What are your health / fitness goals? Accountability

That really is awesome how inclusive everyone is. I've noticed that trained fighters are not petty or quick to anger.

 

Today was the first time in a long time that I didn't struggle with motivation. I still did my upper body workout later in the day, but I was looking forward to it. I feel like everything is starting to click into place!

 

Motivation did not come easily today... I had to remind myself that I went from just walking for 3 months (December- February), to walking and doing 120 push-ups every other day + hula hooping in March, and now pretty intense strength training 6 days a week. It's been an incredible journey, but I do get tired.
It's a good way to develop resilience.
Tonight's dips were dedicated to @Meat and the team here!
Hope you will all have a wonderful weekend!

 

Haha, dips. I can still crank them out even at my age. I don’t dangle extra weight like I used to though, nope.

 

Today I did a shoulder and leg workout earlier in the day and it was nice to get it done.
I also walked over 13,000 steps and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's rest day.
It's been raining all day long like an answer to our prayers!

 

Week #6/10 is here and I'm happy to have reached the halfway point of my current program! I've noticed that the scale is fluctuating and not going down during this phase, but it is called "Size" so I think this is to be expected. I just have to stay the course and trust the process.

I really enjoyed yesterday's rest day and today is going to be a total body workout. I like Monday's exercises.

I'm still reading and am currently enthralled by:
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. It is a Historical Fiction that inspired me to order some Pu'er tea. I don't know very much about the ethnic minority groups in China and it has been fascinating to learn about this region of the world. Here's the book's description:
In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen.

Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she has a baby out of wedlock she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city.

As Li-yan comes into herself, leaving her village for an education, a business, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins. Across the ocean Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the course of years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.

Okay, I better get to work on today's workout! What you are currently reading or listening to?

 

Yikes! I seriously feel like I have hit a wall motivation-wise today...
I did get my step goal of >12,600 steps done, but I have a total body workout to do and I barely want to move.
I think it's a combination of poor sleep, dehydration, and a little bit of the self-sabotage habit that likes to haunt me when I start making real progress.
I'm going to break through, you guys, and just get moving!
Yesterday was leg day and today is total body. My mind has been full all day long and now it's time for me to act now and think later.
Ready or not, here goes!

 

Yesterday I did my workout and really felt like it was a breakthrough. I even attempted chinups and was able to do the upper half unassisted! It's going to be awhile before I can do fully unassisted chin-ups, but I'll keep working towards it.
I just finished my shoulder workout and stomach vacuums (they're getting easier!). I also reached my step goal and it's only 6:30 pm!
I hope you are all having a wonderful week!

 

I still do chin-ups too. My first round is usually 8 to 10 but I don’t go all the down. (3/4’s of the way plus or minus) By the 3rd round I can only pump out about 5 or 6. Even if you can’t get one at the start you could hold it where you’re stuck until you’re fatigued. Eventually you’ll start pumping out a few. Believe me, most folks can’t do one. They’re not trying to get past zero reps but you are! Lol. Good job.

 

Thanks for the encouragement! This is not an easy exercise and it's impressive that you can do rounds of them. I'll keep trying!

 

I just finished my shoulder and leg workout and am looking forward to tomorrow's rest day!
I struggled to walk 12,600 steps today and now I'm wondering how in the world was I walking over 22,000 steps every day just a few months ago?

 

I have no idea how you walked that much and got anything else done

 

Same here, it felt like I was walking every waking moment that I wasn't working and was quite obsessive about it. It's nice to not have that level of intensity and still get results.

 

I really love Sundays (rest days)!

I spend the morning drinking coffee and doing a power clean (deep clean kitchen and fridge to prepare for the week). After that, I tend to my indoor garden. In the last 6 months, I've acquired many orchids and anthurium plants and a bunch of them are in bloom! I'm also really excited because one of my older orchids recovered from some stress and it looks like I'm about to get some new blossoms!

I just finished reading:

• "Guilt and Ginataan" by Mia Manansala. She is a Filipina author who writes cozy mysteries and this is the 5th book in her series. I really enjoyed the opening because it revolves around a community corn festival and I'm currently growing lots of corn and sunflowers in our gardens. Sadly, this book really ran out of steam and isn't her best. I was happy to see that she is going to have a sequel coming soon. I also like the way that she includes some of the recipes from the book. I gave it 2/5 stars which is a low rating for me, but I know what she's capable of.
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" by Grady Hendrix This is a horror / historical fiction that covers a lot of taboos from teenage pregnancy to witchcraft. I didn't like it, but it was impressive that he could write from the perspective of a young vulnerable female. I was rushing just to get to the end of it. Maybe it could serve as birth control? For what it is, it was well written, but I didn't enjoy it. Here's the description: There’s power in a book…
  
  They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
  
  Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
  
  Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.
• "The Tenant" by Freida McFadden It was recommended on Amazon so I decided to check it out. It's one of those twisty thriller, suspense, mystery books and it makes me feel thankful that after 10 years, we're taking a break from land lording... It had some unexpected twists and turns, but again, I was rushing to get it over with.

I just got through months of reading really great historical fictions and classics and was giving lots of 5 star reviews. It's a tough act to follow and the contemporary novels just don't hit the spot the same way.

I'm currently reading:

• "So Easy So Good: Delicious Recipes and Expert Tips for Balanced Eating" by Kylie Sakaida I'm always looking for tips and tricks and healthy and delicious recipes. Right now everything is pretty basic, but maybe it will get better...
• "Such Quiet Girls" by Noelle W. Ihli It's scary that this is based on a true story. Ten children, abducted in broad daylight—and buried alive.
  
  Sage and her sister won’t make it home from school today. Neither will the other children on Bus 315. But that’s only the beginning of the nightmare.
  
  New bus driver Jessa blames herself for what happened. She couldn’t protect the kids she was supposed to deliver to daycare, just like she couldn’t protect her own daughter three years ago. But this time, everything will be different. It has to be.
  
  Trapped in a shipping container buried twenty feet underground, Jessa and the children do their best to stay calm. The kidnappers insist that if everyone behaves, they’ll be freed when the ransom is paid. But Sage isn’t sure they’ll last that long. Neither is Jessa. It’s dark and cramped, and with every passing minute it’s getting harder to breathe.
  
  With time—and air—running thin, Jessa and the children must find a way to outsmart their captors, or face an unthinkable fate.
  
  Such Quiet Girls was inspired by actual events.

I'm happy that I'm getting my reading momentum back! I'm currently at 34 / 125 books which puts me 15 books behind schedule, but that's okay.

What are you currently reading or listening to?

 

It's week #7/10 and I just finished my total body workout! This is the last week of phase two and then I'll start phase 3. I'm so happy because I don't have any aches or injuries. I'm going to prioritize longer stretching sessions and possibly practice yoga again.
Hope you will have a wonderful week!

 

Caught my SIL in what’s called an Ezekiel choke this morning. Lol. He’s quite good and put a lot of hurt on me early on. Clip below of what it is. Filthy. Lol.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/-mCxfwl5gQk

 

Ouch! That looks advanced.

 

Plans have changed and if all goes as planned, then I'm getting on a plane tomorrow morning. I love surprises like this!
This means that I probably won't finish the last 3 weeks of the program that I'm working through, but I am proud of the fact that I got through 7/10 weeks.
My weight actually went up a little during these 7 weeks and I think it's because I was strength training 6 times a week (and eating more). By the end of this week I was feeling a little burned out...
I'm thinking of this as a pivot rather than quitting. I plan on keeping my step count high, keeping my nutrition clean, and working on calisthenics and active flexibility.

 

As you get older, your doc says, hey we should probably do a stress test. Did that once.
Explained after the following year that If I don't drop dead working in the sun on a humid day for 8 hours stacking 10K pounds of firewood ... I'm probably going to be good for another year. Especially considering that I do 3 of them a season.
Here was today. 2 full cords in the big stack and 2/3rd of a full cord in the smaller one.

 

Wow! That's so much work and it looks like a masterpiece too. Great job!