Cledbo trains for battling Dragons

[Cledbo]

Soooo... hi? First post, I feel like a total noob. My post probably won't be as well formatted or thought out as some of the amazing ones I've seen on here in my trawling for ideas/inspiration (good job, everyone, because here I am!). *deep breath* Here we go!

 

Major Quest

aka Towards Level 20 (because I play old school D&D ;-)

 

Ironically, in just about 6 weeks, I have a long-john Army Reserve course to go on. With Special Forces people, who will dead-set kick my ass in physical training if I'm not ready. So I want to be ready.

My major goal for the end of this first challenge is to do a pre-course fitness test, and pwn it. Specific measures for this quest are:

 

1. 2.4km run in less than 12min (currently run at about 12:30)

2. 35+ military push-ups

3. 100 sit ups

4. 5km pack march with weapon, without collapsing in a huge heap at the end

 

and just generally not die when doing PT with the guys for four whole godforsaken weeks. (It'll be fun, really, the course itself - it's the PT I'm petrified of!)

 

Three Small Things

aka Taking it one encounter at a time

 

1. Running

Twice a week, for at least 20mins. This should be fairly easy, because I've volunteered for a scientific study that will make me do this for 3 of the upcoming 6 weeks, plus free sports bras! Universities are so handy.

For the purposes of increasing cardio fitness, and also not getting bored, Body Attack and Zumba will count.

 

2. Strength Training

Twice a week, anything which makes my muscles hurt and get stronger. Body Pump, Circuit class, bodyweight training, lifting - whatever I feel like (I'm a total schizophrenic when it comes to training, I get bored so quickly!). This will also include at least three 5km pack marches in the 6 week period, preferably more but they can be tough to schedule.

 

3. Beating the Sugar Dragon

OK, so I have a problem with sugar. It's not, like, full-on addiction, but it's pretty close. My naturopath told me to stop eating sugar whilst I was on my current supplements, and do you think I listened? I had two ice creams today. It has to stop. For the next 6 weeks I will eat NO more ice creams, no more soda, no more treats. None. Nada. Zilch. It zaps my energy, puts fat on my ass, and feeds the bad gut bugs which I'm trying to get rid of to hopefully fix my eczema, intermittent depression and any number of other things. This by far will be my biggest challenge, because I like exercising, but me and sugar have an unhealthy relationship.

 

 

Life Quest

Mindfulness

Spend 10 minutes every day doing a mindfulness exercise. Again, depression-alleviation is part of this, but my energizer-bunny mentality of jumping from one thing to the next and trying to do ALL THE THINGS also gets kept in check a bit by practicing mindfulness. For 6 weeks I want to focus on doing this one thing, making space in my life for quiet watchfulness.

 

 

Motivation

As stated above, the short-term motivation for this Challenge is to get through my upcoming course without being turned to mush or horribly embarrassed (right now, I couldn't tell you which one would be worse). A bigger, longer term motivation is that this year is the one in which we want to generate spawn, so I want to have the healthiest, most functional body in which to grow a little nerd of our own. I also want to have energy, physical capabilities and mental stability for when that future RPG-er comes out and changes our lives forever. If that's not a good enough reason to stop eating ice cream (at least for a little while) and chase vitality, I don't know what is.

 

 

I won't have photos or measurements, because I'm already cool with my size, shape and weight etc, plus if I do succeed in getting knocked up those measurements will be meaningless pretty quickly anyway! My major changes will be in physical capabilities, but because I'm an exercise-style schizo I find it hard to track my progress sometimes (and get bored with doing the same thing, which is also not optimal!). I've got my fitness test end-goals above, though, which I'll be working towards and can/should periodically measure against. I might chuck in some other subjective measures here and there, like if I notice I'm sleeping better (or worse!), or not craving sugar as insanely or something.

Any suggestions or guidance would be most welcome!

 

UPDATE - Here's my motivation space, just outside my bedroom door in a place I'll see it every day.

 

Thanks

 

[VTSPE772]

I like your cardio alternatives!  I do Body Attack and Muscle Mix for a change-up too!

[wilkymouse]

I love it all right down to the IT Crowd gif.
And I'm super-jealous about the free sports bras.

[Raxie]

Sweet, another old school D&D fan

 

Your goals look good. Simple and straight forward.  You've got this!

[sjr243]

I am loving your challenge.  I have a friend who is a "total schizophrenic" when it comes to training and swears by cross fit.  It fills that need to something different each day.  I am not a cross fitter, (I actually enjoy doing the same thing everyday) but I hear its great.  Good luck!

[Teros]

I am loving your challenge.  I have a friend who is a "total schizophrenic" when it comes to training and swears by cross fit.  It fills that need to something different each day.  I am not a cross fitter, (I actually enjoy doing the same thing everyday) but I hear its great.  Good luck!

It's all about what you find fun for exercising. For me, kettelbells and a sledgehammer were the way to go. 12 solid months of it and still like it.

 

About the depression/sugar. It is 100% true. I dealt with bad depression for 14 years. Did a whole 30 and it was basically cured.  A week off of whole30 and eating junk food again- felt suicidal. Food Means Everything

 

Good luck and have fun.

[Thom Stépan]

G'day Cledbo 54,

Finding workouts that are fun for you is one of the most important aspects to working out. The advantage of the challenges is that you can give a new workout a decent try over six weeks. Then if you don't like it you can move on.

Perhaps a weekly update on the Army Reserve exercises you listed. This way you can track you progress for your main goal.

[Cledbo]

G'day Cledbo 54,

Finding workouts that are fun for you is one of the most important aspects to working out. The advantage of the challenges is that you can give a new workout a decent try over six weeks. Then if you don't like it you can move on.

Perhaps a weekly update on the Army Reserve exercises you listed. This way you can track you progress for your main goal.

 

That's a great idea, a good way to track without locking myself into a workout plan (which I've tried, and suck at

 

Also thanks Nuala for the guild tag - I keep vascillating between guilds which is why I picked Adventurers for after this challenge, but overall Rangers is probably a good fit for me. Maybe Ranger/Monk? I like martial arts but I do them more for fun than for fighting (ironic considering I'm a part-time soldier... oh well you love what you love!)

 

Also update coming soon - I changed my mind about photos, but they won't be of me now necessarily; I've started a little "motivation board" with photos of me to remind me why I love the things I love, and why I need to keep fit to do it. Watch this space!

 

I'll also be doing the traditional junk-food farewell tonight at Pathfinder (not necessarily healthy, but rituals can be helpful sometimes...) - my last bites of any kind of lollies/candy, chocolate or other snack food for 6 weeks. I will try to control myself and not binge though, because that never ends well! Plus I had a bit last night at our other game (yes I'm playing two Pathfinder games at once - we're serious nerds in our household

 

Catch you on the flipside fellow Challengers, in less than 12 hours IT'S ON!

[Istrix]

Looks pretty good, though I'm curious what a mindfulness exercise is, as I've gotten kinda scatterbrained lately

[Cledbo]

Looks pretty good, though I'm curious what a mindfulness exercise is, as I've gotten kinda scatterbrained lately

 Hi Istrix, mindfulness is straightforward *sounding*, and good for scatterbrains like us.

Unlike most forms of meditation, the aim of mindfulness is simply to watch your body, your senses, and your thoughts, without trying to do anything about any of them. So you aren't actively trying to calm your mind or relax your body. The theory is that, by simply watching and learning to let stuff in your body happen without you trying to control it, your mind will actually become less busy and you'll get a better sense of what you're really feeling.

 

I learnt about it from my naturopath and a psychologist I started seeing, but if you're interested I highly recommend the app Headspace - it's free and a really great introduction to mindfulness practice.

[Cledbo]

So afternoon of day 1, feeling pretty good about this thing - although not too happy about my initial fitness test results (but I guess if I was happy then I wouldn't need a 6 week challenge? Eh):

 

2.4km run time - 13min 30sec (right on the nose of a passing time! Definitely need to improve on that!)

2min push-ups total - 24 (yeah, considering my personal best is 40, and at my fitness test last August I managed 37, I definitely need to regain push-up strength!)

Sit-ups - decided that situps are boring and also not hard the way the Army does them, so I'll use plank to measure my core strength. Managed 2mins, probably could have gone longer but core strength isn't as much of a concern for me overall. I'm aiming for 3+ mins plank at the end, which will be more than sufficient.

 

I'm about to sit down to do my 10 minutes of mindfulness, now that I've gotten most of my day's work out of the way. After that, I've got my pack marching gear good to go upstairs. A very successful day, if I get my butt out the door in the next 20mins!

 

And no sweets! After last night's binge (and it can really only be called that. Krispy Kremes were involved *shudder*) I'm pleased with jumping back on the healthy food wagon and strapping myself down as tightly as possible. Onwards and upwards!

[VTSPE772]

Solid start, and will only go up from here!  Let us know how the "road-march" went. I was a mortar-man in the Army for 8 years, and we humped everything on our back (couldn't do it now if I wanted to)...but like you said above, if we could do it, we wouldn't need a 6 week challenge!

[Cledbo]

Total time running so far: 35min

2.4km time: 13:30 (on the brink!)

Maximum push-ups in 2 minutes: 24

Max plank hold: 2min

Days doing 10 mins of mindfulness: 3 (i.e. all of them

5km pack march time, carrying 8kg (no weapon): 54min (11:12/km)

 

Hot cross buns eaten: 1.5

Glasses of wine: 2

Other sweet things: None

Cravings: Oh, so many

 

Half a week down, 5.5 to go...

[Raxie]

Looks like your off to a great start!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Nice job on the plank hold!!!

 

Stay solid this weekend!  (I'm making hot cross buns tomorrow ....)

[Raxie]

Hope week 2 is treating you well so far!

[Thom Stépan]

G'day mate,

 

How did you finish up on week one? Week 2 is nearly over as well. 

 

Don't worry if you have had a crap time, just keep posting here and we will keep encouraging you to keep going.

 

Looking forward to more of your awesomeness. 

[Thom Stépan]

I hope you are still kicking it. 

 

Even if you are struggling. Pop in and read the awesomeness here on NF, it will encourage you. 

[Cledbo]

Ugh, sorry guys. I didn't fall off the wagon (well, I kind of dragged along behind it for a bit after Easter, but more on that later), what I DID do however was kill my laptop - which makes staying connected to an online community a bit difficult!

 

I had my traditional ANZAC Day binge drinking session (trust me, any Australian who isn't teetotal or pregnant will agree me it's the done thing) and since then it's admittedly been pretty difficult to pick myself back up. I've done a few more running sessions at the sports bra trials, but none outside of that, and fell so far behind on my gym workouts that the gym actually called me to find out where I'd been! Busy, mainly. Also this week I've been sick. Which sucks balls.

 

I've been to Pilates twice and done a lot of walking in the past week but not a lot else. My diet went completely off the wall, into practical non-existence for a while there, and again I'm struggling, clawing myself back up out of the hole I've managed to throw myself into. I don't think it's a coincidence that I've gotten sick, and that I've felt down in the dumps about it at the same time - that sugar dragon is a real bitch.

 

Having said that, my laptop is finally fixed (a must for a geekazoid like myself), and after Pilates I feel more, shall we say, optimistic about exercise than I have for the past few days. I'm trying not to get too freaked out about this fitness test at the end of this challenge, but another trial on Monday should show me where I stand (and just how much work I need to do between now and the start of June!)

Stress isn't healthy, I know, and stressing about what has already happened and I can't change isn't going to help anything. I haven't exactly stuck with my mindfulness practice either, but I've still taken moments to myself to just stare out the window, or walk and enjoy the sun, or get up a bit early on the weekend and take a bath (that was a boss morning, I can tell you). Given that a major goal of mine in the very near future, even more important that this damn fitness test, is to get pregnant, I think concentrating on getting and staying well and relaxed is more important than how many push ups I end up doing (as long as it's at least 18).

 

Mad props to all you crazy kids on here, I'll be back soon properly once I pick up my laptop on Monday. This is a great supportive community and I miss it!

[Thom Stépan]

It happens to the best of us Cledbo, go visit ChristArtist over in the Adventurers. There is a woman who knows how to kick adversity in the guts and keep working out. 

 

I just lost week four to the lurgy. It happens, you just get back up and get your butt moving again. As for pc problems duck into a library, free Internet there. 

[Thom Stépan]

Hey Cledbo, how did your first challenge finish up?

 

You kill that dragon? Or will you need another go at it?

[Cledbo]

Gosh it took me a while to get back here. No real excuse, though that first week of course was a blur and a half. I wouldn't say I really met my goals, in that I didn't do all the stuff I said I would for the whole 6 weeks.

 

I did, however, pass my fitness test with the following half-decent results:

23 push-ups (my lowest in a while, just goes to show that you have to train pushups to do lots of them!)

100 sit-ups (have never done fewer, because you can have someone hold your feet. An ab-hold would be a better test, but eh whaddayagonnado)

12:40 2.4km rum (happy with that - I came last but I was the only female, and have 14:00 to do it in)

 

I definitely need to give the whole 6 week challenge format another shot as Level 0 before I'd consider moving on. Not because my fitness or diet is particularly poor (though I still have a sweet tooth, and those push-ups were a bit dire compared to my previous efforts of 30+) but because I want to be able to stick to a set of goals for 6 weeks instead of flaking!

 

I talked to both my naturopath and my psyche about the whole sugar thing, and both of them said about the same thing - it's not destroying your health, but it could very well hurt your sanity if you worry too much about eating sweet stuff now and then. My psyche even walked me through an exercise that showed me I had the seeds of an eating disorder sitting in some of my "sweet ban" thinking - which gave me a totally different perspective on it, and also let me know that I can relax a little and it isn't the end of the world. I'm a real perfectionist for doing things right the first time, and tend to get hyper-critical of myself when I mess up (in my own mind, even if no one else thinks or knows I "messed up"!). So I think I'll take the time between challenges to review my Main Quest, and come back with some new goals for next time.

 

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. You haven't seen the last of me, I promise!

[Raxie]

Hooray glad you're returning for a second challenge.  See you over there!