Overwatch Needs You black_daiquiri

[imjustarogue]

 

This challenge only kinda-sorta has a theme - I love playing Overwatch, so I’m going with that.

 

In my wrap up of last challenge, I mentioned that I’ve joined the Academy. Right now, I’m at my heaviest and least fit, and with the inability to do much during pregnancy due to my SI joints misbehavior and my super-lax joints post-pregnancy, I’ve been having a hard time doing anything about it.

 

I joined the Academy because I need some structure with getting back to being fit (and hopefully fitter than I was pre-pregnancy). Too many snipers. No builders.

 

I’m not sure about the Academy quests and such, but that is going to be my main focus.

 

Second to that, I am going to add some yoga to my days - providing I can find someone to baby watch, especially since school starts this week. No support heroes.

 

And third, continuing the baby lifts and squat grins and stroller walks.

 

 

[imjustarogue]

Academy thing.

 

Yesterday, I had my sis come over to take my photos. I asked her to use her phone to keep the photos for me because I'm at the point where I will cry if I looked at them. I am super unhappy with my physicality right now.

 

But, I have photos. Tomorrow morning, I'm replacing the batteries in the scale and then doing measurements.

 

This part's harder than the actual exercising. >.>

 

Speaking of! Friday, fam and I went to Adventureland to celebrate my daughter's birthday (we take her to a theme park every year for her birthday - is fun!). It was hot, but there was a lot of walking.

 

Saturday, the weather was beautiful so I took bebe out for a walk. I sooooo was wishing I was more fit for a jog. Perfect jogging weather. Today too. We went out for another walk and I wished I was jogging.

 

If the weather keeps up, I'll definitely be getting out more. (there's a serious correlation between outside temps and my activity level - seemingly regardless of whether I go outside or not.)

[Manarelle]

8 hours ago, black_daquiri said:

But, I have photos. Tomorrow morning, I'm replacing the batteries in the scale and then doing measurements.

 

This part's harder than the actual exercising. >.>

 

You can do it. Take them, put them away, and move on. Measurements don't define you, you are way more awesome than numbers. <3

[imjustarogue]

Next step!

 

MY BIG WHY(S)

I don't have a singular reason for shelling out bucks to NFA - I have several (outside of my "I need some structure" in my intro post... guess that's kind of a why too!) My main reasons on why I want to get fit are:

• I want to play with my baby.
• I want to be a good role model for my children and family.
• I want to eat treats as "treats," not need them as -staples-.
• I want to look on the outside like I feel on the inside.

One of the other things I'm doing is starting to journal. Mine's going to be fitness related, but in a bullet journal style. I bought two different journals and a lot of pens of various colors. One of my journals is my practice journal: where I get my thoughts down in a jumble, practice lettering and doodles. The other will be my actual journal where I'm keeping my measurements, logging whatever I feel needs logged, and so on. I added my Whys to my first page as a reminder: this is why I'm doing this. I'll share some photos once I've got a chance to take them (because creativity is fun!).

 

Weather's great again today, so I'm thinking about going for a walk today - possibly one where husband pushes the stroller and I pop in my headphones for some Zombies and attempt to add a bit of jogging to my walk. We'll see.

 

[imjustarogue]

Today, I did my baby lifts and got some pretty adorable grins and giggles as my reward. And for NFA, I had to come up with 5 mini-goals that will help me get to my big goals, add them to my quest tracker and share them. So, here you go!

 

https://www.nerdfitness.com/character/87106

 

[tourennatrix]

yay!

[imjustarogue]

I totally forgot!

 

Yesterday, we went out for a walk after work (like around 7:20ish). Husband pushed the stroller and walked fast (he's always faster than I am because of his tremendously long legs) and I turned on Zombies Run and tested how well I jog. Here's what I learned:

 

#1 - absolutely need to make sure I have sportsbras that fit before I do that again. Being a breastfeeding mom used to smaller boobs, I took a few steps into a jog and was all "omg! what's going on?! how to other women run??" And then, every time I started a jogging bit, I had to do an awkward thing with my arms. Yeah. So that happened.

 

#2 - While I'm nowhere near as good as I used to be, I'm also nowhere near as bad as I feared. I kept it slow and, with the exception of using my arms to hold the ladies in place, I paid close attention to my stance because I know my stabilizing muscles around my knees are probably pretty weak and I didn't want to tweak them. I did have an issue about halfway through with some pain behind my kneecap. This is the kneecap where, when the dr was fixing a meniscus tear, he noted that the cartilage behind my kneecap looked like "crabmeat." He smoothed it out, but I always wonder if it's going to give me more issues. :/ 

 

#3 - I need to pay attention to what I'm eating and/or drinking prior and immediately after doing any jogging. I had been drinking water in the afternoon (instead of soda - yay!), but after we got back, I was so incredibly hot and sweaty that I decided to head straight to the shower. Before I even made it in, nausea hit. After my shower, I ate some cottage cheese and that seemed to help, so it's definitely something I'm going to have to keep an eye on. (Sis suggested electrolytes and potassium, so I am adding those to my "stock up on this stuff!" list.)

 

#4 - Remember to bug spray myself before going out. Especially now that it's late summer. I have two, super irritating mosquito bites that are making themselves known to me constantly today. >.>

 

#5 - I can do the thing! My pace was 17:21 which isn't great, but it is better than my first ever Zombies Run 5k just over 2 years ago. (not a lot better... but little victories) I was definitely not nearly as winded yesterday as I was when I first started.

 

^5

 

 

[Manarelle]

Woot, go you for doing the running! Yeah, sports bras are a must; they do make them in varying states of support now, which is nice. Jogging isn't good if you're giving yourself a black eye every step. 

[imjustarogue]

This is just too cute:

 

[tourennatrix]

It looks like he's polishing an egg or something o_o

 

(Bet yes adorbs)

[imjustarogue]

So, for a part of my NFA stuff, I need to keep track of all the things. In order to do that, I started up a fancy-pants journal.  

(hopefully you can see these stupid images... I store everything in google photos and really don't want to move photos to another thing in order to share things here.... why u no make sharing easy, googs???)

 

 

I'd add more photos now, except a certain little bebe finally fell asleep for his nap around 4 (after not taking his morning nap even!). I'm hoping he sleeps through the night tonight....

 

Since my last update, I've done things! Not fabulous things, but still things all the same.

 

Thursday

My Thursday started off rather rough. Bebe fell asleep around 12:30am (which is normal), woke up at 1:30 until 2:30, then woke up again at 4 until 6:30. And around 7 my daughter got up to shower and get ready for school (thankfully, bebe slept through that!) and then husband woke up (to wake her up because he didn't realize she was already up) and finally after 8:30, I was able to slump into a deep enough sleep (on the couch) that I didn't wake up again until 10 when my mom was coming over to watch bebe while I try to get some work done (ha!). So, yeah. Sleep deprivation ftw?

 

In the afternoon, I went with my sis for a ride to the City where bebe and I hung out and walked around the ped mall for about an hour. After that we ate some awesome pizza at a pretty cool grocery store deli/restaurant thing.

 

Friday

Yesterday, I don't really remember much. I spent a lot of time thinking about my journal and how I want to organize certain information so I can track things. I also did some NFA-related article reading and worked on my Loot List of various things I can earn when I complete challenges. So far, I've come up with these things:

• $1 saved toward 5k (or similar event)
• $5 saved toward 5k (or similar event)
• Fancy brush pens (from what I saw at Dick Blick, these can range from $4-10 depending on how fancy I want to get)
• Art supplies kit
• Woot!/Tee-fury shirt
• Exercise outfit (top & pants)
• Huhot meal (super loot) (I know food shouldn't be a reward, but Huhot is pretty healthy. We go there on occasion, but as a loot item, it would be a special trip to celebrate me)
• A Mother/Children tattoo - with my new bebe, this is high on my list of wants, but I also want to look/feel good in my own skin before I add another tattoo, so this is a reward for a super epic win.

My loot page has a lot of room on it so I can add fun and fancy things to it when I think of them.

 

Every day, I've managed to do some baby grin related fun things - usually baby lifts. He's big enough now that I absolutely have to be standing when I lift him, otherwise, he puts his feet down and tries to stand on my boobs and I'm missing out on full range of motion. Sometimes, I hold him while I do squats and tilt him back a bit so he giggles. I sometimes forget I'm working out!

 

My water intake is still about 1/2 of what I want - 8 glasses per day. I average 4. /sigh  But yesterday, I got all the way up to 6! >.> 

 

Of the 5 quests I made up as a part of my NFA stuff, I completed 3 of them (yay!):

• Walk/Jog 3 days - CHECK!
• Eat low/no grain breakfast (good bye bagels!) - CHECK!
• Strength train 2 days - CHECK!

Since my focus has been on working through NFA stuff, I really haven't thought much about yoga in my original first post... I do need to do some lower back stretches. Dealing with super tightness in my lower back because of picking up bebe, laying down bebe, carrying bebe, etc. bebe. So, I need to work in some stretches somehow.

 

Wow. This update's a little long, so I think Imma call it good.  

 

Here's a link to my Google Album which I'll update at least weekly with journal images, but also other fitnessy related stuff. My before photos will eventually end up in here too when I'm ready to look at them.

[imjustarogue]

My inspiration!

 

 

Added a few more photos of my journal to my album, so you can see my fantastic loot list, quest list, and some daily scribble-things. I also have a photo of the layout for next week. I'm pretty sure I'll have to tweak it a bit for the following week because I want to log my NFA workouts in addition to regular activities, plus I'm going to start food logging, so I think I'll need to have more space for all the things.

 

Today, I'm going to work on my workout schedule. Need to plan it with Husband and Daughter to make sure someone's available to watch bebe while I do my stuff. I think that's the hardest part of making a schedule for me - being dependent on other people so I can do things on my own. Ugh.

[Myrik]

Some of the best inspiration, my daughter's are mine as well.

[imjustarogue]

Yesterday sucked all the sucks. Having a teenager is so stressy. Having a baby is also stressy. Working from home while taking care of said baby is uber stressy. Stress, stress, stress.

 

I had an inkling thought Sunday night that I would get up early to do my first NFA workout. Yeah. Baby decided that it'd be fun to wake up several times over the course of the night, so by morning, I was zombied. >.< 

 

I managed to get a lot of work stuff done, which is something. And it's hard because designing websites requires focus. Babies require focus. Babies are more insistent and interrupt website design focus. Which leads to things taking forever and getting done in weird, unorganized ways that make me feel like I'm constantly forgetting stuff. /sigh

 

But, even though I managed to do that, I was in a crappy mood due to some stuff going on with my daughter. Crappy mood stuck around all day because of constant focus interruptions.

 

When husband got off work, he took a bit of time to watch baby so I could finish up some stuff, but that meant dinner was going to be later than usual (and it's usually late anyway). Ugh.

 

I didn't log anything, and because I hadn't exercised in the morning, I thought maybe I could do it in the evening. But then there was stuff with Husband watching baby while I finished up work, so it didn't happen in the evening. And then there was more drama with daughter, so I ended up not going to sleep until 2am... Who needs sleep anyway? >.>

 

Things that were good that happened:

• I managed to drink 4 glasses of water (albeit after 10:30pm)
• I did my baby lifts. I'm up to 10 reps - and he's got to be close to 17 lbs by now!
• I didn't overeat anything (because I didn't have mindless snacks) - so I was able to backfill my foodlog this morning

Hoping today will be better!

[raptron]

Hoping today goes better as well! 

[Manarelle]

1) Your journal looks a-freaking-mazing! (As does the bebe - I love his expression!)

2) Sorry to hear your previous day wasn't great. Bad moods are a pain to try to shift, especially when you're low on sleep. 

3) Hope today is wonderful and you get to catch up on sleep! (Hey, it could happen!)

[imjustarogue]

Yesterday was better mostly.

 

I didn't do much in the way of activities around the house outside of just taking care of baby which led to a bit of snacking on all the things. :/

 

But, I did get in my workout! No skipping two days in a row, right?

• Baby grins - 10x2 (at somewhere between 16-17lbs)
• NFA 1A workout
  • Squats - 10x3
  • Wall push-ups - 10x3
  • Bent-over rows - 10x3 (switched from the doorway rows in the exercise list because the doors in my house are all on oddly angled walls and/or open the wrong way to do a good row...)
  • Farmer's Walk with 5lb weights - 60sec

I am exhausted today. Not sure what's going on with baby - don't know if his day/night schedule is mixed up, or if it's a growth spurt, or if he's starting to teethe in earnest, but he didn't fall asleep until 1am, woke up again at 2-3, and again at 4:30 by which point I brought him downstairs to sleep in his little rocker while I slept on the couch (he fell asleep again around 5 or 5:30 maybe? i don't remember...). He slept until about 10:45, during which I slept fitfully because daughter woke up late for school and husband came down shortly after that to get breakfast stuff from the kitchen. So, yeah. I got "some" sleep but it was so intermittent and interrupted that I may as well have stayed up all night.

[imjustarogue]

Guys. My fitness journal shall now be referred to as a Zibaldone.

 

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-keep-a-zibaldone-a-13thcentury-answer-to-tumblr

 

[imjustarogue]

The past two nights have been so much better! Baby slept through for about 8 hours both nights and I cannot even tell you how much better I feel.

 

Also, keeping a journal has been kind of awesome. Husband keeps asking me if I've done anything creative in it. I haven't been that creative since I became pregnant and I rarely have time now that baby's here (when he sleeps, I'm either working or doing chore things or something else that's rarely about me...). So, being able to take some time out to doodle, or design my next page, or just sketch out ideas in my scratch journal makes him happy too.

 

Wednesday:

I was exhausted because of a bad night with baby. I got a few household things done and made sure to get in my Baby Grins (I think I only did one set of 5 because I didn't mark down anything else). I also did a short walk. No DOMS from Tuesday's workout.

 

Thursday:

I went on a pretty long walk (almost 2 miles) with husband and baby. Definitely felt DOMS from the squats on Tuesday (lolwut? I squat all the time leaning and squating and picking up baby, so why the glute rebellion??) The walk, while good, also sucked horribly. I just ached so much during the last bit of it. >.> But I also did Baby Grins (and starting to get some giggles!) - 2 sets of 5, plus stuff around the house.

 

Friday:

Only one set of Baby Grins - but 10 reps, so yay. My arms were strangely hesitant. There was the first home football game, so we bundled up baby to go watch his sister cheer. We got there early and he was done and ready to get away from so many people and such loud commotion by the middle of the second quarter. When we got home, I was sorely tempted to laze around, but I got up and did my B workout.

• Good mornings - 10x3
• Wall walk - 5x3
• One-leg balance - 15 sec each leg x3. I added complexity by doing this on my foam pad. I also may have danced and pet my cat who was wondering what the hell I was doing.
• Wall slide - 8x3. I had to do this one laying down on my back rather than put my arms against the wall and up over my head. All that damn computer work and this exercise clearly shows me that I need to do it more frequently. My chest and shoulders are so damn tight.
• Front plank - 20 sec x 1; 15 sec x 1. I'm supposed to do this 20x3, but as you can see, that didn't happen. Also, after the second try, my obliques and all around under my rib cage (side to back on both sides) decided to cramp up as I tried to get up off the floor. Like as in I could hardly inhale and I was stuck in this weird position on my knees leaning slightly forward. It was way super uncomfortable, but I pushed through it so I could just get out of that awkward position. Now I just ache all around my core. /sigh I shouldn't be surprised, though, since I'm nearly 6mo post-partum, but still, it was uncomfortable. I think in my next B workout, I'm going to just do the one 20 sec. plank and focus on my form. Once I can do that, I will add the second one in. And so on.

And now, it's time for me to get some pants on the baby before he falls completely asleep so I don't have to re-wake him later to do it.

[imjustarogue]

Here's a shot of last week filled in. As you can see, I need to work on upping my water intake in order to meet my one, little goal of 8 glasses of water in a single day. >.>

 

 

ZIBALDONE!

 

And here's my week set up. I found setting up each day for last week's in advance to be a little two rigid, so I'm just doing each day as they come (with similar styles to cut down on "creativity thinking" time). One thing I want to keep in mind is that I want to balance being creative with actually keeping up with the journal. It won't do me any good if I don't get Tuesday's header and water boxes and whatever else drawn because then I won't fill in the journal.

 

 

As you can see, yesterday was just POOP. So much poop. I ate crap, I felt like crap (which then contributed to eating more crap). But, like I wrote on my Zibaldone page, "Never miss two in a row" so today, I didn't eat fantabulous because of a family trip, but I will be doing my 1A exercises either in just a bit or after dinner (which will be sweet potato shepard's pie!!).  I'm super excited about dinner.

[tourennatrix]

<3

 

Images 1 and 3 are borked. Image 2 might only be showing up for me because you shared it with me earlier in hangouts. 

 

</ITSUPPORT

 

[imjustarogue]

For the love of stupid google! x.x

 

edit: I checked all of the images and they show up incognito so they should show up properly now. *grumblegrumble*

 

 

[raptron]

Images work for me and I love your journal soooo. Mine is just mad text scribbles. Sorry you had such a poop day but today sounds exciting and good! 

 

 

[tourennatrix]

Where's the flibbertygiblet?

[imjustarogue]

35 minutes ago, raptron said:

Images work for me and I love your journal soooo. Mine is just mad text scribbles. Sorry you had such a poop day but today sounds exciting and good! 

Yay! I relinked them so I think that helped and I think if I grab the image links from my photo album while in incognito mode rather than while I'm logged in, it may be a different link and that could be why it was broken in the first place... maybe? 

 

And thanks! I am loving having a fun, pretty zibaldone.  (I am in love with that word.) Journaling is helping a lot. I haven't changed much of anything food related, but I'm keeping track of everything (except for poop-day) and husband said this morning that I look like I may be losing weight or something. I dunno. I'm in that weird postpartum stage of who-the-hell-knows-whats-going-on. Plus, having the journal - I write down both of my NFA workouts so I have a quick reference and keep track of various things as I do them (rather than having a "to-do" list). That helps remind me that I am accomplishing something, especially on days where I feel like I didn't do anything except feed and change the baby.

 

29 minutes ago, tourennatrix said:

Where's the flibbertygiblet?

ARGHIFORGOT! I SHALL ADD FLIBBERTYGIBLET SOMEWHERE IN MY JOURNAL TODAY JUST FOR BECAUSE!