(Oct 27th-Nov10th) The Bye Weeks Challenge

[ChristArtist]

I'm in. ..will be home shortly to set up properly.

[Beaucastle]

re Goal "something new":  I think trying new recipes will happen for me anyway, eventually, whenever I get the chance.

 

So, I have decided that I'll follow in some awesome rebels' footsteps (hi, Ash, hi, Iggy! *waves*) and try... gulp... belly dancing.

Considering that I tend to be "movementally challenged", this is going to be awkward at best.

But hopefully also fun, so... *takes a deep breath*

 

Any pointers towards good entry level belly dance lessons on youtube are welcome!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvky4ppTJfs&list=UU5DtpcCZ9irWDp1v7JTm4yA

 

I love this class she has about 4 videos of instruction, shes in the UK.  Her website has a way to join and get classes that way but I never quite figured it out and it wasn't a click and play thing, so I moved on to you tube.

[NicTheRugger]

Thanks for setting this up, Daniel! Love the idea.

 

This is me.

 

Something New: Making a soup. I've only made soup from cans before. Not that hard. But this weekend I'm going to try my hand at making a sunchoke soup from scratch. I've never done this before, so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out. I've only had sunchoke soup once. It was at a restaurant in France, and it was wonderful. I've never tasted anything like it. I hope I can make something half as good.

 

Something Fitness: I'm thinking about joining up with the Druids for the upcoming challenge (no promises though!), so I'm going to try and do yoga at least 7 times by 10 November.

 

Something Fun: Oh fun... I remember that. Hah. I dunno.... I guess, for me, something fun would be doing something creative every day. Law school doesn't really inspire creativity, but that means I have to take at least 5 minutes a day that's not stressful or law-school related and actually do something relaxing and fun, whether that's drawing, sewing, writing, or painting. 

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Quest 2A - I did two pullups with 115 pounds of assistance .... do I hear 100???

 

[Shello]

Sweet.  Sold!

[Swampling]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvky4ppTJfs&list=UU5DtpcCZ9irWDp1v7JTm4yA

 

I love this class she has about 4 videos of instruction, shes in the UK.  Her website has a way to join and get classes that way but I never quite figured it out and it wasn't a click and play thing, so I moved on to you tube.

 

Wow, she has a lot of energy! Don't know if I can keep up with her for a full hour - but it's definitely worth a try!

Thank you!

[Shello]

This has been a tough week so far.  I got a little behind on YAYOG (Goal 2) but i adjusted my schedule so I can still make my goal for the week as long as I follow through on the weekend.  1 cardio in this week.  

 

But I have been busy with school and halloween costuming.  Finally have that done and feel so so on being caught up on class stuff.  But I feel like I want to EAT ALL THINGS.  Yesterday I pushed the limits but did OK.  Tonight we planned on ordering THE BEST pizza in town for halloween.. and then tomorrow is D&D night.   That's an equation for 3 bad days in a row.   But Sunday is a relaxation day.  I should get some fun time with kids (goal 3) and I'm making my new Firecracker chicken and Quinoa for dinner (Goal 1).  

[DarK_RaideR]

Speaking of fitness goals, here's the results from today's test

 

Mine is on the far right column. In case you can't make out the letters

- 10 Pullups in a row (managed 3)

- 30 Pushups in a row (Done)

- 50 Bodyweight Squats in 1:20 (Done)

- 30 V-situps in 1:30 (Done)

- A single deadlift at 1/2 bodyweight for women and bodyweight for men, perhaps another if you could pull it off. The bad news is I've gained weight, risen from 72 to 76,7. The good news is I popped 3 deadlifts with ease at 75kg, so they raised me to 90kg. Which I proceeded to lift also with ease. Twice. Hence the asterisk next to the tick

- 30 Burpees in 1:40 (Did 26, had the endurance for more. Curse you, knees!)

- Hold a Chin-up for 30" (To my surprise, pulled it off)

- 30 Double-under rope jumps in 2' (Done, in little over 1 min)

 

So yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself. Gotta take care of the diet, failing that goal last challenge has already taken its toll

[ShadowLion]

@Swampling

Re: Belly dance

 

Check out Datura Online, started by Rachel Brice who is an extraordinary Tribal Fusion dancer and teacher. It is online instruction with a number of teachers to choose from. Brice is great. I have two of her DVDs and she explains things well and gives suggestions for scaling, though you might want to try some of the other teachers as a complete novice. There are suggestions on the site for what to take at various stages.

 

Her stuff runs the gamut from campy steam punk with pops and locks to old school "oriental dance" - here's some video that is perfect for Halloween.

 

 

Her body control is phenomenal. Makes a dyed-in-the-wool ranger want to become an assassin.

I find the editing a little distracting on this one. If you don't like all the jump cuts, there are many other vids of her on YouTube.

 

@D_R - Works for Amazon snake priestess, next version of Nerdhammer, right?

[tundralily]

Update on my minis!

Quest One - Shiny Yoga!
- Tried total body yoga class at my gym on Thursday night. I really liked it! I think I would prefer a class that goes a bit slower, I found it a bit fast. 

 

Quest Two - Push the things!
I'm up to 2 full body push-ups with knees, going to update this to 5 with knees!

 

Quest Three - Have some fun!
Changing this to taking a hike tomorrow down to the creek by our new place. I haven't explored much yet and would like to get another hike in before the snow flies.

[DarK_RaideR]

@D_R - Works for Amazon snake priestess, next version of Nerdhammer, right?

Might even get extra points if you manage to do it to this song for extra snake-ness

[ShadowLion]

1 - Not yet...gotta get the rest of my equipment together.

 

2 - Handstand prep practice and assassiny fun - wrist conditioning, wall walks, and some belly dance moves. (Bends, ab isolations, some arm work.)

 

3 - Fiddlin' fool. Every day, as much time as I can spare. Averaging about 15 minutes per day. Want to do MOAR!

[Xena]

hmmm not a ton done yet, but it is the bye weeks :-)

 

New things-

Got out the bands and looked at them. Re-discovered there is a little exercise card in there, including some moves that should help me strengthen my hips. Decided not to do any weird new exercises so close to my race.

 

Goal-

Hanging out in the airport right now en route to marathon! Have been working toward the morning routine I might try out next time around. Stretching in the morning should work fine. Reconsidering the morning pushups.

 

Fun/joy-

Still planning the home spa night. I think probably Wednesday. So decadent, yet healthy and free :-)

[RxLady]

So I am planning out my next challenge, and one of my goals will probably need a rewards/punishment system. Any thoughts on what people have done in the past that has worked as a good motivator/deterrent for a particular behavior?

[Shello]

@rxlady - last challenge I used the d20 Table of Sadism.  I ranked punishments and then rolled a d20 for a punishment when I didn't follow a particular goal.  You could do the same for the reward. 

[NicTheRugger]

1) I'm planning on making the soup tonight! I just need to pick up some ingredients that I forgot! 

 

2) I did my first yoga session yesterday. It wasn't much. Just 5-7 minutes of different poses, but it felt great!

 

3) Creative? I designed a tattoo on Friday, but I'm not sure if I'd ever put it on myself because 1) I'm terrified of needles 2) the tattoo is designed to be a shoulder piece, meaning it's much bigger than any potential tattoo that I'd ever get. The most creative thing I did yesterday was sign my name a bunch of times on a bunch of different papers. I'm counting my cooking experiment as my creative for today, since I find cooking to be a creative process. 

[ShadowLion]

Things are shaking in ShadowLion land. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have time for the beads, as it will require several hours altogether between getting the rest of the tools set up and then actually doing a session. This coming week just got a couple of new must does added to it. I may be able to get the rest of my equipment together and roll the actual creating into the coming challenge. Not sure yet.

Hanging in there with the exercise goal and the fiddling as I can fit those in around other things. I will be doing an extra session of fiddling today, as a rush trip out of town yesterday derailed everything else I had planned.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Lovely day up in the north woods - so I went and grabbed a quick geocache. 

[Brekketechie]

My "try something new" quest was suppose to be swimming, but sat week the pool was closed for rain and it's looking like the 1 available day I have to swim the pool is booked for a day of water polo meets. Blarg. HOWEVER, I did go to my first ever yoga class today, so I have tried something new. Therefore, Mission: Accomplished.

[Swampling]

Update...

 

Mission 1: my venture into belly dancing will have to wait until Friday  

Mission 2: I practiced swings and Get Ups for 3 out of 5 days last week, and I did wussy (wrist) conditioning and handstand practice 5x. Since I aim for at least 3 kettlebell practice days per week and 5 minutes of handstand prep work every day, this is a win.

Mission 3: Went to the play with my friends yesterday, and we had a blast!

[Balthazar]

Quest 3: Something fun!  I knew that I wanted this to be carving pumpkins, as I haven't done it since I was like, 8, so hubby and I hunkered down last evening and carved our little hearts out!  Here are the products! 

 

those pumpkins are amazeballs

 

 

Bonus New:  I did it  I got up at 5 am ran 3.5 miles and then went to my doctors appointment.  I have been trying to do this for months.  First success.  Going for another run in the morning.  (side note I was 1/2 mile into the run when I realized I did not have my knee braces on.  Been going all day no pain... hows that for awesome!)

 

 

That's awesome news, well done! 5am is pretty damn hardcore

 

 

I like the idea - thanks, Daniel.

I am struggling to come up with good goals. The only one I have for right now is goal 2. I am running my first ever 5k race with my daughter next weekend. Finishing my training for that sounds like as good of a fitness goal as any. It might a.so count as something new.

 

That's fine it's a challenge that's mostly about doing what you want, so don't force yourself to think of things

[Balthazar]

re Goal "something new":  I think trying new recipes will happen for me anyway, eventually, whenever I get the chance.

 

So, I have decided that I'll follow in some awesome rebels' footsteps (hi, Ash, hi, Iggy! *waves*) and try... gulp... belly dancing.

Considering that I tend to be "movementally challenged", this is going to be awkward at best.

But hopefully also fun, so... *takes a deep breath*

 

Any pointers towards good entry level belly dance lessons on youtube are welcome!

 

I have no pointers, but what a great idea!

 

 

Quest 3 - (Something fun) Mr B's birthday 

Mr B has decided he'd like to do a day in London and visit the London Tombs next weekend. That's a lot less planning for me so I'm happy!

 

The London Tombs are pretty cool, and also not as busy as other places in London, you going to get anything else in whilst in London?

 

 

Thanks for setting this up, Daniel! Love the idea.

 

This is me.

 

Something New: Making a soup. I've only made soup from cans before. Not that hard. But this weekend I'm going to try my hand at making a sunchoke soup from scratch. I've never done this before, so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out. I've only had sunchoke soup once. It was at a restaurant in France, and it was wonderful. I've never tasted anything like it. I hope I can make something half as good.

 

Something Fitness: I'm thinking about joining up with the Druids for the upcoming challenge (no promises though!), so I'm going to try and do yoga at least 7 times by 10 November.

 

Something Fun: Oh fun... I remember that. Hah. I dunno.... I guess, for me, something fun would be doing something creative every day. Law school doesn't really inspire creativity, but that means I have to take at least 5 minutes a day that's not stressful or law-school related and actually do something relaxing and fun, whether that's drawing, sewing, writing, or painting. 

 

Great quests, how are they coming along? and what's in sunchoke soup?

[Balthazar]

This has been a tough week so far.  I got a little behind on YAYOG (Goal 2) but i adjusted my schedule so I can still make my goal for the week as long as I follow through on the weekend.  1 cardio in this week.  

 

But I have been busy with school and halloween costuming.  Finally have that done and feel so so on being caught up on class stuff.  But I feel like I want to EAT ALL THINGS.  Yesterday I pushed the limits but did OK.  Tonight we planned on ordering THE BEST pizza in town for halloween.. and then tomorrow is D&D night.   That's an equation for 3 bad days in a row.   But Sunday is a relaxation day.  I should get some fun time with kids (goal 3) and I'm making my new Firecracker chicken and Quinoa for dinner (Goal 1).  

 

DnD is a recipe for disaster, ever year we run a whole day Halloween D&D spectacular, complete with food, snacks and drinks. To give an example yesterdays when we did it for breakfast we had Chocolate coated belgian waffles, topped with Toffee Apple Sausages, drowned in maple syrup

[Balthazar]

Mine is on the far right column. In case you can't make out the letters

- 10 Pullups in a row (managed 3)

- 30 Pushups in a row (Done)

- 50 Bodyweight Squats in 1:20 (Done)

- 30 V-situps in 1:30 (Done)

- A single deadlift at 1/2 bodyweight for women and bodyweight for men, perhaps another if you could pull it off. The bad news is I've gained weight, risen from 72 to 76,7. The good news is I popped 3 deadlifts with ease at 75kg, so they raised me to 90kg. Which I proceeded to lift also with ease. Twice. Hence the asterisk next to the tick

- 30 Burpees in 1:40 (Did 26, had the endurance for more. Curse you, knees!)

- Hold a Chin-up for 30" (To my surprise, pulled it off)

- 30 Double-under rope jumps in 2' (Done, in little over 1 min)

 

So yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself. Gotta take care of the diet, failing that goal last challenge has already taken its toll

 

You are a full on beast! Deadlifting my bodyweight is one of my Life Quests, now that my hips have sufficiently healed I can start incorporating them back in to my life.

 

Question I have wanted to ask for sometime, when folk say burpees what do they mean? because I have the impression that what Burpees are in the UK isn't the same as the rest of the world/

 

 

 

Changing this to taking a hike tomorrow down to the creek by our new place. I haven't explored much yet and would like to get another hike in before the snow flies.

 

How was the hike?

[Balthazar]

Fun/joy-

Still planning the home spa night. I think probably Wednesday. So decadent, yet healthy and free :-)

 

Best kinda fun

 

 

So I am planning out my next challenge, and one of my goals will probably need a rewards/punishment system. Any thoughts on what people have done in the past that has worked as a good motivator/deterrent for a particular behavior?

 

this has been something I have been trying for a while now, and I think it inherently depends on what person you are. Some people tend to work better to gain rewards, whilst some work better to escape threats. In my experience they don't both tend to work equally well on the same person.

 

I for example work better chasing rewards than escaping punishment, because if I don't do the thing I know I will bristle and challenge the punishment, meaning I either won't put it on myself or make life very unpleasant for someone who tries to enact the punishment on me.

 

With rewards I know that I have to make someone else in charge of my rewards, otherwise I will just reward myself anyway, even if I didn't do anything, because I like rewards. 

 

So first you need to figure out whether you respond better to rewards or punishment, then how that will be dealt out

 

And the final part is making good rewards or punishments. If it's a reward you don't want that bad then it won't motivate and if it's a punishment that either isn't bad enough meaning you don't mind if you get it or too harsh so you will just not do it then it won't motivate.

 

I'll be interested to hear what you pick