[AerynLee]

After years of strengthening my mind, I find that my body has been neglected. My muscles have atrophied, I am the opposite of limber and lithe, and my stamina is non-existent. As my fortieth year creeps closer I realize that I’m at risk of trapping myself in a non-functioning body and that terrifies me more than the cat sized spiders in the troll cave.

 

Characters of this tale:

Aeryn - Me. Wizard spreading out to learn fight with her body in addition to her mind

Felix - Hubs. Artificer. Happy to ticker with his gadgets, not terribly interested in adventuring
The Hounds - a pair of puppers

Troll Cave - The mysterious and creepy cave under my dwelling where I do my warrior training (and fight hordes of large spiders)

 

Stats (from the link in Teros's last challenge that I can't be bothers to look back up right now)

Str - 9
Dex - 10
Con - 9
Int - 15
Wis - 16
Cha – 10

[AerynLee]

Goals:

 

Lift - 4 times per week. I started an online group coaching thing this week and it's a four day a week upper/lower x2 split. The plan is Sun, Mon, Thurs, & Sat

Cardio - Get to OTF at least once, preferably twice a week (I have an 8x/month membership). Wednesdays & Fridays

Mobility - Stretch at least 3 times a week. 

Food - Calories under an average of 2k/day. Days over are fine as long as the weekly average is under 2k. 

Food pt 2 - increase protein. I want to get to where I'm regularly getting over 100g/day, but it will probably take some time to get there as I'd rather build up how I'm getting it in my normal way of eating than just load up on protein bars & shakes

 

I'm up for tough love. Feel free to get on my ass about it. I've been too lenient with myself which is why I'm in the shape I am

[Elastigirl]

Here to cheer you on  ( or kick your ass in gear if needed?) I hate large spiders. You must kill them!

 

 

[Artemis Prime]

5 hours ago, AerynLee said:

Lift - 4 times per week. I started an online group coaching thing this week and it's a four day a week upper/lower x2 split. The plan is Sun, Mon, Thurs, & Sat

Oooh, I just started an upper/lower split myself and I'm really enjoying it.

[AerynLee]

16 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Here to cheer you on  ( or kick your ass in gear if needed?) I hate large spiders. You must kill them!

Get that ass kicking foot ready to go for when you see how my week has gone so far ?

 

I hate them to and they are so big lately ? I call them baby tarantulas. By the time I see them they're usually dead, but I can't even handle dead ones when they're that big. Luckily Felix is a willing spider eliminator/sweeper-upper

 

12 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Oooh, I just started an upper/lower split myself and I'm really enjoying it.

I was doing a push/pull/legs split and I really liked that, but I'm willing to try out this upper/lower thing

[AerynLee]

  From the General Challenge thread:

On 9/3/2024 at 8:04 PM, titsworth said:

For the bonus mission: I thought it would be a useful time to have an honest conversation with ourselves! During this challenge, spend some time giving an assessment of how you might be the villain in your own story. How do your habits and actions throw chaos into what could be a sound plan to meet your goals.

• Do your sleep habits keep you in a perpetual state of exhaustion?
• Does your all weekend pizza extravaganza leave you feeling sluggish and kills your momentum with eating a more balanced plate?
• Do you neglect mobility in your workouts and always feel tight or frequently injure yourself (not that I would know about this personally *cough* *cough*)?

 

The goal is to have an honest and objective assessment of where you might be getting in your own way. And then build one challenge goal to try to counter the goatee-clad evil you.

Let's try an "honest and objective assessment", one question at a time

 

1. I think my sleep habits are pretty good. We keep pretty regular hours (in bed between 9 and 10pm most nights, up between 6 and 7am most days. I rarely drink anything with caffeine after lunch and almost never have alcohol. Our bedroom is only used for sleeping and bedroom cardio ?. We don't even keep cell phones in there anymore (when we moved to the second floor of our house a few months ago I put our charging setup in the office that you have to walk through to get to the bedroom).

The only sleep hygiene rule we break is that we do put the tv on at night. We put on shows we've seen a zillion times (Simpsons, Futurama, Archer, etc) and set a sleep timer on the tv for 60-90 minutes. Without something mindless like that my brain just spins and spins and it takes me hours to get to sleep. With them I'm usually out during the second episode. 

Yet I still feel like I'm always tired. Like, massive racoon eyes at all times tired. Always down for a nap tired. Not chronic fatigue levels, but I do wonder if I have CF's teeny-tiny baby cousin Chronic Yawns. I'm a light sleeper so it doesn't take much to wake me up and I'm usually brought to semi-consciousness a few times a night. 

 

I could cut out the last of my caffeine. I've drastically reduced it from where I used to be, but really could use to cut out the rest. It may also help with the migraines if I do.

 

Other than that and drugging myself at night I'm not sure what I can do to get better quality sleep. I've tried melatonin and it doesn't seem to do much for me

[Sovalis]

Here to follow along!

[AerynLee]

Training Log to date

 

Sunday 9/1

Lift - Upper Body day

Spoiler

Incline Pushup: 2x12

Bent over EZ bar row: 17.5lbs x 2 x 12

Barbell OHP: 45lbs x 2 x 7

Lateral Raise: 20lbs (total) x 3 x 15

EZ Bar skullcrusher: 25lbs x 2 x 15

DB Bicep Curl: 30lbs (total) x 2 x 12

 

Mobility - none

Food - 1860 cals

Protein - 76

Steps - 8500

 

Monday 9/2

Spoiler

Lift - lower body day

BB Squat: 45lbs x 3 x 7

Barbel RDL: 45lbs x 3 x 8

Bulgarian split squats: BW x 2 x 6 each (these are AWFUL for me due to very tight quad and hipflexor on one side)
Elevated single leg glute bridge: BW x 2 x 8

Wall Squat: 2 x 30sec (this was surprisingly hard)

Plank: 2 x 30sec 

 

Mobility - none

Food - 1765 cals

Protein - 74

Steps - 2350 (Eek!)

 

Tuesday 9/3

Lift - rest day

Mobility - none

Food - 1735 cals

Protein - 81

Steps - 3260 (still eek)

 

Wednesday 9/4

Lift - rest day. I purposely skipped my normal OTF workout since it was a 2k meter row and I cannot do that with my hip/quad issues. I about cried after a 600 meter row last week

Mobility - none

Food - 1450 cals

Protein - 62

Steps - 3830 (embarrassed noises)

 

Summary so far:

Lifting is on track. It feels like I took a step down on intensity but I'm in the very start of my online program so I'm following what it says and the coach will adjust as she deems fit

Mobility - oops. Need to work on it

Food - calories are on track. Food quality is decent, but could be better. 

Protein - very low. I need to plan out my meals better to help with quality foods and protein content

Steps - Utter fail. My only excuse is Monday & Wednesday were days off with Felix and I'd rather spend time with him then try to get my steps in, but that's not a great excuse

[Laghail]

Following to support you but also because the troll cave is, in the vernacular, litty 5000 

[AerynLee]

2 hours ago, Laghail said:

Following to support you but also because the troll cave is, in the vernacular, litty 5000 

Glad to have you!

And I don't know if I'm old or what but I have no idea what that vernacular is and Google search gave me some THC product ?

[Laghail]

7 hours ago, AerynLee said:

Glad to have you!

And I don't know if I'm old or what but I have no idea what that vernacular is and Google search gave me some THC product ?

oh it’s a mostly-dead word for vocabulary or common dialect. Kinda a silly joke to put SAT words next to gen Z slang in a sentence. 

[TimovieMan]

6 hours ago, Laghail said:

oh it’s a mostly-dead word for vocabulary or common dialect. Kinda a silly joke to put SAT words next to gen Z slang in a sentence. 

It's sophisticated as hell. I approve! ?

[AerynLee]

9 hours ago, Laghail said:

oh it’s a mostly-dead word for vocabulary or common dialect. Kinda a silly joke to put SAT words next to gen Z slang in a sentence. 

Oh, I knew the SAT word, it was the Gen Z slang I was stumped on ?

[Laghail]

34 minutes ago, AerynLee said:

Oh, I knew the SAT word, it was the Gen Z slang I was stumped on ?

 

Duuur, sorry! I actually can't help you there, I can only dimly infer Gen Z & Gen Alpha meanings from context but I'm not a translator. May I suggest the Cincinnati Inquirer?

 

Quote

Are you looksmaxxing for the Ohio skibidi rizz during brat summer? Or are you very demure, very mindful?

 

If you don't know what any of that means, chances are you're either not part of Generation Alpha, or don't spend much time on TikTok. The good news: you're not alone. The youngest and possibly largest generation has ushered in new slang terms that may seem like hieroglyphs to those not hooked on the trendy lingo.

 

[AerynLee]

Thursday 9/5

 

Lift - Upper Day

Spoiler

Cable Row - 55lbs x 2 x 10

BB Bench - 55lbs x 2 x 10

DB Lateral Raise - 20lbs (total) x 2 x 15

EZ Bar upright row - 30lbs x 3 x 12

Hammer Curl - 30lbs x 2 x 15

Knee pushups - bw x 2 x 8

 

Mobility - none

Food - 1525 cals

Protein - 101

Steps - 3700

 

I have no excuses for my steps. I worked from home and have a walking pad, but didn't bring it out (also didn't actually work much...but that's a different confession). Today will be a more reasonable amount of steps since I have OTF over lunch. 

 

I also have no excuses for not doing my mobility. I just need to do it. 

[Elastigirl]

You have strong arms- those are some impressive  numbers..  Cheering you on for more steps and mobility today. 

[AerynLee]

21 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

You have strong arms- those are some impressive  numbers..  Cheering you on for more steps and mobility today. 

Thanks! I don't feel like I'm particularly strong, but I am not a 5lbs dumbbell princess ?Any dumbbell weights I post are the combined weight though. I figure if I was using a 30lbs straight bar to curl to curl I wouldn't call it 15lbs, so why would I call a pair of 15lbs dumbbells that?

 

I did them yesterday!!!

[AerynLee]

Friday 9/6 

 

I got my ass in gear a bit and actually did some things. I tried out a higher protein breakfast (2 eggs, 4 veggie breakfast links, 2 pieces of toast) but the eggs made me feel queasy (as they usually do). I'm gonna try just one egg today and see how I feel. In the morning  (after posting yesterday's update) I did a few minutes of foam rolling and hip stretches so I wouldn't have to report another mobility failure. I went to OTF over lunch so I had a protein bar on the way and wasn't hungry after so I didn't actually end up eating lunch. I had an early dinner (fajita-like leftovers) and then had a bit over 500 calories left for the day* so when friends came over for board game night (we played Kingdomino, Forbidden Dessert, and Carcassonne) I ate about 500 calories worth of cookies, staying within my calorie goal and not regretting a thing ?

 

*I know I said my goal is under 2k/day, but that's on an average. Daily I like to be around 1750 so when I have higher calorie days my average works out with no guilt

 

Lift - OTF workout which was:

Spoiler

11 minutes of treadmill with increasing inclines

7 minutes alternating bench step downs and reverse lunges (body weights for me because single legged movements are very hard with my hips)

3 minutes alternating double crunch and glute bridges

11 minutes of treadmill with decreasing inclines

7 minutes alternating single arm shoulder press (15lbs) and single arm reverse fly (8lbs)

 

Mobility - I did some! It was pretty minimal, but an amount that if I did it everyday I wouldn't be in pain

Food - 1725 cals

Protein - 87

Steps - 8500

[Elastigirl]

Yay for getting the mobility in and for staying within your calorie budget!

[Yuen]

Ooh I do love lifting challenges By the looks of your workouts and calories, you are off to a great start... keep it up!

[Laghail]

On 9/7/2024 at 8:06 AM, AerynLee said:

I ate about 500 calories worth of cookies, staying within my calorie goal and not regretting a thing ?

 

*I know I said my goal is under 2k/day, but that's on an average. Daily I like to be around 1750 so when I have higher calorie days my average works out with no guilt

 

I love how much room you leave in your calorie counting for life and joy!

[AerynLee]

10 hours ago, Yuen said:

Ooh I do love lifting challenges By the looks of your workouts and calories, you are off to a great start... keep it up!

Welcome! Calories were very easy for me last week. Probably won't look so good for most of the challenge ?

 

7 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

I love how much room you leave in your calorie counting for life and joy!

I mean, you still have to enjoy life. And enjoying life means making room for cookies ?

[AerynLee]

Weekend Catchup

 

Had a decent relaxed weekend. Nothing too exciting. I got both of my lift sessions done. Saturday's steps were abysmal, but Sunday I got on my walking pad for 30 minutes and hit my goal. Calories have been great. Taking my breakfast down to one egg has worked really well. I even made it this morning when I had to actually go into the office which is a win since I'm a "get out of bed with just enough time to get dressed and out the door" kinda person. 

I accidentally left the book I'd been reading last challenge  at my mom's house 10 hours away a couple of weeks ago so in the meantime I've been reading bad romantasy smut. They're not good, but they're kinda fun and Felix is enjoying the benefits ? He's even taking me out to my favorite restaurant tonight

 

Spoiler

There are three potential culprits to Felix's benefits, and it's probably a combination of all three. 
Reading bad smut
Getting back into a normal hormonal rhythm after spending the majority of my adult life on Depo

And getting back into a good lifting routine. I noticed when I was lifting semi-regularly a few years ago that there was an increased drive. Now here's a second data point that it seems to be causal instead of coincidental

 

Saturday 9/7

 

Lift - Leg Day. Was a bit difficult to do such a glute heavy day after a glute heavy day at OTF

Spoiler

Elevated Glute Bridge:  BW x 2 x 15

Front Squat: 45lbs(BB) x 8 then 40lbs(DB) x 8

Single Leg RDL: 20lbs x 2 x 10

Reverse Lunges: BW x 2 x 8

Seated DB Calf Raise: 40lbs x 2 x 12

Laying leg raises: 2 x 12

 

Mobility - Maybe? I don't remember

Food - 1650 cals

Protein - 100

Steps - 2635 - yikes!

 

 

Sunday 9/8

 

Lift - Upper Day

Spoiler

Incline Pushups: 3 x 12

EZ Bar bent over row: 20lbs x 3 x 12

OHP: 45lbs x 3 x 8

DB Lateral Raise: 20lbs x 3 x 15

EZ Bar skullkrusher: 20lbs x 3 x 15

DB Bicep Curl: 30lbs x 3 x 15

 

Mobility - Nope

Food - 1710 cals

Protein - 73

Steps - 7272

[AerynLee]

Monday 9/9

 

Back to work at the actual office. I have been struggling to get myself to actually work lately* and the tasks have been piling up so I pushed myself to get through some of the most critical pieces. Then after work I just wasn't feeling like doing much and Felix offered to take me to my favorite restaurant so we had a date night. I got a reasonable burger with broccoli as the side and then we went for frozen yogurt (my idea). I have no idea how to begin tracking the calories so we'll just say it was high but not obscene and generally good choices were made while enjoying life. Considering the room I've left myself for that this challenge I'm perfectly happy with it as long as I stay around my goals at a similar ratio ongoing.

 

I did not do any exercise or mobility work. We parked a little ways away and took the 4 flights of stairs on and out of the parking garage but my steps still ended up pretty low. 

 

*I keep thinking I'm basically over the burnout of my old job, and then I hit a stretch where I don't want to do anything at work or for myself and fantasize about taking a six month sabbatical where at least the first month I get to be a slug. It's silly because my job is pretty cushy and if I just powered through a couple of projects to fix some processes and then stay on top of things I could probably do my job in the 2 days a week I'm actually in the office and on my 3 WFH days just log in and monitor fires while doing my own thing. But instead I sit and stew about all the things I should be doing without actually doing any of the things. And it makes me angry at myself, but the anger doesn't get me unstuck. 

[Laghail]

10 hours ago, AerynLee said:

Monday 9/9

 

Back to work at the actual office. I have been struggling to get myself to actually work lately* and the tasks have been piling up so I pushed myself to get through some of the most critical pieces. Then after work I just wasn't feeling like doing much and Felix offered to take me to my favorite restaurant so we had a date night. I got a reasonable burger with broccoli as the side and then we went for frozen yogurt (my idea). I have no idea how to begin tracking the calories so we'll just say it was high but not obscene and generally good choices were made while enjoying life. Considering the room I've left myself for that this challenge I'm perfectly happy with it as long as I stay around my goals at a similar ratio ongoing.

 

This right here, this is the healthiest relationship to food and celebration ever. Delighted for you. 

 

10 hours ago, AerynLee said:

*I keep thinking I'm basically over the burnout of my old job, and then I hit a stretch where I don't want to do anything at work or for myself and fantasize about taking a six month sabbatical where at least the first month I get to be a slug. It's silly because my job is pretty cushy and if I just powered through a couple of projects to fix some processes and then stay on top of things I could probably do my job in the 2 days a week I'm actually in the office and on my 3 WFH days just log in and monitor fires while doing my own thing. But instead I sit and stew about all the things I should be doing without actually doing any of the things. And it makes me angry at myself, but the anger doesn't get me unstuck. 

 

Big hugs. I know those feels.