[Wk32] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

About this blog/diary:+ Show Spoiler +

I'm a professional musician and (very) amateur gamer.
Blogging about improving and sticking to a program is very effective for my overall progress!
Having been inspired by Haulvern, I hope this humble blog can motivate another someone in need of positive change.
Thanks for checking this out and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions!

Week preview: Currently controlling frustration and anticipation until I finally get my audition lists.... Also, enjoying the push through intermediate lift numbers!

Goals for the Week

Fitness Goals:
4 Weight-lifting sessions (program): [image loading]

                  2 Rowing HIIT or LISS sessions (log):
                  (opt) Running/Hills/Weighted walk sessions (log):
                  1-Month of 2kcal Slow Cut: (log) + Show Spoiler [Weight Progress] +

Gaming Goals:
Log write-ups of my team's OCC Blood Bowl games (Current Standings): [image loading]

Log write-ups and session prep for my DND 5E Campaign (wiki): [image loading]

Personal Goals:
4+ Self-Hypnosis or Affirmation sessions: ( [image loading]

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4+ Meditation sessions: ( [image loading]

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Log daily food intake: (log) (

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Quality challenge-seeking practice session: (

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Weigh-in regularly (log): ( [image loading]

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Previous Weeks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

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Monday 3/9: [image loading]

Not much to say on this Bench Day. The full supplemental work was quite nice! I passed on the recovery day so I could get to the next lift cycle a bit faster. This is just strictly vanity on my part... I'd like to try and see if I can get 13-14 lift cycles in this year as opposed to 12. Technically, without missing a day, one could do 15 full 5/3/1 cycles in a year period. I'm just excited to keep upping the lift numbers while the weight slowly goes down.

Speaking of weight, it is slowly dropping off. I'm finding my water level fluctuates around 2-4 lbs in either direction, but with the daily weigh-ins and a bit of perspective I'm able to see the 1lb/week trend pretty clearly. If it stalls I'll adjust down slightly, but for right now I'm happy with the pace of progress.

Juggling cutting with audition prep is going to be an interesting undertaking. I'm probably going to plan to eat maintenance the week of the audition, and cut around it. Travel diets tend to suck anyways, but with MFP I'll try to do the best I can.

Tuesday 3/10:

Fast forwarded Squat Day with minimal supplemental work. I felt lower energy and just wanted to get through it.

Just like yesterday, Tuesday was a good practice day! Accomplished everything I had set out to do.

Wednesday 3/11: [image loading]

Today is a much needed rest day. The fast-forwarding through my de-load week was a bit tiring... I don't think it's worth it. At any rate, I'm looking forward to starting the next lift cycle tomorrow! Overhead press is the lift that will reach max first and I'm excited to hit that point. I anticipate within the next 3 cycles I'll have to stay the same or de-load slightly.

Heroes of the Storm has captured my imagination and is pulling on my free-time! I really enjoy playing it! It elegantly solves so many issues I've had with other MOBAs! Fast-paced with an emphasis on map awareness, it forces you to make choices early and often as well as read your teammates and support them in what they attempt. My favorite role is healer thus far. It seems that they're doing lots of things right in the framework of this game. Very enjoyable!

Thursday 3/12:

I always get nervous trying to update this from my phone, but here goes... Successful day today! Weighed in at the lowest weight for the last 12 months! Super pumped#!

Tempering that excitement was the fact I only got 5 reps on my 5+ Press Day. Oh well. Tomorrow will be crazy! I have 9 hours of rehearsal and 3 hours of commuting, so fitting the workout will be a challenge. I'll probably have to forego the Big but Boring section of the workout.

Friday 3/13:

Saturday 3/14:

Sunday 3/15:

Whew! Okeedoke... Feel bad that this update is so belated but the last several days have been pretty crazy travel-wise! Glad to be home and have a somewhat lazy afternoon (following the matinee concert of course).

This week's travels challenged my resolve on two fronts: maintain my nutritional goals, and maintaining my daily fundamentals. I nailed the diet goals! Cobb salad and Subway were my friends. Helped that I was able to skip out of the Saturday meal and take a much needed nap. The weekly chicken bake-off helped fill in the gaps as it was packaged for in-between meals. I'm heartened heading into this next crazy busy week by my success because diet was the biggest worry I had going into this week. Fundamentals however suffered. I failed to keep quality work with the rehearsal schedule bearing down on me. There really was no excuse for the Friday failure too. I had ample time, I just didn't execute and do the practice I needed. Saturday I amended that somewhat and was able to get some good work in before the show.

Blood Bowl strikes back! This morning, first thing after my morning coffee, I logged in to play a Blood Bowl game against a known enemy in Sidley. His Skaven squad suffered heavy casualties to my Chaos last season, and today's game was no different. While there was no lasting damage thankfully (other than a death I suffered on the game's first block), I didn't feel comfortable attempting to score more than once. Ultimately, the game was decided by the armor breaks and my positioning. He was forced to score too early and was unable to break my slow, crushing march down the field. I slowly ground out the characteristic 2-1 win.

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Heroes of the Storm:
[image loading]

I'll be adding a better HotS section soon to detail the slow accumulation of heroes, and a link to my HotSlogs, but for now I'll just keep a placeholder to make sure I keep up on playing.

[Wk32] Improving in Fitness, Gaming & Music

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