ixaera keeps on going~

[Jord]

10 hours ago, ixaera said:

Today's free lunch was bbq and wonderful and perfect for macros, so that's pretty great. But it's different daily so I'm not sure how I'll work with this yet. One part of me wants to use it to save money, but the other part of me is like "No! Too unpredictable! Bring your own food!" vOv

 

 

hmmm, what about flexible dinners where you prep protein, carb and veg differently so you can adjust your dinner based on what you got for free lunch? It'd be hard for me to turn down daily free lunch, but I'm not sure your philosophy on $ vs macros. To each thine own self be true and all that jazz.

 

10 hours ago, ixaera said:

When my hours go officially to 10-7 I am thinking about spending my post-workout mornings at the ready fit go or the deli that has bfast tacos on the way. Read, and stuff. Saw the on site gym today, it's a little better than the one at old work, and will be great for after-work cardio.

 

 

That's a pretty kick ass schedule for a lifter. It's so good you got a job that will work with the schedule you prefer! And top notch with stopping to read and relax on your work to work.

[ixaera]

1 hour ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

hmmm, what about flexible dinners where you prep protein, carb and veg differently so you can adjust your dinner based on what you got for free lunch? It'd be hard for me to turn down daily free lunch, but I'm not sure your philosophy on $ vs macros. To each thine own self be true and all that jazz.

 

I really do like $$ though it's clear I would spend it on leisurely breakfasts XD

 

1 hour ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

That's a pretty kick ass schedule for a lifter. It's so good you got a job that will work with the schedule you prefer! And top notch with stopping to read and relax on your work to work.

 

Yeah I'm looking forward to being useful enough to make the switch. Maybe a month??

 

Regretting going out a bit. It was nice to see my friends, but we lost trivia and I totally went WAY over cals. (I'd eaten before going and planned to only have diet coke but then my resolve wavered and I was an imperfect human.)

[Urgan]

42 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Regretting going out a bit. It was nice to see my friends, but we lost trivia and I totally went WAY over cals. (I'd eaten before going and planned to only have diet coke but then my resolve wavered and I was an imperfect human.)

 

I forgive you. Today is a blank slate.

[Cataleya]

Maybe you can stash some food somewhere in case you aren't a fan of what that days free lunch will do for macros?

[shaar]

13 hours ago, ixaera said:

 

When my hours go officially to 10-7 I am thinking about spending my post-workout mornings at the ready fit go or the deli that has bfast tacos on the way. Read, and stuff. Saw the on site gym today, it's a little better than the one at old work, and will be great for after-work cardio.

 

 

Yessss.  This sounds excellent.  I'm 9:30 - 5 and man the early morning time is THE BEST.  Granted most mornings I get to the gym nice and early and it's great, but on my off mornings I'm always like, yeah, gonna get up and have a leisurely morning, but I often end up sleeping in and I ain't got no ragrets over that at all.

 

B'fast tacos sound worth getting up for tho'~

[CourtnieMarie]

14 hours ago, ixaera said:

I learned how oatmeal accidentally mixed with tepid water tastes (not that bad actually?) because the hot water thing didn't work how I expected. You have to WAIT FOR IT TO BOIL??? ugh I dunno if that's gonna work. Depends on how long the boiling takes.

 

our work switched to this kind of water cooler, it's energy saving or something. but the time it take to boil the water is like 60-90 seconds.

 

2 hours ago, ixaera said:

Regretting going out a bit. It was nice to see my friends, but we lost trivia and I totally went WAY over cals. (I'd eaten before going and planned to only have diet coke but then my resolve wavered and I was an imperfect human.)

booo on losing trivia. but seeing friends is always good. and you're perfect whether you ate/drank more than what you wanted to. it's not like you murdered someone.

 

...right?

[ixaera]

10 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

I forgive you. Today is a blank slate.

 

 

9 hours ago, Cataleya said:

Maybe you can stash some food somewhere in case you aren't a fan of what that days free lunch will do for macros?

 

I have purchased special macro friendly protein treats from My Protein that'll be arriving soon. Naturally all this coincided with running out of my protein bars anyway, lol

Today's was pretty good though, even though it was "soup and salad" and my fear was of course that there'd be no or poor quality meat for protein, but it was great actually. Got a grape walnut salad and dumped a bunch of grilled chicken on it with like a tbsp of the sherry vinaigrette and it was very very tasty. Good quality stuff. Fears unfounded.

 

9 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

our work switched to this kind of water cooler, it's energy saving or something. but the time it take to boil the water is like 60-90 seconds.

oooo good to know. I was just standing there awkwardly going "how the eff long does this monster take what is happening what if it doesn't even work I look so stupid standing here in the middle of everyone with my dry oatmeal"

 

9 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

booo on losing trivia. but seeing friends is always good. and you're perfect whether you ate/drank more than what you wanted to. it's not like you murdered someone.

 

...right?

 

Not THIS time :3

 

CRAZILY I updated my spreadsheet where I'm tracking my intake/weight to track my bulk and because of the random underages (today too... new job is taking some adjustment, I'm way busier so snacking and counting cals to see how low I am just doesn't happen) .... my weekly goal avg is 1700 and I am at 1699 by this magic in spite of a fairly big overage yesterday.

 

My weight is also currently going up faster than projected, so I hope that doesn't mean my maintenance is LOWER than 1550

[Cataleya]

12 hours ago, ixaera said:

Today's was pretty good though, even though it was "soup and salad" and my fear was of course that there'd be no or poor quality meat for protein, but it was great actually. Got a grape walnut salad and dumped a bunch of grilled chicken on it with like a tbsp of the sherry vinaigrette and it was very very tasty. Good quality stuff. Fears unfounded.

That sounds fucking delicious.

[CourtnieMarie]

14 hours ago, ixaera said:

I hope that doesn't mean my maintenance is LOWER than 1550

i feel like that would be nutso

[ixaera]

16 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

i feel like that would be nutso

I was doing more cardio for 1550 so maybe I just need to work harder at actually getting my elliptical reading in again... but the goal is .25 lbs per week and I'm definitely over that. gonna keep an eye on it for longer since it could be hormones or stress or diet changes

[ixaera]

I'm 5' even and all I've been doing for a while it's strength 4x a week. desk job and I don't have any other active hobbies, it's about text book maintenance for a 103lber, I need more muscle obviously, hence the bulk

[CourtnieMarie]

Just now, ixaera said:

I was doing more cardio for 1550 so maybe I just need to work harder at actually getting my elliptical reading in again... but the goal is .25 lbs per week and I'm definitely over that. gonna keep an eye on it for longer since it could be hormones or stress or diet changes

absolutely. as long as you are feeling good, give it some time

[Urgan]

15 hours ago, ixaera said:

My weight is also currently going up faster than projected, so I hope that doesn't mean my maintenance is LOWER than 1550

 

51 minutes ago, ixaera said:

I was doing more cardio for 1550 so maybe I just need to work harder at actually getting my elliptical reading in again... but the goal is .25 lbs per week and I'm definitely over that. gonna keep an eye on it for longer since it could be hormones or stress or diet changes

 

49 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

absolutely. as long as you are feeling good, give it some time

 

When you start having a full week of normal sit down and do the thing work days, you'll have a better idea. Hard to gauge when you're swinging from underage to overage with varying degrees of logging accuracy. Just write this week off as a survive-a-thon and start tracking as best you can next week. 

[Jonesy]

 

On 1/8/2018 at 7:27 PM, ixaera said:

I was relying very heavily on how slow my old job was to keep up

I'm not the only one to do this? Awesome. 

 

 

On 1/8/2018 at 7:27 PM, ixaera said:

Being an adult is the literal worst sometimes

Right?? I miss a life of no responsibilities. 

 

17 hours ago, ixaera said:

Today's was pretty good though, even though it was "soup and salad" and my fear was of course that there'd be no or poor quality meat for protein, but it was great actually. Got a grape walnut salad and dumped a bunch of grilled chicken on it with like a tbsp of the sherry vinaigrette and it was very very tasty. Good quality stuff. Fears unfounded.

Totally jealous of your daily free lunch. This sounds amazing and I don't even enjoy salads. 

 

 

[ixaera]

8 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

absolutely. as long as you are feeling good, give it some time

 

7 hours ago, Urgan said:

 

 

 

When you start having a full week of normal sit down and do the thing work days, you'll have a better idea. Hard to gauge when you're swinging from underage to overage with varying degrees of logging accuracy. Just write this week off as a survive-a-thon and start tracking as best you can next week. 

 

Yep, definitely leaving the goals in a holding pattern til I'm more sure. Shark Week begins Sunday or Monday, so there's room for some misleading numbers in my data! 

 

5 hours ago, Jonesy said:

Totally jealous of your daily free lunch. This sounds amazing and I don't even enjoy salads. 

 

Past me is totally jealous, too. Today they literally had rotisserie chicken, flank steak, roast potatoes, and steamed veggies with herbs all over 'em and they weren't all slimy with butter or oil or anything either. PERFECT
I did an internal dance. It would have been external if I knew these people a bit better.

 

So far there is a lot to learn and very little in the way of formal training procedure, but that is not a new situation to me so I'm just glomming onto teammates and watching them work. Tomorrow I'm going to demand people watch ME work

 

So far the two teammates I've shadowed are polar opposites. One doesn't say enough really and it's hard to know what to ask about, but he's clearly the most knowledgeable on the team. The other explains literally everything, including how to lock your screen when you get up

Yeah I know how to operate a computer buddy

But I don't wanna say anything b/c I'd kinda rather hear too much than not enough, but sometimes it's excruciating b/c I'm ready to move on and he's like "now type blah blah blah" and I'm like yeah i was past that 5 min ago..

[ixaera]

Updatey things

 

Program:

Bench went well today, felt strong

4x6 at 80 lbs as prescribed, followed by a 5x8 of pause bench w/ 90 sec rests

Only did about 1/3 of the bro stuff because I ran out of time. I was a bit late this morning and there are a LOT of sets this week. It's just not happening with this schedule, but at least I'm getting the important bits done.

 

Diet:

Protein's been great, pretty solid veggie/lean meat intake, too. hitting my goals despite setbacks, which is more than I could ask for. Tomorrow is pub times

 

Book:
I am about halfway done and enjoying it, but 65 pages on weekdays is WAY too ambitious. I might hit it now and then but it is time consuming and so is the rest of my life so, cutting myself slack here. I may not finish before I have to re-borrow, but so be it. 900 pages is a lot.

 

Water: 

Did better today

[Jord]

8 hours ago, ixaera said:

Book:
I am about halfway done and enjoying it, but 65 pages on weekdays is WAY too ambitious. I might hit it now and then but it is time consuming and so is the rest of my life so, cutting myself slack here. I may not finish before I have to re-borrow, but so be it. 900 pages is a lot.

 

 

65 pages every single day definitely seems like a lot to me, but I wasn't sure what kind of a reader you are. there are some days I don't want to read at all. I would for sure cut yourself some slack. Is there a different way to frame the goal, like reading a certain number of days per week or number of minutes per day?

[CourtnieMarie]

15 hours ago, ixaera said:

Past me is totally jealous, too. Today they literally had rotisserie chicken, flank steak, roast potatoes, and steamed veggies with herbs all over 'em and they weren't all slimy with butter or oil or anything either. PERFECT
I did an internal dance. It would have been external if I knew these people a bit better.

this. is. AMAZING! well done, new job.

 

also that's some good looking bench work you got there.

[Jonesy]

12 hours ago, ixaera said:

I am about halfway done and enjoying it, but 65 pages on weekdays is WAY too ambitious. I might hit it now and then but it is time consuming and so is the rest of my life so, cutting myself slack here. I may not finish before I have to re-borrow, but so be it. 900 pages is a lot.

 

900 pages for a book can make it feel daunting, specially if your not heavily invested in the story, so 65 pages a day would be hard to want to include in the day.  How about a chapter in the morning and one at night? Also is this a physical book or an ebook? 

 

You know, according to Warren Buffet, we should all be reading 500 pages a day. GASP - As someone who does read fairly a lot, this is outrageous even to me. Lol

[Jord]

37 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

You know, according to Warren Buffet, we should all be reading 500 pages a day. GASP - As someone who does read fairly a lot, this is outrageous even to me. Lol

 

maybe if someone did all my cooking... cleaning... and other adulting. And worked out my muscles for me.

[Jonesy]

2 minutes ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

maybe if someone did all my cooking... cleaning... and other adulting. And worked out my muscles for me.

 

That was my first thought, also not to mention if you have KIDS, a job or multiple jobs! Must be nice to be so rich you can afford to read for 5-7 hours a day. 

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Jonesy said:

You know, according to Warren Buffet, we should all be reading 500 pages a day. GASP - As someone who does read fairly a lot, this is outrageous even to me. Lol

 

I wonder how many pages it would add up to if you counted all the text you read per day. That number sounds to me like someone whose sole occupation is reading and is the only way to explain how one could go about reading that much. At my reading speed, 500/day is full time job with a half hour lunch.  

[Jonesy]

17 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

I wonder how many pages it would add up to if you counted all the text you read per day. That number sounds to me like someone whose sole occupation is reading and is the only way to explain how one could go about reading that much. At my reading speed, 500/day is full time job with a half hour lunch.  

 

The article I read, Buffett does say he spends about 80% of his day reading, so yeah, it's basically a full time job.  

 

So reading 65 pages a day while working out, doing chores/cleaning, having a social life, a job, etc is pretty awesome imo. I know I can't do it. 

[ixaera]

Reading talk! I do read, and 65 pages would be a good sized chunk for a light read, and a tall order for what I'm reading now. I am definitely ENJOYING The Pillars of the Earth, but it's not exactly a fluffy fun story so it's somewhat slower than, say, if I were reading the next Mercy Thompson. 65 pages EVERY day is only doable if I don't have to cook on the weekdays, probably, and I didn't realize how much it was going in because I have never really paid attention to my reading speed before this (which is probably above average for the Regular World, but maybe about average or less for NF haha)

 

And 500 pages uh

well nope

Sorry Buffet.

I'd be great if I could, but I have to clean at least A LITTLE BIT so mold doesn't grow on my clothes and maybe sleep sometimes so that rules that right out

 

Maybe if all the tickets I read count as "pages" >.>

 

AN UPDATE

since I've been MIA a bit

 

 

The important bit is that I'm STILL A BIT STRESSED HAHA

I went to the pub Friday after work and had... 3 rum drinks? I didn't get blistering drunk (thanks bulk) but I did get rather tipsy and when I get anything beyond mildly buzzed, I will sleep that night for 3 hours almost exactly, then wake up and be unable to sleep for a while

 

That happened, but with a twist. I had an ANXIETY ATTACK. My heart was pounding. My resting bpm is in the low 50s, especially late at night while sleeping, but it was probably doing 90-110. I was doing breathing exercises and trying to meditate, which worked while I was doing it, but as soon as I stopped, BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

 

I tired myself out on Pocket Camp and such, then went back to bed a couple of hours later, and had tons of short nightmares where I was fighting big huge men to the death and losing and waking up sweaty and gasping

 

EXCITING! sigh I'm fine now, it was fine by morning

 

But yeah, I guess even if my actual mind isn't overfocusing on things like New Job and Other Worries, it still has a physical effect. Yippee. Massage tomorrow. I really hope it helps. My regular therapist left and so I'm trying someone new and what if she isn't a good fit D: I am slightly picky

 

Program:
Friday I did trap bar deadlifts, a 4x6 for 115 lbs. It was fine and challenging enough. I'd say a solid RPE 8, mayyyybe 7.5, I've been feeling very strong (normal for the few days before Shark Week begins, and the bulk is helping). My hamstrings were still sore from freaking Tuesday. It was definitely programmed as a heavy week. I had warmed up with 90 lb pause squats which were almost as challenging as the deadlifts, honestly, but I love these paused squats because I feel like it really helps me focus on my form weaknesses. Followed up with some pulldowns, but it was so many sets I had to leave before I got to rows and curls again. My new schedule starts next week, so next heavy week I should be able to finish.

 

THIS week is a deload. Shoulders/arms today was super fast with just some light single reps for speed on the bench and a 3x5 of the empty bar for OHP. Very easy. Then 5 sets of shoulder work (I usually do at least 5 sets of cable face pulls for that, and then some db raises for the rest, but it was just 5 sets total today, so all face pulls). Then 2 sets of tris and forearms (I've been doing reverse curls on shoulder/arms day instead of regular curls b/c hay it's winter anyway so who cares if I get a good biceps pump, i'll save that for tank weather)

 

Mid-program review: So far I really like it, actually. The only thing I don't like is the length of the workouts on high accessory set weeks. It's funny b/c the book says even all these sets shouldn't take a half hour, but SOMEbody didn't do the math, because 36 sets times the 1.5 minutes of rest is almost an hour of just RESTING so, unless you rest less, there's no way you can get through the bro stuff on the super high set weeks in half an hour. THAT SAID, I like bro stuff and ENJOY bro stuff so now that my schedule allows it, that is really fine. I'll still probably try out the free unf*ck your program once I'm done with Think Big just to compare how I like each, and in the end, I will have learned more about what works for me. I do still really like the style of how these programs are set up so it is still feeling like a really good fit for me.

 

Food:
Over again. I ate nachos at the pub, and just kinda went "eff it" because I wanted some damn steak and bean nachos and yes they were totally worth it. Once I'm more mentally settled, the "no going over" rule is coming back, because the last three weeks in a row have been 200-300 total cals over for the week. Not a huge leak, but buh, that's not my goal man

 

Protein still great woop woop

 

Life:
Stressed and I think I'm currently fighting an internal war with a cold bug. I'm SUPER tired today and was having bizarre sneeze fits yesterday. Today I'm making sure to eat well and get plenty of vitamins and water to help my immune system do its thing. Tuesday I might wake up to ice on the roads, which is a dismal dealing in Dallas, so, squatting tomorrow to avoid worry about the program getting off track.

[Cataleya]

Pocket Camp is the best distraction for anxiety I don't even