Skigh's War Journal

[Skigh]

Looks great Skigh. Although, wasting time on chasing dreams? You have dreams and their pursuit is hardly wasted time, it is how you manage the time of pursuit.

Good luck Skigh, I look forward to seeing your challenge rock!

HAHA. There is supposed to be a big fat "NOT in there. I'll correct. As in I haven't given it enough of my time and I need to do more of that.

[citizenkade]

This looks like a good plan, man!

[Skigh]

Last night before the plunge. I had some celery and peanut butter for dinner tonight. I think I'll be able to look forward to a lot of simple meals happening. I still need to go through the resources NF recommended to find paleo recipes. Get creative on how to avoid dairy and wheat. It'll be an adventure. Even though I haven't tracked anything on here this week I'll keep my daily count running. Which will make tomorrow day 50. I'll weigh myself tomorrow night after my workout. I took pictures at the beginning of last challenge. But I don't think much has changed yet. I suppose I could get some measurements if I feel like it. We'll see. 

 

Step 1: close eyes

Step 2: dive!

[Thom Stépan]

Get the tape measure out, and shock your world. 

Challenge time Assassin.

[pumazealy]

awesome goals, good luck!

 

there are heaps of paleo recipes out there. maybe try starting with one meal at a time and just looking for those recipes first

[Skigh]

Day 50 Yoda takes me to town

 

New challenge is here! Super tired day but I got through it and was excited to work out tonight. It was a great day in Salt Lake so I decided today was the day I finally start Jedi training! I got the email for the Star Wars Workout during last challenge and I was excited to try it out. Cause as the article states "who doesn't want to be a jedi?" I learned how great a teacher Yoda really is. I read through this workout and totally thought to myself "I could definitely do Jedi or Master levels of all those workouts." I got a big fat FAIL on that just like Luke did when he tried to lift his X-Wing out of the swamp. Very pleased with day 1 of challenge 2 though!

 

Get Fit: +1 day of exercise. Workout summary below.

Get Strength: Star Wars Workout

• Warm up - 5 min jog down the street and back
• Skywalker Handstands - Jedi - 5 minutes of wall plank practice. My feet were pretty high up. I didn't measure how far my hands were from the ground but I was more up than flat. I held probably 5 20 second wall planks. I had a hard time keeping breath after that. Not sure what I was doing wrong or if that is normal and my body has to adjust.
• Jedi Highjumps - Jedi - 1 x (15 jump squats) 2 x (10 jump squats) - This brought a whole new level of pain to my squats. It was great! Squatsanity up in hurr!
• Chewbacca Carries - Master - 60 sec waiter carry - I forgot to take a dumbbell outside with me so I grabbed some kind of liquid container out of the garage. We'll see if I can hold a 20 lb dumbbell for 60 seconds next time.
• Han Solo Shuttle Runs - Youngling - I definitely did not hit padawan on this one. And I probably looked like an old geezer trying to touch the ground. Bad form on the shuttle runs. I probably 5 15-20 second jogs/runs in 3 minutes. 
• Jedi Force Choke Holds - Padawan - Hang from pull up bar while standing on support for 60 seconds of hang time. In getting ready I was intending to pull my feet off the support. That didn't happen. Fear got the best of me. And those muscles for sure wouldn't have held for 60 seconds w/o support.
• Force Push ups - Jedi - 4 sets of 8 knee plyometric push ups. Like the jumping squats this brought a whole new meaning to my push ups. It'll be a while before I'm doing plyometric push ups on my feet. But this will definitely help increase my reps on the BBWW doing regular push ups. 4th set was tough but I did all 8!
• Jabba the Hut Chokes - Sub Jedi - I did 3 poor sets of 5 poor bodyweight rows. I did all the outside exercises and then came inside and did push ups followed by rows. So that probably complicated it. And I had questions about the table I was using. Hopefully this week I buy a pull up bar I can put at that height and do bodyweight rows with that. 

Get Health:

Apple, Celery w/ Peanut Butter,

Salad w/ peanuts

Tacos sans taco shell & cheese. So some meat, beans, and veggies all mixed together on my plate. 

Get Reel: As of yet I haven't animated. I intend to take an hour to do so in a little bit. Will update later tonight. 45 minutes working on a walk cycle.

Get Rest: I did get 7 hours of sleep last night. Sadly I was still struggling at work. Zzzzzz

 

Feel good after today. I just weighed and measured myself and updated my challenge post. 

[SevenofSeven]

Jump Squats OMG, I did these Monday and my hammies are still angry at me! As you say bring a whole new level if pain to the game!

[Skigh]

Day 51 and 52

 

Tuesday got derailed a little. A friend of mine ended up needing a place to spend the night. So that took away any time I had to go running. But I'm still eating very well.

Get Health:

Ham, potatoes, and veggies for lunch.

Yucatan Chicken Tortilla soup at Zupas. 

Get Rest: I did get 7 hours on Monday night.

 

Today was pretty stressful. I had a job interview with another department in my same building which went well. But I was very distracted at work because I was being told that the friend who stayed at my place had some drama follow him to my house today. Nothing crazy happened. Just some yelling and whatnot between the parties involved. He's gone now. But after the long day I was driving home and I was craving a pizza. I came home and rocked a great workout that pushed me pretty close to my limits. So going to feel this in the morning.

Get Fit: +1 day of exercise. 

Get Strength: BWW, 3 full circuits of:

• 20 reverse squats (CK, these were amazing!)
• 15 Push ups
• 20 Lunges
• 30 dumbbell rows (last 10 felt like it was going to tear my arms off)
• 30 s plank
• 30 Jumping Jacks

Get Health

Chicken salad with some kind of vinaigrette dressing

Celery and Peanut Butter

Chicken Fajitas from Chili's minus sour cream and tortillas. So chicken, grilled peppers, onions and some pico de gallo.

 

I was working on my form on the reverse squats so I didn't do a ton. They're deceiving though. They feel like you can do a lot and then they start to burn quick. Maybe I'll try for 30 next week. That work out took it out of me but as I started going that desire for pizza was no where to be found. New cure for the sirens call: Body Weight Workout.

Get Rest: Did not get 7 hours. I got to bed at midnight but didn't fall asleep until after 2:30. Stressful night.

[SevenofSeven]

Great job Skigh! Way to beat the pizza Gremlins.

[Skigh]

Thanks Seven. That was a great victory!

 

Day 53

 

Get Fit: 90 minutes of basketball. good times. We had 7 tonight and still played half court. That is the number I like to start doing full court. Once a team has 4 it gets a little croweded, so my performance was less than inspiring. Barely hit any shots tonight. But I got tired. 

Get Health: (in no particular order)

Protein style hamburger. (First time I've had a burger wrapped in lettuce. It was alright. Not my favorite, but I kept away from the bread.)

Breakfast Smoothie (strawberries, beats, dates, cashews, coconut water, and i forget what else.)

For dinner I went to CitizenKade's restaurant. It looks great! I had their house salad. First time having soy chicken. It was a stellar salad for sure! 

Get Rest: I did not get 7 hours of sleep last night. 

 

Editing my last post to include my "Get Rest" results for Monday night and Tuesday Night as well.

[pumazealy]

jealous you got to eat at frisch, when i make it to SLC next year it's on my list of places i must eat at - possibly several times!

 

i'm still having trim milk with my smoothie, but thinking i will have to switch to almond milk or coconut water. almond milk is a little $$ and i'm not big on coconut - but could you taste much of it?

i put frozen berries and banana in mine. looking to add more - didn't think of cashews though.

[Skigh]

No. The coconut water doesn't come through on this smoothie. Strongest taste is strawberries and kind if the beats. Some say it gives it a sort flavor but to me it's very minimal. I will pm you the recipe.

[Skigh]

Day 54

 

Get Fit: +1 day workout

Get Strength: I was a little limited on time today so I did 2 circuits that were a little more intense than usual.

• Warm - up: 5 min jogging in place, 5 min handstand practice (I held a 50 second wall plank probably 40" from the wall, and then a few more 20 second wall plank 36" from the wall)
• 2 x 30 reverse squats (prep for my challenge next week with the Knights of GSPC)
• 2 x 15 Knee Plyometric
• 1 x 60 second plank! 1 x 30 second plank (I hit a minute! I was pleading for the end for a little bit there.)
• 2 x 30 weighted jumping jacks (I held 10 lb weights in each hand and brought my arms up [kind of in a butterfly motion i think] to shoulder height. This made jumping jacks tough!)

Get Health:

Snacked on some pickles, had a Beach Club Unwich from Jimmy Johns, no mayo (a sandwich wrapped in lettuce works much better than a burger wrapped in lettuce)

Went to costa vida for dinner. I got pork enchiladas with gluten free tortillas, no cheese. Great friday night meal.

Get Rest: I got close to 8 hours of sleep last night!

[Skigh]

Been MIA for a while. Need to report on the last 4 days.

 

Day 55 (Saturday)

Get Fit: No exercise

Get Strength: No workout

Get Health: Had Pizza for my exception meal on the weekend. 

Get Rest: Negative on the 7 hours

Day 56 (Sunday)

Get Fit:  Nope again

Get Strength: Lazy weekend, sadly.

Get Health: Some leftover Pizza, but more than I ought to have. So I'm docking a grade.

Get Rest: No

Day 57 (Monday)

Get Fit:  Nope again

Get Strength: Meant to work out. It just didn't come to me.

Get Health: I had wheat on my lunch. I was hoping our company cafeteria would have some lettuce to wrap a sandwich in but they said no. So I opted for a pita bread rather than regular bread. Made the sandwich smaller portioned so 1/2 of a win, but still loss of grade. The sandwich was a smoked turkey club (w/ bacon, avocado and pepper jack cheese which I didn't have removed since I was eating the pita) so it was worth it. For dinner we cooked a beef stew out of a paleo cookbook my wife bought. It was great!

Get Rest: No. Bad weekend sleeping habits slipped into the week a little.

Day 58 (Tuesday)

Get Fit:  I did go running for a mile when I got home from work. Finally broke the weekend funk.

Get Strength: No strength training other than some reverse squats for a challenge with the other Knights of GSPC. (Got 30). 

Get Health: I WAS doing well. My boss even bought doughnuts this morning and I did not partake. Even though they sat out all day. I had leftover stew for lunch. Then near the end of the day our office has a little celebration for some promotions in our office. I didn't go, I kept working. But the our department director came and brought a huge piece of cake and put it on my desk. I had some, mostly for participation's sake. Our office gets a lot of food (rarely healthy stuff) and expects everyone to help out with eating it all. A little annoying when trying to eat healthy.

Get Rest: YES! Finally broke bad weekend sleeping habits. 

 

So, I went a little crazy over the weekend with the "cheating". I'm not surprised. Or bummed about it. I did manage to go the whole week avoiding wheat and dairy. And this weekend I'll be less eager to go crazy. The cheat this weekend will probably be reduced to a single sandwich. And this isn't about being perfect. Its about permanent change over time. I knew I'd get back on the horse. After a weekend like that it's easy to think "i've blown it this much, i might as well give up." And that didn't enter my mind at all. Now I need to write the next installment of my story on my challenge.

[pumazealy]

we have a meal here and there that isn't paleo. problem is body doesn't quite like the crap food you try and put it after you've eaten all the natural food.

somehow we don't learn thou - again bloody pizza haha. why you have to taste so good.

 

and it's great you didn't get to hard on yourself for it.

 

can't wait to read the next installment of your story

[SevenofSeven]

Exactly Skigh, permanent change for the long haul.

You're doing great and recognising where things went wrong, acknowledging it and moving on.

Keep looking to the future!

[Skigh]

Thanks Puma & 7! This is a great trip!

 

Day 59 (Holy crap tomorrow is 60!)

 

Get Fit: You know it!

Get Strength: 2 BWW circuits:

2 x 30 reverse squats (lookin at you Knights o' GSPC)

2 x 15 Push ups

2 x 20 lunges

2 x 30 dumb bell rows

2 x 30 second planks

2 x 30 10 lb weighted jumping jacks (these feel amazing on my shoulders!)

Get Health: Last of the beef stew for lunch, and a beach club unwich, no mayo from Jimmy Johns (My wife wanted noodles n' company and I wasn't about to go in there. I would've broke)

Get Rest: Did not get 7 hours of sleep. Blërg!

 

And I finished installation 2 of my story. When I started at the beginning of the challenge I thought it'd be fun to do a Kingdom Hearts treatment to fantasy. So it'll have Asura (from my favorite game) mixed with whatever race everyone else is. I intend to cross paths with others on the forums. No clue who yet, but don't expect much logic or continuity. Its just on the fly writing. Fun stuff. Hope you like it. It is on my challenge.

[Skigh]

Day 60 Dag gum!

 

A little tired at work today but I survived. Also, I have arranged a little overnight get away in 2 weeks so I'm looking forward to that now.

 

Get Fit: Played some basketball tonight. 

Get Health: I didn't eat the best quality of food but i stayed away from wheat and dairy. Loophole. I know.

Lunch: Pork enchiladas w/ gluten free tortillas, sans cheese, w/ refried beans lettuce and pico de gallo.

Dinner: beef tacos.

Get Rest:  Negative on the 7 hours last night. And I wake up for work in a little over 5 hours from now so bummer there too. At least its Friday.

[SevenofSeven]

Thankful for weekends!

[Thom Stépan]

Weekends suck. That is when all the kids are home and bored. Roll on Monday when they all get back to school. I LOVE MONDAYS.

[Skigh]

I finally got out and ran a mile. First time working out in over a week. I don't think I'm going to go back and log each day. Just going to give myself grades for last week and this week and start logging again tomorrows. I did do a zombie run and I managed to outrun a mob of zombies. Left me winded for the rest of the run though. Good times.

[Skigh]

First time doing the BBWW in 3 or 4 weeks. Made it through the first circuit okay, got to planks on the second circuit and got light headed. Big tasty dose of humble pie. Small run tomorrow and try again on Wednesday. Onward, upward.

[citizenkade]

It would be easy to flog yourself over time away from the workout, but you came BACK to your workout. That takes some dedication! 

[Skigh]

Thanks CK. Nice to know I don't go down so easy.

 

Weather and family plans cancelled my run so I did a little warming up inside and then took the time to animate a little. Ought to be well rested for another go at the bbww again tomorrow night....If I don't attempt a pre screening of Cap 2! 

[Skigh]

Progress is progress, just like a win is a win. Therefore, I submit progress = win!

 

Got through 2 circuits of BBWW. And no light head. Just utter exhaustion in that amazing way. 

 

2 x 20 squats

2 x 15 push ups

2 x 20 lunges

2 x 20 rows

1 x 30 sec plank + 1 x 25 second plank

1 x 30 weighted jumping jackx + 1 x 20 weighted jumping jacks

 

I need to grill some more chicken for my tacos at work tonight. It makes a great lunch.