Goal + Action = Reality

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 16
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 8 Sneaky little Darebee people! Work you hard every seventh day, so that the next day you think, wow! this is easy!! Well, okay, so perhaps not easy, but easier. :) Just 2 x 3min runs today, with 2min walks between.
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 7

Challenges:
:v: Daily Gratitude Day 28
:v: Ab challenge Day 22
:v: Easy Cardio Day 22
:v: Power Grip Day 22
:v: 50 Squats Day 19
:v: Guardian Day 16 - All Clear

Decided to have a housework day today. Oh, joy... Anyway, as usual to make it more fun, did some Home Front workouts, so they had me doing a minute each of squats, step-ups (x 2), plank (x 2 - a cat settled herself down around my shoulders for a while during one of them), punches, sit-ups, bicep curls (x 2), jumping jacks (x 2) and a wall-sit. Then I remembered that my friend is back and was due to come for tea at 2, so quickly vacuumed (does anyone ever like vacuuming? Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do I!). Then my friend arrived, we had tea, and he showed me photo of his latest trips. He has now ticked off the last of the UNESCO countries - all 193 of them.
Bit of a cooler day today. Yesterday at 4:30, it was 31°, then high winds, a brief thunder stormm and bang, at 4:55 it was suddenly only 18°! Today it started off cloudy but fairly warm, so yuk, sticky. A bit of a breeze, though, so not too bad. And this is summer, after all.

📝 560 words and chapter 7, draft 2 complete.
📚 This book is really great! Not very far in but if it continues as it is, I'll have to grab myself a copy for my reference shelf (this is from the library). "Reference shelf" hah! Who am I kidding! I think my reference shelf is about 15 linear metres, and yet I never seem to have the book I need! One day, perhaps, I will need to refer to the book "Mind-altering and Poisonous Plants of the World" but not right now. (Why did I get that one?!) Not sure if reading a whole actual book should count as "research" which might otherwise be just looking some little thing up (today it was about, what happens when you get hit in the peroneal nerve, and can you be hypnotised against your will? (FYI, no, but you can be mesmerised and influenced)). I'm thinking that I ought to do more reading, so perhaps I'll separate actual whole books read either for research purposes or for pleasure, from quick internet research stuff.

@CODawn I'm holding tight to the claim that, eventually, running gets easier. It just takes (a very long) time. :)
@TortoiseVibe I know I'll be totally bummed if I break my Duolingo streak. The longer a streak, the worse its breakage. Sometimes, I wish it would just break, but I'll certainly not do it deliberately!
@Nevetharine I like to think not. :muahaha:
@aku-chan eat the elephant one bite at a time.
 
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TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
@GentleOx I did it once. It took me absolutely ages! But I did it. I find running very hard. Partly it's because I have very loose tendons and ligaments and that means I have to work harder which means - you get the picture. Running is something the body has to adapt to; it's not easy. Cardio was never a big thing for me until the last few years so my body hasn't really adapted yet. Yet! It will. Eventually. And then I'll be smoking it!
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Laura Rainbow Dragon

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 17
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 9
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 8

Challenges:
:v: Daily Gratitude Day 29
:v: Ab challenge Day 23
:v: Easy Cardio Day 23
:v: Power Grip Day 23
:v: 50 Squats Day 20
:v: Guardian Day 17 - 100 goblins

Washing to fold and put away and made it all longer by listening to another three Home Front missions which had me doing 1 minute each of: bicep curls x 2, jumping jacks, lunges, punches x 2, step-ups x 2, mountain climbers (I did these as wall drills), forearm plank, hand plank (this should have been a forearm plank but I decided to change things up a bit. I hardly ever do hand planks), sit-ups, chair dips, and front kicks. Also did some tricep extensions, 30 es, just because I could.

📚 Lots of reading today which I'm keeping track of on Bookly.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 18
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 10
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 9

Challenges:
:v: Daily Gratitude Day 30
:v: Ab challenge Day 24
:v: Easy Cardio Day 24
:v: Power Grip Day 24
:v: 50 Squats Day 21
:v: Guardian Day 18 - 200 goblins
:v: Dead Hang Day 1 - last night before bed I decided to do a dead hang. Yep, I've no idea why either. Anyway, I was too lazy to move the barbell which was parked about mid-thigh level, so when I hung, I pulled my knees up horizontal so I didn't hit the bar. That was fine. Counted to 60 and then let go. I was impressed. But to determine whether or not this was just a fluke, I decided to do this challenge.

📝 Chapter 8 requires a fair bit of revision. Today I wrote 790 words and then deleted another 130, and now I've reached a section that needs a lot of thought.
📚 Read a fair chunk of that book and have just got to the chapter entitled "Knife Vocabulary".

I realised that I haven't done any charity challenges for a while, and one came across my pages today so I've signed up for it. It's for March, and I'll have to walk, run, or both the length of the Kakoda Trail (96km). To support military veterans' mental health. And for a change I didn't use my usual profile picture, but instead a picture my grubby trail shoes! It seemed kind of appropriate. If you haven't seen my shoes or want to see them again, you can see them here. So that's March. On the last weekend in March, I'll walk about 20k with my mum, so I just have to squeeze in the other 76k sometime!
MO-social-tile-1.PNG
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 19
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 11
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 10

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 25
:v: Easy Cardio Day 25
:v: Power Grip Day 25
:v: 50 Squats Day 22
:v: Guardian Day 19 - 100 goblins
:v: Dead Hang Day 2 (I have just realised that putting this challenge here ruins the "graphical lineup" that @mavie so admired. Perhaps tomorrow I shall move it.)

And just when I thought March's charity challenge was all sorted, another one appeared, and as this one addresses trying not to make more animals extinct, what could I do but sign up? Back to the old profile picture, though, :) and you can find that here. It's only a 10-day challenge, though, and I've opted for just 30k.

📝 Really didn't want to address this today but I made myself get to it. If I mean to be serious about writing, then I have to approach it like a professional, as though it were my job, not as though it were simply a hobby, something to do when a) inspiration strikes; or b) I'm bored. So a scene that was really pretty crappy and didn't say at all what I had wanted it to is now a bit better, about 1000 words in total though I wrote only about 670 today - it's hard to tell because deleted words subtract from the total written. Basically, though, there is way more red text (first revision) than white (original). Be glad when this chapter is over because it's a hard one.
📚 Read through knives, swords, guns, poisons, and injuries, and now I'm on the chapter entitled "Bleeding to Death".

Was informed that my uncle (I only had one by blood) died on Tuesday. Must say that reading the email in a non-native language made it seem more poignant because I had to think about what every word or phrase meant rather than just skimming over and pulling out the important bits.
 

JohnStrong

Well-known member
Guardian from Alberta
Posts: 458
"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. -Socrates"
Congrats on your writing progress, but I'm also sorry for the loss of your Uncle 😥
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, Bees, for your thoughts.

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 20
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 12 Normally I just have a protein shake after my running, but my younger daughter made cinnamon roll baked oatmeal and it was ready just when I was so I wiped off the sweat and consumed sugar for breakfast! :LOL:
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 11

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 26
:v: Easy Cardio Day 26
:v: Power Grip Day 26
:v: Dead Hang Day 3
:v: 50 Squats Day 23
:v: Guardian Day 20 - 100 goblins

:v: Hike. Took my girls out for a bit of a hike. Okay, I may have misled them a little and just called it a "walk". It was not quite 2.5k, but it seemed to take forever! There were many steps, both going up and going down, and we did a return thing. They did find it a bit tough, poor possums. I guess that's what happens when you spend all your days slouched over your phone... It was relatively cool and generally cloudy though the sun popped out a bit later. The girls gasped and rested while I was bouncing along like a gazelle and being told off for going too fast. And I was trying hard not to be so fast because I didn't want them to resent me! Anyway, they liked the final destination - when they eventually got there! They wouldn't let me climb up though (I managed to squeeze past the railings but they frowned and tut-tutted, so I slunk back...).
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📝 Finished the chapter and it's not too bad.
📚 Finished the book. Definitely one I'm going to have to add to the Reference Shelf!
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Laura Rainbow Dragon @CODawn @daejamurrachan

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 21
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 13
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 12

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 27
:v: Easy Cardio Day 27
:v: Power Grip Day 27
:v: Dead Hang Day 4
:v: 50 Squats Day 24
:v: Guardian Day 21 - 50 goblins

And because of @JohnStrong 's Runes of Northroy I also did:
:v: Zombie Survival - the zombie workouts are all among my favourites. :) :zombie:Got to play with my bokken too.
:v: Sand Snake - I knew there was a reason why I don't tend to bother with Level 4 workouts! Up-and-down planks (also known as commando planks which I find way cooler!) are easier now. My left wrist has become much stronger and it's not at all difficult pushing myself up on that hand now. Excellent!
:v: Goblin

📝 Firing today. Two chapters down.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 22
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 14 - another challenge day but I was prepared this time. The first 7min run I took at a slower pace than the second, and all was good.
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 13

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 28
:v: Easy Cardio Day 28
:v: Power Grip Day 28
:v: Dead Hang Day 5
:v: 50 Squats Day 25
:v: Guardian Day 22 - All Clear

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Zombie Survival
:v: Goblin
:v: Phantom
:v: Gargoyle another one of my favourites. What can I say? I've got a thing for isometrics. And planks. :)

📚 Read some fiction.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Froud All good.
@NancyTree :heart:

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 23
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 15
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 14

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 29
:v: Easy Cardio Day 29
:v: Power Grip Day 29
:v: Dead Hang Day 6
:v: 50 Squats Day 26
:v: Guardian Day 23 - All Clear

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Gargoyle
:v: Dark Elf
:v: Sand Snake
:v: Phantom

Daughter wanted a hair cut so we went to the shops, booked in. Told 25-30-minute wait. We waited 70 minutes! I was all for leaving (I was bored) but she wanted her hair done. That actually only took 15 minutes. Grr...

📚 Reading Sometimes the Magic Happens - book on writing by Terry Brooks. I remember reading The Sword of Shannara in one go. Got it from the library mid-morning; finished it just before midnight. Could say I enjoyed it. :LOL: My sister got me my own copy for Christmas that year.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 24
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 16
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 15

Challenges:
:v: Ab challenge Day 30
:v: Easy Cardio Day 30
:v: Power Grip Day 30
:v: Dead Hang Day 7
:v: 50 Squats Day 27
:v: Guardian Day 24 - All Clear again. Means something nasty must be coming soon...

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Goblin
:v: Dragon Knight
:v: Zombie Survival
:v: Gargoyle

📚 Still reading Sometimes the Magic Works.

Been going through my jigsaw puzzles and getting rid of ones I don't really like. So far there is a pile of 13 to go to the charity shop. I know, you're probably wondering how a dissectologist like me could get rid of 13 puzzles. Well, so far I have identified more than that same number to stay and I'm only about halfway through my collection! :) But when you do a puzzle that's good quality, good feel, good colours, etc, suddenly you kind of can't stomach ones that aren't.

Oh, and how embarrassing when you pop out quickly (while the tea is cooling) just to take a turn around the block because you've forgotten how far it actually is (570m) and your FitBit send that whole enormous 6-minute walk to Strava! Man, I'm obviously such an exercise fiend - no-one can keep up!:muahaha:
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 25
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 17
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 16

Challenges:
:v: Dead Hang Day 8
:v: 50 Squats Day 28
:v: Guardian Day 25 - 100 Goblins

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Mostly Sane - hey, look at that, I voluntarily did burpees! "Mostly" sane, indeed! :drool:
:v: Black Panther
:v: Reanimator
:v: Enforcer

📝 Wrote a shade over 1,000 words today. Just brain dump stuff for books 3 and 4, but still - words on the page!

I was reading something today about habits, and there came the claim that it takes, not the oft-cited 21 days to instill a habit but a significantly larger 66 days! And if this habit were exercise-related, then that time swelled out to 1½ times that, or 99 days! So for those of us who have lamented our poor stamina/resolve/whatever because those habits haven't stuck after a whole month!, take heart. :)
 
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SkorpionUK

Well-known member
Sorceress from Germany
Posts: 308
"Building good habits"
So for those of us who have lamented our poor stamina/resolve/whatever because those habits haven't stuck after a whole month!, take heart.
That's me, so thank you!
Also - someone create a new 100-day program cos 90 days are not enough... unless you have done daily exercise before or continue after...
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Lady Celerity
@SkorpionUK As someone who has done exercise for a while, I still think a 100-day programme would be a good idea. :LOL: But daunting...

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 26
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 18
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 17

Challenges:
:v: Dead Hang Day 9
:v: 50 Squats Day 29
:v: Guardian Day 26 - 100 Goblins

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Dark Elf
:v: Zombie Survival
:v: Gargoyle
:v: Rogue Warrior
:v: Stealth Mode - not done this one before (c'mon, there are over 2000 workouts!) and it was fun.

📚 Still reading Sometimes the Magic Works.
 

SkorpionUK

Well-known member
Sorceress from Germany
Posts: 308
"Building good habits"
As someone who has done exercise for a while, I still think a 100-day programme would be a good idea. :LOL: But daunting...
Yeah. It would be discipline-focused, like The Habit Builder or something, not too taxing physically.
I just whacked three 30-day programs together but then took breaks, so Oct-Nov-Dec has turned into Oct->Feb sometime 😅
I will turn into someone who exercises daily, though, I am determined. It _will_ happen.
 

TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Laura Rainbow Dragon Doing well yourself! Glad there's another hunter. My training starts next week (new Club and all, so - :shiver:) and I just felt I had to get through as many as I could as quickly as I could before other things claimed my time.

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 27 - And we all know what programme will be replacing this one, right?! Only, next month has only 28 days, so even if I start on the 31st, I'll still finish in March. Darnitall! There should be special 28-day programmes for February!
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 19
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 18

Challenges:
:v: Dead Hang Day 10
:v: 50 Squats Day 30
:v: Guardian Day 27 - 50 Goblins

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Zombie Survival
:v: Gargoyle
:v: Little Spider
:v: Phantom

📚 Finished reading Sometimes the Magic Works. Entertaining and informative. Also read some fiction.
📝 Not exactly 'writing' but I'll put it under that umbrella anyway. More learning the craft, preparing for writing - that sort of stuff.

One other thing that I had forgotten to mention: a couple of days ago, trying something new, I got on Marcy again. Lat pull-downs, low load (about a third my usual), high reps, s-l-o-w reps. I did, throughout the day, 3 sets of 20 reps. It felt surprisingly good. Initially, the weight felt way too light, but I kept at it and I didn't release the tension at the top, and the reps were 5-7 seconds each. At the end of each set, I felt as though I had done something, though not something terribly impressive. (Ah, vanity and ego!) Yesterday when I got up, I thought, omg! My lats were rather sore! Couldn't remember why that would be. Then - aha! Well, how interesting. So today I repeated the experiment - 3 sets of 20 slow reps with light load. I'm expecting to hurt again tomorrow. :LOL:
Sad Hot Ones GIF by 88visual
 
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TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
@HellYeah Sure, but there are no ninjas in it!
@Laura Rainbow Dragon @NancyTree @Lady Celerity @CODawn @Haleth @Fremen :thanks:

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 28
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 20
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 19

Challenges:
:v: Indoor Cardio Day 1
:v: Plank Hero Day 1
:v: Dead Hang Day 11
:v: Guardian Day 28 - All Clear!
:v: Iron Core Day 1
:v: Re-focus Day 1
:v: Posture Day 1

Workouts (for Northroy):
:v: Zombie Survival
:v: Little Spider
:v: Sand Snake
:v: Blackbird

I didn't feel at all sore today from the pull-downs, which was great. Means that I can increase either the sets or the reps. I'll see how things go. It was quite hot today. The air-conditioning isn't very good and actually, in my training room, there is none at all, so sweat was definitely dripping down. I did enjoy a mini strawberry frozen yoghurt though. :)

School returns next week. As mine are returning students, two of them go back on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. Then I can work on proper scheduling of my writing and exercise times, and when I eat prior to going off to training, given that I have to leave earlier. Well, that's the theory, anyway! :LOL:

📝 Really no use counting words when revising. After working for a while and typing a lot, I'd apparently written -151 words! So I'll focus on time spent instead. I think it was at least an hour and there may be more to come this evening. And that's why I thought it a good idea to do that Re-focus Challenge. While still leaving room for February's challenge!
 
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TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Thanks, @Anek @mavie

Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 29
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 21 - Found this very hard today and really had to force myself to keep going, saying that there was absolutely no reason to stop before it was over, I could do this. And I did. Like I always know I can and I do, but then why are there days when I tell myself I can't? Today I'll blame a disturbed night, and the weather. It was warm and humid, and I hate humidity. Sorry, zombies/apocalypse/whatever, not today, it's too humid! Admittedly, it was only about 80% humidity when I did my running but the fan didn't help one jot. The humidity increased to the full 100% a little later, so not a great deal else was done today.
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 20

Challenges:
:v: Indoor Cardio Day 2
:v: Plank Hero Day 2
:v: Dead Hang Day 12
:v: Guardian Day 29 - 100 goblins.
:v: Iron Core Day 2
:v: Re-focus Day 2
:v: Posture Day 2

:v: Marcy lat pull-downs 2 x 25

Perhaps a more accurate icon. Did a good few hours today, tightening and fixing things, so that was excellent.

📖 Change this icon too, just because I can. :LOL: Started reading On Writing: A memoir by Stephen King.
 
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TopNotch

Well-known member
Ranger from Australia
Posts: 1,610
"Motivation is temporary. Discipline is forever."
Programmes:
:v: Power HIIT Day 30
:v: 8 Weeks to 5K Day 22
:v: Arms of Steel (chair edition) Day 21

Challenges:
:v: Indoor Cardio Day 3
:v: Plank Hero Day 3
:v: Dead Hang Day 13
:v: Guardian Day 30 - 100 goblins.
:v: Iron Core Day 3
:v: Re-focus Day 3
:v: Posture Day 3

Workouts for Runes of Northroy:
:v: Blackbird
:v: Maniac
:v: Guardian

About two or so hours today.
📖 Continued with reading On Writing: A memoir by Stephen King for about two hours (new Bookly Readathon started today). Not half so good as Terry Brooks' book. Seems unstructured and has peculiar examples that he never actually explains. There was one sentence he gave as an example of bad grammar and yet the grammar was not bad. The sentence could have been better written, but grammatically, it was perfect. Very odd. He's also obviously writing for an American audience, and I'm guessing some of the references he makes might make sense to Americans but not to others. I would not recommend this book. It seems not so much about how he works but a criticism of how other people work.
 
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