DarK_RaideR's BattlE_LoG

[shaar]

Thank you for writing that out about Willes.  It was lovely to read. ❤️ I didn't know him as well as others did but I've been thinking about him a lot lately too and how much I will miss him popping into my thread randomly with a masterful gif chain, or just shooting me a message making sure I was okay. You're right in what you said; he had love to spare.

 

I hope you are doing okay too, take as much time for yourself as you need and be kind to yourself.  We will always be here whenever you need us.

[DarK_RaideR]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:36 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

I've been silent about my stuff and I think I need to take even more off my plate, so expect my forum presence to be furthermore diminished. I'll still keep up with some of the threads, but in a more sporadic fashion.

Soooo, I've indeed been keeping up with some of the threads since then. I also re-applied for TheThing(TM) which I can now reveal was a work-related exam process. Last time I made it through to phase 2 and fell short just ~25 spots in the final ranking, this time I took the first exams in July and two days ago the results came out: stellar performance in 2 of the things, barely rated below the baseline on the third, meaning I got cut and won't be advancing to phase 2 of the exams.

 

This has brought a lot of disappointment, but also the need to make drastic changes to my schedule, as I was expecting the rest of the year to be full of phase 2 stuff. With no study and nothing to look forward to, I'm left with plenty of time. Also, since the exams were meant to sort out my professional/income issue, I need to make some hard decisions and make them fast, in order to deal with this problem that's already been festering far too long.

 

[DarK_RaideR]

Oh wow, didn't know I'd left the Battle Log at this point in time. Was pretty sure I'd posted an update or two since. Interesting to look back though.

 

TL;DR update since, I got a job, ended my 8 year relationship with my ex, quit my job, got into a relationship with @deftona, now we're planning to get married, I've applied for a UK visa to go live with her and I also got a new job to make ends meet in the meantime. Wild how I can fit all those things in a single sentence.

 

Anyway, I'll be hanging out here for a while, as I've got lots of things booked for the coming month, which leave me very little time to bother with the upcoming challenge. Yesterday has been extremely busy and I got home late, so no workout but I did grab a pizza to celebrate deffy rocking her interview to get moved to a higher post in her current job because she's awesome and more than deserves it. So proud of her. I vegged out after the pizza, knocking a few more videogames off my backlog:

• Started with Spirit of the North, which is basically a fox running around an icy landscape, barking at a spectral fox that runs ahead to clear obstacles so you can move to the next bit. Quite borning, plus I'm pretty sure I've played another game not long ago where I controlled a fox in an Alaskan landscape while someone was narrating a dream that turned into memories of his dad and childhood trauma or whatnot.
• Next up was Stargunner, a classic 1996 Apogee side scrolling game where you move a spaceship around and blast things coming at you while also dodging projectiles said things are launching at you. Must have been fun back in the day, borderline unplayable given todays screen resolutions and gameplay standards.
• A similar case was Beneath a Steel Sky, a point and click adventure where I could have handled the pixels if it didn't feel so directionless. If I'm not gently ushered towards where I'm supposed to go next while at the same time I gotta pixel hunt, I'm out.

[DarK_RaideR]

Tuesday 30 April

Had a pressing legal document to compile under a tight deadline, so it took up most of my Monday and Tuesday but it's done. Things are winding down for Easter, I'm leaving Friday night but this was the last big obstacle to overcome before I can go into holiday mode. I was also told they're very happy with my performance, got paid (plus a surprise bonus for Easter) and more importantly, broke the news about deffy visiting me for two weeks in about a month. I was open to working around this, from taking a pay cut to working from home to at least be with her, but I was given the two weeks off right out, with the assumption that I'll be around to hold the fort in August when everyone's taking their summer leave. Of course, there's the very real chance I'll be gone and married by then, but that's a lot of variables and I don't stress too much about it. Still feel a little bad though, they've treated me quite well and it feels like I'm lying to them, but I remind myself of the Masterplan and my priorities. Besides, it's not like they can't replace me or that I'll have been around for so long they'll have become dependant on my when I bail. That aside, I had my therapist appointment afterwards and got back home quite late, meaning to do a workout but too spent for it, so I cut myself some slack. I did however resist the urge to get takeout again and had two wraps instead (I'd taken leftover fava with a bit of mince to work, so the wraps felt new lol). Went to bed early-ish, at least for my standards, and once again woke up before my alarm with 7 hours of sleep in and feeling well rested.

[TimovieMan]

15 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

• A similar case was Beneath a Steel Sky, a point and click adventure where I could have handled the pixels if it didn't feel so directionless. If I'm not gently ushered towards where I'm supposed to go next while at the same time I gotta pixel hunt, I'm out.

As an adventure gamer, I have to say that Beneath a Steel Sky is a genre classic that has held up reasonably well despite the pixels. But it's from an era without hand-holding, so you had to pay a lot of attention to know where you were supposed to go, and trial-and-error is not ruled out. Also, deaths and dead ends, although this particular game was quite reasonable in that - in contrast to some of the Sierra games at that time.

But nothing beats the LucasArts games from back then... 😇

 

(pardon the adventure geeking)

[deftona]

16 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Oh wow, didn't know I'd left the Battle Log at this point in time. Was pretty sure I'd posted an update or two since. Interesting to look back though.

 

TL;DR update since, I got a job, ended my 8 year relationship with my ex, quit my job, got into a relationship with @deftona, now we're planning to get married, I've applied for a UK visa to go live with her and I also got a new job to make ends meet in the meantime. Wild how I can fit all those things in a single sentence.

 

* looks for the "that's mental" react.

 

❤️ 

[DarK_RaideR]

10 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

As an adventure gamer, I have to say that Beneath a Steel Sky is a genre classic that has held up reasonably well despite the pixels. But it's from an era without hand-holding, so you had to pay a lot of attention to know where you were supposed to go, and trial-and-error is not ruled out. Also, deaths and dead ends, although this particular game was quite reasonable in that - in contrast to some of the Sierra games at that time.

But nothing beats the LucasArts games from back then... 😇

 

(pardon the adventure geeking)

Don't mind the geeking at all. Plus I too enjoy the classic adventure games, hasn't been too long since I completed Full Throttle. I don't think it's the lack of hand holding that kicked me here, I actually low-key hate all the HUD displays, indicators, bright pointers etc (see my comments on the System Shock remake a couple of challenges back) and enjoy the challenge of figuring it out, or at least the freedom of wandering about and getting lost. Suppose given the technical limitations of the era, making games like these was a way to artificially extend the time you spent with them (looking at a certain company there) but we too as players had the patience to look around and take notes for puzzles, as well as the time to maybe spend an entire night getting lost in the game. It's just the combination of no clues and having to pixel hunt in a screen that's too much for this game and makes my eyes hurt.

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, DarK_RaideR said:

but we too as players had the patience to look around and take notes for puzzles, as well as the time to maybe spend an entire night getting lost in the game.

That was a time when a) we were young and had less real-life obligations so could just game away, b) there weren't big game releases every week or even month, and c) the average game didn't take 100+ hours to finish back then... 😅

I'm just glad there are walkthroughs for some of those old games... 😁

[DarK_RaideR]

11 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

b) there weren't big game releases every week or even month

True, though I've always had a limited budged and a not-so-cutting-edge PC, so the release frequency doesn't really get to me. Last game I was hyped about and grabbed on release was Diablo 2. Just before posting this, I decided to treat myself and grabbed three games you'd not exactly call modern: Dragon Age 2 (2011) and 3 (2014) and Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017).

 

11 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

c) the average game didn't take 100+ hours to finish back then... 😅

Very true. Kinda why I'm burning through my games backlog lately. A lot of them are junk I can just discard quick. Even if they're simple and repetitive, if I feel like I can grind it out to the finish but I'm not having fun, I'll drop them. That way I don't have to feel pressure having a list of so many games I've never played, but instead with the field clear I can focus on the few ones that take longer and I enjoy.

 

11 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

I'm just glad there are walkthroughs for some of those old games... 😁

Oh for sure. As part of my project, I'm not too shy to look up something if I get stuck at a specific spot. Just get past it and keep playing.

 

Wednesday 1 May

Had to go do some paperwork at court in the morning, so no rush to be at work on time, plus I expected things to be slow due to Easter. That said, I did my workout and even played a bit of Call of the Sea, which I'm very much enjoying.

 

3x18 Rear Delt Flyes

3x18 Side Lateral Raises (ROM really suffered on the last set, probably should stick with these reps before adding more)

3x13 Bench Press

3x13 Pull Over

3x13 Overhead Shoulder Press

3x15 Biceps Curls

3x17 Skull Crushes (getting kinda hard to keep the arm steady on this and not involve the shoulder, but I'm focusing on technique)

3x11 Front Squats

3x11 Romanian Deadlifts

3x18 Calf Raises

 

Hit the courts after showering and boy was I glad to have taken it easy, because their computers were busted and there was a queue of people that had been waiting for a while already. I did submit the papers I was there for and got back to the office for some chill work stuff, since we were scheduled to close it at 17:00 instead of the usual 19:00+. Like, by the time I was back and finished with an appointment that had been scheduled for me in the meantime, it was already 15:00 so it's not like I could devote myself to any massive tasks. Got a few things done and uploaded a couple of documents to my google drive, to be tackled at home. Nothing major, just some copy-paste patchwork between them, but they were kinda urgent and Thursday we'd be closing the office even earlier, at 15:00, so I wanted to make sure it was properly handled. The rest of the evening I mostly chilled (pinned by one of my cats while the roomba did its thing) and played some more Call of the Sea, before spending some time on a call with the amazing deffy, then went to sleep.

[TimovieMan]

15 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Just before posting this, I decided to treat myself and grabbed three games you'd not exactly call modern: Dragon Age 2 (2011) and 3 (2014) and Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017).

Dragon Age 2: very good. Easier than Origins (but Origins was hard if you didn't play as a mage with lots of AoE / CC spells). Varric is an excellent character (but then, I have a thing for unreliable narrators).
Dragon Age Inquisition: abandoned it after 30-40 hours. Not that it was bad, just that I didn't feel up for another 100 hours in the game, especially as a simple "goody two-shoes" decision had immediately locked me into one of the main paths without it being a concious choice on my part. There's just too much content...

Torment: Tides of Numenera: excellent. Not as much of a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment as I had hoped (and as was advertised), but the influence is definitely there. And it's not overly long, or better: it doesn't overstay its welcome. I think I kept it under 50 hours. 😋

[DarK_RaideR]

Thursday 2 May

Last day at work before my Easter break, closing at 15:00 so of course I had to discover an expiring deadline just half hour before that. Tried to contain my panic and it kinda worked out in the end, because my new boss handled it quite gracefully and there are still ways to work around this. Met some guy to sell off my Curse of Strahd DM screen and Tarokka deck as I'm downsizing on my RPG shelf (also made up the money I spend buying those 3 videogames lol), then walked to a friend's house to pick up my wireless headphones which I'd left lying around last time we met. In the evening, I booked myself a haircut just days before deffy lands so I'll be extra fresh, made a list of things to pack and finished Call of the Sea, which I very much enjoyed. By that time it was almost midnight, but that's never stopped me so I did my Duolingo, then my workout, showered and went to bed.

 

3x18 Rear Delt Flyes + 3x15 Front Squats (Superset to save time)

3x18 Side Lateral Raises + 3x18 Calf Raises (Another superset, happy I got full ROM on all the side lat raises of all sets)

3x18 Hammer Curls

3x15 Overhead Press

3x12 Decline Pushups (Again, very happy with this one)

3x15 Dumbbell Rows

3x17 Skull Crushers

[DarK_RaideR]

Friday 3 - Sunday 5 May

Friday morning I met a friend I've been struggling to meet for a while now. We had a coffee, caught up and then I head off to see another friend I've been struggling to see for 1,5 now. He basically saw that morning I'm selling off some RPG books and wanted one, so that was our excuse to meet on the fly. Was nice seeing him and he did indeed relieve me of said book for a decent price. After that I packed and headed to the port, where I was supposed to picked up my tickets and sail off at 21:00. Alas, there had been some sort of mechanical problem the night prior and that ship had sailed at 10:00 on Friday; they'd called to fill us in but their contact number was that of the agency that had booked my tickets, which was closed for Easter so no one picked up and they auto-switched my tickets for the next morning at 10:00. Needless to point out how frustrating that was, especially since I'd been carrying my dumbbells in my suitcase, as well as motorcycle gear I'll no longer be needing and meant to drop off with my dad.

 

Saturday morning I got up and headed to the port yet again. I'd booked a bed on a shared cabin for the overnight trip, which didn't quite make sense for what had become a day trip I could spend on deck and the cafeteria. However, I stuck with it, not wanting to people at all. I also brought my own instant coffee, water and leftover pizza so I wouldn't have to leave the cabin or pay anything besides my ticket. Finally finished The Dispossessed and got to play Layers of Fear on my laptop, since it'll run it when my desktop won't. Can't say I was thrilled and I left it halfway in. Tried giving Surviving Mars a go, assuming it'd be Surviving the Aftermath reskinned, but it thankfully wasn't. Was falling asleep during the tutorial so I rolled with it and had a nap. Long story short, I got picked up by the parents in the brand new car they've gotten for a 2 hour drive to the hotel. I put my Music In Time playlist for the drive and it was nice. Got my workout in, showered, we did a quick visit to the nearby church for the midnight Easter thingy and returned to the hotel for a buffet, where I'm pretty happy with my food choices.

Workout numbers, as I try to max out the rep range at 5kg dumbbells before upping the weight:

3x15 Bench Press

3x15 Pull Overs

3x14 Overhead Press

3x16 Biceps Curls

3x18 Skull Crushers

3x19 Rear Delt Flyes

3x19 Side Lat Raises

3x12 Front Squat

3x12 Romanian Deadlift

3x19 Calf Raises

 

Sunday I got to drive the car which was an experience, as I've never before driven such a fully automated, hybrid thingy. We went on a walk around town after breakfast and then little excursion, ending at a tavern literally on a rock just above the waves, where we had fish (as opposed to the traditional spitroast lamb of Easter), When we got back to the hotel, I chilled in bed but did not nap. Once the parents went out for their evening walk, I had a call with deffy who I was very glad to see again, did my workout, showered and went out to meet the fam. We were still feeling full from lunch, so we skipped dinner and walked around a bit, before ending up at the hotel where we had a cocktail before heading back to the room,

More workout numbers:

3x15 Overhead Press

3x15 Dumbbell Rows

3x19 Hammer Curls

3x19 Rear Delt Flyes

3x19 Side Lat Raises

3x15 Front Squats

3x19 Calf Raises

No Decline Pushups, as no suitable base was available.

Arms were yet again too smoked for Triceps Kicbacks. Also, dumb me left it for last so I was so sweaty I wasn't gonna do Skull Crushers on the hotel bed sheets.

[DarK_RaideR]

Monday 6 May

Lots more driving and music today. Had some delicious lamb for lunch and coffee by a palm tree forest on the beach. After some rest at the hotel, I wasn't fully feeling a workout so I decided to not burn up my remaining willpower. Gave myself permission for a rest day, besides I'd worked out both days prior and I'd be doing Saturday's program again, which felt like it's too soon. We walked around town along the shoreline and instead of dinner, we had delicious desserts at a cafeteria. Feeling quite rested already and most of it has to do with getting plenty of sleep and not having to worry about scheduling, groceries, where to go or who to meet or what to cook.

[DarK_RaideR]

Tuesday 7 May

Checked out of the hotel and drove back, with a stop for lunch. I realized my mind was running on safe mode and probably decompressing from the last several months of uncertainty and stress regarding work, visa rules and applications, finances, planning, family drama and all that jazz. Once we were back, I mostly spent my time lying on the sofa and watching the Champions League game with my dad.

 

Wednesday 8 May

Drove off in the morning, almost back to where we spent the Easter holidays, in order to submit some papers at the local court. Had to wait for several hours till I got a date for the initial hearing (set for Friday) so it's a good thing I had my laptop with me. I chilled at a cafeteria catching up with online stuff and prepping characters for @Jarric's new Dnd Planescape campaign, which I'm quite excited about. Once I got the date, I had to rush off to a different town and hand the papers off to the judge, with a very limited timeframe in front of me. Was a pretty terrible burst, as Google Maps decided to lead me via the mountain roads, the dumbbells I hadn't yet unloaded were bumping around in the trunk, I was running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, only gas station I found en route was refueling from a truck and I had to wait for the process to be over... Long story short, I made it in time with 30km worth of petrol in the tank, good thing the parents decided to sell off all their past vehicles and invest in a new hybrid one. Blasted some loud music on the way back, sang my heart (and stress) out and took a well deserved nap. Was planning to work out but ran out of time and energy, so I got out of bed and met some of my friends out for a drink instead.

[Jarric]

Hey, I didn't know you'd resurrected the battle log! Good to see you still posting.

 

15 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

I chilled at a cafeteria catching up with online stuff and prepping characters for @Jarric's new Dnd Planescape campaign, which I'm quite excited about.

 

❤️

[DarK_RaideR]

On 5/10/2024 at 11:54 AM, Jarric said:

Hey, I didn't know you'd resurrected the battle log! Good to see you still posting.

Oh for sure. Pretty sure I left a link at the end of my latest challenge thread.

 

Thursday 9 May

Okay let's get the workout bit out the way first as I keep climbing

3x15 Bench Press

3x15 Pull Overs

3x15 Overhead Press

3x20 Biceps Curls

3x20 Skull Crushers

3x20 Rear Delt Flyes

3x20 Side Lateral Raises

3x15 Front Squat

3x15 Romanian Deadlifts

3x20 Calf Raises

 

Now, on to the other stuff. My mom went to a new endocrinologist in her ongoing attempt to be healthy, as ever since I remember her she's been overweight. Turns out she's been on and off the pre-diabetes stage for ages, plus suffering from (now irreversible) hyperlipidaemia, which is basically a catch-all term for high concentration of fats in the blood. She's been on medication since to handle it, but what's concerning is her dad (my grandfather) also had type 2 diabetes (despite not being overweight himself) and died of a heart attack in his sleep, which can now be attributed to hyperlipidaemia, something unknown at the time he passed. Long story short, she's been a bit freaked out about this being hereditary and not wanting to end up like her old man, so I too had some basic blood testing done, a solid idea anyway since the last time I tested was back in 2020 and these check ups are supposed to be annual. Now some of the numbers are probably artificially amped up, because it was a last minute arrangement and I was out for a beer or two with my friends the night prior, but the overall trend seems to strongly suggest I too have inherited this setup and scored on the extreme high end of the pre diabetes range while also having high fat cells.

 

This was a little weird news to take in. On one hand, it's good to know (and know ahead of time, compared to my ancestors) and let us not forget this is a pre disposition, I'm in the pre diabetic stage so it's absolutely reversible, most likely without medication either. On the other hand, it's a realization that I'll be playing this game on hard mode, especially since I've already been on a fitness journey for about a decade now. If I had those numbers while living a sedentary life, not minding my exercise or nutrition, I'd have a pretty wide margin for dramatic changes that would result in some equally dramatic initial results (water weight loss, newbie gains etc). The fact that I'm already at a decent point and still scoring high leaves less room for me to modify things and get even better results. Basically, with my workouts nailed down, it comes down to being stricter with my nutrition. And the good thing about this is, I am now past the uncertainty of the past 6+ months thinking what I'll do, looking up visa rules and changes, making arrangements, financial plans, arguing with the family, not having a job etc etc. I now enjoy a baseline stability that allows me to focus on the things I need to, invest the willpower in sticking to my new plans and being stricter on a more consistent meal plan. Things to take into account as I plan my next NF challenge, perhaps.

 

Friday 10 May

Drove off to where I'd submitted the court papers two days ago and had a hearing. This took up most of my morning and exhausted me enough for a midday nap. Once I was up, I did my workout, showered and hopped on a plane for a late night flight back home. If you add up the airport-to-home transition time and the clean up I had to do after leaving the cats home alone for a week, I went to bed at 3am, trying not to stress about them pulling out a couple of folders off the bookcase, which they promptly ripped appart and pissed or puked on some very important case documents.

 

Oh yeah, workout numbers

3x15 Overhead Press

3x15 Dumbbell Rows

3x12 Decline Pushups

3x20 Hammer Curls

3x20 Skull Crushers

3x20 Rear Delt Flyes

3x20 Side Lateral Raises

3x20 Calf Raises

Felt my stomach funny by then, so I skipped the front squats. Good thing my quads are already pretty beefy so it's not a big loss.

[DarK_RaideR]

Saturday 11 May

Finally got some plates and bumped up my dumbbells from 5 to 6kg each, which means back to the bottom of the rep range for each exercise.

3x8 Bench Press

3x8 Pull Overs

3x8 Overhead Press

3x12 Biceps Curls

3x15 Skull Crushers

3x15 Rear Delt Flyes

3x15 Side Lateral Raises

3x8 Front Squat

3x8 Romanian Deadlifts

3x15 Calf Raises

[DarK_RaideR]

Sunday 12 May

Recharge day. Slow morning, go some basic groceries delivered and then I decided I didn't want to spend the entire day inside. Thus, I went for a walk in the nearby park, just to grab a coffee from the stall in it, as an excuse to get out, get some air and sunshine. Also get my steps in, as I should mention since I got back, I'm back tracking my eating on my app and I've also activated a step tracker. Halfway out, I saw a message from DM @Jarric reminding everyone our session zero for his upcoming Planescape campaign was in half an hour, which I'd totally forgotten about! Thus I got back, we spent about an hour sorting out stuff and I must say, it was lovely seeing some familiar faces again. The rest of the day was mostly spent checking out City of Brass and knocking it off my videogame backlog, as well as trying out Crusader Kings 3 which was free on Steam for the weekend. Good to get it out of my system, got exactly as much as I wanted out of it and properly proceeded to remove it off my wishlist, which means less stress. That done, I did my workout, showered, had dinner and caught up with my adorable fiance, who I hadn't videocalled for much too long if you ask me.

 

Giving this bit a go with the new 6kg dumbbells

3x8 Overhead Press

3x8 Dumbbell Rows

3x13 Decline Pushups

3x12 Hammer Curls

3x15 Skull Crushers

3x15 Rear Delt Flyes

3x15 Side Lateral Raises

3x8 Front Squats

3x15 Calf Raises

 

Still surprises me how prioritizing something and being mindful of it just steers things towards that direction. Just  few days after getting back on the fitness app and already:

• I got meats and leafy greens for my groceries. Barring the tortillias for my workplace lunch burritos (of which I got the extra protein version ones) I've gone quite low carb already. No such thing as pasta, potatoes or processed/starchy carbs in the household.
• I'm skipping breakfast, which to be fair, I was kinda doing already. Guess that counts as unintentional intermittent fasting.
• I'm remembering to weigh in every morning.
• I'm pushed to drink more water daily and track it.
• I'm pushed to get out and walk (see: park tour). Also saw this morning it's roughly 3.300 steps door-to-door from my home to work, so just getting there and back again has me sitting at 6.600 without even trying.
• Just before typing this, I was told one of the receptionists at work had her birthday yesterday and brought us all treats to celebrate. Didn't even try one, saving myself the sugar and keeping the 'fasting' going.

Now I'm not new to this fitnessing thing, I know such things can often start up strong full of enthusiasm and then quickly go downhill. This doesn't feel like it's one of those cases though. Barring @deftona's visit in a week and a half (where I still plan to burn up any extra calories from delicacies through non-traditional cardio) this feels like a sustainable shift in lifestyle. More importantly, it feels like I'm going through a period of relative steadiness, having sorted out the visa, family, financial, work and other issues. This means stability, less stress, a steady income to finance my choices and help plan things, a daily routine I can plan my eating and workouts around.

[deftona]

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

(where I still plan to burn up any extra calories from delicacies through non-traditional cardio)

 

Whatever could you mean by this

 

*clutches pearls*

[DarK_RaideR]

12 hours ago, deftona said:

Whatever could you mean by this

 

*clutches pearls*

Come find out

 

Monday 13 May

Back to work, but only for a week and a half. Turns out I'm kicking off the summer holiday season and since everyone's getting 2 weeks off, I was asked for reasons of equality to clip 2 days off the original plan. No biggie, I'm still taking Thursday off to pick deffy up from the airport, working Friday, then we get the weekend to ourselves, working Monday again and it's off to the rest of our 2 week break. The downside is I need to really push myself in this remaining week and a half so I can be gone without any pending issues. It's about being professional but also because if I don't. there's a chance stuff will go tits up at my expense and/or I might get pulled back in to salvage something.

 

Gave myself the evening off as a rest day, because I was feeling really low on energy. It didn't make sense too, because I was straight in from Easter holidays and didn't exacly work that hard to justify my state. After some thinking, I decided it was probably lack of sleep (had less than my absolute minimum of 6 hours to be functional) combined with the shock of adjusting to a new eating plan of less carbs, less calories and longer gaps between meals (I guess you could technically call it fasting). Thus I went to bed early to catch up on sleep, but not before at least having a quick chat with my wonderful girlfriend.

[Jarric]

Sorry to hear about the pre-diabetes mate, but good thing you caught it while it's still reversible at least. Hope it doesn't take too longer for your body to adapt to the lower sugar diet.

[DarK_RaideR]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

Sorry to hear about the pre-diabetes mate, but good thing you caught it while it's still reversible at least. Hope it doesn't take too longer for your body to adapt to the lower sugar diet.

Thanks mate. Maybe I'll turn this whole fasting thing into a D&d monk theme for my next challenge. A tabaxi monk theme

 

Speaking of which, I noticed during the session zero call but never mentioned, you've done some seriously impressive work on your shoulders and surrounding area (upper arms and chest). Keep it up, that stuff is inspiring!

[DarK_RaideR]

Tuesday 14 May

Busy day at work, especially since I need to wrap up stuff before my deffy time off. I was planned to start the next day chill going to an out of town court for some paper submitting, then I'm also leaving early on Thursday for my therapist appointment, so I used the opportunity to stay at the office past my regular time to get some stuff done (and look super dedicated while at it). Despite the many hours spent at work, I still got home to have dinner before my eating window ran out, spent some time listening to my favourite podcast live as I was digesting the food and then hit the weights around midnight.

 

3x9 Bench Press

3x9 Pull Overs

3x9 Overhead Press

3x13 Biceps Curls

3x16 Skull Crushers

3x16 Rear Delt Flyes

3x16 Side Lateral Raises

3x9 Front Squat

3x9 Romanian Deadlift

3x16 Calf Raises

[DarK_RaideR]

Wednesday 15 May

As mentioned, I woke up with less pressure than usual and drove out to submit them papers. While the actual task itself didn't take much time (despite me struggling and making minor errors due to a lack of attention to detail, which is probably an ADHD thing and keeps making my life hard)  the driving there and looking for a parking spot near my house took way longer than it should have. On the bright side, no one knew exactly what time I was supposed to get back, so I took the opportunity to get my workout in, shower and then walk to work.

 

3x9 Overhead Press
3x9 Dumbbell Rows
3x13 Decline Pushups (those felt less murderous than usual, so I pushed the limit and did 14 on the last set, a sign I should move up next time)
3x13 Hammer Curls
3x16 Triceps Kickbacks
3x16 Rear Delt Flyes
3x16 Lat Raises (lots of half reps too early into this, might have to stick to the number of reps until I get the form right before advancing)
3x9 Front Squats
3x16 Calf Raises

 

The day prior, I was struggling a bit with the fasting and kept checking the clock when it was almost lunch time. This day I worked out while in the later stages of my fast and it didn't feel as exhausting as I expected it to, plus I was so cool with my eating I actually added an extra hour to my fasting for the day, pushing it to 17 hours before I had my lunch. The rest of the evening was spent cooking dinner, shredding a 2kg cauliflower in the food processor and storing it before it went bad, checking out the demo from Old World (which is very much a Civilization clone that wasn't even interesting enough for me to bother finishing the tutorial, so I uninstalled it and removed it from my wishlist, yay reduced stress!) 

[Jarric]

On 5/14/2024 at 11:30 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Speaking of which, I noticed during the session zero call but never mentioned, you've done some seriously impressive work on your shoulders and surrounding area (upper arms and chest). Keep it up, that stuff is inspiring!

 

Thank you mate! The extra weekly session in the climbing gym over the last few months really seems to have helped with that.