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Random harbours healthy habits

Randomnity

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Goals - Exercise

1) 1x/week any p90x, or to give myself an out, any vigorous activity >30mins, but preferably p90x

2) 3x week sports (soccer/soccer/volleyball, all are 1h I think) - but not yet started. I think it starts in Oct. (I might try to do extra p90x 3x/week until then, but I don't really know if I feel like committing to that right now....might try it out and include it retroactively as a goal if it's not too horrendous. I am so very out of shape right now!)

3) think of one new goal or make existing goals harder, once a month

Goals - Food

1) 1x/week: make one healthy meal from scratch (focus on veggies and avoiding refined carbs), preferably new recipe, preferably with enough leftovers for a few meals

2) 7x/week (one meal daily): eat some form of green vegetables, preferably leafy ones.

3) 7x/week (daily): drink at least 2 glasses of water a day. herbal tea counts, no additives.

4) think of one new goal or make existing goals harder, once a month

(overall goal being to be a little more "in-shape" physically and visually, like most people. I doubt I'll lose fat with this although a bit of that would be nice)

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Oh god that's a lot of different things, yet somehow still ridiculously easy-sounding (ha!). Will see how this goes....the green veg thing is definitely going to be the hardest for me, because I am so, so very lazy, despite actually loving most green vegetables, and these days I rarely end up cooking real food. :dry:

I do well with things like carrot sticks and cucumbers that don't require, you know, effort. lol.
 

Randomnity

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For yesterday (Aug 31):

Exercise: NONE. haha.
Food:
1) check. quinoa and bok choy.
2) check. bok choy.
3) check.

Today (Sept 1):

Exercise: still none. I swear, I'm getting to it!
Food:
1) n/a
2) check. salad - romaine and red-leaf lettuce with mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes (from the garden!), cucumbers, and blue cheese dressing.
3) check. 1 water, 1 rose-hip tea.
 

Randomnity

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Today (Fri Sept 2):

Exercise: first p90x in um....8 months? haha. I am going to be sore tomorrow, so so sore. But good (I picked my favourite one, shoulders and arms, with no "bonus round" because I'm a wuss).

Food:

1) n/a
2) check (boy choy in package of instant pho - delish improvement! I chopped the stalks and let them sit in boiling water for a few minutes, then added stalks+ leaves to the soup mix with more boiling water and let it sit for about 5 minutes)
3) check
 
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Randomnity

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Sat Sept 3:

Exercise: done for the week, but I also went dancing for about an hour anyway. :happy2:

Food:

1) done for the week
2) check (1/2 zucchini in an omelet with mushroom, plus a few green beans from the garden with my leftover quinoa)
3) check
 

Randomnity

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Sun: water check, green veg check. Both were harder than usual but still done, late-night, lol.
 

Randomnity

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I like your water and green veg goals. :nice:

Thanks....they are surprisingly (maybe embarrassingly) difficult for me, haha!

Update: keeping up with daily goals as of today (Tues). I guess this is a new week now so I have to fit in another round of my weekly goals. Maybe cooking tomorrow since I'm going grocery shopping with a friend, and exercise later in the week.

My muscle soreness is all gone now - it wasn't too bad after the first day (Sat). Last time I tried p90x I was brutally sore (like stairs were hobbled one by one and it hurt to breathe) for almost a week after the first couple, I guess I learned a bit from that, lol.

Been thinking about my exercise goals since 1x/week is kinda pathetic, but I don't really want to go to the effort of working it into my routine and then out again when sports start (last week of Sept, roughly). I might work in another p90x in after a month, but I don't know if I can manage 2x p90x and 3x sports time-wise. Maybe if I combine them on some nights it would be ok.
 

Randomnity

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I've been on-track with my daily and weekly food goals (I made black bean and sweet potato burritoes this week, and will make something sat too if i can). But the exercise....I'm having a hard time fitting it in this week, even just the one day. I'll try to do it Sat afternoon since the rest of the weekend isn't really an option. I'm signed up for a 5k walk on sunday but I'm guessing that won't be very strenuous so I don't think I should count it as my weekly exercise.
 

Randomnity

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I'm bad at this updating thing.

last week: failed exercise (no p90x). passed diet goals.
mon: passed daily diet goals
tues: passed water, failed to eat green vegetables. bad day
wed: passed green veg, 1/2 water down, 2nd one on the go

to do this week: 1 p90x (will try to do tomorrow), 1 cooking (not sure when)
 

Randomnity

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last week: never did the p90x or cooking for last week. did awesome on the water all week, especially when I got sick. I missed um 2? days of eating green stuff at the end of the week while I was sick, other than that I think I got it in every day. So I guess about 4/7 days of green veg last week.

this week so far:

mon: sick. didn't eat green veg, other than some cucumber slices. drank tons of water.
tues: ate a gigantic salad (not-sick enough to finally get groceries! woot!). drank lots of water.
wed: just did a p90x. planning to make another salad soon to get the green veg. drank tons of water today in various forms including straight water.

to do this week: daily goals + weekly cooking goal

I might soak some sort of beans tonight so I have an excuse to cook something tomorrow....I already know friday's busy. And I haven't been eating enough protein lately.
 

Randomnity

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have to start tracking more, I forget everything by the end of the week.

So far this week (mon/tues):

Sports 2/3 (counting today in advance)
other exercise 0/1
weekly cooking 0/1

daily greens 1/6 (counting today, since it's for lunch)
daily water 1/6 (not counting today)
daily "balanced meal" - unsure whether pizza+carrot sticks+tons of cherry tomatoes (for yesterday) counts. It does have some protein+veggies which was my definition. so let's go with yes. In that case 2/6 (counting today)

*note: greens+balanced meal can be the same meal, but don't have to be, for some flexibility.
 

Randomnity

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last week - aced weekly goals (last minute); think I did ok on daily ones, but did a bad job tracking.

this week -

mon- daily greens check, daily water fail, weekly healthy-cooking check (and it was delicious, too - just a tofu+veggies+noodles stirfry). soccer was cancelled since it's a holiday so I'm not sure how to fit that into my goals. I don't want to use a cheat since it's not my fault, haha. Maybe I'll try to fit in an extra p90x this week if I can manage it...

tues- daily greens check (leftover stirfry! :banana:), water only a bit, I'll work on it. volleyball tonight.
 

Randomnity

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i've been forgetting all about my new "balanced meal" (veg+protein) goal. oops. getting the others though.

daily goals:
tues- water check, greens check, balanced meal check (leftover stirfry)
wed - water check, greens check, balanced meal check (chicken+bean wraps)
thurs - water check, greens check, no balanced meals since I didn't have much protein all day other than some milk...oops
fri - water not yet, greens check (sorta), no balanced meals yet. Will have to work in something delicious tonight.

weekly goals

-cooking healthy meal check (goddamn delicious tofu stirfry - I cheated and made it with a housemate, though)
-p90x not yet
-sports 3/3 (soccer was cancelled on Mon but I played an extra game on Thurs so I'm counting it)

this will be a busy weekend, not sure when to work in the p90x. Tonight if I can.
 

Randomnity

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time to revive this shit!

this time around:
General goals: increase overall health --> more exercise (both strength and cardio) and also better eating habits.

Priorities: ankle rehab so I can return to soccer, start regular bodyweight and light free weight exercises, more cooking healthy meals vs. snacking on junk

Details: I'm going to modify this once a month based on how things go. For Jan I'll start easy with:

1) daily ankle stretching/strengthening exercises
2) every weekday: quick bodyweight routine (exact exercises TBD - maybe starting off really short with just a few, and then adding to it later)

I'll try this for the bodyweight routine: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

And adjust as necessary. I guess consecutive days of the same thing are bad but I think I'll need to get into a daily routine for it to stick, so maybe stretching/yoga/more in-depth ankle rehab exercises/general "prehab" exercises for two of the nights:

Sun - bodyweight
Mon - stretch etc (TBD)
Tues - bodyweight
Wed - stretch etc (TBD)
Thurs - bodyweight

May as well start tomorrow so it'll be a full week. I'll track the details etc. here and hopefully will see the numbers improve. :)
 

Udog

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Subscribed!

Also, I love body weight routines. Gonna check that link out.
 

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Day 1 comments: I just did the routine as-is to start off with. He suggests 3 circuits, I did 2 today.

(the most difficult thing was figuring out how to warm up in a very small space with recently cranky neighbours i.e. minimal jumping/running. I mostly just flailed around a lot, lol)

bodyweight squats - never done these before so I looked at a bunch of videos for form. I think mine is ok except I'm not sure my ass is back/curved properly and I hunch my shoulders in too much (as always). Hard to tell even with a mirror. I just looked again and apparently you're supposed to keep your abs tight the whole time, whoops. I'll focus on that next time. Also I thought they were supposed to work out your whole leg muscles but I really only felt it in my quads. I want to get the form better before I add weight.

pushups - I did regular pushups to exhaustion and then finished with knee pushups. Lots of room for improvement here. My elbow was also acting up which caused trouble.

lunges - these were fine, I think my form's a bit wonky but I'll work on it. I kept pushing my front knee too far forward instead of keeping it at 90 degrees.

dumbbell rows - so I do have dumbbells, but I couldn't get to them today, so I had to improvise with the heaviest thing in my room - a hardcover book. I'll make sure I have real weights next time.

plank - right, forgot how painful these are. I got to 25 sec (estimate) rather than the 15 suggested by the routine, at least.

jumping jacks - not really sure why these are here, I guess to keep the heart rate going and so on between circuits? Anyway I did them as lightly as possible for the neighbours' sake. will need to figure out a "low impact" effective warmup for next time.

Total time: just under half an hour, including warmup. Some of that was figuring out form so it'll be more like 20 min next time.

I was able to do all the suggested exercises, although again I only did it twice instead of 3 times, and some of the pushups were cheat pushups. I think I'll stick with 2 circuits for now and try to add some weights and perfect forms, and maybe bump it up to 3 circuits or maybe add new exercises later. I don't want it to be too intimidating to start. I was definitely sweating and I'll be sore tomorrow for sure, so it should be doing something, and I don't want to make it too long until it's an ingrained habit.

I'm tracking all the numbers in a spreadsheet (my favourite thing!) so I can make some pretty graphs (also my favourite thing!) and see if I improve...maybe that'll add some motivation to stick with it, who knows.
 

Randomnity

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things that are sore today:

-predictably, basically everything in a 6-12" radius from my shoulders (both arms and ribs/chest)
-glutes and hip flexors, mildly
-quads/hamstrings are a bit twingey but nothing too bad
-lower back started to hurt this afternoon, concerningly, but not sure if it's partially from first day back to sitting in an office chair all day or from some of the exercises, or both. I'll approach squats and plank (and everything, I guess) with extra caution on wed.

I'm not really sure what to do for stretching but I googled some quick yoga/stretch routines to try out, as well as some more extensive ankle exercises. I might just try a new one (or a few) for 10-20min every stretch day and see which ones I like. I have volleyball at 8pm tonight so I'm going to try to fit in my stretches just before that, so I'm not too tight. Maybe some advil, too. The upper body soreness is going to be a pain tonight.

My roommate wants to go skating on wed (outdoor rink's open now!!) and I really want to go but the first day of that always leaves me hobbling the next day so I'm not sure if I should skip the squats and lunges later that night, while keeping the rest of the routine. Will think about that.

Also I've been doing very minor ankle stretches/exercises every night for the past few days (missed Jan 1&2) and next time I get a chance, I'll play a pickup game and see how it feels (maybe next week). I'm also going to stop wearing my ankle brace at volleyball to help the muscles build up again, since I think it's healed enough to be fine without the brace (will still wear it to soccer, though). Hopefully that doesn't backfire, haha.
 

Randomnity

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report so far:

day 2 (stretch): pretty sore from day 1, did an easy "10 min" yoga routine right before volleyball (actually took 20 since I had to figure out all the poses, being a total noob at yoga). It was ok, didn't feel all that useful.

day 3 (bodyweight): still sore, so I took it easy and only did 1 circuit (right after volleyball). I was able to do everything OK still. Found a pair of 5 lb weights (no bar) so I tried those, need a bit more though.

day 4 (stretch): a bit less sore, went skating for 1-1.5h (first time this year), which was AWESOME. Did 2 ankle mobility exercises right after. They were fine but way too short - I'll need to add some more if I try this again.

day 5 (bodyweight): just finished! surprisingly not very sore from skating, just a bit twingy legs. Did 2 circuits with about the same reps as day 1. Tried 5lb on the dumbbells this time, think I'll try 10 next week. Pushups are going to be a struggle for a while (as always) but I'm getting decent at the lunges and squats. I'm still putting too much pressure on my lower back with the squats - I think I'm rounding my back and leaning forward too much. I'll work to improve that a bit more before adding weights so I don't mess up my back, but my legs are totally fine with it at least (good old soccer legs). My lunges are still a bit jerky but I think that's more of a coordination thing than pushing myself too far. I'd like to add weights with those soon too - maybe in a week or two.

I'm still not really sure what to do on the stretch days, I googled a bunch of quick routines and was thinking I'd try a new one every time for awhile, maybe alternating between yoga/general stretching and joint mobility (esp. hips and ankles). The ones I did this week were about 10 mins and I'm not sure whether I like that it's basically no effort or if I'd rather do a bit more. As long as I'm actually doing something every day (which is the hard part) I'm going to count it as a goal achieved, since my real goal is to build good habits. I might do some longer yoga/etc routines most of the time, though - I don't mind it, although I'm not sure it's doing that much when I'm just doing them 1-2x/week.

Warmup is always my least favourite part by far, I need to figure out how to make that more interesting. And with minimal jumping, for the neighbour's sake. I tried a zumba warmup video today which was ok but really hard to follow (I'm REALLY slow to learn new movements like dance moves or whatever).

now breaktime until sun night! :)

...and immediately after writing that, I got an email to come sub for volleyball so I raced over there and got a half hour in, so that was a nice finisher to my workout! God damn I love volleyball. :happy2:
 

Randomnity

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I'm hungover as fuuuuck today so I'm glad I had the foresight to schedule myself a break over the weekend (until Sun night) :D
 

Randomnity

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Start of week 2! At the risk of embarrassing myself, here's where my numbers are at today, pretty close to what the routine suggests other than I still don't want to do 3 circuits and I still suck at pushups:

(circuit 1,2)

1) 20,20 bodyweight squats - these are getting better I think. trying to remember to keep my chest out/up and my core tight.
2) 3,4 pushups (+7,6 knee pushups) - urgh, but very slightly better than last week anyway...
3) 20,20 lunges - these are fine now. will try the "twist waist to increase difficulty" thing next time
4) 10,10 dumbbell rows (per arm) - did it with 10 lb on the bar this time, probably a good amount for this week
5) 25,20 sec plank - meh

I'm not sure whether it's better to go for upping more reps/another circuit (easier) or adding weight/difficulty/more exercises (probably more effective). I know I don't like to go much longer than 30-40 minutes and I'm already edging towards 30 if I include warmup and a bit of stretching after, so I'll probably aim for more difficulty. Maybe I'll leave it the same for this week though, and just focus on perfecting all the form etc.

I've been pretty good with my daily ankle stretches - only missed last Friday, plus the first few days of Jan. Not sure it's doing that much since it's VERY brief, but at least it gives me a "hook" habit to work on extending later.
 
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