Basement Cat's battle log

[Basement Cat]

1 hour ago, Aline said:

Sorry for barging in on such a personal issue when we've never spoken before, it's just, I can relate.

Hey, I did put it on a public forum.  Nerd Fitness is a place of healing and growth. There are so many wonderful people here. I appreciate your insight and hope you can build your happiness.   

 

Welcome to the forum, by the way! Also: OMG Agatha Heterodyne avatar! Squee! Girl Genius is the best online comic ever! That and XKCD.

 

Cheers!

[Aline]

1 hour ago, Basement Cat said:

Welcome to the forum, by the way! Also: OMG Agatha Heterodyne avatar! Squee! Girl Genius is the best online comic ever! That and XKCD.

 

Thanks! And yeah, I think so too ^^

[RES]

Just checking on you...you know a lot of my feelings regarding family so you know I have two ears and shoulders, no waiting

 

and to hell with trying to fit someone elses mold of what they think you should be and do with your life

[Basement Cat]

Update:

As I suspected, I did not lose weight, but I stayed stable, so yay!

 

Also, my mother informed me that my sister would not be present at Sunday's family reunion, which changes everything. I will be going after all. My parents and brothers I can handle.  

[Lara]

7 hours ago, Basement Cat said:

Update:

As I suspected, I did not lose weight, but I stayed stable, so yay!

 

Also, my mother informed me that my sister would not be present at Sunday's family reunion, which changes everything. I will be going after all. My parents and brothers I can handle.  

Anything but good news!!!!  

[RES]

8 hours ago, Basement Cat said:

Update:

As I suspected, I did not lose weight, but I stayed stable, so yay!

 

Also, my mother informed me that my sister would not be present at Sunday's family reunion, which changes everything. I will be going after all. My parents and brothers I can handle.  

That is good news!!

And also good news, I have one sister that I'd rather tell to go get bent than deal with as well  

[Basement Cat]

Update: I survived the family reunion! I spent most of the time learning to knit from my mom and teaching my niece Eliane to make paper roses. One of my brothers and my father of course talked politics, but I was able to avoid the worst of it.

 

On another note, my parents gave me a crockpot (mine broke down somehow) and I cooked a lovely pork tomato stew with carrots, green beans and yellow beans. Topped with some cheddar and served on rice. Yummy!

 

Pork was on sale so I got about 6 meals worth for under 10$. Yay!

[Basement Cat]

I'm still around. I've been a bit neglectful so I skipped the weighing for October, but I'll be back on November 1st. I gained a bit of weight back, but I think I'm ready for s stricter regimen now. I have a plan for my career, and my being in shape is an essential part of it.

 

I'll be back on November 1st with my measurements.

[RES]

[Basement Cat]

Ok, so a few days late due to... reasons. My weight is at 211, which is 0.8 down from September. Not much, but I'll take it.

 

I'll just keep going from there.

[Basement Cat]

Here is the plan until summer:

 

Workout: brisk walking during breaks and lunch, inverted rows 3 times a week (work up to a pull up), inclined push ups 3 times a week.

Food: protein shake in the morning, bacon and eggs in the evening. Lunch will vary depending on what's on sale. Blended vegetable soup (red and green bell peppers, onions, carrots, spinach, celery, garlic and tomato) as a snack when necessary (aiming for three times a day to up veggie intake).

 

The workout routine is pretty basic, just two exercises, but I'm counting on walking, stair climbing and eventually sprinting to work my legs.

 

Spices boost metabolism (or so I heard), so I stocked up on turmeric, paprika, cayenne pepper among others. Those three are my go to seasonings after plain black pepper.

 

Next weigh in on December 1st. Cheers!

[Basement Cat]

Sleep check: in spite of a little cold, I notice that I have been sleeping less lately. It's a good thing in this case because I was sleeping 8-9 hours and waking up with a sore back, but now I sleep around 7 hours and my back feels fine.

 

Disordered sleep being one of the great indicators of health troubles, I am pretty happy about this.

 

I came up with a chocolate pancake recipe this morning that involves cocoa powder and chocolate protein powder. I did the math on calories, and one batch makes about 2 servings of pancakes that are high on protein and reasonable on everything else. They can be eaten plain, but I think some cooked berries would make a great syrup/topper as well as round out the micro nutrients. I ate them with butter this morning.  

 

I love cooking with cocoa powder. It's low in calories but packs a lot of flavor.

[Basement Cat]

November 14th 2017

 

Mid-month update. I have been exercising regularly, though i tend to vary between 3 or 5 sets depending on my mood. At least I'm doing my inverted rows regularly and I'm getting better at them. My grip is getting stronger, so it's all good.

 

I don't know what happened, but at my last weigh in on Saturday it said 211, but on Sunday (as in the day after) it was 216. Anyway, this morning I'm back down to 210.8, so I dropped a little over 5 pounds. Yay! I want to get under 200 by Christmas. It's always psychologically satisfying to drop the highest digit.  

 

I also replayed some old video games (Fable 2 and Fallout New vegas). I was missing exactly one achievement on each game (The Colourist and Hardcore respectively), so I decided to get them. It always annoyed me to see I was missing just one achievement from each. Now to get those last two from Dragon Age Origins...

[Basement Cat]

Everything is going well so far, but I know I will have to fight my slovenly ways when my paycheck comes in next week. So I made a meal plan for the coming month.

 

Breakfast is going to be a protein shake and dinner bacon and eggs all the time. Lunch changes every week. I know it's not ideal, but one step at a time. The number of weeks is based on the time until my next paycheck.

 

Week one: chicken sandwich with red cabbage soup.

Week two: squash spaghetti with meat (beef) sauce.

Week three: ham and cheese sandwich with veggie soup.

Week four: sausage and sauerkraut with apple mash.

week five: chicken curry with mashed potatoes.

 

All made with love and frozen veggies for the most part. Hey, it's actually cheaper that way and I'm on a budget.

[Lara]

On 14/11/2017 at 1:29 PM, Basement Cat said:

i tend to vary between 3 or 5 sets depending on my mood

That's totally normal. What you have to think is that even when your mood is not excellent, you're still doing your sets. That's what's important.

 

Are you going to eat the same lunch every day for a whole week? Doesn't that bore you? I'm fine repeating my breakfasts, but having the same for lunch/dinner over and over gets tiring soon.

[Basement Cat]

57 minutes ago, zenLara said:

Are you going to eat the same lunch every day for a whole week? Doesn't that bore you? I'm fine repeating my breakfasts, but having the same for lunch/dinner over and over gets tiring soon.

Yes to the first question, no to the second one.  I hate cooking in the morning, hence the protein shake. I love bacon and eggs, hence the dinner menu, and I'm fine with the same lunch all week unless it's a failed cooking experiment.  

 

That's one thing that is consistent between both my good and bad habits: I'm fine with routine. When I binge on my bad habits, it's always the same brand of soda, chips, wine, etc. I will vary every week, and perhaps on the weekends if I run out of the stuff I made. Batch cooking is a life saver for me because I am lazy. I would just go buy something from the store if I wasn't in the mood to prepare a new lunch/dinner. Gotta kill the bad habits!

[Lara]

I understand better now.

Self-knowledge is a great tool, huh?

[Basement Cat]

Ok, so I did a tryout sprint workout yesterday in the underground parking lot. It was only 10 or 15 minutes, but it already highlighted some things:

 

The good: my legs, butt and back are sore, but that's DOMS. No shin splints, no joint pain. I'll take that as a sign that my running technique is adequate.

 

The bad: my endurance is absolute crap. I felt like the RC car at the end of toy story as it ran out of juice. My lungs aren't up to scratch either.

 

The funny: somebody came into the lot as I was running. They seemed to think I was up to no good. It doesn't help that I was wearing a black hoodie with red writing on it. It's my NF hoodi, but from a distance...

 

So, the workout schedule for the coming weeks will be like this:

 

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: inverted rows and negative knee push ups.

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays: running workout

Sundays: food prep for the week (yes it counts as a workout!)  

[Lara]

5 hours ago, Basement Cat said:

The bad: my endurance is absolute crap

Honey, it was your first tryout and:

 

5 hours ago, Basement Cat said:

It was only 10 or 15 minutes

??? That's a huge lot of time for a first time. You have great endurance!

[Basement Cat]

22 minutes ago, zenLara said:

Honey, it was your first tryout and:

 

??? That's a huge lot of time for a first time. You have great endurance!

The whole workout was 10-15 minutes. I do 100 m dashes in the parking lot. My total run time was probably in the neighborhood of 90 seconds, and that was in separate 'waves'.

 

I need to brush up on my writing skills.  

[Lara]

Still, it is not that bad. 90 seconds of sprints are tough, even in waves. You're running full speed, using all you have. It burns energy quickly.

[Basement Cat]

22 minutes ago, zenLara said:

Still, it is not that bad. 90 seconds of sprints are tough, even in waves. You're running full speed, using all you have. It burns energy quickly.

It certainly does. I'm in better shape than mister Burns. That's something.  

 

[Lara]

Just now, Basement Cat said:

It certainly does. I'm in better shape than mister Burns. That's something.  

 

Everybody is got to start where they are. The thing is to keep on going

[Basement Cat]

Monday, November 20th 2017

 

Inverted rows: 5, 4, 4, 3

Negative knee push-ups: 10, 10,  8, 6

 

Got a long way to go until real pull ups and push ups. Hoo boy.

[Basement Cat]

New challenge thread in the ranger forum