Atrytone: Dance to The Beat of the Livin Dead

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Goal One: There Are Months to Feed

I have really come to notice how, as a family, we can tend to make some unhealthy eating choices. This usually happens when my parents aren’t in the mood to cook so we get pizza, Chinese, or fast food. Nothing good. I doubt I’ll ever go full Paleo but it is an interesting idea that I would like to incorporate into my diet a little more. At the very least getting away from excessively processed foods like the above (yes, traditional Chinese food can be very good for an individual but we only ever get the Westernized crap). I intend to cook one Paleo dinner a week for my family which will hopefully give my parents a bit of a break and clear out some of the excess junk in our diet. It’s nice to contribute and I know they’ll eat pretty much anything I make.

 

Make one Paleo dinner a week for the whole family:

• Phenomenal – 5+ Paleo dinners
• Great – 4 Paleo dinners
• Good – 3 Paleo dinners
• Mediocre – 2 Paleo dinners
• Poor – 1 Paleo dinner
• Abysmal – 0 Paleo dinners

 

Goal Two: Got Fire in Your Veins

I hate running on treadmills. It bores me to absolute tears. However, back when I was a teenager and went to camp we jogged basically everywhere and for about a week or two after I got home I didn’t feel like myself if I didn’t go for a 20 minute jog in the mornings. That went on until the weather got gross and I just kind of stopped. So I want to ease myself back into jogging. I don’t have any, and can’t get any, fancy apps but my cell phone has a timer on it so I’ll use that. My goal is to slowly but steadily increase my run time over the next four weeks as follows. Week 1: 5 mins at a time; Week 2: 10 mins at a time per run; Week 3: 15 mins at a time per run; Week 4: 20 mins at a time per run. I’ll walk before and after to warm up and cool down. The weather should be warm enough that I can handle it without a bulky coat. I’m going to aim for jogs on Wednesdays and either Saturday or Sunday. The actual days aren’t really important though so long as I meet my quota.

 

Start jogging outside twice per week:

• Phenomenal – 9+ total runs (TRs) meeting goal run times OR 8 TRs exceeding goal run times (25+ minutes)
• Great – 8 TRs meeting goal run times
• Good – 6-7 TRs meeting goal run times OR 8 TRs not meeting goal run times
• Mediocre – 4-5 TRs meeting goal run times OR 6-7 TRs not meeting goal run times
• Poor – 1-3 TRs meeting goal run times OR 4-5 TRs not meeting goal run times
• Abysmal – 0 TRs OR 1-3 TRs not meeting goal run times

 

Goal Three: You Drag Your Coffin Around

So in addition to my twice weekly gym trips I’d like to add a third fitness day to my routine. As another gym day doesn’t fit well into my schedule given that I use the University gym which is a significant distance from my house I’m looking to include the beginner body weight circuit into my routine. I’m going to aim for Saturdays but Sundays are fine as well. I will be substituting the jumping jacks for punches/kicks because bouncing around in the house will likely get me killed. It’s a small space and I doubt my parents would appreciate me being so noisy. I’m planning to time all of these sessions to gage my improvement over the course of the challenge. My improvement will be measured in happy points; I’ll gain a happy point for each minute of time reduced from the start to the end of the challenge. This is because weekly I’m rating myself as having done it or not having done it. The times are for my personal competitiveness and I know if I shave time off I’ll be super happy – hence, happy points.

 

Add a body weight circuit to fitness plan:

• Phenomenal – 5+ Body Weight Circuits
• Great – 4 Body Weight Circuits
• Good – 3 Body Weight Circuits
• Mediocre – 2 Body Weight Circuits
• Poor – 1 Body Weight Circuit
• Abysmal – 0 Body Weight Circuits

 

Goal Four: We Had Such a Brainiac-Amour

Since it’s the final semester of my undergrad degree I’m having a hard time motivating myself to do any studying or homework for my courses. This is awful and as much as working on my fitness is important, and basically all I really want to focus on at the moment, school is every single bit as important and not something I want to shove to the side. So. I have four courses and four free days per week. I plan to spend 30 minutes studying per class per day off. This comes to a total of 2 hours of studying each day off and 2 hours for each class weekly. While this might not seem like a lot it’s the minimum I’ll allow myself and significantly more than I’m doing now. If I manage to maintain a 3.67 GPA or higher this semester I’ll be able to graduate with distinction. As my cumulative GPA is 4.02 (just above an A average – my school uses a 4.33 GPA system) this shouldn’t be difficult as long as I put the effort in.

 

Dedicate at least 2 hours each day off to study time (30 minutes/class):

• Phenomenal – 27+ hours of studying (at least 2 hours/class/week)
• Great – 26 hours of studying (2 hours/class/week)
• Good – 19-26 hours of studying (less than 2 hours/class/week)
• Mediocre – 13-18 hours of studying
• Poor – 7-12 hours of studying
• Abysmal – 0-6 hours of studying

 

BONUS: When The Rain Washes You Clean You’ll Know

My room is a disaster and that makes it difficult to exercise in. Not to mention all the unnecessary clutter and the fact that I’m planning on moving out before next year. Organization is something I’d like to take care of sooner rather than later. However, this isn’t paramount and I thought it might be a fun little bonus challenge for myself. I’ll track it like the rest of my goals but there’s no pressure on me just yet. If it doesn’t get done this challenge it may become a goal next challenge.

 

Cleaning my room:

• No rating scale just happy points for completion (1 happy point per minute spent cleaning my room)

 

Now. In addition to rating each of my goals and the happy point system (which I’ll make something out of at some point I’m sure) I’m going to be taking a couple additional forms of measurement to determine my overall progress.

 

Photographs: Taken on the first (Feb 01) and last (Feb 26) days of the challenge around 6am before breakfast.

 

Measurements: Taken with a measuring tape on the first and last days of the challenge around 6am before breakfast. Measurements to be taken: neck, chest, biceps, waist, hips, and thighs.

[DJtrippyT]

Welcome to your  first Ranger challenge! I can't wait to see how it goes.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Thank you!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome aboard! I'll be following along. Your Challenge looks great, I like your grading system. Have fun defeating Senioritis.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Thanks! What's Senioritis?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Senioritis is the condition  you get when you are in your final year of undergrad (senior year in the US) when you don't feel like doing anything because you've almost graduated.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Oh right. Sorry, I forgot 4th years were called seniors in the US.

[Marauder]

Welcome to the Rangers! Jumping jacks suck anyway. I like your plan better.

Solid goals. Let's crush em.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Hahah, I usually don't mind them but the context I'd be doing them in doesn't allow for it. I do prefer the alternative slightly though.

 

Thanks!

[Yasha92]

Found you! Good goals! Several of them seem to line up with my own goals (including graduating with distinction, wewt wewt!). What are you studying? I'm one subject from finishing my Graduate Certificate in Business, and this challenge I'll be doing that subject plus another subject to count to the Masters I'll articulate into straight after.

 

I like the cooking-for-the-family goal too, how is your fam for fresh ingredients? If the freshest thing is a floppy carrot (been there) you may need to factor in some smart grocery shops too.

 

Following along to watch you rock week 1!

[Thom Stépan]

Found you. I love how you have set your goals out this time, much better.

Good luck with this challenge.

Woden uses ravens, I use an iphone.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Found you! Good goals! Several of them seem to line up with my own goals (including graduating with distinction, wewt wewt!). What are you studying? I'm one subject from finishing my Graduate Certificate in Business, and this challenge I'll be doing that subject plus another subject to count to the Masters I'll articulate into straight after.

 

I like the cooking-for-the-family goal too, how is your fam for fresh ingredients? If the freshest thing is a floppy carrot (been there) you may need to factor in some smart grocery shops too.

 

Following along to watch you rock week 1!

 

Thanks! I'm a psych major and would like to pursue neuroscience in grad school. I'll be taking a year or so off to volunteer in labs and gain experience though. Business seems intense. I took an intro to business accounting course as an elective and it was...time consuming.

 

My family is very good for fresh ingredients. We usually have homemade dinners 6-7 nights a week. It just seems lately it's been more 5-6 nights a week. And my parents have told me if I ever want to make something special for dinner to just let them know in time to do the shopping and it'll get done. Luckily we all love fruits and veg so there's usually a bunch of those in the house somewhere.

 

Found you. I love how you have set your goals out this time, much better.

Good luck with this challenge.

 

Thanks, I actually used your last challenge post for inspiration I really like how you lay out your challenges! Thanks, and good luck with your own!

[Thom Stépan]

Heh, I reaved the whole hit, dodge, miss thing from another NF'er. He was a Marine Sergeant, bloody awe inspiring he was. He used that system himself. I remember him calling me a badass for my (compared to his) measly workouts. But of course it is not about comparison to others, it is all about bettering yourself. I am glad that you have created a grading system for your goals.

Let's us nail February's challenge together.

Woden uses ravens, I use an iphone.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Yeah, I like the idea of an adjective ladder better than a letter-grade system for this sort of thing. I have too many emotions around letter grades that aren't "A's".

 

We're going to do awesome.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Well it appears that room cleaning may become a bigger part of this challenge than I previously assumed. It's just past two and I was woken up 10-20 minutes ago by strange noises mostly emanating from my closet. I think our house has mice again. I'm freaking out and not going to be able to get back to sleep tonight. This is awful. I'm not sure what to do right now.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That is an ugly feeling, I hope things get better for you.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Well, despite my fear that I wouldn't get anymore sleep after 2am I did manage a fitful doze until around 5:30am which is around when I'd usually get up anyway. I'm tired but I'm not going to let this get me down on the first day of the new challenge. Maybe I'll set my cat loose in the closet and hope he's a natural born mouser

 

Anyway, the actual point of this post is to list my measurements and put up the pictures that will be my starting point. So my measurements are as follow:

 

Neck - 14"

Chest - 36"

Biceps - (flexed) R. 11.75"; L. 12.25"

Waist - 30"

Hips - 38"

Thighs - (at rest) R. 20.5"; L. 21"

 

I'm not sure why exactly but these surprised me. For the most part I'm fine with them but I'm hoping to see some change by the end of the challenge. Namely, I'd like to see my waist go down a bit and my thighs and biceps go up. Well. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

The reason I decided to switch to monthly photos is because I wasn't noticing any changes weekly. While I'm not particularly self-conscious about my body it was feeling pretty sucky to keep putting out pictures that didn't really seem to change week to week. I'm hoping that there will be a more obvious difference if I wait longer. My pictures as follow:

 

 

I believe this is the start of a good thing. I'm looking forward to this challenge.

 

[Thom Stépan]

I rarely notice changes to my body on a weekly basis. It is why I prefer monthly measurements.

Mice in cupboards are lots of fun. I think you need an owl outside your place. Leave the cupboard door open so the cat can get in, just remember if you want them to catch mice cut their food back somewhat.

Woden uses ravens, I use an iphone.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Yeah, I think monthly might be a little better.

 

The problem is I'm not positive if it is a mouse or not. It's just frustrating. I'll try leaving the door open for my cat tonight he likes chasing moving things so if it is a mouse he might go after it hungry or not.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Yeah, I think monthly might be a little better.

 

The problem is I'm not positive if it is a mouse or not. It's just frustrating. I'll try leaving the door open for my cat tonight he likes chasing moving things so if it is a mouse he might go after it hungry or not.

http://how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com/wiki/Cockamouse

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Don't even joke But nah. I don't know if we even have cockroaches here. I've never seen one. It might be too cold?

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

Went to the gym yesterday and while I didn't up any of my weights I found that I was significantly more stable with the ones I was doing which was the point of sticking to the same weights this week as last week. I threw in an exercise specifically for my triceps since I feel they're a little behind compared to everything else.

 

Today is my first planned run day and the weather is less than awesome. The forecast is calling for rain and temperatures around 5 degrees (Celsius; 41F). Unfortunately this is the sort of weather that I used as an excuse to stop running all those years ago. I'll get it done but it's not going to be pleasant. I'll try to frame this as a positive out-growing of my former self but in reality it's probably just going to feel cold and wet.

 

My studying didn't go so well Monday. I did my half hour for only one of my four classes. I'll do better today though.

 

I think I'm going to do the first Paleo dinner tonight. I'll add pics if I do.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

You can do it. Cook the things! Run the Run! Lift the Stuff!

[Thom Stépan]

Running in the cold? Go visit the Ranger Xena, she does that. It may be cold and wet, but it is badass.

Woden uses ravens, I use an iphone.

[NeuroPunkNonsense]

After some serious procrastination I went for my run. I managed about one and three-quarters of a lap around a small local field. I was starting to find my stride toward the end of my five minutes. I'll do better next time. It was chilly but I was grateful for that as I quickly heated up while running. The light drizzle was refreshing and restorative on my walk home. I'm now back, warm, at home with a hot cup of tea. It's small but it's my first step back into cardio health and I'm very proud of myself. Now I just need to tackle my studies at some point...