Ninja Training Update

Between a simply insane weekend last weekend and being sick this weekend I have nothing in reserve to publish this week. I had gotten into a good schedule of having my posts written a week in advance. It was glorious, but now I'm finding myself playing catch up. I was scrambling to figure out what to write about when it hit me. I haven't given an Assassin/Ninja Training Update in quite a while. I actually have a lot to update on that!

Due to a very unexpected and drawn out process of injuring both my hands and waiting for them to heal properly, I haven't been doing any exercises. It has been a big lesson in patience, taking care of myself, and respecting my personal limits. Really what happened was I had a previous injury in my left hand that had healed back wrong. While that hand was reinjured so it could heal back the right way, I managed to overcompensate for it with my right hand. As a result I injured my right hand in just the same way my left hand was injured. I was so angry with myself. I had to take a long break from video games. My fine motor skills were laughable. I felt like I had unskilled clubs on the ends of my arms instead of hands. I had to ask the boys for help at work with the heavy stuff and I couldn't drive either of the trucks because that required me having to literally climb into the truck cab, which put too much strain on my hands. It has been rough but I've learned a valuable lesson and I don't plan on making that mistake again.

I have continued my plan of keeping water as my main drink. I actually counted up the time since I stopped drinking pop and I was shocked. I stopped drinking pop around 5 months ago! The crazy thing is I don't miss it. Both of my roommates still regularly drink it and I am not even tempted. I look at it and don't see it as appetizing at all. Drinking water makes me feel amazing! It's like I feel cleaner on the inside. I have more energy and that sluggish, blah feeling is gone.

On top of continuing to drink water, I have added a number of things. I now have an accountability partner. This have been so helpful. Sometimes you just don't feel like doing the work and you're okay with letting yourself down. But letting someone else down is a different matter. The accountability has majorly helped in building habits. You get used to doing healthy things and before you know it, you've created a good habit. Right now I'm just going over basic things. Most of my life I have done a horrible job at taking care of myself. My basic check in things with my partner are: Eating 3 meals a day, drinking 50 oz of water, getting at least 7 hours of sleep, not stressing my injured hands, and keeping my room organized. That last one sounds really random, but it's amazing how much having a clean and organized room helps with my mental health. Visual noise and clutter don't help anxiety.

The accountability is set up in report form. I write out daily reports. Honestly, just recording my daily progress is helpful and keeps me aware of my daily choices. I report on the items I listed above, as well as adding how I felt that day and what my big picture circumstances were that day. It gives some helpful context. As someone with an anxiety disorder, recording the big picture circumstances of my day helps me see patterns, identify triggers, and just be more aware of how stressors affect my health. I've learned so much about myself and my health through this process!

As far as results go, I don't own a scale so I can't give an actual weight loss amount. I can say that I need a new belt. I started out only being able to reach the first hole on my current belt. Now I am on the farthest hole and still shrinking. I have gone down a shirt size and two jeans sizes. I have learned how important taking care of myself physically is to my mental health. The two cannot be separated. Just working on physical health greatly improves my mental health. With better mental health I'm better equipped to make healthy decisions. It's become an awesome upward spiral. That's a real thing!

If you have PTSD, some other anxiety disorder, or any mental disorder try making healthy decisions for your body. I know. I rolled my eyes at that advice so many times in the past. But now that I'm actually doing it and reaping the benefits, I must say it is definitely worth it! It really works! Just start small. Do you eat 3 meals a day? Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep? Wherever you find yourself there's a small step you can take towards better health. Don't try to do it all at once. That rarely ever works. Have patience and grace for yourself. Find one thing you can stick with and do it daily. Finding an accountability partner really helps too. Most importantly, be kind to yourself and don't give up when you fall down. Just get back up. There are no penalties for falling unless you don't get back up.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for reading!

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-Jerelle

Assassin Training Update

It's been a while since I gave an update about my assassin training. I've been focusing mainly on diet change. According to Nerd Fitness, your diet accounts for 80% of your success or failure. Since I once lost 40 pounds on diet change alone, I readily accept that. I started with cutting out soda. Originally, I stopped drinking soda for a time to get caffeine out of my system. My anxiety has made a move towards more generalized anxiety, rather than anxiety triggered from specific fears. It crept up on me slowly and, at first, I didn't know what was wrong with me. Now that I know that I get anxious in general now, I can take steps to combat it. Though it may feel like the sky is falling, it doesn't necessarily mean that anything is wrong. Equipped with that knowledge I tackled caffeine out of my diet. It was unnecessary fuel on the fire and once it left my system I started to calm down more quickly with my self reminders that everything is okay. Then something unexpected happened.

I hadn't decided to quit drinking soda for good. It was a step to take it out of my system for the time being until I improved. But after awhile I noticed that I had gone for about 2 weeks without drinking soda regularly. I wasn't dying for a coke. This was a good sign and I decided to use the momentum I had to just say goodbye to soda as a regular daily drink choice. I have now lost count of how many weeks it has been. I've only had a drink of soda rarely, and when I did it was caffeine free Sprite or 7 Up. I went from drinking multiple sodas a day to having about 2 in, I would guess the last month or 2. It feels great to have such a big step tackled already! It's really encouraging!

Something unexpected happened over the past few weeks though. At first I thought it was just wishful thinking on my part. But a week ago I got proof. I've lost 10 pounds! I thought my clothes felt a bit on the big side. I had taken note that I could tighten my belt further. Now I need my belt if I want to walk without holding my jeans up with one hand. It's a great feeling! I have tried to lose weight for years, ever since my thyroid went nuts back in 2010 and I gained 70 pounds in 2 months. Wow, that was a terrifying time. It seemed that no matter what I did, diet and exercise-wise, my newly acquired weight would not budge. And now I've dropped 10 pounds easily!

My newest diet change challenge is to move to drinking water as my main drink. I've already gotten a beautiful start on that. I also have extra motivation. My workplace has been shifting out polo shirts in our uniform and shifting in company T-shirts. There is a bit of a size difference. For example, a large polo shirt is the same size as an XLarge T-shirt. I did not know this when I picked up my shirts. So my new work shirts are a whole size smaller than the size I had been wearing. The amazing thing is, I just fit into it. It's slightly on the small side for my taste. I gravitate more towards extra room in my T-shirts, but it fits. Now I just gotta make sure I don't gain the weight back, and instead continue to lose weight. My new shirts will be a good measurement of that. I don't own a scale, unless you count my Wii Fit Balance Board. I found out I lost 10 pounds stepping onto my aunt's scale. It gave my weight in kilograms, which was annoying. But hey, I finally got to use that unit converter tool on my phone lol.

I hope to phase in my exercises again soon. I unfortunately overestimated myself while lifting a heavy crate. As a result a threw my back out a little bit again. I knew as soon as I straightened up that something was wrong. Back to the chiropractor. I didn't throw it out nearly as badly as I have in the past. I should be back in action again soon. I'm still on the quests of daily 10 minute walks and beginner body weight strength training on alternate days.

I will shout out to a friend, you know who you are. Thank you for sharing that quote from your pastor. Thank you for being an inspiration through your own health and fitness work. When I have those weak moments, I think of you sticking to your plan, and it helps me keep going. It's helps to know someone else is working hard to achieve a similar goal. Thanks for being an inspiration and encouragement. I wouldn't have made it this far if Jesus had not used you to get me really thinking about my health and inspired to do something about it. So thank you. :)

That's all for this post! Thanks for reading!

Assassin Training

A good friend of mine shared a quote from his pastor on one of his podcasts. The quote was: "Anything God does spiritually through you happens through your body. Why would you not want to take care of it?" It really reached out and grabbed my attention. I had never thought about it that way before. I am not really anywhere near what would be considered fit or healthy. I've fought with weight gain and health problems. I'm a woman so of course this whole area is a constant emotional battle. But my friend also had another good point. We as a society place so much emphasis on looks and not so much on health. That made me realize that I also have approached this whole health and fitness issue from a looks perspective. Hearing his thoughts on the subject was like a breath of fresh air. Looks are here today and gone tomorrow. Life is so short. Why be so concerned with what other people think? What's really important is my health and relationship with God. I never want my choices and habits to stand in the way of my relationship with God.

So what did I do. Thinking the right thoughts is only part of the battle. I can think all day but it really comes down to what am I going to do about it. I didn't let it stop with just thoughts this time. I took action. I found a little something online called Nerd Fitness. Being the gamer and nerd that I am, the whole concept of relating fitness to leveling up your life and turning life into a big video game really appealed to me. I took the step and signed up. I get daily emails full of useful information, encouragement, and quests. I have now completed several quests and I really like this whole system. I'm feeling hopeful about my health and fitness for the first time in a long time. I'm taking it one day at a time, one quest at a time. I actually did my first strength training workout yesterday. I'm really feeling it today. In my enthusiasm I overdid it. My muscles are so sore today that when I got to the bottom step of my stairs, I looked up and wondered how I was going to get to the top lol. Despite that, I'm not discouraged. I'm encouraged by my determination that caused me to overdo it. If I can push through a workout and accidentally do too much, it's not a stretch to believe that I can actually do this. I made a mistake, but now I'm better informed and therefore better prepared for next time.

Nerd Fitness, in the mission to turn life and especially fitness into a big video game, involves choosing your race and class, just like in an RPG. Okay, so race isn't something you can really choose. Based on the criteria, I am a Hobbit. Not surprised there. When you're only 4 ft 9in you come to expect it lol. But your class is entirely up to you and what you want to become. I chose assassin. Assassins are the type to look at the world as a giant playground. Think of Assassin's Creed. For a short time at the beginning of college I was skinny and I was climbing everything I came across. It was so much fun rediscovering how to climb trees, fences, and anything that I could pull myself up onto. When you weigh less that list of climbable things grows to an impressive length. I can't wait to get back to that.

Well, this post will be cut short due to my roommates insistence that I surrender the computer so we can watch Big Brother.

I really need to think of a cool thing to say at the end of my posts lol. Also, thank you to a certain red haired friend of mine. You're creative titles in your Let's Play videos has inspired me.