Hiroro: Desert Explorer

[Hiroro]

My first challenge went fine, but I'm hoping to really dig into this next challenge. My inspiration: Daenerys from GoT.

 

 

Daenerys Stormborn started as an awkward, weak child but over the seasons/books emerged as a strong, caring leader. (I haven't seen Season 4 yet, so no spoilers please!) Plus I was born the year of the dragon 

 

"I will take what is mine with fire and blood."

 

Main Quest: Run a marathon (November) -Persevere through the desert

As I am moving to the (California) desert, it seemed only fitting to invoke the Dothraki journey. They were wandering through unfamiliar lands, unsure of where they were going or how long it would take. Yet Daenerys forged on, unwilling to give up. It would be so easy to let my health fall by the wayside as I make this life transition. But instead I want to keep up my training and keep getting stronger!

 

 

“If I look back, I am lost.â€

Run 3x/week -Keep moving forward

Previously I have not been good at sticking to a training plan. This time will be different. Missed runs for injury will not be counted, since overtraining has been an issue in the past.

Reward: +4 STA  (A: +Athleta shorts)

 

"I am the blood of the dragon."

Daily strength set -Get tougher every day

I want to establish a daily practice for my goal skills: handstands, splits, pullups (do one!), pushups (no knees!). Possibly with a minute of meditation at the end. Just has to be 5 minutes or so, I'll develop the routine over the first week.

Reward: +2 STR, +1 DEX  (A: +$20 of music + Pandora sub)

 

"People learn to love their chains."

Keep a food log -Take control of the situation

This is something I should be doing to manage my digestive issues, and understand what I can tolerate. My diet has been holding me back, but I'm ready to do what needs to be done.

Reward: +3 CON  (A: +W30-compliant bacon and jerky)

 

"I am no ordinary woman, my dreams come true."

No TV by myself -Focus

Seriously, if GoT characters had TV nothing would get done! I will watch movies or shows socially but not on my own. Late-night show binges are inevitably accompanied by excessive snacking, and followed by regret. Without TV, I will have more time/energy to go after what I really want (whatever that may be).

Reward: +1 WIS, +2 CON  (A: +TBD, depends what replaces TV)

 

Lifequest: Minimize my stuff -Prioritize

Because the company is packing all of my stuff, this seems like a perfect time for a minimalism challenge. Basically, I will only unpack things when I need to use them. This also decreases the pressure on me to unpack everything immediately. At some point I'll evaluate whether I actually need what is left in boxes.

Reward: +2 WIS (+Peace of mind)

 

 

My goals are a little more moderate this time around, achievable but still enough to show progress. I didn't want to be too ambitious especially with the move, but I've had enough phases of making excuses. To battle!!!

[Fonzico]

I love it! That will be  great challenge to keep you motivated but not additionally stressed out during your move. The minimalism goal is a good one too, although personally I don't think I could handle having to rifle through boxes every time I needed something new! I suppose the packing company does a better job of labelling things than I do though

 

I totally have a recipe for W30 compliant jerky, if you want to try making it yourself!

[Arya Sapphire]

Yes, my Dothraki, I will be following your thread to the fire and beyond. You're a total badass and you have the blood of the dragon, so nothing will stop you. 

 

I wish you all the best!

[BalianIronguard]

Phenominal goals! I imagine you've already read it, but I can personally vouch for the nerdfitness "How to do a better pullup" post. I went from "NOPE" to 7 pull-ups currently by following that posting. I'm moving apartments, so the minimalism thing has definitely been fun.

 

You'll do awesomely at this!

[darkfoxx]

Yes! Minimalism and dragons and fire! All the win 

[Hiroro]

I totally have a recipe for W30 compliant jerky, if you want to try making it yourself!

I doooooo! ...does it require a dehydrator? I have a Kitchenaid, food processor, Vitamix...no dehydrator. I made jerky with my grandmother once and it was a lot of work.

 

 

Yes, my Dothraki, I will be following your thread to the fire and beyond. You're a total badass and you have the blood of the dragon, so nothing will stop you. 

 

I wish you all the best!

Thanks Arya! I'll be following you too...your thread is already where the party's at lol.

 

Phenominal goals! I imagine you've already read it, but I can personally vouch for the nerdfitness "How to do a better pullup" post. I went from "NOPE" to 7 pull-ups currently by following that posting. I'm moving apartments, so the minimalism thing has definitely been fun.

 

You'll do awesomely at this!

Hmm I definitely looked at that post but will have to revisit, thanks for the reminder. Awesome that you can do 7 pullups!

 

 

Yes! Minimalism and dragons and fire! All the win 

I read this as....go get a dragon to burn all my extra stuff!

[darkfoxx]

Hey, whatever leads to dragon having works  

[Arya Sapphire]

You have a Vitamix? I WISH! That's the dream.

Drinking tea with the Mad Hatter; sorry for any typos, sent from Tapatalk.

[Fonzico]

I doooooo! ...does it require a dehydrator? I have a Kitchenaid, food processor, Vitamix...no dehydrator. I made jerky with my grandmother once and it was a lot of work.

Nope, it's a simple recipe that doesn't require anything fancy, except some wooden skewers, and taking over your oven for 16 hours or so I have it written down at home, but I will come post it tonight, I promise! I wouldn't say it's a lot of work... it takes a while, but it's mostly waiting time, not active doing stuff time. But it needs a day to marinate, and almost another day to dry, so yeah. Worth it though, it's so good! Not like anything you can buy..

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Oh, I love Dani!!!!  Nice theme there, and I'm sure you are going to conquer this challenge.

 

Best of luck with the move.  I'm trying to toss things out and pack the rest so I don't have to pay burly guys so much to do it.  It's a workout, right??

[Endor]

Wow you got a lot going on in this challenge. 

 

Late night TV goal is a huge one, if you can avoid that and get some extra zzz's that will help with your marathon training big time. 

 

Good luck! 

[Xena]

Love your theme and also like that you have rewards with your challenges.

[MidknytOwl]

I'll trade you my dehydrator for you Vitamix, so you can make the jerky easier, if you want.  No?    (I find it funny you have the most expensive kitchen gadgets people salivate over but not a $40 dehydrator, btw.)

 

Nice quest and goals...even though I've never read/watched GoT so I know I'm not getting most of it, but I could tell it was good thematically, nonetheless.

 

I really liked the minimalist thing.  I'm probably moving in a month or two, and have accumulated a crazy amount of stuff in the last two years that I've been wanting to downsize anyway.  Considering I still have stuff in boxes/containers from 2-3 moves ago, probably a good idea.  (Though in my defense some of those are things like knickknacks I want to keep, but waiting until I knew I had a job for more than a year before I pulled them out and decorated.  At this rate they may never leave the boxes though. -sigh-)

 

Sounds great, and hopefully the move will go super smooth and everything will go according to plan!  Besides, things will feel so relaxed this time around without the am-I-moving-am-I-not-moving-crap-do-I-not-have-a-job-at-all stress.

[Hiroro]

Thanks for all the support guys!

 

You have a Vitamix? I WISH! That's the dream.

Got it at Costco! I've recently started using it to make my own almond milk and love knowing it's just almonds and water. I'll get it from the store but prefer not to since it has preservatives. 

 

Nope, it's a simple recipe that doesn't require anything fancy, except some wooden skewers, and taking over your oven for 16 hours or so I have it written down at home, but I will come post it tonight, I promise! I wouldn't say it's a lot of work... it takes a while, but it's mostly waiting time, not active doing stuff time. But it needs a day to marinate, and almost another day to dry, so yeah. Worth it though, it's so good! Not like anything you can buy..

Where? Where is the recipe?  Nbd no rush, I won't be cooking much until I move anyhow. And yeah my grandmother's teriyaki jerky is super good too, but I know the marinade has sugar and such in it. 

 

Oh, I love Dani!!!!  Nice theme there, and I'm sure you are going to conquer this challenge.

 

Best of luck with the move.  I'm trying to toss things out and pack the rest so I don't have to pay burly guys so much to do it.  It's a workout, right??

Well the company is moving my stuff so I don't have that specific motivation, but moving stuff is definitely a workout! And I'm moving from a house to a smaller apartment, so I don't have space for everything!

 

Wow you got a lot going on in this challenge. 

 

Late night TV goal is a huge one, if you can avoid that and get some extra zzz's that will help with your marathon training big time. 

 

Good luck! 

Thanks Endor, I'm definitely finding sleep affects my workout recovery (and ability to get up to run).

 

I'll trade you my dehydrator for you Vitamix, so you can make the jerky easier, if you want.  No?    (I find it funny you have the most expensive kitchen gadgets people salivate over but not a $40 dehydrator, btw.)

 

Nice quest and goals...even though I've never read/watched GoT so I know I'm not getting most of it, but I could tell it was good thematically, nonetheless.

 

I really liked the minimalist thing.  I'm probably moving in a month or two, and have accumulated a crazy amount of stuff in the last two years that I've been wanting to downsize anyway.  Considering I still have stuff in boxes/containers from 2-3 moves ago, probably a good idea.  (Though in my defense some of those are things like knickknacks I want to keep, but waiting until I knew I had a job for more than a year before I pulled them out and decorated.  At this rate they may never leave the boxes though. -sigh-)

 

Sounds great, and hopefully the move will go super smooth and everything will go according to plan!  Besides, things will feel so relaxed this time around without the am-I-moving-am-I-not-moving-crap-do-I-not-have-a-job-at-all stress.

Thanks owl! For some reason a dehydrator was never the top of my to-buy list until my cabinets were overflowing and I've been restraining myself from adding more gadgets.

 

Yeah there's that point when I realized I have stuff I haven't unpacked through multiple moves...which probably means I should get rid of it.

 

And you're right, now that I know what's happening exactly how/when is not stressing me out too terribly.

 

 

 

 

 

Ahem, I am using my last couple days of TV to rekindle my love of Leverage (Parker is the bomb)!

[Hiroro]

Yikes tomorrow is Monday already! So I've thought about my daily workout routine (Goal #2), and this is what I think it'll look like:

 

Warmup

3 Sun salutations

 

Minimum/Good

1 pushup/AMRAP (no knees)

1 pullup attempt/AMRAP mod (negatives, assisted, or hang)

1 handstand attempt/handstand length improvement

5 second split attempt/1 minute (each way)

1 burpee/AMRAP

10 sec meditation/5 min

 

It's definitely not a "real" workout, but enough to get my body warmed up and the blood flowing. As soon as I do 1 rep, it'll likely lead to more.

[Xena]

I think it sounds great. You can always do more, but this is something you can use to build a routine.

[Arya Sapphire]

I agree with Xena, it looks solid to me! Have a great first day Hiroro!

[Kailer]

Congrats on moving past the L1 conference!

[Hiroro]

Thanks guys!

 

8AM Monday and I'm already struggling with the no TV goal 

 

Since I'm taking today off (supposedly to get things done pre-move), I can do whatever I want right now and ugh I just want to watch TV. So here I am trying to justify watching...and thinking how I could modify the goal in a way that lets me have my TV NOW. Behavior of an addict 

 

Instead, I will:

0. daily set

1. go to the hardware store

2. book my plane ticket

3. wash dishes

4. bake

5. work on putting up blinds

 

On a side note, my diet is definitely going to be crazy this week and I'm okay with it. Saying goodbye to the city I've just realized is the first to really feel like home means eating my favorites one last time. As long as I write it all down, I'll just let it be and move on. In my new place, I plan to start by only buying W30 groceries, which should help me get on track.

 

 

 

#0 done (in the middle of posting ). Not a 'real workout', but it definitely got me warm. I used the 2 min meditation from calm.com...so helpful! I get super twitchy sitting in silence, but the guided meditation felt quick.

[Arya Sapphire]

I really like the Calm app, I've been using it once in a while and it always helps tremendously! 

 

Gah, so much to do, so little time and TV is always right there. But it's good to keep yourself busy and enjoy your favorite restaurants before the move. That's all part of the experience of course.

[BalianIronguard]

Way to dodge that TV jonesing!

[MidknytOwl]

On a side note, my diet is definitely going to be crazy this week and I'm okay with it. Saying goodbye to the city I've just realized is the first to really feel like home means eating my favorites one last time. As long as I write it all down, I'll just let it be and move on. In my new place, I plan to start by only buying W30 groceries, which should help me get on track.

 

 

I'm totally with you on that one.  I went last year to visit friends in my old college town, and I was working in where we'd meet up around favorite dishes I missed.  Same thing when my ex and I went back to his hometown for Christmas - I swear we did nothing but eat the entire time, to the point of just being uncomfortable.

 

Enjoy those favorites guilt free!  

[Hiroro]

I'm tracking my food here to keep my challenge thread a little clearer. 

 

Still struggling to not watch TV by myself, it's my impulse as soon as I get up and don't have to go to work...but I have tons of things to get done around the house anyways. I did watch a replay of Crossfit Games action last night with the bf...totally awesome. Seeing those handstand walks made me excited to get better at handstands! Speaking of which...

 

I got myself to Crossfit today and found my 1 rep max deadlift...185 lb! More than I weigh...and this is just my starting point.

After class I played around with handstands (I'll count it towards my daily set) and actually held one for a few seconds!!!!! I counted to 5, but it was probably actually 3 seconds. It's amazing to me how just a handful of short practices spread over the last two weeks is already paying off.

 

Speaking of which, time to go round that out with the rest of the set (sun salutations, pushup, etc).

[climber_girl]

I finally made it to your thread!

 

I love the Daenerys from GoT theme for your challenge! Don't worry about not seeing season 4 yet, I'm still at the beginning of season 2 lol I'm always behind on shows, mainly because I don't really watch tv by myself, just Netflix if I ever have any free time.

 

Looks like you have some good goals, I'm sure you'll breeze through this challenge no problem. It's great to see someone else working on getting a pull up! Tonight I started working on them after climbing. Another one (who can't do a single one either) and I were giving each other a boost to get up there. Then others we know would come up and show off.

 

Good luck with minimizing and with your move!

[ShadowLion]

Wow - well done on the 1 rep max deadlift! Woot on that and the handstand!

 

Following along and enjoying seeing the progress already!