otterbyte grows stronger

[otterbyte]

Well. it’s taken me all week to get back in here, but I finally posted last month's challenge wrap-up and here I am! And ready for the new challenge. (I haven’t been entirely slacking off, I’ve been test driving this thing, kicking the wheels, running up the mileage...wait, I think my metaphor has just gone off-road.)

 

I don’t know if many, or even any, of you have seen the movie the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas and Omar Sharif. It’s full of anachronisms and silliness and a Spaniard playing an Arab, but, ignoring all that, it’s one of the best dungeon crawl movies ever made. You have a party that meets at an inn, is given a quest, fights monsters and goes into a cave to beat the final boss. Essentially. There’s lots of funny bits and thrilling bits and it’s a great popcorn-muncher of a movie. The main character goes from being a courtier to a warrior and learns a lot along the way, and I hope to do the same this challenge - or at least get further along my path.

 

My Goals

 

Exercise: Grow stronger

 

This will pretty much stay the same as last month. I’m going to vary the PT exercises at home a bit, as that was the only sticking part last time.

• 3 kickboxing days

• 2 Start Bodyweight days

• 1 BollyX day (or other cardio)

• 2 PT sessions

• 4 foam rolling or PT exercise days

 

Diet/Health: Calculate what you can’t see

 

75 - 100g Protein intake

Last month, for the second month in a row, I did well staying to my calorie counts, eating my fruit/veg, and drinking my water. I’ll keep doing those things, but since they’re already established habits, I feel I can let them go as goals. Now, as I end the “weight loss” phase of my diet and start the “muscle gain” part, I’ve set my daily calorie limit higher and I’m using the extra calories to try to get my daily protein intake to at least 75g, and, if possible, 100g. To this end, I’m now tracking the numbers. Since I don’t have weight loss to guide me any more, I’ll have to use body measurements and functional stuff like “how many X can I do now?” to figure out where I am. In other words, LOTS of tracking.

 

 

Average 7 hours sleep per night

So, I *thought* I was sleeping well. Turns out, I often was getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. How do I know? Got a FitBit. And the numbers don’t lie. I am very bad at sleeping. Less than 7 hours of sleep makes for a very grumpy me. So I’m going to aim to have a weekly 7 hour per night average. Since it’s weekly, I can catch up during the week  if I’ve had a bad night, but I need to meet the goal by the end of each week.

 

 

Life: Do what you ought

 

Spanish

Later this year, I’m fulfilling a *very* long-term goal of taking my kids to Argentina, where my family is from. They have never been, which means there’s a bunch of their family they’ve never met. Last year I lost two of my uncles one day after the other, and I realized my time is short and I have no more excuses not to take them. Money, time, travel complications...these are stupid reasons to not go. So we’re going. The tickets are bought and everything. The only problem? My girls don’t speak Spanish. Or at least not well enough to be comfortable with it. They *understand* it, but since I’m the only native Spanish speaker in the house, and growing up here means English is still my stronger language...well, let’s say I’ve been slacker mom when it comes to making them speak it. It’s just so much easier to speak English. Well, that crap ends now. My goal is to spend as much time as I can speaking Spanish to them this month. I’ll encourage them to do the same, but right now they just need to hear a lot of it. Spanish radio, Spanish movies, Spanish games...whatever I can do. I’m having a tough time figuring out how to quantify this, but I’m going to start where I am and work things out as I go along. Any ideas for how to ‘grade’ this one?

 

 

FlyLady

Years and years ago, I joined FlyLady.net. For those of you who’ve never heard of her, FlyLady helps you get your house organized, even though you are are a chronically disorganized person. Which I am. The program really helped me get my house under control for the first time in -ever- and I’ve since fallen off the wagon and, though things have never gotten as bad as they were, my house is no longer a place that makes me happy. Too many unfinished things, too much chaos, too much stuff. I plan to start back at the beginning with her 31-day beginner baby steps program. I’ve already done the first 4 days during this Week 0, so I should be able to finish by the end of the challenge.

 

 

That’s the challenge, folks. Wish me luck!

 

[Manarelle]

I loved 13th warrior, ironically for very different reasons. I adored how well they handled the sequence of him learning the language of his new allies - you rarely see that done properly in movies.  The rest of the movie was good, too, but that's the takeaway I got. Might have to go back and watch it for the dungeon crawling stuff. 

 

Looks like a solid challenge! That's really neat that you're helping your daughters be able to understand their family. Maybe a way to track it is just if they've listened to something that day? Don't want to hang it on their progress (since that's somewhat up to them), but definitely keep making the effort.

 

Great challenge, you got this! Congrats on the shift from weight loss to muscle gain - it's a whole new ball game, but I have faith in you.  

[lucky fire dragon]

your challenges always seem so well rounded off, I really admire that, and great balance as well

Seconding the full faith in you

 

Thanks for the flylady link, that was very interesting to explore and I might "borrow" some ideas for my own challenge 

[Bighara]

11 hours ago, otterbyte said:

I don’t know if many, or even any, of you have seen the movie the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas and Omar Sharif. It’s full of anachronisms and silliness and a Spaniard playing an Arab, but, ignoring all that, it’s one of the best dungeon crawl movies ever made. You have a party that meets at an inn, is given a quest, fights monsters and goes into a cave to beat the final boss. Essentially. There’s lots of funny bits and thrilling bits and it’s a great popcorn-muncher of a movie. The main character goes from being a courtier to a warrior and learns a lot along the way, and I hope to do the same this challenge - or at least get further along my path.

 

Ahmed is also the best Bard character ever!

 

Think about it. He's a poet then a diplomat. He has high charisma. He's a bit of a dandy. He learns languages and skills easily. He can fight a bit, but focuses more on figuring things out and remembering important details. And in the end, he pens an epic saga about the adventure!

[otterbyte]

2 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Great challenge, you got this! Congrats on the shift from weight loss to muscle gain - it's a whole new ball game, but I have faith in you.  

 

Thank you! And yes on the new ball game. I'm really missing that little rush you get when you can post a weight loss, and I feel like I must be doing things wrong! But I need to start trusting my tape measure and my rep counts instead...learning curve ahead!  

 

And ITA on the language thing - I thought it was brilliant how they showed him picking up snatches here and there, then finally being able to put the pieces together.

[otterbyte]

34 minutes ago, lucky fire dragon said:

your challenges always seem so well rounded off, I really admire that, and great balance as well

Seconding the full faith in you

 

Aww, thank you!

 

34 minutes ago, lucky fire dragon said:

Thanks for the flylady link, that was very interesting to explore and I might "borrow" some ideas for my own challenge 

 

Yeah, she's can be a bit 'gushy' sometimes, but there's a lot of solid info there and it's terrifically helpful to have someone walk you through the basics with a well-laid out plan.

[Grandkai_NL]

Nice goals. I especially like the Spanish and Flylady. I believe that learning a second language (no matter what age) is important and handy when you visit another country. As for Flylady...who doesnt want to have a home thats always organized. More room for activities.

[zeroh13]

I have the soundtrack for this movie somewhere! (Though I don't think I have the movie, my parents might have had a copy on VHS that they recorded off of pay-per-view... So I might actually have it in the box of tapes, though I don't know if the VCR still works.)

 

I like this challenge.

[otterbyte]

3 hours ago, Grandkai_NL said:

More room for activities.

 

So true! Though the activity I'm most looking forward to is walking across a room without having to step over my kids' stuff. 

[Red1263]

I LOVE the 13th Warrior! It's one of my favorite Antonio Banderas movies of all time! I'm definitely following on this challenge!

 

sent from my phone whilst exploring new dungeons

 

 

[Pyralis]

Finally you're here! Good luck with everything!

 

I remember FlyFlady. Tried her out as well a few years ago and I still remember the practical approach with the shiny sink. It's actually hard work to keep a whole house presentable all the time, but if you are in a rhythm, it's sometimes surprisingly easy. I hope you get back on track soon!

 

What I can also recommend a lot is Marie Condo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying" for having too much stuff and probably re-organizing drawers. It was a game changer for me. Few days ago I opened my shirt drawer (clothes were a huge chaos area) and saw all those nicely folded (actually rolled) summer T-shirts with one glance and it made me so happy to see that  It was also a relief to just declutter everything I know I will never finish because actually I don't want to finish it and didn't in years. I gave huge loads of crafting stuff away to people/children who actually want to craft things. Feel so much better since then. Phew. Now I never need to make a paper lantern and those children can. 

 

Also with you on the protein task. It can be a struggle. Are you vegan? Sorry if you mentioned that somewhere already, can't remember.

 

 

[mom2sjm]

I'm learning spanish as an adult and I try to listen to spanish as much as I can.  Recently I've been listening to News in Slow.  I do audio only so I don't have access to the transcripts or anything but since they are reviewing current events I do pretty good with the comprehension.  Depending on the age of your girls they might enjoy it too.  

[raptron]

Yaaay, new challenge. I haven't thought about the 13th Warrior in forever. 

[Jonesy]

 

Following along for continued awesomeness. 

 

On 2/10/2017 at 8:58 PM, otterbyte said:

This will pretty much stay the same as last month. I’m going to vary the PT exercises at home a bit, as that was the only sticking part last time.

Hey if it ain't broke...

[Ryuu1011]

45 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

 

Following along for continued awesomeness. 

 

Hey if it ain't broke...

Exactly what @Jonesy said! You don't always have to change things as long as you're making progress that's what's important! Also following along for otter epicness ;D 

[dancezwithkittehz]

Oooh exercise, cleaning and language stuffs! YAYS! And yay more protein! Building the habit of how to get a bunch of protein in a day is a challenge I struggle with too!

[LydiaJaybird]

Yo, I'm definitely checking out flylady, thanks!!

 

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[karinajean]

hi! I love that you are going to argentina. re: flylady - we've been doing the clean sink thing for about a month+. my husband used to follow her like, twenty years ago! how crazy is that? also the magical tidying up book was also amazing for me, I'd super recommend it.

[LydiaJaybird]

hi! I love that you are going to argentina. re: flylady - we've been doing the clean sink thing for about a month+. my husband used to follow her like, twenty years ago! how crazy is that? also the magical tidying up book was also amazing for me, I'd super recommend it.

 

Magical tidying up book...? Is that something by flylady?

 

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