Sting Operation: 01

[ManchurianBee]

This will be my first challenge.  The time frame is actually close to perfect.  I'm traveling to Europe for the first time on the 19th of May. I guess I'll start two days early and end two days early.  

 

I am 5'10" (177.8 cm) and weigh 260 lbs. (117.934 kg.).  I am overweight and I feel that my health is greatly suffering.  My goal weight is probably to be somewhere around 180-190 lbs. I plan to accomplish this goal over time and definitely not by the end of this challenge.  I plan to lift weighs, run, do some Jiu-Jitsu, and eat right.  There's a Jiu-Jitsu tournament in August, and I plan to compete.  I'm also currently unemployed and as a Life Goal, I'd like to gain some employment, because you kind of need money to pay for things like food, gas, and a house. So I'll be job hunting, trying to get some certifications, stuff like that as a long-term deal.  For the purpose of this 4-week challenge, here are my goals:

 

tl;dr

Lose ~ 80 lbs.

Get ready for a tournament in August

Find a job

 

 

 

Diet and Fitness

1. Go to five Jiu-Jitsu classes a week. 

It's often said that if you want to improve your Jiu-Jitsu, do more Jiu-Jitsu.  So I plan to go to five Jiu-Jitsu classes each week.  This shouldn't be too much of an issue schedule-wise.  The gym where I train offers three classes Monday - Friday at 6AM, Noon, and 6PM.  For the purpose of this challenge, I'll count an open mat as a class as well and I have multiple options of open mats on the weekends.  I'm going to try to focus on my Half-Guard/Deep Half game.  

Criteria:   

• C: The Bee attended 5 Classes
• B: The Bee attended 7 Classes
• C: The Bee attended 10 Classes

 

2. Do 400 Push Ups a week.

 

I don't really lift or run or anything.  I'm definitely planning to lift and run during this challenge as well but for what I want to track is 400 push ups in a week.  I think this is achievable.  If I split up 400 push ups in a week, I'm doing less than 60 a day.  If I split it into morning and evening sessions, I'm doing 30 each sessions.  This of course is a bottom line and the bare minimum.  

Criteria:

• C: 400 Push Ups
• B: 500 Push Ups
• A: 600 Push Ups

 

3. Limit eating out to twice a week.

I'm a foodie. I love food and I got a body that shows it.  I'm not huge on meal prepping all my meals a week ahead of time especially grilled chicken because I find it tends to be on the dry side.  Since I am, unemployed and have more free time than most people. I'll try something out.  Every Sunday and Thursday will be my prep day.  I will prep all my food, but cook it the day of.  So, my proteins will be marinated.  My veggies will be chopped. Then the morning of, I'll cook up some rice (because if Filipinos don't have rice, we die) then cook up my meals for the day.  I'm thinking the food will taste better as it's more fresh an I would be more likely to eat it and not just decide to order a pizza or go out for burgers.  I'll also meal plan for the week on Sundays and check out the recipes threads to keep from getting bored. This should also help me out financially from not eating out so often. 

Criteria:

• C: Went out to eat twice.
• B: Went out to eat once.
• A: Didn't go out to eat.

 

I want to try to keep my goals relatively small as I'm kind of just starting out.  The push ups are also supplemental.  I plan to re-evaluate the criteria for these goals at the end of each week to see if I maybe need to adjust the criteria if I'm not being challenged enough.  I will only make the criteria more difficult with the exceptions of illness or injury.  

 

Lifestyle Goal: Study 10 Hours a week

So for my lifestyle goal, I'm going to look into getting certifications or short classes to increase the different types of jobs I can get.  I'm currently studying for an A+ Certification Test, which consists of two exams. I passed the first one and I take the second one on Saturday.  I bought a few classes on UDEMY and I plan to take some MOOCs as well. So to make this measurable, I'll devote hours throughout the week to study something. I'll go for a minimum of 10 hours a week.  That's two hours Monday - Friday which still gives me time to pursue my other goals and still enjoy the freedom of being unemployed.

Criteria:

• C: Study 10 Hours/Week
• B: Study 15 Hours/Week
• A: Study 20 Hours/Week

 

So yeah, there are my goals for the next four weeks. Any feedback would is welcomed and appreciated.

 

 

[Severine]

Your challenge looks really well thought out! Sensibly paced and realistic from what I can tell. And Jiu-Jitsu sounds super cool.

 

Your food prep strategy is an interesting one. Doing the prep beforehand and the cooking the day of seems potentially like a lot of work, but then again I hate cooking (I'm lucky enough to live with someone who loves to cook, otherwise not sure what I'd do) so I might be the wrong person to ask. I will say that I've had leftover grilled chicken that was still nice and moist. So if you end up wanting to cook stuff beforehand it might be worth it to experiment a little with cooking techniques.

 

Good luck with studying and the job hunt! What's your area of interest/focus? What sorts of jobs are you looking for?

[Meushell]

Wow. That's a lot of push ups. Good luck! 

[Plazmotic]

On 4/19/2017 at 0:43 PM, ManchurianBee said:

because if Filipinos don't have rice, we die

This made me actually LOL. My background is Indian, so I hear ya. Rice is life.

[ManchurianBee]

14 hours ago, Severine said:

Your challenge looks really well thought out! Sensibly paced and realistic from what I can tell. And Jiu-Jitsu sounds super cool.

 

Your food prep strategy is an interesting one. Doing the prep beforehand and the cooking the day of seems potentially like a lot of work, but then again I hate cooking (I'm lucky enough to live with someone who loves to cook, otherwise not sure what I'd do) so I might be the wrong person to ask. I will say that I've had leftover grilled chicken that was still nice and moist. So if you end up wanting to cook stuff beforehand it might be worth it to experiment a little with cooking techniques.

 

Good luck with studying and the job hunt! What's your area of interest/focus? What sorts of jobs are you looking for?

Yeah, I know the food prep strategy isn't exactly the traditional one in terms of trying to eat healthy. I've worked in restaurants before and essentially all my veggies will be cut and the proteins cut and marinated. I would really just toss it in a pan and add heat.  And like I said, I'm unemployed so all the time in the world haha. 

 

I have a background in accounting. I did payroll for 10 years, but got laid off due to plant closure and haven't really found a permanent job since.  I'm looking for primarily accounting or general office-type work, but I'm also open to trade work or IT.

 

10 hours ago, Plazmotic said:

This made me actually LOL. My background is Indian, so I hear ya. Rice is life.

LOL. Really, I think it's an Asian thing in general, right? My wife is Korean and she keeps saying, "Rice is so important to Koreans, the word for rice is synonymous with the word for meal." I think that's the same for Japan Gohan = Rice/Meal. 

[Plazmotic]

6 hours ago, ManchurianBee said:

I think that's the same for Japan Gohan = Rice/Meal. 

Exactly. I learned this from Dragonball Z.

[Erick the Red]

Food prep should make your food selection throughout the week so much easier.  I have found when I cook a bunch of eggs for breakfast that I can heat up single-servings throughout the week, I do so much better than when I have to make good choices each and every day.

 

The European trip sounds fun.  Where are you headed? 

[ManchurianBee]

21 hours ago, Erick the Red said:

The European trip sounds fun.  Where are you headed? 

Wife and I are going to London, Paris, and some city in Ireland We definitely want to do the Game of Thrones tour in Ireland.  We also want to check out the Guinness Brewery so it might be Dublin.  

 

So, I changed my mind on the start time. I'll just start with everyone else.  I should be all wrapped up with the challenge for the before my flight anyway.  So tomorrow, push ups and food prep begins!

[fleaball]

Solid challenge! Totally jealous of your Europe trip.

[Meushell]

On 4/20/2017 at 0:34 PM, Plazmotic said:

This made me actually LOL. My background is Indian, so I hear ya. Rice is life.

 

You guys are making me want rice...except I have never made rice. I should add "learn to cook rice" on my to do list.

[Severine]

2 hours ago, Meushell said:

I should add "learn to cook rice" on my to do list.

 

I just skipped right to "buy a rice cooker"  >.>

[ManchurianBee]

So I got a little sidetracked. I did 60 push ups today, didn't go to Jiu-Jitsu, but I did have an interview.  I'm stumbling out of the gate, but I'm determined to still make it a success.  Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.  Jiu-Jitsu 6AM tomorrow. Shooting for 100 push ups. All before another interview at 3! 

[fleaball]

Good luck at the interview!

[Severine]

Yeah, fingers crossed!

[fleaball]

How did the interview go? And how's the challenge going?

[ManchurianBee]

On 5/4/2017 at 8:25 AM, fleaball said:

How did the interview go? And how's the challenge going?

I felt the interview went well. Challenge was kind of a failure, not long after my last post I had a lot of other unexpected stuff come up before my trip and then I went on my trip. It was fantastic, but happy to be home. Gonna hop into the next challenge.