Battle Report: Myrdinn vs Fitness

[Myrdinn]

Hope a few of you appreciate the cheeky Warhammer/40k reference in the thread title there.

 

I have exercised and eaten well for two whole days in a row and thought I'd start this thread to try and keep myself motivated and honest. I won't pad this out with any back-story except to say that my goals are somewhere on the borders of being a Ranger and an Adventurer (my full NF origin story can be found here if anyone's interested) and this might not make for scintillating reading but any comments, encouragement or advice will be very much appreciated.

 

So without any more ado: LET BATTLE COMMENCE.

 

Saturday, July 9th

 

Exercise: Went for a run! I haven't done this, or any strength training, in quite some time so just getting my trainers on and getting out the door felt like a pretty decent achievement. I went out with the aim of completing Steve's interval training workout. 5 minute warmup jog across the common outside my house, stretched a bit, then ran four 30 second sprints with 2 minutes of diminished effort in between. The full workout is 6 sprints, but I was dying after the fourth so I jogged/walked home. Felt great.

Food: Skipped breakfast (trying to make breakfast a habit but it's a tough one as I've never eaten it regularly), had a spinach, pancetta and feta 3-egg omlette with a bit of chopped chilli for lunch, and a curry for dinner (some saag paneer, a spicy chicken dish, a roti, some onion bhajees and a lamb samosa). 

Fun: Bought and re-read V For Vendetta, and picked up a Gamesmaster's kit for the new Star Wars roleplaying game which we're trying out next weekend.

 

Sunday, July 10th

 

Exercise: Did the NF Beginner's Bodyweight routine. As with the run this is the first strength training I've done in quite some time so just doing it felt like an achievement. 5 minute jog to warm up, then some dynamic stretching. Got through the first two sets fine, swapping in an inverted bodyweight row for the dumbell row since I couldn't find anything to lift, but couldn't complete the full set of press-ups on the third set and could only finish the lunges by balancing myself on a railing. My form on the upper-body stuff was generally quite poor, but at least I got through it!

Food: Again went straight to lunch, which was sweetcorn fritters, roast tomato, spinach salad, mashed avocado and bacon. Dinner was lasagne with butternut squash, spinach, tomato sauce and a cottage cheese and sunflower seed topping. I also ate about 200g of cottage cheese to give myself a quick protein hit after the workout, and had a slice of bread and honey after dinner.

Fun: Spent the day hanging out with my wife, which is always the best way to spend any day.

 

More tomorrow - I am planning on an other set of internal sprints this evening and have started well by having a banana for breakfast.

 

[Myrdinn]

Monday July 11th

 

Exercise: Interval sprints - 5 minute warmup, 6 sprints of 30 seconds each with 2 mins rest in between them (apart from between the 5th and 6th where I took a 3 minute rest). The "rest" was jogging for all 5 breaks, apart from between the 4th and 5th where I walked for 30 seconds, jogged for 90 and the 5th and 6th where I walked for a minute, jogged for two.

Food: Banana and a flat white for breakfast; avocado, spinach and roast chicken sandwich on granary for lunch; handful of unsalted peanuts after my workout; leftovers of Sunday's lasagne for dinner. Then I caved and ate a chocolate bar after dinner. Bad Myrdinn.

Fun: None whatsoever really. Long day at work, then my run, then several hours of reading to prepare for a Tuesday morning meeting, then bed. I did pick my character for the RPG session on Sunday though.

[Myrdinn]

Tuesday July 12th

 

Exercise: Another set of bodyweight exercises last night - completed the NF beginners bodyweight workout. Well, almost completed, as I failed on the final pressup, but did everything else. I think I need to get my hands on a kettlebell or similar and start doing rows rather than bodyweight rows for my back - my form on them is currently so poor that I don't think I'm doing myself any good. More on that anon.

Food: Missed breakfast (meant to eat at my desk but walked into the morning from hell at work). Lunch was two rounds of avocado and smoked salmon sandwiches with the banana I should have eaten for breakfast. Dinner was a piece of monkfish that was going cheap at the supermarket, pan-fried with a mixed veg stir-fry (brocolli, baby leeks, carrots, sweetcorn), followed by two slices of bread with banana and honey.

Fun: Had a horrible day at work and the house to myself in the evening so listened to a Warhammer podcast while cooking dinner and watched Star Wars: A New Hope in the evening.

 

Today is a rest day as we're meeting my parents for dinner. Will update with today's food and fun tomorrow though.

[Myrdinn]

Wednesday July 13th

 

Exercise: rest day, although I did walk about two miles between meetings so wasn't completely sedentary all day.

Food: Skipped breakfast. Two rounds of hummous, carrot, red pepper and spinach sandwiches for lunch. Dinner was at a German restaurant with my parents. Had roast beets and goats cheese as a starter, with a main course of various German meaty things with pureed potato and sauerkraut and a couple of glasses of wine. Probably not the healthiest thing ever but I skipped desert so feeling relatively happy with my choices.

Fun: Was lovely to see my folks who I haven't caught up with for quite some time.

[Myrdinn]

Thursday July 14th

 

Not a particularly good day health-and-fitness-wise!. Although on the plus side I did actually get a really good nights sleep last night, which I haven't for some time since my wife has been ill with a chest infection and has been up pretty much every night coughing, poor thing. Combination of her being a little better and me having had a few beers meant I slept through the night.

 

Exercise: Nothing noteworthy, not even a decent walk.

Food: A fairly bad day. Starbucks latte for breakfast, two rounds of hummous, carrot, red pepper and sund-dried tomato sandwiches on granary for lunch. Met a friend after work and drank five pints of beer though, which meant that dinner ended up being a pizza and a tub of coleslaw in front of the TV.

Fun: The aforementioned five pints with a friend definitely qualifies. 

 

I've got a least a couple of workouts plus an RPG session planned for the weekend, plus my first four-week challenge starts tomorrow. I'll most likely update this log and the challenge thread on Monday. Not sure whether anyone's reading this, but if you are then have a wonderful weekend. 

[Myrdinn]

Big update today

 

Friday July 15th

 

Exercise: Nope.

Food: Banana and coffee for breakfast. Veggie Pad Thai for lunch. Takeaway pizza for dinner.

Fun: A quiet night in with my wife.

 

Saturday July 16th

 

(AWFUL day!)

 

Exercise: None.

Food: Met friends for a bottomless brunch which consisted of a plate of eggs royale, coffee, croissant and cake plus a huge amount of cheap prosecco. Ended up in the pub until about 9pm and ended up skipping dinner and going straight to bed.

Fun: The brunch should have been fun but I just ended up feeling really bad about drinking too much.

 

Sunday July 17th

 

Exercise: Nada

Food: Banana, granola and yoghurt for breakfast. Pizza, garlic bread and salad for lunch. Homemade Mac Cheese for dinner.

Fun: Spent the afternoon playing the intro game for the new Star Wars RPG, Force and Destiny, which was superb.

 

Monday July 18th

 

Exercise: Interval run. Hottest day of the year so far in London and I probably took it a bit too easy due to worrying about dehydrating/overheating, so only ran four sprints.

Food: Banana, granola and yoghurt for breakfast, 2 tuna mayo sandwiches on granary for lunch, salmon fillet with stir-fried veg for dinner.

Fun: Picked up the Force and Destiny rulebook and started planning characters, listened to a Warhammer podcast, watched Event Horizon.

 

[Wobbegong]

I love this!! I've always been terrible at keeping up with a good/exercise log like this and I think posting it online is a great way to keep yourself accountable. I may have to try this. 

 

You're doing great with the exercise, especially for not having done much recently! Keep it up! 

 

I'll be following along!

[Myrdinn]

10 hours ago, tyrannosaurus rose said:

I love this!! I've always been terrible at keeping up with a good/exercise log like this and I think posting it online is a great way to keep yourself accountable. I may have to try this. 

 

You're doing great with the exercise, especially for not having done much recently! Keep it up! 

 

I'll be following along!

 

Thanks! I'm finding it really helpful knowing that whatever I do I have to post it up here the next day - it's keeping me honest.

[Myrdinn]

Tuesday July 19th 

 

Even hotter than Monday, temperatures in London hit 35c today (those of you from actually hot parts of the world - I know. But anything that's not persistent rain is worthy of comment over here).

 

Exercise: Very pleased with this - I completed the beginners bodyweight routine. 3 x full sets of everything. I still have some work to do on my form, particularly on the upper-body stuff where I already know I'm weaker, but given the conditions I was really happy to hit that little milestone. If anyone reading this has any suggestions for how to progress on from here without setting foot in a gym I'm all ears.

Food: Yogurt and granola for breakfast, tuna and left-over stir fry veg as a sort of salad for lunch. Made a great Greek picnic meal for my wife and I for dinner; chicken in a lemon and oregano marinade, fresh tzatziki, stuffed vine leaves, pita bread and greek salad with olives, peppers, tomatoes and feta cheese. Delicious and felt really healthy, plus we ate in the garden, which felt a little like being on holiday!

Fun: Dinner in the garden with my wife. Lovely.

[Wobbegong]

8 hours ago, Myrdinn said:

If anyone reading this has any suggestions for how to progress on from here without setting foot in a gym I'm all ears.

 

Not sure if you're the type to get bored of doing the same thing over and over (I prefer regularity because eventually I feel like I actually know what I'm doing! But I know for some people it gets very tiresome), but if you're enjoying the BBWW one thing you could do is look up exercise progressions. Just type "[exercise name] progression" into your favorite search engine and check out a couple of articles, since some may include more or different steps than others. 

 

As you begin to feel like you're mastering a specific exercise or three rounds of it aren't hitting you as hard as they used to, you can switch that exercise out for the next-hardest variant in the progression (even just switch out one round to begin). By utilizing progressions, you can basically make the BBWW work for you indefinitely just by constantly pushing yourself and swapping out forms. 

 

Example progression: Wall push ups → incline push ups → half push ups → one-leg half pushups → push ups → diamond push ups → one-leg push ups → decline push ups → decline diamond push ups

 

You can pretty much keep going indefinitely by just constantly restarting with a harder variation (go back to the beginning doing one-arm everything!). There are also often "intermediate" steps if you feel like the next progression is too hard, but the one you're on is too easy. If you're also working on balance, you can eventually even do handstand pushups and one-arm handstand pushups (the stuff of legends!). It's the same with most exercises -- I always thought pull ups were the ultimate back exercise until I learned about muscle ups. There's always something harder you could be doing! 

[Myrdinn]

On 20/07/2016 at 7:52 PM, tyrannosaurus rose said:

As you begin to feel like you're mastering a specific exercise or three rounds of it aren't hitting you as hard as they used to, you can switch that exercise out for the next-hardest variant in the progression (even just switch out one round to begin). By utilizing progressions, you can basically make the BBWW work for you indefinitely just by constantly pushing yourself and swapping out forms. 

 

This was incredibly helpful, thank you - I did this last night and have discovered an almost infinite range of ways to torture myself!

[Myrdinn]

Wednesday July 20th

 

Exercise: Rest day

Food: Breakfast: Yogurt and Granola, and a Starbucks latte; Lunch: Left over greek salad; Dinner: Salmon Quiche and a couple of small salads - one chickpea one and a rice and avocado one. Not quite as healthy as it might sound because all three elements were pre-prepared and shop-bought. And because I was still hungry (lesson - salad is not enough for lunch) and had a cheese sandwich after dinner. Also had a couple of biscuits that were knocking around the office as a snack.

Fun: Nothing much - work is crazy at the moment so had a quiet night in.

 

Thursday July 21st

 

Exercise: Meant to go for a run but didn't.

Food: Breakfast: Yogurt and Granola; Lunch; Sushi; Dinner; Cheeseburger with Kimchi and fries, with a couple of beers.

Fun: Ended up going out for dinner with my wife - I've been offered a new role at work so we were talking it over. Lovely meal and a very useful conversation!

[Wobbegong]

6 hours ago, Myrdinn said:

This was incredibly helpful, thank you - I did this last night and have discovered an almost infinite range of ways to torture myself!

 

I aim to please/torture haha. Good luck and enjoy!

[Myrdinn]

Friday July 22nd

 

Exercise: Nope

Food: Breakfast, Granola and Yogurt (there's a theme emerging here), Lunch; sandwiches from the office canteen; Dinner - it was my wife's birthday weekend so we ate out with her family. I had steak tartare, lamb with an aubergine puree and a desert - can't remember what the desert was. I also had a couple of beers before dinner and a few glasses of wine with the meal.

Fun: Lovely meal, good to see my in-laws who I am lucky enough to get on with very well.

 

Saturday July 23rd

 

Exercise: A long walk but nothing more intensive than that.

Food: Breakfast - skipped; Lunch, a vegetable quiche with a side salad bought from our local cafe on the way home; Dinner, out again, this time with friends for my wife's birthday. We went to a restaurant that serves a whole load of small dishes to share so I had small amounts of cornbread, smoked salmon, almonds and olives, roast corn on the cob, and a roast squash and kale salad, followed by a larger plate of roast chicken and sweetcorn and an ice-cream desert. Plus wine and a cocktail in a bar after dinner.

Fun: Again, see above really. Plus we bought a new bed which my wife was really happy about.

 

Sunday July 24th

 

Exercise: Nothing

Food: Brunch: This. I suspect it isn't good for me but it tastes SO GOOD. Dinner; pizza.

Fun: Spent the afternoon lying in the sun watching a social cricket game, helping my wife nurse her hangover.

 

I am finding logging all this stuff really useful, particularly whilst running a challenge simultaneously. A couple of observations just from having logged the last couple of weeks:

 

1) I don't exercise on enough days of the week. I need to try and make sure I'm exercising at least of of the days of the weekend.

2) Definitely related - I go out to eat and drink too much. Leaving aside whether I drink too much (living in London where the social life completely revolves around the pub/drinking at dinner, this is a really easy trap to fall into) this limits the amount of time I have to exercise, costs me a fortune (I definitely need to work on getting on top of my finances as part of a future challenge) and breaks up the flow of e.g. making myself lunch for the next day, which is a habit I'm really trying to get into.

 

[Myrdinn]

Monday July 25th

 

Exercise: None.

Food: Skipped breakfast (bad Myrdinn), sandwiches from Pret for lunch (need to cut these out permanently, they cost a fortune and are just slabs of fat between two bits of bread, dinner out with my wife for her birthday. All delicious, all probably quite bad for me - duck balls (not like that ...), little scones with bacon in them, mixed veg bruschetta-type-thing, pork and veggies for a main, chocolate mousse for desert.
Fun: As so often seems to be the case, see above. I'll forgive myself for this one, as my wife had a lovely time.

 

Tuesday July 26th

 

Exercise: BBWW. I was brutal with myself this time - squats as near to the floor as I could get them, push-ups with my nose touching the floor etc. Found all the leg exercises quite manageable even while punishing myself on form so I am going to change those up a little. My upper body still needs work - I think I managed 8-8-6 on the press-ups and less on the bodyweight rows. It was worth the effort though, I can really feel it in my arms today. Added some extra hold time to the plank too, so did 3 x 20 seconds.

Food: Skipped breakfast again, canteen sandwiches for lunch, salad for dinner - baked mushrooms, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, avocado on spinach with honey mustard dressing. Tasty.

Fun: Enjoyed the exercise so much yesterday. Re-read the opening of William Gibson's Neuromancer too, which I haven't read for ages. Such a great novel.

 

I'd say I've had a pretty bad last week - hadn't actually exercised in a full week, had been out too much, eating too much crap etc. But last night felt good, I ate breakfast this morning, and have brought a tuna salad in for lunch. I'm going to keep plugging away!

[Myrdinn]

Wednesday July 27th

 

Exercise: Intervals. Pushed myself hard all the way around and ran 5 sprints - was dying by the end of the last one. I think I could have pushed myself through the sixth though, so need to keep the faith next time and really grit my teeth to get through to the end of it.

Food: Latte, yogurt and granola for breakfast. I was out for lunch and had a cauliflower risotto which looked like the healthiest thing on the menu. It tasted amazing and I suspect it had a terrifying amount of butter in it! Dinner was pizza and salad, but a pretty small portion of pizza. Also ate some chocolates after dinner that my other half was given for her birthday.

Fun: Quiet on this front today, although I did read a bit more of Neuromancer,

 

Two better days after a run of bad ones - Weds wasn't the best day food-wise but the exercise felt good, and the diet could have been an awful lot worse! Aiming for a third night of exercise in a row tonight, and Mrs Myrdinn is out at her HIIT class tonight which means I can have something super-healthy for dinner.

[Myrdinn]

Thursday July 28th

 

Exercise: Bodyweight day. Changed the basic workout up a bit having started to find the basic workout I started with less challenging. The changes came from recommendations on Start Bodyweight which I found thanks to @tyrannosaurus rose So did 3 rounds of the following with 3 minutes rest in between sets:

 

6 x Bulgarian split squats (each leg - demo video here but basically a single-leg squat with your back leg resting up on a bench) 

10 lunges (each leg)

8 press-ups (nose to the floor every time, no cheating!) 

4 x bodyweight rows, knees bent

20 second plank

 

The upper body stuff is still tough and I've actually gone back to square one on the rows because my form was so poor, but I need to keep working harder on my legs.Might try moving up to a modified version of the Advanced Bodyweight Workout with some of the progressions from Start Bodyweight thrown in.

 

Food: Standard breakfast, with a latte on the way into work. Chicken, bacon and avocado salad for lunch. Tuna and boiled egg salad with cucumber, red pepper, cashew nuts and mixed leaves for dinner. A very good day, if anything perhaps slightly too low on calories.

Fun: Watched the first hour of Wayne's World, and realised how often I quote lines from that film without even realising it.

 

Hoping I can fit in another workout - or even 2 - over the weekend and watch my diet more than I have the past couple, will report back on Monday!

[Wobbegong]

I'm glad to hear you found some progressions you like! Looks like you're ramping up your workout to keep up with the gains you're making, which is awesome!

 

Keep it up with breakfast, even if it is usually yogurt and granola (nothing wrong with that! I usually add a little fruit to mine -- the supermarket always has blueberries in summer). You got this!

[Myrdinn]

Friday July 29th

 

Exercise: None

Food: Yogurt and granola breakfast; grilled steak, broccoli and salad lunch. Completely pigged out at dinner and ate chicken wings, a massive burger and fries. Not going to beat myself up too badly for this as I've been pretty good this week.

Fun: Dinner with friends - the guy of the couple we were seeing is a massive bodyweight workout fan too so spent most of the evening talking equipment and progressions for that.

 

Saturday July 30th

 

Exercise; None

Food: Brunch; Bacon, spinach and cheese omelette, with a mixed-leaf salad with pumpkin seeds and  sun-dried tomatoes, with black coffee. Dinner was a BBQ at a friends new flat. Couple of burgers, a sausage and three corn cobs, plus a few beers (four or five I think). Caved in and ate a McDonalds on the way home too, which I felt very guilty about afterwards because I really didn't need it.

Fun: BBQ was fun.

 

Sunday July 31st

 

Exercise: Walked about 6/7 miles all in. Not the proper workout I was planning to fit in this weekend, but better than nothing.

Food: Brunch was a grilled cheese sandwich and a flat white. Dinner was a burrito bowl (rice, chicken, red peppers, home-made guacamole, fresh tomatoes, black beans and a handful of spinach). Had a chocolate bar as a snack in the evening and a piece of cake in the afternoon though.

Fun: Went and watched two of our friends in Ride London, which is a 100 mile cycle race that starts and finishes in central London.

 

Looking forward to getting back to the workouts this evening.

 

[Myrdinn]

Monday August 1st

 

Exercise: None

Food: Home made Bircher muesli (I am going to write up the recipe for this and post it somewhere) for breakfast; tuna, red pepper and cucumber salad on spinach with pumpkin seeds for lunch; IKEA meatballs, smoked salmon and daim bar cake for dinner.

Fun: We went to IKEA, which was not so much fun, and watched a couple of episodes of Stranger Things, which is just the best thing I've seen on TV in ages (probably since True Detective).

[Myrdinn]

Tuesday August 2nd

 

Exercise: tried a variant on the Advanced Bodyweight Workout

 

10 x Bulgarian squats each leg

20 Bodyweight Squats

20 Walking lunges

20 Step-ups

10 Dips (I was doing bent-knee bench dips, as I can just about get a single rep out doing them properly and don't have access to a dip station)

10 Overhand grip bodyweight rows, bent knees

10 Press ups

10 Underhand grip bodyweight rows, bent knees.

30 second plank

 

It destroyed me. I almost made it through the first set, but couldn't quite finish the second set of rows. I made it through most of the second set, failed on the press-ups and the second set of rows. Didn't even start the third set. I am out tonight roleplaying, but tomorrow night I am taking this bad boy on again.

 

Food: Bircher for breakfast, work lunch at a restaurant where I tried to make good choices - stuffed olives, chickpea "meatballs", some gnocchi in kale pesto, a smoked salmon mini-pizza and a pea, mint and feta salad (this was to share, not all to myself, and was in very small portions). Dinner was prawn fajitas with fresh guacamole and wholemeal tortillas.

Fun: Finished Stranger Things which was amazing.

 

[Myrdinn]

Wednesday August 3rd

 

Exercise: 3-4 miles walking - nothing major but better than nothing.

Food: Bircher, a bowl of ramen noodles for lunch with veggies, pork and boiled egg, and a tuna salad for dinner. Which would have been great if I hadn't then eaten a load of crap (sweets and crisps) while we were roleplaying in the evening.

Fun: Spent the evening playing Star Wars: Force and Destiny. It's great. 

 

Thursday August 4th

 

Exercise: Went for a run. Rather than intervals I mapped out a 3.5k course and decided I would start out as fast as I dared and see how far I got. It felt great. I felt stronger and faster and fitter than almost ever before. I didn't plan it as a fitness test, but it wound up feeling like one and I could really feel the gains I've made. I was dying by about 2/3 of the way round and ended up jogging the last bit because I went off far too fast, but I'm glad I did it.

Food: Bircher, smoked mackerel and salad for lunch, then oven-baked sea bass, tomatoes, red peppers, olives and courgette noodles for dinner. Had a bowl of yogurt, raisins and walnuts after dinner too.

Fun: Watched the documentary on the 2015 Crossfit Games on Netflix. Kinda put it on by accident but ended up really enjoying it. What those people can make their bodies do is amazing.

[Myrdinn]

Friday August 5th

 

Exercise: None

Food: Bircher, tuna salad for lunch and a pizza for dinner.

Fun: Played the guitar with a friend in the afternoon and went to see the BFG movie in the evening, which was great.

 

Saturday August 6th

 

Goals: So I finally got round to reading Strength Unbound, which @Guzzi mentioned in my intro thread, and I found it incredibly useful. His section on goals was particularly so, and I've adopted Jay's Basic Strength Goals as my own. So by Christmas I want to be able to do:

 

5 pull-ups

1 straddle one-arm push-up, each arm

60 second wall handstand

5 pistol squats with each leg

15 second hanging leg raise hold 

 

Exercise: Bodyweight workout. Again based on Strength Unbound I stripped the workout back from the NF advanced bodyweight workout and just worked on one of each type of bodyweight exercise, and included breaks of 2 minutes in between each set of exercises rather than performing them as circuits.

 

3 x 8 Bulgarian Split Squats

3 x 6 bent-knee bodyweight rows, alternating overhand and underhand grip (starting overhand)

3 x 30 second plank

3 x 4 elbows-in push-ups

2 x 6 and 1 x 4 decline push-ups with feet on bench

 

Food: Omelette with spinach salad for brunch, PBJ sandwich and a handful of walnuts post-workout. Dinner out for date night: Mackerel fillets to start, steak and chips with spinach for a main course and a very naughty chocolate and hazelnut brownie.

Fun: Beautiful day in London which I spent hanging out with my gorgeous wife. What's not to like?

 

Sunday August 7th

 

Exercise: None

Food: Toast with peanut butter for breakfast, big lunch at my in-laws place where I stuck to meat, veg and salad and shied away from the potatoes but ate bread, some nibbles for a starter, and two deserts (BAD!). Dinner was pasta with chicken and pesto, with an ice-cream for desert.

Fun: Watched the Olympics in the evening. So great, every four years it comes around and I've forgotten how much I enjoy it!

[Guzzi]

Yay! I'm helping!!!!  

[Myrdinn]

20 hours ago, Guzzi said:

Yay! I'm helping!!!!  

 

You are indeed. Any feedback on the workouts? I am flying blind here with a couple of websites for guidance. I know you do more barbell work, but any thoughts would be helpful.

 

Hope you're well?