jessleigh

Hey hey. Found my old battle log. Time to revive this long dead thread. In a previous life I would have started over rather than picking up a 4 year old battle log, but I think the continuity is important here as a message to myself that it wasn't a failure. It was just a hiatus. After my last post in December 2016 I gained a lot of weight and had some very serious health complications, but I've made a lot of good progress in the last 14 months and I want to start being more intentional about recording it and giving myself credit. NEW BASELINE MEASUREMENTS (8/20) Weight - 325 lbs Chest 54 Stomach @ navel 53 Ribcage under bust 44 Hips 61 Arms L 16 R 16.5 Thigh L 32 R 30 Calf L 19.5 R 19 Neck 16

I joined in 2016, didn't really follow through on it at all, gained a bunch of weight, and had some major health problems in 2018. You know the drill. But in 2019 I started going to a personal trainer, and I've been consistently going for over a year now and I feel great. However, I miss the community support from when I first joined here, and although I'm much stronger now, I haven't made progress toward weight loss, and that's something I'd like to work on. So I'm looking forward to trying to get back into it. I look forward to talking to you all

I had a very rough couple of months but I'm so excited to start the new challenge with everybody. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it better this time.

Well, as it turns out, depression, winter, and the election were just about enough to kick the shit out of me. I started going to Krav Maga a bit after the election. Going to really make a commitment to keep up with that in 2017, especially since I had to sign a 1 year contract. I feel like I'm starting over from square one. It's not the best feeling in the world, but at least I'm not giving up, right?

Ug. Seriously though, my food cravings have been severe the last couple days. How does everyone deal with cravings?

DAILY LOG - THURSDAY 9/29 Breakfast glazed doughnut black cold brew coffee diet coke Lunch Diet Coke Salad with Grilled Chicken, Guacamole, Salsa, and Salsa Ranch dressing Chobani chocolate haze craze yogurt Snack Banana Black tea String cheese Peanut granola bar Dinner Garden salad with peppercorn ranch Jumbo hot wings Chocolate cake 8+ glasses of water? yes 5+ minutes of meditation? yes Notes: Wasn’t feeling great and used it as an excuse not to eat great. That made me feel even worse. Skipped my workout because of all of that silliness. Do not reproduce. Activity 5 minute walk after taking out the trash

A couple other non-chocolate related questions : - What's one thing you've done recently to make a new workout routine easier to stick to? - Which three fictional characters best represent you? (That meme has been making its way back around social media again so I have it on the brain) My answers - I started wearing volleyball kneepads when doing yoga. That really helps me. - 3 fictional characters: Ben Wyatt (Parks and Rec) Fat Amy (Pitch Perfect) Diane Nguyen (BoJack Horseman)

DAILY LOG - WEDNESDAY 9/28 - CHALLENGE 1 DAY 3 Breakfast Stump town coldbrew coffee no milk Peanut butter dream chobani flip 1 packet of EmergenC dumped into one of my water bottles Lunch Sring mix salad chicken black olives blue cheese crumbles red onions cucumber mushrooms Diet Coke Snack Diet Coke 1 avocado White tea with 1 splenda packet Dinner Pan fried chive dumplings Pork massaman curry with brown rice Melon sour hard candy Notes: Tasted the salad dressing before putting it on the salad today. Was sweet and gross so I decided to eat the salad dry Third day in a row I'm noting that I would be happier with my life if I did my workouts in the morning like last week, but for some reason I can't make myself get out of bed. What's up with that? Yoga is better with kneepads Don't do Water Series B within 3 hours of eating a big meal. Too much time spent on stomach. 8+ glasses of water? yes 5+ minutes of meditation? yes Activity After Dinner: 15 minute walk while listening to Death Masks - I'm officially doing a relisten (Summer Knight - Cold Days + Side Jobs) through Dresden for upcoming LARP Before Bed: Water Series B Yoga session

I'm also a chocolate addict. I've been logging my food so that I have to hold myself accountable about how much chocolate I'm consuming, but I haven't cut it out yet. Another thing I've been doing is picking up a couple bars of extra dark chocolate (at least 80% cacao), breaking it up into small squares, and rationing out a few squares a night to help curb those cravings. Dark chocolate promotes happiness and motivation, imo .

DAILY LOG - TUESDAY 9/27 - CHALLENGE 1 DAY 2 Breakfast 1 pint Stumptown chocolate cold brew coffee Peanut butter dream chobani flip 1 packet of EmergenC dumped into one of my water bottles Lunch Salad: - Iceberg and romaine lettuce - Artichoke hearts - Carrots - Cucumbers - Celery - Cherry tomatoes - Hardboiled egg - Croutons - Blue cheese dressing Bison Meatballs in tomato sauce with cheese Diet Coke Snack String cheese Baby carrots and red pepper hummus Nature valley peanut granola bar Dinner Philadelphia roll Seaweed salad with cucumbers Assorted tuna sashimi on a bed of sushi rice with mushrooms Diet Pepsi Mr Goodbar Before Bed 8+ glasses of water? yes 5+ minutes of meditation? yes Notes: Good lunch. Would order again Reiterating from yesterday: you’ll like yourself better if you work out in the morning instead of waiting until you go home from work :\ Activity After Dinner: 28 minute walk while listening to Summer Knight 3 x 10 assisted squats (using doorframe) 3 x 10 wall push-ups 3 x 10 bodyweight rows (using doorframe) stretching cool down

I think the the thing that irritates me the most is I told myself I wouldn't go overboard drinking at the wedding and it threw off my whole weekend. I'm not just mad that I missed a day, it's just "You had one job." I'll get over it, but I'm having a hard time not getting very irritated with myself.

I feel the same way. Sundays are rotten for beginning new things

So I posted on my log and challenge, but I had an utterly unsuccessful start to this challenge and am personally thinking of bumping my challenge by a day so that it starts today and ends on 10/23. I know it's technically cheating, but it'll be really hard to motivate myself if I start out so badly. How do you all help yourselves recover from an underwhelming beginning?

Ug. Really messed up over the weekend. Went to a wedding on Saturday and was powerfully hungover and useless all of Sunday. Considering that it's the first day of the challenge, I think what I'm going to do is bump my challenge for a day so that it begins on 9/26 and ends on 10/23. I know this is technically cheating, but I think if I let this early misfire stand then I'm going to demotivate myself throughout the challenge. Do you all think it's awful if I give myself a little bit of leeway at the beginning here?

DAILY LOG - MONDAY 9/26 - CHALLENGE 1 DAY 1 NB regarding 4 week challenge: due to some complications over the weekend involving weddings and hangovers, I am bumping my 4 week challenge by a day so that it starts and ends on Mondays instead of Sundays. I know it's technically cheating, but I need to do this to motivate myself. Breakfast 2 large coffees with a splash of half and half glazed doughnut Lunch Chicken Cesar salad from Goddess and Grocer 2 Diet Cokes (cans) Snack Peanut Butter Dream Chobani flip String cheese Dinner Beef panang curry with jasmine rice 9 squares dark chocolate (85% cacao) 8+ glasses of water? yes 5+ minutes of meditating? yes Activity Evening 15 minute walk while listening to the Dusted podcast after work. (Dusted is a must listen for any Buffy fans out there!) Water Series A yoga Notes: - Croutons on the salad were spongey instead of crunchy. Not bad, but consider before ordering again - I love listening to podcasts while I walk, but I really want to get into the habit of listening to books while I walk. Starting tomorrow I need to double down on listening to my audiobooks during dedicated walking time. - Dear future me: YOU WILL LIKE YOURSELF BETTER IF YOU WORK OUT IN THE MORNING RATHER THAN WAITING UNTIL RIGHT BEFORE BED.