Shello

Day 4 (Thursday) Work. Class. Plans to go to the gym but didn't want to. Went anyway. Felt better. Weird. It was actually a great workout. I felt really strong for all the exercises and got some great movement in my back stretches afterwards. I kept the pace moving too so my heartrate stayed high-ish throughout the workout. Dinner was the last of the korean beef bowls. Oreo truffles again. I had a large one after lunch but then had two extra small ones because they were so good. I did skip my banana but also a planned frozen yogurt bar after dinner. 160 calories left over and all daily goals met.

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself. It was a lovely time! They most certainly did.

It's the important things in life.

I'm going to try the 1 mile walk test and see how it compares to my estimate. I couldn't do a 15 min run test if my life depended on it.

Happy to hear that the change at work resulted in the rainbows you were hoping for!

Day 3 (Wednesday) Those treats I brought in to work wreaked havoc on my plan for the day. I hadn't really considered not being able to resist eating them. I tried to hold off until after I broke my fast at lunch but I caved early so I broke my fast at 13 hours with a small truffle. Then I had a bigger one after lunch (instead of the chocolate I usually have) but then I grabbed another small one shortly after. I wasn't as hungry at lunch so I skipped the apple. Then I also swapped out my afternoon banana so I had more room for all the truffles I ate. There's nothing like swapping out healthy snacks for unhealthy snacks. I had a session with my trainer scheduled but he canceled and I was very pleased. I would much rather be home spending my time with DDG for Valentine's Day. We spent most of the evening snuggling in bed until we got hungry. Instead of leftovers we threw in a frozen pizza and shared that. I ended the day with only 1 portion of freggy. I met all other goals except for fasting. Kegels done and daily move satisfied.

Stairs are evil.

I feel you on being stuck, and having an injury on top of it. Be careful with your tendonitis. Give it the rest it needs!

Thanks. It was definitely fun to decorate them. A double batch was definitely a mistake. I was getting tired of dipping them after awhile. I ate more than I should have. But they were so good. There are more today but I've already logged for today and allowed space for 1 big one or 2 small ones.

Happy days are happy days!

Oooh, performance art!

I'll have to check out that thread. your comment sent me down the rabbit hole researching VO2 max. I'm interested now to do a 1 mile walk test to see what mine is. Based on previous data I'd guess mine is only around 20, which is 10th-25th percentile for women in my age group. 😲

The social stuff is such a tough thing. Back in 2014/15 when I was kicking ass with weight loss I was also passing on social events because I just wasn't ready to tackle food choices in social settings. But now I don't want my fitness endeavors to get in the way of living a social life. But even making 'good' choices in these settings just doesn't quite meet the goal. And if they happen often the effects accumulate. No food truck burger? I really enjoy your BJJ details. I don't really understand any of the detail but I'm fascinated by your awareness of the details and that you can remember them later. It all seems like high speed grappling and fast moving appendages and it's hard to see the intentionality to it. I think it's fascinating that with all those movements happening so quickly that each move is deliberate and in response to something else.

Interesting what you brought up about comparison. I have done it all of my adult life but it's really a mixed bag of negatives and positives. I've used comparison to gauge how I 'rank' in a room, explicitly ranking myself by size, but implicitly also in value based on that size. So not healthy. Then I used comparison to 'see' myself more clearly. My own image of myself is so different than what others see so I try to find people I physically identify with to understand what I look like to others. Sometimes it was negative, but other times it was a positive. I'm more accepting of other's body shapes so as I would find women with similar body types and have positive and accepting thoughts then I could extend that to myself. Over the years I think it's evolved and I've just come to realize that my body type is similar to SO MANY other women. I wasn't a monster; I wasn't unusual; I wasn't an anomaly. This is just what happens to a women's body that is overweight and ages. I've gained a sense of normalcy from it even as I continue to work to change my body. What I can't get rid of is the sense of sadness (and maybe shame) that as I near the end of my 40's, that I've missed the boat to have the body I always wanted. I can certainly still attain a healthy late 40's (or 50's by the time I get there) but I'm never going to have one of those tight bodies.

Day 2 (Tuesday) All goals met. 264 calories left over. Kegels remembered. Daily move done. I spent most of the evening making Valentine's treats for my teams. They're basically Oreo truffles cut into hearts and dipped and decorated. Pic below. It ended up being a ton of work. I decided to make a double batch because I thought I'd make more larger ones and wanted enough to decorate with variety, but they seemed quite large so I made more of the small ones. That took the entire evening except for some youtube breaks each time I had to put the truffles back in the freezer to cool off. Dinner was more korean ground beef, egg, and salad.

+ Such a tiny room, such a big job.

Galentine's dessert for Dinner is genius.

Day 1 (Monday) All goals met, even kegels. 354 calories remaining! No wild cards or fitnessing but I did get the bathroom painted. Boy was it a chore and totally counts towards my move goal. I've crossed it off the list but I still have to paint the trim and door. That is another day's problem. Dinner was reheated Korean ground beef over rice topped with an egg. Salads on the side. Yum Yum Yum

Oy, the knees were in bad shape yesterday. I could only go down stairs if I hitched and pivoted from the left leg. DDG reminded me went for a walk the day before. Maybe that's a culprit but I haven't noticed a connection before.

It certainly accentuates how good that chicken looks.

I saw recently that one of the movie theaters in town was playing the extended version of all 3 movies back to back! It started at 10am, breaks were during the credits. That is the marathon of all movie marathons.

I think it predates the journey app. I think I found it on the blog when I was doing googling different workouts. I think it's how I found NF. That and the Angry Birds workout. I knew I had found something special.

Thanks! I was literally trying to figure out how to manage everything and it hit me right as I was started writing out my challenge.

Week 0 Update Friday - Not much eventful. I had anticipated a walk over the weekend so I convinced DDG that we should go out for an extra walk. We made it a short walk so we could get home to the couch faster. And it was cold. We walked at the lake we used to walk at. They had emptied the lake for some construction but they are done now and letting it fill back up so we went to check it out. Counted that as my wild card bonus workout. For the wild card goal I also did some shoulder stretches and did a little research on some additional stretches to do. Dinner was totino's pizza. Met all daily goals and finished with 220 calories left over. Saturday - I slept in and then lounged in bed reading, Duolingoing, and scrolling for a selfish amount of time. Lunch was empanadas from the neighbor and DDG and I split an apple to go with it. I had planned to paint the bathroom later in the day so we prepped what we could before heading out for errands. We were to pick the exterior house colors for our new house. That proved to be much more difficult than expected. By the time it started to get dark and we packed it in for the day, we still needed to stop for some groceries. We were both famished so we ate at the deli at the grocery store. DDG had fried chicken, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes and gravy. I thought I'd be healthier and I ordered from the chinese food counter. Sesame chicken and orange chicken with steamed rice, and an egg roll. I rarely eat all the rice when I order chinese food out. It's so much. I just eat whatever rice sticks to the chicken but I was still pretty full afterwards. We got home too late to paint so we just crashed for the night. Since most of the day was spent in the car driving around looking at house colors and I didn't get the painting done, I decided to do a wild card activity and count it for my move goal. I did 30 seconds of high knees. Turns out my calorie burn just barely made the cutoff (2402 and the goal is 2400). I'm betting the 30 second knees put me over. 😜 Hit most goals. I forgot kegels again and went over calories by 77. Sunday - The neighbor made empanadas again because it was superbowl Sunday. And since we always round up when we pay and DDG refuses to accept any change, the neighbor added 2 extra empanadas in our order. 😬😄 We ate all of them and had grapes on the side. Plan B was to paint again after heading back out to finalize house colors but alas, making our final selection took another couple hours! We did get our walk in and got back home in time for DDG to watch the Superbowl. I did not get the painting done. I knew DDG would feel guilty watching the game and probably wouldn't so I skipped it. And I didn't want to work that hard on a Sunday evening. I watched trash TV and then made korean ground beef bowls for dinner, mine with a fried egg on top. I finished the day with over 200 calories leftover and hit most of my goals. Forgot kegels again. 😑 For my wildcard activity I started the day with some glute bridges but then in the evening I was filming my pup work on one of those puzzle games with treats and I sat in primal squat to get a better angle. I made it just under a minute before I instinctively stood up. Had I thought about it I would have pushed through for a whole minute. Since I got 2 wild cards in, I logged the extra one for Wednesday since I didn't have one that day. I started this challenge Wednesday. Since then I lost 2 pounds, but my overall loss for the entire week was only 1 pound since I had gained already by Wednesday. I seem to be headed back in the right direction. Great week for will cards, exceeding the goal. Nothing crossed off the list for for the extra home improvement goals but the bathroom is literally sitting there ready to be painted.

Always glad to have you around! Thank you!