Taking the Plunge

[SuNoYo]

Found this site a few months ago and I read through the entire archive in a few days, bounced over the MDA and you know what? It makes sense. So I dithered a bit and incorporated some Paeleo aspects into my life.

Dietary: specifically no grains and minimal carbs. This was actually easy as I really don't like bread or breakfast cereals at all, to quote my younger self 'It's so gummy and stodgy' (from the mouths of children right?) so I barely ate grains at all. Except in pastry products and sweet baked goods. So at the same time I went cold turkey with my medium sized diet coke addiction (just under two cans a day) I cut out all the processed sweet stuff. Until the 24rd of December when Christmas 'officially' started with our Christmas Eve party and all the food came out.

Exercise: I did the basic bodyweight workout three times a week for three weeks until a holiday meetup/friend meetup happened less than a week until Christmas. I've not done any bodyweight workouts for three weeks, although I've made sure to walk for at least half an hour a day and do other small physical activities.

And I would estimate that with those half-hearted, minimal changes combination with new medication I estimate I lost about seven or eight pounds in two months. Over the Christmas period I have put on two of those pounds again.

I missed out on the previous six week challenge, but it's a new year, a new challenge and time to actually get serious about some things.

 

Myself?

Well the annoying thing is I have PCOS and I'm rather short, so I'm a dumpy little hobbit. I'm approximately 12st (168lb) and probably about 30% body fat, so that's my starting point as of today; I have as much strength as a kitten and rather unfit. Basically I want to be fit and healthy. Oh, look at the undefined resolution, let's break it down shall we?

 

Long-term goals as a jack-of-all-trades newbie (this will likely change should I specialise more):

 

Lose 30lb/get down to 22% body fat

Get off my PCOS related medication

Do pull ups and push ups

Be able to lift my starting weight (we'll round to 170lb) or higher (deadlift, squat and benchpress)

Get out and socialise more by trying a fitness/health related class of some kind (any suggestions? I'll try most things)

 

Non-physical/health details about myself:

I'm a medievalist and particularly love reading and translating Old English poetry for fun (though anything pre-1550 is great). Nothing like reading about Anglo-Saxon warriors to help you understand how to buckle down, push reason to the curb and insert Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann reference here.

 

next stop: six week challenge number one.

[Skywalker]

Welcome

You seem to have the motivation you need to get you started.

How on earth did you get into medieval poetry? The stuff people are into on this site is mind blowing.

[thoughtsothu]

You can do it! It seems like you were doing great until the holidays >.<

Hope you teach your goals!

[SuNoYo]

Welcome

You seem to have the motivation you need to get you started.

How on earth did you get into medieval poetry? The stuff people are into on this site is mind blowing.

 

I love books and when I was about fourteen I picked up a slightly modernised version of Malory's Arthur and the language was beautiful and flowery and a little hard to understand, and I just fell in love. It was a challenge, something I'd not had in most traditional classes in years. About a year later I found a few of the Canterbury Tales in the original for sale for about £2 and there were notes, glosses and lengthy introductions! It was seven hundred year old poetry and much more fun than any 'ordinary' poetry.

By the time I was in (British) college I was asked to read extracts from Beowulf during a lecture on Old English (the first time I was ever asked to read actual Old English) and right then and there my decision to specialise in medieval languages and literature was finalised.  It's a beautiful language with fluid poetry.

I can understand more dead/old versions of languages than I can modern languages now.

 

@thouhtsothu: Thanks! And I'm betting quite a few people let things slide for Christmas - 'tis willpower's bane!

[Basement Cat]

Welcome SuNoYo!

 

Shame about the holiday slip up, but now's a great time to get back on the horse before it gets too far way!

 

Oooh, Old-English poetry! Do you have a favorite author?

 

Good luck and keep us posted!

[SuNoYo]

Welcome SuNoYo!

 

Shame about the holiday slip up, but now's a great time to get back on the horse before it gets too far way!

 

Oooh, Old-English poetry! Do you have a favorite author?

 

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

Could have been worse, I made sure to take only half portions of desserts and limited sweets from the big tins (Quality Streets and so forth) to five a day.

 

There aren't many authors when it comes to the Old English corpus (just the fact that there were scribes and a formerly oral tradition of stories means we have to question how much was the author/composer's intent and how much was the scribe(s)'s own invention) meaning we have the Beowulf-poet/author, the Genesis-author and so on. Usually they're classed by manuscript (usually named for location or owner) or on their own merits/grouped with stylistically similar pieces. Hell, most of them don't even have names so earlier scholars/antiquaries/archivists/translators named them based on main character or subject.

Digression aside I love the poems in the Junius manuscript, The Dream of the Rood and Aelfric's Lives of Saints. Oh, and I love Judith. I also like the irony of the poem The Ruin. And I think Beowulf is a little overrated.

[Hugh]

Medievalist, eh? Monk too...
HEMA?