Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Week 2: Project Suns Out Guns Out

Sometimes your subconscious knows what’s better for you than your actual plans.  Week 2 was supposed to be a return to routine, but life got in the way of about half of it.  It’s ok.  I probably wasn’t fully ready to do it anyway.  Here’s how life is going.

July7-2

Pushup Challenge:

This is part 1 of #projectsunsoutgunsout – I may be able to PR the crap out of swim bike run, but I’m at probably personal worsts in terms of strength training progress (since I got fit again – let’s not discuss the no mans land before 2008).  While I feel like a complete wuss because I was only able to string together 9 pushups for my test, I figure you have to start somewhere.

I got a slow start to this, but ended up doing the test on Tuesday, Day 1 Week 1 on Thursday, and Day 2 on Saturday.  I’ll try to see if I can catch up eventually, but even if I’m off and start the weeks on Thursday, it’s better than not doing them, right?

Day 1 was 6, 6, 4, 4, and then max (more than 5 – I did 8).  Looking at that, it seems like so few, but adding it up, it’s 28 pushups.  Day 2 added up to 34.  Considering I was only eeking out 5-10 while I was doing strength before giving up, it’s progress.

Also, I’ve got my officemate and some other folks around the company doing it.  If it’s something I can do on a 5-10 minute break at work, I’m more likely to stick with it.

The Dozen:

This is part 2 of #projectsunsoutgunsout – more overall strength in my core/arms to reinforce the pushups.  I also got a late start on this, but I did manage to do it twice – Thursday and Sunday.  I was going to skip the push up parts, but since I’m trying to train myself to do pushups with my hands parallel to my toes (I currently do them at with my hands angled), I did half the amount of them on my knees.

This is definitely something I can do when I’m at home after work watching TV, as long as I get off my ass and just do it.  Doing that + pushups on the same day made my abs so so so sore, hopefully once I get used to it I can group them on the same day without an issue.

Classes/Other Activity:

I dragged Zliten to a hot yoga class and it made him angry.  I didn’t hate it, but it definitely made my knee weirdly sore.  I may have us work up to it by doing shorter sessions at home or taking a not-hot easier class.

We skipped cycle class due to mental health day reasons and made pretty red white and blue drinks and sat on the patio instead because #offseason.

We slept in and then went to a movie with friends on Wednesday, and the waterpark on Thursday, so… yeah… it was one more week of chillaxin.  I’m ok with that.  Week 2 was about testing the waters on activity, no pressure.

I was able to get 40 mins of cycling and a 3 mile run in my new hokas (I don’t love them yet, but I’ll give them a few more chances), an hour walk, and some stand up paddleboarding, so there is that.

Probably a liiiiittle more this week, but still #offseason.

July7-1

Food Stuff:

I met with a nutritionist Sunday and it was quite interesting.  His first instinct when I was talking him through everything was “why do you need me here” because I’m pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, but I think he helped me establish some direction and a plan for both offseason and season.

I am going to write up a whole post on this stuff – but the very quick version is:

  • Reduced calories while I’m not training hard, purposed for weight loss – aiming for 1500 per day.
  • Goal is 100g protein, 45g fats, 25g fiber, and variable carbs depending on my activity level.
  • During offseason, this will be ~150g carbs (about normal for me)
  • Once I ramp up training, I’m going to be eating a lalalalalot more carbs but I’ll get to that later.

It’s kind of refreshing to feel like I can eat whatever I want as long as I hit my macros.  To be fair, I need to eat mostly healthy to hit them at 1500 calories, but I was able to enjoy a small scoop of ice cream last night guilt free!

Last week was not a huge success in this department.  There was a lot of partying for the holiday (and even before), and while I was active, I wasn’t THAT active.  I think I was also doing the “I’m seeing a nutritionist on Sunday and he’s probably going to tell me to give up everything fun” (which didn’t happen, but whatevs) so I was splurging a little.

  • Average calories per day: 1925
  • Average weight for the week: 180.7 (+0.8 from last week)
  • Fitbit says I had a surplus of about 1500 calories for my activity (though I did spend a lot of time in the water without the fitbit).

So, onward and upward.  It’s a new week and I’m hoping to make some progress with my new plan.

July7-3

Life Stuff:

I played quarter day hookey and left work early to get a few hours at the water park on Thursday.  Priorities.  It made for a pretty awesome start to the holiday and somehow almost made it feel like a 4 day weekend.  We went back on Saturday for a while too.  Yay wapah!

I got out to paddle and snorkel the lake once on Sunday.  So much water time makes my heart happy!

Hung out with friends three times this week!  We did a dinner and a movie on Wednesday to see Inside Out, and then had a taco cookout on Friday as a pre-4th of July party, and visited some friends and crashed a block party for fireworks.  So fun!

I woke up once at 7:59am.  I stayed up ’til 4am twice.  Eh… there’s always this week.  I actually have reasons to be up earlier most of this week anyway, so hopefully this is the week of the shift.

And that’s a great transition into Week 3 goals:

Activity:

  • 1 bike, 1 run
  • Dozen x2
  • Pushup challenge x3 (week 1 day 3, week 2 day 1 and 2)
  • Other things as gravy

Food:

  • Hitting my calories and macro goals above.
  • Trying to limit alcohol consumption to a reasonable amount, so I can hit my calories and macros.

Life:

  • Above all else, get rested.  I’m currently fighting *something*, feeling tired, a little achy, not quite myself.  Don’t push through this to workout if it lingers.
  • Earlier bedtimes and lots of sleep this week.
  • Relax Sunday after volunteering.  It’s going to be a busy weekend and there is no need to stress out about chores.  Sunday is a chore free day.

Fun stuff:

  • Friday night slides!
  • Tubing at the comal river with friends
  • Parents visit
  • Volunteering at Couples Tri

What’s your goal for this week?

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Off Season Week 1: Absolutely No Training (Except That Once)

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Nutrition and Me: The Beginning of Experiment #14385

2 Comments

  1. SO INTERESTING about the nutritionist.
    1500 seems so low—-are you HANGRY at all??

    • Quix

      1500 isn’t so bad when I’m not training. It’s actually a LOT better when I’m not trying to limit carbs! I definitely couldn’t be doing any quality training on this intake, but it’s fine for just being generally active.

      I have a bigger post about it I’m working on, but busy week has been busy! 🙂

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