Fiddle takes off (Again)

[fiddle-on]

I've been procrastinating and avoiding doing stuff, which is both the cause and the result of mild depression. I need to break that cycle, and nerdfitness has helped before.

My main priority is to get back into a healthy routine where I'm taking care of myself.  This means eating right, exercising regularly, and keeping my home clean and welcoming. All things I've been so-so at lately, especially keeping my apartment neat.

 

Goals
Fitness-
One-off: Take my mountain bike into the shop, and make sure it's in good condition for trails. I've had this bike for years, but I just took a mountain bike course, and had so much fun that I want to get serious about it. While I'm there, I can buy fenders for my new road touring bike. (+5)

 

1. Walk or take my bike to work every rainfree day. It's about a mile and a half, or 5-10 if I have extra time and take a long route for the fun of it. (+1 per day, +2 per longer ride)
2. Run 3 or 4 C210k workouts a week. Running isn't my favorite, but it's convenient and I like being able to run. (+2 per 30 minutes)
3. 20 minutes of Simple and Sinister (kettlebells) at least every other day. (+2 per workout)
4. Take the mountain bike onto trails at least once a week. I'll also be looking for a group to ride with. (+3 per ride, +5 for finding a group)

 

Cleaning-
1) Set a timer, and spend 20 minutes cleaning my apartment. Kitchen doesn't count, because I already do that consistently. This can be split into two 10 minute segments. (+1 per 10 minutes)

2) Donate or sell stuff I haven't used in the last year or two. (+2 per large bag donated)

 

Diet-
Track what I'm eating in the LoseIt! app. Everything, even the random nuts, m&ms, and pieces of fruit I keep sneaking. Starting weight: 142. (+1 per day, +2 per pound lost)

Keeping track-
I'll print out a calendar and note progress on it. (+1 per week)

Other stuff-
1) Bonus points for writing a story I got halfway through a couple years ago. +4 per chapter completed.

2) Bonus points for applying to jobs. +1 per application sent, +50 per job offer, +100 per good job offered and accepted.

[Jord]

I don't have any brilliant thoughts at the moment, but I'm following along!

[Jayniana Jones]

I'm following along. May there be more sunny days than rainy ones for you to enjoy the trails. 

[fiddle-on]

19 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

I don't have any brilliant thoughts at the moment, but I'm following along!

Thanks!

10 hours ago, Jayniana Jones said:

I'm following along. May there be more sunny days than rainy ones for you to enjoy the trails. 

Thanks! I hope so too. And if I buy fenders, I may even be riding on the mildly rainy days.

[fiddle-on]

I got off to a good start yesterday. I rode my bike 8 miles on my way home, then spent a good 10 minutes on strength exercises, plus 5 minutes on stretches (biking hurts my back if I don't). I also got a serious start on picking up my living room. I've got space to use my weights again, as long as I don't stretch out too much. One or two more days of picking up, and I shouldn't need a qualifier on that.

 

I was supposed to go for a run this morning, but I paid my taxes instead. Which I should have done on Sunday, or anytime in the past 3 months. Oh well, I was a solid 17 hours before the deadline. I'd normally run this evening, but I want to take my bike in to the shop and my choral group meets on Tuesdays. I may be able to fit in 15 minutes. 

 

The chorus is meeting early today because one of our members passed away unexpectedly this past week. I didn't know him particularly well because it's a big group, but he was one of the most prominent members. Everyone's upset, so we're taking some extra time to talk about it.

[Jord]

23 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

I got off to a good start yesterday. I rode my bike 8 miles on my way home, then spent a good 10 minutes on strength exercises, plus 5 minutes on stretches (biking hurts my back if I don't). I also got a serious start on picking up my living room. I've got space to use my weights again, as long as I don't stretch out too much. One or two more days of picking up, and I shouldn't need a qualifier on that.

 

YESS! Space to weights at home is so luxurious! 

 

23 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

 

I was supposed to go for a run this morning, but I paid my taxes instead. Which I should have done on Sunday, or anytime in the past 3 months. Oh well, I was a solid 17 hours before the deadline. I'd normally run this evening, but I want to take my bike in to the shop and my choral group meets on Tuesdays. I may be able to fit in 15 minutes. 

 

Well, doing taxes IS very important. I think a run can wait. 

 

[fiddle-on]

I was able to fit a run in after all yesterday, because I decided to put off taking the mountain bike in for another day. I finished week 6 of C210K, which was 22 minutes or 2 miles of running. I was just shy of 2 miles at 22 minutes, so I kept going, and did 2 miles in 23 min 30 sec. A very good time for me, especially since I had an uphill almost at the end.

 

I only spent about 5 minutes cleaning, but it's still better than none.

 

Today I'm planning to drop my bike at the shop on my way to my parents for dinner. Which means I didn't ride to work today :-(, and I'm going to have to work fast to do both a strength workout and clean before bedtime. I hope my mom makes something good. She does about once or twice a week, and if she knows I'm coming over, it's often that day.

[WolfDreamer]

On 4/17/2017 at 0:54 PM, fiddle-on said:

I need to break that cycle, and nerdfitness has helped before.

 

I love this because it's so true for a lot of fellow rebels. I'm glad you're here, and please let me know if I can help in any way.

 

Following!

[fiddle-on]

I dropped my bike off at the shop. They'll be adjusting the brakes, which obviously needed it, and will also be checking out the other basics: is everything tight enough, are the shifters and derailleurs working, is anything dangerously worn out. So that's pretty exciting. I haven't used this shop before, but I know they've been around for a while, and someone recommended them. So far, I like them better than the bigger place I'd been going. And I got a couple suggestions for places to ride!

 

I did about 20 minutes total combined wieghts and cleaning yesterday, so that's not great. But it's still better than nothing. I think I'll do more weights today because while my goal was at least every other day, that was barely enough to count. Also a bike ride because it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

I think I'll set the timer for 30 minutes of cleaning as well. I've got the time since there's nothing going on this evening.

 

Tomorrow, one of my co-workers invited me to a star-gazing event, so that should be fun.

[Jord]

19 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

 

I did about 20 minutes total combined wieghts and cleaning yesterday, so that's not great. But it's still better than nothing. I think I'll do more weights today because while my goal was at least every other day, that was barely enough to count. Also a bike ride because it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

I try to do the weather planning thing too, because a weekly hike is part of my goals. So I look at the forecast as far out as I can. I prefer to do it on the weekend but sometimes it ends up during the week between lifting days. 

 

19 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

 

I think I'll set the timer for 30 minutes of cleaning as well. I've got the time since there's nothing going on this evening.

 

 

Timers are helpful! I use it for my daily mobility so I can keep track of my goal and make sure I got it in. I need to do a lot of cleaning this weekend so I might steal this and apply it to cleaning as well. 

 

 

[fiddle-on]

There are days I hate my body. I'm pretty sure I have a very large ovarian cyst that showed up yesterday. It hurts,  and I'm just hoping that it doesn't burst and start bleeding,  which happened last year. I don't want to end up in the ER again. 

 

In the meantime, exercise is off until the pain is manageable.  I'll aim for 10 minutes or so of stretching and wear a pedometer. Cleaning should still be fine, and I'll still track what I eat. 

 

Since I'm no longer going to hike,  bike,  or do anything that has me spending significant time out of the house this weekend,  I should have more time for music or writing. I'll try for two 30 minute sessions of each per day this weekend,  and reevaluate on Monday. 

 

I hate being sick. 

[WolfDreamer]

8 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

I'm pretty sure I have a very large ovarian cyst that showed up yesterday.

 

Oh my. I'm sorry to hear this. My wife struggles with these, as well. How much caffeine do you consume? She finds that her frequency of cysts often correlates with how much caffeine she drinks (especially soda).

8 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

There are days I hate my body.

 

This is understandable, but just remember that the same body that often exhibits problems also contains some the necessary elements to heal, as well. You have the right idea with rest and rebooting your body. Take care of it in other ways, too. Breathe deeply, meditate, maybe try some light yoga, enough to give your heart and lungs time to pump those healing energies through your body.

 

Prayers and well-wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Elastigirl]

So sorry you're dealing with that.Take care of yourself and feel better soon.

[Jayniana Jones]

Sorry to hear about not feeling well.  However, more time for the other things could definitely help boost morale. Also, gold stars for maintaining some sort of activity. I hope you had a good weekend despite circumstances. Were you still able to go to the star gazing event?

[fiddle-on]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 3:43 PM, Elastigirl said:

So sorry you're dealing with that.Take care of yourself and feel better soon.

Thanks. Definitely The weekend was bad, but I'm doing a whole lot better today.

 

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 2:58 PM, Wolfen said:

 

Oh my. I'm sorry to hear this. My wife struggles with these, as well. How much caffeine do you consume? She finds that her frequency of cysts often correlates with how much caffeine she drinks (especially soda).

 

This is understandable, but just remember that the same body that often exhibits problems also contains some the necessary elements to heal, as well. You have the right idea with rest and rebooting your body. Take care of it in other ways, too. Breathe deeply, meditate, maybe try some light yoga, enough to give your heart and lungs time to pump those healing energies through your body.

 

Prayers and well-wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks, this is literally the second painful cyst I've ever gotten, so there's nothing to correlate at this point. Hopefully this is also the last, or at least the last for a few years.

 

13 hours ago, Jayniana Jones said:

Sorry to hear about not feeling well.  However, more time for the other things could definitely help boost morale. Also, gold stars for maintaining some sort of activity. I hope you had a good weekend despite circumstances. Were you still able to go to the star gazing event?

The stargazing event got canceled due to pouring rain, so I didn't have to miss it . Weekend wasn't great, but I least I didn't have to take sick days from work.

[fiddle-on]

That wasn't a good weekend. Saturday, I was basically in bed all day from the pain. I did some dishes, a load of laundry, and grocery shopped. I also did two 5 minutes stretch sessions because lying in bed all day made my back hurt. Sunday was better, though still some pain. Worse was that I didn't bother controlling my eating. I was over 2200 calories both days, when I should have been eating 1600-1700 because I was so inactive. That's enough to wipe out last week's calorie deficit :-(.

 

 

On the plus side, I put a different seat onto my new road bike, and an hour sitting on the bike left my back with barely a twinge. I didn't do any writing, but I did pull out my fiddle for the first time since last fall, and boy do I sound bad! I'm signed up for a music camp in June, so I should probably fix that. I've got a choral concert on Saturday, so as soon as that's over I'll switch from singing to playing.

 

 

Today I feel enough better that I'm going to do a light weight routine after work.

[fiddle-on]

Well, my strength workout yesterday was extremely minimal, but still something: 30 unweighted squats, 30 ten pound deadlifts, 40 lunges, 5 hanging leg raises, and 5 minutes of stretching. I'll probably do something similar today, because if I'm doing that little at a shot, skipping days makes no sense.

I did ride my bike to work and do a little cleaning. I was better on controlling my eating, but I still had a peanut butter apple for desert because I hurt, rather than because I was hungry. But a total of 1800 calories, and I was more active than over the weekend.

 

I also want to head to the gym and either elliptical or bike. I'm on a tight schedule Tuesdays, so we'll see if I can make it happen. 

 

I keep feeling better each day, so probably tomorrow or Thursday, I'll pick up my actual weights again and see how a short run feels.

[WolfDreamer]

1 hour ago, fiddle-on said:

I keep feeling better each day

 

This is what it's all about, progress you can feel. Well done.

[Jord]

On 4/25/2017 at 11:04 AM, fiddle-on said:

Well, my strength workout yesterday was extremely minimal, but still something: 30 unweighted squats, 30 ten pound deadlifts, 40 lunges, 5 hanging leg raises, and 5 minutes of stretching. I'll probably do something similar today, because if I'm doing that little at a shot, skipping days makes no sense.

I did ride my bike to work and do a little cleaning. I was better on controlling my eating, but I still had a peanut butter apple for desert because I hurt, rather than because I was hungry. But a total of 1800 calories, and I was more active than over the weekend.

 

I also want to head to the gym and either elliptical or bike. I'm on a tight schedule Tuesdays, so we'll see if I can make it happen. 

 

I keep feeling better each day, so probably tomorrow or Thursday, I'll pick up my actual weights again and see how a short run feels.

 

It sounds like you are making progress and progress is progress! 

[fiddle-on]

I'm picking my bike up from the shop this evening, so that's exciting.

 

I've been busy the last couple of evenings (I'm in a concert on Saturday, so last minute music prep), and of my possible +9 exercise points per day, I got +1 on Tuesday for doing bodyweight exercises at work when I took breaks, and 0 on Wednesday. My target is 3 to 6 points a day, so I'm resolving to do better today.  On the plus side, I'm a lot more confident for Saturday's concert.

 

I started off this morning trying to run. It took about 4 minutes of running to decide it's still too soon, so I walked the rest of the mile and a half loop. I'll either go for a bike ride after work or get on the elliptical. My only commitment today is the bike shop, and that's open late today.

 

I just signed up for a half marathon trail race in November. I did it because my brother and his wife run half and full marathons regularly, and they make it sound so normal. So I signed up, and am realizing that that is literally further than I have ever walked in one stretch, much less run. After C210K, I'll be looking for a half marathon training plan.

[Jord]

On 4/27/2017 at 9:55 AM, fiddle-on said:

 

 

I just signed up for a half marathon trail race in November. I did it because my brother and his wife run half and full marathons regularly, and they make it sound so normal. So I signed up, and am realizing that that is literally further than I have ever walked in one stretch, much less run. After C210K, I'll be looking for a half marathon training plan.

 

I have my first 5k this October and even though it is not much, I am as equally nervous! But that is what training is for. If you were already be capable of doing it, would it be a worthy goal? 

[Sylvaa]

On 4/27/2017 at 9:55 AM, fiddle-on said:

I just signed up for a half marathon trail race in November. I did it because my brother and his wife run half and full marathons regularly, and they make it sound so normal. So I signed up, and am realizing that that is literally further than I have ever walked in one stretch, much less run. After C210K, I'll be looking for a half marathon training plan.

 

The nice thing is that November is far enough away that you have plenty of time to get ready! And the fact that you area already running is an added bonus. 

[fiddle-on]

7 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

 

The nice thing is that November is far enough away that you have plenty of time to get ready! And the fact that you area already running is an added bonus. 

Definitely. I would never have signed up if I wasn't already running. It's intimidating even though I know I could run 5 miles with just a few more weeks of training.

[fiddle-on]

I haven't been recording all my activity, so I've lost track of Thursday and Friday. I know I did a strength workout on Saturday because I'm still sore from it. I clearly haven't been doing enough heavy strength training lately. I'm pretty consistent about doing a few dozen body weight exercises several times a week because I do that as a break from work, but I've been bad about using my kettlebells.

I biked 8 miles on Sunday (road bike). I also installed my new fenders, which meant I was able to bike to work today despite the threat of rain.

I got my mountain bike back from the shop, but haven't taken it out yet because they told me it needed new tires. Since the old ones are 8 years old and the rubber is cracking, I agree. So that's something else to do tonight. As is cleaning, since I've now got a bike in my living room in the middle of having a tire changed.

 

 

I'm still not back to running. I'll try again sometime this week, but I was having mild pain on Friday and Saturday just from standing for a few hours.

[fiddle-on]

I donated 4 bags of stuff, including 2 of clothes that are too big. I'm down to a size 6/8 from a 16/18, so that was lots of clothes out the door. I've got a few more in a pile on my sewing machine because they're constructed simply enough that I can get them to fit just by narrowing side seams.

 

I've also got my mountain bike back. I went to buy tires yesterday, but I decided to buy higher end tires, and they only had 1 in the right wheel size. So I'm still waiting. Sigh. They said they'd be able to get another today, but they haven't called yet.