Mawnstroe's Nerdy Recovery

[Mawnstroe]

Hi Fellow Nerds,

 

I'm a Level 6 Warrior, and I'm not like I used to be.  But I'm also not like I want to be.  I'm in the middle on this journey, and this is about my journey from Madness to Sanity.  Looking back I see how crazy my views of myself and health really were, and I am slowly replacing that insane thinking with sane thinking.  I'm going to be the kind of guy who logs what he eats and how he exercises for 90 days so that I have accountability and encouragement in what I am doing.

 

The BROAD goals for me in these next 90 days (starting July 1st):

 

1. Level up my Nutrition from NF Diet-style Level 3 to 7 - This is a reasonable goal for me, because I have been eating more and more healthfully over the last 10 months, with the last month here moving to a more NF diet-style.  I'm also going to work on logging what I eat on a daily basis and make it available to accountability partners.  If you'd like to see what I'm eating, go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/mawnstroe. 
    
2. Level up my Workouts from Level 3 to Level 4 - I'm currently doing NF Level 3 Bodyweight workouts and they are just the right amount of butt-kicking I need, so I think a good goal is to move up to Level 4 BW workouts.  I have injured myself in the past too often by aiming too high, only to strain or tear something, so I am going to take the NF Mindset to heart and work on small, long term changes rather than try to change everything at once.

 

As for where I am right now:
 

• Mindset:
  • I have my Big Why (posted in my intro post on these forums).
  • I've been hacking my sleep and it's really improved over the last month, I use the Sleep Cycle app for iPhone and Android.  I get 6-7 hours of sleep a night and that is plenty.  I can't sleep more than 7 (or 8 at the absolute max) no matter how hard I try.  I'm just one of those guys who needs less sleep than others.
  • I have accountability with a friend, and this thread is another version of that to widen my circle of friends and accountability partners
  • I have set up some Loot! rewards for myself when I reach my goals, which I will post another time
  • I am working on getting my Batcave customized, though I have the things I'd like to do, I haven't yet implemented them
     
• Nutrition:
  • I'm on level 3 of the NF Diet-style, working on high protein breakfasts, eating vegetables with every lunch and dinner, and replacing normal carbohydrate or starch for 10 days out of a 2 week period.
  • I've already conquered not eating pasta, and things like eating broccoli instead of French fries or asparagus instead of white bread, that sort of thing.
  • I am working on limiting my bread consumption as well as carbohydrates in general.  My goals right now are keeping carbs under 150 g a day.
     
• Workout:
  • I'm currently on Level 3 Bodyweight workouts, and defeated the Widowmaker last week.  w00t!
  • I have had 3 weeks of regular workouts without missing one.
  • I walk 10,000-12,000 steps a day and track it using my Misfit.
  • I use "Zombies, Run!" app to make my walking more fun for me, and I like to also go hiking with my kids on weekends.  If it's not fun, I'm not going to be doing it for long!
  • I am paying close attention to my knees and shoulders because in the past I usually ended up injuring one or both of them and I am not going to do that this time around.  I will pay attention to my body and I will not be afraid to modify my workouts so that I will not miss a workout.

 

So I think that's about it for now.  My goal for tomorrow is to report that I did my bodyweight workout today and also to go over my short-term goals and their subsequent Loot! as well as complete any other details I need to fill in.

 

This is me living and leveling up one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace and health.  Rawr!

 

- Mawnstroe

Level 6 Warrior

[SevenofSeven]

This looks like you have got things sorted!

 

Good luck with your journey.

[Mawnstroe]

Hey howdy!

 

OK, so yesterday was absolutely full of stuff I had to get done, and I basically didn't get it all done and still ended up going to bed the latest I have in a while. So, I am posting today what I had wanted to post yesterday.

 

June 10 official BEFORE measurements: (Measurements were done at least three times from here on out)

• Height:  6'2"
• Weight: 248 lbs.
• Body Fat (with calipers): 28.4%
• Neck: 18"
• Chest: 48"
• Biceps: 14"
• Waist: 47"
• Hips: 46"
• Thighs: 21.5"
• Calf: 16.5"

Since it is July, and I like to have things tidy when it comes to record-keeping, I took my new measurements on July 1st and was absolutely shocked at what has changed.  To put this in perspective, I started the NF Academy June 8th and gobbled it up.  I had already started cleaning up my diet a couple of weeks before by eliminating eating out and store-bought processed foods like "family-style" lasagna, pizza, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc.  I started the Level 2 Body weight workouts on Friday, June 10th and I leveled up to Level 3 Body weight on June 22.  I was weighing myself a couple times a week and got frustrated that I was stuck at 241 lbs for basically the last three weeks and then this happens:

 

July 1st Measurements:

• Height:  Still 6'2", not going anywhere on that one fortunately
• Weight:  241 lbs.
• Body Fat (with calipers):  24.7%
• Neck:  16.5"
• Chest: 47-1/8"
• Biceps: 14-1/18"
• Waist:  45" (WOW!)
• Thigh: 22-5/8" (This guy DIDN'T skip 'leg day')
• Calf:  16.5"

I think you could have picked me up off the floor after measuring those!  I wanted to measure on the first of every month, so from here on out I will just do it on the 1st, but I couldn't believe how much progress in three weeks!  I tried uploading a photo but it won't let me because it says I can't upload more than .5 MB even though the files are only 26Kb's each.  Oh well.

 

Suffice it to say that I am very excited and even the photos show a marked improvement, especially with the size of my gut!  I had read about the whole, "Don't let the scale be your ruler," stuff but I didn't realize how true that was and how I was still letting the scale tell me if I was making progress or not.  Whoopee!

 

Yesterday was a good diet-style day for me as well.  I first started to go full Nutritarian diet, but since 1) I'm doing the NF Academy, and 2) I obviously don't know what healthy eating really is, I figure I'll just go with what NF says and see how it goes.  I've learned that I do NOT know what is good for me:  I need to learn new default habits and settings for my life.

 

This is me leaning into the Nerd Fitness fundamentals and trusting that if I do what healthy people do, I will get what healthy people have:  good health!

 

I'll post again soon!

 

 

[Mawnstroe]

July 4th Celebrations

I survived July 4th!  Not without getting a bit singed around the edges, though.  However, I seem to be doing alright.  I had to much bread.  I had a July 4th picnic on Sunday with friends and had a hamburger but I got a bun with it.  I had told myself that I was going to eat the patty only but it's so natural to pick up a bun with it I didn't resist and went for it.  I know it's not my goal to eliminate bread yet, but I see it as an opportunity for me to recognize that I will have chances to eat bread and I need to go in with some options already in my head so that I will not take the bread.  I knew there was going to be pie there, so I already knew I would limit myself to one piece, which I did.  I would normally eat a few pieces of whatever pie I wanted, but this time I limited myself to one.  However, I wanted both the cherry and apple pie (homemade, so good!) so I had a half a piece of each and enjoyed them thoroughly!  July 4th itself was a mess.  I was working overtime on the holiday and we were so crushed at work with systems going on the fritz that they bought us lunch and of course it was pizza.  They told us they would get something healthy so I hadn't brought lunch for myself (only breakfast), and in the midst of the crisis all my manager could think of was pizza, so there it was.  I didn't have any time to go get something on my own and I was very hungry so I had pizza.  Not what I had planned.  I'm glad that I'm striving for progress, not perfection!  You can see what I ate the last couple days if you'd like on the My Fitness Pall app but suffice it to say it was less-than-stellar.  Again, glad that I can move on and do well today.  At least I enjoyed the pie!

 

Mindset

I am realizing that I don't know what is good for me when it comes to nutrition.  I'm putting it in the Mindset category because I think it has more to do with that than nutrition.  I'm working on accepting the fact that I have proven for decades that I do not know what is good for me when it comes to my health and fitness.  My natural bent is to believe that I know what's best for me.  So, when I read over the Nerd Fitness academy stuff, especially for nutrition, I tend to modify it a bit.  I need to stop that.  If I try it, and I mean really, really try it and find that it doesn't work for me, then I can look at modifying it.  At this point, though, I just need to try it out.  My goal is to get to level 7 Nutrition and so I am going to just work through the quests to get me there and take them at face value.  I do too well at finding loop holes and what not to get me out of eating healthy.  I will work on accepting the instruction and doing what the healthy people of NF do in order to get what the healthy people at NF have:  good health!

 

Workouts

These are going very well for me.  I've moved up to level 3 body weight workouts this past week, and I'm on week 2.  The interesting thing is that I've been doing the workouts for about a month now and the soreness from workouts has largely gone.  I can tell my muscles are building and resting on the off days but they don't ache or have soreness like they did even a week ago.  It's pretty cool!  I checked in with some guys on the NF Academy FB page and they said to perhaps increase the number of reps and not worry about the soreness being gone, that DOMS (new term for me!) is not a good measure of workouts.  I need to focus on increasing reps or adding another set and go for the burn.  I suppose if I were using weights I could just add more weight, but with it being body weight I'm not sure what to do there other than add reps.  I don't have a backpack full of rocks around and money is tight so I'm not about to go out and buy a weighted workout vest or anything.  I'll make do with what I've got.

 

Summary

So things are going well.  I'm looking forward to my next weigh in and measurements in August to see what progress I've made.  Already I can feel myself getting stronger and things tightening up in my joints and so forth, which is a good thing.  I'll keep adjusting my diet and move forward!  Rawr!

 

 

 

[Mawnstroe]

Eight days since my last post and things were going well until a couple days ago.

 

Good stuff

I've continued the workouts and increased reps because they felt really, really easy.  I'm still on level 3 body weight and am looking forward to confronting Berserxes the Squat King on Saturday.  He will fall!  

 

Not-so Good Stuff

The struggle has been the nutrition piece.  For some reason this week I have just been...weak.  My goal is to keep the carbohydrates down and that has not been going well.  I've been told by my doctor to reduce the meat consumption due to a medical condition that, if it is confirmed, I will let you know about.  So I've been changing my diet yet again, which is not an easy thing for me and in the midst of the change I get turned around and go back to old habits.  The mini-pretzels taunt me!!!!  Then I got bit by a big-ass spider in my sleep (OK, probably not big but the bit and subsequent welt are HUGE).  The next day had no idea I had been bitten (was on my upper back) but had a migraine, lethargic, hungry, and thirsty all the time, etc. so I drank tons of water and ended up eating crappy snacks between meals.  I thought I was getting sick but then it started itching in the afternoon and I could feel this huge welt.  When I got home my son took a look at it and said, "Holy crap!  That's huge!  I see the fang marks and everything!"  Unfortunately I did NOT get any spider-powers (grrrr) but 48 hours later I still feel like I had the life sucked out of me.  If it doesn't clear up by tomorrow I'll see a doctor.

 

Carry On My Wayward Son...

BUT today is a new day, so I will get back on that horse and ride it like I stole it!  My weight hasn't changed much in the last week, I'm actually up a couple pounds, but I think that my body continues to change, so I'm not worried about it.  I look forward to measurement time in another couple weeks. Here's to regular, small changes beating the crap out of drastic changes every day of the week!