Tsune of RisenPhoenix

[RisenPhoenix]

Oh, also, related to donuts:

 

Did not bring enough food for breakfast this morning after lifting.  The IT manager brought in a dozen donuts.  Probably the first time I've had no guilt about eating a donut in a long, long time.

[RisenPhoenix]

Just a night time trial. 

 

 

Hopefully this isn't huge on normal

computer screens. And this now makes my life easier than trying to type things out. 

 

Also you all get to view my chicken scratch, weird self-notes, and yes, the occasional hand-drawn emoji. 

[RisenPhoenix]

Oh good. It's not terrible on my work computer screen. 

 

Here's this morning's workout. 

 

 

I need to figure out how to make sure I'm upping weights in a regular manner, rather than a "Just because" or "I feel like it" method.

 

bBt yea. So far I like this method of updating my battle log. Much easier. 

[Mistr]

Easy logging is important. I'm frustrated with my current notebook. That means I'm really bad about logging anything. I have a good idea what I want (dot grid or graph paper, spiral or ring bound, about A5 size). Finding it is another story entirely.

[RisenPhoenix]

4 hours ago, Mistr said:

Easy logging is important. I'm frustrated with my current notebook. That means I'm really bad about logging anything. I have a good idea what I want (dot grid or graph paper, spiral or ring bound, about A5 size). Finding it is another story entirely.

 

Im terrible at keeping an Aikido journal. But lifting journals? No problem. But keeping THIS updated was just a pain. Since I like analog note taking, I would have to transcribe everything. But once I realized I have been taking photos of my notebook... just opened up a whole door of easier access. 

 

One day ill get the aikido journal down. Ha. 

[The Most Loathed]

5 hours ago, Mistr said:

Easy logging is important. I'm frustrated with my current notebook. That means I'm really bad about logging anything. I have a good idea what I want (dot grid or graph paper, spiral or ring bound, about A5 size). Finding it is another story entirely.

https://rhodiapads.com/collections_dot_top_wirebound.php

They do a sidebound one too but I can't find it right now. Fair warning, you pretty much need a gel or fountain pen to write on these. 

[RisenPhoenix]

NP this morning, with the bonus of the workout being a FIREDRILL.  Lately rather than do one type of exercise, the Co-Leaders have been making it two different BW ones.  Today it was pushups and Squats.  Fifty of them each, to be exact.

 

So I didn't make a full tour, but I did make 30 sections.  I'll take it.  Was a good workout in this hot and humid weather.

[RisenPhoenix]

 

My quads hate me after being laid up for several days because of sickness. But I would be lying if I didn't say I was pleased to get back to the gym this morning. Even if I was moving suuuuuuuper slow today. 

[RisenPhoenix]

 

That was yesterday. Today was a 36ish pound ruck (six bricks and 2L water), and 28 stadium sections in huuuuuumid weather. 

[RisenPhoenix]

Well shit. Apparently Photobucket did shit out. I need a new method of uploading my data. I have three workoutsto upload!

 

Did my lifting Friday, and then yesterday and today. And I'm feeling good about it all. So huzzah!

 

Dammit. I liked my photo tracking uploads. 

[RisenPhoenix]

I think I need to try signing up with Imigr and see if that'll work the same.  Later tonight, hopefully.

 

Anyway, November Project this morning.  Shocking, I know.  Today was PR day, and the weather was so nice - clear, sunny, super low humidity - that I figured I'd try and push myself for the PR attempt.

 

Annnnnnd I wiffed it.  Full tour in 37 minutes and 12 seconds, which is 53 seconds slower than my PR I set way back when.  So I need to gain at least 1.5 seconds a section to get another PR.  Ah well.  But I put all I could into it today, so no complaints.

 

Other than I definitely need to keep sitting all day...

[RisenPhoenix]

I really have a bunch of things to update in here, and the lack of being able to get an easy upload option is killing me.

 

Haven't lifted as much as I've wanted because of Reasons.  Injuries, being busy, extra aikido time.  Just varies.  I want to get back to normal, but unfortunately this week and next week are equally screwed for me because of vacation plans.  Ah well.  Vacation is a good reason.

 

Lifted this morning, plan on tomorrow morning and Thursday morning, as well.  And hopefully I can get things started again once I get back.

[RisenPhoenix]

Full tour this morning!  A Shock!  Because my legs hate me and the weather sucked.

 

Also shocking - my weight.  Came in at 208.8 pounds, which is 1~2 pounds less than I was two weeks ago, and I've been kinda eating like an asshole.  So that was a good feeling.  Granted, I'm going on vacation in a few days, so that'll bounce back up.  But ah well.  Good to see under 210 again.

[RisenPhoenix]

Wow.  Er.  So six months without using this thing.  That's.... pretty terrible, even by my standards.

 

Six months, where I stopped lifting to prioritize sleep because my stress levels were skyrocketing because the chaos in my personal life (job, relationship, an idiot land lord).  Pretty much a perpetual holiday eating plan from October until mid-January.  Several weeks of just straight up doing nothing.  Even more of half-hearted efforts.

 

But things are clearing themselves up, at this point.  Living situation is good.  Job is steady.  Finances are at an all-time high.  Debt is nearly paid off.  I have a large amount of mental RAM that in the last 6 weeks has opened up so much more than it's had in the past, that I scarcely know what to do with it.

 

I do know the things I want to do are much longer term than 4-week challenges.  I don't want to spend precious mental energy making challenges every couple of weeks.  I need a bit more of a fluid space, where I can keep moving forward.  If I have a thread in the challenge spaces, it'll likely just be rambling about aikido/martial arts.  This space I want to get back up and running for the non-martial art stuff.  The better food logging/choices/plays.  The November Project commentary.  The attempts at a gym return that I want to look at.

 

I need to get back on the horse.  The only good thing is that while I'm definitely sitting 10-15 pounds heavier than I like being, the last several months proved it takes several months to get me to this point.  I won't become fat over night, or over month, or over several months.  I'm aware of what I need, so I should embrace that and push forward.

 

So here we go.  Onwards and upwards, for the Nth reboot since I've been here at NF.

[Teirin]

Hey, your rambles are great.  Glad to see you in a better place again.

[The Most Loathed]

welcome back

[RisenPhoenix]

19 hours ago, Teirin said:

Hey, your rambles are great.  Glad to see you in a better place again.

 

I'm glad you think my rambles are great.  I usually just expect people to skip over them as self-indulgent BS.  

 

I'm sure I can think up some entertaining topics now that my brain can, like, chill out a bit.

 

15 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

welcome back

 

Thanks!  I've been bad keeping tabs on you - mostly just looking at things you post on your Facebook.  I'm pretty terrible. >.<

 

 

 

So, how was Day 1 of Be Better?  Erm.  Kinda crappy, honestly.

 

I had felt off all day.  I'm not sure if my sleep quality was wonky, it was the DOMS from Wednesday's NP (something like 38 sections in the workout period), or the weather, but I just felt like a zombie.  A zombie with a hell of a lot of stuff I needed to accomplish.  I somehow made it though the day, more-or-less avoiding the junk food sprinkled across the building, logging my calories to try and keep me in check.  And I was doing okay.  But by the end of the day, I was in a haze, and starving, and exhausted.  I skipped aikido because a zombie isn't a particularly good partner.  Ended up stopping at the grocery store because I was craving a sweet potato and I had run out.  Left the store with sweet potatoes, but also 2 pounds of strawberries, some new yogurt, two pints of Halo Top, and some pre-cooked beef roast in au jus.  Went home and pretty much went to town on a sweet potato, the entire package of beef, and some green beans for dinner, and topped it off with one of the Halo Top pints.

 

I mean, I've had WORSE days, yea, but mentally I just gave up and stopped caring last night.  I should go and put in the things into MFP to see where I was at.  I went to bed a bit earlier, but not enough.  But hopefully I'll do better today - since I'm going to a different dojo tonight to train for a couple hours and then grabbing dinner with a friend afterwards.

 

Ah well.

 

Tomorrow I may actually attempt to go to the gym, because I'll be missing aikido waiting for a couch delivery to replace my decade-old futon.  No idea what I'll do at the gym, but maybe some form of movement would be a great idea.

[Teirin]

Honestly, as splurge meals go you at least had good protein, green and orange veg, and Halo Top is better than usual treats.  

[The Most Loathed]

On 2/23/2018 at 9:13 AM, RisenPhoenix said:

two pints of Halo Top,

 

On 2/23/2018 at 9:13 AM, RisenPhoenix said:

and topped it off with one of the Halo Top pints.

 

[RisenPhoenix]

On 2/24/2018 at 6:55 PM, The Most Loathed said:

 

 

Oh, no doubt. Unfortunately eating like an asshole these days can masquerade as reasonable eating....if I was still doing multi workouts per day and burning half of what I eat. It’s intereting that it feels harder for me right now to regulate what I eat now than when I started ages ago. I wonder if it’s because now my gains and improvement are such small steps that I don’t get the dopamine surge like I did when I started. Not Eating like an asshole just seems harder these days, despite eating less crap regularly. But when I go off the deep end....it’s far. 

 

Anyway. 

 

Friday night i did did two hours of aikido with the Harvard club, and then went for a greasy Indian food dinner. Super fun and tasty. Then Saturday I got woken up two hours earlier than expected to the robo call telling me when my new couch was going to arrive. So I had to get to work finishing emptying my living room by breaking down my old futon and pushing it out of the way. The movers came, installed the couch, and the rest of the morning I cleaned and organized my new adult-looking living room, cleaned out my liquor cabinet and pantry, and was pretty damn domestic over all. I feel like a real boy now.

 

Today I just did one aikido class, plus a little practice afterwards. Nothing crazy. Got home, did some work for a presentation I am giving tomorrow afternoon at work, and then just plan on puddling the rest of the night. Eating has been decent all day, despite treating myself to a bagel and cream cheese. The scandal.

 

This week I’m going to try logging just the junk food I eat. Try and see how much crap I have been shoving in my mouth per week. And I do really need to find some good gym routine to start working back into my life. I think ultimately I need more upper body work than legs. But the occasional deadlift couldn’t hurt. Heh. 

 

Goals. I kind of have them. 

[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, RisenPhoenix said:

But when I go off the deep end....it’s far. 

To steal a business term, you could "lean into it". Eat like a monk 6 days a week, eat like an asshole one day a week or eat like a monk until you lose two pounds (or some arbitrary amount) eat like and asshole for a day then eat like a month until you are two pounds lighter than last time.

I know for me life isn't quite that ordered but thought I'd float the idea. 

[RisenPhoenix]

12 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

To steal a business term, you could "lean into it". Eat like a monk 6 days a week, eat like an asshole one day a week or eat like a monk until you lose two pounds (or some arbitrary amount) eat like and asshole for a day then eat like a month until you are two pounds lighter than last time.

I know for me life isn't quite that ordered but thought I'd float the idea. 

 

Yea, I may have to do the Cheat Day thing.  I was never a fan of it when I lost my initial weight, but I also expected that if I ever ate anything 'bad' I'd balloon up again instantly.  At least the last few months have proven that to be false (mostly).

 

It is a bit of a bummer, though, because eating like a Monk means one of my company's benefits goes out the window - employee lunch once a week.  Sometimes it's not terrible/mostly Paleo-Primal compliant, but often it isn't.  I could turn Thursday into a cheat day, but.... I'd rather save that for a weekend day.  Especially since it's looking more and more like I'm going to try and be social with aikido people after classes.  Dunno.  Maybe have two half cheat days?  Is that a thing?  Two cheat meals, plus a pair of cheat snacks?  Might be reasonable.  I was really bad at avoiding all forms of socialization when I lost all my weight to begin with and want to avoid doing that again.  Plus side is I'm comfortable doing some IF stuff if I know I'm going to go somewhat crazy, to help mitigate things.  So that also helps.

 

Eh.  Stupid diet being 80% of weight loss. >.> <.<

[The Most Loathed]

8 hours ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Maybe have two half cheat days?  Is that a thing?  Two cheat meals, plus a pair of cheat snacks? 

It could be. Now we're getting out of science and into religion.

If you believe in the bathtub model (calories in < calories out = weight loss) then you could eat ice cream literally everyday, as long as you don't over eat on other things. I've known a couple super buffs dude who believed that they could eat whatever they wanted as long as the calories (and potentially macros) shook out. One was a fan of just eating a snickers bar or two for supper, the other snacked on twizlers all day. Both were muscular and lean as hell. 

If you believe in a more paleo / hormone driven philosophy, there's still room for more than just a cheat day but you want to think harder about it, thinks like Intermittent Fasting (which I think you like) work well here. If you want to eat a lot, put it right after a tough workout but eat very little during the day.

You just kind of have to figure out what lets you get through the day and you feel ok with.

[RisenPhoenix]

18 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

It could be. Now we're getting out of science and into religion.

If you believe in the bathtub model (calories in < calories out = weight loss) then you could eat ice cream literally everyday, as long as you don't over eat on other things. I've known a couple super buffs dude who believed that they could eat whatever they wanted as long as the calories (and potentially macros) shook out. One was a fan of just eating a snickers bar or two for supper, the other snacked on twizlers all day. Both were muscular and lean as hell. 

If you believe in a more paleo / hormone driven philosophy, there's still room for more than just a cheat day but you want to think harder about it, thinks like Intermittent Fasting (which I think you like) work well here. If you want to eat a lot, put it right after a tough workout but eat very little during the day.

You just kind of have to figure out what lets you get through the day and you feel ok with.

 

I'm definitely more bathtub model than paleo/hormone model.  But I also recognize that different macro ratios effect me (slightly) differently.  It's honestly just a matter of recalibrating again.  But I'm also trying to toss in not being as strict as I was early on, which meant lost opportunities with friends and coworkers.  Case and point, one coworker makes amazing, professional-level cakes.  They are delicious.  I had a small slice today.  I did not have a slice of the store-bought chocolate cake, though.  Logged the cake I ate the best I could, and enjoyed every bite of it.  Looking into it, I need to start switching myself back over to prioritizing fats as a food method.  I always was amazed when I started losing weight that I would get 40-60% of my caloric intake from fats.  Without lifting I feel as though I don't need as many carbs in my life.

 

Speaking of lifting, I have no idea how or if I want to reincorporate that into my life.  I need to strengthen my shoulders and back, for sure.  I'm reluctant to do at home body weight stuff because I feel like it won't get done.  Also I've really come to enjoy my slower mornings where I sit and sip coffee with a book before showering and meandering into work at 8:30ish.  Adding lifting/additional activities requires me to eat into that personal time by a significant margin.  And I don't know if it's worth the trade off.  Especially since I just signed up to join a second aikido school to get more hours on the mat.

 

I'm more than likely over thinking everything.  I just need to sit down and label my priorities I think, and what times I have open to be able to address them.  I was once told when I interviewed a potential roommate that I clearly wasn't home much, and that's kind of the case still.  Even with sleeping in and leaving for work around 8am, I still don't get home most days until 7 or 8pm.  I wonder what I could do/afford/pay for to streamline things in my life to make it easier...

 

 

[RisenPhoenix]

Me: "I'm going to do really well today?"

 

Also Me: "Oh look, free fancy ice cream and coffee on the company's dime as a 'Culture initiative.'  Why yes, please."

 

I've felt worse about cheating on my diet plans.