Fiddle: Once more with feeling!

[fiddle-on]

Well, last week was kind of crazy, which is why I didn't start my challenge early. I basically had no nights off, and attended my cousins wedding on Friday. I ate more than I should have because they had extrordinarily good food, but I partly made up for it with the dancing, plus I'd been so stressed all week I was barely eating enough. But now I need to get back to eating right.

My big, long overview:

Exercise: So far this year, my exercise goal has been to attend two exercise classes per week. I've been doing this successfully, and it's now a couple of months since it's been leaving me with extra energy. I've been experimenting with adding in more activity, but I think it's time to get serious about that, and make it a real routine.

On week days with no class, I want to do a 15 minute version of Pavel's Simple and Sinister kettlebell workout (10 minutes warm up, 5 minutes Turkish getups alternating arms (up to 5 each side) or 5 minutes of swings. One reason I'm adding this now is that I've finally reached the point where the 25 pound kettlebell I bought last winter is comfortable for 2 handed swings (Yay!). The other reason is that last challenge, I put some nice mats down in my apartment and set up half of my bedroom as a workout area.

I'm going with 15 minutes because that's an amount of time I absolutely have, no excuses, and it means I'll be picking up heavy things every day.  The only time I'm out of town this challenge I'll be driving, so I can take my weights with me.

I also want to ride my bike to work every day the weather isn't horrible. Bonus points for extra biking. I started this last challenge, but had to stop because it was hurting my back. I've got a new bike that allows me to sit more upright. I'm still working out how to set up the seat and handlebars for the most upright posture, but I can now do 5 miles with only a little tightness. The bike is an Electra Townie, which has the peddles significantly forward of the usual position. It's not designed for long fast rides, but I bet I can cover 50 miles a week.

Music: I'm attending a fiddle camp for vacation at the end of June. I need to get back in practice before then. Last challenge I set the goal of learning a tune every week. It didn't quite happen (learned 2 instead of 5), so this time, the goal is learning an unspecified number of new tunes, and picking up the fiddle every single day, even if it's just to air play for 30 seconds before I leave the house or go to bed.

Social: I mostly hang out either with family, or a single friend. I need more variety in my social circle. I also want to start dating. So over the next few months, I'm making goals to expand my social life.

Diet: Back to tracking! I've been having too many days where I eat cookies, cake, and chocolate. I need to start writing it down so I can see when I do that, and remember not to.

My Goals:

Exercise:
2 Kettlebell classes per week (established since February)
3-5 Short strength workouts on my own: every weekday with no class, weekends optional.
3-5 days: bike to work at least 3 days a week, and every day the weather is nice.

Music:
Pick up the fiddle every day, even if it's just 30 seconds of scales or long tones. Learn one fiddle tune per week. Don't forget the ones I already learned.

Social:
I'm in my 30's, and have been on literally 3 dates in my life. Goal: sign up for match.com, and go on at least one date by the end of the challenge. Also get the cell phone numbers of a couple co-workers I walk with every day at lunch.

 

Cleaning:
15 minutes a day. I kind of fell of the wagon on this last challenge, and it shows.

[fiddle-on]

Yesterday I started out with an exercise class and  biking to work. That's the only part of my goal I reached. I entered my breakfast into MyFitnessPal, but nothing else, and I had ice cream for dinner. I didn't pick up the fiddle, I didn't do anything to work towards the social goal, and I only spend a couple minutes picking a few things up.

 

At least it gives me room to improve :-/

 

I started strong again this morning: I went for a 10 minute run this morning, then biked to work. I also spent about a minute picking out two of the tunes I've just learned on the fiddle.

 

I still need to do a quick strength workout after work.

 

For social, I want to get the cell phone numbers of a couple people I regularly walk with. If the new person comes today too, I want to make a strong effort to include her in conversation: she's very quiet, so it needs a real effort, and it's good practice for me, since I'm also really quiet.

 

For cleaning, I want to get the kitchen counter cleared to where I'm happy to cook on it.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I'm here for the kettlebells and the biking

[fiddle-on]

OK, I hate to do this, but my exercise goals are just not reachable. It hurts to ride my bike, there's a step challenge going on at work, and the day after a gym workout I'm too sore for a good home workout. I'm going to build up to daily home strength workouts slowly, and do other stuff like running or long walks instead. I'm adding in running because it isn't hurting me, and because biking is.

 

 New Exercise goal:
 2 kettlebell classes per week.
 1-3 home strength workouts of 15-30 minutes: Build up to the 3 over the course of the challenge.
 Run several times a week. Starting time: 10 minutes. Starting distance: 0.5 miles. Build up both over the challenge.

Average 15,000 steps per day (my goal for the work challenge)
 Bike enough to decide if I'm keeping the new bike, but if my back hurts, stretch it and don't bike at all the next day.

 
 I'm also working to see if I can make the bike more comfortable. I'm fine for a mile or two, but then my back starts hurting. I thought it was the bent over posture, but now I think it's the posture plus the bumps in the road sending jolts up my spine. Also, the new bike has a hideously uncomfortable seat, which has gone from mild discomfort to please get me off this torture device over the week and a half I've had the bike. The bike is also bothering my quads just above my knees. I've ordered a new seat which I'm very optimistic about for the sitting issue, and I'm hoping that maybe shifting the seat position a bit more (up and down or back and forth) will help my knees. I really hope it works out, because otherwise it's a nice bike. I'll be posting pictures later.

[fiddle-on]

Wednesday Update:

Walked about 12000 steps
Ran .5 miles in 10 minutes (this is my baseline for running)
Did 15 minute workout:
5 minutes warmup
5 minute Turkish Get-up (3 per side, ~18 lb dumbell)
5 minute 25 lb 2 handed swings (~60 swings)

 

Music:
Played 5 minutes on the fiddle

 

Social:
I'm going on vacation next week, so I'm putting this goal off until I'm back.

 

Cleaning:
Spent 10 minutes cleaning kitchen and picking up bedroom.

 

It was my mother's birthday, so we went out to eat. The meal had a reasonable amount of chicken, so I ate all of that, and only half the pasta. Still a little more than I should have eaten.

 

[Darger]

Keep up the good work! It takes a lot to build habits!

[Sloth the Enduring]

Nice. I like get ups and swings.

[jmk]

Great job adjusting your goals and not quitting!  I like your 15 min Kettlebell workout and think I may try that next week.  I get board easily and have to change things weekly!

[fiddle-on]

On 6/16/2016 at 10:04 PM, Darger said:

Keep up the good work! It takes a lot to build habits!

Thanks! I've made a lot of progress this year with that.

 

 

On 6/16/2016 at 10:06 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Nice. I like get ups and swings.

Thanks. I find both of them fun, and they're difficult enough to keep my mind occupied while I do them, so I don't quit halfway through.

 

 

On 6/16/2016 at 10:21 PM, jmk said:

Great job adjusting your goals and not quitting!  I like your 15 min Kettlebell workout and think I may try that next week.  I get board easily and have to change things weekly!

Thanks! Go for it. I'm finding that 5 minutes per exercise is good, because then at the end I'm like "That was all? But I wanted more!" And then I do another 5-10 minutes of stuff, and feel great about it.

[fiddle-on]

I'm on vacation this week, and I'm going to a fiddle camp in Vermont. Very excited. I won't be updating at all do to only having my phone, and probably no internet. Since it's a vacation, my usual routine is out the window. Here's what I'm going to try instead.

 

1) Daily short workouts. My 15 minute kettlebell routine will still be doable, plus I'll be able to go for runs. I want to do at least 15 minutes of activity per day, probably first thing in the morning.

 

2) Food. I won't be cooking for myself, and when I've been here before, the food has been unbelievably good. They're using the same caterer, so it probably will be again. So the goal is to not overeat at meals, and limit myself to 1 dessert per meal. 1 per day if they don't look out of this world good.

 

3) Music and Social: I'm not worrying about either one. If I meet people I'd like to stay in touch with, I need to ask for their phone numbers. Other than that, I'll be plenty social and playing plenty of music without any effort at all.

[fiddle-on]

Update for last week:

 

I was on vacation at a fiddle camp. It was great, and I played music every day. Also every day, I either did a kettlebell routing for 10-15 minutes, or ran for 20 minutes, plus I danced for 20-40 minutes on 3 nights. I got an A for exercise.

 

I got a D on food however, because I feel like I overate at every single meal. It's not an F because I was mostly overeating healthy food, and I only had midnight snacks if I'd been dancing enough to make myself seriously hungry (except the last night, when I just snacked anyway because the best musicians were playing in the kitchen. In the walk-in fridge, actually, because musicians are crazy). The problem was that the food was absolutely fabulous, and it took me to the end of the week to get used to it. So I kept taking too much, and then eating everything I took.

 

 

I got home Saturday evening, so I ate a more reasonable amount that day. Then Sunday I was just exhausted, and ate a few leftover cookies for breakfast, followed by a bridal shower where I overate again. The pants that were a little too loose last week are back to fitting well :-(.

 

 

I'm off to a good start today, at least. I had an exercise class before work, where I did a Turkish get-up with a 12 kg kettlebell for the first time, and was able to use a 14 kg bell for 2 handed swings.  The coach also had me do some work with 2 6kg bells, rather than the single 8 kg I had been using, so that was cool. Then I rode my bike to work.

 

Tonight for cleaning, I need to finish unpacking. I also need to start doing some research into new stocks/mutual funds to buy: the Brexit vote means that now's a good time to put money into the stock market, although I think I'll avoid British companies until there's some idea of where things will go.

 

[fiddle-on]

Focus for this week:

Lose last week's weight!

 

I want to track everything this week. I've been half-assed at best about this the last couple months, but if I'm putting weight on rather than holding steady, that needs to change. So I'm tracking everything, and unless I have a crazy exercise day where I'm burning way more than average, I want to keep my calories under 1800.

[fiddle-on]

I have made exactly zero progress on my social goals, and that's not acceptable.

 

Tonight:

- Sign up for match.com.

Tomorrow:

-Message 1 person (or more)

-Umm, I just realized I still haven't gotten my coworkers' cell phones. And that's supposed to be the easy bit. We're just too busy walking and talking for me to think of it. So I need to do that too.

[fiddle-on]

OK, so I still haven't signed up for match.

 

 

I'm still tracking all my food after last week, and I've even been weighing myself. I don't own a scale, but there's one in the basement break room at work (No idea why). There's very few people in that part of the building after 4, so I've been using the scale then. Starting weight was 171, or slightly above my previous recorded high of 168. That was depressing, but not exactly surprising. I know it's more muscle than the first time I weighed that much at least, because my clothes fit way better. I also know I'm not the only one using that scale, because the value on it keeps changing: Someone (and I think I know who) weighs about 92 pounds, while someone else is close to 220. I feel a bit like a voyeur.

 

Today I weighed 169.5. These are clothed weights, for the obvious reason. I'm currently putting more mental effort into dieting than any other goals. I really want to out-shrink my size 14 pants.

 

 

On the plus side, I'm really enjoying being able to run. I did a 25 minute run with 2 hills yesterday, and will probably do similar tomorrow. I did a 10 minute strength workout this morning of alternating Turkish get-ups and hanging pulls/shrugs.

 

 

[fiddle-on]

Did well on tracking and eating well yesterday.

 

 

Yesterday morning I was happy with myself for doing a 10 minute strength workout. Then when I got home, I found a new pedometer had arrived. So I had to test it out. I've been running half a mile to one mile a few times a week. Yesterday I went on a mostly flat 2 mile run (4200 steps!), and did the route in 24 minutes, which I really didn't expect. It made me happy because before I got plantar fasciitis, I was mostly running 13-14 minute miles, and I just did 12 minutes without even trying. I definitely felt it in my knees and calves, though. Today was a kettlebell class day, then I'll probably run again tomorrow, then hike over the weekend. I'd say the kettlebells are definitely helping my running. I'm setting a goal time of 30 minutes for a 5K.

[Darger]

Keep at it! It's encouraging to see you go after all the running and workouts. Love your attitude!

[Sloth the Enduring]

Anyone else still waiting for a story that starts, "This one time at fiddle camp..."?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fiddle-on]

On 7/2/2016 at 3:31 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Anyone else still waiting for a story that starts, "This one time at fiddle camp..."?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, This one time at fiddle camp, the temperature dropped ten degrees, and the sky just opened up. I was very happy that my next class was indoors in the dining hall, because it was freezing and my rain gear was all in my car. Then the teacher told everyone that we were switching places with the class taught by a seven month pregnant woman, so that she could be indoors and near the bathroom. Damn courtesy!

 

No one, including the teacher who had arranged the switch, was thrilled with this. By the time we got to the outdoor tent where the class was, everyone was damp and chilled. The teacher most of all, because he had run back and forth several times. So he decided we were going to play a Swedish walking tune while walking. We walked in a circle around the inside of the tent, and ended up with a nicely stamped out crop circle in the grass. Then we walked to a few dance tunes, and by the time the 90 minute class was over, we had all warmed up, the rain had stopped, and we walked to the dining hall playing the walking tune. Everyone applauded, and it ended up being one of the most fun classes.

 

Then we all went back to the tent to grab our stuff before going back to lunch.

[fiddle-on]

It's really hard to stick to a diet over a holiday weekend. I avoided seriously overeating, which isn't bad for a long weekend with 2 barbecues. I was also consistently recording what I ate, which really helped me not overeat. But now I need to get back to eating less.

 

Yesterday morning I played tennis for the first time in years. One of my co-workers is another really bad player, so it worked out well. We were just volleying back and forth. After half an hour, we were able to do 3 volleys most of the time, and a few times got all the way up to 6. We both had fun, and plan to do it again. Maybe by the end of the summer, we can work up to actual games.

 

I also went for an almost 3 mile trail run yesterday, running very slowly but with very little walking. Between that and the tennis, my calves are feeling it today. I also e-mailed a local running club, and found out they have a slow run on Monday evenings. So I'll be going to that next week.

 

I still haven't signed up for Match, but between the tennis and the running club, I feel better about getting out and meeting people and hanging out with different people.

[fiddle-on]

Gypsy moths were out in force today, swarming all the trees and bushes with more gathering around anything offering a bit of shelter, like buildings and parked cars. So if you walked anywhere, they'd be flying past you, around you, and into you. The woman I was walking with at lunch really doesn't like bugs, and was only willing to go out for the 5 minutes it took to discover that walking in the middle of the parking lot wouldn't let us avoid the moths. Luckily the basement of our building is mostly unoccupied and is set up quite well for walking loops around, so we walked in big circles for 25 minutes.
 

[Elastigirl]

Great Rangering the weekend and tracking your food . Ugh, those moths sound creepy.

[V for Vetinari]

Hi fiddle on! Nice job with all the workouts.

[fiddle-on]

24 minutes ago, M_J said:

Hi fiddle on! Nice job with all the workouts.

Thanks!

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Great Rangering the weekend and tracking your food . Ugh, those moths sound creepy.

Thanks! Creepy is a good word for them. I'm worried that with this many moths, their babies'll eat through the trees in a way that hasn't happened in years.

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, fiddle-on said:

Thanks!

Thanks! Creepy is a good word for them. I'm worried that with this many moths, their babies'll eat through the trees in a way that hasn't happened in years.

Yeah, that's what they do. Ugh.

[fiddle-on]

My town closed my street while I was out on the fourth. I'm on a cross street, and the parade goes past one end. Since most of the traffic is between the two main streets on either end, I understand why they closed it but it was still annoying. I came home after the parade had ended, and the barriers were still up. I snuck past the barrier, and like 3 cars followed me. It was pretty funny when they followed my into my apartment lot, then turned around and went back out.