Rooks - Tracking the Daily Grind...

[Rooks]

On 2/13/2017 at 9:01 AM, The Most Loathed said:

Gym is looking really good. Glad everyone is home and you can enjoy it.

 

Looking at your bloodwork the big question in my brain is, what was going on in September? I could probably go back in your log and look but it's the one set of numbers that are the most different, your recent numbers look more like a return to form than anything else to me.

 

I'd wager it had something to do with my diet.  August of 2015 was when I did my powerlifting meet, then October of 2015 I did the Hammer Race so I was definitely pretty damn active at the time.  That said, I'm sure my diet was less than great.  And I'm sure my blood numbers would have been much worse than that if I had done them say December 2016 instead of 1 day after completing a Whole 30.   

 

-----

Monday, February 13th, 2017

I was right about my weight.  Weighed in at 209.4lbs yesterday morning.  That said, yesterday was the first time I've thrown my diet out the window since coming off Whole 30.  Had 3 beers (and they were all around 10% ABV) plus a load of sugared treats.  By days end, I had a headache and felt like complete crap.  It continued on until this morning.  Still don't feel great here at work, but I'm managing.  Anyway, hopefully I can get down to 207 by next week to stay on track for my goal of 200 by March 12th.  

 

Work felt foreign today.  Being off for a week when expected seems like a relief.  Being off for a week when unexpected just feels stressful (on top of the stress that comes from the kiddo situation).  I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing as we were in a big transition period for our team right when I was out.  No big deal as I'm sure I can catch up, but just feels goofy being here.  

 

Didn't end up doing much of anything all day.  

-----

Tuesday, February 14th, 2017

Got permission to work from home today due to kiddo still not being back to 100%.  She's still taking like 3-4 hours naps per day and doesn't seem to be capable of staying awake for her normal hours (which would required for school).  But either way, my mom was stoked to come up and see her granddaughter and help out so that made it quite a bit easier.  Just got to focus on work, with a few side questions here and there.  That said, a lot of what my job required today was waiting for tests to complete.  Some take upwards of 2 hours.  So while "working", I multi-tasked.  

 

 

I had picked up the elbows, flanges, and nipples (I have no idea why that's their name, but short pieces of pipe are called nipples) on Sunday morning.  Today I got the two sides mounted, took a measurement, and took a trip to Home Depot over lunch to get the final piece cut to finish out our new pull-up bar.  I still need to tighten some things down with a pipe wrench and put the nuts on the bolts, but it holds my weight without issue at the moment.  Overall, it's a super easy project, but it wasn't as cheap as I'd have hoped.  It's all 1" black pipe.  I think the overall cost will be right around $75 including bolts and all hardware for it.  

 

• 4x 90 Degree Elbows = $15
• 2x 2" Nipples = $4
• 2x 8" Nipples = $8
• 2x Floor Flanges = $15
• 1x 10' Piece of 1" Pipe = $20
• 8x 1/4" Bolts with Nuts = $10 (I think)

 

For anyone looking to do this themselves, one thing of note.  Home Depot charges crazy expensive fees for cutting 1" black pipe to custom lengths (mine said $5.75 per foot).  They will however, give you one free cut and thread if you buy a 10' pipe ($20).  So unless you are opposed to having spare pipe around, just buy the 10' section, and have them cut it to length.  Side note, props to anyone who noticed that I originally mounted the flange to the wrong floor joist.  

 

Anyway, enough rambling about the project.  Something I hope to do is to permanently hang my rings off this as well to make it easier to use them.  I tend to not use things that aren't easy to setup, so hopefully this will allow a few more ring digs and ring pushups.  However, the straps might be took clunky hanging around.  We'll see once I get things squared away.  

[Rooks]

This one is 45 minutes long, but it's a great video.  Give it a watch.

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Cool home made pull up bar!

[matty_mcfly]

Matt aka Rooks aka Big Homie...

 

How are tings? 

 

(I know I could read your log, but let's be serious, I haven't become any less lazy in my hiatus from NF)

[Rooks]

19 hours ago, matty_mcfly said:

Matt aka Rooks aka Big Homie...

 

How are tings? 

 

(I know I could read your log, but let's be serious, I haven't become any less lazy in my hiatus from NF)

 

Eh... my fitness has completely evaporating since basically doing nothing for about a year.  Progress with kiddo's tumor hasn't gone well.  Not poor, but not well either.  Somewhere right near "This fucking sucks."

 

-----

So I've been experimenting a bit with writing out something similiar to a Bullet Journal, but frankly, I'm no where near as talented as a lot of folks, so mine will never be pretty.  Logical, maybe, but pretty?  No.  Here's my current week.  So far I like it, but I feel like it needs more.  Basically a weekly list of to-do on the left, and a spot for either workout log or just notes on the right per day.  Next week, I may move a few days over to the left page to give a bit more room since I doubt my to-do lists will ever take up a full page.  Anyway, so far, I've been liking this.  I'd like to actually fill in more details about my days as well, but I'm not sure how.  Maybe I just need to try something and see how it goes.  

 

 

Anyway, as you can see, I got in a solid workout yesterday.

 

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

• Zombies, Run! Mission S2, M24
  • Right around 2 miles in 25 minutes.  Ran two chunks up around 8 MPH as that's the pace I'd like to hit for a 5k time.  But right now I can only really maintain it for 2 or 3 minutes.  Figure I'll keep doing as much as I can, and doing the rest at a steep incline at around 3 MPH (walking up hill).
• GymnasticsBodies Core Workout
  • This one continues to give me struggles.  They have these Bent Hollow Body Holds for 36 seconds which are brutal.  Only got through 2 yesterday.  My core is so weak.
• Overhead Press - 45/10, 65/8
  • Wanted to use a barbell for something.  My left bicep / tricep (somewhere on the side where I imagine the muscles meet) felt very tender while doing these.  Noting this for mobility work.  
• Jefferson Curl - 45/3 x 2
  • Coach Somner (from GB) is a huge fan of these and they can't hurt my brutally tight hamstrings.  
• Overhead Squat - 45/5, 65/5 x 2
  • Wanted to squat.  These felt great.  No back pain.  No knee pain.  No ankle pain.  Wrists got a little tender, but that always happens with OHS.  

Co-worker wants me to show him stuff in the weight room today.  No idea what I'm going to show him, but it'll force me to get back in there and do something.

[Rooks]

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Meant to get the gym with the co-worker but he backed out which made me back out.  I should have gone without him, but such is life.  That's all.

 

Friday, February 24, 2017 through Sunday, February 26, 2017

No workouts.  Friday afternoon was chemo for our daughter.  Actually pretty easy stuff compared to some of the routines we've had.  Saturday was cleaning followed by having a family over that we've got to know through our church.  They are a family of five (1 older daughter around 5, boy and girl twins that are around 3).  The house was chaotic and it was difficult to have good conversation without interruptions, but we did get to have a least a little talk to get to know them better.  So that was nice.  Sunday I got out to the garage to clean for a bit so that was nice.  Even made some minor progress on finishing my workbenches that I'm still working on.  Should be done next week.

 

Just to touch base on my year long goals quick (see here if interested), I'm making solid progress.  

1. I've started doing GTG steps with pull-ups.  I've been doing one negative pull-up whenever I'm around a pull-up bar.  Usually get in around 2-3 per day.  If progress goes as it did previously, I should be hitting pull-ups by mid-March.  
2. Reading has been going well, although this last book has slowed me down.  I'm still ahead of schedule, but Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt hasn't been the easiest read.  It was recommended on Facebook by a friend and it was free online so figured what the hell.  It's very economic-y.  Pro-free market and so far while I think the author makes a good case, I think he might lack a certain empathy for real world.  Either way, I've learned a few things so far, so it'll be worth the read once I finish.  
3. Woodworking projects will probably be finished next week.  I'm taking the whole week off work and don't really have much to do besides work on stuff I like.  Plus I'm spending a weekend at my parents house with access to my dad's shop.  
4. I've started using keyhero.com as a means to work on my typing.  I'm averaging 85 WPM and have hit already 90+ WPM on a few of the tests so I'm faster than I thought I was.  Also, sitting right around 95% accuracy.  To consider this done, I'd like to hit 100 WPM on at least 3-5 tests in a single session.  Going to try and keep doing a couple sessions per week and see what happens.

That's really all the big updates.  Some of the others are slowly in the works, but will take some diligence to reach by year's end.

 

Monday, February 27, 2017

Weighed 209.8 right away in the morning.  Much better than I anticipated given my beer consumption over the weekend, but probably means 200 by March 12 is more or less out.  We'll see how close I can get.  Anyway, got to work and the co-worker from Thursday as well as another wanted to hit the gym today.  So we all went down together.  It was sort of a gong-show.  One simply said "What exercise do I do for a six-pack?"  The other was much more about fitness, but had no idea what he wanted.  Anyway, another co-worker was in the gym at the time (I'd never met him), but he was quite fit and seemed to know what he was talking about.  Between the two of us, we gave them more information that they could process in a week, and hopefully got them headed in the right direction.  Mr. 6-pack as I'm going call him, wants me to keep working with him, but I'm not sure how to do beyond actually acting like a personal trainer.  And maybe that's not a bad idea.  I've wanted to see if I could do it, so why not try and help him.  Anyway, I played around with some back squats while they played around with some other movements.  Worked up to some singles that felt great, but I wasn't about to push my back.

• Back Squats - 225/1 x 3
  • See story above.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Hit up a nice workout over lunch.  Simple, got the blood bumping and I felt really good after this.  Tomorrow is a stretch day so that'll be nice.  

• GymnasticsBodies Core Workout
  • Hit everything prescribed today so marking it as "Easy" and moving up.  Probably helped that I started the workout with this.
• Goblet Squat - 50lb DB/5, 70lb DB/5 x 5
  • Getting in some basic movement.  Back maybe felt the tiniest bit tight by the end, but nothing a little rolling won't take care of tonight or doing a GB stretch routine tomorrow.
• Overhead Press - 65/5 x 3
  • Left arm felt much better this time around.  Maybe just getting it working again was what it needed.  Will continue throwing these in when I can.

Now for a personal gripe.  I found myself getting frustrated with my child lately regarding our morning routines.  Some context.  My daughter has been sleeping basically until I move.  She goes to sleep in her own bed, then comes into our room somewhere between midnight and 2am, and my wife and I have both agreed that we'd rather have her feel comfortable doing that then fighting the battle to get her back to sleep in her own room, at least for now (less than 5 minutes of everyone awake versus 30-45 minutes of everyone awake and no guarantee it only happens once per night).  Anyway, with her waking up when I do, I pushed back my morning to routine from 6am until 6:45-ish.  Puts me behind getting to work, but everyone gets more sleep.  I don't love it, but I also don't feel it's fair for me to wake up at 6am to then tell my wife to get up at 6:15 so I can go to work.  She normally sleeps past 7 if she can.  

 

Well all last week, kiddo was sleeping past 7am.  It was glorious.  I was getting up, having some nice solid quiet time to sip on coffee and get ready for work, and even towards the end of the week, got up my normal time.  Loved it.  I was even kicking around the idea of waking at 5:30 to try and get a full workout once I got to work.  And then of course, the kiddo's sleep schedule has gone bonkers again.  Monday morning she was up at 2am and didn't want to sleep.  I passed out at 3:30am and woke again at 5am to find her sleeping.  No idea when she passed out, but she slept until 8:40 before my wife woke her to take her to school on time.  Tuesday morning she was up at 5am ready to go.  

 

Ugh... so frustrating.  I just want a set morning routine.  One of the things that sucks about being a parent.  I love my kiddo, but damn... just sleep a consistent schedule.  And I know it's a very selfish complaint, but damn... that's just something I really like having.

[Sylvaa]

14 hours ago, Rooks said:

Ugh... so frustrating.  I just want a set morning routine.  One of the things that sucks about being a parent.  I love my kiddo, but damn... just sleep a consistent schedule.  And I know it's a very selfish complaint, but damn... that's just something I really like having.

 

So I was single for most of my daughter's younger days (or at least not living with anyone who was sharing my bed), and she would sleep with me. And I know you don't want to hear this, but it'll be much easier to set a consistent schedule without her sleeping with you guys. Also, from experience, the longer you let it go on, the harder it will be to stop it later. 

[The Most Loathed]

I can't say anything about how to do with the sleep, just acknowledge that you're probably doing a lot better than I would. I can barely deal with my dogs' habit of interrupting my sleep and it tends to be much more tame.

[Rooks]

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

So I was single for most of my daughter's younger days (or at least not living with anyone who was sharing my bed), and she would sleep with me. And I know you don't want to hear this, but it'll be much easier to set a consistent schedule without her sleeping with you guys. Also, from experience, the longer you let it go on, the harder it will be to stop it later. 

Yeah.  We know it's coming.  It's just this thing that neither of us want to tackle, especially because I function much better on lack of sleep than my wife so I get the impression that a lot of this will fall on me.  But maybe it's time to have that conversation again.  I'll buy coffee this weekend.    

 

1 hour ago, The Most Loathed said:

I can't say anything about how to do with the sleep, just acknowledge that you're probably doing a lot better than I would. I can barely deal with my dogs' habit of interrupting my sleep and it tends to be much more tame.

 

And really it's not that I'm upset she's making me lose sleep since if she would sleep, I'd get up earlier.  It's more that I have no control over my morning anymore which throws my whole morning schedule in chaos.  Who knows... probably something I just need to accept for the time being. 

[Rooks]

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Let's see.  No workout was done.  Work was pretty blah.  Honestly, I've been a pretty big slacker at work lately.  I'm work on a team of crazy intelligent people, all but one which work in a separate office 120 miles away.  Needless to say, it's easy for me to not work hard and just get by on my ability to talk smart.  So the last few weeks haven't been good.  I know I should work harder since for the absurd amount of money I make, I owe it to the company to do something for them.  And yet, I find myself watching way too much Youtube and scrolling through Facebook way too often.  My biggest problem is that I'm rarely directly tasked with anything.  The team is given a task and the bad ass team of geniuses in the other office just rattle through the stuff in no time at all.  And the craziest part of all is that every says I'm doing a great job (through my job reviews).  

 

Anyway, we'll get back to the work picture in a bit.  Wednesday night I ended up having drinks with 3 old co-workers and 1 spouse.  It was a good time, but the topic of salaries came up.  I found out that despite most of being pretty much the same technical field, I make 15k less than one, 30k less than another, and 55k less than another (although he's an outlier who both a really smart guy and someone who works way more hours than I ever would, stated he hasn't worked less than 45 hours since joining his company and averages closer to 50).  Couldn't really compare with the spouse who is also in the tech field, but he's a contractor so not really sure.  Anyway, so despite what I said in the paragraph above about making way more money than I think I'm worth, I can't help but feel I'm slightly getting slighted by my company.  They treat me great, but if I'm really making that much less in the same job, what's the deal?  Is the company just on the low end of the pay scale or did I get lowballed?  Who knows... 

 

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Worked sucked.  Got told at about 11am that a bug we'd known about for 3 days suddenly needed to be fixed by day's end.  However, the positive of this is I was told to get it out by day's end.  Remember what I said above about no direct orders?  Yeah.  It was a crazy busy day, but I was busy kicking ass.  Plowed through most of the work in no time at all and ended up getting things all squared about by 6:30pm.  Fix went live on our platform at around 7:30pm.  Despite being a little late for dinner, and not getting a workout in, it felt good to be productive which leads too...

 

Friday, March 3, 2017

I'll start this with I'm typing this sitting here drinking a beer at my parent's kitchen table in Wisconsin, staring at the beginning of a 9 day vacation.  Took all of next week off just to take it easy and so I figured I'd return the favor a bit to my wife.  I packed up the kiddo once I was done with work and we drove out to Wisconsin.  It's works out pretty well for everyone.  I get a weekend to work in my Dad's shop.  My wife get's a weekend to chill and do whatever she wants.  And my Mom and Dad get to hang out with granddaughter all weekend.  This is the 3rd or 4th time I've done this and every time it's a great thing.  It couldn't come at a better time IMO.  

 

So back to how the day went.  No workout, but I had tentatively told my team I'd look into an issue on Wednesday.  Given Thursday was taken up by the bug fix, and I'm off work all next week, it was either today or don't do it at all.  And for some reason (maybe the momentum from yesterday), I plowed through the issue.  Ended up being a way simpler fix than we had thought, but just required a lot of upfront investigation.  Took a bit longer than I had hoped as I wanted to skip outta the office a smidge early to get to Wisconsin an hour earlier, but I stuck around work to finish out what I had been tasked with.  It felt good, though.  Hopefully, I can keep this work desire up after once I get back on the 14th.  

 

And yes, for those reading this, this could totally be a #FirstWorldProblems thing.  I'm bitching because I don't have to work hard at a job that pays me crazy amounts of money by global standards (and yet I feel that maybe I should make more), gives me great health care, and has been nothing but great to me.  This is totally a "me" problem and I need to fix it.  But not now.  I'm on vacation.  I probably will still be updating NF while I'm out, but who knows.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

Enjoy your time off Rooks.

[The Most Loathed]

I feel you on the work frustrations and motivations. I think it's pretty common with knowledge workers, especially those of us who are physically active outside of work. I think that there is something about doing work that isn't tactile nor imminently important that can be frustrating. Some people can convince themselves that it is imminently important but a lot of us can't. 

 

I don't have a great solution either other than just trying to be mindful of what I am doing in a moment, why am I doing it? Lists and rituals can help too but everyone seems to need something different. As for the money thing, I'm no help. I don't know what my peers make. I feel so stupidly overpaid that I don't think I would care (although $55,000 is a huge difference). Maybe it's worth just shopping a resume around to see what kinds of numbers you see and try to use that as a bargaining chip in your current employer.

[Rooks]

On 3/6/2017 at 0:31 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I feel you on the work frustrations and motivations. I think it's pretty common with knowledge workers, especially those of us who are physically active outside of work. I think that there is something about doing work that isn't tactile nor imminently important that can be frustrating. Some people can convince themselves that it is imminently important but a lot of us can't. 

 

I don't have a great solution either other than just trying to be mindful of what I am doing in a moment, why am I doing it? Lists and rituals can help too but everyone seems to need something different. As for the money thing, I'm no help. I don't know what my peers make. I feel so stupidly overpaid that I don't think I would care (although $55,000 is a huge difference). Maybe it's worth just shopping a resume around to see what kinds of numbers you see and try to use that as a bargaining chip in your current employer.

 

Yeah.  I was talking with a friend about doing this, and his take was that if you aren't willing to actually pull the trigger on a new gig, don't do it (shop around that is).  And right now, I'm not sure I am.  We'll see how this week goes now that I'm back and fresh off vacation.

 

On 3/4/2017 at 3:13 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Enjoy your time off Rooks.

 

Thanks!  It was very nice.

 

-----

Saturday, March 4th, 2017 through Sunday, March 12th, 2017

I won't recap the full week.  Not much working out, but lots of being active as I was working on stuff around the house quite a bit as well as my woodworking.  Made a pretty cool set of bookends (not quite finished yet).  Finished one of the big workbenches I've been working on forever.  

 

 

Also, did get through quite a few episodes of Naruto.  So that was good.  It was a positive vacation.  Had a list of stuff I wanted to get done and didn't get through all of it, but rather just went at a pace that kept things fun.  And it was capped off by my 34th birthday.  My parents and my sister (and family) came over.  It was good to sit down and get to chat with them, especially my brother-in-law who really doesn't seem to like socializing.  I finally got him to talk a bit so it was good to just chat with him.  Start trying to build some sort of relationship.  

 

Monday, March 13th, 2017

Morning weigh-in:  212.0lbs

So much for sub-200 on my birthday.  Diet went to crap for sure a lot of the weekend days.  

 

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  Back at work today.  I did feel refreshed this morning despite only getting like 6 hours of sleep (couldn't fall asleep until near midnight and was up at 5:30am to get shoveling done before I left).  Got a workout in right away when I arrived to work.  

• GB Lower Body
• GB Upper Body
• Dips - 5, 3, 2
  • Deep as possible.  Was well below parallel with my triceps.  That said, I was disappointed that I only managed this many.  
• OHP - 65/5, 75/5, 95/5 x 3
  • Want to keep pressing as I like the Overhead Press and it makes my left arm feel better.
• Back Squat - 135/5, 185/5 x 3
  • Almost decided not to do this, but threw them in.  Felt good to start getting somewhat heavy.  

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good.  Been standing most of the day at my desk and moving as much as I can.  Seems to have kept my back from tightening up.  I'll do some mobility work tonight and a GB Stretch routine tomorrow.  

 

Random musing for the day.  I feel like I've had a really hard time building relationships within the past few years.  I think back to the friendships I had in college and what I have now, and I find it said.  I get on one hand that's it harder to form bonds with people when you don't see them everyday and when you don't have nearly as much free time, but I honestly feel like I've made efforts to talk with people beyond "So how about the weather?" and "You see the game yesterday?" type small talk and yet the impression I get from most people is they don't want to talk beyond that.  I can't tell whether I should take that as they don't want to get to know me, that they don't really know how to talk on a deeper level than the small chit chat crap that fills up so much of our time, or if it's something else.  

 

Either way, I find it sad that it's so hard to find meaningful relationships in today's super "connected" society.  You can find like minded individuals so easy, but we fill our schedules so full that we never take time to get to know anyone or just sit and chat.  This seems like it needs to be a goal for me in the near future.  Not totally sure, but something around relationships.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

 

 

 

I love the big exposed joinery; with the gratuitous LN on top it looks like a Popular Woodworking cover. Your own design?

 

 

I hear you on the relationships. I just read an article calling men's middle-age loneliness a health crisis. It's associated health risks are supposedly equivalent to smoking. Since I had kids though, I don't know how I'd fit in more socializing then my once a month game night.

 

If you want a social outlet, you're welcome to join our nerd night. We're moving it to second Saturdays, 7:30 in south Minneapolis. The gaming isn't too serious though.

[The Most Loathed]

I just keep bugging people on the internet to play games until they give up and finally do. 

[miss_marissa]

Happy birthday!

Mine was also this week

[Rooks]

On 3/13/2017 at 5:12 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I love the big exposed joinery; with the gratuitous LN on top it looks like a Popular Woodworking cover. Your own design?

 

90% comes from a Stumpy Nubs Youtube video (woodworking Youtube channel).  It seemed like a good first foray into joinery since it had dovetails and lap joints and cheap wood.  I ended up tweaking a few minor things as well as adding an extra 2x4 underneath the bench to allow the use of my holdfasts.  It was very time consuming, but I'm happy I did it.  Next one project will be smaller scale.  Not totally sure what yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

 

On 3/14/2017 at 7:49 AM, The Most Loathed said:

I just keep bugging people on the internet to play games until they give up and finally do. 

 

And it's an excellent strategy for sure.  Which reminds me that I need to go check my calendar regarding the next event.

 

On 3/14/2017 at 5:48 PM, miss_marissa said:

Happy birthday!

Mine was also this week

 

March birthday's are the best.  

 

-----

Tuesday, March 15th, 2017

I don't fully remember what happened on why I didn't get a workout in, but it didn't happen.  

 

Got home and happened upon @Machete's IG post thought it seemed like an interesting experiment.  Hence, I tried it (or at least the one part iI was capable of).  It was shocking to see the weakness on the left side.  One of the downsides to barbell training I suppose.  It's so easy to mask weak sides and create imbalances.  I think it might be time to finally get me a couple solid KBs and get to work.  Right now, we have 1 at 15lb, 25lb, 35lb, and 45lb.

 

 

Wednesday, March 16th, 2017

Got in a GB Middle Split Stretch routine right away upon arriving to work.  Work was work. It's getting better mostly out of my own force of will.  I'm going to do some stuff and not be a waste of person.  Otherwise, it was a pretty generic day.  

 

Random musing of the day.  So, I listened through Joe Rogan Podcast #901.  At the 2:27:30 mark, they start to talk about something called Time Restricted Eating.  Basically, the idea comes around only eating calories within a 12 hour period (or under).  She says that 9 hour is the best time frame.  Give it a listen if you have interest.  Anyway, I did some quick research on my vacation (about 30 minutes glancing over articles).  Time Restricted Eating seems pretty similar to Intermittent Fasting, at least in how most people do IF by skipping breakfast.  I've been skipping breakfast for awhile now, with only black coffee with MCT oil added until lunch.  So anyway, I figured I'd give this a go for awhile (the true 9-10 hour window) where I only drink water after 7pm and before 10am.  

 

The odd part about all of this?  I'm finding it much harder to last until 10am with water than I did at home on vacation.  I figured it would have been the other way around.  Anyway... no idea what if anything it'll do, but since I was already skipping breakfast and I was worried about caffeine addiction anyway, this seemed like a reasonable challenge.  I'll stick to it for a few months and give an update.  

[goodbye_farewell]

My IF eating window is 8 hours. 11am-7pm. The hardest part for me is stopping at 7pm. My next challenge will focus on that. Its basically the leangains IF which has been around a good while. When I really stick to it, I see good results.

[Rooks]

On 3/16/2017 at 9:52 AM, wovercast said:

My IF eating window is 8 hours. 11am-7pm. The hardest part for me is stopping at 7pm. My next challenge will focus on that. Its basically the leangains IF which has been around a good while. When I really stick to it, I see good results.

 

Never heard of Lean Gains.  I'll give his site a skim sometime in the next few days.  Thanks for the share.  

 

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Thursday, March 17th, 2017

Workout:  None

 

No idea.  Can't remember why nothing happened.  Wife and I did watch Money Monster after the kiddo went to bed.  It was an alright movie.  Seems to be based around a fictional version of the show Mad Money, and the show gets taken hostage live on air.  Not sad that I watched it, but I won't remember it 3 weeks from now.   

 

Friday, March 18th, 2017

Workout:  Planned on getting under a barbell again, but as I was midway through my GB work, someone came into the gym and was doing some really sloppy 5x5 work.

• GB Core Routine
  • Getting tougher, but still getting through them.  Takes about 15-20 minutes right now.
• Goblet Squats - 50lb DB/5, 70lb DB/5 x 2
• Farmer's Walks - 70lb DBs/30 seconds x 3 (1:30 rest period)
• Dips - 3 x 3
  • I've been doing this with a flexed core and going down until my toes touch the ground.  I feel like I'm getting pretty deep.  Will try and get some video of these soon.

Going back to the sloppy work on the 5x5, the gentleman was doing half squats, did no warmup at all, and just had very sloppy form.  I always wonder what's the proper protocol.  I'm not a trainer, but I know what he's doing is garbage and he should be fixing some of it.  But with a work gym, I'd really prefer not to piss of a co-worker on the off chance I need to work with him someday.  Who knows... if you have experience with trying to critique strangers in a gym, let me know.

 

Saturday, March 19th, 2017

Workout:  GB Front Split Stretch Routine.  Hamstring torture.  So good for me.  Need to make sure I'm getting this in more.  

 

Not much happened.  My mother in law came over to hang out with kiddo.  I used this do cleaning and took a bunch of stuff up to the Minneapolis Recycling Center (old paint cans, etc.).  Also, found some time to get a coat of stain on my bookends that I've been making.  Alas, I realized I should have sanded more, because wood glue really shows up when you stain.  

 

Sunday, March 20th, 2017

Workout:  None

 

Had planned to get in the GB Thoracic Bridge Stretch Routine, but alas, just ran out of time.  My wife wanted to brew a batch of beer, so after getting home from church we fired up the stove around noon.  Brewing beer on a stove is a slow painful process.  If we have a bigger burner I think we could get it down to 5 hours, but it takes us like 6:30 - 7 hours to brew a full batch these days.  I got a little frustrated towards the end of it, which resulted in my just storming around the house trying to clean stuff up.  It's sort of what I do when I feel like we have a million things to do and it's nearing kiddo's bedtime (meaning we can't be too loud).  My wife and I chatted about it after Sloan went to sleep and all was fine.  Just something I need to be more aware of.  

 

Week in Review

It was a good week.  I got most of the stuff I had planned done.  Work is getting better as I'm forcing myself to focus on activities for at least an hour or so at a time.  So far it's working as I feel like I'm actually getting some stuff done.  In fun news, my wife and I (hopefully) are finally going to pull the trigger on getting a deck built.  I'm pretty excited about the idea of finally getting rid of the crumbling concrete monstrosity we have back there to have something we like and want to use.  We've been talking about it for like 3 years now, but I think I'm finally going to force the issue this year since we definitely have the capital available.  

 

Otherwise, efforts have been going well in my downsizing.  Not sure how much I've really talked about it, but my wife and I have periodically gone on spurts of minimalist ideas.  Right now, I'm on a pretty good kick, but for a slightly different reason.  I'm trying to make money.  I've been selling a bunch of my old stuff on Craigslist and Ebay.  So far, I've made quite a bit of cash.  I'm hoping I can sell a bunch of this stuff that never gets used and turn it into some nice new tools for my woodworking that I would use.  I think I sold 3 things last week.  Hoping for another 3 this week.  We'll see though.  

 

Monday, March 21st, 2017

Workout:  

• GB Lower Body Routine
• GB Upper Body Routine
• 10 minutes on the treadmill, maybe 4 of which was running
  • Wanted to do like 30 minutes, but I started getting some chafing on my right inner thigh.  Not sure why that happened today, as it's normally an issue.  Just stopped rather than push through the pain to have the skin rubbed completely off for a few days.  Maybe I'm finally getting smarter.

Well that's it for now.  Back to work.  

[Rooks]

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2017 through Sunday, March 26th, 2017

No workouts.  Just kept prioritizing work over it which is stupid given how I know I feel better and do better work if I'm working out.  But alas, that thought doesn't always cross my mind as sometimes I'm stupid.  

 

Monday, March 27th, 2017

• Jumping Pull-ups - 3, 2
• GB Core Routine
  • Very hard today.  Couldn't get through it so I'll be holding steady for now until I can through this.
• Squats - 45/5, 95/5, 135/5, 185/3, 225/3, 185/2

Tuesday, March 28th, 2017

• GB Thoracic Bridge Stretch Routine

Wednesday, March 29th, 2017

• Nothing

Thoughts:  First, trying out another new format.  I'll just post workouts on my days and then ramble through whatever is my head for that day in a thoughts section.  Makes things simpler since I don't have stuff to talk about every day.

 

I really thought I was starting to come out of my funk I've been for the last few months, but now I sit here again, not really having much focus or not knowing what to do about it.  I keep coming back to this idea that I don't think I'm happy doing what I currently do, software testing.  I don't find any fulfillment out of knowing some piece of software will work better because I did my job.  I just don't care.  And I think about what it would be like to build stuff for a living.  And I think I'd like it.  I love using my hands.  But I don't know if I could make a living out of it, and more importantly, I can't justify giving up health insurance at the moment because of my daughter.  Maybe once the house is paid off, we could swing it, but until then I think I more or less "stuck" with the current gig.  And the funny part about this is that I keep finding myself frustrated with the fact that I'm frustrated. I have an amazing gig. Co-workers are brilliant and nice. I make a very good salary and have great benefits. And here I sit wanting to give it up to go be a blue collar guy. It seems so much more fulfilling. 

 

Something that has occurred to me on a more theological level. I've been thinking about how it seems science is finding more and more evidence that seems to show the key to a long and healthy life is directly correlated to consuming large quantities of vegetables. If you truly believe that their is a being out there that divinely created things, it's funny that it's taken us this long to realize the food that the earth naturally produced is the food that provides the most sustenance to our bodies. Almost like it is part of a grander design. And the food that we've created, such as refined carbs, are truly not beneficial to long term health. 

 

Something else on a lighter note, a co-worker shared an article about how you shouldn't double space after the end of sentence. I'm trying to stop after doing some research in trying to find out where that standard originated and not finding any value. We'll see how long it takes me to change my behavior. Do you single or double space at the end of sentences?

 

I think that's about it for today.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I can empathize with your job funk. I'd also love to do something creative and physical, but can't see how I could raise a family that way.

 

Your coworker is wrong. I'm never giving up the double-space.

[Sylvaa]

2 hours ago, Rooks said:

Something else on a lighter note, a co-worker shared an article about how you shouldn't double space after the end of sentence. I'm trying to stop after doing some research in trying to find out where that standard originated and not finding any value. We'll see how long it takes me to change my behavior. Do you single or double space at the end of sentences?

 

I'm pretty sure I read that same article at some point. Double-spacing was ingrained into my head while in school (elementary and secondary), however now I rarely use it. Unless I need to make a paper seem longer....

 

3 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I can empathize with your job funk. I'd also love to do something creative and physical, but can't see how I could raise a family that way.

 

I'm completely on this page too. While I love my job, I'd also love to do something else, but as the primary breadwinner in my family, I've got to grumble about having bills to pay instead. 

[Ryuu1011]

15 hours ago, Rooks said:

Something else on a lighter note, a co-worker shared an article about how you shouldn't double space after the end of sentence. I'm trying to stop after doing some research in trying to find out where that standard originated and not finding any value. We'll see how long it takes me to change my behavior. Do you single or double space at the end of sentences?

So according to my typography teacher in College double spacing after sentences started because on typewriters if you didn't your next letter after a period  would run together with your previous letter, though with the invention of the computer and word processors on there the issue was resolved. I personally have never double spaced after sentences.

[Rooks]

3 minutes ago, Ryuu1011 said:

So according to my typography teacher in College double spacing after sentences started because on typewriters if you didn't your next letter after a period  would run together with your previous letter, though with the invention of the computer and word processors on there the issue was resolved. I personally have never double spaced after sentences.

 

Same thing my wife said last night. The things you learn. I always thought it was just proper typing as that's how I was taught.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I'm still not giving it up. See, I just double spaced.