obax - stick to it

[obax]

This isn't going to be an exciting challenge. Most of my last few challenges have not been exciting, but I've got to work on what I've got to work on, so excitement comes later.

 

Basically I'm going to stick to it and just keep on keepin' on. My main goals have not changed.

 

Goal #1 - The Plan

 

The same plan as usual. In the last challenge, something seemed to get in the way of me fully completing the plan in every week. Most of that was legitimate (ie. actual obligations that took precedence to working out), but I did not do a good job of working around those obligations, I just let them get in the way. Hopefully during this challenge things will be less obligatory and I'll be able to stick to the schedule.

 

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - strengthy stuff (pushups, hip thrusts, superman squats, elbow planks, body weight rows, fire hydrants, 3 sets)

Tuesday, Thursday - run 2.4k flatter route on Tuesday, 2k hilly route Thursday

Monday (and sometimes Wednesday) - hockey

 

I have no problem with switching things up as necessary, but the key will be if I miss something due to legit life reasons, I have to make it up, on the weekend if needed. I purposefully have nothing scheduled on weekends, because I almost always choose fun over The Plan, but weekends are really the only time I have that's 'extra' for me to catch up, so I have to buckle down when I've missed something rather than just letting it slide.

 

Goal #2 - Focused Flexibility

 

I caved and spent the money on the program. It's fairly straightforward, and I've been doing an ok job of sticking to it for the between week (I did let life reasons get in the way one day though). This goal is simply to do it every day, and mark it off on the handy calendar they provide. Also, follow the program as closely as possible.

 

The things I'm focusing on are my shoulders and hamstrings. I have found that I can do all the shoulder-focused exercises, but only 2 of the hamstring ones (I'm so inflexible I can't even get into position to do most of them). So I will follow the plan to change exercises after 2 weeks on the shoulders, but will stick with the 2 hamstring ones I'm able to do for a while longer until I see some progress/am able to do some of the other exercises.

 

Goal #3 - Bust the Pudge

 

I'm feeling a bit like I might have actually put on a bit of fat over the last challenge, but I'm not sure if that's just my perception being tainted by the fact that I failed on this goal in the last challenge, or if I really did. Regardless, there's more of me than there really needs to be. The main focus will be eating a healthy breakfast weather I want to or not, and not buying food (breakfast specifically) at a fast food place/coffee place. If I had to have a calorie intake goal, I'd say ~1600kcal/day. I'm still debating if I want to try to track again or not, we'll see.

 

The biggest challenge I have with this is that I go a long time between breakfast and lunch (I eat at 10:30am, and not again until 3pm), and by the time I get lunch I'm really hungry and probably overdo it (and underestimate when I'm tracking/thinking about calorie intake). Snacking doesn't seem to work well for me, since I tend to be not hungry until I'm HUNGRY, and then a small snack simply makes me hungrier. My work environment doesn't always allow me to just go eat some food whenever I want either. I have no idea how to deal with this, other than trying hard to be reasonable about my lunches, or at least to accurately estimate my intake.

 

Related to this, I find that I can eat the exact same thing every morning and one day it'll last me until lunch, and another day I'll be hungry again in 2 hours. I have no idea why this is, but I find it very frustrating.

 

The other thing I need to do is to be more strict about my dinners. I often eat dinner leftovers for lunch, and I'm not against having lunch be my biggest meal of the day (I actually like it that way), but that means I need to not have a typical North American-sized dinner for dinner. This causes strife with my family (specifically my dad, my mom is much more laissez faire), but I'm just going to have to put my foot down and ride out the strife.

 

And that is all.

 

 

Note: I will be at the cottage for the first week of the challenge, which means there will little to no updating. I'll keep track and post it all at once when I'm back on the 3rd. I have the ability to do all the things at the cottage (even the rows, I found a decent branch to hang the rings from), so I will do them. However, I was not smart enough to bring the equipment I need home with me for the weekend, so I will do strengthy stuff Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, play hockey on Monday, then run (a different distance) on Wednesday and Friday.

 

This also means that I will eat very differently than I usually do. I tend to only eat 2 meals at the cottage, since I sleep in and don't have 'breakfast' until 1pm (and usually it looks more like lunch), then eat dinner at dinner time. I'll do my best to limit snacking, and have healthy snacks when I do.

[KB Girl]

First!

 

Have fun at the cottage!

[Nuala]

Hey Obax, maybe you could send an email to GMB to ask them for some easier variations of the exercises, maybe along with some pictures that would show them your difficulties. That's what I did at one point and they were really fast at answering.

[obax]

First!

 

Have fun at the cottage!

 

Thanks!

 

Hey Obax, maybe you could send an email to GMB to ask them for some easier variations of the exercises, maybe along with some pictures that would show them your difficulties. That's what I did at one point and they were really fast at answering.

 

I did think of that, and I probably will. I thought I'd give it a couple of weeks to try it out and get into the groove of it first. Not to mention that I don't really have internet at my cottage, so email isn't the easiest thing until I get home for good.

[Starpuck]

Tagging now, reading in the morning!

/snugtag!

[Nymeria]

Spending the first week at the cottage might really help you get off to a great start.  You can do all of the running, bodyweight stuff, and focused flexibility without having normal life distractions.    

 

And I agree with Nuala that if you still can't get into a good starting position for the hamstring exercises after your week at the cottage, you should email GMB and ask for advice.  I doubt you're the first person who has had those particular problems for those exercises, and there's probably a pretty simple fix.  

[Wolverine]

1. Boring progress is still progress, and I think progress is exciting and awesome and amazing!

    

2. A brief dynamic warm-up BEFORE Focused Flexibility sounds kind of silly but it's really helped me with the stretches. For hamstrings, for example, try doing this hamstring stretch dynamically (slowly up and down, in and out of the good pain spot, don't worry about holding the stretch at all) for a count of ten each leg, then go into the FF stretches. I'm now doing all of my PT stuff before FF and the difference is crazy. Like, can't complete exercises to decent results crazy. Something to try at any rate!

    

3. Have fun on your cottage vacation!

[obax]

Back from the cottage. Yay? (Not yay.....)

 

Week 1 at the cottage went as ok as expected, but not perfectly. I never expect perfection when I'm at the cottage, there's too many other things going on.

 

Wednesday: Strengthy Stuff

 

FH - 3x10

EP - 1:45, 1:30, 1:20

SS - 3x10 (each leg)

PU - 3(15), 3(15), 3(12)

HT - 3x10

BR - 3x6

 

Friday: Strengthy Stuff

 

FH - 3x10

EP - 1:30, 2x1:20

SS - 3x10

PU - 3(15), 1(12), 1(12)

HT - 3x10

BR - forgot...

 

Saturday: Run

 

3.something km, in some time (I think like 3.1k or somesuch. More than normal, anyway). Made a point of running as hard as I could manage up the big hill, and sprinting up the smaller hill (after a short walk/rest). Took a short break at the top of the big hill, and just before the small hill.

 

Went for a hike on Thursday, it wasn't an overly taxing one, but was still nice. Spent much of Friday and Saturday afternoons geocaching with my sister, which left me fairly exhausted by Saturday night.

 

Made friends with a chickadee family (Freddie the parent, and Max the kid(s). There may be up to 3 Maxes, it's hard to tell). Also almost made friends with a young blue jay, but he remains suspicious of my peanut offerings.

 

FF Goal

 

Did it most nights. Saturday night I got home late after the sunset and just fell into bed (there were also many, many, many spiders involved in the viewing of the sunset, which may have stressed me out a bit..). Monday night I did the same after the drive home, but otherwise did what I should. I'm feeling progress on the shoulder ones, and am looking forward to changing those up to see how it goes. The hamstring ones, I think I'm making progress with my right leg, but not the left (maybe I'm making progress, but not nearly as much). There's something weird going on with my left calf that's interfering, it's tight and painful. I've applied the FF protocol to this calf stretch. I'll try to retest the hamstring-related stretches to see if I've made any progress/can effectively do another other stretches, but I'm satisfied with doing the two I can do for now, and working on the calf stretch as well.

 

Food Goal

 

Felt like it was mostly ok, but with such a different eating pattern it's hard to tell. I did manage to mostly stick to no or healthy snacks, but I also indulged in the occasional cider and can of Coke, so........

[obax]

 

1. Boring progress is still progress, and I think progress is exciting and awesome and amazing!

    

2. A brief dynamic warm-up BEFORE Focused Flexibility sounds kind of silly but it's really helped me with the stretches. For hamstrings, for example, try doing this hamstring stretch dynamically (slowly up and down, in and out of the good pain spot, don't worry about holding the stretch at all) for a count of ten each leg, then go into the FF stretches. I'm now doing all of my PT stuff before FF and the difference is crazy. Like, can't complete exercises to decent results crazy. Something to try at any rate!

    

3. Have fun on your cottage vacation!

 

 

1. I mostly feel like I'm taking 1 step forward, then 1 step back, though. That gets old after a while. I think some of it is perception, and some of it is impatience.

 

2. I've actually been thinking that I should warm up a bit. I'm bad at warmups though, even though I know they're good for me. Maybe that'll be my mini-goal for the rest of the week, to warm up before the FF and see if it feels better. And by maybe, I mean that's a good idea, and it's official!

 

3. Thanks! I did!!

[obax]

Spending the first week at the cottage might really help you get off to a great start.  You can do all of the running, bodyweight stuff, and focused flexibility without having normal life distractions.  

 

Not the normal life distractions, but abnormal ones! Which are actually harder to resist due to the novelty. Or else I'm just really good at convincing myself to skip things... (It's definitely that last one...)

 

And I agree with Nuala that if you still can't get into a good starting position for the hamstring exercises after your week at the cottage, you should email GMB and ask for advice.  I doubt you're the first person who has had those particular problems for those exercises, and there's probably a pretty simple fix.  

 

I'm giving it another week and trying Dill's suggestion of warming up a bit first, if I'm still struggling after that, emails will be sent.

[Neva]

 

 

I tend to be not hungry until I'm HUNGRY, and then a small snack simply makes me hungrier.

 

 

I know this pain.

 

I have to skip breakfast if I don't want to be hungry all day, but if I work an afternoon-evening shift that means a late dinner so I need to eat something and about halfway through I'm disgusted and trying to convince myself to eat so I don't stuff garbage in my face. 

 

Eating anything is like waking up a bottomless pit monster, that takes over an hour to wake up and then at least one more to get moving, but without pelting it with food will fall back asleep for a few hours before waking up in a rampage.

[obax]

I know this pain.

 

I have to skip breakfast if I don't want to be hungry all day, but if I work an afternoon-evening shift that means a late dinner so I need to eat something and about halfway through I'm disgusted and trying to convince myself to eat so I don't stuff garbage in my face. 

 

Eating anything is like waking up a bottomless pit monster, that takes over an hour to wake up and then at least one more to get moving, but without pelting it with food will fall back asleep for a few hours before waking up in a rampage.

 

I really just try to eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm full (but not stuffed), since I figure something as simple as eating should not really be that complicated.  But unfortunately things like work get in the way sometimes, and there's nothing I can do about that, other than repeat my mantra of 'forget the chips, there's food at home' (where I work, I stare at a giant wall of chips all day long, and they're my kryptonite...)

[Elastigirl]

Sounds like a fun time, full of play and you even managed to get some of your goal stuff accomplished-awesome!

[obax]

Sounds like a fun time, full of play and you even managed to get some of your goal stuff accomplished-awesome!

 

It wasn't perfect, goal-wise, but I was actually pretty happy with it all. It was what a vacation should be, and that was the most important part.

[obax]

Week the Second (Thus Far)

 

Monday

 

Nadda. Could've done something at the cottage but did not. It was too beautiful for me to leave early enough to make it to hockey. Monday is the worst day to skip, since it involves both cardio and strengthy stuff, but what's done is done. Also did not stretch. Food was ok though.

 

Tuesday

 

Ran 2.4k in 12:55. Not a totally accurate time since I forgot to stop my watch while I waited for traffic to clear before crossing a road. I've never timed this route before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was much better than I was expecting (I figured around 15 minutes). It's amazing how putting a watch on my wrist and hitting the start button motivates me to push it, even if it's more miserable (ie. holy crap that was a hard run).

 

FF done, plus more stretching, which will be added to the mini challenge for the Med Bay team (maybe? I'm still confused about how it works, I haven't had a chance to properly read it all and I'm uncertain if the Tribbles have all been pushed away).

 

Food was a bit of a gong show. All 3 meals today (excluding 1 cup of coffee) came from some restaurant type establishment (sandwich from Tim's for breakfast, a pita for lunch, and sushi for dinner). In my defense, I literally had only coffee cream, 2 apples and some mustard in my fridge at the time, so...... Real food has been acquired and cooking will commence, uh, I don't know when yet. Hopefully tomorrow, but I planned badly so it'll all have to be crammed in to a small amount of time, and I still don't really know what to make my lunch out of tomorrow (maybe if I procure bread I can have copious amounts of peanut butter....)

 

Speaking of planning badly.....

 

Tomorrow

 

I'm subbing in for someone who's on vacation for her Wednesday night hockey tomorrow, so I automatically have a make-up for my missed hockey on Monday. HOWEVER. I forgot until just a moment ago that I had agreed to this, and stayed up rather later than I should have, intending to do my strengthy stuff after work, and as such, will not be getting up early to do the workout in the morning (I've all but given up on morning workouts anyway, they just do not work for me, I can't get motivated to really work at it). So I will need to fit in 1 hour of hockey+changing/driving time (so 2+ hours-ish total), 45-60 minutes of stregthy stuff workout, however long it takes me to make that lemon chicken bean thing (longer than it should, I'm not a fast cooker), 30+ minutes of stretching, and dinner making and eating (the lemon chicken bean thing is not for dinners) into the time I get home from work (6ish) and bedtime (12ish). Doable, but holy... I have no idea if it'll all get done, but I also have no idea what to cut out, it's all equally important...

 

*shrug* I'm all for crossing bridges once I've come upon them (which is part of my problem in the fist place), so we'll see what happens.

[Nuala]

I missed you coming back! So, welcome back! a bit late ^^'

 

I found it hard to train when I'm in a summer cottage (usually in Finland), there are way too many things to do. Prepare the food, cut the wood, heat the BBQ, prepare the Sauna, swim in the lake, go to the sauna, say hello to the ducks, stare at the lake for hours and so on. So busy...

 

Tomorrow seems to be a hard day, can you prepare your food in advance? At least get some washing and cutting done?

[obax]

I missed you coming back! So, welcome back! a bit late ^^'

 

I found it hard to train when I'm in a summer cottage (usually in Finland), there are way too many things to do. Prepare the food, cut the wood, heat the BBQ, prepare the Sauna, swim in the lake, go to the sauna, say hello to the ducks, stare at the lake for hours and so on. So busy...

 

Tomorrow seems to be a hard day, can you prepare your food in advance? At least get some washing and cutting done?

 

Thanks! And exactly! Who has time for a workout when there are lonely ducks around?!?

 

There's actually not too much prep work for this particular recipe. If I have some time between work and hockey I might prep the greens, but other than that there's not much else to to but throw stuff in a pot. At the time of my post, it was almost 2am, which is when I realized how much I had to do... I might just do the hip thrusts and pushups if I end up being short on time, since those are the two most important exercises out of them all, the rest is just extra and stuff to balance things out.

[Wolverine]

It wasn't perfect, goal-wise, but I was actually pretty happy with it all. It was what a vacation should be, and that was the most important part.

 

As far as I'm concerned, not perfect but good is a great spot to be on vacation. I usually go the "Goals? What goals?" route and actively undo months of good work. But, really, how will I know that I've been on vacation if I haven't gained 10 lb. and am not hungover?

[obax]

Wednesday

 

Hockey was good. That's really all I've go to say about it...

 

Chicken lemon bean thing has been made and stored for lunches.

 

Did 2 sets of pushups and hip thrusts only (PU-2(15), 1(15); HT-2x10). That's all I had in me, I was too tired and too hungry.

 

Making dinner and stretching at the same time as we speak (at 11 pm...)

 

After that is bed. I'm beat.

 

Edit: I looked at the IIFYM calculator someone posted on someone's thread and it looks like my idea to eat 1600ish kcal/day to loose some fat is a good one. But its recommended macros say 136g of protein, and all I have to say is, holy crap on a stick, seriously?!? That said, I think I might start up the MFP to start tracking again and see what I can do with that.

[KB Girl]

Sounds like a nice vacation! I giggled at the new friends

Also seems like you're doing well, going steady. How are you liking FF so far?

[obax]

Sounds like a nice vacation! I giggled at the new friends

Also seems like you're doing well, going steady. How are you liking FF so far?

 

I like FF so far. If nothing else, it's a program for me to follow and I feel like I'm 'doing it right'. I'm finally starting to see a bit of progress with my hamstrings, and saw some progress with my shoulders almost right away.

[obax]

Thursday

 

Supposed to be a run day, but I think I'm taking an unscheduled day off instead. My stomach is not happy about something (hasn't been all day, and is getting less happy as the day progresses, which is not a good sign), and running up and down hills is almost as unappealing to me right now as the idea of dinner... I'm more concerned at this moment about doing my strengthy stuff tomorrow anyway, I'm in a hockey tournament this weekend where I'll be playing 3 games in 2 days (4 if we make the finals!), so that should more than make up for one missed 2k run.

 

Assuming I'm not puking my brains out, tomorrow will be the aforementioned strengthy stuff after work, and this time I planned just fine, so I'll have no reason/excuse not to do the whole thing.

 

Stretching will commence at some point. Food was good, and tracked thus far. Maybe, instead of eating dinner, I'll research ways to sneak extra protein into what I eat in a normal day, without adding too many kcals, there's no way I can get 136g without trying harder...

[Elastigirl]

Thursday

 

Supposed to be a run day, but I think I'm taking an unscheduled day off instead. My stomach is not happy about something (hasn't been all day, and is getting less happy as the day progresses, which is not a good sign), and running up and down hills is almost as unappealing to me right now as the idea of dinner... I'm more concerned at this moment about doing my strengthy stuff tomorrow anyway, I'm in a hockey tournament this weekend where I'll be playing 3 games in 2 days (4 if we make the finals!), so that should more than make up for one missed 2k run.

 

Assuming I'm not puking my brains out, tomorrow will be the aforementioned strengthy stuff after work, and this time I planned just fine, so I'll have no reason/excuse not to do the whole thing.

 

Stretching will commence at some point. Food was good, and tracked thus far. Maybe, instead of eating dinner, I'll research ways to sneak extra protein into what I eat in a normal day, without adding too many kcals, there's no way I can get 136g without trying harder...

Ugh, take care and hopefully no pukies.

[Starpuck]

Catching up on ya Miss Obax.    You sound like you're doing pretty good at juggling lots of things!   I always smile when I read about your 'supposed to run, but then hockey, so strength had to shift to then, because this was now' ... I soooo know that song lol.

 

Thanks for checking in on me over at my thread.   I poked at the calculators (and then poked some more) ((and some more)) and have discovered that, really, the majority of all things that know numbers, agree with my stupid Fitbit for days that I am not really doing much of anything.    It was a hard fact to face, but I think I know a way to counter this-- just not sure I'm ready to implement it.

 

Anyway!   Keep up the good work.   Following along on you, helps me wanna keep up with what I am doing.

[obax]

Catching up on ya Miss Obax.    You sound like you're doing pretty good at juggling lots of things!   I always smile when I read about your 'supposed to run, but then hockey, so strength had to shift to then, because this was now' ... I soooo know that song lol.

 

Thanks for checking in on me over at my thread.   I poked at the calculators (and then poked some more) ((and some more)) and have discovered that, really, the majority of all things that know numbers, agree with my stupid Fitbit for days that I am not really doing much of anything.    It was a hard fact to face, but I think I know a way to counter this-- just not sure I'm ready to implement it.

 

Anyway!   Keep up the good work.   Following along on you, helps me wanna keep up with what I am doing.

 

Lifeing is hard...

 

I shall have to pop over to your thread soonish to try to decipher that cryptic second paragraph.... I'm intrigued.

 

 

Ugh, take care and hopefully no pukies.

 

Thanks. Feeling much better today, whatever it was just had to pass on through. I have a feeling it was a combination of what and when I ate on Wednesday, coming back to haunt me (I did not make good choices...).