ixaera keeps on going~

[Urgan]

Any chance of a scavenging session or two to go looking for unwanted chairs that might suit you better? If there are spare chairs to be had. And if anyone asks, you're just getting to know the building better lol.

[ixaera]

New body development: My elbow is saying "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

 

but why

 

It started last week with just a twinge whenever it was fully extended, then rotated (rotating thumb outward, basically). Now it twinges on just full extension, and rotating the arm while it's extended is a little painful and hard to do

 

It actually affected BENCH SESSION today and that's upsetting. I don't have insurance til Feb 1, so I gotta wait at least a week to go see about it. I'm hoping it will have magically resolved by then. (Meanwhile I am skipping Saturday's push press & light bench)

[Jord]

18 hours ago, Urgan said:

Any chance of a scavenging session or two to go looking for unwanted chairs that might suit you better? If there are spare chairs to be had. And if anyone asks, you're just getting to know the building better lol.

 

this.

 

all sizeable universities have a "resale" store where they sell furniture etc from campus when it gets replaced. I got a bunch of stuff from one when I was in undergrad. And we've gone to the one where I work a couple times now to get stuff. We got Mr T a super high quality pub height drafting type chair for his leatherwork table for like $30? that would have been over $200 or more new. If you have a university near you, I'd definitely inquire. We also got our kitchen bookcase/cabinet thing for $15.

[ixaera]

12 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

this.

 

all sizeable universities have a "resale" store where they sell furniture etc from campus when it gets replaced. I got a bunch of stuff from one when I was in undergrad. And we've gone to the one where I work a couple times now to get stuff. We got Mr T a super high quality pub height drafting type chair for his leatherwork table for like $30? that would have been over $200 or more new. If you have a university near you, I'd definitely inquire. We also got our kitchen bookcase/cabinet thing for $15.

 

Worth looking into when i get time, but dunno how work would feel about me waltzing in with my own chair. I might save that for when they know me and  my eccentricities better XD

 

Elbow update: Still hurts but I think it's getting better? Maybe? Tomorrow is deadlift + front squats + arm stuff so I am swapping arm things for things that can all be done only on the left side (why not? it's generally lagging behind the right side anyway right). I'll likely still skip light bench & push press Saturday.

 

Bulk update: The scale is SO fickle you guys. I'm now averaging just a TOUCH higher than where I had hoped to be, instead of a whole pound higher. This is freakin' tricky. I'm in hardmode territory now I think. Accounting for the fact that at the end of my cut I was likely averaging less overall food-in-processing weight, I'm probably actually on track or even a touch low, but more time will tell.

 

The moral here kids is Don't Make Changes Too Soon

[Urgan]

6 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Worth looking into when i get time, but dunno how work would feel about me waltzing in with my own chair. I might save that for when they know me and  my eccentricities better XD

 

"Hi, my name is Ix and I am more productive when not in excruciating pain. Plz to let me wear out my own chair."

 

7 minutes ago, ixaera said:

Bulk update: The scale is SO fickle you guys. I'm now averaging just a TOUCH higher than where I had hoped to be, instead of a whole pound higher. This is freakin' tricky. I'm in hardmode territory now I think. Accounting for the fact that at the end of my cut I was likely averaging less overall food-in-processing weight, I'm probably actually on track or even a touch low, but more time will tell.

 

The moral here kids is Don't Make Changes Too Soon

 

You are in One Good Poop territory, relax. You're doing great.

[ixaera]

4 minutes ago, Urgan said:

You are in One Good Poop territory, relax. You're doing great.

 

One great thing about the bulk -- MORE POOP

 

Anyway, I forgot about an impending "change" (more like getting used to the schedule still). It's just not feasible to have dinner at 8 or so, so I'm gonna stop trying. I'm going to focus on having a good breakfast, a good lunch, and dinner will likely either be protein oatmeal or other protein snax around 5, because even having a snack at 3 or even 4, it's too long a wait and I do not like it.

 

On the plus side, it's a bit of a money saver.

[Jord]

10 hours ago, ixaera said:

The moral here kids is Don't Make Changes Too Soon

 

aaaahhh I struggle with this constantly. why doesn't the scale react calorie for calorie instead of caring about water and poop retention? WHYYYY

 

10 hours ago, Urgan said:

You are in One Good Poop territory, relax. You're doing great.

 

literally, relax >_>

 

also, story of my whole week and the scale, season 34 episode 14059

[ixaera]

Battle Log Confessionals

Yesterday I ate like an asshole

 

 

 

Just look at that sugar macro

lookatit

no, that's not look, a tit

it's LOOK AT IT

all the sugar 

 

My goal yesterday was 1850 (not 1789, I haven't adjusted my MFP goals in a while and just ignore that line). Work had a "support rocks" party that involved a hot cocoa bar and tons of sweets. Today I'm having ZERO treats to try to rid my poor guts of all this sugar. NO TREATS. Probably Sunday too.

 

Program:

Bench went OKAY for how my elbow was doing. The weight was challenging but not bad (3x5 at 85 lbs) but on the last rep or two I could "feel" my elbow. Got through the rest ok but my elbow was a little off. Not hurting, not limited in movement, just things felt off at lockout. I decided to rest it after this session.

 

Deadlift went great. 3x5 at 115. Some front squats at 75 lbs. Did the accessories on the left side only (why not? I'm right-dominant anyway so it's an opportunity to maybe fill out the left side a bit) with some one arm lat pulldowns, one arm db rows, and some preacher db curls superset with shoulder press all on the left side.

 

My elbow is I THINK healing? It currently feels like it did just before bench day, which is an improvement over how it felt after bench day, but it hasn't improved much beyond that. If it's still going on post-vacation I'll have to get it checked out. My super reliable internet diagnosis is that I have a medial ligament sprain. (My insurance doesn't kick in til Feb 1, so the internet treatment will have to do for now... can't hurt since it's literally ibuprofen and rest)

 

I have a busy day ahead of me today. I promised my food blogger friend I would test 2 recipes for her and I thought for some reason I would have two saturdays to work with but didn't (my fault, not hers haha) so I have to cook both this weekend. On the plus side, I think that counts as forced meal prep.

 

I'm also meeting with the pet sitter and doing other things to get ready for being gone 5 days, and my Seattle BFF asking me to design a beginner's full body dumbbell routine for her, and while the "OMG FITNESS" part of me wants to make it complex, I know that'll scare her off, so I'm literally gonna make a series of circuits that should take about 30 minutes, full body, and tell her to do it 3x a week and to get back to me when she gets bored. I've been back and forth with her about nutrition for ages, so I know I can't jump in with linear progression and barbells. Best to start with something she'll actually do.

[ixaera]

:S Had a repeat big overage day, so the NO GOING OVER rule comes back this week. Boom. (See? I need it, y'all)

Was doing great up til the birthday party, at which I drank a HEAVY beer (300 cals for a bottle), ate a nice sized slice of lemon bundt cake, and like 3 cookies. Ooooops. Sigh.

 

Well, yesterday was a full on rest day (well, except for all the cleaning and cooking, I'm sure I got plenty of movement in), and today I did the 5K. My goal was to try to get a time under 45 min, and I figured I could do it if I pushed my walk pace to the brink of tiring and jogged a bit here and there. I probably jogged 4-6 times on the course for like 30 seconds to 45 seconds (MAYBE a minute once) at a time. When I got to the finish, I was disappointed to see a big 50:52 on the screen, but when I opened up the results page, they had me at 44:40 (20 seconds under goal!) Someone explained that the clock is if you started right at the start line, and since many people are further back, they take that into account. Nifty.

 

It actually WAS a pace timed race, and I was definitely closer to the rear than the front (maybe even closer to the rear than the middle, not sure), but given the race times I saw, it looks like they were capping completion time around 80 minutes, so no danger for me. And I got a nice medal for participating, and I got to listen to cool jams while dodging strollers and dogs. There was also crappy free beer at the end. Keeb wants to go to the next one that this club is doing, and I'll probably tag along again. It's a nice way to be supportive, I guess.

 

Tomorrow's another rest day and gonna hit the elliptical after work, and Tuesday I squat.

ONE week till Harry Potter World!

 

[Jord]

16 hours ago, ixaera said:

Well, yesterday was a full on rest day (well, except for all the cleaning and cooking, I'm sure I got plenty of movement in), and today I did the 5K. My goal was to try to get a time under 45 min, and I figured I could do it if I pushed my walk pace to the brink of tiring and jogged a bit here and there. I probably jogged 4-6 times on the course for like 30 seconds to 45 seconds (MAYBE a minute once) at a time. When I got to the finish, I was disappointed to see a big 50:52 on the screen, but when I opened up the results page, they had me at 44:40 (20 seconds under goal!) Someone explained that the clock is if you started right at the start line, and since many people are further back, they take that into account. Nifty.

 

It actually WAS a pace timed race, and I was definitely closer to the rear than the front (maybe even closer to the rear than the middle, not sure), but given the race times I saw, it looks like they were capping completion time around 80 minutes, so no danger for me. And I got a nice medal for participating, and I got to listen to cool jams while dodging strollers and dogs. There was also crappy free beer at the end. Keeb wants to go to the next one that this club is doing, and I'll probably tag along again. It's a nice way to be supportive, I guess.

 

I'm actually thinking of doing another 5k (walking) this year with the same thought process. To improve over the last one and keep it under 45 min. I think my last one was about that and I've been doing more hiking since thing (increasing cardio ability). I'm glad i'm not the only warrior who can barely jog, lol. No disservice to you, just warms my heart.

 

It's a nice way to be supportive and a nice way to burn some cals with a purpose.

 

Quote

ONE week till Harry Potter World!

 

 

So jealous!

[shaar]

On 1/27/2018 at 12:24 PM, ixaera said:

 

Just look at that sugar macro

lookatit

no, that's not look, a tit

it's LOOK AT IT

all the sugar 

 

 

AHAHAHA IT IS BEAUTIFUL

 

s u g a r

 

Whoopsie doodles!

 

OH man Harry Potter World oh MAN you've gotta have a mug of Butterbeer ok, sugar be DAMNED.  100% worth.  200% even.  It's kinda the best place on earth.........

[CourtnieMarie]

38 minutes ago, shaar said:

 

AHAHAHA IT IS BEAUTIFUL

 

s u g a r

 

Whoopsie doodles!

 

OH man Harry Potter World oh MAN you've gotta have a mug of Butterbeer ok, sugar be DAMNED.  100% worth.  200% even.  It's kinda the best place on earth.........

^ speaks truth

[ixaera]

11 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

No disservice to you, just warms my heart.

 

To be fair, I'm unlikely to ever train running hahah

Even though I will probably keep supporting Mr Ix in his running endeavors, I will just accept my fate as slowest in his run club forevs.

 

I'm a warrior! I charge SLOWLY

 

10 hours ago, shaar said:

OH man Harry Potter World oh MAN you've gotta have a mug of Butterbeer ok, sugar be DAMNED.  100% worth.  200% even.  It's kinda the best place on earth.........

 

9 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

^ speaks truth

 

Y'all best believe I will not be caring what my sugar macro says next week XD My only goal 2/5-9 will be to "try" to log well

[ixaera]

Program: More rest

 

How Is Elbow? It was so good I was like "wow is it fixed now?" earlier today, then it twinged again and I realized it wasn't. Come on little elbow, heal faster. I accidentally propped up on it to get out of bed to pee last night and it did this crazy (but painless) pop and I was like OH NO I HAVE DIED MY ELBOW but it seems mostly unchanged

 

Food: I went over yesterday and today so
Don't go over: 0/7 so far

Bulk target was 110 before I cut fat again and here I am already nearly 107. I'm not very good at this so far. I was trying to take like half a year to get there.

 

Protein is awesome though.

 

Nothing else new to report atm. Litter is staying cleaner than ever, though I'm not quite at my every day goal. That'll probably appear in a near-future challenge. Water is being consumed but not tracked. That will probably also appear soon. Writing has been on hiatus while I settle in and I'm not quite ready to try to tetris that into my schedule yet.

 

[CourtnieMarie]

hahaha if the pic wasn't so big i'd post it again for my double post

[CourtnieMarie]

11 hours ago, ixaera said:

I accidentally propped up on it to get out of bed to pee last night and it did this crazy (but painless) pop and I was like OH NO I HAVE DIED MY ELBOW but it seems mostly unchanged

[calanthrophy]

On 1/29/2018 at 9:57 AM, shaar said:

OH man Harry Potter World oh MAN you've gotta have a mug of Butterbeer ok, sugar be DAMNED.  100% worth.  200% even.  It's kinda the best place on earth.........

 

What is butterbeer?

[Cataleya]

57 minutes ago, calanthrophy said:

What is butterbeer?

 

Butterbeer is magic.

 

It's basically butterscotch in liquid form but not as sweet. It's still sweet, but it's not like downing straight butterscotch. It's usually hot and foamy. It's pretty great.

[CourtnieMarie]

3 hours ago, calanthrophy said:

 

What is butterbeer?

 

2 hours ago, Cataleya said:

 

Butterbeer is magic.

 

It's basically butterscotch in liquid form but not as sweet. It's still sweet, but it's not like downing straight butterscotch. It's usually hot and foamy. It's pretty great.

she's right - it is magic! JK Rowling helped Universal Studios come up with the recipe and it's highly classified lolll

AND they only serve it hot in the cold months which i found out to my dismay when I went in May. don't get me wrong, the cold version was amazing but I wanted to try every variation. #committed

 

Spoiler

i'm on the right and it's my "i can't even process how amazing this drink is" face

 

[ixaera]

Program: Squats Tuesday went fine. I WISH 105 felt lighter, but I really think this slowed down approach is probably smarter for me still. My dumb back is like "LOL HI" too often to push too hard, but the great news is, work chair has stopped bugging it so much and I haven't really felt it in 5's week hardly at all. Maybe PRs aren't as far away as I thought?  (They are not yet though, but I can feel that things are getting better in lumbar land). Squats were a 6x2 of 105, which felt fine. Then I tried to find ab work that didn't bother my elbow and had a hard time, so I did relatively light suitcase carries that I suspect were mostly useless. My elbow was pretty okay with the 30 lb dumbbell carry, though my forearm felt full of rocks. The last set some broham who CLEARLY saw me using the lane starts doing some pvc pipe swinging in the middle of said lane. It's an EMPTY GYM. He COULD HAVE USED A PLATFORM. Or like anywhere but where I was clearly doing walks :| Ugh, same guy with all the squat pointers too. FIRED

 

Ended with some dumbbell RDLs and seated leg curls, hams are gently DOMsy today.

 

Continued rest today(basically til Friday, my elbow is fine for deadlift, and I plan to do left arm only again on accessories)

I AM going after work to the on site gym to pound out 30 min on the elliptical at low-med intensity. It's reading time.

 

How Is Elbow? Today it's been decently better. I've been treating it with rest, not forgetting my supps, water, aspirin for blood flow and ibuprofen for anti-inflam. I now have full mobility but it still feels tight af

 

Food: I did not go over today or yesterday
Don't go over: 2/7 so far

Getting good ideas for my next challenge to rev back up. I think the next one has the zero week right during HPW, which is about perfect. Thinking a water challenge, a veggie/fruit challenge, and a limit on starbucks (it's right on site at new job dammit) for beginzies

 

Protein was great yesterday but a bit lacking today. Unfortunately, if I don't plan super well before work, there's not much I can do once there. Omigosh, I just remembered most of the time, there's tubs of free meat what am I even saying

 

Other stuff: Mr Ix has a cold thing going on that I hope I don't catch. The only thing I want to catch is that plane Monday morning.

 

Work stuff: It's my 4th week and I feel like I know NOTHING

 

 

^^^

So I guess I never posted that yesterday .......... HOOOOOOOOOO KAYYYYYYYYYYY

 

Anyway, here's today while I'm at it:

 

Program: Elliptical again today, skipped bench day entirely. 

 

Food: Proteins good, ate some veggies, not too bad. Enjoyed a brownie as well.

Don't go over: 2/7 still technically. I was over a little bit today, but MUCH better than Sun/Mon

Plus, it was a technicality. There's some chaos in my routine when it comes to the free lunches at work. Not once has there ever been an unacceptable selection (and if there is, I have an emergency backup plan), but it's not easy to get down to the nitty gritty on the fly in the buffet line. Like, I generally knew today about how much pizza/salad/other room I had, but getting within 100 calories is about as good as I can do, and none of the snacks I brought were easily broken down to take 25 back out. OH WELL (don't read any actual concern into this, I just think a lot out loud about everything y'all)

 

Litter: Good

Water: so much diet soda :S

But I didn't have a latte today 

 

Elbow: Improving noticeably, though I had a twinge in a new spot tonight. Hopefully that's just stuff healing and whatnot? Got 99% mobility on the the thing now though. Think this really boils down to minor golfer's elbow from bad wrist form on *something* (I don't think bench press or OHP, but maybe one of the accessories). I think this because as it's healed, the weird stiff feelings have localized into the wrist, which is super crackly now. It's always been crackly though.

 

Tomorrow: Deadlifts! and some left arm stuff cuz why not

[ixaera]

Program:

did 4x2 70 lb front squats, the forearm stretch did not hurt my elbow

6x2 120 lb deadlifts, not nearly as easy as I wanted, but we're slowly trudging back up

Left arm bro stuff

A new person I hadn't seen before was about to steal the lat pulldown so I was like "hey do you need this? I can do some blah blah blah if so and come back" and he goes oh! no i didn't realize anyone was using it and he went away, then later asked me what I was doing with just a handle on there. i told him I was doing one arm lat pulldowns b/c I was resting one side due to a minor injury and he goes oh ok. Then he goes over there with the handle and does one arm lat pulldowns, only all wrong D: Not that I do them perfectly or anything, but you're supposed to sit to the side and stuff and he was just all straight-facing it and pulling it down, I hope I didn't unwittingly cause injury lol

 

Food:

Nope, I sucked. Breakfast was good. 400 cals of sausage, egg whites, and potatoes. Lunch was some chicken wings and fries. was really doing mostly fine to this point. It wasn't til I decided to drink in celebration of being on vacation that things fell apart. I had about 150 cals for alcohol, which is great for 1 beer, some wine, maybe a little finger of Tuaca, but I had way more than a finger. So I went over, and was low on protein

 

Litter: Still good, might have made a good habit here but I'll continue logging it to dry the cement here

Water: Uhhh nope

 

Elbow: Still improving but not 100%. All mobility is back even with no ibuprofen or aspirin, but it's still tight and not amazing. On sunday I'm doing my normal Mon/Tues squat session before the trip, so I'm going to throw in light bench, thinking a 3x5 starting at 65, and if that feels 100% fine go up to 75 for medium intensity. Just to get the joint moving under some weight.

 

Work: Today I managed to spend the actual majority of the day (by a hair) on actual work and not necessarily browsing other people's work and learning (of course, the work is learning too, just finally able to do some things well enough to DO them instead of just follow other people doing them). I also made a MISTAKE and was super embarrassed. 

 

[ixaera]

I leave on a jet plane in the morning, so I did squats today. The feature was a 4x3 at 110, which is the highest I've done since the big ouch. During session all was well, did a bunch of bro hamstring stuff after, and some light bench. (Did a 3x5 at 65, 75 was a bust b/c I could still feel the elbow a bit.)

 

Doing cat litter tonight I could feel my back though. dunno what that's about hopefully a false alarm :/

 

In other back news, I did steal a better chair for my desk. I don't think anybody noticed.

 

My weekly calorie average aims for 1700 and I did 1699.7 this week, I just wanted you to know that.

[shaar]

+10 to chair thievery!!!  REAL LIFE SKILLS HERE

 

Oh man oh man have the best time!!!!!!

[CourtnieMarie]

I HOPE YOU ARE ALREADY ARRIVING IN HPW AND LOVING LIFE!

 

also great job on calorie goals last week and litter and chair and lifting the things!

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, shaar said:

+10 to chair thievery!!!  REAL LIFE SKILLS HERE

 

Oh man oh man have the best time!!!!!!

 

It's how to move up in the world. #skillstheyshouldteachinhighschool