Blonde-E tries this Rangering thing

[Blonde-E]

Hello Rangers!

 

I'm Blonde-E, I have been around NF for quite a while, but first time hanging out with you guys. I'm still in search of a new home after the guild shake up at the beginning of the year and am excited to see if this is where I fit best.

 

In March I made the goal of completing 150 hours of fitness activities this year. That worked out to 30 minutes a day or 15 hours a month. I'm a little behind as the end of May I was pretty sick, but need to get back after it to complete this challenge. Why this type of challenge? Well I am pretty good at throwing up logical excuse road blocks to all kinds diet and fitness recommendations. As such I end up suffering for analysis paralysis and never got off my butt to do something. Then I read the collecting underwear NF blog post and Steve's comment about "it doesn't matter what you do or how you start, it just matters that you start. You can figure it out as you go" really resonated with me. So I set this generic fitness goal that gives me the freedom to try all the underpants and figure it out as I go. In that spirit, this is what I have figured out for the month of June.

 

Step 1) Build that momentum

 

A life goal I am working on is running a half marathon. The Detroit Free Press International Half in October to be exact. So I have a training program picked out and started. It involves running 3-4 times per week. My runs go well, the problem is that I loose momentum easily on the off days and that quickly turns into a whole week off because wouldn't you know, I'm good at making excuses. This month, the goal is to work out a complimentary cross-training plan for the off days so that I am doing something every day. I will probably bounce through several more sets of underwear figuring it out, but the important thing is to try. On that note: Now accepting recommendations for cross training to compliment my running. 

 

Metrics:

Plan, tell you, and complete no less than 30 minutes of some fitness activity EVERYDAY. Excuses can only be handed out by you, the accountability experts, so Im counting on you to help me out here. 

Goal: consistency. By the end of the challenge I will be living the "never miss 2 in a row" mantra for this. How I measure is still TBD.

 

Step 2) Identify what is making me sick

 

Something has been making me feel sick. This isn't new, its just gotten worse in the last month or so. Time to tune up the diet so that my body is firing on all cylinders and I am able to complete all that exercise laid out in step 1. I am going to try (again) a partial elimination diet to figure it out. Up first for elimination for 21 days, dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, and soda. 

 

Metrics:

I will use MFP and my journal to help track food and how I feel. 

 

Goal: complete the 21 days then begin adding back these foods ONE AT A TIME to test. Since I have 28ish days with you, that means 21 days gone plus test the dairy. 

 

Step 3) Adult with the best of them

 

I am tired of being a lazy bum who doesn't get the basic things done I need to. Part of this is due to some mild depression, but I can feel the highly motivated me just under the surface ready to make a comeback. I have been neglecting tons of things around my house, this needs to be corrected. 

 

Metrics:

Each day I will identify one task that must be completed by the end of the day. 

 

Step 4) Socialize

 

I'm terrible at it. But I know I cant expect people to be friendly to me if I am not making an effort to be friendly to them. In real life I have a couple friends, and I don't really want to open that pandoras box, so Im going to stick with actually being social around here. I have noticed the social ones tend to be more successful with their challenges

 

Metric: 

Must leave at least one comment on another's thread every day. 

 

 

[bker1370]

Welcome to the Rangers

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the Ranger Corps! I'll be following. You have a good challenge set up.

[honeybadger]

Welcome!!! Your challenge looks great. I also have a running goal and a goal to be more social. Feel free to stop by anytime.

I struggle with motivation at times too. The more active I am the more active I want to be and the more likely to hit my goals I am. In terms of cross training what have you tried? Are you a member of a gym? I like to balance running with biking/spinning. On my off days I try to get in a nice longer than average walk with the dog (i walk the dog every day). 

[DarK_RaideR]

Welcome to the Rangers and congratulations on pulling the trigger! @Xena is probably the best qualified to discuss running training with you

[Xena]

Thanks for the shoutout @DarK_RaideR

 

Blonde-E congrats on all the progress you have made, and good luck on Day 1! I think your instinct for cross-training is good. Anything you like doing would be a good choice. Are there any outdoor/seasonal activities that you like? If so, take advantage of them while you can. For me, during the summer I like paddleboarding and some other water sports. Weight lifting (including body weight exercises) is a good compliment for running...I try to focus on upper body, core, and even-ing out imbalances. Yoga can also be good...working on tight spots, core strength, stablizer muscles and balance. 

 

Biking is very popular for cross-training too.  @honeybadger is a great example there :-)]

 

I'm going to be traveling for about a week coming up (so might not be able to post much), but I'll follow along this challenge.

 

[Blonde-E]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! 

 

Just a quick post then off to work, but I promise to come back and comment on everything tonight. 

 

Went for a 2 mile run/walk jist now. Today was the first day of run 90 walk 90 up from run 60 walk 90. It was a little rough, but I made it through. More to discuss tonight. Hope everyone has a great day 1!

[sterre]

Yay! Another druid who came over!

 

Good job on the run!

[Raxie]

Welcome to the Rangers, ship mate!  Happy challenge day

[Endor]

Ahoy there Falcon dweller! Good luck with your challenge, hopefully there'll be some stuffin the mini you can use your 30 mins towards

 

For goal 4, will be a good idea to get your challenge link in your signature so people can find it easily 

[Blonde-E]

20 hours ago, honeybadger said:

Welcome!!! Your challenge looks great. I also have a running goal and a goal to be more social. Feel free to stop by anytime.

I struggle with motivation at times too. The more active I am the more active I want to be and the more likely to hit my goals I am. In terms of cross training what have you tried? Are you a member of a gym? I like to balance running with biking/spinning. On my off days I try to get in a nice longer than average walk with the dog (i walk the dog every day). 

 

10 hours ago, Xena said:

Thanks for the shoutout @DarK_RaideR

 

Blonde-E congrats on all the progress you have made, and good luck on Day 1! I think your instinct for cross-training is good. Anything you like doing would be a good choice. Are there any outdoor/seasonal activities that you like? If so, take advantage of them while you can. For me, during the summer I like paddleboarding and some other water sports. Weight lifting (including body weight exercises) is a good compliment for running...I try to focus on upper body, core, and even-ing out imbalances. Yoga can also be good...working on tight spots, core strength, stablizer muscles and balance. 

 

Biking is very popular for cross-training too.  @honeybadger is a great example there :-)]

 

I'm going to be traveling for about a week coming up (so might not be able to post much), but I'll follow along this challenge.

 

 

Thanks for the advice honeybadger and Xena. I was thinking along the lines of strength training and flexibility work for the most part with a little bit of sprinting thrown in. I play rec league soccer during the summer and really need to recover some of my long lost speed hence the need to do some sprinting. (I also have no desire at this point to add the sprints to the end of my runs. Maybe when I start working on longer distances I will add sprints to the end of the short runs) 

 

I also know that I have some crazy muscle imbalances and flexibility issues so my main focus is on correcting that. I just don't really know the best place to start...I love yoga and practice at least once a week regularly, Im thinking about just starting with beginner body weight level 1 in the Academy (already have that) and some focus work in 1-2 of my biggest problem areas for mobility, and finish off a session with a couple shuttle runs and a good short yoga session. 

 

This came out sounding much more logical and throughout than what it feels like in my head lol.

 

9 hours ago, Raxie said:

Welcome to the Rangers, ship mate!  Happy challenge day

 

48 minutes ago, Endor said:

Ahoy there Falcon dweller! Good luck with your challenge, hopefully there'll be some stuffin the mini you can use your 30 mins towards

 

For goal 4, will be a good idea to get your challenge link in your signature so people can find it easily 

 

Hi ship mates! Thanks for the heads up @Endor about the signature. Throwing that out was part of the major life crisis I had in February and I hadn't thought about it since then as I'm usually on my phone and cant see signatures on mobile. Also good idea on using my 30 mins on non run days towards the mini. Scratching my head a little to figure out how Im going to add more walking to my life this week.

 

Day 1 review

I know its not over, but I don't intend on getting back on later. 

 

Momentum: I did get my butt out of bed only 12 minutes later than planned to go for a run this morning. Officially got my 30 minutes in with that. I was going to go to yoga class at 6 (right now) but wasn't totally feeling it plus I had started rice for dinner and it wasn't going to be done in time. I will make it up by doing an online video tonight though. In addition, I have tentatively laid out my plans for the rest of the week. I will post that in an spreadsheet soon to grace my log.

 

Food: I was good today with the exception of soda. Soda is going to be reallllly difficult to master, I have only been trying for a couple years. The good news I didnt feel quite so bad today.

 

Adulting: Tonights adulting consists of cooking food for lunches this week, chicken fried rice creation, and possibly starting on a bigger project to clean out and organize my closet. 

 

Socializing: I posted on quite a few people's threads and also went looking for my mini ship mates. Still have some to find though.

 

Okay until later!

[Xena]

You've got some great ideas for cross-training...or maybe I just think that because your ideas are pretty much the same as mine :-)

[Kestrel Grey]

Greetings shipmate!  I like your challenges too. Good luck with them, I'll be following along. 

[Blonde-E]

The desire to eat bread is strong this afternoon....*faceplants on desk*....must stay strong

[Blonde-E]

Day 2 review:

 

The stomach monster strikes again! arggg this despite being good and eating on plan with the exception of soda. I guess its time to get serious about cutting the soda out completely. 

 

In other news I went for an afternoon walk when I felt that 2 o'clock feeling coming on and racked up 1 mile towards the mini challenge and 20 minutes for my log.

 

Now excuse me while I lay in bed for the rest of the day...

[Xena]

Afternoon walk was a great idea!

[honeybadger]

I am well acquainted with the stomach monster. Great job taking a walk in the afternoon and logging a mile toward the mini challenge. 

[Blonde-E]

Okay followers, today's adulting task is to remove all items from my closet and start the task of organizing my clothes.

 

I think not being able to find ANY pairs of dress pants for work is offically where I draw the line on this disoragnization. 

[Raxie]

Doing awesome so far! Hope your tummy feels better and your soda elimination plan is going well

 

Organizing & minimizing closets is such a huge undertaking - something I really need to work on myself. Great job starting to tackle that!

[Blonde-E]

Week 1 Days 3 & 4

 

First order of business, I failed to tell you guys on Tuesday, but I may have signed up for a 5K that is next Saturday. This will be my first serious race. I have done fun runs, Warrior Dash and Color runs, but never just a race. This one is called Corporate Cup. Its a track and field competition between employees of Ford, GM, and Chrysler...so it really matters. *serious face*

 

Okay Day 3

 

Well I have to admit I did not end up starting the closet project. BUT I did weed my driveway, and plant some new peppers and squash! So that counts as adulting. I also worked out with my trainer for my 30 minutes of exercise, PLUS I waled up there and back so its really 45 minutes of activity. Food admittedly has fallen off in frustration with the stomach monster on Tuesday. Thinking I need to investigate what was in my stir fry that day, and eliminate soda and see if that fixes things. I also commented on the thread for the Aluminum Falcon so I got my socializing in. 

 

Day 4

 

Gold star for activity today! I went for a walk at work got a 1 mile in for the mini, that took about 15 minutes. Then I played soccer, it was the playoffs, we lost, I missed my PK at the end , but thats another 1 hour and 15 minutes. THEN I still had a work out high about an hour after the game, so I went for a 2 mile run followed by a good stretch session. Thats ANOTHER 45 minutes! For a grand total of...2 hours and 15 minutes! 

 

Food was still terrible today, though I had an adventurous lunch that was totally healthy, rice, green beans, butter nut squash, quinoa, real mozzarella, walnuts, and cranberries. Pretty tasty, but would love if it had chicken on it too. No time for adulting tonight what with all that exercise...though I do need to go clean out my fridge as it turns out my power was off almost all day. 

 

If you cant tell, Im still on my running high...might need to do some sit-ups or something if Im still riled up after showering. I hope everyone's week is going good. Tomorrow I will check in with everyone!

[honeybadger]

Looks like you are Rangering your goals! Hope your end of the week went well.

[Kestrel Grey]

If your stomach doesn't settle down after a week or so of eating completely clean, try removing dairy/cheese too. It might be the evil little culprit.

Good work so far!

[Blonde-E]

Hey rangers! 

 

Quick check in so you all know I'm still alive and participating. Weekends are busy for me. Expect a full week 1 recap this evening. Here's to an awesome week 2!

[Raxie]

Good to hear from you.  Happy Monday!

[Blonde-E]

Ok you guys are going to have to wait another day for my week 1 wrap up. I had to spend the evening troubling shooting my washing machine...I think I made it worse. Now I have to go figure out what I can possibly wear to work tomorrow...