[The Most Loathed] learns....slowly

[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

Ghostlet had to learn it for school last year, and I decided to learn myself so I could help him with it.  At his peak, he could solve the 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, mirrored 3x3, the pyramid and was working on the dodecahedron (12 sides).  He even took third place in his school competition.  He has since forgotten almost everything and can only get to the golden cross now...

wow. That was a pretty serious commitment. The golden cross is where even with a guide I start to stumble. I haven't yet wrapped my brain around memorizing the moves bu that's where you start getting the double digit length strings of moves. I'm sure it's like chess, once you know it, it gets encapsulated as a single unit in your brain but as a newbie it's still individual movements for me. 

[WhiteGhost]

2 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

wow. That was a pretty serious commitment. The golden cross is where even with a guide I start to stumble. I haven't yet wrapped my brain around memorizing the moves bu that's where you start getting the double digit length strings of moves. I'm sure it's like chess, once you know it, it gets encapsulated as a single unit in your brain but as a newbie it's still individual movements for me. 

Dunno how it is for the experts, but for me it doesn't feel like single unit.  What worked for me was breaking the strings into portions, and then memorizing the shorter strings or similar movement groups. For example, for the first string after the golden cross for me is a two-parter (the part in parentheses is what I say out loud as I do it)

R', U2 (Right inverse, up, up)

R, U, R', U, R (Right, up, right inverse, up, right)

 

The real challenge for this string is knowing which block to orient into the right corner for the starting position (sometimes I just randomly guess until I get it right)

[Rooks]

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Arkham Horror the card game. We played the intro mission with four of us. It was much slower than expected but a lot of fun and a good game. With four people you can afford to specialize so I made my chick a monster hunter and she was amazing at her job. With very little support she took out the boss monster in one round. Between games you can level up your people so I made her even more of a monster killer 

 

Sounds like a fun game. Just a case of you figuring out the min/max rules or just getting good at one particular thing? It's always fun dominating something in a game. 

 

Completely random side thought that just popped into my head. You ever played Munchkin or any of it's add-ons? I loved that game in college.

 

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

We ordered in pizza and hung out and it was nice. I was really glad that my week of training. Money wasted by my employer in my opinion. I'm considering trying to write a better curriculum.

 

"We" is not you and Laura in this case then?

 

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

355 1 x 3 - kinda tough

365 1 - super easy

315 5 x 5 - extremely tough

 

Awesome work sir. Your log gets me thinking about getting back under that barbell every time I read it.

[KB Girl]

You're definitely making me want to get stronger too. That's not a bad thing! 

[The Most Loathed]

On 11/14/2017 at 4:14 PM, KB Girl said:

You're definitely making me want to get stronger too. That's not a bad thing! 

I would love to see how quickly you would progress. You always seem good at putting together programs that do what you want them to do.

 

It's Thursday and I haven't posted pretty much all week. It's because I haven't done much. I took Monday as a pass because my quads were a wreck. I know I said it a post or two ago but squat days are rough on me. Always have been. Tuesday some I was just frustrated and not in the right space. Wednesday was recovery from Tuesday and Today was it's own thing. 

 

Laura has decided that she has had enough of her job, which I'm totally on board with. She's been doing the same thing for three years with no opportunity to advance. She's done what I do and come up with big projects that she can do when she has down time and she's done a really good job but no one cares. 

 

It flares up this time of year for her anyway every year because they are really busy right now and she is tasked with keeping everyone going as well as doing her own job. It's all pretty thankless. As she's reached this point I have done all I can to be flexible and available. On Monday she started to get the vibe that something was up with me. I didn't even realize something was up other than I felt a little grumpy. Tuesday she pressed a bit more and I let some grumbles go was surprised that I found I had one big gripe left and when I let it go I actually felt better. I try to not grumble but apparently I needed to this time. 

Today Laura told her bosses that she's done at the end of recruitment season. We both knew it was coming, this wasn't a rash decision. She had told a couple people but this was her day to tell the two to whom it would be the biggest loss. One she's very emotionally attached to and the other can be thin skinned at times. She felt completely wiped out by it. So I skipped the gym to order pizza and bake cookies for her. 

So chalk it up as a "deload" week.

 

I don't know if I will get to train tomorrow. I probably will. 

Saturday I'm going climbing for the first time in forever. I'm doing it mostly to entertain a friend but I will enjoy it as well.

Sunday I will work out. Maybe I'll plan to do Squats then. If I get to workout on Monday it'll have to be cardio but that's ok.  I need to figure out what their schedule is next week since it's Thanksgiving week.

 

I had someone at work today tell me that I'm obviously and extrovert. I explained to her that it's all an act. When I'm at work I try to be out going because it puts people at ease and I don't want to give off the typical IT guy vibe. She didn't believe me. When I told her that when I go home I stay home other to workout. That I like to cook and read and do stuff by myself she reached with  "awww". I said that it wasn't a complaint. I really like doing those things, I'm not the bubbly person that I am at work. I left her scratching her head. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered.

 

I have been using my extra down time to work on programming some more. Last night I think I solved a work problem that has been bugging me for a while. I didn't set out to work on a work problem but I was logged into one of my Raspberry Pis. I was trying to recall if I had install Hadoop and cleaning up some other failed attempts at things. While I was doing it I wanted to do an action over a bunch of folders. I ended up figuring out how to write a python script that would read in the file tree then perform a command line call where I wanted. That sent me down a rabbit hole. Before long I realized I had a work solution. Now I just need time to implement it.

 

Speaking of work. It's still going relatively well. I'm still not doing the technical stuff I'd like to but I'm not unhappy with what I'm doing. Part of it is the whole thing of getting people access to the system. I'm doing it better than it's ever been done, it's faster and people are happier. It's still way too manual though. I've been tasked to document the process but I also want to get some times associated with that then figure out how to cut it in half and half again by a year from now. This doesn't need to be so time consuming. 

The challenge will be, as I make that progress to get technical work to fill that void. I can imagine them saying "well you did some good at taking over that annoying process, now do this one." That is where I will have to say no. 

 

The only other thing on my mind lately is that a week from tomorrow is my next Arkham Horror session. We're going to try and play two acts which will get us all the way through the intro adventure. That means that prior to our third session we will all need to start new characters. It's a blessing and a curse. The one game that I've played with my chick, I really enjoyed. I look forward to more games with her. And I could just reset her to 0 if I want to. However, I'm inclined to take and entirely different class and try that out. 

For my gaming nerds, the class system is pretty cool. They have five:

• Guardian - think fighter. This is what I currently play and she is good a killing monsters but basically useless at everything else.
• Seeker - the closest RPG analogy is the current take on Bards. These characters can do some spells but really what they are good for is finding clues which are basically how you win the game
• Mystic - these are mages. The big caveat in a Cthulu game is that magic is really powerful because noone has it but everytime you use it you risk losing sanity or life
• Rogue - not what you think. These tend to be damage dealing characters but unlike guardians, they are very swingy. Rogues have a lot of cards that let you get the reward of an action twice if you do really well and other cards that if you succeed a test, you succeed by a lot, those kinds of things. These are you homerun hitters where Guardians have a great batting average and solid RBI
• Survivor - The theme of this class is that they will make anything work. The tend to have cards the let them go through their discard pile and get stuff out. The also have cards that are kind of the opposite of the rogue, where if you fail by a little bit, you actually succeed.

Like I said, I'm enjoying the guardian but I like playing fighters and monks in RPGs so it makes sense. I think I most associate with their willingness to just go straight ahead at all costs. If I change classes next game I think I'd go Seeker or Rogue. Seeker is typically everyone's second character. Like the Guardian they have a clear purpose in life. Rogue is my second pick because I'd still play it as a monster hunter. Rogues can be stupidly powerful if you get Double or Nothing (does what it sounds like) to fire when hitting a boss with a big weapon. 

Since this a is a deckbuilder game the way the classes work is generally that you get most of your cards out of your base class but are allowed some cards out of another class, usually of limited power. The individual characters determine what exactly your off class is and how powerful those cards can be. For example the base set Guardian, Roland Banks can use any power of neutral or guardian cards and level 0-2 seeker cards. My Guardia, Zoey Samara, can have any level neutral or guardian card and 5 level 0 cards from any class. They have left themselves a lot of space to play with making new characters. They have one already that can have level 0-3 or any class but she has to declare her class each turn and can only play cards of that class or neutral until she declares a new class.

 

Oh, ok, last thing. I watched The Dark Tower today. I try to not swear too much in my posts but wow. I am finding it tough not to on this one. That movie is awful. I absolutely doesn't work as a part of the Dark Tower story but it also doesn't stand alone well. I went in with low expectations. I still expected too much. Do. Not. Watch. This.

[Shello]

12 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

So I skipped the gym to order pizza and bake cookies for her.

Good choice.  

 

12 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Oh, ok, last thing. I watched The Dark Tower today. I try to not swear too much in my posts but wow. I am finding it tough not to on this one. That movie is awful. I absolutely doesn't work as a part of the Dark Tower story but it also doesn't stand alone well. I went in with low expectations. I still expected too much. Do. Not. Watch. This.

I agree 100-thousand%.  I went in with low expectations.  I knew how they were approaching this story and though I wasn't happy with it, I figured it made it harder for them to mess up.  Yet they still did.  It adds nothing to the DT universe.  

[Bearlee]

I didn't want to see Dark Tower before, but now I have to watch it. But I'm not familiar with the book at all so perhaps I won't have the same amount of loathing.

 

When you first mentioned Arkham Horror I thought it was a Batman spinoff game since that is where he sends all the bad guys. Sounds like a cool game. Think I would go for a Mystic because if I haven't lost my mind with 2 sick kids I don't think Cthulu would be a sanity problem.

[The Most Loathed]

19 hours ago, Bearlee said:

I didn't want to see Dark Tower before, but now I have to watch it. But I'm not familiar with the book at all so perhaps I won't have the same amount of loathing.

 

When you first mentioned Arkham Horror I thought it was a Batman spinoff game since that is where he sends all the bad guys. Sounds like a cool game. Think I would go for a Mystic because if I haven't lost my mind with 2 sick kids I don't think Cthulu would be a sanity problem.

I'll be interested to get your take. I think that not knowing the Dark Tower will help but it's my hypothesis that it won't help enough. 

 

Yeah, I have wondered how the Batman folks got Arkham into their universe. As far as I know it doesn't exist as a word outside of these two universes. Lovecraft's stuff is somewhat famously in the public domain so I assume someone at Batman LLC or whatever just thought it was a cool word that they didn't have to pay for. And yes, you have stared into the yawning abyss and lived to tell the tale.

[The Most Loathed]

I always get nervous when NF tells me that none of you have posted or had your thread posted in for 24 hours.  We must be between challenges or something.

 

Yesterday I went to the climbing gym with a friend. It honestly went better than I expected. The last time I returned to the climbing gym I recall getting way more winded on each climb. I also recall that once I got 20 feet or so up the height bothered me. This time I had no fear associated with getting high. Most of the routes I climbed were not graded but they were pretty easy. I was doing routes where every hand hold was a pretty obvious hand hold.  I wasn't doing anything weird where I had to hang by just the tips of my fingers or anything. From the graded routes I saw, I guess these were 5.6, 5.7. So, kid stuff but fun.

 

After the gym we walked over to Storm King Barbecue. Aside from it's awesome name, the food was A-MAZE-ing. You have to be in the mood for some meaty-meat because it's smoked brisket and pulled pork and that kind of thing but I loved it. I didn't expect to going in but I did. When we got home our wives told us that we smelled like smoked meat. We were both ok with that. Then we went out for drinks.

 

Today I met Kristjian for kettlebells. I wasn't sure how my hands would be after climbing but they did ok

snatch 20 kg 1:00/1:00, 1:00 x 4

jerk 20 kg x 2 1:00, 1:00 x 4

goblet squat 20 kg 5 x 10

two hand swings 32 kg 2 x 25

 

We worked out in the apartment gym which has mirrors and I will admit to noticing that apparently my heavy lifting is having cosmetic effects already. I have traps again. I still have too much belly but I didn't mind the heavier shoulders and traps. I couldn't see my legs well and wasn't about to start posing but I would wager that they are doing just fine under the extra load as well. Now to get eating under control. Ah appetite, my old nemesis. 

[Elastigirl]

I am always in the mood for meaty-meat. I know that's supposed to be a guy thing, but I love meat.

 

What does Kristjiian think of Elements. (that is the friend who was doing the program I think?)

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

That sounds like a great day. Vertical Endevours? Do they use automatic belayers? Or do you have to bring a friend to do it for you? I've never been to an actual climbing gym.

 

ETA: nevermind, I googled it myself.

 

 

[Bearlee]

14 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I always get nervous when NF tells me that none of you have posted or had your thread posted in for 24 hours.  We must be between challenges or something.

 

 

I agree with you that people should be doing battle logs instead of challenges so these lulls don’t happen, unless you’re like me and lazy about updating your thread.

 

Climbling sounds awesome. That is one of my secret quests that I’ve put on my list. Something I couldn’t do now but would like to work towards.

 

Congrats on the gains. What does Steve say “Appearance is a consequence of exercise” or something like that. Now imagine what you would look like if you could find more than 400lbs at your gym? Always a pleasure following you for inspiration. And general nerdiness.

[LouCarJo]

19 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I am always in the mood for meaty-meat. I know that's supposed to be a guy thing, but I love meat.

 

Me too.  I’ve just found out about a Japanese place where you cook your own from a large selection of meats and immediately texted a (female) friend to say we must go!

[The Most Loathed]

On 11/19/2017 at 4:05 PM, Elastigirl said:

I am always in the mood for meaty-meat. I know that's supposed to be a guy thing, but I love meat.

 

What does Kristjiian think of Elements. (that is the friend who was doing the program I think?)

I'm not going to job anybody, ladies or otherwise for enjoying meat It's good and good for you.

 

She stopped trying and even when I brought up going back it last week I noticed that there was no reply. I gave her some food advice a while back that has changed her whole training program and she's really happy with it. It basically boiled down to, when you feel like you are craving carbs all the time and fatigued, allow yourself some carbs and even miss a workout if you want. When you great protein and to train hard, do that.  

 

21 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

That sounds like a great day. Vertical Endevours? Do they use automatic belayers? Or do you have to bring a friend to do it for you? I've never been to an actual climbing gym.

ETA: nevermind, I googled it myself.

Yep, auto-belays. I will say that only about 1/3 of their routes have them which is weird because I don't think that it's a worse experience that manual belaying 

 

12 hours ago, Bearlee said:

I agree with you that people should be doing battle logs instead of challenges so these lulls don’t happen, unless you’re like me and lazy about updating your thread.

 

Climbling sounds awesome. That is one of my secret quests that I’ve put on my list. Something I couldn’t do now but would like to work towards.

 

Congrats on the gains. What does Steve say “Appearance is a consequence of exercise” or something like that. Now imagine what you would look like if you could find more than 400lbs at your gym? Always a pleasure following you for inspiration. And general nerdiness.

yeah, I have my off times too. Challenges are supposed to inspire excitement and community and all that good stuff but it seems to lead to complacency and frustration just as much.

 

Climbing is fun. My mom, who is not a small person, asked about weight limits for climbing. I honestly don't know. I assume all kinds of folks walk in the door wanting to climb and they have to deal with it. It could be a fun thing sometime. 

 

I honestly don't know much of what Steve says, his and my cogs don't seem to match up very well. That said, visible progress is always motivational.

6 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

Me too.  I’ve just found out about a Japanese place where you cook your own from a large selection of meats and immediately texted a (female) friend to say we must go!

Want.

 

 

Not much to add today. We're headed to the gym soon. I'm planning to deadlift but am finding my hamstrings a little tight, presumably from the swings, which is a surprise. 

[KB Girl]

I love how well you and Laura support each other! Seriously, that's awesome. 

 

Was shaking my head over the story of that lady at your work.. as if liking introvert things is somehow sad. Tsk. 

[KB Girl]

Oh and I'm plotting my training program for after the last competition of this year and will definitely be working on that strength. I'm excited about it, thanks for that

Trying to decide wether to put up another challenge or go with a battle log.... hmmmmm....

[The Most Loathed]

On 11/21/2017 at 10:05 AM, KB Girl said:

Oh and I'm plotting my training program for after the last competition of this year and will definitely be working on that strength. I'm excited about it, thanks for that

Trying to decide wether to put up another challenge or go with a battle log.... hmmmmm....

I look forward to seeing what numbers you put up. Plus I'll get to see you after all that hard earned strength gain. I can get a photo of yolked KB Girl.

 

Ok, I haven't posted in a while. It was Thanksgiving week so I need to report on that and then have a bunch of rambling to do

Wow. my last workout post was 11/19. Never fear, I have worked out since. Let's see what I can recall

 

11/20 - undocumented deadlift workout

On Monday the 20th I did a deadlift workout. It was the first time I showed up without a plan or paper to write to what I did. It was totally an accident. As it turned out, my plan wouldn't have mattered as my hands were not in the mood. I got u to 405 on my reps but even that I believe I was limited to 405 for 6 singles. I did some more deadlifts, Good Mornings, and other. Alas, because  I had no paper, I could not tell you what all

 

11/22 - squats

Back Squat

  315 1 x 6

  335 3 x 3

  355 1 x 3

  365 1 x 2

  375 - got buried and didn't come out

 

hip sled 225 6 x 20

 

good morning 135 5 x 5

RDL 185 5 x 5

There were some pull up and and negative pull ups

 

11/25 - oly

  Clean

    160 10 x 1

    180 10 x 1

    185 5 x 1

    195 5 x 1

 

 Clean and Jerk

    195 5 x 1

    190 5 x 1

    185 5 x 1

    180 5 x 1

    175 5 x 1

 

I tried some front squats... no

 

Here in the US we had thanksgiving which is a made up holiday in which we make dishes that were largely invented in the 1950's and say that they are recognize the years in which our European ancestors slaughtered thousands of Native Americans made peace with the natives of the land to survive the winter in peace. 

 

We headed to some friends' house for Friendsgiving. We ate too much. Politics were discussed as is a Thanksgiving tradition. Last year this bothered me, this year it didn't but it bothered Laura. My summary is that everyone around the table thinks that they have the idea that will save the world, or at least America. I don't care. You're all idiots, myself included. 

 

Laura was more frustrated than me coming out but I get it. Funkdat noise.

 

I played Arkham Horror on Friday with the boys. It was pretty cool. We played the last two scenarios in the intro pack. We got stomped by the last big-bad. I think that this is pretty much by design. 

We're going to set up for the first campaign . I think I'm going to play Zoey again. Zoey is a bad-ass monsters killer and I really enjoy her role. If the zombie apocalypse coming I volunteer for killing monsters and dying in the line of duty. It's the way my brain works.

 

@Rooks, @Sloth the Enduring and I signed up for the Hammer Race in April. We're all in the same wave. I'm going to kick their butts. 

 

 

Speaking of crushing those those chumps. I'm changing gears for myself. I had a nice three-or-so week schedule of heavy workouts. But now it's time to shine.

 

I have a hypothesis and I'd be curious to get people's takes on this. When I train heavy I tend to gain weight. I tend to gain some bodyweight from water retention due to muscle breakdown but I also tend to gain some weight in the form of fat gain. My hypothesis is that when I train heavy my whole body goes into an anabolic cycle. I gain a bunch of muscle but I also gain a bunch of fat too.

By contrast, when I crush myself with circuits and HIT workouts I seem to go into a catabolic state. I lose some muscle but I lose some fat. More fat than muscle. It's a whole lot less fun than picking up super heavy weights and setting them down again but it aligns with my goals. So that the direction I am going. More on that soon but look for more circuits and cardio in the near future.

sorry, ran out of time this evening.

 

[Rooks]

14 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I have a hypothesis and I'd be curious to get people's takes on this. When I train heavy I tend to gain weight. I tend to gain some bodyweight from water retention due to muscle breakdown but I also tend to gain some weight in the form of fat gain. My hypothesis is that when I train heavy my whole body goes into an anabolic cycle. I gain a bunch of muscle but I also gain a bunch of fat too.

By contrast, when I crush myself with circuits and HIT workouts I seem to go into a catabolic state. I lose some muscle but I lose some fat. More fat than muscle. It's a whole lot less fun than picking up super heavy weights and setting them down again but it aligns with my goals. So that the direction I am going. More on that soon but look for more circuits and cardio in the near future.

 

I would say, when I was lifting heavy, my body went into full craving mode. I just was hungry all the time with all the abuse I was putting it through. So of course, that lead to poor decisions and I put on weight. I definitely eat less now that I'm not training hard. 

 

But I've also not really done intense circuit and HIIT workouts over a prolonged schedule since high school wrestling so I can't say for certain.

[The Most Loathed]

I'm marking down today as 1 of my drive to push my weight down. I'll grab a weight later but assume 225-227. I'm looking to get consistently below 220 by the new year and back to 200 by the Hammer Race. After the the race I'll decide if I want to go lower or hold there. 

 

The first thing I did was try and take advantage of the fact that I work from home most days and set myself up for good nutrition. I even threw some stuff in MyFitnessPal. As often happens when I log my food and I'm prepping my own food, I'm surprised how much I can eat and stay be below a reasonable calorie threshold. I'd take any feedback on the menu I'm about to lay out:

Breakfast

Black coffee

3 eggs fried in a little butter

1 slice of plain toast

Note: I like to stick the toast under the eggs so that when the delicious yolks drain out, my toast catches all of that awesomeness and I still get to eat them

 

Lunch

Baked Potato

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, marinated in olive oil and spices

a couple of table spoon of full fat sour cream 

 

Supper

Breakfast sandwich: english muffin with a little butter, 1 slice of cheese, 1 egg, fried

1 additional egg (This is called the "bonus egg" by my wife and I )

 

According the MFP that's 1750 calories. It's close to 100 g carbs which is more than I have traditionally allowed myself when I'm trying to lose weight but not ridiculous, I don't think. MFP wants me to consume 250 g. I tend to fair well on a low carb diet but I want to include some as I plan on doing cardio and higher volume work in the gym.

 

Something I always struggle with is getting enough brightly colored veggies in my diet and you can see in the above that I'm missing them today. The next time I go by the store I'll grab some things I can throw in the oven with the chicken. I'm thinking things like zucchini or even brussel sprouts but would take suggestions.

 

I always feel like I'm going to have more to say when I start these posts but that feels like most of it. I'm planning on eating in a similar fashion to the above on days that I work from home. Some nights I'll have a bigger supper just because I will but this is the general idea. 

 

Plan for the week

• Monday - workout
• Tuesday - Gary Numan concert
• Wednesday - recover from concert. workout
• Thursday - this will likely be my off day from the gym
• Friday - workout

 

For today, Monday I'm thinking of going with a reliable standby of kettlebell clean and thruster.

 

It's been a long time since I shared a music video. I'm really enjoying Nothing More these days. This video was one of the first songs I heard from them and the fact that the dude is super fit makes it seem like this belongs here. 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I can't say that I've ever officially lifted heavy and my body works totally different than yours, so I'm just talking to talk here. No matter what I do activity-wise I lean down. I've only ever put on muscle with high frequency work.

Does your eating stay the same? What about non-exercise activity? If you're too beat up to get your 30K steps in that might be a factor.

30# isn't going to be enough for you to beat me up the hills.

[Rooks]

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Note: I like to stick the toast under the eggs so that when the delicious yolks drain out, my toast catches all of that awesomeness and I still get to eat them

 

Egg makes everything so much better. I love that runny yoke just smothering ANYTHING.

 

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

I'm really enjoying Nothing More these days.

 

I was a fan of "Jenny" but hadn't listened to much of their other stuff. I'll give their new album "The Stories We Tell Ourselves" a listen. Thanks for the tip!

 

2 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Something I always struggle with is getting enough brightly colored veggies in my diet and you can see in the above that I'm missing them today. The next time I go by the store I'll grab some things I can throw in the oven with the chicken. I'm thinking things like zucchini or even brussel sprouts but would take suggestions.

 

Something that my wife has been doing, she picked up a set of Epic Bar's sample pack of Animal Oils, https://epicbar.com/animal-oils-overview. That way you can vary up what you a frying the veggies in day by day to give them significantly different flavoring, and still get the veggies in. I've really enjoyed pretty much all of them. They are a bit spendy, but so far I've been happy with the purchases. Unfortunately, looks like they are sold out at the moment. Sure Whole Foods / Trader Joes might have some alternatives oils that are similar.

 

I'm a fan of pretty much any veggies that is roasted with a tiny amount of salt and pepper and fat. Carrots, brussel sprouts, parsnips, green beans... but I'm probably in the minority.

 

[KB Girl]

The weight loss/gain is probably from how the exercise influences your other behaviour.. perhaps lifting heavy makes you move less during the day? or makes you more hungry.. In theory it's best to lift heavy when losing weight to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.. my personal experience is that the exercise I do really doesn't make much of a difference as long as I'm carefully watching what I eat. But I have team members who always gain weight when they train longcycle (heavier) and lose weight when they are in a snatch cycle (more cardio-y perhaps). 

 

20 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Here in the US we had thanksgiving which is a made up holiday in which we make dishes that were largely invented in the 1950's and say that they are recognize the years in which our European ancestors slaughtered thousands of Native Americans made peace with the natives of the land to survive the winter in peace. 

lol! 

 

Also that dude in the music video was really hot. Have fun at the concert tomorrow!

[LouCarJo]

I was going to say you needed more veggies in that meal plan but I then moved onto the next paragraph and you beat me to it!  I tend to get some stuff I can have raw, so when I’m feeling particularly lazy I can just chop up and have alongside pretty much anything.  Then also a bag of frozen veg, again to be easy.  Then some seasonal fresh veg when I have the energy to be a bit more cheffy.

 

I’m a bit clueless about weight so nothing helpful to add apart from a story.  I’m just over 10kg heavier now than I was 5 years ago.  I still fit the same dresses and sports wear, which were themselves bought around 5 years ago after I’d started exercising and slimmed down a bit.  Jeans I think I’m a size up but I never really fitted the size down properly anyway. 4 of those kg come from the last year.  The big change from then to now is a regular 8 hours + of sleep.  My sleep book does say that lack of sleep causes loss of body mass so I wonder whether this is the reverse happening.  However I’m also doing a lot less high intensity cardio (nowhere near as much KB training as I was doing then).  The gentle cardio has probably increased slightly, obviously circus stuff is new, weights a constant though this year I’m able to go heavier.  There’s probably too many variables to figure it out.  I’m not too bothered as visually there’s not much to see (in fact I wonder where the weight’s all gone) but I do find it interesting (and odd).

[The Most Loathed]

16 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

30# isn't going to be enough for you to beat me up the hills.

The 30 lbs won't help me beat you, it'll help me beat the other people who beat you

 

 

15 hours ago, Rooks said:

 

Egg makes everything so much better. I love that runny yoke just smothering ANYTHING.

 

I was a fan of "Jenny" but hadn't listened to much of their other stuff. I'll give their new album "The Stories We Tell Ourselves" a listen. Thanks for the tip!

 

Something that my wife has been doing, she picked up a set of Epic Bar's sample pack of Animal Oils, https://epicbar.com/animal-oils-overview. That way you can vary up what you a frying the veggies in day by day to give them significantly different flavoring, and still get the veggies in. I've really enjoyed pretty much all of them. They are a bit spendy, but so far I've been happy with the purchases. Unfortunately, looks like they are sold out at the moment. Sure Whole Foods / Trader Joes might have some alternatives oils that are similar.

 

I'm a fan of pretty much any veggies that is roasted with a tiny amount of salt and pepper and fat. Carrots, brussel sprouts, parsnips, green beans... but I'm probably in the minority.

 

A runny yolk is the best sauce.

The album is available to listen for free if you're an Amazon Prime member but also well worth the cost to buy if you're not. There's one song on there that I really enjoy with the refrain "everyone wants to change the world, no one wants to change themselves"

I love fried or roasted veggies but I've never done a ton to play with what they are roasted in. This time of year we'll start doing lamb roasts and whole chickens and I'll throw the veggies under then to cook on their respective fats but that's about as far as I go on that front. I guess I did also used to keep a container of schmaltz laying around for cooking eggs. Maybe I'll play with that again.

13 hours ago, KB Girl said:

The weight loss/gain is probably from how the exercise influences your other behaviour.. perhaps lifting heavy makes you move less during the day? or makes you more hungry.. In theory it's best to lift heavy when losing weight to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.. my personal experience is that the exercise I do really doesn't make much of a difference as long as I'm carefully watching what I eat. But I have team members who always gain weight when they train longcycle (heavier) and lose weight when they are in a snatch cycle (more cardio-y perhaps). 

 

Also that dude in the music video was really hot. Have fun at the concert tomorrow!

You're probably right that there's some secondary behavior that is impacting my weight. I'm certain that there is no science backing my observation but even when I mentioned it to Laura a coupe nights ago, she was adamant that she had the same observation. 

 

I'd say he's the most attractive lead singer since young Henry Rollins and Glen Danzig before that. So apparently I have a type.

5 hours ago, LouCarJo said:

I was going to say you needed more veggies in that meal plan but I then moved onto the next paragraph and you beat me to it!  I tend to get some stuff I can have raw, so when I’m feeling particularly lazy I can just chop up and have alongside pretty much anything.  Then also a bag of frozen veg, again to be easy.  Then some seasonal fresh veg when I have the energy to be a bit more cheffy.

 

I’m a bit clueless about weight so nothing helpful to add apart from a story.  I’m just over 10kg heavier now than I was 5 years ago.  I still fit the same dresses and sports wear, which were themselves bought around 5 years ago after I’d started exercising and slimmed down a bit.  Jeans I think I’m a size up but I never really fitted the size down properly anyway. 4 of those kg come from the last year.  The big change from then to now is a regular 8 hours + of sleep.  My sleep book does say that lack of sleep causes loss of body mass so I wonder whether this is the reverse happening.  However I’m also doing a lot less high intensity cardio (nowhere near as much KB training as I was doing then).  The gentle cardio has probably increased slightly, obviously circus stuff is new, weights a constant though this year I’m able to go heavier.  There’s probably too many variables to figure it out.  I’m not too bothered as visually there’s not much to see (in fact I wonder where the weight’s all gone) but I do find it interesting (and odd).

Yeah, I grew up in a house where we didn't eat many veggies. Even today, when Laura and I go back for visits and they talk about how many veggies they eat, we don't feel like they eat a lot of veggies. I do have some frozen veg in the freezer. I know I can burn myself out on those if I start eating them everyday. I'm not as good about just munching on fresh veg laying around. I could stand to improve. What veggies do you have laying around right now?

 

Bodyweight is a funny, messy thing. Everyone uses it to measure health progress and there are a lot of good reasons that they/I shouldn't. However it's such a simple metric, it's hard to not fall back to it.

 

11/27/2017

clean and thrusts 24 kg x 2, 105 in 30 minutes. The reps per minute went:

9 x 5, 1 rest, 5 x 4, 10 x 3, 5 x 2

This always makes my shoulders hurt a little but I find that a little rowing resets them so I rowed for 5 minutes. I have to admit, those we a tough 5 minutes. I wasn't pushing a specific pace but ended up around 2:11 / 500 m. Then to kill time while Laura finished her yoga class I hopped on the stairmill for 10 minutes.

 

After the gym I walked over to my local grocer and grabbed some veggies to throw in with my chicken thighs today, some shaved winter squash and brussle sprouts. I was arbitrarily trying to grab brightly colored things. I realize it's not a replacement for knowing what's actually in them but I take those as markers of vitamin content. It's like using weightloss as a metric, it's imperfect but so dead simple.

[LouCarJo]

3 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

What veggies do you have laying around right now?

 

Carrots, leeks, parsnips, brussel sprouts, red cabbage and swede fresh.  Spinach, broccoli and mixed veg frozen.  For easy munching I often have red peppers, cucumber and celery in too, but I’ve felt wintry recently.