The Odyssey of a Ranger-Battle Log

[soldier]

  Hello, this is my first page of my Daily Battle Log, so don't have a whole lot to share as of right now, or nothing to show on training since I am on Newbie status and still a recruit. 

 

  So far, I had started yoga last week which is the second week of the challenge.  The first week was used mainly to get ready to go, food wise, picking out my kettlebell training program which my instructor had made for me some time ago.

 

 My diet of choice is paleo.  I find a lot of the foods on the paleo diet are much more filling for me and I don't go overboard and eat too much.  I have the Primal Blueprint Cookbook and have been taking a lot of my recipes from that.  Starting today, I am going to quit drinking soda (I am attempting cold turkey and will record whether I was successful for the day on the battle log.)  I honestly do think that soda is really sabotaging my efforts in losing weight/getting healthy efforts.

 

   My ultimate goal is to get in shape enough to become a StrongFirst Girevik kettlebell instructor one day.  As of right now, I am too out of shape, don't have the strength of stamina to go through the course. I am hoping from my membership from Nerd Fitness is to gain the motivation to achieve that ultimate goal. 

 

Wish everyone the best of luck.  Will hear more detailed info from me tommorow!

 

[soldier]

Hello, I know that I said that I would start my battle log yesterday, but forgot.  So I am filling in what I did yesterday now, so I won't forget again.  I will place another post about my battles today later.

 April 28, 2015

Just finished week 2 of my yoga workout.  The workout is about 20 minutes long.  It was very relaxing but still a tough workout.  Afterwards I took a ten minute walk.  That is as far as I had gotten in exercise yesterday.  Today I will incorporate a little bit more and add kettlebells to the picture.

 Still need to clean up my eating, but everyday I am incorporating more of the good-for-you foods I am supposed to eat.  But, it is part of the odyssey.  I am going to have my valleys and hills or bad and good days.  But as I walk through the valley, I notice everyday, it gets a little better. 

But, to end on a good note, I have so far maintained a three day streak in not drinking soda.   I am pretty proud of myself for that!

Have a great hump day!

[soldier]

Alright, time to focus on the Battle Log.  It is pretty sad that I title this the "Daily Battle Log" but had only written two posts since I had started it around late April.    Plus, I keep saying "I'll update later in the day." or "Will talk tomorrow." but never do, kinda makes me look like a liar.  I do not consider myself a compulsive liar, but lately it seems like I have, so I do apologize for it. 

But for starters, I am in the middle of the Recruit six week challenge and we are about to finish week four.  I just recently leveled up to and earned 10 points and had to allocate our points depending upon how well we were able to commit to our quests.  Part of it is to get a mid challenge summary.  I am very glad that we did that because it was a wake-up call for me and it gave me an idea what I had done well and what I still need to work on.  What I had done well in the challenge is my transition to the paleo lifestyle.  I was able to do it by getting my handy dandy paleo cookbook out, pick out recipes that I would like to make or try out, make a meal plan, get a shopping list together, go shopping, and get cooking!  I also give myself a cheat meal during the week so that way, I don't feel completely deprived.  They say that paleo is one of those diets that you don't have to count calories.  I had done the counting calorie route and honestly, I think that it is a hassle.  I am going to try it out without counting calories, and see what happens.  I really hope it works out!

 Another thing that I had done well, is paying done my debt.  I am a payment away in paying off one of my credit cards.    I still have to pay off one more credit card and student loans, but I am getting closer!

  I did start yoga.  I am not doing it three times a week like I should, but I did start!  I enjoy it so far!

  Now, what I am not doing well in.  Of all the things that I should be doing, I had barely kicked off the kettlebell training.  I haven't drinking my daily intake of water as I should., but on a good note I had cut back on the soda drinking.  I had been drinking coffee and tea mainly.  But, if you want more detail, check out my thread on the recruit challenge.

 

Here is my meal plan for the week:

Sunday-Thursday and Saturday:

  Breakfast:  2 hard-boiled eggs

  Lunch:  Paleo Jambalaya with mashed parsnips

  Snack:  Salad with chicken, paleo ranch dressing and bacon

  Dinner:  Liver and onions with bacon (yes, I like this dish, I know yuck right?)

On Friday it will start off the same, but that that evening, I get to have my cheat meal.  It could be a super carb loaded homemade meal, a meal from a nice restaurant, or a Double-Whopper combo meal from Burger King.  Whatever I like. 

 

I had my list from my kettlebell instructor of my kettlebell program, but will need to look for it.  It won't take me long because it is saved on my computer.  Will keep you updated (Oh, here I go again) about what it is later.  Hey, I said later not tomorrow or tonight, but later.  But, I will try my darndest to make it daily!

 

Thanks for listening.

Rachel

[soldier]

Oh my goodness!  I actually responded to my thread not tomorrow or next week but later this evening!

OK, enough with the sarcasm, here is the kettlebell program that my instructor made some time ago:

 

Day 1:  Dynamic

Swings > 150 reps

Cleans >75 reps

Farmers and rack walks >200 yards

 

Day 2:  Grind

TGU > 6 reps/side

Press 5 sets of 5 reps

Squats 5 sets of 5 reps pause 2 secs on bottom

 

Day 3:  Dynamic and Grind

TGU 3/side any weight

Swings 15 sets of 15 reps < 20 min.

2 kb press walks 20 yds x 10 sets

 

Day 4:  Grind and Dynamic

TGU 1/1 x each weight you can use

2 kb clean and front squat 5 x 5 + 15 sec plank

2 kb clean and press 5 x 5

2 kb swing 10 x 10

TGU 2/2 as heavy as is safe

add

Everyday:  barefoot walking and walking on toes

 

That is it!  All I really need to do for the last weeks of my current challenge is to take it seriously.  I think that I I would like to add a little bit to the training that would help to build up to the snatch. 

 

Also, aside from kettlebell training, I forgot to share that I bought some paleo recipe books.  I got the Nom Nom Paleo cook book by Michelle Tam and Henry Fong.  I had just started reading it and she is one funny lady.  Her recipes look great too.  I look forward to cooking some of them.

I also got It Starts with Food and The Whole 30 both written by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. Currently, I am going to start researching what it is and I am going to start doing the The Whole 30 on the next challenge.  Just sharing what I am about to do in the future.  Everybody have a good night!

[soldier]

Well, just about to graduate the recruit guild and moving onto the Ranger Guild!  I am totally pumped up for this next challenge!  I have decided on the first day of my second challenge, I am going to adapt a story line type of format.  I am not a gamer and I really don't read or watch a lot of fantasy or sci-fi type of stories or movies (not that I don't enjoy them), so I can't really base my storyline off of a  certain book, a movie (well, maybe Lord of Rings which I imagine is very typical), or a game unfortunately.  But, I have been blessed with a very large imagination and had decided to make up something up on my own.  I have some ideas from mainly watching fantasy movies in the past but actually making it my own.  So, if there are people who are fantasy or sci-fi fanatics, and had noticed that my story is closely related to another story (I do know that there are many, many stories in those types of genres)  I do apologize I am not taking credit for something that is not my own but a huge coincidence.  But, bear with me because it has been a very long time since I had written a story (probably since high school). 

 

I need to start brain storming my new quests for this next challenge as well.  I believe once I get my new quests and decide on a reward scheme, I can start building up my story around that.

 

But, that is about it for now.  I will talk some more about my story once I get a little bit more brainstorming going on.  Good night!