Lillucia's first step UP

[lillucia]

I'm 22, and want to hone my body so that it's stronger, more flexible,  and capable of serious endurance.

I want to overcome my inherent laziness, and my lousy level of stamina.

 

Main Quest:

To be able to lift my SO in 6 months' time

 

Goal 1:

To complete the YAYOG workouts three times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri)

 

Goal 2:

To eat as Paleo as possible during the week (Mon-Fri)

 

Goal 3:

To not drink alcohol during the week (Mon-Fri)

 

Motivation:

I'm tired of being a weakling, and I want to be a better example to my family. Also, I love the clarity of mind that clean eating/no alcohol gives me.

 

Please let me know if I haven't set this out properly, or give me any advice as it comes to mind. Good luck all!

[jfau96]

Just dropping by to wish you some luck~  You got this!!! 

I'm right there with ya on the inherent laziness thing and it's arguably going to be difficult to overcome. Here's how I think of it that often helps: The lazier you are now, the harder you have to work later. It's better to do the small things in bits and pieces than to pass them off for later and be overwhelmed when the end is drawing near.

[lillucia]

Aww thanks!
 
Exactly - I'm a terrible procrastinator as well. A big life goal at the moment is becoming a disciplined me.

[Adry]

Good luck! No. 3 is a big one for me, too. But, big goals require big changes!

[Amdhiel]

Hey Lillucia, I noticed that you're working through YAYOG. There's a PVP group working through the program and a few people are restarting as part of this challenge. A link to the thread is in my signature if you're interested in joining the group.

[lillucia]

Oh thanks Amdhiel! Checking out now.

 

So, it's Monday afternoon over here, and things haven't exactly gone to plan yet... but all is not lost!

 

I had a car accident last Thursday, and my braking knee is still a bit sad about things. To add to that, I had a late night last night and really struggled getting up for work this morning. I might see if I can do my workouts Tue/Thur/Sat this week instead... or something. Got time this evening which I wasn't expecting so I could buck tradition and workout then instead of before work.

 

Foodwise: Not too bad - managed brekkie in record time. Considering I always used to skip breakfast, this is always a victory. We had software training today with a vendor offsite, so food was provided... and I was really hungry and the only option was apple danishes. Lunch was good though (Asian chicken salad). Yum!

 

Too early to call on the no alcohol front, but... 

[lillucia]

Dropping by to say, I did do the workout after tea. Completely stuffing, but hey, sign of a good workout, no?

 

And - oh joy - I'm getting more flexible again. I really want to achieve my old junior high flexibility AND MORE.

 

Rock on, all you guys!

[Adry]

GREAT work getting the workout in! I hate when my routines change, I've always used it as an excuse to just skip my workouts. Awesome start!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Hi there!!

 

I’m Chris-Tien Jinn, an ambassador for the Assassin Guild. Despite the name, we are a VERY friendly guild, filled with people who enjoy a wide variety of activities and fitness goals!

 

For more information about the guild, stop by the Info & Announcements thread.  Also, check out the Assassin's Phonebook, which lists the names of people who are working on various aspects of fitness and life changes.  This is a great place to connect with someone who is working on goals similar to yours.  Don't be shy about following them or sending a message if you have questions!!!   

 

You can also stop by the Assassin's Den - a general chat thread in the guild forum – and introduce yourself.  You can always ask questions there, but I warn you that we tend to be pretty silly there and love to post gifs …. especially of cute animals!!

 

If you ever have any questions or need help with anything, let me know.  You can grab my attention by using the quote button at the bottom right corner of any of my posts.  I have the forum setting turned on to alert me when somebody quotes me using that button, so it's a quick easy way to let me know you're talking to me. You can also get in touch with me by posting on my own challenge topic or by using the forum private messenger system (the envelope button at the very top right of the screen).

 

Someone from the Assassin's Guild will stop by every week to check on your progress, but don't be a stranger!!  The most successful people around here reach out and get support from others - novices and veterans alike!  A great place to meet up with other (new) Assassins is in the Assassin Initiates Accountabilities Group   - stop by when you have a chance!!

[lillucia]

So, I've been diving around the forums a bit today, but haven't actually updated how I've gone for the last few hours.

Closed off Monday with a fairly satisfactory outcome.

 

Workout - delayed but completed.

Paleo - almost, but not completely. Slip ups were quite minor in the scale of the day, and only where there was no option. Have a fair bit of push back from my dear mother who tends to take it a little personally if I head for the 'diet' foods and avoid her 'balanced' ones.

No Alcohol - done. Got a bit tricky because I was under some emotional stress last night and I was dying to blunt it as per my old habits, but I stuck it out and aggressively made my bed instead

 

Today (Tuesday) is a rest day from my YAYOG program, but I felt the urge to move, so I woke up at my workout time (5:30am) and headed down to the park around the corner. Out of character for me, but it was mostly light and absolutely beautiful. Played around with jumping up into a pullup position on the monkey bars then slowly letting myself down (what someone else recommended for progression to pullups). Incline pushups x 10, no problem. 60 sec plank, got it. Pumped back home, feeling very alive and awake. Had some of the most fluffiest eggs I think I've ever made myself

Progress to make there will be to organise myself the night before so it doesn't take so blooming long to get outside.

 

Onward, soldiers! Challenge for tomorrow will be sustaining my wake up and workout times, and surviving another day of training with supplied food (read: icky oldish pastries etc).

 

 

Oh, and forgot to mention - I have been mulling over my reasons for doing this, and I realise that what I want is to set myself up for a lifelong, habitually healthy me. Does that read right? Basically, I'm embarking on a major new stage of life soon (marriage), and I want to set the foundation for me being a healthy, strong, energetic, happy wife.

[Swampling]

Hi there! I like your goals and your motivation for them!

 

Sounds like you're off to a great start!

[lillucia]

Thanks Swampling!

 

Wednesday Novice Ladders workout: DONE.

My poor arms though...

 

Tuesday marks:

Paleo: CHECK

No Alcohol: CHECK

Feeling in control: CHECK

[d3li9ht]

Subbing in~

 

I really like how you define your goal; especially for the preparation to enter a new stage of life
I've become a wife for only 3 years, with one adorable little daughter; and I certainly wish that I had a view about improving my general wellbeing before creating a family. 

Although, I believe it's still not too late to start; that's why I'm doing the 6 weeks challenge now!

Good luck with the YAYOG! Let's fight together~
(Last time I did, somehow I stopped midway; so one of my quest in this challenge is to finish YAYOG ^^)

[lillucia]

Thanks d3li9ht!

 

Doing the video version of YAYOG suits me down to the ground, because I'm lazy and hate having to time sets/count reps etc. I can just do what I'm told then.

 

Wednesday marks:

Paleo: Bit of a challenge, training in the city so expensive (but yum) cafe lunches, and smuggled dried apricots the rest of the time. Lunch was a tiny compromise because when I got the dish back, the calamari did have slight crumbing, but barely enough to feel on the tongue. I'm hungry again now just thinking of it... promise to update with pics of these lunches sometime. Then for tea we had some people over, so bit roast dinner, dessert, alcohol and all sorts. I'm fairly pleased with myself though - only concession was to try a wee bit of a piece of the dessert (which I made myself a few months back, but it's been in the freezer, so had to check it was still nice. Which it was. VERY nice.)

No alcohol: Check! I did feel tempted by the vino tinto several times.

YAYOG workout: Done! Form is slowly improving, but MUCH progress is needed.

 

Several chest & core muscles are really feeling it both last night and this morning so today (Thursday) is going to be a TRUE rest day. I even put my alarm on for 6am instead of 5:30. Besides, I was running low on workout clothes - need to buy more but got no car at the moment

 

Oh, and one more update - I tried jfau's advice about holding medium & low pushup positions as part of transitioning to a floor pushup... aaand failed miserably. But it was late, and I was sore and tired, so I'll try it again soon.

 

Thanks so much for all your support!!

[lillucia]

Popping in for an update.

 

Friday afternoon here, I'm feeling fabulous.

 

Thursday complete: phew! I had a blood test this afternoon as I've suspected I'm low in iron for years and taken a supplement for such, but never actually checked. I tested out (unintentionally) skipping my iron tablet the other day and hoped I might be ok considering I'm having a lot more iron in my diet now, but no juice - pale as a ghost and huge energy slump in the afternoon.

Anyway, put that one down on my list of life experiences: I have had a blood test for the first time.

 

Thursday also happened to be my brother's birthday... whose chosen method of celebrating was to get icecream for dessert (do you guys know Dairy Bell?). Cue much family pressure for a few minutes and I went, ah well, it's a birthday and it's family - priorities here. So I gave in and had an icecream, which sadly wasn't as nice as I remembered anyway (I think they really skimp on the rum and raisin components these days). Interestingly, my sleep last night was majorly mucked up, so I'm joyfully attributing that to the sugar and putting the whole thing down as life experience. I actually did something I used to do a lot which is wake up during the night, think it's morning, dive out of bed to get dressed for the killer day ahead of me, and then realise it's 2am or something. I've literally gotten as far as showering and washing my hair, or taking the sheets off my bed before

 

Anyway, so yesterday doesn't get a mark for Paleo. But alcohol was fine (no, I'm not counting the rum & raisin - still pretty sure there was no rum harmed in the creation of that icecream) and yesterday was a rest day.

 

In the hours since: powered out of bed, through my circuit training YAYOG workout (oh, and I got round to buying a workout notebook and more fitness clothes last night), kept on track for time all morning and felt splendid.

 

Weather is up the pole here -  has been up in the 40s © but now got rain scheduled all weekend. Ah well, better for the fire situation anyway.

 

Oh, and yesterday I achieved Inbox Zero (); this morning the realisation dawned that one of our email domains' POP collector hasn't been functioning since I restarted the server the day before Christmas. So bye bye empty inbox, hello 150 new emails! :sick:

 

Have a great weekend everyone

[lillucia]

Checking in for a Friday complete report:

 

Workout: Done with gusto (don't ask me about my form, but I enjoyed it anyway)

Paleo: Check Resisted temptations...except I felt a little guilty about the number of cherries I ate after tea, oh vell.

No Alcohol: Sailed right on through! I think I'll keep up for Sat this week too.

 

Spent Saturday afternoon trudging around furniture shops... my feeet! Shopping would be so much more fun if I didn't have to dress like a civilized human being.. :\

 

Saturday and Sunday are days off for my challenge - still going easy on the Paleo though. Got stuck at the shops without a drink and had to settle for a vitamin water.. ah well, could be worse, no?

 

See you all Monday!

[Amdhiel]

Looks like you're doing awesome LiLucia! Keep up the good work. 

[lillucia]

Looks like you're doing awesome LiLucia! Keep up the good work. 

Thanks! I really need to get back into the groove of planning my lunches rather than scrabbling through the fridge before work in search of vegies

[Amdhiel]

My go to is bags of frozen veggies in stream fresh bags they work great if you have access to a microwave.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lillucia]

Ok, team. Little late checking in - been a busy few days!

So, I completed the first week of my challenge (Saturday and Sunday aren't really part of it since none of the quests apply to those days, but I'm trying to be more mindful then as well).

 

Quest 1: YAYOG Workouts = A. Did all three and loved them. I know my form is improving (baby steps!) and that gradually this weakling is getting STRONGER.

Quest 2: Paleo = C. I didn't put enough effort into planning here, and although my actual eating didn't suffer too much (apart from the icecream ), I didn't actually enjoy my food like I normally would. All just rush, rush, rush, what's in the fridge goes in the bag, a bit of tuna here and some cucumber there - I need to start making this fun again. But for that, I need to go grocery shopping again, which means I need to borrow the car \

Quest 3: No Alcohol = A. Honestly easier than I expected. Apart from that stressful time on Monday night, I haven't really wanted it at all - more just the social / taste side when ogling a bottle of vino tinto or something. I should have done this ages ago!!

 

I know what my next challenge is going to be about... SLEEEEP! I really need to make this a priority - I'm doing ok at my early starts at the moment, but I know my body can't stick it out on 6 hrs sleep a night indefinitely. It just becomes a vicious circle for me of more caffeine, shoddy sleep, even more caffeine etc.

 

 

 

And, seeing it is Tuesday morning (already! ) I should report on Monday... which was good. Workout good, waking up feeling energised was good, Paleo was successful (but gah, I got rumbly tummy half way through a training session and had to (not very assassin-ishly) sneak some dried fruit from my bag without anyone noticing. Haha! No alcohol = no problem. Oh, and I did extend no alcohol for Saturday without any issues (but not Sunday).

 

Rock on, you lot!

[lillucia]

Hmm, I realised I haven't completed Blaidd's first mini-quest which qualifies me for an extra WIS point at the end of the challenge (I'm still confused about how the stat points work on our first challenge...)

 

1. Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)?  Is it reasonable? Yes, it is. If I steadily strength-train over the 6 months, I believe it's realistic (also he's working on his weight loss at the moment ) I have thought it might be a little awkward and that I'd settle for lifting an equivalent amount of weight, but I'll see closer to the end.

2. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? Yes, although 1 is the main one directly related to it. Basically I wanted to start out with things that weren't too big a shock to the system and then think long and hard about my goals for the next challenge based on how I go here.

3. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? Absolutely. In a way they're not exactly goals, but things I'm committing to doing every day/couple days etc.

4. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked?  What ill you use to track them? Yes, basically it is done/not done.

5. How are you grading your goals?  Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)?  Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? They're pass or fail. I need to work out a reward, but I also need to work out a scoring system. Like I said, first challenge stat points confuse me. Do I have 10 points to allocate at the end of the challenge or not? So at 3 wks I can claim my ten stat points which are like my base-line, then at the end of the challenge (and for subsequent challenges) I can allocate 10 points?

6. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Two won't be affected really by illness / injury, but with the workouts I would have to complete modified bodyweight workouts to substitute.

7. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge?  What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? Ah, good point. As you can see, one birthday already slipped up - and Australia Day is on the 26th. I may make my days off more flexible (Sat/Sun at the moment) as far as Quests 2 & 3 are concerned, and then workouts can be shifted one day late / early as needed.

8. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? No, they all work together without any problems.

9. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set?  If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? Kind of... I do have the time generally, but I waste spare time, so I'm intending to claim it back through proper planning.

10. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? I'm trying to build multiple habits, however I think I can do it. In a way, my more indirect main quest is simply to become a healthier/stronger me, and yes all the energy focuses on this. But I guess that's what everyone's working at

Ok, I think I have some work to do based on my answers above... will post again soon with what my mods will be.

 

Thanks, Blaidd!

[lillucia]

Right, look out Wednesday!

 

Tuesday's marks:

Workout: Rest day, but woke up early anyway to wash my hair before work

Paleo: Check. Again, I need some more veggies in the fridge, but I think mum is going to get some today.

No Alcohol: Check. Honestly, I don't even think about it lately. Really getting to love water.

 

Aaand, Wednesday morning workout (Novice Ladders) = complete. Felt the burn, loved the challenge. I really need to catch up on sleep sometime though... six hours a night over the past week just isn't enough for me. Makes me too reliant on caffeine.

 

Trust all your challenges are going awesome!

[Carly Rae Jepsens Warlock]

Oh my! Amazing profile! Totally subbing this!

WORK IT, LIL! Rooting for ya!

This message was convincingly brought to you by,"my imaginative brain", co-produced by "my nimble but bulbous fingers".

[lillucia]

Aww

 

Checking in for Wednesday:

Workout: Check. Really enjoying it and feeling the difference in my form & endurance - still got a few niggling things like sore wrists etc to combat. Gah wrists! You're not even doing the hard work around here yet you have to complain!!

Paleo: Check. Meal times etc happened a little differently because I had less breakfast (too lazy to open a new pack of bacon), which meant I got hungry again mid-morning. Made it through the day completely intact though.

No Alcohol: Done. I did feel a slight twinge of 'scotch would be nice right now' - because my throat was a little sore (consequence of not enough sleep) and that's always been my remedy. Just didn't really even think about it seriously though. Just, nah, not for me! Not when I'd have to come skulking back here and tell you all I mucked up

 

The sun has risen on Thursday here (at least I believe it has, all I see are grey clouds ) which is a rest day, so I slept until 6 (and snoozed for a bit, but that's a topic for another challenge). Brekkie done, and I'm set to power on. Another day of training here (and then Monday and I'm DONE!), so will mean buying lunch again... hopefully can pick something tasty like last week.

 

 

All the best everyone!

[lillucia]

Yay! Private L reporting for Friday morning transmission.

Thursday report:

Workout: Rest day

Paleo: Successful (apart from the slight crumbing on the calamari - ordered the same dish as last week and it was still beyoo-tiful.

No Alcohol: Done. Again a slight challenge to not nuke my sore throat with scotch.

 

Friday morning: Workout done. Shower done. Plank for the health of the Brigade done. Breakfast done.

Es un dia splendifidas!! (yes, I made up that word). But, the weather is incredibly lovely and I'm just so happy

 

Anyway, I'm preparing for the impending crash caused by several nights of 5-6 hours sleep... but until it comes, I'll partaaay :D