100 Day - Day 9 + 10

Time has been pressing me on all sides lately, so I've been unable to get to the gym as I would like. For yesterday, I did not get out of bed early enough to get in to the gym before kicking off my day, and wasn't free to get to the gym until after it was closed. So, the basement gym had to suffice. Bench and other chest work, no cardio. For today, I meant to start early, but didn't do the yoga planned, I instead did a stretching routine, and that will have to suffice, though I may throw in some shoulder work later tonight. I've been over on calories nearly every day this last week, so I expect that to show on the scales tomorrow. A setback is minor if I use it to springboard me forward.

100 Days - Day 8

Today's workout was far less structured than a gym workout. Today, I spent a bunch of time lifting boxes, shoving things around and going up and down stairs. I helped someone move! Sure, it might not be as difficult a workout as lifting weights, nor as intense as an hour run, but it's still a lot of work, and carries on for hours. I'm counting it.

100 Days - Day 7

Wasn't able to get into the gym today, so I did a workout in the home gym instead. Worked the shoulders, and laid off the cardio because legs need a rest day.

100 Days - Day 6

The longer this goes on, the more I realize just how much of a commitment 100 days really is. 100 consecutive days means there's not really much break for me. I have to schedule a cardio free day now and then that isn't leg focused in order to keep rotating body parts that get worked enough so that I don't overwork any of them while also letting them get stronger. Today was just some light triceps work and an hour on the treadmill. Running is going to be a pretty big thing for me this year I think, and I'm hoping to get some time on the bike also. I think I'll have to start slowly notching up the effort required on the bike. Diet was ok today. A lot of that had to do with eating food I wasn't fond of, so I ended up with less overall than I might have otherwise. Still I did indulge in cookies at the office, which is something I need to refrain from doing.

100 days - Days 4 and 5

Day 4's workout was just running prep. I've had a bit of soreness in my left shoulder, and didn't want to work it too hard, so I gave it a break. So, an hour of low pace work on the treadmill, which was up to about 5Km total. Day 5 started with Deadlifts. 135x5, 155x5, 155x5, 185x5, and 135x5 again, all with long holds at the top. I need to work on my grip so more, as it is certainly weaker than it had been before. Followed that with an hour on the stat bike. I've been eating a bit heavy the last couple days, so I've got to cut that down again.

Weigh-in #3

I'm 219# this morning. That's down a total of 9# from the start of the month, which is on track. Calorie review suggests I'm somewhat low on calories per day, and averaged out to be under my max. That's probably about where I want to be to keep this going. The additional strength work in the workouts will help with burning a bit more energy. I do need to figure out the sleep thing better. I'm still ending up sleepy, and not quite getting enough rest.

100 days - Day 3

Today's workout was OHP, followed by an hour on the bike. I'll probably take a break from the strength work tomorrow and just do the hour walk again. OHP was 45x5, 55x5, 65x5, 75x2, 65x5, 55x10. That's not too bad. Food was a bit of a crap shoot. Workout ended up burning more time than expected because I was hanging out with others for a bit. By the time I got home, I didn't really have time to get things going for dinner. Ended up cooking sausage and just eating that some cheese and a protein bar. Not balanced at all, but still food.

100 days - Day 2

Cardio today. Was up early and went in to walk on the treadmill for 5Km. I'm gonna get back to doing some running, and I haven't run in a while, so I need to start off slow again, and get the endurance worked up. For many reasons, walking and running both grind my hip joints a lot, so, I want to minimize that by working into it. The workout left me hungry, so I had steak and eggs for breakfast, and a lot of ghoulash for dinner. Quite happy with just the two large meals a day thing.

Malifaux tourney

There was a Malifaux tourney today, and I participated. The organizer managed 8 people, which is a good turnout for us. I placed 3rd overall, which was a reasonable showing given how little work I was able to get accomplished over the course of the game. I did get a chance to put my newest crew in for one game, and they seem like they could be a lot of fun, if I can just figure out the correct order of activations and all of the things I need to do in order to get schemes accomplished. Overall, a fun day.

100 days - Day 1

I could call this day 2, but I'll treat yesterday as day 0. I did some thinking on the subject, and decided that 100 days of workouts would be significant enough for me, and I wouldn't try to focus on the superhero aspect. I'll save that for later, as part of the Thor plan. So, yesterday's workout was part of the new cardio initiative, which is going to require me to do a bit of strength work before getting on to the cardio. So, I picked back work, and did some pulldowns, and seated rows. Cardio was an hour on the stat bike. Weekends are always short days for the gym, and I didn't manage to get out to it while it was open, so I just did some work in the basement gym. There's no place for cardio downstairs, so it's all strength work there. Workout was chest and arms, so bench, curls, triceps kickback, and overhead triceps press.

Changing up the workout

Tried doing a bit of strength work before the cardio today. I think it'll work out fine, but it does mean I end up more hungry afterwards. That's expected, and what I should be feeling, so I won't worry too much about it. Today was just some OHP, and then an hour on the bike. I started off going for 45 minutes, but chided myself on slacking. Been doing a bit more thinking on the 100 days thing. I do feel like 100 days would be worthwhile. Certainly, doing some kind of workout or activity for 100 days in a row would make a difference. My only issue is the amount of time commitment that implies. At a minimum hour of whatever I choose to do, it means my evenings are suddenly very short, or they run very late. Neither is the best place for me to be. Then, of course, there's the next level. The 100 days of superhero workouts. That would mean doing a lot of stuff targeted towards getting me a superhero body - and not one like The Blob. It would require a fair bit of planning to make up a 7 day a week schedule that would rotate the body parts enough to keep me from burning any particular part out, while also being enough work to actually make a difference. There's a few spots where I'd be bound to find some issues if the workload was hard enough to make any impact. Particularily my knees, elbows and wrists. All parts I really need to have working if I want to have any kind of a good day. I'm pretty close to decided that I will do the 100 days of workouts, but I haven't decided on the intensity. Today's art class was interesting. A nice older gent. Tattooed and pierced quite a bit. For someone in their 60's he was a lot more decorated than I expected.

Naptime workout

I was supposed to go to the gym tonight after work and do an hour of cardio. But, I didn't go. Instead, I took a nap for an hour instead. I do feel pretty refreshed from the nap, but this makes me wonder whether I could really stick with 100 days of superhero workouts. If I were doing that, then today would mean either figuring out cardio in the home gym (difficult) or another strength workout session (less difficult, but possibly forcing me to do too much of the same kind of work). I have been thinking that the main thing I'm missing as far as cardio from home is either a machine for it, or just missing the proper clothes to tackle running outdoors. I do need to start running soon, if I'm going to do any events or races this summer. Running during the winter, once I'm used to it, should be fine - if the road conditions are suitable and not slippery. I'm going to have to look into the cost of winter-suitable outdoor running gear.

Anime

Spent most of the evening finishing off anime series on Crunchyroll, and also trying to get ahead of the free streaming dates for other series I haven't been keeping up on. I'd have to say anime is one of my favourite things to watch. Animation is a very interesting thing for me, mostly because there's so many things that can be done with animation that would be too costly or impossible to do with regular film. I'd like to make something animated some day, but before that can happen, there's so many other things that I would need to learn. Drawing, principles of animation, story writing, storyboarding, and then all of the directorial and editing things that are needed in order to make even a very short film. I know there are a number of animation schools out there, but I don't think I'd have the time or skill to really try them. You have to have at least some amount of drawing skill - and while I can sketch, I don't feel that I could draw well enough. But, maybe well enough isn't needed, so long as you're consistent enough. Maybe I'll just try it out one day. There's nothing at risk other than embarrassment.

Progress report #2

Scale says I'm at 222# today. That's down 4 from last week, and 6 total. That puts me right on pace with where I want to be. My food tracker suggests I've been under my total calories most of the week, but I think I've been over by a bit every day. But, just a little bit. Riding close to the line. The diet part is still difficult. It tends to mean making some rather specific adjustments in terms of how much I eat, or simply eschewing certain snacks because they're just too many calories. But it is going pretty good. I'm not suffering, and I'm not finding myself desperately hungry. So, I think I'm doing well. I do feel I could step up the cardio a bit. Maybe either take on the 100 days of superhero workouts thing, or just start doing a bit of strength work before my cardio work.

Yesterday's workout

I had intended to get to the gym after games yesterday, but the gym closes early and I wasn't really going quick enough to get there. So, workout in the basement gym, while doing some laundry and painting and general playing with toys. Not really as much of a workout as I would have gotten had I went to the actual gym. I think if I'm going to make the basement gym thing work, I have to start thinking of it as a real workout space, and get focused on the things I can do there.

Workouts and more thoughts

Yesterday's workout was again an hour of cardio. I'm already finding it terribly boring, though it does the job I need it to do. Burn energy. I saw a video by Buzzfeed about people trying a superhero workout for a month, and the results they got from it. My brain has combined that with another video about workouts I saw recently, which was 100 days of workouts. So, I'm wondering whether or not I could commit to and do a 100 day, superhero workout. I've figured out that between Jan 21 and April 30 is 100 days. That's in line with my overall timeline and schedule, and leaves me with months of time afterwards before my Thor deadline. If things don't go well, then I still have time to work on the rest of it. So, it fits in fine as far as that goes. My main concern would be whether or not I could commit to 100 days of workouts. A workout of some kind, every day, for 100 days? What does a plan like that look like? And a superhero focus? What's that mean, exactly? Well, the notion in my head is that 100 days of workouts means a balance of strength work and cardio work. So, not every day would be lifting, but there would be days of just cardio of some kind. A superhero focus could go one of two ways. The first would be working out with an eye to build a body shape that is similar to that of superheros. Accentuate muscles, get body fat down, etc. The second notion would be working out in a way that is consistent with the kinds of things superheros have to do. Lift heavy things, pull, throw, jump and fight. Add in cardio for running and endurance, and that's the superhero set. The second goal very much appeals to me, and aligns well with the 100 days notion. The endurance and cardio work can be rest days from the heavier lift/pull/throw work. Fighting is just cardio work, really. Done right, with the right focal areas, this kind of workout should also do all the things the first notion covers. Shape and form the body. I'm going to keep the notion alive in my mind for a bit, and do some more thinking on it. Likely, I'll go for it, but I do want to see how the current plan is progressing before leaping off it onto something new.

Daria S01E03 - College Bored

In this episode, Daria and Quinn are encouraged to go and visit a college to learn more about them. There's a few inconsistent things about this episode, most of them having to do with the lack of continuity with the rest of the series. At this point, Daria is at least a year away from College, and Quinn is at least two years away. Even though both Jake and Helen are motivated by the events to consider college and the expenses, there's no more real discussion on it until much later in the series. This is the first episode that isn't introducing new, permanent characters. It takes place almost entirely outside of the usual places in Lawndale, and includes a few fantasy scenes. The use of fantasy in Daria comes up a couple times a season, and often indicates a less canonical episode continuity. The main action takes place at Middleton College. As an off-site location, it seems to be very near to Lawndale, as one of the college freshmen appears at the end to try to give Daria money for a paper she wrote for him. At the same time, it's far enough away that Daria needs to send papers to the students by courier, so it probably isn't close enough to get there by bus. The episode could be thought of as cementing the main character traits of Daria and Quinn. Quinn is popular because she is attractive, but she's willing to work hard and allow some amount of denigration of herself in order to ensure that popularity continues. Daria, on the other hand, doesn't feel the need to ingratiate, but at the same time, simply gravitates towards the people who are most like her in outlook and disposition. She shows continued contempt at the average person and their goals, while at the same time displaying a rather mercenary streak in taking advantage where she can - for profit. Still, I feel it isn't as mean-spririted as it sounds. The episode does give some insight into the minds of Jake and Helen, and the kinds of things they are concerned with. Jake, with his bewilderment at the realities of having two teenage daughters, and Helen at her seemingly sudden age, and the things she's overlooked in the meantime. Neither of the characters really make a great impression as far as being parents go. I'm not a big fan of this episode. I don't feel there's much happening in either the dialogue or the setting, and the series will re-tread these grounds in season 4 to much better effect. Overall grade: C Favourite quote: "Television counts as a place." -- Jane Lane

Drawing and games

Made it to art class today, which was nice. It's been a couple months since I was last there, and I've missed it. There's something soothing about working on a drawing, and trying to capture the real person in front of you. I'm not great at it, but sucking at something is just the first step to not being completely bad at something. I would like to do more drawing stuff this year. It's one of my Big, Fun, Scary goals. I really do need to get practicing at it, since it's the only way I'm going to improve enough or maybe find a style that I can work with at a reasonable pace. One of the ideas for BFS is to do an actual 24 page (or more) comic, in a graphic novel style. Similar to the 24 hour comic, but over whatever amount of time it takes me to do. I haven't figured out the story for that yet - but that's part of the writing goals for the year. Script the comic I intend to write. At the very least, I'd like to get that done before too much time passes in the year.

Progress report #1

The scale says 226# today, which is down by 2# overall. That's slightly slower paced than I'd like, and I attribute that to being over calories most of the days of the last week. But, it is in the right direction, so something must be working out. The focus on cardio is boring, as far as workouts go - but it is also effective. I'm looking to get more energy output happening, and that sometimes doesn't happen with a strength focused workout. Today's workout was an hour on the recumbent bike. The recumbent bike works out better than the upright bike. I did get some numbness in the legs, but it was much later in the workout, and didn't need nearly as much adjustment to recover. I am feeling like it might be possible to start tacking on a quick bar exercise before the cardio portion. Hopefully that will keep me from wanting to stray too much into an all strength workout.

Daria S01E02 - The Invitation

In this episode, Daria is invited to a popular party, as a repayment for teaching Brittany about one point perspective in art class. This is another foundation episode, introducing Michael "Mac" Mackenzie, Jodie Landon and Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer the 3rd. The fashion club members are also shown at the party, some for the first time, but none of them are introduced with names. Also briefly introduced is Trent Lane, Jane's brother. He has a quick couple of lines, and Daria is very flustered by him. The general plot is Daria going to the party (and bringing Jane along) almost entirely to annoy her sister, Quinn. This is immensely successful, though Quinn doesn't seem too bothered by it at the end, as the three of them accept a ride home from Charles. Much of the episode takes place during the party, with the interaction between Daria and others taking up almost all of the screentime. Jane's personality trait of being considerably more flirty and outgoing than Daria is highlit with her interaction with "Bobby Big-Head" in the make-out room. It's also very apparent that without Jane, Daria is very much out of her element at the party, and would much rather be anywhere else. Overall, the episode is about on part with the first. I'd score it a B. Favourite Quote: "Just because people are cliquey and snotty is no reason not to like them." -- said at different times to different effect by both Quinn Morgandorrfer and Jane Lane.

Diets be hard, yo.

Yep. I am "dieting" in the sense that I'm limiting my total calories per day. That's not too difficult, but it does require me to keep a better awareness of what I'm eating exactly. Now, I'll have to admit that I'm not the most precise when it comes to counting calories. I am certainly in the set of people who under-report their total consumption. Not maliciously, but simply in the hopes of not wanting to look like I eat as much as I actually do. That's just compounded by the difficulties in estimating the portions of what I'm eating. Still, monitoring my intake is better than just going free range. I tend to eat and not pay much attention to things like being full or not being hungry in the first place. The overall restriction on my diet hasn't been too bad. I'm not cutting out anything or removing specific foods, so there's not craving for things I can't have. That certainly helps. I'll be weighing in tomorrow. If things are going the way I want, I'll be down around 125#. But, we'll see where I end up.

Workout and Games

That's just what happened today. First a Workout with K. We don't get to the gym together much, but it's nice when we do. I was following their program, since it was easier that way. My program is just cardio with a bit of strength stuff here and there, but mostly the cardio. They had a rather nice program put together by their trainer, so it was nice to do a bit of strength work. The workout covered bench and deadlifts and a couple supplemental exercises. My workout partner was starting to feel stuffed up and sick, so we called it off a bit early. I'd considered joining that gym when I switched from my old gym to my current gym. This time I went in as a guest, which isn't too bad. Their gym is smaller than mine, but still laid out fine, and the people there seem very focused on the workout thing. One thing I've noticed is the lack of New Year's Resolutionists. At least as far as I can tell, their numbers are really low. I don't know if that's just a trend of the particular gyms, or if Sunday just isn't popular. I had hoped to try out a terrible list for fun, but my opponent wanted me to keep focus on practising for the OTC. We've got to set lists in a couple of weeks. So, I tested one of my OTC potentials against his list. Didn't go as well as I would have liked, even if the game did swing my way at the end. I think the list will need a lot of testing to account for the adjustments after the last errata. Other than that, I've been thinking about my mini painting projects. I've got a full list I'm hoping to play once it's all painted (and not before), so I've been chipping away at it a little at a time. I finished off another unit today, which leaves just two more, and a couple solo models and the leader to do. So, really, it's getting close to done. About 16 models in total. As busy as I've been today, I still feel like I didn't accomplish as much as I could have done. I figure that's probably due to the painting time taking up quite a large chunk of the evening. Can't be helped, really. Projects like that take time, and I just need to think of them as also being productive things.

Daria S01E01 - Esteemsters

So, Daria was on TV when I was attending University. The issues of shared campus TV and school schedules prevented me from ever seeing all of the seasons or episodes, but I loved the show. Enough to get interested in the fan-fiction, the episode transcriptions, and the status of the series coming eventually to DVD. There used to be a very large and very dedicated community around Daria, but it faded away as the memories of the show passed further and further into history. But, before it had faded too far, the community around Daria had managed to encourage MTV to produce the entire series as a single set of DVDs. And I bought and watched the whole thing in a very long marathon of episodes. Every year or so, I break out the discs and watch it all again. This year, I'm also going to write up a quick review of the episode, as practice in writing. With that all said, let's start with the first episode of the first season: Esteemsters. This episode introduces the title character, Daria Morgandorffer, her family (sister Quinn, mother Helen and father Jake), as well as nearly all of the other primary characters in the show. The other main character (and only non-Morgandorffer) to be introduced is Jane Lane, Daria's closest, and best friend. Almost every episode will have these five characters on-screen - though sometimes as little more than set dressing. The episode also show the key locations and settings for the first time. These are: The Morgandorffer home, Lawndale High, and Jane Lane's bedroom. These three settings make up the majority of the locales for the series as a whole, much like the main characters, these settings appear in nearly every episode. The show's secondary characters are shown very briefly, and several of the most recurrent characters appear only as background characters. Only a few are given names and lines. The rest are either silent, or aren't yet introduced with names. The lowest point of the show is probably during Daria's speech at assembly. This is because I honestly cannot stand Quinn's original paramours. I much prefer the Joey-Jeffy-Jamie trio. The assembly scene isn't a total loss, however. The part with Jane's speech is pretty good, and shows Daria has found a friend with the same off-side humour as herself. The plot is very thin, consisting entirely of the vehicle to get Daria and Jane to meet and be friends. Everything else is exposition, or showing the kind of person these characters are. It only gets a pass on the grounds that it is the intro episode - there has to be a fair amount of exposition happening between the characters to provide the setting, background and motivations for the characters and the series. So, the script isn't as robust as later episodes, but it isn't so loaded down with explanation that it loses entertainment value for me. One of the things I love about Daria is her acerbic wit, coupled with her astute observations of the absurdity that surrounds her. This leads to a number of one-liners that have stuck with me. I still quote Daria from time to time, but the reference is almost never caught. Overall, the episode rates a B. Favourite quote: "Well tell you, over and over that you're wonderful, and you just don't get it. What's wrong with you?" -- Helen Morgandorffer.

Sleep

It's an important thing. Weight loss and workouts require me to get even more of it than I already do. Which is occasionally difficult, because so much fun happens while I'm awake, and sleep means I miss out. But, I will have to make an effort. There's no reason I shouldn't be getting about 7 hours, and really, I should be shooting for getting 8 if I can. My sleep habits aren't great, but they are a relatively small thing which can be improved with minimal effort. I'm going to aim for ensuring those 7 hours as a minimum, and see about getting in more if I can arrange it. Today's workout was again simple cardio. I spent an hour on the stat recumbent, which I find is a bit easier on my legs as they don't fall asleep as easily. Until I lose some of this chub that presses on those nerves, I may have to stick with the recumbent. A couple of co=workers were discussing their own workouts and weight loss plans. They're looking to lose about 10# in the same timeframe as my goal. I'm going to try to not get competitive with them. Let them do their thing, I'm going to keep doing mine.

Let me just dust this off....

So, it's been a few years since I've used this thing. That's fine. It's here as a resource for me, more than it is for you. I'm going to use this space exactly as I always have. A bit of writing practice, a bit of talking about the games I love, and a bit of talking about my fitness plans and what I'm doing with them. So, all the same good things as always. I'm going to start out with the fitness stuff. I find myself beginning the year at a rather hale 228#. Some years ago, I was dreading the notion of being 200#, so, I've clearly not bothered enough with my own health in the last few years. There's lots of reasons for that, but the largest has become simply that I like eating the way I have been. It isn't healthy for me, though, never has been, and honestly, I'd like to actually do something about it. So I shall. I'm going way back to a notion I had a couple years ago. The year of Thor. Now, a flabby, out of shape, low stamina and frankly weak me is a far, far cry from being Thor the Mighty. But, I figure all of those things can be fixed with enough effort, sweat, and giving a fuck. That last one being the most difficult for me. The Thor thing stems from me really wanting to go and do either Thor, or some similar character this year for Halloween. So, there's 10 months of time to try to get at least some of the way there. And, I know it's possible to do - I just have to want it. With that comes the notion of defining what features make Thor. As far as fitness is concerned, well, Thor doesn't have a gut. Second, he's got some decent back and shoulders, with at least some definition in the arms. Depending on the artist (or movie), he's also got good legs. 10 months may not be enough time for me to get all of that in place. I figure, I can do something about the gut by losing some weight. And I should be able to do something about the shoulders, arms and back. The chest thing will have to sort itself out. I'm hopeful my tits will flatten out into something that I can dress up as pecs. I'm setting the first goals for 2 months. End of February, exactly. The 28th. I weigh myself weekly, on Tuesdays (to give the weekend indulgences time to settle on my ass), so that works fine. I weighed in at 228# on the 2nd Jan, which is if nothing else, the baseline. I'll be focused on cardio for the next 2 months, and changing my diet in what should be a complete overhaul. These two features combined should be enough to make significant changes. I'll also go back to calorie counting, with a nice goal of 1800 daily. I will have to look at my macros to be sure I'm not missing anything or over indulging in carbs (which is most likely). I'm going to try to work without too much of a net for this first bit. I feel like a nice conservative goal of 210# is good. That's marginally more than 2# per week. Attainable and also very safe. But, another part of me is reminded that I tend not to be extreme enough. Ultimately, I'd like to get down to somewhere between 180 and 190#. A nice 185# is a stable number for me, but I'd need to get there. That said, losing nearly 50# in 2 months is far too quick. 3# per week puts me at 204#, we can round that up to 205# and call it good. That's also possible, I think, but requires more effort. So, more effort it is. So, Feb 28th, I'm gonna be 205#. Afterwards, I've got 8 more months to go, and 20# more to lose to hit my ultimate goal weight, which, at the same pace would mean end of April to get down to 185. I have a feeling it may take me longer than that, so I'm not going to concern myself with that for now. The following 8 months, will have me put more strength work back into the program. Get work done on the arms and back and shoulders to get those up to where I want them. Add in some shape that's not marshmallow. Specifics will come as that date gets closer. Unlike some of the other times I've done this, I'm not going to go about with lots of other measurements. I will satisfy my data tracking urges with calorie counts, workouts logged and pounds on the scale. That said, I also want to start tracking more of what I'm doing as far as cardio is concerned - give me a bit of a timeline of sorts. I used to use Fitocracy for that, but it's been broken for me since 2011 or something, so whatever. I'll do it here. I was in the gym yesterday for 30 mins on the stat bike, and then 30 mins on the treadmill. Just looking to start getting back some stamina, and increase the total energy expenditure through the day. I'm looking to make this a 5+ day a week thing for the now. The year of Thor starts.