Jon Firestar Goes on the Offensive!

[jonfirestar]

On the Offensive!

 

I was beaten down last challenge but I was not defeated! Even now, the forces of darkness gather on the horizon making ready to attack again. Now is not the time to back off and hide. It is not the time to lick my wounds and hope I survive the next onslaught.  It is time to go on the offensive!

 

It is time to ride to battle. To attack the fortified position of the enemy by subterfuge or by sheer force. We will prevail!

 

Let’s ride!

 

 

 

The enemy is called Christmas!

 

I do love Christmas and I am not so foolish to believe that I am going to go through the whole thing unscathed. This year it includes 2 weeks of vacation, a trip to Wales (to visit family) and the simple fact that I do want to have some of the Christmas treats that only come along at this time of year (I’m very partial home made mince pies, sigh).

 

Vacation is weeks 3 and 4, although only some of that is actually going to be spent away. Given the evolving landscape I’m focusing my challenge on my health and fitness related goals rather than wider life goals.

 

Provisions:

 

Not much is changing here. Make a meal plan, stick to it. Record any changes to that plan on MFP

 

Drink 2 liters of water per day.

 

Limit any treats to one or two on the weekends only. Record them all.

 

 

Make Speed:

3 day a week Run

Monday - 30min easy run

Tuesday - Intervals/hills

Friday - long run

 

 

To Battle!

 

4 Day a week lifting program.

Monday - Overhead press

Tuesday - Deadlifts

Thursday - Benchpress

Friday -  Squats

 

 

Make Camp

 

I’m going to continue to record my sleep for this challenge. Taking special focus for while I’m off work towards the end to keep things sane, although I’m not going to be tracking while I’m in Wales because that’s a fool's errand. The goal is the same as before. Bed by 10:30 for at least 7 hours sleep

 

 

Week 3: Boss Battle

 

Part of Christmas week I am going to be away. The following are the alterations to my plan for this time. 

 

Need more health potions!

Keep my food plan until I go away to Wales. I’m not recording whilst I’m away, but I want to just remain mindful of my goals and try not to overindulge too much too often.

 

 

Fight!

I’m going to be away for two scheduled exercise days. Do a hotel room bodyweight workout on those days.

 

Chase them down!

Take a morning run around the Welsh village on the Friday morning.

 

 

Scoring is very simple. I want to be good at least 80% of the time. So I have a life bar that is effectively 26. For each item I miss I’ll deduct a health point. The goal is to keep that total above 0 .

 

*********************HP*****************

*========================== *

******************************************

[Jarric]

Following again, looking forward to seeing you sleigh Christmas (see what I did there?).

 

Oh, I like the health bar idea by the way.

[Wild Wolf]

Following along brother! I sucked last time so I'll be better this time  

 

 

Wolf

[x Valkyrie x]

Aw vacation is what ruined me on this last challenge, be vigilant against the "calories don't count on vacation" monster!! 

Your goals and plan of action are awesome!

[OddlyOtter]

Oh man I have a vacation that will ruin me too. Maybe I'll take some inspiration from you and be prepared to battle Christmas (vacation)

[deftona]

Following along! Where about in Wales are you going? North or South? 

[jonfirestar]

11 hours ago, Jarric said:

Following again, looking forward to seeing you sleigh Christmas (see what I did there?).

 

For that pun you get  a gold star!

 

 

Good to have you along again!

 

8 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

Following along brother! I sucked last time so I'll be better this time  

 

Not to worry bother! I kind of sucked with keeping up with stuff last time too! I'm glad to have you in my corner! I hope life is treating you better.

 

8 hours ago, x Valkyrie x said:

Aw vacation is what ruined me on this last challenge, be vigilant against the "calories don't count on vacation" monster!! 

Your goals and plan of action are awesome!

 

Thanks. You are right! We must remain vigilant!

 

5 hours ago, OddlyOtter said:

Oh man I have a vacation that will ruin me too. Maybe I'll take some inspiration from you and be prepared to battle Christmas (vacation)

 

Yeah it's a difficult time of year for all of this stuff. That's why I want to face it head on!

 

1 hour ago, deftona said:

Following along! Where about in Wales are you going? North or South? 

 

Welcome back! South Wales. Llanelli to be specific, don't ask me to pronounce that! Even the people who live there can't seem to agree on it. I've a whole lot of family in South Wales and make the trip fairly regularly.

 

 

[deftona]

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

Welcome back! South Wales. Llanelli to be specific, don't ask me to pronounce that! Even the people who live there can't seem to agree on it. I've a whole lot of family in South Wales and make the trip fairly regularly.

 

A lovely part of the world! I have family in Wales too but mostly in the north. And about pronunciation - I have a welsh first name so I know only too well the struggle!  

[Broba Fett]

Following along.  Let us face the legions of evil that are the Holidays and come away victorious. 

 

There may be a day when the courage of nerds fail, but today is NOT THAT DAY. 

[Laghail]

Props on the comprehensive plan. Following along.

[Charlie_Quinn]

Here to watch you beat the snot out of Christmas

[jonfirestar]

8 hours ago, deftona said:

A lovely part of the world! I have family in Wales too but mostly in the north. And about pronunciation - I have a welsh first name so I know only too well the struggle!  

It is a beautiful part of the world. When it's not raining anyway  I think the real problem is trying to use the latin alphabet to write a language that just doesn't fit it. My niece speaks Welsh but I can barely say the names of the places I go every year. 

 

5 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

Following along.  Let us face the legions of evil that are the Holidays and come away victorious. 

 

Great to have you along! Together we cannot fail to beat back the hoards of Christmas! 

 

 

They are evil! 

 

5 hours ago, Laghail said:

Props on the comprehensive plan. Following along.

 

Great to have you along! 

 

3 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Here to watch you beat the snot out of Christmas

That gif gave me a case of the giggles while I shamefully checked the forum between sets in the gym. 

 

 

Week 0, Sunday and Monday:

First update. There isn't much to say about Sunday. I stuck to my food, drank all my water and went to bed on time. Writing up the new challenge did give me a much needed boost. I'm feeling much better than I have been. 

 

Monday was a good day. It was busy without being stressful. 

 

Provisions: 

I stuck to my food plan. Changed things up a little bit this week. Lower carbs to see how that makes me feel. So far so good. 

 

I drank a glass of water for every cup of coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. 

 

Make Speed!: 

I ran my 30 minute run today. It just felt a hundred times better than any of my runs last week, despite being almost the exact same pace (a little quicker but only a little). I felt more in control and more comfortable throughout. Last week the running felt horrible. I did it but hated it. So far this week it feels good. I hope it keeps up. 

 

To Battle!: 

Hit the gym for my overhead press day. The weights felt pretty heavy today but I hit my target numbers so I am pretty happy with it all told. Again, unlike last week, I enjoyed my session today. 

 

Make Camp. 

I hit the hay at 10:30 as per the plan. I had a nightmare last night that caused me to wake up at 5:30 rather than 6:00 I'm okay with that. I hope to have a more solid night this night. 

 

No health lost so far. I'm feeling more fired up than I have for a few weeks. Finally out of my funk and getting back to it!

 

 

 

 

[Jarric]

15 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

It is a beautiful part of the world. When it's not raining anyway

 

So... never then?  

 

Glad you're feeling better and enjoyed your run mate.

[Shello]

I'm following for the subterfuge... 

 

and that health bar is a great idea.  

[jonfirestar]

 

So... never then? [emoji14] 

 

Glad you're feeling better and enjoyed your run mate.

I swear it happened once! It was June. It stopped raining and started snowing

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jonfirestar]

5 hours ago, LadyShello said:

I'm following for the subterfuge... 

Glad to have you here! 

 

Week 0, Tuesday

 

Today was a decent day. Even if I did spend half of it in  a technical meeting. I'm still holding onto full HP. 

 

Provisions: 

I stuck to my plan through the day. I've been feeling really hungry in the evening after dinner these last couple of days. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that. 

 

The water was a little lacking but I hit my target just thanks to the water I had with dinner. 

 

Make Speed!: 

Sprints today. I'm sure one day I'll enjoy doing these more  I dunno the workout felt really quick and it was. The more I do it the better I'll feel about it I'm sure. 

 

To Battle!: 

The gym was stupid busy today. I ended up doing bench instead of deadlifts just because that was easier. 

 

Make Camp. 

I hit the hay at 10:30 as per the plan. Got myself a good 7 hours of sleep. 

[x Valkyrie x]

So you do sprints and lifting the same day? I've tried that, running in the morning and then lifting after work, but I'm usually so knackered I don't have the will power to do it...props to you!

 

P.s. I feel you on the sprints, even a short workout of sprints is killer!!

[Broba Fett]

21 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

 

The gym was stupid busy today. I ended up doing bench instead of deadlifts just because that was easier. 

That has to be a first.  A busy day at the gym with an open bench. 

[Xena]

4 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

That has to be a first.  A busy day at the gym with an open bench. 

My gym pretty much always has at least one open bench, but the power rack is often tied up.

 

I really like the holiday plan. Really smart and reasonable adaptations.

 

[jonfirestar]

A pretty morning but oh so cold!

 

 

11 hours ago, x Valkyrie x said:

So you do sprints and lifting the same day? I've tried that, running in the morning and then lifting after work, but I'm usually so knackered I don't have the will power to do it...props to you!

It's even worse than that, I'm afraid. I actually do this all after work. So it's pretty much sprints on the path around the lake and then to the gym right after. Although it was incredibly cold last night and the treadmill is looking more and more inviting

 

TBH it feels pretty good to do it like this. I feel my lifts might be suffering for it but not by much if they are.

 

Come the new year I might try and break things up a bit and either stagger things out to different days or maybe move the running to my lunch break .

 

11 hours ago, Broba Fett said:

That has to be a first.  A busy day at the gym with an open bench. 

 

6 hours ago, Xena said:

My gym pretty much always has at least one open bench, but the power rack is often tied up.

 

There was absolutely no station free when I walked onto the floor. I've never seen it so packed. I was about 15-20 minutes earlier than I normally would get in there. The bench freed almost as soon as I walked past so I stole it quickly. To be fair the place cleared out substantially by the time I was done, so it may have just been because I was early.

 

[Charlie_Quinn]

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

the treadmill is looking more and more inviting

The treadmill is the devil

 

[jonfirestar]

1 hour ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

The treadmill is the devil

But it's warm inside the gym

 

 

Given that the uberstate is to look and perform like a superhero (ha), whingeing about the cold does ruin the fantasy

 

 

[jonfirestar]

Week 0, Wednesday

 

It was a great day today. It was beautiful outside if really cold. There was no stress and no nasty surprises. 

 

Provisions: 

Food was good. Eggs, bacon and loads of veg for breakfast. A chicken salad for lunch, yum.

 

Everything was on plan and I felt good all day. 

 

I also hit my water goal without any issues. 

Make Speed!: 

Rest day today. I took a walk in the afternoon to get some movement in. 

 

To Battle!: 

rest day. 

 

Make Camp. 

Went to bed on time and slept through. I did feel a little tired but nothing too bad. Most of the way through week 0 and still no hp lost. 

[ArgSki77]

I am behind on a majority of threads but following along now!

[x Valkyrie x]

Sounds like an awesome day, and holy cow that salad looks so good!!