Kaine continues to fight to rise

[Kaine]

Hey everybody,

 

After finishing up my first challenge, I've decided to move into the Adventurers Guild as I continue to level up my life. I had a lot of fun with the first challenge, but realised there were certain things that I need to improve, or should change up, in order to best progress towards my goals. At the moment, I have an uncanny knack for procrastinating on workouts, so I am going to push myself to do a little something at least every day, and actively explore other types of exercise. My efforts at dieting were not so awesome, so I plan to address that again this go round. Another thing I plan to do is get out and sign up for a gym... which is particularly tricky for two reasons: (1) I paid a year-long membership to a gym a few years back and walked in the door twice, once to sign up, and once a year later, to cancel... so my track record is catastrophic (2) I still don't really speak French that well, despite living here for like 6 months (I work in English)... so I have to swing the contract signing/gym activities in 'Franglais' as well.

 

Without further ado... here goes the fun little narrative and the quests:

 

Mission:

 

After dragging himself across the dirty floor he found a wall about 3 meters from the desk. Using the wall as support, he was able to get himself onto his knees. He slowly felt his way along the wall until he came across the source of the trickling sound... it's a small rivulet of water. He bends over and takes a few slurps from the puddle where the water is collecting at the base of the wall. The water is filthy, but its better than nothing, and it helps with the parched throat. He will need something better than this, and soon. He struggles to get to his feet with the help of the wall and flex muscles that feel like they've atrophied for years...

 

...and there's still that grinding sound in the distance...

 

 

Quests for this challenge:

1) Bring a healthy lunch from home at least once a week.

Reward: A +1.5 CON  B +1 CON  C +0.5 CON

 

2) Do some kind of exercise for at least 15 minutes x6 days/week: structured workout routines (no flailing about aimlessly for 15 minutes), running, or abs... must break a sweat, must be at least 3 circuits)

Reward: A +2 CON, +2 STR  B + 2 CON, + 1 STR  C +1 CON, +1 STR 

 

3) One of the daily workouts should be a run that involves some stairs

Reward: A +1 STA, +1 DEX  B +1 STA, +0.5 DEX  C +0.5 STA, +0.5 DEX

 

4) (One time goal) Sign up for a gym.

Reward: A +2.5 CHA

Long term goals:

Quantitative:
1) Get down to ~180lbs (82kg) with ~15-18% body fat [I'm just a hair under 6' tall, and currently ~215lbs (97kg) with a body fat percentage is currently 28%]
2) Tackle the Montée des Chazeaux (~240 steps) here in Lyon in one go at jogging pace!

Qualitative:
3) Develop healthy habits for eating and activity level.
4) Look super-hot for my wife-to-be by Aug 1.

[Kaine]

Alright! First night done! Over 15 minutes! Broke a sweat... check.

 

My fiancée, Mera (her challenge is here), found this really great website with a bunch of good workouts on it. I managed to do 3 sets of the Predator themed workout today!

 

Check it out!

 

 

Will try to go for a run tomorrow, and then comes the challenge of doing workouts on the road for a work trip! Especially since the trip is to Bordeaux... so I'm fairly certain wine will be involved. Must remain undaunted!

[Mera]

[redimagination]

Have bookmarked that website, cheers!

[lucky]

That Predator routine looks intense!   How is the challenge coming along??

[GillyNomad]

I love that website! I find it hard to pick a workout though as there are so many!

 

I also like your Quest 3 to involve stairs in your workout. I've done that a couple of times before and I always feel like I've worked harder than usual. 

 

How has your first week been?

[Kaine]

Hey everybody,

 

It's been an interesting week for me. I didn't hit all my objectives, but I did pretty well considering.

 

I spent the week in Bordeaux on a work trip, which kept me from working out on two of the days, but I did manage to get in a good run this week with 142 stairs in it, and I did this push-up squat workout jtwice... both times i did 5 sets at 1 minute rest interval... which comes out to 15 minutes of work, with sweat, and wobbly arms.

 

 

I've still got to do something this evening, but I wanted to get an entry in while I was still thinking about it.

[Kaine]

boah! It's been 10 days since my last update! Not good!

 

Sorry guys!

 

So, the summary... Last week was my birthday! I turned old. Yeah. No good... but I'm starting to feel better than I have in a long while!

 

Last week didn't go so smoothly though. I took Wednesday off for some reason or another, thinking I had the rest of the week off of work to do all my excercises... yup... no. Thursday was my birthday, which ended up being my excuse. Friday I was feeling the 'after-effects' of my birthday evening (the joys and pains of having a wine festival on your birthday), so I was laid low. Saturday... that was just plain laziness and a streak of excuses. Sunday, well, I figured this week was shot so I'll have to try something new.

 

Starting on Monday, I've been doing morning workouts. Up at 6:30, and start a work-out I've planned the night before. It turns out it's much harder to think of excuses not to work out when it's still dark outside and you are operating in morning-zombie-mode. I'm 3 for 3 so far, and trucking right along! 

 

So, on Monday, I did 3 sets of Neila Rey's Fremen workout at 60s rest between sets. Tuesday, I did 3 sets of the Legday Workout at 60s rest. And this morning I pounded out 3 sets of the Spartacus workout at 60s rest. 

 

So far the morning workout plan is going a lot better. Less time to think of excuses, since there's usually only one I have to battle with... leaving the cozy bed and my cute, snoozing fiancée. It's difficult, but I only have to contend with that one obstacle. At least it's much easier than trying to battle the 4 bazillion excuses I can think of after a long day at work.Another bonus to the AM workout routine is that I should also be able to do a workout tomorrow, despite it being Thanksgiving!

 

Now I've just gotta stick to my other goals of running and stair workouts... oh yeah, and getting enrolled in a gym. Let's do this.