Kimnaran

Coffee (similar to bulletproof coffee).

MyFitnessPal (for food logging), Excel Spreadsheet (macros, weight change, notes) and Weigh-In in my calendar/bullet journal. I weigh everyday because I found the routine/constant accountability helps while 'taking away' the power of the scale numbers by desensitizing myself through frequency. If you'd prefer a physical chart, look into 'weight loss spreads bullet journal', there are a lot of pretty spreads/charts out there!

I follow Perfect Health Diet macro suggestions. Mostly because I have carb issues unsupervised/without setting a goal (either too much that it'll eat 90% of my calories or not enough that I have trouble functioning). PHD is paleo-ish except for the inclusion of white rice and suggest 60% calories from fat (lower if you aim to lose weight).

I make baked (somekind of) 'mac n' cheese' but use chopped hardboiled eggs as the 'pasta'. Can make them in muffin cups for easier portioning but I'm not sure if they can be frozen. If these are what you're referring, can attest that they're very delicious and I eat them as they are (cut in half with shell on, scooped with a teaspoon). They're sold both cooked (boiled/steamed or charcoal roasted/grilled) and raw. There are also recipes that use the yolk as sauce/gravy materials.

Oh, that's the walking. And I'm not doing the dancing part of bellydancing (yet), but the yoga/stretching --and an hour of yoga on MFP is 159 calories. So around that too. As far as I can understand, I should expect my goal maintenance calories to be around 1200-1300 + occasional weekend splurge/some wiggle room? That's taking current habit of (light) exercises into account, if at some point I regularly picking up --like, climbing, will adjust accordingly. These are all following the calculator(s) though. It feels a bit weird (?) that the numbers are so low but.. yeah. It seems like I'll have to do it in order to lose weight?

Feeling TOM just around the corner with the snarky/emo-ness, inexplicably climbing weight and chocolate/sweets cravings. Was planning to cook/eat beef liver today but having hot chocolate, teriyaki chicken omelette (because easy) and pumpkin bread (+ butter) instead.

@Hymnusal @fleaball Thankyou! Yeah, 1200 is pretty low , but according a calculator, my TDEE/total energy expense per day is only 1534 calories, with BMR of 1323. If I want to cut 500 calories per day (as most 'programs'/articles seem to advise, probably going from 2000 calories daily requirement), I would have to do 1000 calories diet and that's.. not sustainable (I tried, because curious). 1200 on the other hand is more or less doable, though I have to make concessions (?) if I want to eat out/ socialize/ eat something calorie laden. My exercises are pretty light really, according to MFP they're only about 130-190 calories and I've heard MFP tend to overshoot/overestimate exercise calories? My goal-weight maintenance TDEE should be around mid-1300 and will have to train myself eating less for the long run-- if there's any chance in keeping the weight off. As an ex-fattie, I have no concept of 'what is a normal human portion' and counting calories the last few weeks is.. well, enlightening? In sort of depressing way (sulking a bit because a package of my favorite crackers has almost the calorie of whole daily allowance) (still in denial stage of grief about having to eat this much/little forever) Anyway, about portions, the reddit linked to @nomdepiction IG account and it's super cute. Thinking of doing something similar to have an idea how a day's meal looks like.

First mission arrived last Saturday; boyfriend will be bringing me to a family wedding (first time!) at the 29th and-- since I gained weight awhile/few months ago, my dress is a bit tight. Yes. That is an 'oh fu**' face. I don't remember what the scene was about (totally gonna rewatch) but the GIF is appropriate. So far I'm following my program and avoiding eating out/snacks. Don't really care what weight I'll end up with as long I fit the dress. Other than that, Secret Eaters show is-- sort of addictive. For someone who doesn't think she 'eats that much' but has been having problems losing weight for the last 2 years, it's very enlightening.

Hello. This is my second challenge, and since I can't seem to decide which guild to join, gonna stay with Rebels for a little bit while! Xia Dong from Nirvana in Fire While I was trying to decide which guild to join by discussing with a fellow D&D player friend (spoiler: failed), there were--- archetypes of character being brought up. A Rogue with the lacquered veneer of Bard, a loner (?) human-favored-enemy Hunter/Ranger, a Bard with Fighter capabilities. Should I incorporate dance into it? Will I end up taking Body Combat? ...Anyway, finally decided it's too early in my fitness journey to even try deciding on a class/direction to pursue. It'll just distract. In the discussion the character/officer Xia Dong from chinese drama Nirvana in Fire was mentioned and I thought-- that's not a bad idea. Nimble, practical, slightly awkward/stiff but not in the least lacking common sense. Let's go for that. So far, this is what I'm going for: Dexterity-based class that can survive (thrive!) in both civilized world/ urban setting and wilderness. Ability scores composition would be DEX/INT/CHA (sometimes substituting CHA/WIS with INT) with CON before STR. Live sincerely, sensibly and practically-- but still socially flexible when required. GOALS I. Reduce Burden Excess girth limits movement. 163 cm/ 5'4", small frame. Starting weight 64.1 kg (141.3 lbs) at the beginning of Week 0, target weight 62 kg (136.6 lbs). Weigh everyday. Meal prep (enough for) 5-6 days out of a week. Count and log calories with MyFitnessPal. Aim for 1200 calories/day. Random Encounters: Socializing-proofing. Choose which eating-outs/feeding company are worth the calories and arrange intake around them. II. The Body is A Vehicle Stamina, flexibility, core strength and pliability. Build CON (stamina) Do cardio/walk around total of 3 hours per week (while listening to audiobooks/ lectures). Start preparing for bed 11.30 and sleep at 1 at the latest. Wake up around 7.30. Raise DEX & STR (flexibility and muscle strength). 60 minutes of Ballet Beautiful, 2 times per week. 1 session (45 minutes - 1 hour) of Bellydancing/Yoga for bellydancing basics per week. Learn to self-massage sore muscles. III. Necessary Evil That is The Capital Appearance and social skills. Take better care of appearance (nail, teeth, skin, hair). Get rid/ KonMari-away unloved/unsuitable clothes, accessories and makeup. Pick a social skill/etiquette book to read/summarize. Do concrete actions in order to interact better with people. Good luck and see you around!

Post Challenge Retrospective Whoa. I actually finished the challenge. I learned so much in 4 weeks and while some parts of it was frustrating (due to my own errors/ misjudgements/ lack of discipline) it was really eye-opening. Let's see.. My official weigh in this morning clocked at 64.1 kg (or 141.3 lbs) which is 1.1 kg/half short of target. I got close enough at first week but for what must have been* food bad decisions kept me away from reaching goal. A bit bummed but the silver lining is that the frustration led me to reconsider my approach to dieting/losing weight. Previously I'd diet for awhile then feeling discouraged due to the lack of progress, would drop it. Wash and repeat. Staying in program for 4 weeks had been massively beneficial because it forces me to look closer on what exactly is not working. It seems that I simply eat too much. 'Small' snacks (especially peanuts and fried tofu), random glasses of milk, bites of eating out and coffees. At the start of 4th week, I eventually starting to explore the idea of calorie counting, something I have avoided this long. Along the way, I also realized how I have no concept of how much someone would normally eat. What you did that really helped you Keeping a continuous food log, even when the 'off' and regretting the day. Watching how (normal? skinny?) people eat. They seem to snack a lot less (than I expected) and low-key leave things on the plate. Bringing own food for gaming nights while others order delivery. Meal prepping. Communicating/ be open to my boyfriend and friends about my diet concerns/project. What you did that you could do differently next time Will merge both goals into one weight-loss goal, since they're pretty much interlinked. Calorie counting should help with being able to eat out without jeopardizing the goal. It's like making a choice with with your eyes open instead of guessing-hoping a meal would not ruin your trajectory. Make a cheatsheet/ observation notes of how other people eat. Continue this goal next challenge? Yes, with adjustments. Grade 70%. I'm only half there weight wise but I'm really thankful for the amount of insight and progress. This.. was interesting. I'm still chewing on what exactly happened mental/mindset wise, but I did most of the scheduled exercises. What you did that really helped you Starting doing exercises in the first place. Keeping a log of progress/difficulties each session and watch myself improving bit by bit. What you did that you could do differently next time Maybe doing more exercises in the morning rather than evening. Incorporating yoga to help with my back. Continue this goal next challenge? Yes, with adjustments. Grade 90% Final Overall Challenge Grade 80%. I had fun! Thankyou everyone!

For whatever reason, I can't recall any of the diet/nutrition books I've read/listened mentioning this. Checked that out and you're right, thank you! I'll have to research more.

I have listened to the Taubes' audiobook twice and wondering if the main applicable argument is that you're likely to feel famished, and thus eat more when you eat 1000 calories of carbs vs protein*. So (minimal protein amount to support building/maintain muscles aside) the bottom line is that which foods would strain your willpower less. Less fighting against willpower** to eat everything in sight/being hungry the more likely you'll stick with your program and the more likely it'll be successful. *) but yeah, it boils down to how much/ the total calorie you're eating. **) something that is finite. + and bodily survival mechanisms that doesn't know you're trying to fit into pants instead of facing a widespread, dangerous famine.

More toying with My Fitness Pal --still think it's clunky but the food diary might actually be useful for meal planning (instead of meal logging, which, I'll probably still use my phone for). Tried entering my 'typical' day feeding and it seems like 30:20:50% calorie ratios of carbs, protein and fats is-- sane. As in it fits my current feeding pattern/cooking and I feel fairly full consuming. 1200 calories/day seems doable as long I don't gorge on peanuts random snacks. Also randomly craving Chayote. Since peanuts are in craving seasons as well, I'm probably short of folates? .. anyway next week's menu will have both peanuts and chayote. Will consider adding beef liver and dark greens (watercress?) into the menu as well if folate is really the issue. On the same note, I have been veering away from paleo/perfect health diet concerning legumes and grains. The ratio of macros working for me is within accordance of PHD guidelines, so keeping that, but I guess I'm no longer strictly/largely paleo/primal.

My recent favorites are BakingMadGymAddict (upbeat and buff) and Fit Couple Cooks (lots of meal prepping videos).

Yes, weigh the food. If weighing everyday is too much, you can weigh often eaten foods in weekly packets to nibble throughout the week. The total calories of the week should add up and you only need to weigh once.

Meal prepping helps with not wasting food (especially produce*) and managing eating budget. I personally never bothered with finding organic (not in US however, might be a factor?) and just look for freshness. Ground meats are usually cheaper but sometimes excessively fatty-- though meatballs are very convenient and you can freeze them. I also buy meats in bulk and freeze them in 'recipe amount' packets for easier thawing. *) since started meal prepping I have been preferring 'hardier' veggies instead of quickly-wilt ones because it lessens the need to grocery shop as often. If you find going grocery shopping raise the possibility of impulse buying, doing fewer trips might help.

When on paleo I found that I can just remove the carb/grain part of most of my cravings (or sometimes, substitute them). Like, garlic bread cravings can be sated with chicken cooked with garlic butter? But for 4th day carb binge-urge/flu I usually just throw (lots of) hardboiled eggs at it.

Poking around My Fitness Pal, and found that: I grossly misjudged how caloric peanuts are; they actually ate up a third of my caloric intake today (it's in the Kung Pao Chicken recipe. Granted, I put ...more than suggested in). Today I eat about 1200 calories (though almost 500 of it consisted of peanuts). Oils included probably 1300? Didn't count when meal prepping, which will change next week. Considering my menu, it might be be possible to do 1200 calories/day meal plan? Still no idea how to fit in eating out though. I think I'll still mostly food log on my phone and use MFP for recipe calorie counting, the site is a bit clunky and to add things require several clicks.

Yay! One more week left of the challenge, goodluck!

Reposting this video from my thread; I have also wondered why it's really hard for me to lose weight although I 'don't eat that much' and exercise, the fact made more apparent by this challenge's food/exercise log. So looked it up and found this: According to that, it seems like I'm underestimating my caloric intake (and/or overestimating my caloric needs), and quite possibly the compromised (?) weight set point isn't helping. This means I'll need to start actually counting calories (and learn how to do that accurately) and-- go from there. Hopefully the video helps, goodluck!

Last TOM I kept exercising but it's a low impact (?) flexibility kind, if I had to go to gym during the 1st-2nd day and majorly sweat I would have puddled uselessly. (also, gyms sometimes/often are close to ice creams, bakeries and other carb laden foods, the temptation to binge would not be worth it)

Hi! So this is the tracker/spread for my challenge, but have since made adjustments to it (like, vegetables and meal prep are not counted, and became Y/N boxes). Found it really helpful to stay on.. track. ..... Anyway. Oh, I use a A5 traveler's notebook insert as fitness bullet journal.

First trilogy of Black Company by Glen Cook and WH40k Grey Knights novel series.

Alright. Where to start updating. Will try bullet points. it's either I eat a lot more than I thought or my (kind of old) scale is broken/needs to be calibrated. BMR calculator says my current BMR is about 1400, and my target weight BMR would be about 1250. That's.. not a lot. More about this later. I'm not discouraged about weight loss, though. I mean, for someone who used to be a lot heavier, it's not like I didn't expect the need to rehaul mindset at some point. I have no concept of what is a normal meal portion/menu. My brain still use the standards of a fat person to determine how much I can/should (be able to) eat. I've asked my 'naturally thin' friends on how much they eat in a day and they eat a lot less than I expected a --person would? They're not that healthy tho. Maximum of 2 goals per week (aside from the main challenge goals) seem to help in avoiding clutter. At that, my 3rd week goal was to keep doing the challenge despite fatigue/boredom/feeling discouraged. There are tracker adjustments I would like to make for next challenge, including: Think in calories (aside from/instead of weight?). The food log should also track macros (still not sure how to approach it exactly). Need a better system to track eating out/snacks. Would like a way to track sleeping hours. I have decided that sustainable weight loss/ body recomposition to be the main goal of my quest. This doesn't mean that I'll puddle in skinny-fatness and not moving, because pride would also like to jump around and move fluidly. (and it feels weird to feel hard muscles beneath squishy fat) Also have more or less chose my PC build. DEX/INT/CHA. I have a Class (an Archetype) in mind but it's-- while it (supposedly) fits still iffy about it. I still want an axe. About BMR, metabolism and calorie allotment, found this video yesterday, Assuming that my scale is not broken, then I simply eat too much calories for my goals/weight loss (despite that it doesn't feel so). Since weighing/ portion control isn't working, going to try calorie counting next. WEEK 4: Goals Determine calorie/macros allotment(s). Look into how much each macros is needed and how to budget their calories. Finish challenge!

Hmm. I was thinking about this after seeing my friend's gym instagram videos. I probably will never be one of the people who find exercise/exerting myself to be 'fun' (I believe lazy, everything-provided-for housecats to be the last stage of karma surplus before ascending as Buddhas) and since at this point I have little idea/image of the body to aim for-- mechanical sort of exercising wouldn't hold. This might change as I get a better idea of the things and shape(s) my body are capable of? Possibly triggering body image thing? I suppose that's a good way to look at it. Probably will never get muscled like my friend had become, and won't get to swing a great axe, but-- maybe being a DEX person wouldn't be that bad either. Perhaps rather than between 'fun' or 'functional' exercise, I like the idea of having a 'theme'-- a romance of a kind while working with what I'm (currently) capable of. Since there are problems with my back, taking ballet and bellydancing hopefully helps with posture and flexibility and this leads to looking into dancing and how it would translate into fantasy theme. And here we are? Oh, the first good thing from keeping with exercising this 1.5 weeks had been realizing that losing weight is not just for vanity, or fitting into dresses. The extra weight I'm carrying hinder my body from doing things it should/may be able to do. So yeah, the fat must go!