Stealthstitcher: Blood & sweat, tears optional

[stealthstitcher]

I like this new 4 weeks structure! Feels like a new start without the in-between drop the ball and crash.

 

The Blood:

Life quest first, in order to keep blood, sweat and tears in their proper order.

I've been intending to donate blood for, oh, the last fifteen years. What's stopping me? Poor health? Nope. Fear of needles? Nope. Fear of new situations that will involve talking to people I don't know? Bingo. Despite the complete illogic of this line of thought, I can't help but feel that I'll go into the blood donation center or blood drive and they'll say, "Donate blood? What are you, an idiot? We don't do that here! What were you thinking, coming to the blood drive to donate blood?" Also there's my fear of going into any situation that isn't familiar. There's a blood drive at work at the end of the month. I wouldn't even have to leave my workplace. So I will either go to the donation center earlier in the month or sign up for the blood drive at the end of the month. (Not both, that would be excessive. Also not allowed.) I do tend to have low iron, although that was before going paleo - but I'm contemplating some way of supplementing iron just in case. 

 

 

The Sweat:

Part 1: Continuing to improve my plank, I will do the darebee 30 day 5 minute plank challenge.

(No, not that plank.)

 

Part 2: I get bored with exercise routines really quickly. Like, not over the course of a couple of a weeks; over the course of a couple sets. I just did that exercise, do I havta do it again? So instead, I wrote down 50 bodyweight exercises and put them in a jar. When it's time to work out, I pull out seven exercises (plus planks, which I've been doing every workout.) and do three sets of 10 or whatever seems appropriate for the exercise. As I've been trying them, I set some aside as too difficult for right now, modified some, and some I discarded as just plain boring and redundant. But the one I am by far the worst at is Mountain Climbers.

(No, not that mountain.)

It's not even that I don't have the muscles (although I don't), I can't sort the movements out. So my regular workout will be planks, mountain climbers and six pulled-from-the-jar exercises. The test will be how many mountain climbers I can do in a minute. (At the moment, it's about four. I have to do them reaaaaally slowly or I get my feet mixed up and fall over.)

 

The Tears (well, hopefully not, but you never know)

My sugar dragon is a powerful monster, which has been regularly and amply fed. I've beaten it back before, but it always returns. When I think I've weakened it, it shows up stronger than before. Ordinarily I'm all for dragons, but this one must die. NO SUGAR. ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR.*

*excluding that which is naturally found in fruits, vegetables and so on.

Actually, I think I could use some kind of draconian ally to assist me in this battle. My willpower is weak; this is a fight for a dragon. So either I morph into a dragon or I find one to fight with me. Either option is fully acceptable.

 

[Leigh]

I got curious and googled sugar dragon and was not disappointed in the find

 

 

but let's face it, if you want a dragon, you want this dragon:

 

 

on your side, not the one who will melt as soon as a situation gets difficult.

 

Good luck!

[stealthstitcher]

So I've always been really hesitant about having my picture taken/letting people see pictures of me. Not particularly because I'm self-conscious about how I look but because then people will know what I look like and that goes against my hiding-in-the-shadows tendency. But I figured it was time to switch up my profile picture. 

[Mekong]

Subbed, and good luck! The sugar dragon is definitely a dick but I have faith you can khaleesi the hell out of this and tame him.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[stealthstitcher]

I got curious and googled sugar dragon and was not disappointed in the find

 

 

 

 

 

Ha!

Sugar dragon kind of sounds like a term of endearment that never caught on - "Aw, c'mon, sugar dragon, don't be like that!"

 

Subbed, and good luck! The sugar dragon is definitely a dick but I have faith you can khaleesi the hell out of this and tame him.

 

Thanks!

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Hello! Personally new to the Adventurers. Just saying I love how you told your story. Am curious on how you shall have help for the "dragon". Though you helped me get a better image for my own sugar issues. 

 

Give you luck! And nice photo!

[stealthstitcher]

Hello! Personally new to the Adventurers. Just saying I love how you told your story. Am curious on how you shall have help for the "dragon". Though you helped me get a better image for my own sugar issues. 

 

Give you luck! And nice photo!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll come over and check out your challenge in a bit.

As to my dragon of assistance, I've got an idea on that but it will have to wait until I'm not in dress rehearsals because there is no time right now. No time. Sigh.

 

So I'm starting off this challenge with my busy week. I swear, once a challenge I have one crazy week. Probably because I work in theatre and we end up having a show or a show planning week about once a challenge ... anyway, I got to work at 9 this morning and got off at 9:30 pm, after which I went to the grocery store for vitally necessary peanut butter. (Don't worry, no sugar; just peanuts and salt.) I realize peanut butter is not paleo, but I dislike almond butter and it's too expensive anyway. Something about rehearsals makes me so ravenously hungry and somehow I forgot that when meal planning and grocery shopping, so I didn't get anything to take as portable snacks. Peanut butter! Walnuts! Baby carrots! Bananas! Not balanced snacks in terms of protein and vegetables, but I've got to have things I can eat while running around and/or sneakily take into the house during rehearsal.  

 

But I digress. I did not eat any sugar today, no matter how much the vending machine tempted me at intermission. And boy, was it tempting me. I'm not even acting, I'm in the house taking notes, so why do rehearsals make me so hungry? 

I started the darebee challenge on day 3, since I can already do a 30 second plank.

And I can do 12 mountain climbers in a minute on my first set, so my earlier estimate was low. However, the second set is more like 8 and the third set 4, with pauses to rest between reps. Man, those things are tough.

[stealthstitcher]

Day 2

So usually when I quit sugar, the first week is a breeze. Not this time. Sugar dragon was screaming at me today. I even had pepsi cravings, and I haven't had a pepsi in over a year. I was actually on the point of giving in (to dark chocolate, not pepsi) when I was saved, of all things, by a quote I can't even properly remember. I feel like it was from the Art of War (or maybe a Ninja Turtles episode from the 80's ... you know, something really intellectual) and it's something about how fighting an aggressive, decisive battle now will be less costly in the long run than a prolonged campaign. Go figure, it worked and I made it through the afternoon without sugar. By the time I got to rehearsal, the sugar cravings were not a problem any more.

Today is a non-plank day. I managed 20 mountain climbers on the first set tonight.

I also decided to give habitica a try, since I've heard so much about it. I'm a little confused by it - not the tasks checklist part, the game element. But I'm sure I'll figure it out.

[Sylvaa]

I've not figured out the Habitica game component either. I just like keeping myself accountable by checking off my to do's every day.

 

But if you figure out the game component, let me know!

[Loveable_Bouncer]

The game part can get more into collecting after the first few levels (like get all the pets, or all the armor you need). A few levels later you will get into the quests (having to do your tasks to collect something for a quest, or how hard you hit it by how many quests you got done). Usually for quests you get more gold or quest pets, sometimes you can get special items. Personally I enjoy it when I need more a larger visual view to get all my stuff done, and earn something somewhat rewarding for getting it done. 

 

Congrats on using wisdom on fighting off the "fake tears dragon". Wish you luck for tomorrow!

[stealthstitcher]

Day 3

Had no time, due to dress rehearsals for TWO DIFFERENT SHOWS on the same day in addition to normal work. I did, however, manage to get in planks and mountain climbers between the two rehearsals. Skipped the rest of the workout and just focused on those two things. Kind of impressed that I convinced myself to do that much.

Sugar dragon was grumbling and whining all day. I am having cravings for the weirdest things - like fruit loops. I don't even like fruit loops. 

[rogaecia]

Day 3

Had no time, due to dress rehearsals for TWO DIFFERENT SHOWS on the same day in addition to normal work. I did, however, manage to get in planks and mountain climbers between the two rehearsals. Skipped the rest of the workout and just focused on those two things. Kind of impressed that I convinced myself to do that much.

Sugar dragon was grumbling and whining all day. I am having cravings for the weirdest things - like fruit loops. I don't even like fruit loops. 

You're doing an awesome job maintaining your resolve! YOU'VE GOT THIS!

[Leigh]

Oh man I feel you on the sugar dragon, only for me it is the fact that I have unlimited access to 12 different kinds of fountain drinks, and nearly unlimited access to fresh baked cookies. And not only do I have access to those cookies I am forced to bake them each morning.

Rushing around serving customers, baking bread and doing prep work and all I can smell is the constant aroma of oatmeal raisin and chocolate chunk cookies.

I find knocking back a small glass of soda water helps with the pop cravings and grabbing something like cheese curbs the desire to devour all the cookies.

Because you know what's better than chocolate? Really good cheese. Or it is for me

I also find a big spoon full of peanut butter goes a hell of a long way towards keeping my sugar dragon chained up in his cave where he belongs.

[stealthstitcher]

Oh man I feel you on the sugar dragon, only for me it is the fact that I have unlimited access to 12 different kinds of fountain drinks, and nearly unlimited access to fresh baked cookies. And not only do I have access to those cookies I am forced to bake them each morning.

 

Oh, I hear you. Not quite the same thing, but EVERYBODY has candy in their offices and we also get x many (not sure on the number, since I don't use them, but it's something like 40 a year) free soft drinks from the vending machine. Thanks, workplace. You're such a helper.

 

On that note, I resisted the candy until 7:30 pm at which point I caved. It was one of those tiring, frustrating days for no real reason. At 7:30, facing the fact that I still had another 2 1/2 hours to go, I said glaaaaaarb (exact quote of my internal monologue) and grabbed some chocolate. Had I had a spoonful of peanut butter handy, or time to make a cup of tea, I might have managed. But I did not.

The only exercise I did today was my planks. I reached failure at 45 seconds. I have found, when trying to reach a time on planks, that my point of failure is actually further than I think it is - if I focus I can hold out past the point where I feel like I've hit the end. I was supposed to get to 1 minute today, but I'm just not there yet. Which is okay. Things like darebee challenges are all well and good as goals and motivators but you can't make your body follow a timeline. Also I'm really tired and it's late (I should totally be in bed and not posting), so my endurance is probably lower than it would be earlier in the day.  

[Sylvaa]

Darebee be damned - last challenge you were just trying for a 30 second plank and you are already at 45! That's totally worth a dancing gif.

 

 

I build chocolate into my eating plan. Every Monday I get a bar of Chuao Honeycomb and eat part of it every night. For me, knowing that  I have a sweet treat that is worth it helps me stay strong through the day. (although my coworkers think I'm crazy and that I have iron will to not just eat the whole thing in one sitting). I have a ritual - some chocolate and tea and that's my relaxing part of the night.

[Sylvaa]

Double posting because this showed up on my Facebook feed and I had to share:

 

[stealthstitcher]

Virtually nothing got done on Friday. Definitely no workout.

I'm kind of tempted to at least do planks right now at work ... my only job right now is to wait around in my office in case of extreme costume emergencies, which is unlikely. But I can't seem to get past the self-consciousness that someone might walk in while I'm doing them and ... think things. What things, aside from "hmm, that person is doing some planks", I don't know. You know how some people seem confident but are secretly insecure? I feel like I have the opposite problem. Deep down, there is a really confident, secure person in me who would respond to "Uh ... what are you doing?" with "Planks, wanna join me?" but there's this layer of self-conscious insecurity covering that person and making me seem hesitant and timid instead. 

 

 

I build chocolate into my eating plan. Every Monday I get a bar of Chuao Honeycomb and eat part of it every night. For me, knowing that  I have a sweet treat that is worth it helps me stay strong through the day. (although my coworkers think I'm crazy and that I have iron will to not just eat the whole thing in one sitting). I have a ritual - some chocolate and tea and that's my relaxing part of the night.

I'm impressed at your self-control, too. What usually happens to me is that I'll decide it's okay to have a square or two of dark chocolate every day ... and then I decide to just eat the bar of chocolate ... and then I find myself sitting on the couch with a whole cake and a fork. It's mostly only sweet things - I can be reasonable with pizza or chips or other salty stuff. But sweets ... no self control. I want to be in control! Possibly I should address my intense need for control at a future point ... 

Anyway, I have decided to add a new member to the anti-sugar team. Right now I have tea, distractions, and my weak little willpower which needs to be nurtured so it can grow up big and strong. When I say "dark chocolate" I usually mean 60-70% dark. Instead, I got a bar of 90% dark chocolate and broke two squares up into chocolate-chip sized bits and am carrying them around in my purse. The idea is that when I'm having a sugar craving in a place where candy is readily available, I will instead nibble a bit of very dark chocolate. I'm still on the fence about whether or not this is a wise idea, but so far it seems effective. It's dark enough that I don't want to eat a whole bar or even a whole square all at once, but the chocolate taste kind of tricks me into thinking I've had something sweet. It's only about 1g of sugar per square, but it is calorie-dense so I'll have to watch myself and make sure it doesn't become a problem. 

[Sylvaa]

My husband and I were talking about this earlier today. We've decided that I am so stubborn, I'll even force myself to not give into temptation. The thing for me is that I could eat the whole thing all at once, but then I wouldn't have any more for the rest of the week. And that just doesn't work for me.

 

I think that 90% is a great idea! It's still probably better than whatever else you would be eating. 

 

Also, I say, just do the planks! Let your inner full-confidence shine! 

[stealthstitcher]

And now, back to my regularly scheduled routine.

Busy week is over for this month, so I switched my workout back to the morning. Planks were a struggle today. Last week I got up to 48 seconds ... today I was down to 30 and it was an effort to get there. Probably because I went back to my full workout after nearly a week of only doing planks, so my muscles got tired from doing other things and had less strength for planks. Mountain Climbers are slowly but steadily improving - I can do 30 in a minute now. Can't get my knees up very far toward my chest, but that's a flexibility issue.

The dark chocolate thing seems to be working so far, but I have yet to be in long, boring meeting with a candy dish in the middle of the table so we'll see what happens when that inevitably occurs. 

[stealthstitcher]

I moved planks to the top of the set, hoping that would improve my times. Nope. Still struggling to break 30 seconds. The moral of the story is, don't skip workouts! That may not be the whole reason but I'm sure it didn't help. I did manage to improve my times on planks in the second and third sets, by a few seconds. 

I had people in my office wanting things the minute I got to work. I try to get in a few minutes early so I can get my day and my head settled before I have to people, so it throws me off when I don't get that. Peopling first thing in the morning can mess me up for the whole rest of the morning. Trying to recalibrate my mood and my brain before I have to head off to a meeting. Don't be an adult, it's not worth it.

[stealthstitcher]

I finally got past 30 seconds! 35 second plank this morning! 

Okay, it's a little annoying that I'm working to get back to where I was, but oh well. At least it's forward motion.

Also, apparently I'm suddenly a morning person. I've tried many times to start getting up earlier so I don't have such a rushed morning. This week I woke up at 6 on Monday and Tuesday and 5:30 today. 5:30. And not just woke up as in, woke up, groggily checked the time, groaned and rolled over. Woke up as in, okay, I'm awake now, time to get up and do stuff! I'd been having such a struggle with waking up, I decided to pray to feel more rested when I woke up and to have the discipline to just get up even if I'm tired. Should have done that in the first place instead of making it a last resort ... cause it's working.

Also, got a special workout in this morning. I took the dogs for a walk. Jax the Wonder Dog isn't bothered by cold and adores snow, but the princess was not having any. So I did my half hour walk while carrying eight pounds of fluffy princess dog. (She wants to go on the walk, she just doesn't want to have to, you know, walk.) 

[Mekong]

I finally got past 30 seconds! 35 second plank this morning! 

Okay, it's a little annoying that I'm working to get back to where I was, but oh well. At least it's forward motion.

Also, apparently I'm suddenly a morning person. I've tried many times to start getting up earlier so I don't have such a rushed morning. This week I woke up at 6 on Monday and Tuesday and 5:30 today. 5:30. And not just woke up as in, woke up, groggily checked the time, groaned and rolled over. Woke up as in, okay, I'm awake now, time to get up and do stuff! I'd been having such a struggle with waking up, I decided to pray to feel more rested when I woke up and to have the discipline to just get up even if I'm tired. Should have done that in the first place instead of making it a last resort ... cause it's working.

Also, got a special workout in this morning. I took the dogs for a walk. Jax the Wonder Dog isn't bothered by cold and adores snow, but the princess was not having any. So I did my half hour walk while carrying eight pounds of fluffy princess dog. (She wants to go on the walk, she just doesn't want to have to, you know, walk.) 

 

I wonder if the workouts are helping you sleep better so you're more rested in the morning?  Whatever it is, I'm glad it's working.  The image of your princess dog makes me laugh.  Mine would more likely throw her collar and glare over her shoulder at you as she trots on home. 

And I don't think sacrificing less than 15 seconds of plank potential for a full workout plus planks is a bad deal at all, but with your past progress I'm sure you'll be doing both soon enough.  Especially with 2/3 of this challenge left.

[stealthstitcher]

The image of your princess dog makes me laugh.  

It makes me laugh too ... when I'm not rolling my eyes. She likes to pretend to be way more helpless than she really is. She'll act like she can't get up on the couch by herself so that I'll pick her up but she can vault straight from the floor to the top of the kitchen table if I leave food on there and all the chairs are pushed in ... poor delicate thing.

[Leigh]

I love it when pets go full on suck on us for no reason at all It's just lovely and cute and gives me every right to talk shit about them to their face

 

My cat does shit like that, only she insists on sitting on my lap no matter what I'm doing at my desk. Trying to do a heroic raid in WoW? she's in my lap head butting my arms. Writing a post here or checking my e-mail? headbutting my arms from my lap again. Eating dinner and watching youtube? On my lap, smacking me in the face with her tail.

 

I don't even want to imagine what a small dog would be like in that situation lol

 

And hurray for the unexpected early start If I woke up at 5:30 I'd be losing my mind because I'd be a half hour late for work you have no idea how many times I've fallen asleep in the afternoon and woken up at 5:45 pm and thought it was morning and lost my shit, screaming for my room mate to get up and drive me and trying to get dressed and brush my teeth at the same time only to have my sister go  "Dude... its 5:45 PM Chill out!"

[stealthstitcher]

I If I woke up at 5:30 I'd be losing my mind because I'd be a half hour late for work you have no idea how many times I've fallen asleep in the afternoon and woken up at 5:45 pm and thought it was morning and lost my shit, screaming for my room mate to get up and drive me and trying to get dressed and brush my teeth at the same time only to have my sister go  "Dude... its 5:45 PM Chill out!"

Cannot tell a lie ... if I were your sister I'd be tempted to say nothing ... at least once. But seriously, your work schedule is not for the weak.