Sam Ashen the Iron Crisis Part 2 - Shamelessly Recycling Goals

[Sam Ashen]

We can get away with completely recycling goals from one cycle into the next, right?  A four-week cycle is very short, much shorter than my typical training cycles.  Here is a look at the upcoming six weeks:

 

Week 0: March 11 to March 17 - Waiting for Spring, Week 9

Week 1: March 18 to March 24 - Waiting for Spring, Week 10

Week 2: March 25 to March 31 - Waiting for Spring, Week 11

Week 3: April 1 to April 7 - Waiting for Spring Deload Week - And Spring better be here by now!

Week 4: April 8 to April 14 - Meet Prep Program, Week 1

Week 0: April 15 to April 21 - Meet Prep Program, Week 2

 

So Week 3 I am goofing off and finding creative new ways to get into trouble.  Week 4, I am obtaining new programming.  I might as well shamelessly recycle all of my goals into the next cycle!  So here we go!

 

Important upcoming dates:

March 16 - This is Groundhog Day, plus 6 Weeks.  It should be spring by this date!  As I am typing this today, it is snowing.  Four more days of winter!

April 14 - Good Friday

April 18 - Tax Day

 

Quest 1 - Solve the Iron Crisis!

 

This is pretty straight forward.  The biggest part of this is behind me already.  That would be accepting that I have an iron shortage and take steps to deal with it.  Just keep eating and popping those red pills.  There is no retest until April and that will be somewhere in the next Challenge Cycle.  But it is presented here because this is apparently the foremost issue I am dealing with.

 

Other than that, maybe I will be lucky enough to notice some changes as we deal with the iron crisis!

 

Same thing.  Somewhere around the Week 3 break, I should get my iron tested again.

 

Quest 2 - Waiting for Spring, Part 3

 

Right at the start of this year, I got new programming to follow.  I named the program after one of my favorite winter activities:  Waiting for spring.

 

It is a 12-week cycle, broken into three blocks of four weeks each.  We will be completing the second block in this Challenge Cycle.

 

Going from memory, it kind of looks like:

Day One: Snatch complex, Hang Snatch for heavy singles, Clean and Jerk complex, Cleans for heavy singles, Squat and Push Press 5RM with backoff sets.

Day Two: Paused Overhead Squat 3RM, Paused Deadlift 3RM, Overhead Press 5RM with backoff sets, Farmers Carry, Lower back extension and lateral raises.

Day Three: Snatch complex, Snatches for heavy singles, Clean and Jerk complex, Clean and Jerk for heavy Singles, Front-Squat 1RM with backoff set.

Day Four: Snatch Complex, Hang Snatch for heavy singles, Jerk complex, Clean and Power Jerk for heavy singles, Deficit Clean Pull heavy 3x3, Squat 3RM with backoff sets, Lunges and planks.

Day Five: Squat 10RM with backoff sets, Deadlift heavy triples, Dumbbell bench press, pull-ups, and single dumbbell rows.

 

This should keep me well distracted while I wait for spring. 

 

Quest 3 - Don't Die

 

Track the number of times I die.  The last time I died was on January 22, 2017.

 

So.

Number of Cycles:  2

Number of Deaths: 1

 

Quest 4 - Tracking

 

This is almost a copy and paste of the previous cycle.  Just adjusting a couple of things.  Still working on IfItFitsYourMacros and being a little bit less extreme on IfItFitsYourMouth.  We have approximately one year's worth of data showing a slow increase in weight at 3350 Calories per day.  Setting my goals slightly lower and using slightly less than 0.9 g Protein / pound bodyweight and splitting the rest of the calories in a 3:1 ratio, I get something like:

 

3240 Calories

360 Carbs (270 to 450)

120 Fat (90 to 150)

180 Protein (160 minimum)

 

So we are not shooting for any kind of precision here.  Let's just see if we can hit the broad side of a barn.  When we miss, then I can go looking for the culprit and evaluate from there if I should be making a different choice in the future.  We will come up with a list of things we can get away with and things we cannot!

 

Meal prep once per week.

 

One outing per week, even if MB would have me become a hermit.

 

One dessert between now and the end of the cycle.  Try to be original and post the picture!

 

Track weekly weight over 2017.  Track open, high, low, and close.  The candlestick chart from last year was fun!

 

Last cycle we hit 26/35.  This cycle we are backing off on the minimums a little bit, because I thought it was pretty lame that I have what I think is a good day on MFP and I am just a little bit short on a macro.  So we are widening the target again.

 

Quest 5 - Life Hax - March Edition

List things to do for March and cross them off.  It's still Tax Season!  And I finally have enough information to start assembling it!  Maybe I will be early this year!

Update Last Will and Testament.

More stuff as I think of it.

 

The last cycle did not work out nearly as well as January did.  I might do well to coordinate everything into my program's break week.  But we will see.

 

Taxes come due in this cycle, so I finally have to do it.  I was rewarded for my procrastination with a pdf tax organizer I can work with.  It is really just coming up with a pile of papers and stuff to hand over to the accountant.

 

Quest 6 - Plan and Execute Zero Week in the Program

 

The program consists of three four-week blocks and we have Zero-Weeks between each block.  The NF Challenge Cycle and this Program are off by one week in alignment.  So Zero Week in the Program corresponds to Week 4 of this Challenge Cycle.  I have made it a Quest to come up with things to do over this Zero Week.

 

This zero-week was rather boring.  I took a lot of rest days and hit a set of 20 squats at 224 pounds.

 

I also did a lot of exploring MBTI personalities.

 

At the end of this Zero Week, we will be obtaining new programming!

 

Quest 7 - Other Quests as they Appear

 

And that's it.

[Sam Ashen]

Today was a rest day.  I got my shopping done for the week and I cooked a mess of spaghetti.

 

Score for Today:

4411 Calories

507 Carbs (270 to 450)

173 Fat (90 to 150)

224 Protein (160 minimum)

 

+15.3 Overall

 

Hitting the Broad Side of a Barn: 0/2 - And that's how we open this Challenge!

[elvenengineer]

Hi!!!

*waves*

 

tapped on a tiny keyboard

 

 

[RedStone]

50 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

One outing per week, even if MB would have me become a hermit.

 

I mean... maybe if MB were there too... 

[Urgan]

Following for more shenanigans. 

[Sam Ashen]

3 minutes ago, RedStone said:

 

I mean... maybe if MB were there too... 

 

She would make me order from the veggie menu and NOT allow me to have dessert.

[Stronkey Kong]

Wait...

 

I haven't followed your threads in a while... Are you actually having an iron deficiency?

 

I assumed this was you saying you need to lift more.

 

Also, what's your mbti?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following again.

[Sam Ashen]

6 minutes ago, Curl Brogo said:

Are you actually having an iron deficiency?

 

It's from giving blood on a regular basis for a while.  It started to show up a year ago when they were changing hemoglobin standards and I was shocked in early July to miss the new mark by just a little bit.  In January this year, I got a letter to basically say my Ferratin is running on E.  I took it to my doctor and he agreed with everything I said.

 

So my best current understanding is regular blood donations is brutal on the iron levels.

-----------------------

 

11 minutes ago, Curl Brogo said:

Also, what's your mbti?

 

I keep testing INTJ.

 

I also believe INTP is a good fit, but I never test P.  So I will identify as INTj.

[Stronkey Kong]

A couple tricks with iron...

 

Cook in cast iron cookware regularly. Your food will actually absorb iron from the pot.

 

Don't drink coffee or tea within 30 min or so of meals or supplements. The tannic acid in both will chelate the iron and interfere with it's uptake.

 

Consume high vitamin c foods with iron containing foods and supplements. Vitamin C also chelates iron, but when it does it helps the body absorb iron along with the vit c. The tannic acid actually competes with vit c And messes the system up.

 

I learned this crap from a nutrition course in college. I kept the textbook and still use it in the kitchen.

 

I'm INFP, but for years I tricked myself into thinking I was INTP. And it's not like the vague descriptions on horoscopes that everyone can see in themself because i am so not ESTJ.

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, Curl Brogo said:

Also, what's your mbti?

 

1 hour ago, Sam Ashen said:

I keep testing INTJ.

 

I also believe INTP is a good fit, but I never test P.  So I will identify as INTj.

 

39 minutes ago, Curl Brogo said:

I'm INFP, but for years I tricked myself into thinking I was INTP. And it's not like the vague descriptions on horoscopes that everyone can see in themself because i am so not ESTJ.

INTP can be usually identified by either their near homeless state, or the analysis paralysis that is their every waking minute. 

[Stronkey Kong]

7 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

 

INTP can be usually identified by either their near homeless state, or the analysis paralysis that is their every waking minute. 

 

Later today I'm going shopping for a new smartphone. I have it down to the galaxy s7 edge or the galaxy s7 active.

 

How i choose/delay choosing may be the better indicator of my personality type.

[Jord]

9 hours ago, Curl Brogo said:

A couple tricks with iron...

 

Cook in cast iron cookware regularly. Your food will actually absorb iron from the pot.

 

Don't drink coffee or tea within 30 min or so of meals or supplements. The tannic acid in both will chelate the iron and interfere with it's uptake.

 

Consume high vitamin c foods with iron containing foods and supplements. Vitamin C also chelates iron, but when it does it helps the body absorb iron along with the vit c. The tannic acid actually competes with vit c And messes the system up.

 

I learned this crap from a nutrition course in college. I kept the textbook and still use it in the kitchen.

 

 

I am also low iron and I'm doomed if it's affected by my coffee intake.  I take my iron and vitamin C in the morning... when I drink my coffee. Perhaps I should start taking it at night. 

[Stronkey Kong]

47 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

I am also low iron and I'm doomed if it's affected by my coffee intake.  I take my iron and vitamin C in the morning... when I drink my coffee. Perhaps I should start taking it at night. 

 

Yeah.

 

I just checked my book. Vitamin c and MFP (meat, fish, and poultry factor) enhance the uptake of nonheme iron... iron not bound by a heme molecule like hemoglobin. supplements, and the iron in vegetables and legumes is usually non heme iron. So those should be taken with meat and vitamin c supps or foods.

 

Heme iron is find in meat and especially offal, and is very easily absorbed, though we usually only get 10% of our iron from them.

 

Coffee, tea, and milk inhibit iron absorption... Calcium competes with iron. Less inhinitive are phytates and fibers in soy, whole grains and legumes, and edta in processed and preserved foods.

[Sam Ashen]

9 hours ago, Laghail said:

INTP can be usually identified by either their near homeless state

 

Like Paul Allen?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin?

(according to celebetytypes)

 

Actually, when bouncing around, I saw most sites classify Issac Newton as INTJ, but I just bumped into one that classed him as INTP.

------------------------

 

ADDIT:  Here's a video!

 

 

[Laghail]

2 hours ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

Like Paul Allen?

Larry Page and Sergey Brin?

(according to celebetytypes)

 

Actually, when bouncing around, I saw most sites classify Issac Newton as INTJ, but I just bumped into one that classed him as INTP.

Yup. A great deal of abstract processing goes into INTPenis. Lots of philosophers and scientists throughout history get sorted into that bucket. Not always the best fit for career maintenance in the modern world, but we can't all be good at adulting. Classic INTP --->

 

[Sam Ashen]

2 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Yup. A great deal of abstract processing goes into INTPenis. Lots of philosophers and scientists throughout history get sorted into that bucket. Not always the best fit for career maintenance in the modern world, but we can't all be good at adulting. Classic INTP --->

 

Hmm.  They have one additional letter to clarify how well the subject handles stress.  So I test INTJ-A.  I am wondering if another letter is required based on whether the subject has shit together or is completely f*cked up.

 

The next relevant question is:  Why am I not at the helm of a major multi-national corporation?

[Laghail]

48 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

 

Hmm.  They have one additional letter to clarify how well the subject handles stress.  So I test INTJ-A.  I am wondering if another letter is required based on whether the subject has shit together or is completely f*cked up.

 

The next relevant question is:  Why am I not at the helm of a major multi-national corporation?

This. I would vote for a president solely on the basis of their promise to create a business standard personality profiling system that tracked meaningful distinctions across a broad range of personality profiles, and included stability as a relevant and testable metric. #hopeandchange

Meanwhile, I smile and nod when someone with RAGING ADHD reports their ENTJ / ESTJ personality type, but we both know the self-test function of the system is hot garbage. Also, all 1st or 2nd order Fi users aren't to be trusted.

 

Because you'd hate it. You'd hate it so hard. So much inane interpersonal BS to juggle, but with multi-national corporate ego's to wrangle as well.

[Sam Ashen]

24 minutes ago, Laghail said:

This. I would vote for a president solely on the basis of their promise to create a business standard personality profiling system that tracked meaningful distinctions across a broad range of personality profiles, and included stability as a relevant and testable metric. #hopeandchange

......

24 minutes ago, Laghail said:

but we both know the self-test function of the system is hot garbage.

 

Here we go!

 

So I apply for a job and they make me fill out a personality test and I mark "I see schedules as largely irrelevant and deadlines as suggestions" with a VERY STRONG AGREE, am I getting the job?  It would really require a trained professional to administer and interpret the test.

 

Upshot:  Psych majors now have a very important job to do!

 

The system also requires an INTJ Space Alien to be in charge.

 

31 minutes ago, Laghail said:

Because you'd hate it. You'd hate it so hard. So much inane interpersonal BS to juggle, but with multi-national corporate ego's to wrangle as well.

 

The INTJ career advice I read was to locate and identify ENTJ's and other INTJ's and build your tribe.  The broad hint is you find them high up the ladder.

[Laghail]

Just now, Sam Ashen said:

......

 

Here we go!

 

So I apply for a job and they make me fill out a personality test and I mark "I see schedules as largely irrelevant and deadlines as suggestions" with a VERY STRONG AGREE, am I getting the job?  It would really require a trained professional to administer and interpret the test.

 

Upshot:  Psych majors now have a very important job to do!

 

The system also requires an INTJ Space Alien to be in charge.

 

 

The INTJ career advice I read was to locate and identify ENTJ's and other INTJ's and build your tribe.  The broad hint is you find them high up the ladder.

So true. Which is why intuitive, inter-paradigm dreamers constantly test as methodical, detail oriented workers. Hot garbage.

 

Fair on career advice, as it goes. It is suspect that the system only wants to see functional, deductive logic wielding, organized planning types in leadership, and nowhere else. Every other job role, the system kindly saves for us broken people. As though our INTJ masters shall lead our space ship earth, despite our oompa loompa fumbling attempts to keep the plumbing working. Suggestion: the career advice is also hot garbage. Shortsighted hot garbage of equal worth to your high school guidance counselor blindly thrusting pamphlets in your direction. Possibly because the INFP/INFJ/ENFJ's that write the MBTI content have never themselves met a non-liberal arts major, let alone an honest to goodness engineer. We have some dim idea that you people make our poop go away when we flush - you know, ISTP/ISTJ problems. We save the enlightened work of counseling, writing, and philosophy for ourselves, and segment the rest of the world according to our fuzzy, Mister Roger's derived cartoon archetypes.

[Sam Ashen]

4 minutes ago, Laghail said:

So true. Which is why intuitive, inter-paradigm dreamers constantly test as methodical, detail oriented workers. Hot garbage.

 

Here is something I just found:

 

 

Quote

 

INTP

Most likely to mistype as: INTJ

Why the mistype happens: Though INTPs are perceivers, they are highly concerned with accuracy in their intellectual pursuits and may take a regimented approach to their work. This type is highly perceptive in the intellectual sense but on a day-to-day basis they are not impulsive, which is the only measure that most online tests take into account to determine between judgers and perceivers. For this reason, many INTPs originally test as INTJs. The distinction between these two types can be understood through learning about cognitive functions – despite sharing three letters, these types have zero cognitive functions in common and actually process information incredibly differently.

 

 

So I agree with you on hot garbage.

 

My entire take on this is the best way to know is to just get a test professionally administered and follow up with an interview.  An online test gathers data, but there is no human involved to interpret this data.  A professional should be able sort discrepancies and gradually home in on something.

 

I imagine it would be like going to an optometrist and getting a prescription that fits the best.

[Sam Ashen]

O M G !!!!!!!!!

Look at what I just found!!!!

 

 

AND.....

[Emerald Eagle]

Can this ENTJ hang out? I promise not to try and take over  

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

Hi! 

I think that

6 hours ago, Laghail said:

Suggestion: the career advice is also hot garbage. Shortsighted hot garbage of equal worth to your high school guidance counselor blindly thrusting pamphlets in your direction. Possibly because the INFP/INFJ/ENFJ's that write the MBTI content have never themselves met a non-liberal arts major, let alone an honest to goodness engineer. We have some dim idea that you people make our poop go away when we flush - you know, ISTP/ISTJ problems. We save the enlightened work of counseling, writing, and philosophy for ourselves, and segment the rest of the world according to our fuzzy, Mister Roger's derived cartoon archetypes.

 

Ding, ding, ding, ding.  We have a winner. 

Fun to talk about hot garbage, though...

[Sam Ashen]

2 hours ago, Emerald_Dragonfly said:

I think that

 

9 hours ago, Laghail said:

Suggestion: the career advice is also hot garbage.

 

I thought....

 

9 hours ago, Sam Ashen said:

The INTJ career advice I read was to locate and identify ENTJ's and other INTJ's and build your tribe.  The broad hint is you find them high up the ladder.

 

is....

 

2 hours ago, Emerald_Dragonfly said:

Ding, ding, ding, ding.  We have a winner. 

Fun to talk about hot garbage, though...

 

....sound advice.

 

4 hours ago, EmeraldEagle said:

Can this ENTJ hang out? I promise not to try and take over  

 

And lookie what we have here!  Welcome!  We probably get along awesome over here!

----------------------------------

 

Well, any combination of seeing the Chiropractor and Miss Broki's programming is going to involve a very late night.

 

Hip Snatch + Overhead Squat: 3x104, 3x114, 3x124 pounds

Rep Count: 18

Volume Count: 2052 pounds

Hang Snatch: 2x124, 2x139, 3x1x154 pounds

Rep Count: 7

Volume Count: 988 pounds

Hip Clean + 2 Jerks: 3x139, 3x154, 2x164 pounds

Rep Count: 24

Volume Count: 3621 pounds

Hang Clean: 2x164, 2x189, 3x1x209 pounds

Rep Count: 7

Volume Count: 1333 pounds

Squats: 5x209, 5x244, 3x274, 5x294, 2x5x264 pounds

Rep Count: 28

Volume Count: 7197 pounds

Push Press: 5x134, 5x159, 5x174, 2x5x159 pounds

Rep Count: 25

Volume Count: 3577 pounds

 

Total Volume Count: 18768 pounds

 

Score for Today:

3333 Calories

375 Carbs

122 Fat

199 Protein

 

-0.9 Overall

 

Hitting the Broad Side of a Barn: 1/3