[fiOWNya] The Path to the Sanctuary

[fiOWNya]

 

Quote

"Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."

 

Forgive me, Dread-Father, forgive me Night Mother, and forgive me, my Brothers and Sisters - I have turned my back on the Path for far too long.Give me a chance to regain my strength so that I may fulfill Contracts once more.

 

Life has a way of grabbing a hold of you and not letting go - and over the last couple years mine has done just so. This challenge will be my attempt to grab at least part of my life by the horns and lead it in the right direction.

 

 

GOAL: Lift Heavy Things [Starting Strength, 3x a week]

 

I will be going back to the beginning of my Starting Strength program, since it's been a while since I've done any heavy lifting. I will be doing simple lifts from home three times a week - 3 lifts each day. I am pretty much going from just the bar for most of the lifts, so I have a ton of space to improve here.

 

 

GOAL: Sneaky Assassin Fitness [Bodyweight, flexibility, gymnastic, HIIT and combat training, 3x a week]

 

In addition to lifting weights, I'd like to be able to touch my toes and throw some punches again. Hence, this goal is exactly that. I want to improve my flexibility, strengthen additional muscles, improve my speed and add back some basic combat training to my weekly routine. This will be quite simple this first challenge, just to get the ball rolling.  

 

GOAL: Watch What I Eat [Primal/Paleo for the duration of the challenge]

 

My diet has fallen by the wayside this last year. Therefore, this goal has been designed to get started with a small step in the right direction. I'm not logging calories, checking ratios, or limiting my food intake - I'm keeping it simple. This challenge my only goal is to eat all primal and paleo foods. Going from spoonfuls of sugar to healthy, more balanced meals will make a huge difference and is a great starting point (my weakness? Sugar. This is not going to be easy for me).

 

GOAL: Excellence in Music [2 hours of daily guitar practice]

 

My life quest for this challenge is pretty simple - two hours of focused guitar practice, every day. This time will not include warm ups or breaks - with those included, I'm looking at two sets a day of 90 minutes each. Putting in the time is my only goal this challenge - though I have some specific things I'll be working toward and that I will be elaborating on as the challenge progresses.

 

 

That's it for the goals. Some quick linkage:

My Epic Quest Log - From Apprentice to Master...

My Character (and goals)

Monkey Tamers United (YAY ACCOUNTABILIBUDDIES!)

 

 

[RogueLibrarian]

Following back! Let's do this.

[fiOWNya]

34 minutes ago, RogueLibrarian said:

Following back! Let's do this.

 

Time to rock and roll.  Thanks for the follow!

 

Wasn't planning on doing much of anything this week... but, whelp. Week Zero Mini-Challenge is is. It's a pretty simple one - much reps of Russian Twists and Supermen (Superman?). My goal is to get a Gold medal... so 400 reps of each. I'm going to treat this more as a warm-up than anything, but we'll see where I get.  

 

So, did 50 reps of each. Other than some stretching, not planning on doing much more, workout-wise. Will be starting my daily guitar practice shortly, which I'll probably go into some detail with later on tonight, seeing as it's a goal for my challenge as well.

 

Also need to spend some time tonight detailing exactly what I'm gonna be doing on my bodyweight/combat/etc days... Starting Strength is easy enough to figure out, but the rest of it I'm going to have to do some more planning for.

[Alexandrite]

Following along to cheer on a fellow mama!

I hear you on the abdominal muscle thing, I've had some range of diastasis rectii over the past three pregnancies for sure, usually 1-2 finger separation. I found out if you don't fix this while you are young (pre-menopause) that it will be harder to fix later, and regular exercise doesn't target it enough to make good progress.

Your challenge looks a lot like what I want to get to doing. The sugar is definitely difficult.

Sent by my Navi-powered device!

[Mad Hatter]

Welcome back!  You have some great goals to get back on the wagon.

 

7 hours ago, Alexandrite said:

Following along to cheer on a fellow mama!

I hear you on the abdominal muscle thing, I've had some range of diastasis rectii over the past three pregnancies for sure, usually 1-2 finger separation. I found out if you don't fix this while you are young (pre-menopause) that it will be harder to fix later, and regular exercise doesn't target it enough to make good progress.

 

Katy Bowman published a book on diastasis rectii a few months ago. I've never been pregnant and have no firsthand experience but she's awesome and really knows her stuff so it can be worth reading.

[Asa Pond]

I'm here for this too!

[fiOWNya]

Thank you very much, y'all!

 

Regarding the diastasis rectii; I don't think I have much of a separation at all any more but those muscles are still pretty weak. I've got a lot of work ahead to strengthen them up, and I'll definitely be focusing some exercises there to try to help it along.

 

Looking forward to getting started, I've been getting some things put together on this end but all in all it's been a quiet week. Playing guitar, moving more than usual... pulling muscles because why not.  I've discovered I have a bad habit of always tensing my shoulder muscles so lots of massaging of those and trying to remind myself to relax. 

 

It's going to be hard to jump right back into the swing of things but my youngest is 3, so it's much overdue. 

[Mad Hatter]

One step at a time. You've got this!

[fiOWNya]

Well, the challenge starts.

 

Sadly, on a Sunday, which is my rest day - so not much to share in the way of exercise.  

 

Guitar:

 

Pretty simple so far today - scales, chord practice, learning some new chords, and working through some JustinGuitar.com lessons. That's hour #1. Have some more guitaring to do later today but my fingers started to hurt, so a break is much good.

 

Quite honestly not used to playing more than 30 minutes at a time or so, so I need to work on that and toughen up those fingers and hands!

[RogueLibrarian]

I haven't touched my guitar in months. I've been feeling a nagging sensation that I should pick it up again soon.

[fiOWNya]

21 hours ago, RogueLibrarian said:

I haven't touched my guitar in months. I've been feeling a nagging sensation that I should pick it up again soon.

 

Go for it! 

 

Today's Workout: 

• 100 punches
• 40 side kicks
• 40 turning kicks
• 40 Backfist + side kick
• 40 backfist + turning kick
• 40 jab + jab + side kick

It's my anniversary today so I don't know how much guitar I'll get in.... I better get started now if I want to fit in 2 hours worth!

 

Also meditated today.. been a while and I had trouble keeping focus. Next time, maybe not right after a workout? I'll have to try again tomorrow.

[Pathfinder]

Hey, we were on a team together once, right? Good to see you again.

 

I've been off the wagon, too. Following.

[RogueLibrarian]

2 hours ago, fiOWNya said:

Also meditated today.. been a while and I had trouble keeping focus. Next time, maybe not right after a workout? I'll have to try again tomorrow.

 

I also meditated right after a workout today, and I think it was pretty good despite being right above the basketball court. I was so tired that I had no trouble sitting still, anyway....

[Jonesy]

Love the challenge! My step mom keeps trying to push her old guitar off on me. I played for like 3 months WAAAAY back in 7th grade but have always wanted to attempt to play again. 

 

Following along!

[Alexandrite]

Hope you had a great anniversary!

Sent by my Navi-powered device!

[fiOWNya]

Well, I guess my anniversary kickstarted a couple days off the wagon with complete hecticness. :/

 

Now that that is over, let's start this for real, shall we?

[Asa Pond]

Starting the challenge slow is much better than ending it slow! This way you can only improve!

 

And congrats on the anniversary!

[Alexandrite]

Hey, how are you? =)

Sent by my Navi-powered device!