balesom

Hi everyone! I realize I haven't updated in quite a while, but I have been busy with life and actually hadn't even logged in since mid-October.

Good news: I made it a year! I'm honestly shocked, I remember messaging ShadowLion for advice because I wanted to attempt 42 days but didn't think I had ever even done 28 days. I'm honestly shocked as to how far I could go!

Bad news: I'm currently on day three. I developed a rather nasty stomach flu, and I tried drinking 7up in order to settle my stomach. It didn't help. After I regained coherence (because alternating between vomiting and sleeping for hours can make one a bit loopy), I found that the 20oz bottle I thought I drank most of, was missing about 1oz. It didn't even taste good, and I really didn't want it. I was just hoping it would help.

So... here's to another year in the making!

Checking in, completing day 85!

Randomly checking in at ~54 days.

So when I did this, I first asked ShadowLion which level I should go for. I wanted to go for Beast Mode, but I didn't think I've ever gone 28 days without a soda. So I went for Advanced to try and see how I did, crushed it, went past Beast Mode almost two weeks ago, and now I'm on my way to work on SuperBeast!

I will admit, I took a sip of a friend's drink that had some sort of cola with alcohol in it, but all the alcohol was sitting at the top, I got nothing but whiskey. And now a can of Dr Pepper sits in my refrigerator, top shelf, eye level. I was intimidated by it around Thanksgiving time, now it's there to remind me that I don't need it. Also, with my breaks in drinking soda that I've done before, I think back to when I'd have the first one, and how mediocre it was because my taste buds weren't used to it anymore.

I'm not making many gains in my weight loss journey currently (but that's another story), but this is something I've been able to stick to, and I'm proud of it. And if I can do it, I'm sure you all can.

Whether it's day 1 or day 365 when you're reading this, do work, keep it up, and stay awesome. You got this.

Week 6 Wrap-up

30 minutes of exercise: none

Vegetables: two days completed

Unhealthy eating: four days completed

Final Wrap-up

30 minutes of exercise: 4/18 completed

Vegetables: 14/24 completed

Unhealthy eating: 19/36 completed

Yeah, I didn't do it. I was discouraged after a while of sickness, but I think I'm going to give it another go, same challenges. I think. Tune in next time, and we'll see!

Week 5 Wrap-up (only three days late!)

30 minutes of exercise: one day completed

Vegetables: three days completed

Unhealthy eating cut out: five days

So... I'm sick again. Getting over it, but breathing is still hell. This is unusual, being sick twice in a month. However, I was working with a kindergarten class for a couple days, so I probably should've seen it coming.

I've been wanting to do my half hour this week, but walking around the house still proves to be tiring. Hopefully by the weekend, I'll be back to my normal self, and back to working out.

Day 42 without soda. Beast mode activate!

And the Dr Pepper is still sitting in my refrigerator. But now, I'm mocking it!

Today: knocked out my 30 minutes of exercise at the mall (losing a friend and not realizing there's two Sunglass Hut kiosks in the mall can make for a good walk). Had a chicken caesar wrap instead of my usual fatty meal, and I haven't really had time to do any snacking. I'd consider it a good day.

Oh, and I forgot the weight update from last week: I went up 1.5 pounds. Thought it was only a half pound, until I checked my weight tracker. That's not acceptable, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I'll just have to try harder, and make smarter choices.

Week 4 Wrap-up

30 minutes of exercise: none completed.

Vegetables: one meal.

Unhealthy eating: one day.

I'm pretty much discouraged. The next week is finals week, I already had a final in my sign language class, and it's just all-around stress lately. I considered dropping out of the challenge, but I'm going to try to hang in.

Day 37 (I think): There's a Dr Pepper staring at me from the refrigerator. I'm still going without soda, but it's hard. Especially when Crown and Coke rolls off the tongue so nicely. But I'm going without. I will go Beast Mode.

Hi everyone!

I still exist! That cold was a particularly nasty bugger, and there's a couple days I completely slept through and it threw off pretty much everything in my life. Yesterday was the first day I could actually breathe normally, so I decided today would be the day to resume as normal.

I know I didn't do week 2's wrapup, so I'm going to combine it with week 3 here, and then just edit the post after today to reflect any changes. Bear with me, it ain't going to be pretty.

Week 2 and 3 Wrap-Up

30 minutes of exercise: one workout completed.

Vegetables: five meals completed.

Cutting out the unhealthy eating: five days completed.

Challenge Midpoint Wrap-Up

30 minutes of exercise: 3/9 completed.

Vegetables: 8/12 completed.

Cutting out the unhealthy eating: 9/18 completed.

Yeah, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. But I've had some odd weight fluctuation since I started, as well. I weighed today (because I forgot my normal Friday weigh-in, same weighing conditioned applied), and I've lost a pound since beginning. The first two weeks, I gained a pound each day, and then lost three today. My body confuses me sometimes. I know I tried to eat better during Thanksgiving (and admittedly ate fewer carbs than a normal day), but the rest hasn't been all that good, I think. Oh well. More to improve on.

Additionally, I've completed the 28 day No Soda PVP Challenge, and I'm moving onto the 42 day! The cravings are admittedly still there, but I'm having an easier time finding something better to drink for flavor when I have the craving, or my taste buds occasionally accept water as an acceptable substitute now!

Three weeks done, illness out of the day, time for me to finish strong in the last three weeks!

Edit: I wrote this fully thinking it was Sunday afternoon, instead of Saturday afternoon. So I had to adjust the numbers slightly to reflect what I did on Sunday.

So... unless I did my math wrong, I think today is day 28 without soda!

I thought to check after I saw my parents bring home two 36 packs of soda for Thanksgiving. I really hope those are for my brother and his girlfriend.

Bad news. I'm sick. I think it's a cold. This usually happens once or twice a year, once during the holidays and once after the new year. I'm glad it's getting out of the way now, but not that I'm around my mother who just had eye surgery.
 

So, I don't know what this is going to mean for my challenge.

Keeping in mind that moving makes you warmer helps me sometimes when it is cold. Doing bounces/jumping jacks before whatever workout I have planned helps with that as well. 

 

Also, it's definitely possible to get nice creamy soups without cream, especially if you've got a nice starchy base like potato or squash. Using an immersion blender/regular blender to smooth it down helps a ton for this. Here are some other tips on creamy soups without cream that I reference every so often -- http://www.finecooking.com/articles/how-to/creamy-vegetable-soups.aspx 

 

Nice week 1!

The vegetable soup maker looks amazing on that site. I think I may have to try it a time or three. And the classic tomato soup. And possibly everything. Thank you!

Checking in for the first week. It's been a weird one. Ended up gaining a pound this week, but I have a feeling that will come off in the next week. Having a holiday week threw me off my schedule slightly, and I think I may have used that free time to eat a bit more than usual.

Week 1 Wrap-up

30 minutes of exercise: two workouts completed.

Vegetables: three meals completed.

Cutting out the unhealthy eating: four days completed.

Changes that need to be made:

With workouts, I need to find the energy to work out in the colder weather. I know it won't be cold for long, but that beginning is really cold. Oh, the complaints of a Californian in a place where it doesn't snow.

Eating vegetables, I've done pretty good on. Made a potato soup with kale, but it did use a bit more dairy than I cared for. May need to modify that recipe for future use. Also, time to see what's starting to come up fresh these days.

As for the unhealthy eating, chicken wings have been finding their way into the house lately. I haven't been bringing them, but they're here. And they're tempting, so that's going to stop.

Did you watch it again?

Sadly, no. I can't seem to find it. Which makes me start to wonder if I ever brought it back home when I moved from college. At this point, it would be easier to go get another copy.

Amdhiel, I tried the wall pushups today. I noticed my core much more engaged this time around, so I think I might stick with this for a while. Thank you for the advice!

Yesterday was Veteran's Day, and I was out on the town, eating semi-horribly. Well, I made somewhat better choices while eating, but I did have spinach artichoke dip at Applebees, and that did it for me yesterday.

Today was pretty good, in contrast.

Breakfast: Mile walk and BBWW

Lunch: Turkey burger with fruit

Snack: One serving of Wheat Thins

Dinner: Chicken and vegetable stir fry

Today's BBWW tried to crush me, in vengeance for what I did on Monday. It didn't succeed. However, while reviewing the video to make sure I was doing everything correctly, I found that I may have miscounted my lunges on Monday and did 40 instead of 20. This definitely explains the soreness I've been having. So today I dropped down to 20 lunges and modified my pushups. The next round, I may increase my weights for the dumbbell row, it doesn't feel like it's doing much for me. I'm only using 8 pounds, but I think I have 10 pounds laying around somewhere. We shall see how that goes.

So day one happened. It wasn't bad, although I may have forgotten that the challenge started today, until about noon. But that didn't stop me from rocking the day.

Breakfast: Cheerios with 2% milk.

Lunch: Chicken soft taco and bean burrito, fresco style, from Taco Bell (was on the road delivering a broken motorcycle all afternoon).

Dinner: Bowl of chicken and dumplings, ~1.75 cups green beans.

In the evening, I tried BBWW. I love it! Granted, I didn't have the energy to go past one circuit, but I'm going to keep at it. After the circuit, I went on a 1.2 mile walk to cool down.

Today's circuit (for future reference):

• 20 bodyweight squats
• 10 pushups (only first four done before I had to drop to my knees)
• 20 walking lunges
• 10 dumbbell rows, each side
• 15 second plank
• 30 jumping jacks

Well, that's been my day. Hope everyone else had a great one!

The only downside of the wraps I've been getting hummus in, is that the hummus overpowers everything. Which I don't mind, but when I can't taste a pepper or chicken in it for the hummus, I get a bit worried, and that's turned me off of them slightly. But I didn't know of their protein content before. I may have to check that out.

I'm always being facetious. Or sarcastic. I haven't seen Donnie Darko in so long, I think it's time for me to dig it out and watch again.

Thank you! You know, mentioning all those vegetables got me a bit hungry. I've been spending my day planning meals involving vegetables because they all sound so good.

Welcome! Sounds like you got some great plans to get where you want to be!

Don't worry about the reason for your motivation, any motivation is good. I was having trouble walking due to pain from my size, but the thing that started motivating me was opening a jar of jalapeno stuffed olives proved to be a challenge.

Also, in that picture from Comic Con... why is he wearing that stupid bunny suit?

I'm officially at 8 days (I think)! I did have a Monster Rehab on Tuesday, but it was just tea and lemonade. I don't really miss the soda, either. Hopefully, I can say that same thing in a couple weeks!

...and I'm all outta gum.

Intro:

First off, hi! I'm here to start my second challenge, which I hope will be much more productive than my first. In the first, I focused mainly on flexibility and cardio. I realized that the way I had set things up were ultimately discouraging, and life events didn't help any. So now I'm back to try again, with a new outlook on life.

Main Quest:

Decrease weight to 260 pounds (first major weight goal), while increasing overall fitness levels.

Quest 1: Don't just do something, stand there! (str/dex/sta)

In the last challenge, I pigeonholed myself into yoga, bicycling, or walking. This time, I'm not making that mistake. 30 minutes of exercise (doctor's orders), three or more times a week. I'm hoping to make it more than thrice a week, because I would like to start incorporating BBWW into my routine.

A - 18+ days completed

B - 16 days completed

C - 14 days completed

Quest 2: Destroy the local vegetation for fun and profit! (con)

Vegetables. The bane of my existence for some reason. It turns out that my diet is mainly protein/fruit/starch, which isn't always that good. The only veggies I was actually getting was hummus, olives, and onions. That being said, I need to incorporate vegetables in my dining at least four times a week.

A - 24+ days incorporated

B - 21 days incorporated

C - 18 days incorporated

Quest 3: I want candy! (con/wis)

So I've been trying to cut out junk food from my life as much as I can, and ended up picking my soda habit again in the process. Took the No Soda PVP Challenge (six days clean as of this post!) and Halloween candy appeared at the house. Lots of it. LOTS. So I'm trying to cut out the candy and other unhealthy snacking from my life. But I'm unsure if I can actually go cold turkey. We shall see.

A - 36+ days clean

B - 30 days clean

C - 24 days clean

Motivation: I've never been small, but I've definitely been smaller than I am now (as an adult, 226lbs is my low limit) and way more active. My doctor would love for my triglyceride levels to lower, and my cholesterol levels to change. I would love to get back into swing dancing without feeling like I'm incapable of completing an entire dance, and if hell completely freezes over, I'd like to try my hand (and the rest of my body) at parkour. But that's further down the road.

Measurements:

Weight: 277 pounds

Neck: 18.5"

Chest: 52.5"

Waist: 51.625"

Biceps L: 15.25" R: 15"

Thighs L: 26.25" R: 26"

Before Pictures: Possibly also coming Friday.

I know I'm starting late, but... that's it. I'm starting. I'm going to attempt 28 days and go from there.

Dr Pepper and I have had a long love/hate relationship. My actual doctor is concerned about my triglycerides, and I'm starting to realize I take in too many carbs. At the same time, I'm starting to realize Dr Pepper may not be an actual doctor, so I think it's time for me to cut it out of my life. I'm already one day clean, I had a Coke while watching the World Series last night. I kinda regretted it right as I finished the bottle, and decided that was enough. So I'm here now. Hi!

Week 6 has ended! Needless to say, I did not live up to my own expectations.

Yoga (10/22) - F

Biking (7.5/18) - F

Walking (8/12) - C

Measurements are negligible, so I'm not adding those here. Weight loss of 1.5lbs after six weeks. I think I'm going to take beginning/after pictures next time. And didn't I say something about adding a profile picture like six weeks ago?

Wrap up: I did not pass anything but walking, and only barely there. I think I may have put too much on myself to begin with, and falling behind was only discouraging.

Insight: I need to rework my plans for this, and I'm going to invoke the help of my doctor and health educator, so I can be healthy and safe at the same time. I think one of my quests in the next challenge will involve my food choices, rather than straight exercise on everything. But I am definitely up for the next challenge!

...so now what do I do?