The Unchosen Hero Arrives...!

[The Unchosen Hero]

This is my first challenge, and I'm brand new to the NF forums as well...so I am the rankest of the rank beginners.

 

My nerdery of choice is typically JRPGs, especially of the 8- and 16-bit variety, as these are what I grew up playing, so my framework for my narrative will lean a bit heavily on that concept. That being the case, I will be setting up my challenge to mirror, in some ways, the steps one often goes through in a classic JRPG at the earliest experience levels--getting equipped, getting acquainted with the system, staying alive, and exploring the local environs.

 

Not terribly exciting, I know, but I've languished many lumpy, chain-smoking years without a real routine, and I know if I throw myself into something extreme, I'll get myself into trouble quite fast. So here we go.

 

Main Quest

To establish a healthy, sustainable routine that can be built on in later challenges as my abilities progress. In game terms, I'm sitting at 0 XP with no gear and no clues to my name. I've got a long way to go, so the foundations must be established here.

 

Quest 1 - Get Equipped and Get Out There

I can't slay the monsters of my personal situation without weapons and experience. And in my case (as I am interested most in strength training and the Warriors' Guild), those weapons will be a beginner's strength training regimen and whatever basic weights that requires (can't be too much; like most low-level warriors, I've got limited cash). My low-level encounters "out there" (the slimes and goblins of my experience) will be a regular routine.

 

I will assess myself in the following ways:

• I will gather my equipment by the end of week 1 (and do bodyweight exercises until I have it).
• I will do the beginner's regimen at least 3 times per week.
• I will track my performance to be able to chart growth and progress.

Quest 2 - Get Acquainted With the System

Like most adventures, this one operates according to certain rules and guidelines. If I don't know the way things work, I'm likely to make critical errors. To that end, I will also incorporate research and learning from others (fellow warriors, knowledgeable NPCs, etc.) into my daily routine.

 

I will assess this in these ways:

• I will read at least one article on the NF site each day and actively seek ways to incorporate its ideas into my routine where applicable and safe.
• I will visit the NF forum daily to interact with and learn from others on the same path.

Quest 3 - Stay Alive

The biggest threat to low-level adventurers is death by careless risk taking and/or death by unpreparedness. This aspect of my quest will help to prevent that. I will take proactive measures to ensure that I stay healthy and that I can keep on fighting. Here's how that breaks down:

• Visit the Inn: I will get 8 hours of sleep per night. I will also work toward doing this at reasonable hours of the night. At the moment, I tend to sit up very late and wake up late, but by the end of 6 weeks, I will be going to bed no later than 11:00 PM, sleeping for 8 hours, and actually getting up by 7:00 AM.
• Get Unpoisoned: Right now my two biggest issues this way are nicotine use and diet soda consumption. I know these are toxic to my system. Quitting them both this challenge may be too much change all at once, but I will track my use of both, and then I will work to reduce my use of at least one of them by 50% at the end of 6 weeks.

 

Life Quest

One of the greatest problems I've encountered as my health has worsened, is a tendency to withdraw from other people and shut myself up in the house. My life-related side quest will address this by mirroring the JRPG starter-zone lesson of exploring the local environs. At least once a week, I will ensure that I not only leave the house entirely for most of the day, but that I go someplace I haven't been before and/or try something new while I'm out. As in many video games, you never know quite what you'll find exploring that may be useful to your quest.

 

Motivation

I've daydreamed about transforming my gaming heroics into something in the real world for years, so taking a step toward that goal and its effects on my happiness is certainly motivation. However, there's more to it than that. The longer I sit here doing nothing and poisoning myself, the worse my health will get. And eventually, it will get too bad for me to save it--and myself. To save my health, and, by extension, my very world, I'm taking up my sword and embarking upon this endeavor.

[camram07]

Great stuff, and good luck to you! Visit the inn as a subquest cracks me up. Going to be thinking of my sleep routine in the same way now.

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd focus on ditching nicotine before diet soda. FWIW there is some clinical evidence that diet sodas are not nearly as bad for you as the full sugar stuff, though obviously the optimal choice for us all is to drink only water. Which I won't do. Black coffee good. Don't care if healthy or not.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Thanks for the reply and the link!

 

Coffee is good times...just maybe not the way I drink it and diet soda, which is often to the exclusion of almost everything else.

 

As for the nicotine, I've at least been able to kick the physical cigarettes this past year, which has been a major improvement over two packs a day. I've transitioned to an ecig, which is both cheaper and less hell on my lungs. Still, ideal is zero nicotine and no reliance on the ecig. I'm intending to ramp down the amount of nicotine in the ecig fluid slowly over time, then limit the frequency of its use, and then to break with it entirely. Knowing how my body treated me last time I tried to go cold turkey, though, I suspect I need to focus on one thing at a time. Less is better than current levels, and in future challenges, I intend to approach the final breaking-off point and then to cross that threshold. 

 

Step by step and the thing is done, as I figure it. I'd love to jump right in to perfect everything, but I didn't dig this hole overnight, so climbing out will take time, too. This challenge, it's all about sustainable routines and baby steps.

[camram07]

Right there with you man. One thing at a time, in sustainable and reasonable chunks. Let's keep getting after it. Great work kicking the physical cigs--that must have been a bear.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Yeah, it was beastly. Even now if I smell somebody smoking, I crave a smoke, never mind that if I'm actually "in need" of nicotine I have the e-cig. There's a lot going on psychologically there. It was part of my ritual at my desk when writing and/or editing (I freelance at both and dabble in fiction), so quitting that element of the nicotine use was rather disruptive to my routine in a way that shocked me. I suspect that the cravings will always be with me, and it's very frustrating...but I do appreciate not gagging up half a lung every morning these days.

 

By the way, I'm digging the William Ernest Henley on your sig. Along with Yeats, he's one of my favorite English-language poets, and "Invictus" is a longtime favorite poem of mine.

[matty_mcfly]

Hey! Welcome!  This challenge looks great and pretty measurable!

 

Should I assume you are trying to do a home gym set up or do you have a membership?

[The Unchosen Hero]

Hi, Mattyboy.

 

Yeah, home gym setup. I have some dumbbells around the house, and a small (non-Olympic) barbell set from previous failed attempts. The bar on the barbell set is *maybe* 20 pounds. Maybe. It was a cheapie I bought at a big box store, but considering my current ability levels, I suspect that's not particularly an issue. The dumbbells are of a similar quality, but at least modular (I can change the plates). Not sure if I will need anything else at this point, though. Going to a gym isn't financially feasible for me right now, and at the moment I've got enough self-confidence issues that even if I could go, walking into one would be a nightmare. So the goal here is to build a good foundation with what I've got and what I can get cheaply, and then to build from there as my ability increases.

[Hemlock Tea]

I feel you on the confidence issues. Going into the weight side of the gym my first time was kind of scary. Luckily no one immediately stopped to laugh and point

[matty_mcfly]

Nice! You can do a lot with a little bit of equipment.  How much weight do you have in plates to add to that bar?

 

The only issue that you may run into is deadlifts, you'll progress quickly on those and start pulling a lot of weight off the floor.

 

Are you following a program or just doing your own thing?

[The Unchosen Hero]

Grand total of 70 pounds to add to the bar, but IIRC, the store I bought it from had more compatible plates available for purchase if I need/want to buy them. Still, the expense there may make justifying the $10/month for the local Gold's Express or whatever more reasonable, provided that they've got the equipment I'll need. Should, I would assume, but I guess you never know till you look.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Today's Progress:

 

Get Equipped: Dug my crappy weight set out of storage and set it up. Huzzah!

 

Get Out There: Did what I thought would be a "warm-up," and which ended up winding me completely:

• Basic sword drills (remembered from Kendo once upon a time): 3 sets of 25
• Bodyweight squats: 3 sets of 10 (oh, gods, the creaking knee...mrr)
• Push-ups: 3 sets of 10 (but not my best form ever by a long shot)

I'd like to do more, but slow and steady and all of that. I'm going to see how I feel tomorrow, and will shoot for a more formal workout with the actual weights then. I'm wanting to do a M/W/F routine in any case. But I did something today, even if it was paltry...so... Yay?

 

Get Acquainted With the System: Read "Strength Training 101" this morning over coffee, and replied to and read a couple of threads here. Huzzah!

 

Stay Alive:

• Visit the Inn: Didn't get to sleep until 4:00 am; got up at 11:00 am. WILL go to bed at 2:00 am tonight if I have to tie myself to the bed. Curses!
• Get Unpoisoned: Didn't eat breakfast (too late in the day, and my stomach felt sour), but did cook myself lunch: beef and veggie stir-fry with some soy sauce and garlic. No "crap food" consumption as of right now; 2 diet sodas since wakeup, 1 cup of coffee, the rest water; the usual nicotine consumption on the ecig (which is currently in tracking). Huzzah!

And that's that for the moment. Right now I'm looking at the Starting Strength program linked on the NF "Strength Training 101" article for a Wednesday (tomorrow) launch, but any suggestions from any Warriors or other strength-trainy types would be welcome.

 

Also--I want to transition to what you might call an 80% Paleo (occasional rice perhaps, and certainly occasional beer and such) type setup, but every time I look at the grocery bill for that, I get cross-eyed. Any suggestions there are more than welcome.

[keannis]

Love the way you've set up your challenges! I feel you on the gym thing; I have access to the university gym, which is amazing and has everything ever, but mrrgghh the confidence level required is not where I'm at yet.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Today's Progress (9/17/2014)

 

Get Equipped and Get Out There:

 

By the gods, I'm sore! I didn't even do much yesterday, and my legs and knees are treating me rather unkindly. It seems like my body has gone to hell a good bit more than I expected, so I'm going to have to approach with some amount of caution. Also: stupid hero is stupid and forgot to stretch. That would do it. We shall not be repeating that mistake twice.

 

I'd hoped to start tackling the weights today, but it seems that my knees, if nothing else, do really need a rest period after yesterday. So it looks like the next weight/strength related workout will be tomorrow morning.

 

However, I am taking care of myself today with some stretches and my favorite topical Chinese analgesics. Hopefully this'll limber things up enough to carry on with the plan tomorrow!

 

Learning and evaluating limits: Huzzah!

 

Doing what I'd hoped to be able to do today: Curses!

 

Overall: Yay?

 

 

Get Acquainted With the System:

 

This morning and afternoon I replied to a couple of threads and started reading up on Stronglifts 5x5, which looks like an approachable system, even if I may have to partly modify my approach due to a current lack of certain equipment. Huzzah!

 

 

Stay Alive:

 

• Visit the Inn: Efforts to get into bed by 2:00 am started around 1:45 am, but no actual sleep was had until about 3:30 am. Still, that's thirty minutes earlier than yesterday, so I'll take it. Yay?
• Get Unpoisoned: Total diet soda consumption yesterday was 5 cans, which, believe it or not, was actually down from usual. Currently today I've had 2 cans of diet soda and 1 cup of coffee, the rest water. I also cooked myself a late lunch/breakfast: Spinach and bacon omelette with chipotle hot sauce. Plans for dinner are a variation on the stir-fry I made last night for dinner. I did have a beer last night, though, but only one, and the plan is to begin restricting those to one day on the weekend whenever possible. So... Yay?

 

Overall, a mediocre report, by my measure at least. Goals for the rest of the day are to avoid crap-food, drink plenty of water, tend to this rebellious knee, lay out my plan for tomorrow, and have another go at an earlier bedtime, hopefully with better results.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Love the way you've set up your challenges! I feel you on the gym thing; I have access to the university gym, which is amazing and has everything ever, but mrrgghh the confidence level required is not where I'm at yet.

 

You will get there! Heck, we both will get there!

[0gravity]

In. Best of luck on your goals. I'm working on giving up the nicotine as well, it's a bitch i know.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Thanks!

 

Yeah, it's a beast, but we can do it! Best of luck to you in your quest as well!

[Araene]

Love your attitude and approach to your goals. I'll be cheering you on!

[The Unchosen Hero]

Love your attitude and approach to your goals. I'll be cheering you on!

 

Thanks!

[Hemlock Tea]

My knees were really bad when I started out. It's amazing how fast they bounce back once you're working out regularly. 

[Blaidd]

you know you are always welcome to pop into the Meadhall and ask your questions.  They'd be very happy to help you out.

[The Unchosen Hero]

Today's Progress (09/18/2014)

 

I woke up still a bit sore from yesterday, but overall the day off did wonders. Time to get down to the real business of weights today, as much as my situation permits. Let's see what we've got on this foray into the wilderness!

 

Get Equipped and Get Out There: The weights duly dragged out, I used them this afternoon, and to quite pleasant effect! The bar seems to be 20 pounds, giving me a total of 100 pounds of total weight (I missed two 5-lb plates in my count the other day). And it seems that, in at least some regards, I will soon outgrow it. To wit:

• Squat [Warm-up]: 3/5/Bodyweight (3 sets, 5 reps, at bodyweight--is that the right format?)
• Squat [Real Deal]:
  • 1/5/20
  • 1/5/30
  • 1/5/35 (Not even up to an Olympic bar yet...but it was pretty easy. I'll be adding some next workout.)
• Push-Ups [Warm-up]: 3/5/BW
• Push-Ups [Real Deal]: 3/5/BW (I currently lack a bench; any suggestions on how to safely bench press and/or do an alt exercise and/or improvise a bench?)
• Deadlift [Warm-up]: 3/5/35 (Way too easy.)
• Deadlift [Real Deal]:
  • 1/5/60 (Way too easy.)
  • 1/5/70 (Eh.)
  • 1/5/75 (Kinda starting to feel hard...ish.)

So clearly I will progress like a beast on the deadlift, it seems, long before anything else. And once I hit 100 pounds, I'll need to start finding ways to make it harder--or tying my cats to the bar or something for added challenge. I thought it might take me all 6 weeks to outgrow this set in even one area, but...nope. So it's either that I'll need to buy more plates if I can get them or look at other options.

 

Also, the lack of a bench for the bench press I want to do is frustrating. Anybody with suggestions that way is more than welcome to chime in.

 

But all in all, I felt out where my abilities are, got an actual workout in, worked up a sweat, and feel pretty awesome. Huzzah!

 

Get Acquainted With the System: Read the new article on cooking with fish today in the NF newsletter and also nosed around the Warriors' Guild forums a bit, though I didn't post. Huzzah!

 

Stay Alive:

• Visit the Inn: SleepQuest continues! Last night I got into bed around 2:45 and last remember looking at the clock around 3:00...another half-hour earlier! I got up around 10:00 this morning. Progress! Huzzah!
• Get Unpoisoned: Diet soda consumption yesterday was 4 cans total. Today thus far it's been 2. Ecig levels seems about the same (which is fine; they are in tracking). Also just realized I have yet to eat today (d'oh), and now I'm feeling it after the workout...so time to go put something healthy in my face! Overall, though, not bad so far, so I'd give it a mild Huzzah!

A much better day today than yesterday, that's for sure, and it seems that slow progress on the sleep schedule is working. Shooting for 15-30 minutes earlier each night isn't nearly as noticeable as, "Hey, let's go to bed like TWO OR THREE HOURS early!"

 

I suspect tomorrow'll be a rest day, and then the next workout will be either Sunday or Saturday, depending on what happens this weekend. Hopefully Saturday if I can manage it, so that I can reset to a MWF schedule next week.

[keannis]

I like your gradual adjustment to sleep plan - I had to go from working nights a few months ago to having to wake up at 5:15am every morning for school last month and my body is STILL fighting me on it. Melatonin has been my friend, but my brain still thinks nighttime is for Doing All The Things.

 

Congrats on the weights!! I so want to start lifting, but that involves going to The Gym and trying to figure out the weight room and we all know how I feel about that... hahaha. 

[The Unchosen Hero]

Working nights blows. My husband works the second shift as an avionics manufacturing guy, and he's almost always groggy and miserable. It was worse, though, when he worked overnight at a previous job. I've only had a few instances in my life where I've had to live in the night-shift mirror universe, but it was enough to make me have mad respect for those who can do it.

 

Have you perhaps considered starting toward the city of Weightopolis with maybe kettlebells or dumbbells? I'm just guessing here, since I'm clearly in no position to offer advice, but those are portable and friendly to small spaces. Right now I've got a weight set that I think I spent a hundredish bucks on a couple of years ago. Like I said, soon to outgrow it, but it has its uses and, if you've got a spare 5-6 foot area in your house/apartment/wherever and the price point isn't too high, it doesn't take up too much space.

 

Also, as a friend reminded me while I was lamenting the lack of a bench on Facebook, perhaps Craigslist might be worth a gander?

 

Still, again, just guesswork. I'll happily defer to anyone with an iota more experience at this than I've got (which is almost everybody).

[keannis]

Our upstairs neighbors/landlords (landbors? neighlords?) actually have a pretty decent setup in their garage. I'm tempted to ask him if I can use it from time to time. They're super nice and accomodating and I'm willing to bet he'd be fine with me using his setup when the garage is open and they're not using it. Hmm.  

[The Unchosen Hero]

Worst that can happen is they say, "No, sorry." As a relative of mine is fond of saying, "They ain't gonna eat ya."

 

You never know till you check into it! It might turn out to be a great thing, and possibly a source of good quality advice at a minimum.