodles, lol.

[Incantor]

Today was very nice.  It was overcast, but at lunchtime it was 75º.  Below 80!  In the middle of day!  I can not communicate how much of a relief that is.  Then the sun finally came out and the temp rose just a little.  Right now, 7pm, 78º, "feels like" 78º.  AHHH.  Gotta pack my bag for tomorrow's PT session.  I'm thinking it is time for back/glutes!

[Incantor]

Last week on the day of my PT appointment I woke up feeling kind of crappy in a generalized way I couldn't put my finger on, thought I might be getting sick.  As the day went on my stomach was bothering me, started to get nauseated.  Then I started getting a headache and the nausea was getting pretty bad.  I thought I might be getting a migraine which I haven't had in a long time.  At that point I threw in the towel, went home from work early, and cancelled my appointment.  The next morning I felt better, then realized that I'd started my period.  Oooooh.  I've had the cramps start before the main event before, and sometimes my cramps make me nauseous, but I've never felt nauseous before the cramps started before.  Anyway so, I missed that appointment and only went the one time last week.  Just got back from today's appointment (we did back this time) and my PT said there was some kind of snafu and she has to cancel the rest of the week including my 2nd appointment for the week.  Sigh.  Going to leave the appointment in my calendar anyway and try to trick myself into going!

 

I have noticed that my appetite has really lessened ever since the worst of the heat broke, this has made the mindful eating a lot easier.  So hopefully I can get back on the losing train for a while, it's hard to stay motivated just hanging out in the station.

 

As for stretching and doing random calisthenics I am really doing well with that, it's become sort of second nature now.

[sicil]

Ouch! Hope you're doing better. Yes, yes, trick yourself into doing something anyway! I dunno how it is for you but I find exercise helps after the first few days.