(NF): WeyrCat: Chapter 2, Reboot. *RP

(Cross posted from the NerdFitness archives for posterity)
6 Week Challenge - August 6 - September 17Rangers

Every story has a beginning. It winds along through trials and triumphs, like a living, breathing, thing. Accomplishments beat the cadence of a heartbeat, and failures paint the tracks of its tears. The difference between life and a story, isn't as great as you think. You may not be able to rewrite your beginning, but you can always write a new chapter.

The past does not concern us, only the future.

Chapter 2, Reboot.

WeyrCat, half-elven child of man. Curious from a young age she settled on no craft and no skill, content to learn a little of everything but mastering none. For this she was given the forest-name Preabadh Fhiaigh, Bouncing Raven. Now in her adulthood she finds herself in the middle... an injury barely healed and recovery still ahead of her. The strength she had has waned, and she feels so behind in everything that she tries to gather her old hobbies and skills together to "work on them", but cannot advance so many all at once! Getting further behind in health and studies she decides it's time to change. She must put behind her the "but I used to" and find for herself a new beginning. It's time to reboot.

Starting Goals:

1. Do a real pull up. (STR):3, (STA):1.
2. 20 fitness minutes a day. (STA):3, (STR):2.
3. Cease binging. (CON):2, (WIS):1.
Life Goal: Study one hour per day. (WIS):3.

------------------
I was an on-again off-again runner gymrat yogi but never committed to anything. I ran the Super Spartan (8.1 mile trail/obstacle course) in February and injured myself 6 miles in. I continued until the end, but have been diagnosed with ITBS, a very tight IT band as a result of "staying off the injury", and some compensatory pain in the knee. Now, it's actually time keep to a real workout regimen that includes strength and stretching, or let it keep me from being the runner I wanted to be.
At the same time I'm entering the upper-division courses in college and my old study habits just aren't cutting it. Time to make a change there too.
I really did try to jump right back in and too do much (Sparkers may know about the SparkTeam Challenges). I signed up to do 4, at once, thinking I could just keep them all straight. Thaaaat didn't work. I need to scale down and focus on the basics again.

A note on the diet: I fully plan on going over on my husband's birthday and Date night, but will compensate with exercise to keep it under the goal.
A note on the fitness: I work a double one day a week and can't "workout", so for my 20 minutes walking counts as long I'm actually WALKING, not moseying.
A note on the studying: just kidding! No excuses, I'll read on the toilet if I have to.

I'll try to update once a week to keep myself honest, but daily track my diet on Sparkpeople and my fitness on Fitocracy.

I took a "before" photo... but it was depressing. I'll focus instead on the future.

------------------------------------------------------------
*Note: I do not know how to make links open in the same window via BBcode.*





20120812 What I learned in Week 1 of the NerdFitness 6 Week Challenge:

It's so easy to go down the warp tube and just skip all the swimming levels...

-I comp'd myself the hour of study on the 6th because I took my final that day. It was a decision I made a week before the challenge started, and I even ended up making up for it the next day (studied twice the minimum amount). I also said I would allow myself to go over 1500 (to binge, essentially) on Date Night as long as I made up for it via PT. I didn't do it. But I found myself wanting, nay, actually altering my log to "even out" days when I'd binged on one day but had a good deficit the next. I was filling in potholes. I was cheating! Maybe in another challenge it'll be "have a negative overall calorie intake for the challenge" but that's NOT this challenge! My challenge here is to stop BINGING.

-I also found myself "filling in potholes" for my study time, and for these challenges I consider that to be cheating myself. If I can't honestly make time for 1 hour of uninterrupted study per day, then this challenge will show me that and I can adjust the rest of my life accordingly. I can't honestly think I'll graduate on time if I can't find ONE hour to study. I will NOT use caloric deficits on my "good days" to "smooth over" days that I binge. This isn't about pounds, this is about binging, and my will to stop it. I'm not a garbage can, and I'm not starving, so I will not binge.

I didn't use the warp tubes in game, I shouldn't use them in real life.

I did complete the mini challenge by adding Mountain Climbers into my workout on Saturday. It made me realize I was NOT doing enough upper body to really work towards my pull-up goal.


------------------------------

20120811 Mini-Challenge 1: Scale the walls!

"Recently it was discovered that a portal to another world had been opened inside a mysterious castle. NF forces took the castle and successfully breached the throne room, in which the portal was located. During the battle, our generals Kamb and Spezzy disappeared, with only Spezzy's helm being left behind in front of the portal itself. Our experts have concluded that they did in fact pass through the portal, but it has since been closed to us.

Our mission is to find another way through or another portal so that we can locate our leaders and pursue the enemy onto their own ground.
Now that we've siezed the castle, we need to scour ever inch of it for intel on the portal, and how we can find our fearless leaders.

This week we're going to scour the castle. Since we're the jack of all trades, we need to push and pull our way into secret spaces in the castle. Scale every wall and make sure there are no clues or booby traps. Climb all of the tapestries and see what they are hiding. Try to find every secret passage way by thumping on the walls.

Mini Challenge:
Log one extra workout or build something into your current schedule where you're working on something of the following:
- Pull ups
- Push ups
- Wall climbs
- Rope Climbs
- Any other "Push" or "Pull" exercise. The choice is yours. Just make some solid progress. If your goal is a dead hang pullup, I want to see that you've gained an inch higher since your last efforts.

You will be rewarded with 1XP to use at your descretion. This challenge will complete on Saturday at 11:59PM your local time.

 Originally Posted by weyrcat
"Yeesh, wish I hadn't arrived late.. maybe I could have gotten a room that's seen a maid in the last turn." Having been assigned one of the many dusty hallways off the main walk to the throne room, Weyrcat takes in the two rows of dusty tapestries. "Why would someone even NEED this many tapestries?" She sighs in the middle of the thought, chokes on some floating dust, and shakes her head as she makes her way to the first tapestry. A particularly bloody battle scene, the gore has been muted by layers of dust. Tugging on the massive woven thing, she half-expects it to tear loose and fall on her. Weaving her fingers into the tasseled fringe, she begins to climb.

2*3x10 Mountain climbers. 3x5 Pushups. 2 Negative pull-ups, kinda.




August 19th, 2012 01:41 PM

*Sitting cross-legged on the cold stone floor, she again looks left, then right, then peers at the yellowed map. Sitting up a little straighter she rotated her shoulders to work a little of the soreness in her shoulder blades.* "Been a while since I spent that much time scaling walls. Definitely out of practice. UGH! Darn this map!" *She'd run into the same dead-end.. again.* "Sigh, at least it was only twice today." *Turning the map upside down to try to orient herself she remembered something a warrior had once told her (big dude, shiny armor, had a beef about some Ch'nups in his woods). "If you keep getting lost, get a new mapmaker." 

*Standing, she peered at the seams where wall met floor, and then where it met the ceiling. She examined every edge of the recessed wall, purposefully ignoring the faded tapestry hanging in the middle. She pressed her fingers into the seams, tracing them, noting the lack of mortar. Almost laying her face on the floor she felt for it... there! There was air coming from the seam at the bottom of the wall. Now her eyes searched out from the recess. A pedestal supporting a rather ordinary urn, a dusty painting of a bored looking woman, and a set of curtain hooks set on either side of the wall's tapestry.* "Weird..."

She tried to rotate the left-most curtain hook. Nothing happened. She tried rotated it the other way. It wouldn't budge. She pulled, and it gave a little. She whispered "Sorry if I break your castle...." and pulled. It sounded like the grinding of stone for a moment, and then the wall suddenly slid left, as if sucked into the wall. She grinned. "Crappy map... change the map." Peering inside the now-hallway she saw the wall-door was set on four thick springs and a sort of ram. A rope protruded from the other side of the not-curtain-hook. A handled gear completed the mechanism. She lit the dusty torch with her flint, and turned the handled gear. The ram pushed the door, stretching the springs, until she could see the curtain hook's rope and pulled it backward to lock the door into place. 

Turning into the torch-lit darkness, she walked.

----------------------------------------------------------

This week was better.
I only missed one day of PT (down from two).
I missed 3 days of study (down from four).
And, I've changed how I plan to deal with the binging. Trying to track the binging by calories has not been working. Yes, binging usually results in an overage of calories, but I could work those calories off with PT and the binge wouldn't show. Alternately I do go "over" on days that I don't binge, liiiiike when we go out to eat or I treat myself to something and then don't workout.

I actually binged one and a half times.
The half time occurred on his Birthday, which I had previously decided to not count, but I did eat a bunch of brownies, while not hungry, just because they were there. I did throw the last one away once I knew he didn't want more, so small victory, but even uncounted I technically binged.
Someone gave me a box of pecan pinwheels, and they weren't disgusting. So I ate one with breakfast. And then 2 with lunch. And then 3 more throughout the day. Not a "one-sitting" binge, but still a binge. I ate crap that I didn't really like or dislike, just because it was there, throughout the day, and added 600 extra calories to the day. -.-

Note, even if I were to change my "score" from last week to work with the new rules, only one day would change. Woopdedoo.

So! While I want to not go over calories, I MORE want to stop binging and graze-binging. I HAVE snacks for throughout the day, snacks that I like, snacks that I passed over in favor of something I didn't particularly like. I DID, however, avoid the OTHER box of crap I was given at the same time, some chocolate-flavored filled Twinkies. But only after I tasted one. They're awful! I'm giving them away today at work.

SO, out of 6 days, since I'm still working on today, 3*6=18 total, -6.6 = 11.5 instances of doing sticking to my goals.
I did not do work towards my pull-up, which doesn't hurt me now but will definitely hurt me later.




August 28th, 2012 12:18 PM

Moisture dripped from the ceiling and sizzled in the flame of her oil torch. She tried to avoid touching the slick green walls. The pebbled floor afforded some traction but she moved slowly, trying to see past the torch's glow. Her heart thudded steadily in her ears as she focused on her feet and her breathing. She found herself clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering... it was getting colder. The light flickered off a slick green-brown surface in front of her.. with a ring for a handle. She grinned.

She held her breath and listened by the door. Did it exit the castle? Did it lead into a main bedroom? Sneeeeaky stuff-shirts get around after all eh? She pulled on the iron ring and almost slipped in the puddled muck at her feet. It was dripping more steadily, but seemed to be escaping somewhere.. "or the place would be flooded" she thought aloud. She laid the torch on the ground, careful to cant the flame away from the watery floor, braced her foot into the stone wall and pulled. It gave a little, then a little more, then flew open as the green muck lubricated the old wood and she slipped into the puddle. 

"You have GOT to be kidding me." Sighing she noticed her splash had killed the torch, but the hall was still lit. Something in the small room beyond was glowing. The only object on an old hardwood bookshelf, an iron bound book stood on the top shelf. A large milky green stone embedded in the cover shone with unnatural light. She stood and stepped toward oddly plain bookshelf, and was plunged into green icy water. Her mouth filled with the taste of algae and she kicked up towards the greenish light, her limbs already numb and her small pack scraping against the pit's wall. She broke the surface and gasped. Grabbing the bottom shelf of the bookcase she pulled herself up, climbing it like a ladder. Unable to keep her teeth from chattering she sat on top of the bookcase and pressed her heavy wet leather vest, hoping to get some, any, water out of it. Angrily, she grabbed at the ridiculously heavy book and shoved it in her pack, extinguishing it's light. She clenched her jaw as her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she climbed down the front of the bookcase, wiggling this way and that to settled the, now heavy, pack. She leaped.

Her foot landed soundly in the pebbled hallway and she crouched into it. Snatching up the torch she found it would light, and all but stomped down the hallway towards the mechanical door. The heavy iron bound book was cold even through her pack and vest."You sooo better be something good." 

---------------

Updating late due to TS Isaac (Hello from South Florida!). It's also why this chapter is sooo wet. We battled a minor living room flood on Sunday through early Monday, and spent most of the weekend wet. Even hot and muggy outside, you will find reasons to shiver. Stupid tropical storm.

Breakdown Aug19-Aug26
-Binging: 6/7. On Wednesday I had a dip craving, bought fritos, and ate them from the bag. Oops. But, it was only once! Yay!
-Studying: 5/7. Two days I didn't study. I did well on most of the days I did, scoring 4 hours of studying on Sunday at work (before the flood).
-Fitness Minutes: 6/7. On Frito day, I also didn't even bother to walk. BOOOO.
-Working towards a pullup: Only on three days. Really 2, as I start incorporating negatives, and bent rows into my workouts. Obviously I need more, and am already working toward it (today I did lat pull downs, rows, curls, and some pushups after pilates! WEE!)
-Mini Challenge 2 "Carry Stuff": I carried an extra 10 pounds with me on one of our fitness walks. I wanted to do it for all of them... and teeechically I did, since I only went on one (stupid rain) but I really could have packed it up for the elliptical too. Excuses excuses. I'll try to incorporate it into this week too. It reminded me of rucking, which I miss.

SO. Actually a pretty good week. I think it has about the same score as last week. Need to buckle down more in the studying, since I really have the most to lose there, but still, WEEEEE!!



Aug27-Sep02

I have no RP for the week, my adventure comes to a halt due to family emergency. I tried to keep up with the goals even to the point of pacing for 20 minutes in the hospital room in order to secure 20 fitness minutes. I was unable to meet Ranger Challenge 3, I blew a day thanks to a viking vigil (beer calories) and, forgiving the first one, another day just to flat out mourning (beer, ice cream). I didn't study any of the days that I sat in the ICU. I couldn't concentrate. really, technically only binged 2 days. Failed to study 2 days. Failed Fit minutes 1.


Sep03-Sep09

The week has been hard. We were there through Monday. She's been officially moved to hospice and every phonecall is a potential heartbreak. Husband is stressed since he's the "paperwork guy" for the whole mess. We're both not sleeping. Not PTing. Either studying or escaping. Then I find out my mom's been going to hospital and not telling anyone. Didn't want to worry anyone. Ultra crappy week is ultra crappy. I'll study today. Not sure about the Binging, but only because Hubby turned off my alarm this morning so I came to work, my double, with only an orange and a prepacked 260 calorie mixed nuts. Sigh. I'll end up ordering in, and it's impossible not to go stupid on calories that way. I don't want to pass myself on it though; I should have packed up dinners last night. Sigh.

One week left. It's going to be another hard one, and I've lost a lot of quality points, but if I can just get back on the ball I can salvage some points.

PS: I have earned two xp points from mini-challenges. How do those distribute? In fact, how does one "Level Up", outside of adding points to my stat points. Or is the level something people are assigning themselves based on relative progress?




Gained: 2.7WIS, 1.5STR, 2.5CON,3.2STA.

WeyrCat
Half Elf Ranger - Sub-Class Druid.
STR: 1 DEX: 2 STA: 3 CON: 3 WIS: 3 CHA: 3
Because I can!
Current Challenge: Reboot.
| Quests | Fitocracy | SparkPeople |

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Star Trek Diplomas: All of them. I think.

De Groote Museum

Classroom Architect