Monday night workout and post-PAX gain

Yesterday was my first day back from PAX. The day started auspiciously, with a weigh-in well lower than my previous low weight. However, I also knew that I was very dehydrated. I wasn't sure how being that dehydrated for three days was going to play out at the time, especially combined with flying and lack of sleep.

However, I got back into my groove. I drank my water and went to class. I'm not going to post the workout details tonight.. it was a standard Goalbusters class with a Warm-up, partner circuit, and the only real difference was that we closed out with Tabata wall squats, which is something new.

I woke up this morning and was up nearly 4 pounds! I was pretty impressed by that number. Now, I know where it came from, I am retaining water like crazy, I drank tons and barely peed at all. Combined with a short nights of sleep, plane rides, and the fact that I was drinking so little and walking so much, I am not *that* surprised. Water is the key here, drinking it, retaining it... I need to drink more and retain less and everything will work itself out.

Drink me.

But still, now I'm curious as to what my actual gains/losses were over the weekend. I guess it's enough of an anomaly that it doesn't really matter, I'm not going to PAX every weekend. But now I just need to drink  my water, do my cardio and strength training, and stick to my diet (which has been tough, of course... I ate more carbs and now I'm hungry again!). But as of now, worst case scenario is that I went to PAX and came home at an equilibrium point, which is pretty darn good. Not as good as being down a few pounds, but even so, I'll take it!

Back from PAX!

So, I really did mean to blog while I was at PAX. However, good intentions fell to the wayside once I was there. A couple of times I felt like I should blog but then I just didn't. And I'm glad I didn't because I was already running perilously low on sleep.

So, how did my PAX adventure go? Well, first off, I was not able to stay on plan as well as I'd hoped, but I did much better than I feared. I had my Medifast meals and my almonds with me for the convention, and I did dinner each night in as reasonable a way as possible, but I broke plan every day. I'll go over my breaches:

Thursday: I arrived in Boston and got checked in. Brandon and I didn't get hooked up together until around 8 pm and I met him, Damien, and Ken for dinner. We walked from the hotel and hit Whiskey Priest, an Irish Pub where I chose fried cod and potatoes. The cod was very lightly dusted in flour and fried, and potatoes are totally off the reservation, but I went with it anyway.

My badge and my Pinny Arcade Pins I acquired. I failed to get Leeroy Jenkins and for that, I am very, very sad.

Friday: Full day at PAX, and I had hoped to playtest Thornwatch that night, at 7 pm, but I was not only not on the playtest list, I wasn't even on the alternate list. But, if I wanted a shot, I'd need to be there. So I ended up having lemon pepper hot wings from the convention center food court. They were baked, not fried, but still... hot wings aren't on the menu either. I didn't get a chance to playtest Thornwatch, either, as I was about the 20th person in line for the 'alternates that didn't even get onto the alternates list'.

About to playtest Hearthstone on iPad, I watched some Heroes of the Storm

Saturday: Another full day at PAX, and the night of the Frontalot concert. Brandon got a group of us together to go get Japanese Hot Pot in Chinatown, so Ken, Brandon, Lena, Henny, Brad, Chris and I all piled into a van after we got poached from the cab line. We ended up at this amazing hot pot restaurant where I had shaved chicken breast slices, 6 types of mushrooms, tofu, cabbage, and udon noodles all cooked in spicy broth. If I had skipped the udon, this meal would have been completely on plan, but I ate them anyway. We had to zip back to the hotel so Brandon and Ken could get ready for the show.

Not a great picture, but you can see Vic-20 (Ken), MC Frontalot (Damien) and Bl4k Lotus (Brandon) here. Sturgis (Sturgis) was out of frame behind them.

Sunday: Partial day at PAX. I ended up in airports and/or airplanes for 11 hours. I found a place in Newark that let me get hot and sour soup and chicken teriyaki for dinner, and that seemed like a fair choice.

After this, I was fairly certain I'd thrown myself out of ketosis, because of all the carbs. I think that's fairly accurate considering that I'm pretty hungry today. However, by sticking to one reasonable meal a day, and no desserts, combined with the fact that I was walking 5+ miles a day, I came home to a pretty happy surprise... a nearly 4 pound loss from Thursday morning, and nearly 3 lbs down from my previous low.

Now, there's some more caveats this as well. I wasn't drinking anywhere near enough water. I mean nothing close. And, I was getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. So... today I'm a little logy and I'm drinking as much water as I can stomach. We'll see what this means for my weight over the next couple of days, and if I'll rehydrate and pop back up some, or if I'll rehyrdrate and lose more.

Either way, I'm happy to have made it through PAX without a gain!

FitBit Weekly Update, plus more PAX!

Just got my FitBit weekly update, and that's always good for a blog topic so here we go! Let's take a look at my numbers.

Well, first off, look at all those red 'down' arrows. With one exception, those all suck, don't they? Fewer total steps, less distance, less stairs less calories, less sleep... but! I also lost more, so that's a net positive.

I spent much of this week battling either atrocious allergies or the mildest cold ever. Either way, it negatively impacted me doing stuff. On the other hand, though, is that by not exercising as much I'm not holding on to as much water weight.

It will be interesting to see next week's numbers though... because I'll be walking a huge amount this weekend while I'm at PAX East!

This is my first PAX. I've been to DragonCon, GenCon, and Origins, but never a PAX. I expect there will be a ton of walking as I trawl the vendor halls and exhibits. I don't have a solid plan for what I plan to do there overall, I figure I'll take it as it comes. I only have a couple of things that are 'must see' events...

First, I want to get in on the Mike and Mike Show and hear Krahulik and Selinker talk about their games, Thornwatch and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I really would like to get into a Thornwatch playtest session as well.

Secondly, I want to go see MC Frontalot's concert. I've seen him once before in person, at KoLCon, and it was a great show.

Outside of that, though, I expect I'll wander, explore, catch as catch can what is happening at any given time, and get in some gaming with Brandon.

I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm not sure what the content of my blog posts will be while I'm gone. I'll probably try to talk about exercise and what I'm eating, but there's a fair chance this either becomes a 4-day PAX blog, or it'll get late-night blog posts that say 'exhausted, going to bed, blog later'.

Monday Night Workout, and working out at PAX

Last night was our second week of the new session of Goalbusters, and we had a pretty awesome workout.

Warm-up:

• 60 seconds Passing medicine balls in a circle
• 30 seconds Jumping Jacks
• 30 seconds ankle mobility
• 30 seconds split squats, left leg
• 30 seconds split squats, right leg
• 30 seconds wall push-ups
• 30 seconds mountain climbers

Partner warm up (repeat 3x)

• 30 squats
• Wall squat while partner does 30 squats

Circuit (45 seconds each station)

• In-and-out waves on the double heavy rope
• Mountain climbers on glides
• TRX Pushups
• Bosu wall squats
• TRX reverse lunges
• 35 lb kettlebell goblet squats
• Blue resistance band bicep curls
• In-and-out waves on the double heavy rope
• Freestyle on the heavy bag
• Blue resistance band triceps extensions
• Lunges with a 22lb body bar
• 35 lb kettlebell goblet squats
• 60 lbs standing rows on the cable machine

Mat work

• 45 second plank (repeat 3x)
• stretching

It was a really good workout! 

ZOMG PAX!

This weekend I'm going to PAX East, and I hope to be able to workout in the mornings at the hotel. I know I'll be doing a lot of walking, but I really want to keep my exercise regimen going as much as possible, and I know my lean and green meals will be iffy since I'll be reliant on convention food. Getting in a couple of good workouts makes a lot of sense. 

The hotel should have a workout room, and if nothing else I expect there will be an EFX, treadmill, and dumbbells. That will be enough to get in 30 minutes of cardio and a brief weight routine each morning. Now let's just make sure I actually have the drive and make that happen!

Prepping for PAX East

It's two weeks until I go to PAX East and it's time to plan out my attack so that I can stay on my Medifast plan as much as possible while in a convention center.

The first part is relatively easy, my Medifast meals. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have easy access to a microwave, so that is going to limit some of my choices. In addition there's no mini fridge, either, so that limits a few more choices.

So I plan to bring a selection of meals that don't require that type of prep. This means crunchy and chewy bars, shake powders, crunchy snacks, and that sort of thing.

So, we're looking at a standard day as being:

• 1 bag of cereal (without milk)
• 1 crunch bar
• 1 bag of pretzels
• 1 Bag of bites/puffs
• 1 chewy bar

For Thursday I'll get to have a couple meals prior to my flight, so I can get a normal shake and a Hearty Meal in, and I'll be home Sunday night at 9:45 (after a stupidly long layover) but I'll likely plan to eat a smoothie when I get home.

So that means I need to pack with me 17 meals for the 4 days:

• 3 bags of cereal
• 4 crunch bars
• 3 bags of pretzels
• 4 bags of bites/puffs
• 3 chewy bars 

That will cover all four days of meals and will work whether or not I'm in a terminal, on a plane, in a cab, in the hotel, or on the convention floor. That's actually better than my normal convention food schedule, and this stuff all fits nicely inside a Bag of Holding or my leather satchel, as well.

I don't have a picture of my Bag of Holding, apparently.

So that leaves Lean and Green. If I'm lucky, there will be a reasonably priced or even free breakfast where I can get egg whites, low fat cheese, mushrooms, and lean chicken in an omelet. While I'm eating that I'll wave at the flying pigs that sail past, as well. In reality, I'm likely going to be stuck with sub-standard convention food and will be lucky to find something that even resembles healthy.

Unfortunately, I'm not really sure what my other options will be until I'm there, I have no idea how easy it will be to move around and what will be within walking distance. On the plus side, I should burn tons of calories with all of the walking, so that will help, but in the end I'm just going to have to do my best. Maybe I'll end up eating a salad. That would be a first.