Tourennatrix {Can you feel that Hybrid Rainbow?}

[tourennatrix]

 

Background:

 

I’ve been here on NF for almost a year (woah!). I started the Challenges as a method of trying to get myself to stick to a plan. In doing that, I’ve learned a lot- my initial goal of “Not becoming a sore lump of an old person” turned into thoughts of “Hey this is kind of fun” and “Woah, normal people can do neat things like circus arts and gymnastics?” and “Wait, I can learn to do a handstand?!” And eventually led to learning about Capoeira. I’ve been practicing a little over 6 months and I am in love with the sport. I practice in the Angola style with a local group, which at the moment consists primarily of me, one advanced student (Astronaut) and the instructor (Girafa). In the last few months, I have been struggling pretty hard with keeping myself active through waves and short cycles of depression and anxiety. I have been seeing a therapist, “C,” for a little over a year; I talk fairly openly about my experience and am often ready to lend an ear when others are having struggles. I know my experience is very mild compared to others, and I am NOT a doctor, but I am willing to share little nuggets of wisdom I’ve learned on my own journey.

 

Now that that’s out of the way, New Challenge Time!

 

So, as we know, I’ve (still) been struggling with some depression-related stuff lately. My last challenge was all about making sure I did at least something every day, whether it was solo capoeira practice or pull ups or reading a book or practicing some breathing exercises to get grounded and not succumb to a panic attack. This method was great at making sure I felt at least a little accomplished each day. On my rough days, I considered doing this again, but then I felt like it’s “not enough” - it’s very much reactive or just a method of not letting me slide backwards too much on my goals. On my good days, I considered switching back to a laser focus method and starting to hold myself accountable again… but then I cycle through the thoughts of how bad it will feel when I inevitably don’t do as well as I think I should. Depression is a liar and a bitch.

 

So I’ve come up with a baby step up from my previous challenge: The Short List

 

 

There are two lists: Mental/Emotional and Physical. Each day, I am to complete at least 1 category/item from each list. Each day, each list is pass/fail. Since I know that doing dailies is pretty darn hard to maintain (particularly on the Physical side), I will consider an 80% success rate pretty darn good.  

 

Since it’s entirely likely that all that is too easy (please let it be too easy, oh please let it be too easy!), I’m implementing a few bonuses. Stuff that I can feel extra good about accomplishing, but not beat myself up over if I don’t quite make it. I haven’t quite figured out what the bonus points will be for, but I will probably figure that out when we figure out how much our tax refund will be on Tuesday :3 it will probably have something to do with how much I get to spend on shinies now versus plugging away into savings or debts. WILL UPDATE WHEN I FIGURE OUT THIS DETAIL!

 

 

To be clear: the only part that matters as far as completing the challenge is concerned is doing ONE item from each list each day at an 80% success rate. The Bonus Points are just that: Bonuses.

 

Let's go!

 

 

[tourennatrix]

W.I.P. - The not-so-short lists

 

Physical

 

• Yoga - Pretty self-explanitory. Yoga done with the intention of working out kinks, limbering up, improving flexibility. 
  • Yoga with an emotional intent can be double counted here if my body feels surprisingly good when I'm done.
  • Asanas at the end of class count as long as they're not half-hearted "emergency" stretches.
• Core/Back Class - targeted work on the CORE- abs & mid-lower back
  • Ideally, a dedicated session focused primarily on this, but a session of conditioning/BWW could count if it was really core-intensive.
  • Will list out or link to recommended routines later
• Prehab (shoulders/arms/wrists) - dedicated Prehab time
  • NOT counted as part of warm up/cool down for practice. 
  • MAY be counted as part of BWW, provided I include two of the STR based activities:
    • CON: Shoulder/Elbow/Wrist rotations, Shoulder rolls
    • STR: (pick 2) Resistance band; Ball push ups; Forearm dumbell curls
    • DEX: Shoulder/pec/forearm stretches
• Practice/Conditioning/BWW - 
  • For this challenge, class does count.
  • Can be done at home or at the gym
  • For home workouts, it's easy to think it's "not good enough" if I don't push myself to a sweat. It's ok to have a non-sweaty session, as long as I put in the effort to get better or stronger at my practice.
• Pull up training
  • At home or at the gym
  • As part of BWW or on my own, as long as it's done to failure
  • Starting AMRAPS:
    • Eccentric (jumping):
    • Assisted (Band #2):
• Handstand training
  • At home or at the gym
  • As part of BWW, class, or on my own
• Jogging/Long Walk
  • Around 30 minutes/one episode of Zombies, Run!
  • "Home Therapy" walking can count here, as long as my body feels surprisingly good when I'm done
• Participate in the Mini
  • Whatever the Assassins Mini is, if I participate, I win!

 

 

Mental/Emotional

 

• Yoga - Yoga with the intention of clearing out emotional kinks, calming the soul, encouraging meditation
  • Yoga with a physical intention can be counted here if I feel surprisingly emotionally refreshed
• Learn 
  • DuoLingo: at least 20 xp's worth of any language
  • Khan Academy: at least 15 minutes of math practice
  • Pandeiro: at least 10 minutes of playing and/or singing
  • Other stuff can be counted if it feels like I'm really giving my brain a workout (like learning new functions in Excel to get the spreadsheet for this challenge set up!)
• "Independence Practice"/Adulting
  • Budgeting
  • House cleaning/Yard work
  • General adult stuff that I typically avoid because being an adult is hard and dumb sometimes
• "Home Therapy"
  • Journaling
  • Breathing exercises, therapeutic movement practice
  • Meditation
  • Practicing awareness during periods of strong emotion
  • Napping (Again, practicing awareness. Is it an escape, or am I craving rest? Do I have to ask myself permission? 
• Indulge in Media
  • Using awareness, this should not be counted if used as a form of distraction. I should want to do this because it's fun, not because I need distraction
  • Books, movies, netflix, video games
  • Probably not youtube.
• Creativity
  • Any act of creativity, really. Drawing, coloring, writing, editing a video
• Friends/Family/Furbabies
  • Spending time with friends, either at home or going out
  • Same for family, emphasis on Husband
  • Atlas, Cave Johnson, and Monkey need love too (though mostly just Atlas)
• Participate in the Mini
  • If the mini has a social or mental/emotional aspect to it

 

 

Bonuses

 

• Do 5 or more categories in a day => 2BP
• Do any 1 P category 3 times in a week => 5BP
• Do any 1 ME category 5 times in a week => 5BP
• Do any 1 P category 12 times during the challenge => 5BP
• Do any 1 ME category 20 times during the challenge => 5BP
• Earn 100% on either list => 5BP
• Earn 100% on both lists => 10BP
• Track and eat mostly paleo 5 days in a row => 5BP
• Lose weight => 1/2BP per lb lost
  • Weigh in 3/28: 149.3
  • Weigh in 4/25: 
• 1 unassisted pull up => 5BP
• Finish capoeira progress video => 2BP
• Overhaul craft room => 5BP
• Obtain curtains for living/dining rooms => 5BP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cataleya]

Following again, friend!

[raptron]

I love this format!

[SkiBlue]

ONWARD TO BADASSERY!

[Mad Hatter]

Excellent lists! Love this setup.

[tourennatrix]

15 hours ago, Cataleya said:

Following again, friend!

 

14 hours ago, raptron said:

I love this format!

 

12 hours ago, SkiBlue said:

ONWARD TO BADASSERY!

 

9 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Excellent lists! Love this setup.

 

HI ERRYBUGGY! Welcome :3

 

Day 3 and I'm already in catch-up mode  So let's get started shall we?

 

Day 1.1: P-N || ME-Y

Didn't do any physical stuff (well, nothing that counts for the challenge, though with all the cleaning and running around and moving furniture I almost should have earned a point  )

What I didn't do in physical stuff, I made up for in M/E. I seriously ran the gamut when it came to emotions- I cleaned house and we had family over for pizza bar and (possibly the most exciting feat of the day) successfully extricated myself from my own party without causing too much of a scene when I recognized that I was getting way too overstimulated (and not drunk enough to counteract it  ). Overall, the whole day was loads of fun, but I'm glad it's over ^^

 

Day 1.2: P-Y || ME-Y

Bonus: 2

P: Went to class! I could definitely feel the repercussions of this all day today. Working the ultra foundations for an hour straight instead of interspersing it with other moves freaking hurts... but it's awesome too :3

ME: Pandeiro practice during class. Spending time with Husband after class, watching Mostly Walking because hilarity. Journaling.

 

I had forgotten to mention earlier (I was beat) the funnier parts of class. First, I almost thought Astro wasn't going to show up because he was running late. New Guy (I think he said his name was Steven) walked up and we started chatting and I awkwardly started preparing for the scenario that I might have to teach this poor boy on my own. But Astro did show up... and he had me do most of the teaching anyway. He even said he was preparing me for when he would eventually be leaving (he's thinking maybe December, cue panic attack. Ass.) So yay! In addition to just getting loads of fundamentals practice, I was also super awkwardly teaching them! Yay! 

Then, at the end of class Astronaut finally realized that Steven was not someone I already knew and had dragged along. That was an amusing realization to witness  

 

Day 1.3: P-Y || ME-Y

P: Went to class, did a little bit of handstand training

ME: Adulting! 

 

I had my tax meeting today, finally. It went really smoothly. I am pleased about this.

 

Class was ultra low-key. I warmed up for a bit while waiting for Girafa to show up, did some Bear/Crabs, handstand practice, lots of tripping over myself doing ginga because my legs hurt so much from yesterday. We played a few games then broke to talk capoeira philosophy:

 

The four fundamentals (not to be confused with the 3 Ms!). I really like these, in part because I can recognize how hard they are to actually achieve.

1. Relaxation

2. Non-agressiveness

3. Technique over force

4. Risk to amaze

 

He asked if there were any techniques in particular I was interested in practicing or learning, but nothing jumped out at me, so he decided we were going to work on queda de rins (at which point my brain clicked on and I realized this was something that I'm totally excited to practice, derp. I think since I've been feeling so off about everything for the last few months, I've been feeling a bit less like "I can do anything if I put my mind to it!" and more "this is slow and painful. I know I'll get there but right now this is slow and painful." which makes it hard to want to practice certain things. But once again, this was exactly what I needed!! I got way further into the movement than I've been able to do previously, on both my left and right arm (though my left arm is still definitely loads weaker). I joked to Husband when I got home that in the morning my arms are gonna be bigger than his  

 

(video has special guest Cave Johnson)

Good gravy videos are huge in the new forum format.

 

To put this in perspective, when I first started practicing this move, the act of lowering myself onto my supporting arm would result in pretty much faceplanting, despite having the other arm for support. (it's what I imagine it would be like to try a one handed push  up for the first time- inevitably landing on your face). When I was practicing this a couple weeks ago, I could go down, but even thinking about bringing my legs in would cause me to topple. Today, I was able to go down into the position, curl my legs in, and even lift my head off the ground. (in the video I kindof just flop when I lift my head up, but in class I was actually able to hover for a second or two. When I showed it to Husband right after class, I lifted my head and then my weight shifted- slamming my head into the floor and hurting my wrist a little. But It's more or less ok now.

 

I'm going to be in so much pain tomorrow

 

To wrap up class, we played a bit of music- which was less me playing music and more just trying to follow along and practice new words in Portuguese because we were singing lovacao, which are song lines sung around the roda before the game even begins. They're not necessarily hard, just not quite as repetitive, so less easy to memorize  Also, it is apparently really hard for Girafa and I to agree on a register to sing in. I seem to have a really weird range... I should work on this (I run into this problem trying to sing along with pretty much anything where for half the song I'll be in one octave and then I'll have to switch to another octave mid-phrase. i'm sure this is common, it's just hella annoying when it's just two people singing XD )

 

FUN CLASS WAS FUN.

[Mad Hatter]

Super awesome QDR! Nicely done, and I'm glad you found the excitement again.

[SkiBlue]

Your queda de rins is looking good! I still can't even get on my wrists, for anything. Class sounded fun! I love helping new(er) people.

[Cataleya]

That is awesome. I am excited for you!

 

[raptron]

That loooooks excellent and I love the special guest.  

[tourennatrix]

Day 1.4: P-Y || ME-Y

P: 3rd class in a row! Oof...

ME: Learn- pretty solid music practice in class and some exploration in Excel

 

Girafa couldn't come, but Newguy did! We started him on animal drills and breakdowns (already! waaat! I feel like it was at least class 3 before I learned breakdowns ) After warm ups I went to go get a drink and on the way there my right arm just kindof turned off. Not like it fell asleep, more like it just decided "I don't feel like doing anything right now, hope you weren't planning on using me." it was exceptionally odd, and I'm sure it had plenty to do with getting so much use on Tuesday and not getting a good and proper stretch in yesterday during the day. After I gave it a good stretch and got back into moving it seemed to be fine.

 

Before bed I ended up being totally enraptured watching another member of the forums troubleshoot a problem I was having on my tracking spreadsheet. Seriously, I watched him work for a solid hour. It was like watching a magician. If I've got time this evening I'll be going in and dissecting the code a little further to figure out exactly how it works for the future (I wanted to do that last night before even copying the code over to my own sheet, but it was past midnight at that point so I figured bed would be a better option

 

[raptron]

That's so weird about your arm but at least it was only temporary?

[tourennatrix]

1 hour ago, raptron said:

That's so weird about your arm but at least it was only temporary?

Yeah, it was pretty strange, but I'm fairly certain it was just asking for some stretching and massaging because of all the QdR from the night before. I often try to stretch my arms/chest/shoulders at my desk at work but was having a hard time with that yesterday (stupid dress code and office clothes) so it was probably just crying out for some love

[Mad Hatter]

I've had something similar happen to my thumb once after one of the first times I went climbing. I tried to peel an orange and my thumb got completely stuck in the bent position. When I tried to manually straighten it would just flop down again haha!  Except it wasn't that funny the hour or two it lasted. Conclusion of that is that bodies are weird. Glad your arm's doing better now!

[Cataleya]

Oh man that's happened to me before. It's such a weird sensation.

[tourennatrix]

I would like to point out that as awesome as that QdR was, I still cannot do a standard push up without angering the shoulder gods. I mean, obviously they're slightly different muscle groups, but seriously come on

 

Day 1.5: P-N || ME-Y

I mean, unless you want to count doing about 30 minutes of haphazard pressure-point self massage type stuff while waiting for my appointment as "Prehab" >.> I dunno. It's definitely a form of caring for my physical self, but it wasn't really activity... Hm.

ME: Journal! Just barely though. I wanted to journal right after my appointment, but that didn't happen. I wanted to journal right when I got home, but that didn't happen. I got really tired, and got really cranky, and went to bed cranky, then decided like hell was I going to sleep without jotting down some notes about the appointment.

 

Like how C and I totally agreed that it was fun watching Arrow mostly just for the training scenes >.> *ahem*

 

Day 1.6: P-Y || ME-Y

P: yoga!

ME: "home therapy"

 

I feel like I should get 10 bonus points just for successfully getting out of bed this morning. Some combination of going to bed cranky and having more (more!!!) uncomfortable dreams, I went through my 7am alarm and my 8am alarm and still kept getting dragged back under. Finally got up round 9 and spent way longer than I should have in the shower trying to "thaw out" (breathing, chi massage) whatever was freezing me up and making existing so damn hard. I wasn't really able to figure out enough about what was bugging me to really do anything with it, but I made it to work on time, so, go me?

 

When I got home, I was tossing up a bit between trying out a CORE workout or doing yoga, but yoga definitely won out. I've been super tight in my hips and hamstrings (curling up on the couch for 3 months will do that) and my chest was getting so tight I was starting to have a hard time breathing comfortably (it's kindof amazing how bad certain things can get before you even realize...) so I decided to find a flow that looked like it might do a nice job of glossing over the whole body while also warming up enough that it doesn't just hurt. Found one! There were a few parts where I got lost because I wasn't looking at the screen, but that could be partly because I'm not used to her leading style yet. Felt really good though!  Like I had completely forgotten what a good structured vinyasa felt like.

 

Hope to get some core and/or prehab in this weekend, and would LOVE to do more pull up training because I haven't really done that at all this week. Tomorrow we're setting up at a fair larger than the farmer's market so we should have a good day's business, then... chillaxing. Adulting. Whatevering

[Mad Hatter]

You get ALL the bonus points for getting to work on time.

 

 

[SkiBlue]

Sorry you had such a rough morning. Getting to work on time should always count for points.

[tourennatrix]

Day 1.7: P-Y || ME-Y

P: Yeah, woo!

Me: Yeah, woo! also

 

Today we had a fair that was bigger than our normal indoor farmer's market to attend, which was cool. However it was less busy than we had expected, so that was a bit of a bummer. Poor husband only got like 2.5 hours of sleep last night >.< BUT, overall, the day was pretty darn good!

 

I took a nap. It was glorious.

 

While Husband was making dinner, I pieced together a workout- a prehab and core mash up with a little extra thrown in for fun (because prehab and core on their own can be so booooooring. 

 

 

 

 

 

Shoulder & arms warmup

1x10 ball to the wall push ups

3x5 ball to the floorboard push ups (doesn't have quite as nice of a ring, does it?)

1x10 ball to the wall push ups

Handstand kick ups practice

Resistance Band shoulder exercises (internal & external rotation, downward pulls)

Planks (15 seconds each)

-Plank

-Side plank

-Plank

-Side plank

-Elbow plank

-Up&down plank (right side first)

-Up&down plank (left side first)

-Elbow plank

Alternating supermans

Hollow hold

Pull ups:

-3x eccentric pull ups

-2x1 #2 band

 

 

For the eccentric pull ups, I was proud to find that when I wasn't able to jump quite as high as I wanted to, I was able to use my massive arm power to *actually* pull myself the extra inch or so up. *GLEE*

 

As for the ME side of things, in addition to allowing myself a nap, and taking care of the budget, I got some good quality husband time in! We started playing Asura's Wrath, which turns out is perfect for us because it offers a really nice playstyle to pass the controller, it's crazy over-the-top anime stuff that we both love, and the theme is highly amusing as well, just because of our hometown. Seriously, it's like they wrote an epic anime about where we live. Not to mention it can be picked up for short or long gaming sessions (which is something we've struggled with a LOT in finding a good game for both of us to enjoy.

 

Tomorrow's agenda includes "Do the laundry, damn it" and either yoga or prehab (and/or maybe a jog, it's supposed to be really nice tomorrow!)

 

Oh hey, lookit, I'm beefy and stuff!

 

(looking at this video after the fact, I think it confirms a suspicion I have that the presses were done more with leg power than with arm power. I definitely would be having a harder time if I was tucking my chin and letting my shoulders almost touch the floor. Progress though is still progress! Now I know what more to work on  )

[Mad Hatter]

Yep, the further back the hands are relative to the shoulders the harder it will get to press up. Ideally for bridges you want the hands at least directly under shoulders. That will also make it easier on the wrists.

[raptron]

Sounds like a lovely Saturday. I can definitely see progress in your bridge work! 

[SkiBlue]

<3 Husband gaming time. Except when the game makes the rage bar fill up...

 

I can hardly get my shoulders up at all with my bridge nowadays. *grumble* Looking good, despite the lean!

[tourennatrix]

Yesterday was weird. It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside which meant that my mental to do list was EPIC. Throw open the windows, do the laundry, yardwork, more laundry, go to the next town over to get supplies for yardwork, more yardwork, finish laundry, chill, chill, and more chill. Basically there was way more to do in the day than I had time for, and the beauty of outside made me really not want to waste any of it.

 

We did end up going and spending way too much on retaining wall blocks for our fire pit (loading those into the car was enough of a workout. Even with the smallest blocks, they were 12lb a piece and just the right size to make my hand really not like gripping them ) The bulk of the rest of the day was spent chilling. We did get a walk in in the evening and got sprinkled on, which was fun (because it was warm), but most of the day was spent watching Husband play Katamari and Asura's Wrath.

 

Very chill.

 

Day 2.1: P-Y || ME-Y

 

Day 2.2: P-Y || ME-Y

 

New guy is catching on fast. Too fast... I'm actually pretty excited to have him around, hopefully it will push me to keep getting loads better without *actually* pushing my self-critical buttons. We all start in different places in our practice. My place in practice had me nearly having a heart attack after animal drills, and I'm fairly certain it had quite a bit to do with the amount of sugar in my diet lately (among other things I'm sure). Maybe hopefully *this* will be the kick in the pants I need to finally kick crap food back out of my routine. Maybe. I've had this idea for a while and it hasn't seemed to kick it yet, but damn that was uncomfortable.  

 

So class... Animal drills, Au practice (which felt awesome after I let my heart rate calm down a bit), then loads of kick practice. Meia lua de frente, queixada, bencao, and meia lua de compasso. Finished off with some target practice, where one of us would kick and aim for the other player's stomach. Thankfully the kicks are pretty tame at this level

 

Ended class with music practice. Sweet, sweet music practice. 

 

The plan for the evening was sushi and falling asleep watching Mostly Walking, but Husband had a change of plans and has spent the evening watching Team Four-Star stuff with a friend. Valid ultra fun time for him, frustrating change of plans for me. But it let me have some quiet time to myself and to catch up on some stuff I just feel behind on. It will definitely not be long before I pass out  

[Cataleya]

Hopefully you still had the sushi!