A Belated Start

[Sirona]

Hey Folks,

 

I found the challenge 3 weeks in, but I figured I'd get started anyway.

 

Main Quest:

To improve my posture and get my compressed ribs back in place. 

 

Missions:

1) Daily stretching and/or yin yoga for my tight hips and low back

2) Daily brisk walk

3) Weekly osteopath appointments

 

Life Quest

1) Clean my apartment out for my upcoming move

 

Thanks for reading!

[Teirin]

Hello Sirona, welcome to Nerdfitness :-)

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Welcome!!  It is never too late to start.  Let us know how to help you!!

[Sirona]

Main Quest Updates:

 

Monday:

• Went for a nice lunchtime walk.
• Saw my osteopath, who says I am making good progress in fixing my spinal torsion, despite it being an old, entrenched pattern. I have been downgraded to visits every two weeks, which means a slight change in missions, but is very good news!
• Did 15min yin yoga/meditation (child's pose, Reclining Bound Angle Pose, and savasana for 5 min each)

 

Tuesday:

• Switched jobs at lunch, so I missed my walk. Hopefully, all my running around at work helped. (I should remember to put my iPod in my pocket at all times so I can use the pedometer)
• Did 15min yin yoga/meditation (child's pose, Reclining Bound Angle Pose, and savasana for 5 min each)

 

Life Quest:

• Bought new jars and containers for all my spices and baking supplies. Now they're more useful and decorative!
• Reorganized my cabinets, so all my extra spices are stored in the back and the in-use ones are on the counter to remind me to branch out. 

[GingaNinja]

Welcome welcome, glad you are here and ready to tackle your challenge!

 

I am currently adjusting my life goal to be similar to yours because our landlord wants to sell the flat we rent so I am sorting out my move as well! Good luck with it all!

[Teirin]

Seeing your Osteopath less is a victory :-)  Congrats!

[Sirona]

Wednesday Update:

 

I usually work 10-12 hours until very late on a Wednesday, so it's definitely the day most likely to be lazy. There is certainly no possibility of working on my cleaning/moving life quest. However, yesterday wasn't too bad from a mission standpoint. 

 

• Lunchtime walk
• Periodic in-office stretching, I was too tired at night to do prolonged stretches.     

 

I only put my iPod in my pocket in the afternoon, but it reads 4,368 steps. So there's definite room for improvement.

 

 

Overall Goals:

 

I briefly mentioned weight loss in my introduction, but it wasn't the focus of this challenge due to the short time period. However, it is a long term goal I have been working on since the beginning of 2013. I lost 27lbs in 2013 down to 160lbs and then decided to go on maintenance to be sure that I could maintain my weight loss. It's been over a year, so I'm confident my insulin, leptin, ghrelin etc, are stable, so I'm back to working on my nutrition again. I figure it's the least I can do if I'm only allowed low impact exercise due to my ribs. I added a progress bar from the very beginning to my signature, mostly because I want a regular reminder to eat clean.

[Sirona]

Thursday:

 

• lunchtime walk
• evening stretches
• 10 min meditation

Life Quest: Basic kitchen and living room tidying to help keep up my recent organization. 

 

I started planning my next quest as well. I'm still off Crossfit for a while longer, because I can't keep my competitive streak in check, so I looked into Stronglifts 5x5 which seems like a much gentler place to start. (Especially if I take the suggested progressions more slowly.) Now I have to scope out the equipment at my normal gym. It's weird, my Crossfit gym is so full of women, that you don't get a second look if you walk in and set up wherever you want. (Although we work in groups by lift max. usually). At my normal gym, I feel like all of the barbell related equipment is in these weird enclosures where there are no women ever. I suppose it's time to see if that's just my poorly timed assumption or if I will need my most business-like bitchface to overcome feeling anxious. 

[Teirin]

Hope you don't need your most business-like bitchface but bring it if needed.  I hear that having a headset in, even if you aren't listening to anything, is a good way to ward off people coming over to talk to you.

[Nirvi]

Never too late to start!  I am very interested in osteopathy and am looking to get into osteopathic medical school (which is different than the European practice of it) - and I am very convinced it works.  Musculoskeletal manipulation feels amazing.

 

Welcome to the druids, too!  I am also a druid working on SL5x5 (with a few hang-ups)  

[Sirona]

Hope you don't need your most business-like bitchface but bring it if needed.  I hear that having a headset in, even if you aren't listening to anything, is a good way to ward off people coming over to talk to you.

 

Thanks, I will try that. Although, I'm not so much afraid of people talking to me, as having to enter someone else's territory they have staked out looking nervous. But, I guess epic quests don't come easily....

 

Never too late to start!  I am very interested in osteopathy and am looking to get into osteopathic medical school (which is different than the European practice of it) - and I am very convinced it works.  Musculoskeletal manipulation feels amazing.

 

Welcome to the druids, too!  I am also a druid working on SL5x5 (with a few hang-ups)

 

My "osteopath" is actually in school for osetopathy, so she's just a "manual practitioner" right now, but she's done wonders for my posture. My RMT was a good start, but he couldn't fix my underlying misalignment. 

 

I'm excited to try 5x5, yogis need strength too!

[katastrophenkatzchen]

Hello there! Nice to see a fellow late starter! Let's bloom together

 

SL5x5 means stronglift, am I correct? I was a bit confused due not knowing the abbreviation before.

 

And YES, yogis need strenght! I had some problems with the bridge due to no strenght in my arms

 

Go for it!

[RGAlexanderVision]

Good work so far, keep it up!

[Sirona]

And YES, yogis need strenght! I had some problems with the bridge due to no strenght in my arms

 

So, wheel is totally on my back strength and flexibility bucket list. I can get to my head, but can't do the press to get all the way up  . I will conquer it!!! (Once I am medically allowed to do backbends again...)

 

 

Friday Update:

 

Another 12 hour workday...

 

So Biff (my cat) kept me up from 4:30-6:30am by running all over the apartment and me. He's lucky he's cute... This meant that I was ready to fall over by 5:00, just as I went to job #2 of the day. The problem with finally getting enough sleep is that I'm now a zombie if my sleep dips too much below 6.5 hours. 

• Much workplace stretching in the afternoon at job #1. The goal was to kick my writer's block.
• Office yoga and dance party at job #2 in an effort to wake up. 

Steps:

Wed: 8,736

Thurs: 5,767

Friday: 1,883 (eek!)

 

I also solved my weight lifting issue, because the women's version of my gym has a power rack. It doesn't look like it gets used often, which is even better. It's sort of a cop-out, but now there are no more excuses. 

[Teirin]

My cat does the same.  Picking her up and cuddling her for a few min sometimes settles her down.  Would that work on your cat?

 

If going to a women only gym is what makes you comfortable to get started, do it.  Also, no wait times!

[Sirona]

I will try cuddles. Otherwise we are going to do a lot of pre-bedtime playing.

I think a women's only gym will be a good place to start at least.

Saturday and Sunday Update:

Saturday was complete fail, I drove home to see my family and was in a rush then busy with quality time.

Today, I did my yoga and stretching once I got home. I also bought cute new shorts as gymspiration.

[katastrophenkatzchen]

Uhhh I love looking for gym clothes. Totally ridiculous, but if I look good, I automatically feel more confident.

 

I do my yoga first thing in the morning, so I can't "forget" it over the day. Today it was core.... uff, don't think I'd have done it after a full day of anything

[Guest]

.

[Sirona]

Monday Update:

 

It occurs to me that I never assigned a scoring system, but since it's a 0.5 challenge, I figured it doesn't matter as long as I keep myself honest

 

• I'm still switching jobs at lunchtime, so I didn't get my work walk or any walk before the thunderstorm hit, but I did do living room yoga at the end of the day. I was planning on going to the gym, but I had to deal with my broken phone, so I let the weather talk me out of it.
• I packed my gym bag, so today I have no excuses for not going to the gym because it's raining. I'll just go straight from work. 

 

Hello Sirona,

 

I found your thread through rebel introductions. It got me excited because one of my eventual goal is to do a cartwheel (or just be upside down really, I've never done it) and most people who wanted to do it seem to be able to do it already (as opposed to be being newish). I'm currently stretching everyday with focus on the hips and hemstrings, and doing pilates to strengthen the core that should help with steadying the body upside down. I'm glad to see you've progressed to less osetopathy visits, congrats!

 

As for going to the barbells seemingly men's section, I've found they only stare initially when you first, then they get use to you and don't really look any more. Most of them seem more focussed on the mirrors at themsleves haha! (good form posture etc). I would be more worried about their barbells dropping on my feet to be honest, silly but hey they look heavy. Hope entering that section has gotten easier for you.

Hey Umodiel,

 

Sounds like a good plan, you may also want to think about ways to improve your shoulder stability and mobility. It's one of my big challenges with getting upside down, no matter how many times my instructors says it;s just about stacking bones  

 

So true... I think I'm just going to have to be brave if I can't make the women's gym hours.

[Sirona]

Tuesday Update:

• Rowing warm-up
• Stronglifts 5x5 Workout A: Squat 45lb, Bench press 45lb, Bent-over row: 65lb
• Stretching pre- and post-workout
• Half-hour walking meditation

All in all a very successful day.

[Sirona]

Wednesday:

 

Unless focused cat time counts as meditation, lets just say that yesterday was a write-off. I was so busy at work I did not even eat dinner   And I brought it with me, so that's a pretty impressive fail. I did spend a few minutes on some tight muscles from Tuesday with a yoga therapy ball, but that's pretty much it. 

[katastrophenkatzchen]

Don't let your head down! Things will be better again.

AND you did at least something for Wednesday!

[Teirin]

Your cats appreciated it, probably.  Have a better day tomorrow.

[Sirona]

Thanks folks! Wednesdays are the hardest, I leave my house at 8am and often don't get back until well after 10pm. 

 

Thursday Update:

 

Warmup:

Row, push-ups (I did 3 actual push-ups!!!), sit-ups, dips, stretch

 

SL5x5 Workout B:

Squat 22.5kg 5x5

Overhead Press 20kg 5x3 3x1 (this is what I get for always using a push press to get overhead in CrossFit)

Deadlift 40kg 5x1

More stretching

 

Meditate: 15 minutes, plus started reading the new book for my mindfulness group

 

Life Quest:

Picked up paint chips for the new apartment, I need to decide between light yellow with a brown undertone or a yellow-yellow undertone. Paint is weird. 

[Sirona]

Long Weekend Update:

 

This weekend reminded me why I work all the time. I literally have the worst habits (read no habits) when it comes to unprogrammed time. I managed to watch all of the finale television I missed for two weeks, sleep far too much, and give myself a wicked case of insomnia to carry into today. Clearly, my downtime should not exceed a few hours.

 

• Saw my osteopath and things are improving! 
• I was going to go to the gym but the long weekend hours were terrible and I couldn't Sunday because of my osteopathy appointment anyway. 
• Did some light stretching Sunday after meditation. 
• Pretty much frittered Monday away by sleeping until 6:00pm.
• Here's hoping that I can score a pre-gym nap today. 

Life Quest:

• I bought some art for my new apartment
• I picked towels out and then didn't buy them because my taste in linens in pricey apparently. I'll have to watch for a sale.