peelout

I noticed a wt loss for this week despite daily surplus on calories. What do you think explains that (bad data on cal intake or bad on expenditure? Great progress at over 2lbs/wk. What is your goal wt?

Feb 6 Wt 180.8 Was my day a success? Yes. New low again. 180.8. The 170's are in sight. Great cardio/core w/o w/ stretching afterwards (always end my w/o's w/ stretching). No McD's. Worked on SolidWorks this morning. Workout - Cardio/core + stretching Diet Breakfast - Protein shake Lunch - Wrap (spinach wrap w/ chicken, bacon, romaine, spinach, tomato, and a touch of dressing) Dinner - Salad + pork chop Snacks - 1 pear, maybe a piece of bacon later 1 soda Solidworks - 1/2 hr on module ToDo: 1) HSA record keeping

lol. Have we about exhausted all the M-word possibilities?

Feb 5 Wt 181.0 Was my day a success? Yes. Day started with a new low of 181.0. Since I haven't hit below 182.0 this year, and I ate very lite yesterday, I expect a small bounce tomorrow morning. But as long as new low's keep coming, I know I'm doing the right things. Yesterday was cardio/core, so today was a low intensity strength w/o. Eating was outstanding. No McD's. Workout - Chest focus Diet Breakfast - Protein shake Lunch - Wrap (spinach wrap w/ chicken, bacon, romaine, spinach, tomato, and a touch of dressing) Dinner - Pork chop sandwich (w/ romaine, spinach, tomato), grapes Snacks - 1 pear, maybe a piece of bacon 1 soda Solidworks - 1/2 hr on module ToDo: 1) HSA record keeping

Last month's focus was on daily exercise w/ a goal of losing 5lbs. Results: Exercised daily from Jan 1 - Feb 4. Wt dropped from 191.6 to 182.8 (probably about 7lbs of true wt loss) An unintended result of starting the daily exercise habit was eating a daily salad. So I'm keeping focus on that as well. This challenge: Habits - I'm not ready to start any new habits. I want to further embed the ones I already have created. So this months keystone habit (KH) focus will simply be to keep the following: KH1) No M (That is a private one, and no, it's not meth) - 0 occurences since Nov 1, 2017 KH2) Daily exercise (Some form of exercise daily, cannot include home projects, Placeholder w/o acceptable as needed) - Kept since Jan 1, 2018. KH3) Salad minimum of 5 days/wk (I count wraps and BLT's as a salad since I pile on the romaine, spinach, and tomato) - Kept since Jan 1, 2018 Exercise - Cardio/core focus. I alternate each day w/ either strength training or cardio/core focus. Since I can't do each at high intensity and exercise every day, my main focus this month is cardio/core. I'll be doing less exercises on strength days. No goal relative to cardio/core. I routines of different intensitys for all my workouts and I'll be doing the higher intensity cardio/core w/o's. Goal 1 - Lose 5lbs. My "ideal" wt is 175-178. I feel my best around this wt and I find 5lbs of loss per month to be a reasonable expectation. Goal 2 - Complete 4 Solid Works training modules. This is job related. Each module is a little over 1hr long, but there is practice required between modules. Also, its not a goal or habit requirement, but I thought I'd maintain a "To Do" list just to keep myself motivated to get things done I keep putting off. To Do: 1) Log HSA expenditures for 2017 so I can write them off on this years taxes.

Hey, I have a friend in Austin named Linda. Do you know her? lol

WTH? No post since Tuesday? Machete is a name you have to live up to. If not, then pick a name like peelout so no one knows what the heck it even means. That's me being supportive.

Baaaad doggy (swats nose w/ rolled up paper). Bad. Now you go get that cardio. That's me being sympathetic.

Kind of like the buzz I get everytime I see the scale drop to a new low, even if it's only a 0.2lb loss. It says "Good doggy" and I feel good. If it doesn't drop, it says "bad doggy" and I know I have to make a change in my routine. Plus it's a feedback loop. How do I know if I'm progressing w/o feedback. Whether its a scale, belt, spreadsheet, whatever, our brain reacts to feedback.

I saw on your video above it said "Hyde Park Gym". Chicago area Hyde Park? I'm from down state near Peoria.

Great way to end the challenge - Succesfully! I was reading several posts up about OCR. I just started following the OCR thread. Not really interested in doing it because I've never had the inclination to run, and it seems to jar my spine even on short sprints now. But I do like following unique sports and if you are into running, that one looks like it would be a lot of fun.

End of challenge summary: 2/4 Daily Exercise Habit - My main focus was to restart the habit of daily exercise, which I did. Continuous daily exercise from Jan 1 to today. Since I had already developed that habit once (first 4 months of last year), restarting it was less difficult than the first time. Habits can be created and then stopped. But just like bad habits (smoking, M, etc), restarting starting something that was once a habit is less difficult than starting from scratch. Once the brain maps a key-routine-reward process, it may not use it, but it never forgets it. It make take effort to clear the overgrowth in front of the entrance, so to speak, but once a little effort has been put forth, the brain will quickly become re-accustomed to following the routine to get whatever reward it sees at the end. What was really interesting was that the daily eating of salads started up almost automatically. I developed that habit early last year as well. At the start of this habit, even though my focus was only to restart the exercise habit, my brain had made eating daily salads a part of the same process as eating daily salads. I still keep my gym bag on my passenger seat of my car, that is the key. The routine that is associated with it is exercise and daily salads. The reward is the little drops in wt that occur every 2-4 days. Habit formation is fascinating. Had to make quite a few modifications to my w/o's since the last time I worked out regularly. I've eliminated the bench, which started causing shoulder pain almost immediately. I've trouble w/ shoulder pain throughout my life, it comes and goes. So I switched to dumbbell bench presses which allows me to keep my elbows in, and that seems to make my shoulders happy. I've also had to make adjustments to my stretching and the machine twist against resistance. I was getting some lower back pain which I think was the result of overbending the spine when trying to do stretches like toe touches. I also reduced the resistance on the twist machine for the same reason. In addition, I had to reduce the intensity of my w/o' due to my desire to exercise daily. At 57, I can't exercise intensely every day. Going forward, I'm going to either focus more on my cardio/core days, or my strength training days. Diet - Eating better was not a focus, but as I said, daily salads started automatically with the exercise. I did wind up making some other changes to my diet as well. I've focused on not eating much sugary, starchy, or processed foods. To do that, I've been grilling every weekend so that I can have just a salad and plain meat for dinner, which I did about 95% of the time. Having the meat already cooked was a big help. About half my lunches involved some form of salad, either a regular salad or a wrap w/ lots of lettuce and tomatos. For the wraps, I also cooked chicken and bacon on the weekend to last through the week. It's hard enough to eat "right", so no need to make it more difficult by requiring special cooking during the week. I still need to address eating at McD's for lunch, which I did at least half the time. I think the main reason for eating McD's for lunch is simply to satisfy my need for nicotene, which I can satisfy by smoking to and from McD's. Eliminating smoking will be addressed in the near future. Weight Goal - I set a goal of losing 5lbs, which I thought was a modest drop. I believe in making modest goals, rather than shooting for the moon and seeing where I wind up. I've seen way to many people shoot for the moon goals like "eliminate all sugar, eat only Paleo, lose 2 lbs/wk, etc", then get demotivated when they see the goal isn't doable and just quit. I'd rather set a goal that requires some effort, but very doable. That way, I stay motivated, and finish the challenge. Motivation is key, and setting ones self up for failure only ensures failure. My goal was to lose 5lbs, and I dropped from 191.6 to 182.8. Several of those lb's were just going from the old "normal" of having a very full stomach to the new normal of the stomach getting or reaching empty prior to the next meal. So assuming my empty stomach wt when I started was around 189, I lost 6lbs. A good showing which I am pleased with. Learning Solid Works - I think I set a goal of only 2hrs for the month. I did more than that everyweek. Now that I've decided which route I'm taking for learning it (Found an awesome sequence of 1hr training videos on u-tube, I'm going to be more specific on my goal, and specify the number of modules I want to finish. M - Reached the 3 month mark of no M, which is very satisfying. Next Challenge - Habits - No new ones. Not starting any new habits, I want to fully re-embed the current 3 of No M, daily exercise, and min 5 salads/wk (I will normally eat them 6-7 days/wk, but like I said, set yourself up for success, not failure. Goal 1 - Lose an additional 5 lbs. Very achievable. Goal 2 - Specific # of Solid Works training modules to complete. (# TBD) Other - It won't be a goal, but I tend to procrastinate with home projects that are not spelled out as a focus. Seen several people here list things they want to get done. I'm not going to set a goal with that, but just having a list here staring me in the face everyday should annoy me enough to work on them.

Weekly 5 Summary: 7 days of exercise (total of 8 w/o's) 7 days of eating pretty well. Although I did eat at McD's for lunch 4 times. About 2 hrs Solid Works training. 1/1 191.6 1/7 188.2 1/14 186.4 1/21 184.8 1/28 184.0 2/4 182.8

Monday at 07:42 PM 2/4 Wt: 182.8 Was my day a success? Yes. Wt still hovering in 182's so ate light today. Just a salad for lunch, just trout for dinner. Good cardio/core w/o. Anxious for next challenge to start. Workout: Cardio/core. Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Salad Dinner- trout Before bed- Probably a pear later. 1soda

Yes, that is it.

Weight loss - the healthy buzz. But meth helps w/ weight loss. lol.

Thanks. I agree with the having new goals, and I tried to create habits for eating which last longer than goals for me. It's just that when you are losing, your brain rewards you w every little drop. You get that little buzz, reward, or whatever you want to call it. Then when you get there, there is no longer the little buzz. You've taken away the reward. I can set new goals, but the buzz, which was never the goal, but the brain gives you a little endorphin rush just because thats what brains do, is no longer there. All the new goals, get stronger, roll kayak better, whatever, are not related to weight, and since there is no longer an endorphin rush, the brain starts to let you slide down the poor eating path again. It would be nice to lose wt w/o weighing, but my daily weighins are an important part of the feedback loop, at least for me. If I don't see a little loss every couple days, I know I need an adjustment. We will see if I learn something new by the time I get to the ideal wt in about 3 months from now.

2/1 181.2 Been really busy. Missed posting yesterday. Worked out both days of course. Gotta go. Oh yeah, today marks 3 months of no M.

After work I had to do something outside my normal routine which meant dinner was late so I didn't do shit w/o wise. Not!!!!!!!!! 1/30 Wt: 182.0 Was my day a success? Yes. Boom chucka lucka boom!!! New low wt. Probably will go up some tomorrow morning though as I had a late meal and ate 2 small porkchops on bread (w/ lettuce and tomato of course) on 2 slices of bread + 10 potato chips (how dare me). Since dinner was late and I was tired, I just did 10min tread + stretching routine. If you want to have daily movement as a habit, you have to have a plan a, b, and c. Focus on following the pattern regardless of how many days a week it is, then have back up plans for when you can't get the normal planned w/o in. Workout: Cardio/core. Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Wrap Dinner- Sandwich of 2 small porkchops on bread w/ lettuce and tomato, 10 chips. Before bed- Probably a pear later. 1soda

Of course. Salad.

Now we're talking

Better off w/o the gravy. Ignore Sloth.

1/29 Wt: 182.8 Was my day a success? Yes. Eating right and 5 w/o's over the weekend paid off. New low wt of 182.8. Hope to solidify the 182's by end of challenge. Added another core exercise to my cardio/core. 3 min tread, 10 crunches and 10 flat Vees, tread, incline situp, tread, machine twists, tread, ab machine, tread, hanging leg raises, tread, plate raise reverse curl. Definitely getting the core back in shape. Managed to start the week off right by skipping McD's for lunch and had a chicken and bacon w/ romaine and spinach lettuce and touch of peppercorn ranch on spinach wrap. Dawned on me on the way to work why people constantly lose wt, reach their goal, then gain back. All has to w/ the habit loop. If you put a maze where a rat can enter, then ring the bell and place a treat at the end, the mouse will eventually learn that if it hears the bell and follows the right path, it will get a reward. It will become a habit and each time the rat hears the bell, it will repeat the process. For someone losing wt and checking the scale daily, each drop in wt is the treat. Once you reach the goal wt, you no longer get a treat. Seeing the wt stay the same does not give you the rush that losing the wt did. With any habit loop, if you take away the reward, there is no drive in the brain to keep following the loop. So what is the replacement? Hell if I know yet. Rewarding myself w/ candy sure isn't the answer. Have to think about this. Once I get past the hard part of starting to eat right and exercise, losing wt is easy for me. Once I get to my "ideal" wt, maintaining is the hard part. Workout: Cardio/core. Breakfast- Protein shake Lunch- Wrap Dinner- Salad + pork chop + 1 strip bacon Before bed- Probably a pear later. 1soda

Some people just beech about everything. I really hate that the times I've had to work around people like that. Always negative. Glad you enjoyed the retreat. I go to a whitewater place in Wasau that is only open 6 weekends a yr and about 100 kayakers converge each opening. Its a great time being around a lot of people who just share the same interest and purpose. Another awesome report. Thats why I follow you. Lots of positivity.

Possibly trying to set to many goals instead of focusing on just 1 or 2? Will power is like a muscle. It can break down due to overuse. Consider attempting to create just one habit during a challenge and make that your entire definition of success.