[The Most Loathed] learns....slowly

[The Most Loathed]

Additional: food for the week for me is

 

breakfast burrito

-3 eggs

-some cheese

-bean dip (1/5 can of black beans, 1/5 onion, garlic, whole wheat tortilla)

0.8 lbs ground beef

1 lb sweet potato (some parsnips and a small amount of bacon mixed in for flavor)

3 cups frozen veggies

Ellie Quark

[RisenPhoenix]

Man your batch cooking is so much more epic than mine.  I'm happy with a few sweet potatoes, eggs, and whatever meat was on sale.  And that's all haphazardly thrown in to a bag and tossed into my fridge.

 

And I really want to see Spectre.  But I'm a sucker for even crappy Bond movies.  Also the new ones over the last few years have been released near my birthday, so I tend to go to them as a birthday gift to myself.  Which now that I think of it, may be what I do this weekend.

[Rooks]

I really wish I could batch cook again.  I miss making my egg monsters on Sunday nights.  Good stuff as always, sir.  

[Bearlee]

I'm enjoying being a fly on the wall to hear your discussions with KB Girl and seeing what you're doing. Have you been doing any more meditation? And how is the YWCA working out? Is it mostly swimming or is there other workouts too?

[The Most Loathed]

Man your batch cooking is so much more epic than mine.  I'm happy with a few sweet potatoes, eggs, and whatever meat was on sale.  And that's all haphazardly thrown in to a bag and tossed into my fridge.

More power to you. When I just cook for myself these days it tends to be sweet potatoes and ground beef. The burritos were Laura's idea. Next week I think I'll skip the wrap but precooked eggs may still be a thing. I've been throwing in the frozen veggies of late just to make sure I'm eating something green for vitamins and minerals.

 

I really wish I could batch cook again.  I miss making my egg monsters on Sunday nights.  Good stuff as always, sir.  

Dare I ask, what is an Egg Monster?

 

I'm enjoying being a fly on the wall to hear your discussions with KB Girl and seeing what you're doing. Have you been doing any more meditation? And how is the YWCA working out? Is it mostly swimming or is there other workouts too?

I still haven't completed my training plan. I've been busy this week plus I just received a book on kettlebell training and I'm curious to see their prescription.

The Y has been ok. I think the swimming is good for me but I don't know if it's worth the energy costs or not. I have been totally fried by Thursday last week and this and I think the am workouts are partially if not largely responsible. I've been swimming M, W F and Tuesday/Thursday of last week I did a more traditional workout with dumbells and machines. I did the same on Tuesday of this week. Today, however, after dealing with the dogs I laid down on the couch and slept for an hour rather than workout. Once a week isn't the end fo the world but I need to monitor this.

 

 

Real quiet week for me, so far, in the workout department. Monday was off to wrap up weekend chores. Tuesday I met up with the guy I used to game with every Monday and we play Lords of Waterdeep and Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar. Yesterday (Wednesday) was pilates and it was another good session. Today I skipped my am workout in favor of sleep. I will soon be headed out for my monthly massage but I do plan to lift kettlebells tonight. Tomorrow I decided to work from home so I may do some cardio in the am but pm is planned as off, time to hang out with Laura. This weekend is going to be a big clean up weekend but we're both planning on training twice.

 

I got to play Pandemic Legacy on Sunday night. It was great and everyone loved it. If you know Pandemic, the game starts exactly like what you know except A) you have more connections across the board and you only get 4 special event cards. As you play through game 1 there is a very central rule to the game that gets modified...forever. We won the first game which gave us a bonus to our February games. Any game you play you get two upgrade so we gave our Medic the ability to treat not only the city he is in but all neighboring cities and we established a permanent research station in Baghdad. It was far from a perfect game but it was good.

 

I'm trying to start up a D&D campaign in January. I'm pretty excited. I really enjoy D&D but Laura hates it. I found a local coffee shop that has a room you can rent by the hour. This lets me play without subjecting her to it.

[Rooks]

Dare I ask, what is an Egg Monster?

 

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/25591-egg-monsters/

 

I think last time I made one, it was like 36 eggs, 1lb of Chorizo, 1lb of bacon, a crap load of veggies and some hemp protein powder.  Really just a big egg bake.

[RisenPhoenix]

So, since you're the only other person I know currently toying with IF...

 

Have you found that you've woken up in the morning and just have your body be like "Yea, food is not good right now.  At all." ?

 

I had this weird experience this morning where I woke up (late for work, but I don't think that factored into this), but when I thought of making food for breakfast, I almost felt ill at the concept of eating.  And I dunno if it's a me adjusting to IF-ish timings and that's normal, or if I'm just weird.  Because historically I devour breakfasts.  But I was quite content with my protein shake and coffee to go. 

 

That being said, another vote for mug omelets as awesome.  That was my work breakfast, and they are better than I imagined.

[The Most Loathed]

So, since you're the only other person I know currently toying with IF...

 

Have you found that you've woken up in the morning and just have your body be like "Yea, food is not good right now.  At all." ?

 

I had this weird experience this morning where I woke up (late for work, but I don't think that factored into this), but when I thought of making food for breakfast, I almost felt ill at the concept of eating.  And I dunno if it's a me adjusting to IF-ish timings and that's normal, or if I'm just weird.  Because historically I devour breakfasts.  But I was quite content with my protein shake and coffee to go. 

 

That being said, another vote for mug omelets as awesome.  That was my work breakfast, and they are better than I imagined.

No, I tend to wake up wanting food and doubly so on the days when I've tried to do IF the day before. The only time I've had that experience in the past is if I just totally overeat, especially within an 60-90 minutes of going to bed. 

[tonumikk]

Found your blog and read the posts :-). I had missed a lot.  Good work on all counts - intermittent fasting, workout plans and the workouts themselves. For the IF, when I was doing it, it was a gradual adaptation for me.  At first it felt very difficult to go without food until noon or so, but after a few weeks it became much easier.  And I was doing it 2-3 days a week.  Also, in the morning of the IF I would add either butter or coconut oil in the coffee.  It is amazing how the coffee with coconut oil dampens the appetite.  I fell off of IF since it doesn't really work well with my family where we all eat breakfast together. 

 

On the meditation front, I stuck with Headspace.  Once you purchase a subscription you need to go through the Foundation course - 10 days of 15 min and 10 days of 20 min duration of pretty much the same structure as the first 10 days.  It was all very good though.  Once through Foundation, all the packs are open.  I chose the relationships pack first.  In the relationships pack Andy is teaching us a visualization technique.  So meditation changes a bit so that instead of focusing on breathing you would focus on visualizing either yourself or a friend or someone else.  When choosing the pack you can pick how long you will want to meditate - 10, 15 or 20 min, but Andy suggest the longest time possible.  There are also shorter packs for improving sleeping or dieting and others.  It's been good for me and helps keep me sane.

 

Need to get together one of these weeks!     

[Elastigirl]

Pandemic:Legacy sounds like so much fun. 

[The Most Loathed]

I've been quiet for a few days because I've been off for a few days. It wasn't planned, just workedout that this week, for whatever reason, training was not happening.

Monday AM: Swim

PM: Off

 

Tuesday AM: dumbell training

PM: Off 

 

Wednesday AM: Swim

PM: pilates

 

Thursday AM: Fitness kettelbell

PM: I attempted a kettlebell set but due to...I don't know.. I had no drive, mental, physical or emotional. I was attempting 24 kg LC 10 RPM for 7:00 but at 2:30 I found I just didn't care, even a little. I put the bells down and tried to get excited to go, I did another 1:30 but I just couldn't justify why I was out in the garage and not inside. So I went inside. I didn't even put my kettlebells away like I always do. they're still in the middle of the gym floor 

 

Friday AM: off (worked from home so no chance to swim).

PM: off

 

Saturday: no training, did a big clean up day hauling old stuff out of the house.

 

Sunday: off. Kept doing stuff leftover from Saturday

 

So the week was a bust. I don't even feel bad about it.

 

11/16/2015

Monday: Long Cycle 24 kg 5:00,5:00 x 3, back squat, circuit

Tuesday: Kurt Workout (10:00 x 5 where I do all the reps I can in ten minutes but take breaks as needed)

Wednesday: pilates

Thursday: Jerks, Cleans, deadlift (keeping it short because I'll be getting exhausted by this time)

Friday: probably off

Saturday/ Sunday: I imagine I'll only get one workout in over the weekend. TBD

 

Music for the week:

 

Inspiration for music for the week (don't look away or you'll miss it)

[The Most Loathed]

Boardgame talk for the week:

Each year boardgamegeek has a huge Secret Santa exchange and I sign up. My favorite year was when my Santa was in Japan and sent me a really cool card and some japanese candies as well as a game. Other years I've had a sateside Santa who barely met the minimum requirements of the exchange. I try to talk a bit with my target each year (there's a generic Santa account we can login with to keep anonymity) I also try to send a couple items, preferably in waves. Last year my target was super boring so it was hard to have any banter but this year I'm having fun. My Santa sent me two things, an expansion to a game I own and like as well as a new game. 

 

The expansion is for a game called Eldritch Horror. Fantasy Flight games out of Roseville Minnesota (the place I go to game when I have an all day event) has a huge license for a whole line of games based off the writing of HP Lovecraft. The father of the series was called Arkham Horror and was one of a kind for years, it was also notoriously overly complex and large. A couple years ago they effectively rebooted the line with a new game called Eldritch Horror. It took up the same footprint or slightly smaller than the basic Arkham Horror game, it streamlined many rules, gave the game a globabl scope and just reinvigorated the system. I bought it and really liked it. FFG being what they are though they've just released the 4th expansion and there's no sign of slowing. I owned the first expansion already. I was gifted the third expansion and it looks pretty cool. I don't have the second and that won't hinder me at all but I'll likely go buy it after the holiday season.

 

The new base game I got is a game called Dark Moon. Dark Moon's history starts several years ago with Battlestar Galactica the boardgame being released. It was an 2-3 hour game that did a good job of carrying the license of the new BSG series while being a solid game (a rare confluence). It was popular for years and I owned a copy that got played a total of one time. I've played the game (on other people's copies) about a dozen times. With the right group it's great but it's a heck of a commitment of time if you don't know if it's the right group. 

In  response to the time concerns and a wish to distill certain aspects of the game out will concentrating others someone invented a dice based version that played in an hour called BSG Express. It was never a real game, people had to cobble together their copies from printed materials and putting stickers on dice. A company liked it enough to want to publish it but the BSG license is already held by none other that FFG. So, the company, Stronghold Games, rethemed it to not reference BSG at all. This is Dark Moon. It' a coop game with a hidden traitor who can screw with the group's win probabilities in many sneaky ways.and where the heroes sometimes can't help but hurt their own chances.

 

food prep that happened today

This weekend's food prep was far less epic than last week. Partially deliberately and partially for time.

Monster Egg - I took Rooks Egg Monster from last page and ran with it: 18 eggs, 1 yellow onion, 2 bell peppers, 6 jalapeno peppers, ~1lb mushrooms, ~8oz block of cheese, cut into 6 portions

frozen veggies - cauliflower, broccoli, squash 

entree - Laura's making this week's entree. She's been making a soup with sausage, bean, a little bit of noodles, spinach and other verggies for years. It's morphed a bit over time but the basic recipe is still on the web.

oatmeal - Laura has been handling this for a couple weeks. Steel cut oats, bring to a boil, simmer ten minutes, let stand overnight. I take about a cup each day and throw in a little jelly for flavoring

[The Most Loathed]

Catastrophe! Doom! The End is Nigh!

 

I finally got up the guts to step on the scale this morning after a week of not training and "eating like and asshole", to steal a phrase from Tsune. 219. fuck.

 

well, ok, not doom. Just time to get my shit together.It is, of course, the worst time of year. That is no excuse though.

I've been working on filling out my training plan but I'm going to tinker with it a bit and reshape it for 2016 to get me to a walking around weight of 100 kg. I'm going to sacrifice some kettlebell training to do that. i'm ok with that.

[Rooks]

Catastrophe! Doom! The End is Nigh!

 

I finally got up the guts to step on the scale this morning after a week of not training and "eating like and asshole", to steal a phrase from Tsune. 219. fuck.

 

well, ok, not doom. Just time to get my shit together.It is, of course, the worst time of year. That is no excuse though.

I've been working on filling out my training plan but I'm going to tinker with it a bit and reshape it for 2016 to get me to a walking around weight of 100 kg. I'm going to sacrifice some kettlebell training to do that. i'm ok with that.

 

219lbs = 99.34kg.  So goal achieved?  

[The Most Loathed]

219lbs = 99.34kg.  So goal achieved?  

busted for not thinking, I meant 90kg. Yeah, I'm at 100kg.

[Rooks]

So right around where I'd like to be as well.  Last Tuesday I was up at 224.  That said, I've already made dietary changes so I'm expecting that to fall pretty rapidly.  

[RisenPhoenix]

Catastrophe! Doom! The End is Nigh!

 

I finally got up the guts to step on the scale this morning after a week of not training and "eating like and asshole", to steal a phrase from Tsune. 219. fuck.

 

well, ok, not doom. Just time to get my shit together.It is, of course, the worst time of year. That is no excuse though.

I've been working on filling out my training plan but I'm going to tinker with it a bit and reshape it for 2016 to get me to a walking around weight of 100 kg. I'm going to sacrifice some kettlebell training to do that. i'm ok with that.

 

Clearly I understand this feel. (Also I'm assuming you stole the phrase from me, not my battle log.  Since I do regularly eat like an asshole. )

 

Yea, it sucks.  But the best part about eating like an asshole and realizing it is the fact that really water weight dropped pretty quick once you decided to get back on track.  Sucks, especially this time of year, but doable.  I count calories a bunch, so I use that for a crutch, though. 

 

I'd say lets race to 90kg, but I have a slight advantage on you at the moment.  Of course, I've had the same advantage for what feels like months now, so clearly it's not that much of an advantage.

[The Most Loathed]

Clearly I understand this feel. (Also I'm assuming you stole the phrase from me, not my battle log.  

wow, not my best post. yes, definitely meant you.

 

I don't know that I would "race" to a weight. I'm more interested if just not "eating like an asshole" daily.

 

Monday

Not Eating Like An Asshole: + 

PM workout: no-go

Our older dog has started having incontinence issues so we wanted to take her to the vet. Laura and I have had one pet together before her, a hedgehog. He died of kidney failure which manifested through a urine like smell and irregular bathroom habits. It was poorly diagnosed and therefore painful emotionally for us and physically for him. We were both thinking of this as we waited to get a vet appointment so when the opportunity opened, we took it. 

They guessed UTI or bladder infection but didn't find evidence of it. We had them run a full blood panel on her and it turns out that she's shockingly healthy. A dog half her age shouldn't look so good on a blood panel. So we came home very relieved and with a less happy but healthy dog. We had missed our workouts but it was a solid trade.

 

Tuesday

AM workout: dumbbell work.

I was dragging today. Despite being healthy my dog still took the time to wake me up at 12:30 and I ran her outside briefly. It's rare these days for me to get to sleep straight through and today I'm feeling it. 

Tonight is a light supper then finally back to the gym. I plan on doing a "Kurt workout". I trained with a trainer named Kurt and he would give me workouts that had 5 exercises and I was to do each for ten minutes, taking breaks as needed but trying to push myself. It sounds like a stupid workout but it really worked well for me so I'm going to do it tonight.

[KB Girl]

Kinda sad to see you not having training mojo, but sometimes it just is what it is and it makes better sense to roll with it rather than fighting it. It's been brewing a while anyway right? Mini breaks can be good for the headspace! 

[The Most Loathed]

It's interesting to me that last year my progress stopped right about this time of year. I'm wondering if it's something seasonal that I'm just not adjusting to well. I feel like last year I never pulled out of the skid so I'm hoping that this year goes better.

 

11/17/2015

BW 217.8 (taken in the morning but forgot to say)

Not Eating Like and Asshole (NELA) +

Evening workout: Kurt Workout 10:00 sets rest when I need to but try to work hard

-swing 32 kg

-mountain climber

-seesaw press 16 kg

-gorilla clean 16 kg

-barbell clean 60 kg

I took a couple short videos that I may clip together at some point to show this.

 

11/18/2015

BW 216.0

AM - swim

Feeling leaden this morning. I enjoyed a nice soak in the hot tub to wake up but only did about 500m of swimming. 

 

PM - pilates looks unlikely right now which is a shame. We have a ton of chores that need to be done today and the only sacrifice available to us is pilates. 

[KB Girl]

You've been struggling with work issues this year too, might have been an influence? But not sure when that started.

[The Most Loathed]

I'm sure it has. It started about this time last year as well. 

[The Most Loathed]

11/18

NELA: -

I had thought I'd give myself a plus despite needing to get creative for food during the day and going for a McDouble. It was when Laura offered be Justin's Peanut Butter Cups and I said yes that I decided it was a minus.

 

Confirmed, no workout. We needed to do grocery shopping (which we usually do on Wednesdays after Pilates). We also needed to go get a jacket for our younger dog as she's a short hair and the weather is about to turn. Also, we're getting a new Casper matress today and in order to have our trash folks take my old mattress I had to move the old one out last night and finally our older dog is starting to have some issues with wetting the bed and it was our bed she wet night before last so we needed to was the bed clothes (the new mattress is not related to this little development). So that was how i spent my evening. 

 

Also, since Laura did the food prep on Sunday I was totally out of food (she always under prepares when she tries to do food for the week for me. So, I bought a variety of brats and some breakfast sausage and made about a pound of brats for today and tomorrow and four eggs and a little breakfast sausage for both days.

 

11/19

am: circuit 1:00, 0:30

-battle ropes

-burpees

-sitout*

4 rounds

 

*because I was a little cramped for space I couldn't really do a sit out to one side then the other, i could really only go to one side. so for a given round I would go one direction (all left at first) then next round go the other direction (right for second round).

Food is prepped for the day, workout is planned for tonight. 

[The Most Loathed]

11/19/2015

NELA: +

PM

Jerk 20 kg 3:00, 2:00 x 3

Clean 20 kg 3:00, 2:00 x 3

 

deadlift 140kg 5x5

 

I started in on the jerks and worried I had over committed but as sometimes happens for me when I'm relying on the rack position, the jerks got easier as the rack was more restful with each set. The first set was constant work because the rack sucked so I kept a 12 rpm type pace. In the second set I found my rack and some comfort and slowed to something like a 9 rpm pace and my triceps started to want to fail. In the final set I went at a 6 rpm pace and sat very comfortably. I took a single 2 minute break and went into the clean sets which were insanely easy last night.

 

Deadlifts felt really heavy warming up but once I switched to the mixed grip it was easy.

 

11/20/2015

BW: 216.7

swim 20 minutes

All my muscles wanted to stay in bed today. Most mornings that I swim I have to hang out in the hot tub for a few minutes while I wait for a swim lane to open up and see it as an obstruction but today that hot tub sounded so good. Unfortunately it was cooler than usual, still warm but not awesome warm. I moved into the steam room for a few minutes then got into my swim. The extra warm up time meant I was a few minutes behind schedule. No big worries there, just writing.

 

Yesterday and today I listened to a specific episode of the Paleo Solutions Podcast that I want to recommend to you all. The high points are that non-physiological stress is created entirely by the brain and more over by your brains judgement of the situation. If you can lose the judgement, you can lose the stress. For example, if I'm running out of time to do my workout or my weekly cooking, I may start to feel stress that I'm going to miss that workout or not have food for the week. While these things are true, it's only my judgement that causes my body to tense and my hormones to change. If I don't judge those things as bad (as most people don't) nothing happens. It sounds like a lot of his solution essentially boils down to meditation.

 

That brings me to my last note: today I booked 30 minutes on my work calendar every afternoon. This will be time that I take my headphones and my phone and go find a quiet room and do my Headspace. For now it still just the intro stuff but I'll likely go ahead and subscribe for a time, eventually.

[The Most Loathed]

11/20/2015

NELA: +

PM: I did my take ten during my "moment of Zen on my calendar". As with other non-work activities that I have done at work, it was hard to feel comfortable the first time but I'm going to try and push through and get myself to a place of comfort.

No workout, I was exhausted from the week and ended up asleep by 7pm. I slept a couple hours then did a couple house chores and was back asleep by ten and slept until 8 am with an hour wake up around 5 to walk the dogs.

 

11/21/2015

NELA: +

We went out for breakfast as planned and it was delicious but I didn't go overboard. No training as today was all about swapping out our beds. We have always slept on a double bed and not minded but the dog or dogs can make it quite crowded at times. We finally decided to upgrade to Queen sized bed. I have to admit that the difference is pretty noticeable. To do this I first had to move our old spring mattess on the guest bed out to the trash. Next I moved our old memory foam mattress from our bed to the guest bed. Next I took apart our old bed frame and moved it and a couple chairs out to the gym where they will live until Laura posts on Craigslist to get rid of them (anyone in MN want a double bed frame and two arm chairs for $20?). This combined with cold meant my kettlebells got moved to the basement. Finally I built the new queen bed frame and landed our brand new Casper mattress on it. I loved our old closed cell foam mattress, so far the Casper mattress seems as good if not slightly better.

 

11/22/2015

NELA: -

Today was a haircut, some food prep and a workout. 

Long Cycle 24 kg 5:00 on, 5:00 off x 3

I got through round 1 at a solid 7-8 RPM, round two was more like 6 rpm, round three I bombed out at 1:30. I was experiencing enough discomfort in my arms and legs as the vein were filling up and shutting down. This represents the fact that the past year has been a step backwards in training for me.That said, i think I'm getting a handle on it.

circuit

  lunge press 20 kg 10/10

  cossack squat 5/5

  burpee 10

  single leg, straight leg deadlift 20 kg 5/5

x5

I did end up eating poorly in the evening. Laura wanted a cupcake so I grabbed one two then threw in a little additional chocolate to follow

 

11/23/2015

Swim 20:00

The hot tub just feels better and better everyday. At this point I'm going in on swim days more for the hot tub than anything else. The swim is just the icing on that cake. 

 

11/16 wrap up

I had middling success with NELA but I'm mostly practicing the attentiveness for now. The holidays are a horrible time to work on nutrition so right now I'm just maintaining with the plan to make myself suffer in the new year. 2016 will be the year of 90 kg. Strength and size are willing martyrs to this (besides, seeing myself in mirrors at the Y is kind of freaking me out, I'm big).

The gym moved to the basement but I'm ready for this change especially with my Y membership now. 

 

11/23 warm up

This week is all about our trip to Portland, OR. This year we're not visiting family for Thanksgiving. Instead we're flying to a city that we've wanted to visit for a while.

My primary goal is a majority NELA s+s

Monday

AM: swim

PM: begin packing, prep dog food for boarding

 

Tuesday

AM: lift

PM: take dogs to the kennel

 

Wednesday

AM: fly

PM: see if the hotel has a gym, walk around, meet Laura's highschool friend

 

Thursday

AM: hope I found a gym on Wednesday or go for a long walk

PM: no idea

 

Friday

AM: Same as Thursday

PM: probably spent with friends

 

Saturday

AM: fly

PM: feel completely shell shocked by the whirlwind tour

 

Sunday

AM: get the girls back

PM: maybe workout

 

 

W

 

game talk - normally I talk about a boardgame here but this weekend I bought and HDMI cable and Fallout 4. I haven't actually played a single minute of it yet but here's a lets play. I've not yet watched this so no promised on quality.

 

Music - thanks to Deadspin for this recommendation