To Forge an Ironmaiden...

[Nevetharine]

Workouts:

✔Power Hold Challenge D26
✔Epic Abs Challenge D26
✔EotD
✔Dead Hang Challenge D17

✔Daily HIIT D26, 7 sets, 30s rest
✔Shadebound D25, Then D26...

First set I did as is. Then took 30s rest.

Decided to add the 5kg dumbbells to all the exercises (except push ups obv.).

So then I did 2 sets with 30s rest, and the remaining 4 sets with 45s rest.


5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
300 Words
1000 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺Treachery in Death - 56%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 15%

Days of Consecutive Exercise: 69
OMAD Streak: 15 Days


Have a great day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

Good job with those underhand grip - hollow hold/L-sit-pull/chin-up . The first chin over bar motion is a great milestone.

The way you do 'em (hollow) works your front chain of muscles more than the back. Still, you should activate your back muscles to engage more. Once they are strong enough, they prevent your legs from going up. (The back muscles are also more engaged in a overhand grip - pull-up.

You can start training this by moving from a dead hang to the arc position.
Using the parallel holds on your bar also helps to open your chest more and engage the back a little more.

I may find a YT video later to explain it a little more, if you are interested.

Good luck on your bar work, it is a great form of exercise.

Please do send that YT vid!

I'd love to move to doing pull-ups. And I'm not really progressing much with Dead Hang. This is the second round I'm doing the challenge, but I get stuck at a 20-30sec (depending on the day) hold.

Negative pull-ups, eh, I haven't tried those yet this time around, but they are a bit of a chore, because I need to move a chair underneath my legs, then kneel on it, then kick it back to do the negative pull-up, then lower and place it back underneath the bar. Meh.

 

[Nevetharine]

Also did 3 chin ups, one on the horizontal, and held for 5 seconds,

And two on the parallel bars, held for 2 seconds at the top. And I focused on keeping my legs down.

 

[HellYeah]

Both channels are full of helpful pull-up videos.

 

[Deadoks]

Thats rough!

@airman.pankdawg Nothing rough here when I reply to what she said about "Power came back yesterday evening after a full 24hrs. The service in this country..." and it's indeed a service I would knock my head on a wall if it was like this here.

 

[Nevetharine]

@HellYeah following the arch technique, I was actually able to pull myself up, with my chin halfway to the bar with the pull-up grip!

I didn't even get halfway there before. I still feel like my biceps are working a lot more than my back, lower back is definitely working more, too. But definitely had that moment of, wow, I'm stronger than I thought I was!

Maybe I'll work on holding that half-pull for a few seconds.

 

[Nevetharine]

Some random observations, well maybe not THAT random.

I'm still struggling a little, digestion wise, to keep to this 21:3 fasting schedule. I get full so quickly! Even while I space out the calories over 3 hours. I start with my meal, then end up having several snacks, one of which is a high calorie smoothie, throughout the rest of the window.

I also scatter the eating window with light activity, because my digestion certainly needs the encouragement. Some light cycling, some step jacks or march steps, or a walk if the broiler that is our lovely star isn't on full blast outside.

Also have some apple cider vinegar as a digestive enzyme.

Sigh. I'll eventually get used to it. I actually grew up having my largest meal at noon, but I haven't done it in eight years. I bought some candied ginger pieces. I'm telling myself having one after my meal helps too...

On Powerbuilder, what holds appeal to me, is that every other day is a stretching a.k.a yoga day That sounds, er, looks, luxurious!

On the electricity situation, our power still has weak links. Apparently they lost a main line last night, and we were without electricity from 20:00 to 03:40 this morning.

Luckily, we are privileged enough to have a gasoline generator (which has also been wired to run on gas) that can power pretty much everything in the house, save for the geysers, when it's down for long stretches.

Now the power is dipping again, not sure what the problem is now. But they don't seem to be competent enough to actually fix the root cause and not just put a temporary bandaid over it.

On top of all this, we lucky South Africans also have loadshedding! Scheduled electricity outages to "ease pressure on the grid".

So with that being said, I'm now going to put my phone on charge. Have a lovely evening (day?) Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

Workouts:

✔Power Hold Challenge D27
✔Epic Abs Challenge D27
✔EotD
✔Dead Hang Challenge D18 (!) I did the whole 50 seconds just because I arched my back!

✔Daily HIIT D27, 5 sets, 15s rest
✔Shadebound D27, 3 sets, 30s rest

I have DOMS from yesterday


5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal

I did a pull-up I think it should count as one... maybe? My chin wasn't over the bar. My eyes were level with it.

What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
300 Words
✔600 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺Treachery in Death - 75%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 15%

Days of Consecutive Exercise: 70
OMAD Streak: 16 Days


Have a great day, Bees!

 

[HellYeah]

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I did a pull-up I think it should count as one... maybe? My chin wasn't over the bar. My eyes were level with it.

Awesome work!

 

[Nevetharine]

What an eating window looks like:

2 homemade cheese burgers, buns loaded with mayo and butter

Coffee made wholly with full cream milk

Lentil bread, one with peanutbutter and banana, one dipped in olive oil.

Roasted cocoa chickpeas

2 reduced sugar cookies

Dried ginger and mixed nuts
Dried dates

And finally, 2 sips of Pepsi. Lol.

 

[Nevetharine]

Workouts:

✔Power Hold Challenge D28
✔Epic Abs Challenge D28
EotD ... did not have space to do this one. I could do it in the kitchen, but my brother is here and I hate people watching me when I exercise. Unless I want them to, that is.
✔Dead Hang Challenge D19

✔Daily HIIT D28
✔Shadebound D28


5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
200 Words
✔1500 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺Treachery in Death - 100% : Started the next book in this series, New York to Dallas.
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 15%

Days of Consecutive Exercise: 71
OMAD Streak: 17 Days


Have a great day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

Lunch this afternoon:

Steak and sausage, potato salad and greek salad.

Smoothie with: oats, banana, blueberries, dessicated coconut, moringa, and seed mix. Easier to drink calories than to chew them...

Some dried ginger, and a square of 70% dark chocolate.

Added 1hr of cycling, completed in intervals throughout the afternoon, at a comfortable pace, since this is just to aid digestion. ~16kmph, about 16km.

And two sets of this:

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

And two sets of this:

The BB code parser does not like your all caps.

 

[Nevetharine]

The BB code parser does not like your all caps.

Ah... I wondered if it was just my internet connection

 

[Nevetharine]

Workouts:

✔Power Hold Challenge D29
Epic Abs Challenge D28 Did not do this because of some abdominal discomfort. Try again tomorrow.
✔EotD
✔Dead Hang Challenge D20, just 35s

✔Daily HIIT D29, 7 sets, 15s rest
✔Shadebound D29


5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
✔200 Words
500 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺New York to Dallas - 0%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 16%


Days of Consecutive Exercise: 72
OMAD Streak: 18 Days


Have a great day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

So my grandfather is in the hospital for prostate problems. My brother took him to a hospital near him, 3 hours away. Nobody knows what the problem is yet, cancer, calcification or what else. Lots of infection, though.

So waiting for news today. I just kind of hope he's okay because, if he were to kick the bucket, I'm not sure where we'd go. No furniture, no income, and we can't afford to stay here by ourselves because the illusive electricity costs a fortune.

But so far, we're treating this as a very normal kind of thing.

Been feeling tired in the afternoons and not really interested in writing, but at least I've put out 2 chapters last week.

Workouts:

✔Power Hold Challenge D30
✔Epic Abs Challenge D29, D30
✔EotD
✔Dead Hang Challenge D21

✔Daily HIIT D30, 7 sets w/3lb dumbells, 15s rest
✔Shadebound D30

✔1.5 pull-ups
✔1.5 chin-ups

5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
200 Words
500 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺New York to Dallas - 0%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 16%


Days of Consecutive Exercise: 73
OMAD Streak: 19 Days


Have an awesome day, Bees!

 

[Deadoks]

Waouw congrats on the 3 badges!

 

[Fremen]

Congrats

 

[Mamatigerj]

Happy Triple Badge Day!!!
Healing thoughts for your grandfather and prayers for you in this situation.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Congratulations on completing Shadebound and the Power Hold and Epic Abs Challenges!

I'm holding your grandfather, and also you and your husband in my thoughts in this difficult time for your family. Hoping all will go well for you all.

 

[Anek]

Triple congrats!!

 

[MadamMeow]

Congrats on completing all of those challenges!

Really sorry to hear about your grandfather.

 

[MolBren]

I hope your grandfather has a speedy recovery.

 

[Syrius]

Happy Badge Day!!!

I'm sorry for your grandfather. I hope it all turns out for the best.

 

[Nevetharine]

Woke up feeling sluggish. Can you believe that? First night all week I've slept great and now I wake up tired.

I'm still on the fence on which program to choose for February. I could just lay down for a nap. At 06:36 A.M. in the morning.

I'm doing just these programs for today, but I'll be doing stuff during the day too. Walking, cycling, and Fit Tap.

Workouts:

✔EotD
✔Dead Hang Challenge D22

✔Daily HIIT D31


5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
200 Words
500 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺New York to Dallas - 0%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 16%


Days of Consecutive Exercise: 74
OMAD Streak: 20 Days


Have an awesome day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

❇Fit Tap (Throughout the day activity):

Spoiler

20 elbow strikes
20 punches
40 bicycle crunches
10 step up lunges
20 plank twists
15 judo push ups
40 jumping jacks
20 knee strikes
20 climber taps
10 burpees
10 long-arm crunches
10 plank alt/ arm/leg raises
10 seal jacks

Eh... man this took a lot to record during the day. Haha... don't think I'm recording that again. But that's about what a day looks like ATM. The day is not over, this is only since being awake for ~4 hrs.

Mornings I do the workouts, then Fit Tap everytime I go to the bathroom, most of these I did while reading. Every fifth page or chapter.

Add cycling to when I'm watching Tellie. Not always, and sometimes very slowly.

Some walking added some days.

All in the name of improving stamina.

It works. Most days. Today, not so much, and everytime it was time for Fit Tap, I went "urrrgh."

 

[Nevetharine]

Without power, again for 24hrs already

Workouts:

✔EotD
✔WotD, 7 sets, 45s rest
✔Dead Hang Challenge D23
✔Daily HIIT D32, 3 sets, 30s rest.

I'll do more sets as the day goes on, but won't be counting them here.


✔5 Minute Strength, 5kg Dumbells.
✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

✔50 Words
200 Words
500 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺New York to Dallas - 0%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 17%


Days of Consecutive Exercise: 75
OMAD Streak: 21 Days

Have an awesome day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

After 24hrs and 40 minutes, we finally have electricity again.

I'm going to celebrate by having a cup of black coffee. We have gas, but I think the electric kettle also wants to celebrate.

Now the weather is coming up again, and it would be very ironic if we have power now only for it to be thundered out again later for another day+.

 

[Mamatigerj]

Gotta keep the kettle happy!

 

[Nevetharine]

Workouts:

✔EotD
✔Ironheart D1, 5kg dumbbells. I'm testing the waters... not claiming I'll finish this yet.
✔Dead Hang Challenge D24
✔Daily HIIT D33

✔5 Minute Empty Bowl Meditation or Subliminal


What the papers are saying about yesterday:


Writing:

50 Words
200 Words
✔434 Words


Reading for Writing Inspiration:


⏺The Sign of Seven Trilogy - 42%
⏺New York to Dallas - 0%
⏺Son of the Morning: Banners of Blood - 17%


Days of Consecutive Exercise: 76
OMAD Streak: 22 Days

Have an amazing day, Bees!

 

[Nevetharine]

What I've noticed so far from OMAD...

My schedule is currently hopping around between 22:2 and 21:3. Some days the extra hour feels neccessary, other days it feels too long.

I've now adopted the practice of waiting 30 minutes between "meals" in that eating window, to give my stomach time to register how much I've eaten. It also takes away a lot of the digestive discomfort I had.

I don't have a specific meal-composition, but most days I'll start with a main meal. Maybe I eat half, then wait 30m. Maybe I eat the whole plate, then wait 30m. Maybe after the main, I snack every 30 minutes, or as I think I'll do today, I'll probably have another "full" meal... the oats.

Many days I have a lot of "craving", that throaty sensation, but it's not for any specific kind of food. So I don't indulge it. Salt helps sometimes, so I'm thinking it may be water/electrolyte related.

I just eat what's there most days.

Today however, I woke up wanting something very specific - warm oatmeal with peanutbutter and banana.

Le sigh. And it's still 4hrs and 10m to lunch.

Right, enough whining. I'm going walking now.

 

[Deadoks]

What I've noticed so far from OMAD...

My schedule is currently hopping around between 22:2 and 21:3. Some days the extra hour feels neccessary, other days it feels too long.

I've now adopted the practice of waiting 30 minutes between "meals" in that eating window, to give my stomach time to register how much I've eaten. It also takes away a lot of the digestive discomfort I had.

I don't have a specific meal-composition, but most days I'll start with a main meal. Maybe I eat half, then wait 30m. Maybe I eat the whole plate, then wait 30m. Maybe after the main, I snack every 30 minutes, or as I think I'll do today, I'll probably have another "full" meal... the oats.

Many days I have a lot of "craving", that throaty sensation, but it's not for any specific kind of food. So I don't indulge it. Salt helps sometimes, so I'm thinking it may be water/electrolyte related.

I just eat what's there most days.

Today however, I woke up wanting something very specific - warm oatmeal with peanutbutter and banana.

Le sigh. And it's still 4hrs and 10m to lunch.

Right, enough whining. I'm going walking now.

22 days I think you do great!
Maybe I didn't read it but what is your goal with this OMAD?
After 22 days you have some other sensations (energy feeling), results?
For example I feel really energized these days as the only think that makes me diet not OMAD is the whey shaker and a handful of almonds I take for lunch. All day I eat nothing else. Then I do a reasonable meal in the evening. Even I feel so much energy at the moment.

Continue the good work!

I always clic on that report button when I want to reply to someone... Left handed clic the left button, reply is on the right

 

[Nevetharine]

Maybe I didn't read it but what is your goal with this OMAD?

Food freedom.

To not worry about how much or how little calories/carbs/fats/proteins I eat, and just eat to appetite.

If I lose some fat, great. If not, also great. But for me its completely about the mental freedom from food obsession.

Energy wise, I guess overall its more steady. I catch a big dip in energy after eating. Huge. Like lay down and nap dip.

I do think my body is still getting used to the schedule, though. Because the next day, I have this feeling of "torpor/laziness/inertia" where I have to force myself to do anything besides sit on my butt and scroll the internet.

Hence the walking/cycling and Fit Tap.

I'm guessing my body still isn't that adapted to switching between fat burning and carb burning, or maybe the turnover (the process of conversion from fat to energy) of fat burning is a little slower.

This torpor-phase happens between 15-20hrs fasted.

After 20hrs I feel great! High energy, clear thinking.

But then it's only 2 hours before I eat,

and then there's the dip, and a few hours of good concentration (have you guys noticed I'm not reading/writing as much? Bit of brain fog here.)

Then I go to bed, and the next morning its the torpor again.

But I'm also trying to decide if a 2hr or 3hr window is better for the long-term. So maybe switching between them so often isn't helping.

Either way, I think I just need more time.

And salt.

2 hours is actually a kind of luxurious eating window, when you consider that some Buddhist monks only eat a single bowl of food at noon.

The bowl can be anything from a coconut shell to a soup pot, granted. But there's only one of them, and getting up for refills isn't allowed.

And they're not all dropping dead like flies.

They also mostly meditate during the day.

I have the liberty of eating more than one plate in those two hours. Or a plate and many snacks.

But eventually my body has to "recognize" the amount of activity I do, and correlate my appetite with that. This makes sense to me. But then, perhaps I need to be more consistent with the schedule.

Sorry! What would have been a short answer turned into one long rambling post.

 

[Deadoks]

Sorry! What would have been a short answer turned into one long rambling post.

Wonderful thanks for sharing!

 

[Nevetharine]

Hospital update.

My brother had to cancel some work commitments because my grandfather is probably going to be there until next week.

So tests came back, there is a benign piece on his prostate that's not life threatening.

So they will be testing medicine and injections for that, and then he has to go to the local doctor here every 3 months to get it for an X period.

His insulin (he's a T1 diabetic) and most of his other medicine is outdated, hasn't been adjusted in 15yrs, because he doesn't "do" doctors.

That all needs to be tested/adjusted as well, and right now they are struggling to manage his blood sugar and sky high blood pressure.

All in all, he's staying there for a while longer so they can figure it all out.

 

[Mamatigerj]

So tests came back, there is a benign piece on his prostate that's not life threatening.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Cheers for the good news re: your grandfather's prostrate.
Here's hoping this episode helps him come around to a place of taking better care of himself.

 

[Nevetharine]

Cheers for the good news re: your grandfather's prostrate.
Here's hoping this episode helps him come around to a place of taking better care of himself.

I can say with surety, that will not happen.

 

[Nevetharine]

In the spirit of not vanishing from the internet for six months again...

I'm really not into doing exercise, er, let's call it calisthenics, actually, at the moment. I'll typically do SOME form of exercise every day. My fallbacks are walking, yoga, and cycling ATM.

But now the rigid-ness of my own schedule is messing with me again.

So I'm canceling all the programs. Not finishing Daily HIIT, Dead hang, etc. And just doing whatever I feel like again for a while.

 

[Nevetharine]

Microworkouts throughout the day seem appealing to me at the moment. Of course, these would be harder to document. So if I do I'll just call it all "Fit Tap".

I've taken off the dead hang challenge but I'll do that daily.

Not today, this morning I did my 1.5 pull-ups and chin ups.

I'm also taking a break from writing. Or rather, letting it bake until I want to continue writing, and then only posting more chapters once the whole thing is finished.

I don't really know what makes me drop stuff like this. As if anyone is putting pressure on me except myself. Blah.

 

[Nevetharine]

So far for the morning I've done a lot of lower body focused stuff. Some cycling but then I got tired of waiting for commercials to pass so I could watch the show I was watching.

I've done 10-20 reps of power squats, lunges, dragon pushups, and calf raises throughout the morning, about 2 "sets" per hour.

I think for the rest of the day I'll focus more on lower body strength. So maybe one set of this https://darebee.com/workouts/muscle-factory-lowerbody-workout.html once or twice an hour.

This is kind of nice... because I'm active but it doesn't "feel" like I'm working out.

I'd love it if someone can give me some suggestions for compound dumbell exercises, like the ones here, that exercise both legs and arms at the same time. Are there more out there besides these? https://darebee.com/workouts/5minute-strength-workout.html

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

So I'm canceling all the programs. Not finishing Daily HIIT, Dead hang, etc. And just doing whatever I feel like again for a while.

Nothing wrong with this. Active is active. Walking and cycling are both excellent forms of exercise. Yoga can be too, depending on the style.

 

[Nevetharine]

I did Day 1 of Powerbuilder

Edited To add : this is not me committing to finishing it.

 

[Nevetharine]

Nothing wrong with this. Active is active. Walking and cycling are both excellent forms of exercise. Yoga can be too, depending on the style.

Now I have a fear of losing muscle instantly and overnight if I don't work out.

As if I needed more anxiety on top of my anxiety.

 

[Deadoks]

Now I have a fear of losing muscle instantly and overnight if I don't work out.

But you know it's not the case so...

 

[Nevetharine]

✔EotD
✔Stretching and Yoga.

And Powerbuilder D2.

Writing:

50 words
300 words
✔1070 words

Reading:

⏺The Sign of Seven - 47%
⏺New York to Dallas - 6%
⏺Son of the Morning - 8%

Days of Consecutive Exercise: 78
OMAD Streak: 25 Days

Low-Key Anxiety ?

Spoiler

I keep running numbers for food and essentials, like budgeting over and over with ever decreasing amounts of money for "in case".

In case of what I don't know. It's like I'm disaster planning for the future all the time, several times a day. And yes, I know I can't control what happens in the future.

I'm mostly over the calorie angst now after reading a ton of stuff. Now I just eat during my window. This has also made me stop agonizing over my weight for the past few weeks.

That newly found mental space has been filled with this "disaster financial planning".

And on the day where I manage to not worry about that... the mental space is filled with the fear of losing muscle if I don't exercise.

I listen to subliminals everyday that's meant to help encourage me to read more. It's working, relaxing, but I wonder if increasing silent meditation time will help manage some of the angst about STUFF I CAN'T CONTROL. No wonder I feel overwhelmed even at home.

I had ice cream today, and a very delicious slow-cooked pork OMAD

Have an amazing day, Bees!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

 

[Deadoks]

f increasing silent meditation time will help manage some of the angst about STUFF I CAN'T CONTROL.

Auto hypnosis helped me a lot when I had vision like 10 time+ per day of my children dying... My subcontious was sending me all these images anytime it was a nightmare. I can now control these in self hypnosis because I can tell my subcontious that the image he send me are not good and not working and if I need to tell myself something it has to find another way. It can seems really weird but it worked and still work. I use it also for some stress and anxiety mostly linked to things I can't control and linked to my children and partner health.

 

[Nevetharine]

Auto hypnosis helped me a lot when I had vision like 10 time+ per day of my children dying... My subcontious was sending me all these images anytime it was a nightmare. I can now control these in self hypnosis because I can tell my subcontious that the image he send me are not good and not working and if I need to tell myself something it has to find another way. It can seems really weird but it worked and still work. I use it also for some stress and anxiety mostly linked to things I can't control and linked to my children and partner health.

I'm all for self-hypnosis and have tried it myself. But I find subliminals more convenient because I don't have to be half asleep while listening to them to get an effect. They take a while longer, but I do notice changes in my behaviour when I consistently listen to them.

Whether that's the effect of the actual subliminal or just a placebo from my subconscious mind doesn't really matter to me.