jstanlick bounces back

[jstanlick]

For the last challenge I anticipated a lot of upheaval in my life and my goal was to simply not lose the ground I had gained during the previous challenges. The bad news is that I was right about the upheaval, the good news is that I was able to maintain most of my gains. A few bad habits reared their ugly heads, but my mental and physical condition remained mostly unchanged. So, it's time to get back on that path I was before. Here goes:

 

Exercise Goal #1: Lift. Heavy. Things. I can't think of any other way to get stronger than to lift heavy things. I want to get stronger, ergo I must lift heavy things. Twice/week at a minimum. 3x per week earns the gold star on my homework.

 

Exercise Goal #2: I still have a 5K this month and another one next month. The second one I will be running with my 9 year old son. It's his first race. I don't really care about the time on that one. The first one is sponsored by my employer and has many co-workers in it. There's bragging rights to be had there. Plus, I've been running really well (for me anyway) lately. That needs to continue. Run twice/week with my son and 1 longer run on the weekends for me.

 

Nutrition Goal: IF is working so I'm sticking with that. I'd also like to reduce my intake of refined sugars. I'm not sure how to measure success with this one. But, I'll figure something out as this goes along. 

 

Life Goal: Be more present in the lives of my family. After losing my Mom, I've realized that I've drifted apart a bit from brother and sister. That needs to change. Additionally, even though I may be more physically present in my immediate family's lives after making other changes over the last year, I need to be more emotionally present as well. At least one intentional, more mindful act of being present in my family's lives daily.

[jstanlick]

The word your looking for is balance. As in, my life needs more balance. Yesterday was all life goal to the exclusion of other goals.

 

Yesterday I managed to pull off the baseball double play. No, not that one. This one involves me coaching my youngest son's team at one field and when it's finished, racing across town to catch the end of my other son's game and cheering on his RBI single for the go ahead run. Whew. Unfortunately, nothing else was done last night, so I gained no ground in either of my exercise goals. It also meant I had to eat later than I would have liked. Still within the IF window, but everything was up in the air from my planned schedule.

 

Well, I guess one goal accomplished for a day is better than none.

[jstanlick]

Still looking for better balance, but making some progress. Yesterday's results:

 

Lift Heavy Things? Check. Perhaps a bit too heavy. Kinda sore today. But, man my mind was in a much better place during and after lifting. Long day at work.

Running? Nope. But, 'twas not in the plan to run, so I'm calling that a win.

Intermittent Fasting? Check. Reduce refined sugars? Um, no. Ice cream with the kiddos kinda messed that up. Why ice cream with the kiddos? Well...

Being more present with the family? Check -- that sounds a bit disingenuous, doesn't it? Kinda like its just a menial task to check off a list. It's not. Its a concerted effort on my part to be more involved in their lives. But, it sounds weird in these updates. Anyway, more baseball, time at the park, meaningful talks with my wife and daughter and ice cream for all.

 

Today's plan includes some amount of running, but not lifting heavy things. Everything else is progressing nicely thus far.

[Darger]

I don't have kids, but balance has been something I've really been striving for. Priorities!!  Do you find it challenging because of all the good things you can fill your time with? Keep up the good work!

[jstanlick]

1 hour ago, Darger said:

I don't have kids, but balance has been something I've really been striving for. Priorities!!  Do you find it challenging because of all the good things you can fill your time with? Keep up the good work!

Mostly, I find it challenging because inertia is a thing. I get started on one thing, it's very hard to stop and get something else going. It's far easier to just keep doing more of whatever I'm doing at the time.

[jstanlick]

Now that my company has moved into this new fancy building that has a gym and more importantly a locker room with showers, I was able to go for a run at lunch. Felt awesome!! I'll be doing this much, much more in the future. Might be how I manage to get in my exercising time and bring more balance to my goals and the achievement thereof.

[Darger]

On 6/16/2016 at 11:04 PM, jstanlick said:

Mostly, I find it challenging because inertia is a thing. I get started on one thing, it's very hard to stop and get something else going. It's far easier to just keep doing more of whatever I'm doing at the time.

Im the opposite..its hard for me to finish things. I am always looking forward to the next thing! Glad you have the new gym at work!!

 

[Raxie]

Don't know how I missed you last week! Following along :] How did your weekend go?

[jstanlick]

On 6/19/2016 at 1:45 PM, Darger said:

Im the opposite..its hard for me to finish things. I am always looking forward to the next thing! Glad you have the new gym at work!!

 

Having a gym at work is pretty nice. I'm hoping to get a lot more workouts in as a result.

 

11 hours ago, Raxie said:

Don't know how I missed you last week! Following along :] How did your weekend go?

All things considered, the weekend went well. We had my Mom's funeral on Saturday, so I didn't accomplish anything related to the first 3 goals. But, I'd like to think I knocked the Life Goal out of the park. My dad, brother and sister said there was no way they could do a eulogy and I thought having the pastor do it would be a little impersonal. So, I did it. To be honest, I wasn't sure I could do it either. But, my whole family said I did a great job, and for my dad -- a man of very few words -- to say, "Thanks, that was really nice. Your Mom would've liked that" was high praise. Granted, after I was done I kinda broke down and lost it, but I'm okay with that. I also made sure to talk to every one that came for more than just a "Thanks for coming." I'm not the most social of people, my wife is much better at that. But, it was important to me to find out more about these people that were part of my mom's life whether I knew them already or not. And yesterday was a day at the pool with my wife and kids. It was a nice way to let go of the stress of the weekend. I debated stopping in on my Dad to check out how he's doing, but my sister was there and so was my niece with her kids. So, dad took his great-grandchildren fishing. I think it was a good day for him too.

 

So, yeah, not much advancement on my nutrition (although I didn't really eat much at all) and exercise goals. But, I was about as present as I could be in the lives of my family. So, it was a good weekend.

[Darger]

21 minutes ago, jstanlick said:

Having a gym at work is pretty nice. I'm hoping to get a lot more workouts in as a result.

 

All things considered, the weekend went well. We had my Mom's funeral on Saturday, so I didn't accomplish anything related to the first 3 goals. But, I'd like to think I knocked the Life Goal out of the park. My dad, brother and sister said there was no way they could do a eulogy and I thought having the pastor do it would be a little impersonal. So, I did it. To be honest, I wasn't sure I could do it either. But, my whole family said I did a great job, and for my dad -- a man of very few words -- to say, "Thanks, that was really nice. Your Mom would've liked that" was high praise. Granted, after I was done I kinda broke down and lost it, but I'm okay with that. I also made sure to talk to every one that came for more than just a "Thanks for coming." I'm not the most social of people, my wife is much better at that. But, it was important to me to find out more about these people that were part of my mom's life whether I knew them already or not. And yesterday was a day at the pool with my wife and kids. It was a nice way to let go of the stress of the weekend. I debated stopping in on my Dad to check out how he's doing, but my sister was there and so was my niece with her kids. So, dad took his great-grandchildren fishing. I think it was a good day for him too.

 

So, yeah, not much advancement on my nutrition (although I didn't really eat much at all) and exercise goals. But, I was about as present as I could be in the lives of my family. So, it was a good weekend.

 

Im sorry for your loss. It sounds like you loved people well and gave your mom the remembrance she deserved.

 

[Raxie]

I'm so sorry for your loss :[ That's awesome you were able to give a great eulogy for her though.  I think your life goal of being mindful definitely shone through there. 

[jstanlick]

On 6/20/2016 at 6:39 PM, Darger said:

 

Im sorry for your loss. It sounds like you loved people well and gave your mom the remembrance she deserved.

 

 

On 6/21/2016 at 10:05 AM, Raxie said:

I'm so sorry for your loss :[ That's awesome you were able to give a great eulogy for her though.  I think your life goal of being mindful definitely shone through there. 

Thanks guys, I certainly tried to do my best. Other people seemed touched and -- for me -- it helped to exorcise some demons in the relationship my mother and I had. I was forced to look into the good times and not dwell on the disagreements which I tended to do over the last few years. I couldn't very well get up at a funeral and list off all the times we fought. It helped me realize it wasn't all bad. There were some great and memorable moments over the years. Our relationship wasn't perfect and there was fault on both sides, but that's true of most relationships. So, it was a great experience for me, and if other people got something out of it, even better.

[jstanlick]

Monday pretty much sucked. We had a software upload at work that did not go well. I was hoping to do my portion of the upload, go use the work gym and come back to see how things were going. But, I had to wait for someone else's stuff to finish. Testing showed it would take 30 minutes. So, I figured I'd run my stuff around 7:30 PM. It took 4 and 1/2 hours rather than 30 minutes. And, they kept overestimating how far along they were. So, I kept waiting as it was "about to be finished".  Around 10PM, I gave up on my hopes of working out. Around 12:30 AM I got home and my head met my pillow. at 6:30AM, my alarm went off to start the next day.

 

Tuesday was a sleepy morning. But, I managed to get through re-taping my son's baseball bat, finding my other son a new baseball bat, coaching t-ball -- which is always a trip with the little kids -- and I got my daughter to lift with me. It was a dumbbell/kettlebell supersets interval workout. I thought it was simple enough that she could do it on her own if I wasn't around. She wants to start getting in shape for fall volleyball and hates running. I thought this was a good way to do get her into doing something she would find more fun while still getting some cardio mixed with resistance training. Plus, I've seen studies with kettlebell swings improving volleyball and basketball jumping performance. Despite being tired I still managed to stick to IF and eat less processed sugars. Other than an apple and some strawberries, nothing I ate had much sugar at all let alone added sugar. Tiring day, but a good day.

 

Today, I got in a run at lunchtime with about 10 co-workers, including my boss. He's a rugby player who recently picked up running and he's setup a 5K charity run through our office park to celebrate our new office building. Proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald house a half mile down the road from our office. Our company has about 300 employees worldwide and at current count, 132 of them are registered to do the run next Thursday. Should be fun and hopefully we can give them a decent sized check. The run today was fun as well. That first mile was a little faster than I would've liked given the temps outside, but everyone had the juices flowing to get after it I guess. Hopefully, we continue to do those throughout the year and not just before the run is going on.

[Raxie]

Wow Monday sounds like it was brutal.  Great job getting back at it on Tuesday though.  And that's super awesome your daughter joined you for your workout! It should definitely be a great alternative to get in shape for sports.

[jstanlick]

21 hours ago, Raxie said:

Wow Monday sounds like it was brutal.  Great job getting back at it on Tuesday though.  And that's super awesome your daughter joined you for your workout! It should definitely be a great alternative to get in shape for sports.

Yeah, Monday was not a lot of fun. But, the rest of the week has been better. 

 

My daughter and I did not workout last night as I took the kids swimming instead. They had fun and truth be told, my glutes and hammies were still sore from Tuesday's split squats and Wednesday's running. Man, those young people are hard to keep up with. It was loads of fun to run with them, but their training pace is about as fast as my racing pace. My legs were voicing their displeasure in my choices of running mates yesterday. But, swimming was a good recovery activity.

 

Today, I'm taking my team out for lunch at work. They've been working hard and we could use some team bonding time. Plus, none of them have expensive taste, so they're cheap to treat  But, it means I won't be working out over lunch either. Gonna have to fit something in tonight and maybe I can get my daughter to join me again.

[Raxie]

Swimming is such good exercise! Don't sell yourself short for doing "just" swimming

[Xena]

Finally back in town and checking in. Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of being there with your family, and I like your comments about the importance of your relationship with your siblings. Siblings often understand us better than anyone!

 

Good luck at the race!

[jstanlick]

18 hours ago, Raxie said:

Swimming is such good exercise! Don't sell yourself short for doing "just" swimming

Hmm, good point. Perhaps in a future challenge I need to work on the tone of grammar. As such, I should work on my vocabulary and remove the word "just" more. In a previous life I was on a swim team and a lifeguard. Since it was a lifetime ago, it's about time I re-calibrate my attitude towards what constitutes swimming for exercise and what's just splashing around for fun. Playing tag with the kids for an hour, while not strenuous, was good exercise. Besides, my flip-turns aren't what they used to be anyway

 

10 hours ago, Xena said:

Finally back in town and checking in. Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of being there with your family, and I like your comments about the importance of your relationship with your siblings. Siblings often understand us better than anyone!

 

Good luck at the race!

Siblings grew up in the same environment with the same messages, so they do tend to get us more than other people do. It's kind of neat how we can live hundreds of miles apart and get together and its like the distance and time never separated us.

[jstanlick]

The weekend was interesting. After I got home on Friday, my daughter asked me what I was doing that night because she wanted to do more kettlebell workouts. Winning!! So more KB on a Friday night with my daughter. Not as crazy as my Friday nights once were, but far more rewarding. Plus, working out made it easier to defeat any sugar cravings at night. Especially after I took over the cooking duties when I got home and we had a lime marinated round steak I did on the grill, with grilled potatoes and a salad from stuff in our garden. Usually, by the time I get home, my wife has dinner either done and ready or its cooking. That's good and bad. The good part, I don't have to do a thing and I get food. I mean, that's a really cool perk if you've had a really long day. The bad part is that I like cooking. It kind of calms me down and mellows me out a bit. Especially anytime I can find an excuse to fire up the grill. I came home and she said she took out the round steak to make fajita's, but lost any motivation to make anything as she was the one with the long week this last week.

 

Saturday was swimming lessons for the boys, strawberry picking, and making dessert for the neighborhood get together before winning the badminton tournament. My partner for the tournament and I ended up playing our daughters in the finals while our wives cheered on the kids. It was hot and humid on Saturday. I managed to avoid a lot of added sugar in foods because mostly I just craved more and more water.

 

Sunday we went to my in-laws because my niece was let go from her job (contract fell through and the company let a lot of people go), and was spending the week at Grandma's. Such a lost and wayward child...and far too bitter at 20 years old. She sounded more like my grandfather at his 90th birthday than someone with their whole life ahead of them. I understand being a little bitter/angry about losing a job especially through no fault of your own. I've been there. It sucks. After 9 years at a place and helping it grow by leaps and bounds each year, it was bought by a bigger place and all of us were let go. But, as I tried to explain to her, just about everyone else you're going to meet has lost a job one way or another. That doesn't mean the world is some post-apocalyptic shit-hole. You pick yourself up, and get back on that horse. Or, if you didn't like your job, now's a great time to contemplate a change and find a different horse to get up on.

 

So, the summary for last week looks like this:

Lift Heavy Things: Goal - 3x, Actual 2x -- We'll see if my daughter can keep me honest and get that number to 3

Run: Goal - Short 2x/week and long 1x/week, Actual Short 1x, long 2x -- Oops. Guess I did that backwards

Nutrition: Goal - IF + reduce refined sugars daily, Actual 4 of 7 days of reducing refined sugars. -- Better than week 1, but still not where I want/need to be.

Life: Goal - be present daily for my family, Actual - I'm gonna give myself 7 of 7 with this one. -- However, I feel like I've been there for my kids more than my wife. She's been pulling more than her fair share of the load these last few weeks months while my mom was sick. Need better balance here as well.

 

So, an improvement on week 1, but still not there yet. But, I'll take progress any day.

[Xena]

Great week!

 

Guessing the niece wouldn't appreciate a suggestion to start keeping a gratitude journal ;-)

[jstanlick]

On 6/27/2016 at 7:11 PM, Xena said:

Guessing the niece wouldn't appreciate a suggestion to start keeping a gratitude journal ;-)

 

Ha, that would be a no.

[jstanlick]

Let's see, how's the week going? In a word, weird.

 

I thought I had done a good job planning out this week, but then life happened and my plans were turned inside out. Yet, some things have still worked out and some things could've worked out if my brain was firing on all cylinders. Changing my schedule for 4 weeks to drive the kids to summer school has me all discombobulated. 

 

Take for example the last two days. Yesterday, I planned to go for a run at lunch time. The forecast was for 72 degrees F, sunny, with a slight breeze. In other words, darn near perfect running weather. I got to work and my workout bag was still sitting at home next to my door waiting for me to take it with.  As a result I didn't get my run in, but I ran around with all the kids on the tee-ball team at practice last night instead. Not quite the same, but it was fun and I wasn't sitting on my ass.

 

Today, same thing except with my lunch. I was left trying to figure out what I could get to eat nearby that didn't have a bunch of crap added to it. So, I'm fasting today instead

 

So, I planned, failed to execute the plan, and then executed plan B which was made up on the fly. So, things are working out, but not quite as I expected. Hopefully I remember my shoes for my run tomorrow, or I'll be doing a 5K in sandals or barefoot -- which I've done before but not on the roads of an office park and not recently. Pretty sure my feet are not callused enough to handle that at this point.

 

 

[Xena]

I did that today too! Brought my gym bag into work and left my lunch in the car. Fortunately car was close enough that I didn't have to fast :-)

[jstanlick]

Hopefully its not some sign that my brain is getting old and its just because my routine is all jumbled up for the next few weeks.

 

But, on the bright side, the company charity run is this afternoon at 2:30, the forecast for rain has changed to just be cloudy, temps in the upper 70's and, AND I've got my gym bag today! 177 runners at last count constituting almost 60% of the company participating. Bragging rights are on the line this afternoon.

[Darger]

Automatic habits=no more need for motivation! Keep at building them!!