Nianne

What does the Oracle of Doom say about this list of goals? Indulging a little without overindulging is harder than not indulging at all. and That’s a complicated morning routine, liable to derail at multiple junctures. (Habits to cope with these difficulties: COMING SOON!)

Quest: Take care of my arthritic knee, making present decisions to benefit my long term freedom of movement. Goal 1: Lose 30 lbs between May 28th and December 23rd, 2017, five pounds per challenge. Method: Counting calories. I lost seven pounds last challenge by maintaining a running average of 1800-1900 calories a day, which is not terribly restrictive. Then I went on an extended camping trip with my family last week and participated in the full array of social and recreational eating, but I should still be able to get myself down to a total of ten pounds lost by the end of this, the second challenge, without any unhealthy restrictions. For my previous challenge, I developed a whole series of habits using the “cue, routine, reward” paradigm to help me get through moments when I anticipated it would be very difficult to stick to my goals, but I found it really wasn’t nearly as hard as I’d been thinking. The habits that supported my goal the most were: Eating good quality food and frequently reminding myself of the quality of the food I was eating and the fact that this really was *all* the food I needed and wanted until my next scheduled meal. Reducing exposure to temptations and becoming patient with unsatisfied appetites. I read a humorous remark to the effect that having a prominent appetite is like having an overbearing mother: you don’t have to do everything they say, and you don’t have to get upset about it. You can tolerate the onslaught patiently, with compassion, without judgment, and without changing your plans. My biggest challenge in this regard for the next few weeks is going to be that my fiancé will be coming home after spending almost a month living in California working as the lead stunt choreographer for a small movie. I know there’s going to be dinners out and picnics and wine and... I’m not going to be able to say no to all of it. I wouldn’t want to; he’s my lovie. My solution to this situation is mainly to leave some wiggle room in my calorie budget for spontaneity, eating a bit lighter than my goal outside of such bonding moments and, ensuring that I’m getting nothing but healthy, nutrient-dense foods for my regular meals. My saving grace here is that he’s as interested in being healthy as I am, and a romantic presentation of vegetables and lean meats is something I know he’ll welcome. Goal 2: Exercise (physical therapy and more) before breakfast. I’m going to be starting a new job on July 10th, and it’s on a regular afternoon shift. My plan is to get up around 8 or 9 am, have a gradual wake-up followed by a good workout, and then a hearty breakfast, and then walk to work. (Yay, I’m close enough I get to walk to work! I love it when that happens!!) This involves not eating the second I role out of bed. Also not eating in the bathtub while I wake up. It also involves actually getting started on the exercise. Once my morning workout is rolling, I typically enjoy it a lot and breeze right through it, but sometimes there can be an energistic hurtle to getting started. A further problem here is making sure I get out the door on time. I can be pretty bad at this, especially if my routine is anything other than: wake up, do your duties, and GTFO. A little self-indulgence and my mental clock turns itself right off. Goal 3: Sleep, meditate, relax. Get to bed on time to get a good night’s sleep every night. Meditate for at least two, and preferably ten, minutes a day. Snuggle up with my lovie. Watch movies, read, unwind together.

Last challenge I was focused on Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit," identifying critical "inflection points," circumstances where I was likely to face a significant moment of weakness, and crafting small habits using the cue-routine-reward formula to get myself through those circumstances. I found some ways in which this was really helpful. Below I'll post a standard run-down of my goals for this challenge, and after that I'll analyze moments where I'm most likely to fail at these goals and craft myself habits for how to get though those moments successfully.

The biggest thing I'm looking forward to about the new job is really just that it's going to be a change-of-pace. My UPS job was only part-time but was so exhausting that you couldn't really do much else with your day, whereas this job is full-time and easier. It also pays better. It'll take me awhile to figure out what all the growth opportunities are from this job in terms of promotions and whatnot. They also have tuition reimbursement, but only for degrees appropriate to careers with the company, I think.

A lot of crazy stuff has happened in this week. I got a new job offer, and quit my old one. I used to work as a loader for UPS which had me exercising every day, but sometimes it was just too much strain on my upper body, with not enough time to rest and recover in order to optimally build muscle from it. My unused vacation time payout will be enough to let me have the next few weeks off until my new job starts. So now I get to spend some time recovering from the overwork and installing an adequate workout routine into my life for the future. At the same time, my fiance is leaving for three weeks because he got an opportunity to work in the movie business, which is great. But there's been some parties and things and I know that I let myself have too much to eat and drink in the past week. Today is his last day here in town. So my goal for just the next week is to eat light and healthy and try to get my overall calorie average to about where I want it. Ultimately, my average metric for this six month challenge is to lose 5 lbs a month, which should still be quite doable.

I'm doing great so far. Running an average of 1800 calories a day for the first two weeks, and I'm down six pounds. That's 20% of my goal with no gimmicks and no unhealthy behaviors.

Hey, good to meet you. I am also back after an extended absence. Sounds like you overcame quite a serious real-life challenge there. Great job! I'll look forward to seeing a Nerdfitness challenge from you next time.

Wow, that's a heck of a challenge. I'm not even sure what to say except, wishing you the best and keep us posted.

I feel you with the whole, stress of new decisions and new directions and everything. I'm in the middle of a big career transition myself, which has been in play for basically this whole year. It's way stressful. Sorry if this is out in left field, but I listened to an audiobook this year that you may find really useful for yourself. If you can get a copy of the audio book and maybe listen to it while you do your movement/yoga. It's, The Now Habit, about overcoming procrastination, and a lot of it is about how to understand the positive utility of things like worry and stress, and how to progress through negative thoughts and recriminations so you get to the end of that thought process and can move on, as opposed to getting stuck in a repetitive loop of thoughts that never seem to resolve in a positive way forward. I wish I could get like half the people I know to read this book. It really helps you understand your own downside, and how to incorporate that into an overall healthy and effective mindset so you can be the version of yourself that you want to be.

I've never heard the instruction, "Don't eat like an asshole." I'm going to look for an opportunity that use that on myself. I'm sure one will come up.

Wow, I love the idea of focusing on the meditative tones you can get out of your instrument early in the morning. That's just, gorgeous. Sounds like you're doing an overall great job with the exercise. Keep it up!

I love your main quest, to take inventory and see just where you are right now. Reconnecting with your weights sounds wonderful, especially as part of a routine you can carve into you your busy life. I'm sure you won't have a ton of opportunities to check in here all the time, but we're rooting for you, definitely. Go get 'em!

How's it going so far? Have you been consistent in your daily rhythms? How about the diet and exercise? I also want to hear more about the writing. You're writing short stories in preparation for a novel?

Yes, indeed! We must know!

Absolutely. Once you develop a muscle memory habit of squatting correctly to pick heavy things up off the ground, that will come back to you at unexpected little moments and save you so much strain on your back. That's a wonderful asset, even if it doesn't really seem like much.

My big challenge for today is in attempting to ignore the fact that there's still plenty of oreos and scotch in the kitchen. Damn weekend temptations.

Tuesday - Friday review Had great success Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Friday night my fiance came home with scotch and oreos. I had a little of each, but I managed to keep it in moderation. That brings me up to a daily average for this challenge of just under 1800 calories a day. That's a little more than my goal, but it's definitely better than my norm when I'm not keeping an eye on it. I only step on the scale about once a week, so tomorrow morning I'll check and see if I've made any progress for the week. I also had a physical therapy appointment earlier today. They said it looks like I've been doing great with my exercises and they want me to establish a more regular walking routine. So I'll focus on being a bit more consistent about that.

How's it going so far? Still working on narrowing down and solidify in your goals? I totally feel you about the rewards. My budget is so tight that if I can afford to buy myself something cool, I'm not going to resist buying it based on succeeding or failing at some other goal. If I can afford something, it's past due and I'm just going to buy it. Anyways, the thing about rewards that you want to keep in mind is the whole intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. You really don't want to set up external rewards and punishments for activities that you find inherently enjoyable or would like to find inherently enjoyable, because your mind gets so distracted by these external motivators that you forget to enjoy the process. That totally happens. So the best motivators for activities that you want to enjoy are just intangible rewards like a sense of accomplishment. Pat yourself on the back. Crow about it on Facebook. That sort of thing. If you are going to buy rewards for enjoyable activities, they should be things that directly reinforce your fundamental enjoyment of the activity, like nifty new equipment, but as you mentioned, that takes an amount of disposable income. The best thing for you and I to do is really just focus on intangible rewards. Realize that congratulating yourself on a growing mastery is actually more of a boost than you might give it credit for, and that really is the most productive form of motivation for anything that you want to enjoy, and not just muscle through for the sake of the bribe.

How's it going? Did you get a bit of a workout in yesterday?

Day Two, Monday Only faced two challenges today, both the urge to snack on a little extra in the evening. Not too tough. I was on my own most of the day, and I've engineered a lot of the temptations out of my life already -- for example, I left all my purchasing power at home when I went out walking near downtown, so I couldn't stray into a donut shop or a pub (both of which would have been neat). A lot of the temptations I'll face will come from other people, so I'm looking forward (?) to that. I did walk a couple miles plus did all my stretching and physical therapy. A little tired the next morning, but not bad. It was fun.

Got in a nice long walk along the river.

Nice! I grew up in Castle Rock, which is the freeway exit for Mt. St. Helens.

Day One, Sunday Faced three challenges: two offers of treats and one urge to snack in the evening. Made it through all of them successfully, but I know it'll get harder as time goes on. Got in a full round of warm-ups and physical therapy exercises followed by a walk along the Willamette River in downtown Portland, OR. Overall, a great first day.