elinox: Do You Believe In Magic?

[elinox]

For my eighth challenge, I’m going with a 10th Kingdom theme. This theme would have been better as my 9th or 10th challenge, but it can’t be helped as I want to honor the 10th Kingdom’s 15th Anniversary on February 27th.

 

The 10th Kingdom is my favorite movie (technically it's a mini series) and book of all time. It’s about a young woman named Virginia who is seeking to find herself and escape from her boring life. She ends up being transported, along with her screw-up father Tony, to a magical land where fairy tales are real. And they’re not the golden fluff from Disney either!

 

Along the way she is rescued, repeatedly, by Wolf, a reformed convict whose sole mission in life is to woo her. He is half-wolf and must fight his own animal instincts along their journey.

 

The adventure takes them on a whirlwind tour throughout the nine kingdoms where they encounter Trolls and dwarves, a magic gold river fish, the Kissing Town, an Evil Queen, elves and fairies, poisonous mushrooms and Prince Wendell who has been turned into dog. They must help Prince regain his throne and thwart the most evil woman alive; all while simply trying to go home.

 

My goals are properly kingdom themed too.

 

Main Quest

To live a healthy and balanced life by exercising and trying to eat healthy.

 

My motivation

I've successfully dropped weight by counting calories so my diet will mostly be staying the same with 1200 calories per day M-F and then a blow meal on the weekends. I've managed to put on some muscle in an effort to become stronger by weight lifting and that will continue this challenge along with my smaller quests.

 

3 smaller Quests

1. Don’t Eat the Magic Mushrooms (or in my case, the magic chocolate!)

“Baste it, roast it, toast it, nibble it, chew it, bite right through it, wobble it, gobble it, wrap it round a couple of chickens and am I ravenous!†-Wolf, referring to how wonderful bacon is

 

While I won’t be adding meat to my diet (sadly!), I do still need to watch my sugary snacks. So as with previous challenges, I aim to cut down on processed junk food by only having sugary snacks on the weekends with my blow meal.

 

However, I am not counting this week since my birthday falls on Thursday and I’ve got Grandma’s chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Since Grandma is 94, and made the cake especially for me, I will be enjoying it, within my caloric limit, all week long. I just won’t be counting these 5 days towards my overall sweet treat-free days.

 

Scoring: x/25 days for sweet treats

Reward: +3 to CON

 

Additionally, I should also go back to only 1 blow meal per weekend in an effort to lose some weight. In previous challenges, I slacked off and was eating junk food Friday night, Saturday and Sunday whereas in the past, when I first started this caloric diet, I was only having 1 blow meal. Not day, or days, but meal.

 

Since then, I’ve decided that I don’t want to be a size 0 because I just love cake too much. However, cutting down on just going crazy all weekend long is necessary so I can fit into my wetsuit better for a two week vacation to Cozumel (for nothing but scuba diving!) I’m going on in May.

 

So I will be trying to only have 1 blow meal per weekend. If this includes dinner one night and dessert the following day, this will still count as 1 meal. The goal is to avoid eating things like muffins, fluffernutter sandwiches and then having dinner with dessert in a single day, or days.

 

Scoring: x/6 weekend

Reward:  +3 to CHA

 

2. Climb Rapunzel’s Hair

“Love of my life, let down your lustrous locks!†-Wolf, right before he gets smacked in the face by pounds of hair

 

Continue working towards that elusive, first chin up. To do this, I will be working assisted pull-ups into my weight lifting routine again. The last time I did them was for one set back in December of 6 reps at 40lbs of assist.

 

By the end of the 6 week challenge, I’d like to get the assist weight down to 35lbs with little effort. I struggle with these as it is, and they really frustrate me, but working them into my normal weight lifting routine is a good thing and should, eventually, show progress. I will try not to become disheartened at the difficulty though.

Scoring: /45lbs

/40lbs

/35lbs

 

Reward: +3 to STR (one for each level achieved)

 

3. “Wanna go walkies?†-Tony to Prince Wendell

I’ve successfully added walking into my workout but I need to do better at challenging my cardio. In the past few challenges, I’ve walked 30 miles in 6 weeks. Now I want to focus more on my cardio so I will be paying less attention to how far I’ve walked and more on how I maintain a high heart rate while walking.

 

I intend to do it like this:

3 times per week

5 minutes warmup; low incline: 1-2

20-25 minutes of quick walk at an incline that gets higher the longer I’m walking and keeps my heart rate at 120 or above.

5 minutes cool down

 

Upping my cardio will also help when I’m diving!

 

Walking through the 9 Kingdoms was the easiest way to get around and to remain undetected from the Queen. And while I don’t plan on walking the entire length of the Disenchanted Forest (1,000 miles!), walking quickly with my heart rate up should keep me safe enough from the Huntsman to survive!

 

Scoring: x/20

Reward: +3 to STA & +3 to DEX

 

Stats

Age: 32...might as well make it 33 since my birthday is February 26th!

Gender: female

Height: 5’3â€

Weight: 141.6lbs

 

[elinox]

I started out strong today on the first day of the challenge by going to the gym over my lunch break. I walked for 35 minutes total and had my heart rate above 120 for about 15-20 minutes of that.

 

I may need to purchase a monitor though so I can know for sure as I've never had accurate luck with the ones on the treadmills and doing it by hand requires me to actually stop walking. 

 

Walking: 1/18

[TwinBear]

Outstanding start.

 

Subbed.

[elinox]

Walked today over lunch with an incline that I raised the longer I walked. I did the last minute at the highest, 15!

 

Walking: 2/18

[elinox]

I went to the gym again yesterday, this time after work, and did weight lifting. And decided that I am not doing weights at the Gold's near home again. The place is like a warehouse and I feel like all I do is walk around aimlessly. Plus, all the free weights I needed (15lbs & 20lbs) were always being used and that was frustrating. So I will do my weight lifting at the gym at work and just do the assisted pull-ups at the Gold's. 

 

I did 2 sets of 9 reps and 1 set of 6 reps at 50lbs assist on the pull-up machine. It's so frustrating since even those were hard and today I'm stiff all over! However, I took some solace in the fact that two other women did them too and one did them on 80lbs while the other did them on a weight higher than mine, although I can't remember what specifically. 

 

Pull-ups are hard! 

[Erick the Red]

Why do you always have great themes that make me want to read more books or watch new movies!!!

I wouldn't care, but I have discovered that you have good taste.  Bah.  

 

Fabulous goals by the way.  Very focused and measurable, and clearly connected to your overall mission.

[elinox]

Why do you always have great themes that make me want to read more books or watch new movies!!!

I wouldn't care, but I have discovered that you have good taste.  Bah.  

 

Fabulous goals by the way.  Very focused and measurable, and clearly connected to your overall mission.

 

You know you need MORE things to do in your spare time! Might as well make those things reading awesome books. Honestly, I'm just happy you started reading Codex Alera. If there isn't time to read The 10th Kingdom, see if you can get it on Netflix to watch with the kids. It's family friendly!

 

[Erick the Red]

if it is on Netflix we may get to it today.  We are all home for a snow day.  The snow won't actually fall until later, around noon actually, but all the schools cancelled and almost all of my military base told folks to stay home too.  So, yeah.  Rambling.  Hmm, nice drapes.  How about them Yankees?....  

[elinox]

if it is on Netflix we may get to it today.  We are all home for a snow day.  The snow won't actually fall until later, around noon actually, but all the schools cancelled and almost all of my military base told folks to stay home too.  So, yeah.  Rambling.  Hmm, nice drapes.  How about them Yankees....  

 

I'm pretty sure it's not in Instawatch, only disc. At least, last time I checked anyway. It was available a few years ago on Instawatch though...

 

I think Amazon has it, and I'm not sure about Hulu. 

[Erick the Red]

I'm pretty sure it's not in Instawatch, only disc. At least, last time I checked anyway. It was available a few years ago on Instawatch though...

 

I think Amazon has it, and I'm not sure about Hulu. 

 

You are right about Netflix.  Amazon has five episodes for $5.  Is that all of them?

 

And, so as to not totally de-rail your thread -- pullups.  You have tried full-weight negative reps?  I hear they are as helpful as assisted-weight lifting.

[elinox]

You are right about Netflix.  Amazon has five episodes for $5.  Is that all of them?

 

And, so as to not totally de-rail your thread -- pullups.  You have tried full-weight negative reps?  I hear they are as helpful as assisted-weight lifting.

 

As far as I can tell from looking at the episodes on Amazon, that should be the entire thing. The original mini-series was about 417 minutes long so those 5 episodes add up. Although a description per episode would be more helpful!

 

Negative pull-ups are where you start up over the bar and lower yourself down, correct? If so, I've tried them and they haven't seemed any easier. Of course, getting my short self over the bar is a challenge to begin with as I have to jump without the assist bar.

[Erick the Red]

Jump and hang, slowly letting yourself down.  Upper- and lower-body workout?

[elinox]

Jump and hang, slowly letting yourself down.  Upper- and lower-body workout?

 

I'm self conscious about just jumping...well that, and somehow hurting myself in the process. 

 

Maybe I should just ask a fitness couch there how to do one properly so I know I'm working the right muscles?

[Firedance]

Gah pullups.  I'm doing my bodyweight goal to build up enough strength overall that I can actually make progress on my assisted pull ups. Right now I think I'm offsetting like all of me, I'm on such a high setting haha.

[elinox]

Gah pullups.  I'm doing my bodyweight goal to build up enough strength overall that I can actually make progress on my assisted pull ups. Right now I think I'm offsetting like all of me, I'm on such a high setting haha.

 

My husband assures me they are simply really, really hard to do. I don't need to crank them out like I see people at the gym doing (sets of over 6, seriously?!?), I just want to do one, on my own, just once!

 

Walking: 3/18 --> I'm thinking I'm going to see to up the '18' since I've already gone 3 times this week already!

[Firedance]

My husband assures me they are simply really, really hard to do. I don't need to crank them out like I see people at the gym doing (sets of over 6, seriously?!?), I just want to do one, on my own, just once!

I think I'd like to do 2, in case the first one was a fluke to a sudden burst of anti gravity!

[elinox]

I went to the gym last night after work and did another bought of walking uphill. I didn't go over lunch though because friends took me out for a cheesesteak since it was my birthday.

 

Walking: 4/18

[Firedance]

Yay happy birthday!!!

[elinox]

Yay happy birthday!!!

 

Thanks!

[Erick the Red]

Happy, happy birhtday!  How does it feel to be old enough to drive now?  

[elinox]

Happy, happy birhtday!  How does it feel to be old enough to drive now?

 

Thank you! And believe me, I've been old enough to drive for over 16 years now.

[elinox]

Well Troll Toys I've got some bad news. I went to my family doctor today for my neck pain which has been persistently bugging me for months (after going to a chiropractor for the past 3 months). And he told me to stop doing Arnold presses, the bar squat and assisted pull-ups for awhile. At least until my neck has had a chance to begin healing. Huff puff but that puts a dampen on my #2 mini quest (getting better at assisted pull-ups)!

 

So in an effort to follow doctor's orders, I'm changing my mini quest #2. To keep with my STR goal, I will be working on my bench press.

 

2. Huff Puff Bench Press

"That's wolves for you, good guys!" -Wolf

 

Up my bench press over 6 weeks to 90lbs. Last week I did two sets of 7 reps at 75lbs each.

Scoring:/80lbs

/85lbs

/90lbs

[Firedance]

That's ok, you can go back to it next challenge when it won't hurt! Excellent job being flexible.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Great change up!!  I'm struggling to get my bench over 65 pounds; so I'll be cheering you!!!

[elinox]

Well the weekend was a total failure with food and my plan to be at 1200 calories on Sunday. I had intended to be bad only on Saturday, since we were celebrating my birthday, but my dinner with my parents and in-laws Saturday night sucked so I ended up making up for that by not caring what I ate on Sunday. Although as a small victory, I inadvertently didn't have a sweet treat Saturday night. 

 

Sweet Treats: 1/25