Elastigirl Enthusiastically Embraces A New Endeavor

[Mizbrek]

Great photos! What do you have your rings tied to? Mine are on a pull up bar, which is good, but I wish I had a bit more room for them!

[Elastigirl]

7 hours ago, Mizbrek said:

Great photos! What do you have your rings tied to? Mine are on a pull up bar, which is good, but I wish I had a bit more room for them!

Thanks .They are outside, under our deck. It is about 12 feet high. The downside is you can't really take them down without a ladder. But, my husband is 6' 3" so he wanted to have lots of room. I got a set for inside on the pull up bar too. I would feel sort of cramped in our doorway doing skin the cat. 

[Elastigirl]

Decided to mix up my routine a bit today. My friends were coming over to meet for prayer, and then they were taking me out for birthday lunch. Usually I work out on Wednesday after lunch. But, I wanted to have  Mexican for lunch, and Mexican and spinny ring work isn't a great combo. So, I decided to try working out before breakfast. Last time I tried that, I didn't have the energy, but that was several years ago. I got up a little early, read my Bible, and then went to do the workout. I had a good workout, and had enough energy. I was also hoping that doing it before breakfast might help the vertigo nausea, but it felt about the same as when I had a protein drink (which is less than having a big breakfast, but still some) I ate breakfast about the same time. Then did the rest of my morning routine.

 

Had a wonderful lunch with friends. I had Carne Asada Tacos. I also had tons of chips and salsa. Usually I don't eat the chips until after the meal, but since it was a birthday treat, I ate as many chips as I wanted. And then as much rice as  I wanted. Went on a walk with my friend after. Then came home and finished my workout. I did pull ups. Totally rocked the pullups. PR'd and got 10 in one set (jump to pull ups ) I'm pretty sure it was the chips and salsa. Clearly they are good pre-workout fuel. I also did a few more skin the cats and tuck to chins. This time I did a couple of reps in each set, and had less nausea. Next workout I am going to do more sets with fewer reps and see if that helps, maybe I can also break it up and do a few in the morning and another set in the afternoon.

 

I really worked on form with the skin the cats. rather than just let gravity pull me down, I tried for a nice, slow, controlled descent. My abs sure felt it!

[Rhovaniel]

I just googled skin the cat... that is seriously impressive!

 

Glad you had such a good birthday meal - Mexican is one of my favourite cuisines. And since it's Thursday for me (I think you said your birthday was Thursday anyway), I'm hoping I'm not too late to say 

[WhiteGhost]

Happy Birthday!

 

I wish I could do proper skin the cats, but I can't get into a tight enough tuck to get my feet past the bar.

[Mrs Van]

9 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Totally rocked the pullups. PR'd and got 10 in one set

Happy Birthday! And awesome PR! May you have a great, blessed rest of the year.

 

[suzyQlou]

12 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Then came home and finished my workout. I did pull ups. Totally rocked the pullups. PR'd and got 10 in one set (jump to pull ups ) I'm pretty sure it was the chips and salsa. Clearly they are good pre-workout fuel.

Yep.  Gonna run out right now and try chips and salsa for fuel.  Awesome job with the PR!  Hope you have a wonderful birthday.

 

If you have time, I also have a burning geocaching question.  We've been out a couple times searching because my son needs to find a few for a merit badge.  Our luck has been pretty mixed.  I guess the thing that confuses us the most is the margin of error on our phones.  Do you think a phone is accurate enough to find caches?  Do you have any tips for actually finding a cache once you know you are close?  We've just been entering the coordinates in google maps, and then walking until the blue dot (us!) lines up with the pin (the coordinates of the cache).  I think my family just gets frustrated and gives up too quickly...but then again, it's possible that the caches have just gone missing, too.  Assuming other people have reported finding the cache recently, how long do you usually search before you decide to toss in the towel?

[Elastigirl]

11 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

I just googled skin the cat... that is seriously impressive!

 

Glad you had such a good birthday meal - Mexican is one of my favourite cuisines. And since it's Thursday for me (I think you said your birthday was Thursday anyway), I'm hoping I'm not too late to say 

Minions birthday, thanks my almost twin

11 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Happy Birthday!

 

I wish I could do proper skin the cats, but I can't get into a tight enough tuck to get my feet past the bar.

Thanks. I haven't tried it on the bar, only the  rings. Oddly doing it on the bar is scarier for me than the rings

5 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

Happy Birthday! And awesome PR! May you have a great, blessed rest of the year.

 

Thanks!

2 hours ago, suzyQlou said:

Yep.  Gonna run out right now and try chips and salsa for fuel.  Awesome job with the PR!  Hope you have a wonderful birthday.

 

If you have time, I also have a burning geocaching question.  We've been out a couple times searching because my son needs to find a few for a merit badge.  Our luck has been pretty mixed.  I guess the thing that confuses us the most is the margin of error on our phones.  Do you think a phone is accurate enough to find caches?  Do you have any tips for actually finding a cache once you know you are close?  We've just been entering the coordinates in google maps, and then walking until the blue dot (us!) lines up with the pin (the coordinates of the cache).  I think my family just gets frustrated and gives up too quickly...but then again, it's possible that the caches have just gone missing, too.  Assuming other people have reported finding the cache recently, how long do you usually search before you decide to toss in the towel?

Thanks.

A lot of people use phones, we do sometimes, though our GPS   is more accurate. We look for "tellls" .This is a bit specific to your area. Look for something out of place.  In our area, we have a lot of trees. Often caches are found at the base of a tree. People will take some small piece of wood, or moss, or rocks, and cover the cache. So you might see small sticks propped in a funny position. Inside a hollow log or tree stump. Under a rock. Under a picnic bench attached  by a magnet. Or on a metal fence the same way. Some are in small bison tubes, and they are hanging from a tree branch, or somewhere else you could hang something from.

 

How long do we spend looking for them? Well my husband has a lot longer attention span than I do. I'm pretty much done after 5 minutes. He'd like to keep searching forever until we find it, so we kind of find a happy medium. I'd say about 15 minutes is the max. Though if it is a sunny spot, and I can just sit in the sun, and let hubby search, then maybe longer.  What you said about someone finding it recently is key, if it has been awhile since anyone has found it we don't look as long, and figure it is missing. You do get better at it the more you do, you develop a "geosense"

Tagging @elizevdmerwe since I don't know if I ever gave her these tips.

[Elastigirl]

Oops Double post:

[Sloth the Enduring]

Happy birthday old friend.

[Elastigirl]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Happy birthday old friend.

Thanks!

[Mrs Van]

13 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Thanks.

A lot of people use phones, we do sometimes, though our GPS   is more accurate. We look for "tellls" .This is a bit specific to your area. Look for something out of place.  In our area, we have a lot of trees. Often caches are found at the base of a tree. People will take some small piece of wood, or moss, or rocks, and cover the cache. So you might see small sticks propped in a funny position. Inside a hollow log or tree stump. Under a rock. Under a picnic bench attached  by a magnet. Or on a metal fence the same way. Some are in small bison tubes, and they are hanging from a tree branch, or somewhere else you could hang something from.

 

How long do we spend looking for them? Well my husband has a lot longer attention span than I do. I'm pretty much done after 5 minutes. He'd like to keep searching forever until we find it, so we kind of find a happy medium. I'd say about 15 minutes is the max. Though if it is a sunny spot, and I can just sit in the sun, and let hubby search, then maybe longer.  What you said about someone finding it recently is key, if it has been awhile since anyone has found it we don't look as long, and figure it is missing. You do get better at it the more you do, you develop a "geosense"

Tagging @elizevdmerwe since I don't know if I ever gave her these tips.

Not directly, but a lot of these things (about searching) I know from my primary school years as a girl scout and *gasp* playing games @suzyQlou I read that a cellphone's GPS is still out for about 5-10m, so if you are standing on the spot, you still might need to search around  in a wider arc. The last geocache we tried to find, the boys gave up after about 10-15min. I kept up for another 15min or so, when the closing bell started tolling in the background (15min to get to the entrance gate).
I'm going to choose our caches very carefully next time. Firstly checking for good directions, and maybe some extra hints. Also make sure that we have enough time available to scrounge around.

[Nymeria]

Happy Birthday!  Great job on the ring PRs, too!

[suzyQlou]

19 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

A lot of people use phones, we do sometimes, though our GPS   is more accurate. We look for "tellls" .This is a bit specific to your area. Look for something out of place.  In our area, we have a lot of trees. Often caches are found at the base of a tree. People will take some small piece of wood, or moss, or rocks, and cover the cache. So you might see small sticks propped in a funny position. Inside a hollow log or tree stump. Under a rock. Under a picnic bench attached  by a magnet. Or on a metal fence the same way. Some are in small bison tubes, and they are hanging from a tree branch, or somewhere else you could hang something from.

 

How long do we spend looking for them? Well my husband has a lot longer attention span than I do. I'm pretty much done after 5 minutes. He'd like to keep searching forever until we find it, so we kind of find a happy medium. I'd say about 15 minutes is the max. Though if it is a sunny spot, and I can just sit in the sun, and let hubby search, then maybe longer.  What you said about someone finding it recently is key, if it has been awhile since anyone has found it we don't look as long, and figure it is missing. You do get better at it the more you do, you develop a "geosense"

Thank you!!! This really breaks it down and makes me feel much better about our beginning attempts.  We have found like a hundred letter boxes over the past few years, but somehow caches are different.  I thought I could spot "tells" - like the SPORs in the letterboxing world, but it hasn't been quite that obvious.  Mostly, I think the caches are smaller, and we've been looking at more public places like parks instead of woods where they can't be as obvious.  It might be time to try one that's marked as bigger size...and on a hiking trail.  

 

5 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

Not directly, but a lot of these things (about searching) I know from my primary school years as a girl scout and *gasp* playing games @suzyQlou I read that a cellphone's GPS is still out for about 5-10m, so if you are standing on the spot, you still might need to search around  in a wider arc. The last geocache we tried to find, the boys gave up after about 10-15min. I kept up for another 15min or so, when the closing bell started tolling in the background (15min to get to the entrance gate).
I'm going to choose our caches very carefully next time. Firstly checking for good directions, and maybe some extra hints. Also make sure that we have enough time available to scrounge around.

This is right on target!  The first caches we chose were based on convenience.  I bet with a bit extra planning, we can target easier caches...and build up to  harder boxes.  Thanks for sharing your experience, too!

[Elastigirl]

49 minutes ago, suzyQlou said:

Thank you!!! This really breaks it down and makes me feel much better about our beginning attempts.  We have found like a hundred letter boxes over the past few years, but somehow caches are different.  I thought I could spot "tells" - like the SPORs in the letterboxing world, but it hasn't been quite that obvious.  Mostly, I think the caches are smaller, and we've been looking at more public places like parks instead of woods where they can't be as obvious.  It might be time to try one that's marked as bigger size...and on a hiking trail.  

Smaller caches are harder. I hate micros! They are marked for difficulty, and you can look at the log and see how many finds and what people thought of the difficulty.  Looks for 1 star  difficulty, and that people logged in to recently with finds,

6 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

Not directly, but a lot of these things (about searching) I know from my primary school years as a girl scout and *gasp* playing games @suzyQlou I read that a cellphone's GPS is still out for about 5-10m, so if you are standing on the spot, you still might need to search around  in a wider arc. The last geocache we tried to find, the boys gave up after about 10-15min. I kept up for another 15min or so, when the closing bell started tolling in the background (15min to get to the entrance gate).
I'm going to choose our caches very carefully next time. Firstly checking for good directions, and maybe some extra hints. Also make sure that we have enough time available to scrounge around.

YOu looked for 30 minutes. You are tenacious! That's a good idea,you can check to make sure that yo only do ones with hints. You may even want to check the hints before to see how helpful they are.

[Elastigirl]

 

6 hours ago, Nymeria said:

Happy Birthday!  Great job on the ring PRs, too!

Thanks

[Elastigirl]

Yesterday was a good day. I slept poorly Wednesday night. I forgot to mention that  Wednesday the restaurant gave me a piece of cake, I stayed away from the cake (wheat makes me feel like I have the flu) but I had a couple of spoonfuls of the cream cheese frosting. Even with a Lactaid, I had a gassy stomach that kept me awake. I guess a good reminder of why I don't do dairy. Since Thursday was my birthday, and I slept poorly, I decided to sleep in a bit, and make my start time 10 am, which I did.

 

For workout, I did some KB deadlift, and assisted pistol using the rings for assist. I always feel like with the assisted pistols, I end up using the support too much, and am not  really building up leg strength. But I am not strong enough to do it unassisted. Then I finished with 100 KB swings  in 3 minutes (35#) Didn't go on a walk. I had hoped to do a long birthday walk, but it was rainy and bleh. Decided to enjoy a book instead. I finished book one in The Powder Mage Series. It is a good fantasy novel. 

 

Went out to dinner. Of course being my birthday dinner, it was a birthday variance. I had an appetizer of roasted asparagus with pancetta. Then I had a fried chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. It is a gluten free, paleo place, so I get to actually enjoy the fried food! I had  a delicious Peach Julep. Obviously this is still a treat, but it doesn't have artificial colors, and sweetened with agave syrup. Then we came home and had birthday cake, chocolate with peanut butter frosting, from the GF Vegan bakery. And played Settlers Of Cattaan-and I won!

 

Today-

Good start. I did my plan of setting the alarm on my cell phone for 9:15 and placing it away form me. The music is sort of nice, so I ignored it for a bit, but then I did turn off the computer and started on time.  Did my ring workout today. Oh, I was kidding  about eating chips and salsa to improve my workout, but I did wonder if a bit more carbs would help. So in today's pre workout smoothie breakfast I added a bit more fruit and honey. During my workout, I felt super strong with the dips, and was super excited. Then I realized I had forgotten to do the rings turned out(turn elbow pits forward) which add a layer of difficulty, so that was why I was able to do more dips. Ah well, I'll try again and see how it works. Finished the workout with  a Farmer's carry for the mini.

 

 

[annyshay]

On 6/15/2017 at 1:32 PM, Elastigirl said:

Oops Double post:

^^ this is perfect.

 

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Happy almost the same birthday!

[Rhovaniel]

12 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I finished book one in The Powder Mage Series. It is a good fantasy novel. 

I'm always on the lookout for a good fantasy novel! What's the basic premise of these books please?

 

Glad to hear you had a great birthday, and could enjoy your birthday variance without the nasty side-effects. My birthday variances had me feeling awful for most of the next morning.. worth it though!

[Mrs Van]

21 hours ago, suzyQlou said:

This is right on target!  The first caches we chose were based on convenience.  I bet with a bit extra planning, we can target easier caches...and build up to  harder boxes.  Thanks for sharing your experience, too!

I'm going to try and choose bigger caches. I saw afterwards that all of those close to us were small to micro size. I just also need to check for safety. Can't go to some of them because they are near old abandoned railway lines/tunnels, somewhere in the bushes. Don't want to get lost. My boys will never let me live that down .

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

YOu looked for 30 minutes. You are tenacious! That's a good idea,you can check to make sure that yo only do ones with hints. You may even want to check the hints before to see how helpful they are.

I kind of like to finish what I start, even if I write myself (almost) off in the process They updated the hints to the first cache we went looking for. I should be able to find it very easily now. As I mentioned to @suzyQlou, I'll also check for size of cache next time. Trying to find a 5cm green tube in a mass of green foliage seems to be a bit tricky. I'll first have to get my eye back in as you said.

[Elastigirl]

20 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Happy almost the same birthday!

Thanks, almost twin Hope you are having a great birthday today.

9 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

I'm always on the lookout for a good fantasy novel! What's the basic premise of these books please?

 

Glad to hear you had a great birthday, and could enjoy your birthday variance without the nasty side-effects. My birthday variances had me feeling awful for most of the next morning.. worth it though!

The book starts just as one of the main characters has overthrown a bad king in a coup, and the main character is trying to establish a better government.  He, and some of the other characters, are Powder Mages, which means that they use gunpowder to fuel their magic. Other people have different powers, and there is more magic, but that would be spoilers. 

Thanks. Yep, sometimes even when we know we may not feel as good, the food is still worth it.

5 hours ago, elizevdmerwe said:

I'm going to try and choose bigger caches. I saw afterwards that all of those close to us were small to micro size. I just also need to check for safety. Can't go to some of them because they are near old abandoned railway lines/tunnels, somewhere in the bushes. Don't want to get lost. My boys will never let me live that down .

I kind of like to finish what I start, even if I write myself (almost) off in the process They updated the hints to the first cache we went looking for. I should be able to find it very easily now. As I mentioned to @suzyQlou, I'll also check for size of cache next time. Trying to find a 5cm green tube in a mass of green foliage seems to be a bit tricky. I'll first have to get my eye back in as you said.

Yeah, you don't want to be wandering lost in some old abandoned tunnel. We have been lost before, but not too terribly. The worst was in this small 3 acre park, near a neighborhood.  We kept thinking how lost could we be, the place wasn't that big. But we couldn't find the trail back. We finally found a trail that led out of the park and to the neighborhood, and then just wandered until we found the parking lot.

[Rhovaniel]

4 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

The book starts just as one of the main characters has overthrown a bad king in a coup, and the main character is trying to establish a better government.  He, and some of the other characters, are Powder Mages, which means that they use gunpowder to fuel their magic. Other people have different powers, and there is more magic, but that would be spoilers. 

Sounds intriguing! I'll check it out, thanks!

[Elastigirl]

 

Week 3:

 

4/5 days (with a bit of leniency for my birthday) I feel like after working on this challenge for so long, it should be easy. But I still struggle.  It is way better though. 

 

Other stuff; Food wasn't the greatest, but it was my birthday, so I'm not that worried about it. There was birthday cake, which I enjoyed for a few days. That is something super rare for me though. Like once a year Then Father's day and we went out to one of our fav hamburger places. I had a duck-pork burger topped with pickled cabbage and chili mayonaise. And I decided instead of lettuce wrapped to do a gluten free bun, and their homemade potato chips. Weighed myself and I've gained three pounds this week. Which may be a lot of sodium. Anyway, it's  a nice day today, so I'll go for a couple of walks and eat about a 200 cal deficit, and then hit maintenance the rest of the week, and it should be good. I don't really care if I gain a bit of weight, as I am building muscle. 

 

Did workout all three days, including a workout before breakfast, which was a first for me. 

 

I've been struggling a bit with feeling queasy and dizzy from my spinning ring workouts, so I've been trying a few things this week to help with that. Nit having breakfast first, or just a protein smoothie. Also, I've decided on my non ring workout days to pick a move from my GMB workouts that involve spinning, such as the forward roll, and work on that. The idea is to get my body adjusted to tumbling so I have less vertigo.

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Good day today. Morning routine went well.  I stopped looking at the computer at 9:15, and started working out at 9:30. Workout was good.  I had less dizziness. Instead of  stringing a bunch of skin the cats together, I paused after each one. I was stringing them together to build strength and endurance, but if I'm stopping earlier due to dizziness, I'm not really gaining anything.  I worked on doing the moves with good form, and keeping my arms straight.

 

Went on a short walk after lunch, and am planning on another walk in the evening.

 

Ate a calorie deficit of 250, to make up for an over  weekend.

 

I forgot to say that yesterday we went to the Science Fiction museum to see the Star Trek exhibit and the Jim Henson exhibit. Enjoyed them both, but it was super cool to see the very first Muppets, and some of the how-tos.