Tankgrrl: The Ranger's Apprentice Pt II

[TankGrrl]

looks like you are doing really well and congrats on finding duo lingo I think it's great - a really accessible way to start getting into a language

Hi Daniel,

I have dabbled with a bit of language learning before because one of my big quests is to become fluent in Cantonese (my in laws speak Canto at home). It's a shame Duolingo doesn't do it because I'm finding it really fun.

My gf is addicted to an iPad game right now, one of those endless time management things. She was getting sick of the pointlessness of it but couldn't stop. Yesterday I suggested she have a go at Duolingo instead and use the time to level up some phrases for our holiday... She's downloaded the app so fingers crossed!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD which may explain a lot

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Did you get lost in Duolingo? Come back to tell us of all your success in week 2.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Did you get lost in Duolingo? Come back to tell us of all your success in week 2.

 

Rangers leave no one behind!  So stand up and be counted for Week 3... in a day!

[TankGrrl]

Did you get lost in Duolingo? Come back to tell us of all your success in week 2.

 

 

Rangers leave no one behind!  So stand up and be counted for Week 3... in a day!

 

Oh man! I'm away for 3 days and I'm in trouble now. I may of overslept a little, but I'm here!

Reporting for duty.

 

 

~~ Week 2 round up  ~~

The Talisman of the Lightfoot 

+ 2 runs this week and a 4 min continuous best. It should have been 3 but I procrastinated on Friday and then again on Saturday.

 

The Rune of Rejuvenation

Wow, last night I slept for 9 hrs 37 mins. I spent the afternoon babysitting my nieces and nephew. When I got home at 9pm I fell asleep to he sofa by 9.30pm so dragged myself to bed. Then I slept like the dead. I haven't done that in so long, it felt great. Earlier in the week I missed my 7 hr minimum a couple of times but pulled it back for a solid 5 days out of 7.

 

Collecting boar meat 

I've been tracking Mon-Fri and hit my carb goal 4 days out of 5 which is pretty good. I not really making any progress on the weight front so this goal isn't being very productive for me so far. I'm trying to level it up without fiddling with the goal by eating 80% primal but I guess that I'm not tracking that properly. I wish I could just eat mindfully and not track or count, but I just end up overeating. Damn food for being so tasty! 

 

Mastery of tools

2hrs yard work, a picture hung on the wall and I finally put the Xmas tree away in storage this week. No big projects this week because after I had been to Ikea and the hardware store today I had run out of time to get anything done. I have all the bits I need though for the next job, including adding a stud finder and a carpenters quick square to my tool kit. I almost bought a cicular saw too but I talked myself out of the purchase, at least until after the holiday.

 

Sidequests for the week:

• A bonus yoga session for the mini
• I finished reading Steve's book
• I did 50 Codecademy lessons
• I've done a 5 days streak of Italian and French lessons on DuoLingo (So much fun!)

 

Next week.....

• I have to make sure that I stay disciplined on my running schedule, even if I'm tired and it is hot outside
• Eat smaller breakfasts. I was trying to eat big breakfasts to set me up for the day but after reading Steve's book and how he only eats between 12pm and 8pm, maybe I'm doing the wrong thing?
• Stick to yummy Tuna Salad if I have to buy lunch at work.
• I have to try to maintain my momentum with getting chores done in the evening after work. I will plan out what I'm goign to do each day, whether it's put up one shelf or prepare lunches.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Glad you came back, good job on the duolingo streak. I've started it myself to improve my Spanish, I really like the way it works and especially that it's free. You are not eating wrong. Intermittent fasting is one of the many successful eating strategies that are out there. Steve does it because that's what works for him. If you want to try it you can see if it works for you, but just because you aren't doing it doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong. 

The discipline will come, don't give up and keep putting in the effort every day.

[TankGrrl]

W3D1

Went for a run despite the fact I didn't want to. It was seriously humid and a storm was brewing. I was sweating buckets just walking home from work. Not the kind of weather that inspires me to workout. I used the old "well just go and walk it them, just do something even if you can't manage a run today". Of course I ended up jogging the intervals anyway. I did take it easy though except for the final free form run. I had a crack at beating my 4 min record and smashed through it to 6 mins.

That's like a sixth of a 5k... Im on my way folks

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good for you, really well done.

[TankGrrl]

W3D2

At last I'm getting that zen thing going on with my diet. It's been a struggle to find this time around but for the last couple of days I've been in that zone where I just haven't been craving food. I had a banana for brekky. A tuna salad for lunch and then some beef stew for dinner... and I had to remind myself to go have some dinner at 8.30pm otherwise I would have forgot.

Keeping away from the processed crap really changed my appetite for the better.

Gotta keep it up for the rest of the week now.

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[Rurik Harrgath]

Creating some kind our routine out of nutrition is probably the hardest part of building a healthy lifestyle.  Over a year into this crazy adventure, and I still struggle with keeping my eating in line.

 

I can't help it if I just want to eat all of the pie rather than just one piece. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Creating some kind our routine out of nutrition is probably the hardest part of building a healthy lifestyle.  Over a year into this crazy adventure, and I still struggle with keeping my eating in line.

 

I can't help it if I just want to eat all of the pie rather than just one piece. 

I've heard rumors you drizzle it in maple syrup too, that's probably a piece of the puzzle.

[TankGrrl]

W3D3

Things to be glad about today:

1. Results are out and I passed my final subjects with flying colours.

2. I joined Goodreads and found a new book that I'm super excited to start reading. It's sitting on my Kindle waiting for me.

3. I'm on a 9 day duolingo streak

4. Went for my run. Nothing much to report.

5. Heading to bed early

6. Finally got one shelf up on the wall

7. I'm hatching a plan for a new and improved fitness schedule for my next challenge. It's starting to take some shape and I might go to the main boards and post for some advice

Things to irk me today:

1. The constant anxious feeling that I was wasting time on what I was doing and should be doing something else more productive. It plagued me all day. I think it's a uni flashback. It might take a while for that to wear off.

2. I got a massive stitch whilst running and had to walk a lot more of my run today

3. Treated myself to a "gourmet" burger for lunch from a celebrity restaurant. Just a regular cheeseburger and small chips and it was rubbish. Despite the 36 month aged grainfed angus I could have done better at McD. Then I felt gassy and bloated all afternoon. Totally not worth it so back to salad tomorrow.

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1. The constant anxious feeling that I was wasting time on what I was doing and should be doing something else more productive. It plagued me all day. I think it's a uni flashback. It might take a while for that to wear off.

 

 

I assure you this is totally a thing. It took me a long time for the anxiety of "Oh crap I have homework" to wear off. I went straight into college from High School, then got two master's degrees after that. Your brain will eventually assign the part devoted to homework anxiety to other duties.

[TankGrrl]

I assure you this is totally a thing. It took me a long time for the anxiety of "Oh crap I have homework" to wear off. I went straight into college from High School, then got two master's degrees after that. Your brain will eventually assign the part devoted to homework anxiety to other duties.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I'm hoping my upcoming overseas adventure will reset that part of my dumb brain. Can't be worrying about homework and housework when you're exploring European cities can you!

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

How was week 3?

[TankGrrl]

~~ Week 3 round up  ~~

The Talisman of the Lightfoot 

+ 2 runs last week and a 6 min continuous best. It should have been 3 but I procrastinated (again) on Friday and then again over the weekend.

Running after work is HARD. I basically get no down time on the evenings that I run. Home at 6.45pm means I'm not back until 7.45 ish, then I have to get dinner cooked straight away. I have maybe an hour to get done any chores that need doing (there is always something every night). Then I collapse into bed at 10 if I'm lucky. I'm much more relaxed on the nights that I don't run and although I'm enjoying it once I'm out running, I've already started associating run days with stress arrggghh.

 

 

The Rune of Rejuvenation

Average sleep was up to 7:30 last week which is great. I was over 7 hours for 6 out of 7 nights and I'm feeling good about that.

 

Collecting boar meat 

Carb goal met 4 out of 7 days last week.

I'm beginning to feel like the carb goal was silly, there's so much more to the equation and I want to be more zen than just tracking one thing. I'm ready to move on to the next challenge on this but I"ll stick this out until next week to finish this up. I've been cooking good meals in the evening and sticking mostly to tuna salad at work, avoiding sugar and grains etc. My weight hasn't shifted at all.

This is my weight chart for the last 12 months.

It doesn't take a statistician to see that I've been on a steady gain since June and my key goal right now is to turn that around. That point at 86kgs last May was the lowest I had been for years and I felt great!. For context, apparently anything over 70kgs makes me overweight.

 

I'm ready for a serious m'thrf'ckin push to destroy this fat again. I've been re-reading the primal diet stuff on Mark's Daily Apple today and I think when I return from holiday I'm going to go full on primal. Militant style. I've already flagged with my wife that I'm planning not to scoff my way through our 5 weeks holiday, but to eat mindfully. Enjoying the local delicacies but sticking to one fabulous meal a day, not a 24 hour gorge fest. I'm going to be in Italy for a week! like I'm not going to eat beautiful pasta and pizza.

 

Mastery of tools

I finished the big tasks on my renovation of the study. The shelves are up and the workbench is in place and it all looks great. I still have a lot of tidying up to do, finding new homes to store things etc but I'm doing it bit by bit. I carpet shampooed my living room rug because the stains were annoying me. I fixed a buckled clothes horse that the wife was going to throw out and it's now good as new. I bought a new chest of drawers from gumtree for hte spare bedroom. They will need a some new handles and some TLC on the sticky drawers but that on the to do list.

 

Sidequests for the week:

• Purchased a bunch of new Kindle books that I'm looking forward to reading
  
• Keeping up that Duolingo in prep for the holiday
  
• Completed the Codecademy HTML course
  

 

This week.....

• Skipping breakfast is actually working for me. So far I haven't felt the urge to snack and I'm just fine being a little hungry until lunch.
  
• My tuna salad supplier has closed for renovations! Quel horror! I found a chicken salad today but it was more expensive and not as filling.
  
• Counting down until holiday!!! Only 6 more days left at work
  

[TankGrrl]

Paleo chilli for dinner tonight

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[NeverThatBored]

I have never seen tomato paste in a jar like that. That seems so useful!

 

How did the chili turn out?

[TankGrrl]

Excellent and seriously spicy. Nom nom nom

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I"m assuming there was meat added at some point...

[Rurik Harrgath]

I"m assuming there was meat added at some point...

 

Goodness, I sure hope so!  Do love me a batch of spicy Paleo chili though. 

[TankGrrl]

Never fear, there was beef and onion frying in the pan when the photo was taken.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD which may explain a lot

[TankGrrl]

What day is this?

um..... W4D5

Oh wow, I guess this makes this the final day of sorts.

Well I haven't been keeping up with my running this week which sucks a bit in terms of discipline. However I'm feeling a bit of mental burn out to be honest and I think I'm finally coming down from my uni induced "must do all the things and do them now!" Mindset.... Which is a good thing.

I've been listening to the Tim Ferris podcasts on my daily commute for the last week and I've been inspired by so many of the people he has interviewed. Some of his "life hack" I find just goofy, and have no relevance to my life, not being a silicone valley/entrepreneur/child computer prodigy etc. But I've picked up some great book recommendations.

Long story short though, I think I need to get out in nature some more and very soon.

I'm gathering underpants right now in preparation for a big push in April. I want to set the goal of losing my 20kg excess weight and getting stronger and faster in a 6 month blitz.

I'll need to gather a team of likeminded individuals who are also going hard.

P.s

I'm going to apply for a new job, well a 12 month law graduate position. It will be a really competitive field I'm sure but it's a good opportunity to redo my resume to be law focussed and practice convincing people that I'm a lawyer worthy of training and development.

I'll need to gather all my courage to put myself out there.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD which may explain a lot

[TankGrrl]

OMG you guys. It's like tooootally the end of the this challenge already. Where has the time gone. The new challenge is up already and life is moving on. I like the pace of this new 4 week back to back challenges.

This post is brought to you whilst listening to the Star Wars soundtrack (I thought you'd like that)

 

~ End of challenge roundup ~

 

 The Talisman of the Lightfoot (3 c25k runs per week)

 

A total of 5 runs. Not great considering I wanted to do 3 a week (12 total). I have to call this a fail but I did see some improvement with just that which is good for a respawn challenge.

 

 The Rune of Rejuvenation  (Sleep at least 7 hours per night)

 

5+5+6+6 = 22 nights of more than 7 hours sleep

Monthly average sleep duration of over 7 hours

 

A perfect score would have been nice but I'm really happy with this. I was averaging a little over 6 hours before so this is a great improvement. I feel better in myself during the day and I've gotten into a routine despite not having much time in the evenings to relax.

 

 

 Collecting boar meat (Keep carbs below 150g a day)

 

I decided during this challenge that measuring carbs was stupid but I'll add it up anyway to see what happens.

 

Wow, okay so it turns out that it was 11 days out of 28 that and most of those were in the first 2 weeks of this challenge. In the last 2 weeks I've brought it down more regularly. Maybe that shows how I've dropped 2kgs this week. Oh BTW did I mention that I've dropped 2kg this week! I'm sooooooo freakin happy.

 

 

 Mastery of tools

• Clean out the spare room
• Fit out the wardrobe in the spare room and decorate
• Resilicone the leaks in the bathroom
• Clean the whole house
• Clean up the storm damage in the garden
• Pack my bags for my awesome overseas adventure!

Done done done done done. It's been a very productive challenge in terms of house work and handy man jobs. My new home office is all set up and I've cleared out masses of old paperwork. The spare bedroom is ready for the arrival of guests and the garden is looking tidy and neat. Winning all around and I'm super proud of my efforts.

 

 

I'll be back to post some more thoughts, probably tomorrow morning. I have to do some more reflection and reveal some of the quests for this year that I have been thinking about.

It's only 6 more days until I'm off on my great European adventure for 5 weeks so I won't be around for the next challenge.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Have fun on your European trip. I'll be here when you get back to the forums!