BitterOyster Tours the Safari Zone & S.S. Anne

[BitterOyster]

Behold, my adventure map! (roughly corresponding to my town)

For more backstory visit my battle log.

 

 

After hiking rangerously through Mt Moon I expected to emerge triumphant into the daylight but instead fell into the pit of Zero Week where family issues, comfort eating and travel got the best of me. All was not lost as I still fit in one workout and two walks and did some meal prep to get my diet back on track.

 

This time I will be taking a tour around the Safari Zone (wildlife reserve visit/fitness goals) and looking for Mew on the docks by the S.S. Anne (visiting the coast/life goals).

 

Fitness Goals in the Safari Zone

 Knee-doqueen

Knee strengthening exercises every day. This is going to take a lot of discipline but I'm sick of not being able to trust my knees to be stable. I'm still refining the routine but I'm basing it off this site and some exercises from YouTube.

 

 Barefoot STOMPing

One barefoot walk each day, at least to the end of the street and back but a little longer each day if my feet can take it.

I used to be into barefooting but once I found thin-soled shoes I liked I gave up on conditioning and never had the patience to try again. Once I can walk to the shops and back it will be easy since my day-to-day errands will become my conditioning time. But that's a fair way off and in the meantime short walks outside will do me good.

 

 HM04 STRENGTH

Continue strength training 3x a week at home but increase from one to TWO gym visits a week.

I finally fixed my bike so now I don't have to worry about wasting petrol or paying parking.

 

Life Goals on the S.S. Anne

 Captain's log

4-5 hours per week on Lynda.com courses, since I'm paying for a subscription and it is NOT cheap in AUD.

This will allow me to complete 4 courses on vector illustration.

 

 Sightseeing Cruise

Visit the wildlife reserve or a coastal area at least once a week to draw or paint.

 

 Bonus - Find Mew Under the Truck

File my health insurance claims.

 

 Bonus - HM01 CUT

Tidy up the lawn edges and various weedy corners.

[BitterOyster]

Week 1

 

Knee-dorina 5/7

Barefooting: 5/6 (had a rest day)

Strength training: 3/3

Gym visits: 2/2

Captain's log: 3 hours (Going to catch up on this)

Draw/explore: Explore yes, not so much draw. Visited some beaches but didn't draw.

[Polgara19]

Love your map!  

 

Following!

[Wild Wolf]

Following birthday buddy and sending all sorts of good healing vibes to you and your knees!  Awesome challenge theme as usual!

 

Wolf

[BitterOyster]

^Thanks! I just started squatting again unassisted, it's basically healed but I don't trust it for grok squats, heavy weights or crazy volumes of rucking, which are some of my favourite things to do. But I'm deadlifting and gardening so life is good.

[Raxie]

Wohoo you're here! And just on time

[Jarric]

Great challenge again; following for more Pokémon puns!

 

Particularly fond of knee-doqueen!

 

[BitterOyster]

What a crazy week! I've been keeping up as best I can. Missed one each of knee exercises and walks but have done one Stronglifts, one gym session and a fair bit on Lynda.com. I'm about to go lift and then drive to the shopping centre once peak hour is over. It's only getting busier from here, the weekend is going to be a maelstrom and then a big day at work on Monday, hopefully the eye of the storm on Tuesday in which I'll get a cool haircut. But before then, into the breach!

[maegs]

 

Following!  If you're up for sharing I'd love to see your paintings and drawings!

[Raxie]

Sounds like you did what you could squeeze in last week despite craziness, great job :] Hope your weekend went well and happy Monday!

[BitterOyster]

I can finally rest! I was so exhausted today I marathoned Orange is the New Black and did almost nothing else, though I did get that haircut and I love it.

Also I did a Stronglifts workout at the gym which is still a big deal for me, I'm really uncomfortable there. I haven't had any altercations with dudebros, I'm just nervous about being unfamiliar with the equipment.

Some more good news, I did a lot of walking on soft sand and up and down dunes, and my knee held up really well.

 

My workout buddy is away for over 2 months so it's harder to motivate myself to go to the gym, but any time I go to the gym I can give my new housemate a lift to or from uni.

 

Week 1

 

Knee-dorina 5/7

Barefooting: 5/6 (had a rest day)

Strength training: 3/3

Gym visits: 2/2

Captain's log: 3 hours (Going to catch up on this)

Draw/explore: Explore yes, not so much draw. Visited some beaches but didn't draw.

 

So I actually did quite a lot despite being busy, but I'm still aiming to get closer to 100% because all of these goals are important.

[BitterOyster]

Today:

✓ Freelance work

✓ Healthy lunch

✓ Check/tidy garden

✓ Stronglifts workout

✓ Barefoot walk

✓ Clean kitchen

o  start cleaning my room

✓  cook dinner

o  knee exercises

✓  empty cat litter

 ✓ take bins out

 ✓ lynda.com course

✓  try out sticker paper

[Raxie]

Great job last week! Those are some seriously solid numbers right there :]

[Jarric]

On 6/22/2016 at 6:48 AM, BitterOyster said:

Today:

✓ Freelance work

✓ Healthy lunch

✓ Check/tidy garden

✓ Stronglifts workout

✓ Barefoot walk

✓ Clean kitchen

o  start cleaning my room

✓  cook dinner

o  knee exercises

✓  empty cat litter

 ✓ take bins out

 ✓ lynda.com course

✓  try out sticker paper

 

Busy day then! Well done!

 

[BitterOyster]

On 23 June 2016 at 10:02 PM, Jarric said:

 

Busy day then! Well done!

 

Had to make up for my day of Netflix and actual chill!

 

[Merrin]

Following along! Really liking your system set up and some of the names for your goals.

[BitterOyster]

Week 2

 

Knees: 3/7

Barefooting: 3/7

Strength: 2/3

Gym: 1/2

Study: 2h 40min

Draw/explore: went to the beach and painted

Bonus: filed health insurance.

 

 

Time to step my game up. This isn't good enough for me. Attack plan:

• I printed a spreadsheet for my knee exercises so I know exactly what I'm doing.
• I put my art supplies near the door
• I switched to a cheaper brand of watercolour paper. It won't look as good, but I won't have to stress about wasting money if I don't get it right the first time. I did find a better deal online, but the postage wasn't worth it unless I spent $100 at a time, and indecision over that was getting in the way of doing art.
• I still haven't started riding my bike again. I have this odd anxiety about it. Even though the injury wasn't related to that, I have had close calls in the past and it's somehow connected in my mind and I'm afraid of falling off and getting hurt. Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and give myself plenty of time to go slowly and ride when there's less people around.
• I'm not going to leave things until the end of the week because my weekends are always busier than I think.
• Less Netflix, more educational videos.

[BitterOyster]

11 hours ago, everanything said:

Following along! Really liking your system set up and some of the names for your goals.

Thanks!

[BitterOyster]

It was a tough call but I'm dropping the barefooting goal to better focus on everything else.

 

I slept in but still rode to the gym today and it went fine. I think I'll have DOMS tomorrow but it wasn't as hard as I thought physically, maybe because I kept doing wall sits and squats all that time I wasn't riding.

[Jarric]

 

Well done on fighting your fear and getting back out on the bike!

 

Sounds like you've got a good plan of attack going forward; sometimes it's best to drop a goal if it helps you achieve everything else  

[BitterOyster]

18 hours ago, Jarric said:

 

Well done on fighting your fear and getting back out on the bike!

 

Sounds like you've got a good plan of attack going forward; sometimes it's best to drop a goal if it helps you achieve everything else  

Thanks!

 

This week wasn't meant to be tough but it has been. It's an island of 'free' time in between busy weeks so I needed to use it to catch up with freelance work, housework and gardening which are things I enjoy, but I put too much pressure on myself and got really stressed. I've been knocking things off my to-do list but it feels like it's not quickly enough, especially since I've been procrastinating due to the stress. But I've been keeping up with my challenge goals and I hope today is a turning point.

 

Some good news - a while ago I was really psyched to do a Tai Chi course, it seemed perfect with the injury keeping me from doing more active classes. It turned out to be too soon for my knee and too much commitment to practise outside of class so I stopped. But I just heard of a new one opening up really close to me mid-July. Unfortunately they want the whole course paid up front and I don't know if my work schedule will fit the timing. I've just gotta wait and see, it might be perfect, and if not I'll find other things to do.

[Jarric]

Sorry you're having a tough week, but congratulations on striking things off your to-do list. Seriously give yourself some credit for that; whether you feel it's fast enough or not you have still done those things!

 

Unrelated, have you seen the new Pokémon they're announcing for the latest games? Checking this one out:

 

An electric mouse Pokémon! What a novel idea!

[BitterOyster]

^Oh wow, that really is a bit of deja-vu!

 

When I saw the task for the Ranger mini this week I thought 'Yay! Something that isn't going to depend on my knees being ok!' And then I thought of actually sitting down and being alone with my thoughts undistracted - uh oh... Well, I can't go on like this forever. Time to clean up my head space. I slept in again and felt very low today, so I think that's a factor. Tomorrow I have a choice between aqua aerobics very early or Body Balance VERY early. But either way, I'll rise and shine, with a lot of swearing and coffee.

 

[Jarric]

Yeah, meditation's a new thing for me too; still finding out what I do and don't like. How was your very early morning?

[BitterOyster]

POKEMON GO IS GO POKEMON GO IS GO POKEMON GO IS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THERE'S A GYM IN MY LOCAL SHOPPING CENTRE

And a little park here that barely anyone knows about, but I love, is one of the points!

GPS BASED GAMES ARE MY JAM!

But I'm sick and I can't risk prolonging it what timing! But it could be really good for getting me walking once I'm better!