Pre-Challenge Logbook of Infinite Optimism

[Beck Fallowhide]

That is a fantastic title, I'm fairly proud of myself for that!

 

Anyway,  I feel that missing more than 2 weeks of the current challenge is enough to want to wait until the next one starts to officially log there.  That is to say, I will still sort out and start on my goals RIGHT NOW, but I won't join a 6-week challenge until the next one starts (Feb 23 - April 5 I believe is the next one)

 

So a preview and toe-dipping-to-check-the-temperature is what this is, I suppose.  There's always room for tweaks and scootching to adjust for the busying of schedules or for more leisure time as it comes along.

 

 

MAIN QUEST: It resides in my signature~ inspired by Daft Punk's song "Harder Better Faster Stronger" and Might Guy from Naruto, I never want to actually be able to finish this goal.  So, my goal is to be better than my past self.  YEAH FOREVER-GOALS!

 

My current goals to achieve the fundamentals of my main quest are as follows:  EDITS IN BOLD

 

Goal #1:  Mostly Vegetarian, Mostly Paleo

• Inspired by:  Everyone who's ever picked on me for eating a vegetarian meal.  Please note:  I am not a vegetarian.  I just don't eat a whole lot of meat products, they tend to be a smaller part of my diet because I prefer vegetables.  Someone once told me this meant I was "Mostly Vegetarian", and I laughed pretty hard not gonna lie.  I told one of my vegetarian friends about it and they got upset to the point of being offended, which I thought was strange but hey- to each their own.
• Plot Point:  Reduce grain intake and replace with more proteins and healthy fats.  I mean I love veggies, but they're not gonna keep the engine running all by their lonesome.  Veg intake is already optimal.
• How-to:  Replace at least 1 grain product per day with a protein/fat combo (ei: replace veggie burrito with lettuce wrap + meat/nuts, replace sandwich with raw almonds, ect) watch portions - make sure to have â‰¥ of veg instead of going nuts later and filling up on potatoes/bread

Goal #2:  Walk to Mordor

• Inspired by:  The Lord of the Rings & Nerd Fitness!  Great movie/article.  I have a good activity level, but it's kind of sporadic and dependent on other peoples presence (my mother at the gym, my co-worker for bouldering, my sister for Just Dance Wii, ect)
• Plot Point:  Walk places, or around.  Don't have to go anywhere necessarily, but motivation always helps!  Instead of paying an extra $3 to go 5 km from work to the next bus stop, walk.  0.75 km from the grocery store on the way home to buy those raw almonds instead of asking someone to pick it up.  It's a beautiful, fresh-aired day, walk the 11 km to the local nature park and back, plus whatever wandering happens at the park!  Anything counts.
• How-to:  Walk a total of 25 km (15 miles) per week walk 5 minutes/day minimum - first thing after breakfast

Goal #3:  BAT-CAVE!!!

• Inspired by:  Batman & Nerd Fitness (I spy a theme here)
• Plot Point:  My living areas are pretty chaotic, it's not good.  Definitely need more order and organization in that department.
• How-to:  Do one thing, every day, to improve the overall functionality of my batcave living spaces.  Can be cleaning, dusting, re-organizing all of my mothers DRAGONLANCE books (that last one takes hours though, maybe for an especially enthusiastic day) order of importance/rooms to focus on first:  Computer room, kitchen, bedroom, living room.

Goal #4:  Finish This Challenge

• Inspired by:  Every other challenge/goal that I have not finished
• Plot Point:  I habitually quit after a week or two for most things.  No longer.  I am now someone who finishes what I start or has the sense of mind to not start that thing.
• How-to:  Keep a day-to-day journal.  Post a cumulitive report online once a week (Friday)

 

I opted to replace one of my diet/fitness goals with another life goal because that last one is fairly important.

 

It's not looking at my failures in life and trying to be motivated by regret.

 

I've accomplished a lot since I decided I wanted to be healthy:

1. Lost 45 lbs
2. Started exercising again
3. Made new friends
4. Go out of my way to socialize instead of complaining about being lonely

and then some more, so it's more looking at my failures and seeing how I can better myself from them (see: main goal).

 

 

And this all starts today, right now.

 

After I post this, I'm going to go wash todays dishes (goal #3) and then I'm going to check out what food-stuff we have so I can plan tomorrow's breakfast (goal #1).  I'm not going to put too much pressure or planning behind this, because I know it doesn't work and I'm only moderately insane.  So tomorrow's goal achieving plans will be made tomorrow, likely right before I do them.

It's 11:01PM here in Canada, I wish you all a good night!  Happy Tuesday~

 

-Rebecca

[Beck Fallowhide]

SATURDAY UPDATE

Because yesterday was a day full of de-bugging my computer, HA

Anyway, some notes:

 

For Goal #1:  replacing one item with a paleo alternative is easy enough, but later in the day I will muck up my portions (too much) and have a crazy amount of non-paleo carbs (bread, pizza, pasta, rice) so I'm going to alter that one to include portion control as well.

 

Goal #2:  I haven't gone out for a walk at all... I really hate being cold and there aren't any free indoor alternatives for this so really it's just something that I have to suck up and do a little bit of.  Going to change from distance to time, because telling myself 5 minutes is going to be more effective than telling myself 5 km.

 

Goal #3:  Going alright, though I'm focusing more of easy common-space areas rather than the areas I spend the most time in.  So I'm going to adjust this and make a hierarchy of room priorities and time spent in them ect ect

 

Goal #4:  I'm not really into it yet, I'm kind of jogging after the band-wagon as of right now, but I've not abandoned it yet and that shall be considered a win~

 

Woooo

"On the road again~  I can't wait to get on the road again~"

- Donkey: Shrek

 

SPEAKING OF GETTING ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Getting my ingredients for truffles tomorrow, probably~
*Excited*

[Beck Fallowhide]

"I don't know how to say it, but after last night I feel different. I seem to see ahead, in a kind of way"

 

There are 1.60934 km in a mile.

It takes roughly 1 hour to walk 6 km (3.73 miles)

The walk to Mordor is 1779 miles long.  That's 2863.02 km.

To walk all the way to Mordor in 6 weeks, I would have to walk 68.18 km(42.36 miles) per day.  That's 11.36 hours per day, not including breaks or slowing down due to fatigue.

 

More reasonably, if I walked 5 km (3.11 miles) per day for 6 weeks, I will have made 7.3% of the entire journey.

 

Frodo and Sam took about 6 months with monsters and baddies and sideroad misadventures to deal with but without things like a day job ect ect.

 

Perspectives are fun~
And Mordor suddenly looks impossibly far and close enough to touch all at once
 

[Beck Fallowhide]

"Where the hell were you last week?"

Sorry, I've been watching Shameless.  That show is NSFW, NSFK, NSFL b/c it's too on the ball for how poverty works.

I'm really glad my family moved up the ladder before I got any crazy ideas into my 13-year-old head.  BONUS!  My younger siblings don't even remember!! (I'm the oldest of 3)

 

 

Anyway, this was my week so far:

MV,MP  -  Twice this week I had a day where I just wanted to eat whatever was available/easiest to get to.  That would be fine, but I can't do the grand clean-out of my house because it's not actually my house it's my mothers.  Though I learned from last time, I didn't tell her I was trying this again so she didn't go out and pity buy a whole bunch of garbage (win).

AND AND AND
I'm very proud and excited about this!
Without even thinking, when someone offered me a granola bar I said "I don't eat granola bars, thank you"
not "I can't" or "maybe just a bite"
I do not

And they didn't even blink at it, just "Okay" and didn't bug or pressure about it.

 

Walk to Mordor  -  This week's count is 15 km, and most of that was in super super cold weather.  Twice at night in the -18-22°C range, and yesterday to the store and back was warmer but snowing like nobodies business at -15°C.  Not too bad, I want to work it up to 35 km per week still.  I'll get there, progress~

 

BAT-CAVE  -  Little to no progress.  Seems like every time I clean something it just gets cluttered with more mess either of my own making or someone elses (it's especially discouraging when it's someone elses)  It just feels like there isn't enough time in the day to keep every room in a state of cleanliness.  But I'm going to try and figure something out, because this sucks

 

FTC  -  NOT STARTED PROPERLY YET

I think this one will end up being implied and I'll have another resistance/body-weight themed challenge here instead?  Maybe something along the lines of 3 reps in one episode of Shameless.  GOTTA EARN THAT ENTERTAINMENT or MIGHT AS WELL DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN SIT ON YOUR BUTT WHILE YOU WATCH THIS

It's important that I keep this one close, but there's really nothing I can report about it, the fact that I'm reporting at all says that I'm following through.

 

 

"Three words: Time. Management. Skills"
I don't need a webinar, I have Nerd Fitness!

[Beck Fallowhide]

UPDATE #3! (or proper post #4, whatever.  3rd week is ovah as of yesterday)

 

MV, MP:  I went and gone and had a whole day of grainy carby goodness after a week of having next to none of it because of work/availability issues.  I got a throat full of canker-sores for my lack of trouble.  Been to the doctor, waiting for lab results to say yay or nay on the intolerance scale.  Believe it or not it's next to impossible to find time to sit down and eat anything when you work in a kitchen.  It's a very grab, snarf and go kind of situation.  Luckily, if I am intolerant or sensitive or whatever, one of my co-workers is gluten-free and has the same banana/mango intolerance that I do and I can ask her for pointers.

WtM:  This week, I walked 30 km! (maybe even 31-32, but I didn't properly track decimals.  Just been rounding down to nearest whole)  And today I walked another 2.5 wich will go into next week's update.  I'm not going to count steps taken at work for this, but the past 2 days I've brought my DS and it's handy-dandy pedometer to work and for a total of 14 hours I took roughly 30,000 steps.  WOWZA

 

BC:  Absolutely nothing accomplished on this front, not even laundry.  Working 6 days is no excuse!!  Getting on that.

 

FTC:  Working on it~

BONUS:  Shameless:  Fiona (AKA Emmy Rossum) is a huge, huge inspiration for me right now.  She's beautiful, healthy and talented.  I'm going to be looking to her for inspiration for my diet (she's gluten-free/celiac), but for this goal I want to more focus on her exercise.  She's only 1.5 inches taller than I am and has an excessively similar bone structure, yet she's long and lean and I'm sitting here with all my hobbit glory chub.  Yes, it's her job to look good and she has a million hours/personal trainer/mail order healthy foods/amazing genetics to help her but I can be healthy like that too with my own resources.

So I'm going to be looking into ballet/dance exercises, one hour twice a week.  I want to work up to once a day eventually, but that's far into the future.  This is good enough for now.  Gotta work out a routine right?!

 

 

I'm going to take some progress pictures to compare to my "before" pictures.  I'm regretting not taking pictures consistently, but I'm glad I have befores.  Two years is a long time.

 

"Nobody's gonna roll me. I carry pepper spray and a shiv"

[Beck Fallowhide]

Shameless Breakdown:

 

Warm Up  -  5 minutes

Push Pull  (30 sec)

High Knee March  (30 sec)

Arm Circles  (30 sec)

Deep Squat  (30 sec)

Arm and Hip Rotations  (30 sec)

Fluid Warrior  (30 sec)

Torso Rotations  (30 sec)

Up and Outs  (30 sec)

Boxer Shuffle  (30 sec)

Jumping Jacks  (30 sec)

 

Main Workout  -  50 minutes

Relevé Plié  (5 minutes)

Parallel Plié Pulse  (5 minutes)

Arabesque Attitude  (5 minutes)

Reaching Rond de Jambe  (5 minutes)

Plié Pulse to Passé  (5 minutes)

Rear Fly and Arabesque Lift  (5 minutes)

Triceps Shaver  (5 minutes)

Plié Port de Bras  (5 minutes)

Teaser Biceps Curl  (5 minutes)

 

Cool Down  -  5 minutes

Stretch all the muscles out nicely~

Legs

Arms

Neck

Sides

Ankles

Wrists

Back

Front

Hips

Glutes

 

Set a one hour playlist for workout (or several, whatever floats your goat) and have fun!  

[Miw_Sher]

You seem to be doing quite well so far. Keep it up!
 

[Beck Fallowhide]

ALRIGHT
UPDATE #4

 

Today, I had my first in car driving instruction.  It went well, didn't crash or stall or get stuck/hit/bumped or bashed.  WEEEE, next lesson is next week at some point!!

 

As for my challenges:

MV,MP  -  The new goal on this will be to keep my gluten intake to a maximum of one item per day if anything, as the sores in my throat are becoming quite painful.

WtM  -  A wonderful new friend of mine suggested that instead of looking at it as walking all the way to Mordor, I should break it down into manageable sections with little rewards at checkpoints (ie: A pint in Bree).  Brilliant idea from the lovely JMitch.  I walked very little this week however (only 7.7 km Dx)  but that brings my pre-challenge total to 52.7 km!

BC  -  I'm so sick of how scattered everything in my house is, but I'm having serious issues organizing what's not garbage.  I don't have enough shelves for my books so they're kind of haphazardly piled around my house without any real rhyme or reason and I don't know what to do about it I love my books, I couldn't pack them away (not to mention I would make a huge mess just to get at one if I felt so inclined to read it)

S  -  SWEATY.  SWEATY SWEATY only done it twice oh my lord I need more workout clothing if I'm going to keep this up

FtC  -  11 days!!!

 

MV,MP = 25%

WtM = 25%

BC = 25%

S = 25%

FtC = End score of 70% or higher

4% is awarded for completion of a goal plan (idea, initial plan, test, final goal plan for challenge) for each of the 4 goals

0.50% can be awarded per goal per day (maximum 2%/day) for the total of 42 days/6 weeks.

 

I'm hoping to see the same kind of results at the end of this year that I've seen occur over the past 2 by completing the next 5 6-Week Challenges:

warning: nsfw, scantily clothed self for reference purposes only

 

 

You seem to be doing quite well so far. Keep it up!
 

thank you!!

[Jett]

Oh man, I feel you with the "cluttered Batcave" problem. My apartment... my poor apartment. xD There are parts of the floor I haven't seen in like a year.

 

Ultimately, I know that for me, the problem is that I have too much stuff for the space. I keep trying to convince myself to get rid of things, but then I have to decide which things to get rid of... so I pile the things I know I want to donate/sell in a corner, and then get tired and never finish sorting out the rest of the stuff. Then I just have another big pile sitting around in the apartment.

 

Of course you live with your family, so you probably have a lot less space than I do. It might not be practical or fair to expect you to get rid of things in order to fit your living space. So I guess the solution is probably better storage options.

 

1) Do you have any space for more shelving, at all? Even if it's the kind of shelving that sticks out from the wall, that you could put around the top edge of your room?

 

2) If not that, what about relatively shallow plastic containers? This is the kind I mean. You can put paperbacks in them, spine-up, and the clear lid lets you see which ones are there. Then stack up the containers, and you kind-of have a little bookshelf. When you want a specific book, you unstack the boxes until you see the book you want, open just that container to get the book, and then restack everything. Not as handy as a real bookshelf, but it keeps the stacks of books from falling over, and you can put other stuff in there, too (hairbands, makeup, pencils... almost anything)!

You'll have to look for containers that fit the size of books you have, but typically they're pretty cheap.

 

Hmm. I may need to take my own suggestions here. xD

[Beck Fallowhide]

I do the piles of stuff I need to get rid of too!  I usually get everything sorted into piles and then don't know what to do b/c there's not enough room to put 'em away x'D

 

I was thinking that because I don't have a whole lot (or any, really) of money to throw around I could take some of the recycling and construct my own shelving somehow (closet organizer?!!)

I totally want floating shelves, but the house-owner has denied my plea~  *sigh*

 

TIME TO BOX EVERYTHING

[Beck Fallowhide]

FINAL CHALLENGE TWEEKS, 16% COMPLETION AND READY FOR THE CHALLENGE

 

For one day:

Mostly Vegetarian, Mostly Paleo  -  A maximum of one food-item that isn't paleo, if anything  (exceptions: Dairy and rice) ---------------------------------------  Worth: 0.5%  (CON +1)

Walk to Mordor  -  Walk 5 minutes.  BONUS 135 Miles to Bree (217.3 km) if reached before/by the end of challenge treat oneself to some brie and a pint - Worth: 0.5%  (STA +1)

Bat Cave  -  Clean or maintain some part of living space.  Minimum 1/2 hour  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Worth: 0.5%  (WIS +1)

Shameless  -  Complete 1 hour bodyweight training of some kind, can be intense or relaxed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Worth: 0.5%  (DEX +1)

 

Totals:

Planning, Testing, Finalizing goals = 16%

MV,MP = 21%

WtM = 21%

BC = 21%

S = 21%

FtC = End score of 70% or higher

 

MAKE-UP

At the end of the week, there is an opportunity to make up to 7% (so long as it doesn't go over and above the weeks maximum percentage) by going over and above, trying something new.  Award self appropriate percentage, no cheating or over-rewarding.

 

Maximum Percentages:

Pre-Challenge  -  16%

Week 1  -  30%

Week 2  -  44%

Week 3  -  58%

Week 4  -  72%

Week 5  -  86%

Week 6  -  100%

 

Take 5

When you get to a part in the game that you seem to be incapable of passing, that infuriating try-die-respawn-repeat cycle, take a moment/break for however long you need to.

 

Walking measurements:

Work  -  0.3 km for 8h shift

Work to farthest bus stop  -  5.2km

Home to Grocery store  -  1.3 km

Home to mall  -  4.4 km

Home to Hardware Store  -  3.0 km

Home to Sports Bar  -  1.8 km

2000 steps  -  1.0 km

 

 

 

There is essentially a week left before the next challenge, only one week.

 

One week to rule them all,

one week to find them.

One week to bring them all,

and in the darkness bind them.