Jié Xī

I am actually surprised more people don't wear loose white tops and pants in the summers. It's quite hot here where I am as well and it is also a desert climate. I actually LOVE my white shirt. It helps me not feel like I am baking.

There you are! I thought you had left and was sad. Love your challenge goals! Sorry your new job has been stressful.

So I'm going to do my first mud run tomorrow: 5k, 17 obstacles. I'm doing it solo; no friends wanted to join me. Really hoping I'm not the only old, fat, solitary person there if everyone else is 30 or younger, fit, and with a team of friends. 😔 Took today as a rest day, no walking, no weights. And ate more carbs tonight then I probably did all week. Hoping that doesn't backfire on me as I'm also part of one of those diet bet games, I still have a pound to lose. And I have to weigh out Tuesday. 😵‍💫 I wouldn't have intentionally scheduled them so close together. If anyone reads this before tomorrow, wish me luck.

So, my weight is finally moving in the right direction. And going to the gym consistently is definitely not problem; I've been going on weekends and sometimes even twice (to get in extra treadmill/steps). So the only think exercise-wise that I am still slacking on this challenge is yoga and tai chi sword. So I'm trying to create a playlist on Spotify. Regular Tai Chi music is easy to find, but I'm looking for something more epic, more I-just-used-the-force-to-kick-your-butt kind of thing, lol.

So you pressed one holding it with both hands or one in each hand?

So a real junk journal is something you literally make from ephemeral, trash, and junk that most people throw away. Some people make themed ones, like Steampunk or Alice in Wonderland. The one I am working on is not actually made from junk/trash since I bought a gorgeous Far East scrapbooking kit and cutting it all up to be a junk journal. I'll post a few pics of real ones and then a few of my Far East one. But the idea is to use junk to create pockets and tags and envelopes and flaps in or behind which you hide scraps of paper you can journal on. Mine is VERY empty at the moment because I only just started, so I'll post pics of all the stuff I'm going to add too.

Yea, that's what happens to me when I cut carbs. I end up snapping and going on a week or more long carb binge and gain it all back. Which is why I'm trying not to do it that way this time around. But alas, nothing I've tried has worked so far for me either. In fact, scale was up again today, which would usually spawn a discouraged binge fest all weekend, but I am attempting to ignore my emotions and plug along. I too am trying the exercise end of it. Hopefully, we will both discover what works for us and all these struggles will be behind us and by Christmas we'll be empowered by our 2023 achievements!

Are you using a kettle bell like a barbell? I don't understand kettle bells so have never used them.

The one time in my life that I actually hit goal (after being on and off diets for the better part of two decades (aka my entire adult life) was when I combined Keto with low calories. It averaged out to about 1100 a day. As for the hunger, as you cut calories, your stomach shrinks and you nee less to feel full. However, feeling hunger means your body is hungry and when you don't feed it, it will turn to stored body fat to active hunger. In one book (I forget the name), the author said, if you don't allow yourself to ever feel hungry, your body will never eat at "the buns and thigh buffet." That made so much sense to me that whenever I feel hungry, it makes me happy because I remind myself, yay, time for the buns and thigh buffet! It sounds silly, I know, but it helps keeping me from grabbing something at the first sign of hunger. I'm actually going to start water coloring in the evening as a reward for not snacking after supper and to keep myself from snacking. Your posting your art projects in previous challenges is part of what inspired me to try this.

In Hello Habits, the author talks about how everything we do is for a reward. We overeat for the immediate reward. The far off reward of losing weight or getting fit is too far away to remember when the immediate reward of food right in front of us. He suggests a number of things to combat this, one of them being to create a reward for NOT eating. I have decided to watercolor. I talked about this a few challenges ago and am very inspired by @Harriet who often posts her art. I am no where near as talented (I am not talented at all, actually, nor do I really even know how to watercolor), and when I tried it last summer (painting on a blank sheet copying a photo or trying to follow along with someone on YouTube), I got very discouraged. Since at this point in my life it's not really about learning how to watercolor or develop the craft to get good at it but merely as a means of relaxing and rewarding myself for not snacking, I have bought myself a pack of watercolor brush markers and a book of 30 Japanese garden coloring pages from Etsy that I am going to print out on watercolor paper. I am hoping that by starting out with an actual picture already in existence that I can relax and enjoy myself with no pressure and in the meantime get to really understand the medium (layering and blending). Last summer, I bought myself a decent set of brushes and paints (midlevel), so I am hoping that with practice I can get to the point that I can start with a blank paper and create. But for now, I am looking forward to having a nightly reward that doesn't revolve around food and I will only allow myself to paint a page if I ate on plan and hit 10K steps.

One Friday a month some people from my church get together and scrapbook or do some other kind of creative activity all day. Everyone just brings what they want to do (some knit, some crochet, etc). Usually I do scrapbooking but for the past several months one of the ladies has been teaching us how to do junk journals. I am IN LOVE with junk journaling. It is definitely my favorite creative activity in the world. Anyway, I and the one other person who does scrapbooking are the most consistent people who go and we both want to lose weight. So after several months of always bringing junkf ood and bewailing our failing diets, I suggested that we bring fruit and veggie trays. She agreed, but also said she would still bring her snacks but keep them hidden in her bag rather than putting them out in bowls right on the table. This has worked out well (for the last 2 or 3 times). However, another person came today and brought banana bread. Had she not, my calories today would have been perfect. I held off eating some until nearly 4:00 (I got there at 10:30 and they were already on a plate). I had 2 slices. Google says 196 calories. So, it's not ruined day, but I didn't have a mental plan of not eating something yummy that was there, so of course I caved. My mental plan was to bring healthy food -- which I did, fruit for breakfast and Santa Fe Chicken Salad with light spicy southwest dressing -- and to not ask for any of the hidden snacks. So, evidently, I either need to allow myself a small treat on Fridays or mentally prepare for someone else bringing something and deciding beforehand not to partake. Anyway, I also planned ahead of time to go to the gym on my way home (which I did), and even meal planned my dinner (Italian soup with meatballs) waiting for me at home instead of hitting Panda Express (which I also did). So except for the two slices of banana bread, this was an absolutely amazing Friday. Usually, I would have had a TON or peanut butter filled pretzels, peanut M&M's, and honey mustard pretzels (these are the snakes she now keeps hidden). I would have had some fast food for lunch AND supper, then drank and watched movies and snacked with hubby all night. Instead, I had one piece of dark chocolate and didn't drink (because I stayed upstairs instead of watching movies). So the difference in calories, even with the banana bread, is probably in the 1000's. And of course, I would not have worked out. Hopefully, I can keep this up because the scrapbooking girl and I enjoy this so much that we are going to start getting together 2-3x a month, though the extra Fridays will only be until 1 rather than 5:30. I'm really looking forward to it though, because I've been lugging around my scrapbooking bins from one house to another every time I move and yet never worked on them because I only tend to do it when I have someone to do it with. So I will finally be able to catch up! I also have ideas for SO MANY junk journals now that I have discovered them. I currently have 2 I am working on...one is just a practice one that I have no pressure about so I can let go of any perfectionist tendencies and just do whatever. Once I get the hang of it, I then make something for the "real" one which is this absolutely gorgeous Far East theme. I am literally creating it simply because I find anything Far East relaxing and so on stressful days I plan to just pull it off the shelf and flip through it as part of mindfulness.

Yes, in fact, weekend after weekend, I gain back anything I lost during the week, but because I never bother to write what I eat on weekends, because it's "planned cheating," I now have no idea how much is too much because I have no idea how many calories I consumed. Last weekend I merely maintained (because I didn't overeat) but I since I didn't track, I don't know how much that was to either 1) duplicate and maintain this week's loss or eat slightly less in an attempt to continuing losing. So this weekend will probably be the first weekend I have EVER tracked in 20+ years of dieting. You'd think the repeating the same thing and expecting different results definition of insanity shouldn't have taken that long to figure out. Sigh. Funny, not funny.

I think that for them beginner is you literally just started lifting having never lifted before, whereas a novice is someone who is a first level student. Hahaha, kind of like Shifu saying to Po, "There is now a level 0." Level 0 is what a person who doesn't lift should, if a reasonably healthy adult, be able to lift first time at the gym. A novice is what someone who started lifting within the last few months can. And intermediate is you've been lifting regularly for a year or more. That's just my assumption.

They have a novice squat at 66, and intermediate at 106. At least for a female aged 45. Here's a chart I made of where I am and what my goal is.

Is this what you are asking? I put in my gender and then picked a weight machine or barbell move that I regularly do and then found my age on the chart and looked at what it said a beginner, novice, and intermediate could lift. Then I went to the gym and tried intermediate first. If I couldn't lift it at all, I lowered the weight to novice. If I could lift it a little, I just lowered the weight stack until I could do it with proper form. I ended up all across the board depending on muscle group (beginner for pecs/advanced for quads/most others between novice and intermediate). Regardless of which level i am currently, I made the next level my 6 month goal.

Clever Fox Wellness Journal: 5 goals over 6 months. Weight: <134 (this requires a 40 pound weight loss). Flexibility: Touch Toes (with legs only slightly bend, chest against thighs). Strength: Intermediate 1RM (per strengthlevel.com) for my age and gender. Fitness: 3.5 mile hike with 2,000 elevation gain (drop my time by 1-2 fitness levels) Ying Yang: Achieve balance in other areas of my life (instead of focusing exclusively on things I want to do and neglecting things I need to do) Challenge (Part 2) Goals: Record EVERTHING: including not eating well and skipping workouts!!! Lose 10 pounds. Specifically: stop snacking on weekdays & limit weekends to planned snacking only. Start doing yoga and hamstring stretching 4x a week (Mon-Thurs) Maintain Strength Train 4x a week. (Try to bump up to 5-6x a week). Add grip exercises while pacing house in evening. Maintain 10K Steps and add stairs: 233 steps in 5 mins (working toward goal of 700 steps in 15 minutes / 2,800 per hour). Finish Minimalization (Laundry Room, 2 Bins, and the rest of Organizing) and Maintain Declutters Spaces

THE END OF ERASING MY FAILURES I usually fail at weight loss, which is just about every diet I start, and I start it every few weeks. This has been the story of my life for 20+ years. It's rather pathetic actually. Purging my house meant that I came across several started but never finished weight loss journals, the blank empty pages after a week or two the sure sign of my failure. One in particular, that has you put in the dates in a blank month, I used frixion erasable pens and you could see where I had erased the month after month after month to reuse it because everything was blank except the dates because I just continued to not lose or even come close to reaching my goals. I almost did that again with my Clever Fox Wellness journal. I almost erased the first week that I recorded my loss because the entire rest of the month was blank until a few days ago. I HATE that I open it up and just see pages of blank entries because I didn't bother to record because I wasn't exercising or eating on plan. But then I decided not to erase them and "start fresh," but to use those blank pages as a reminder of all the times, years and years, decades and decades that I've done the same thing over and over: start a new eating plan, fail to stick to it, fail to exercise, fail to lose weight. Years and years of having nothing to wear because my closet is full of "someday clothes" and all I allow myself to wear is baggy clothes from, the second hand store. I'm 45 and have been on a diet since my teens because some day I would lose weight. Some day I would be pretty. Some day I would actually reach goal and feel good about myself. But as I was walking on the treadmill at the gym, it occurred to me that I should make myself see those empty pages because they do represent every failed past diet: the failure to stick to plan, the failure to record what I eat when I don't eat "right," the failure to record weight gains, the failure to record patterns or triggers. Erasing and "starting fresh" was my way of pretending the failure didn't happen. Of "forgetting" that failure was a two plus decade pattern that I didn't want to acknowledge because this would be the time I would reach goal and go to whatever upcoming event was next actually looking and feeling good about myself instead of hiding in my clothes and either eating because what the hell, I'm fat anyway or not eating because I'm fat and on a diet. (At least if I'm thin and passing up on delicious unhealthful food I can look good doing it.) Ironically enough, a few days later (also on the treadmill) I was reading the book Hello, Habits by Fumio Sasaki in which he suggests something along the same lines: to use our past regrets as leverage when we want to give in to whatever habit we are trying to break (for him it was drinking, for me it is overeating). He suggest asking yourself, Will I regret eating this? Yes: Monday morning when I get on the scale and see a gain. Yes, when I fail this month's diet. Yes, when I add that accumulated failure to the decades worth of failed diets. He says to remind yourself of that regret and don't snack. Feel the accomplishment and achievement of breaking the cycle. And then build on that momentum. He also suggests recording the failures instead of leaving them blank so that you can find patterns and discern your triggers. For him, he realized every time he wrote in his journal I'll only have 1 drink it never happened. He soon realized that if he drank one, he would drink several, so he realized that if he didn't wish to drink several, he couldn't drink one. For me, I know that I snack when I drink. So to snack less, I'll have to drink less (1 night a week instead of 2 or 3). I drink when I watch movies with hubby on the weekend. So if I can't watch a movie without drinking, then I'll need to watch movies less (one weekend night instead of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or even only one movie night every other weekend). To actually make that happen, I'll have to come up with a different activity. And then stick to it. So, not only am I leaving the 3 weeks worth of blank pages, but I am going to get into the habit of recording my eating and exercise (or lack thereof) no matter what. And write why. While today was a good day (eating and exercising) I'm a bit concerned about tomorrow. My son is coming down with a cold so I won't be able to go to the gym in the morning. Husband said he would watch them in the evening so I can go but night is harder than morning. Also, I did upper body today (a ton more exercises than normal) and I am really starting to feel it. Tomorrow would be lower body day, but I'm rather sore from yesterday's lower body workout. Can I convince myself to go in the evening and when sore? If I know I'm not going to work out, will I give in to the desire to snack (it's easier to forego snacking when I did a really good workout that morning). But no matter what, I will record it.

Clever Fox Wellness Journal: 5 goals over 6 months. Weight: <134 (this requires a 40 pound weight loss). Flexibility: Touch Toes (with legs only slightly bend, chest against thighs). Strength: Intermediate 1RM (per strengthlevel.com) for my age and gender. Fitness: 3.5 mile hike with 2,000 elevation gain (drop my time by 1-2 fitness levels) Ying Yang: Achieve balance in other areas of my life (instead of focusing exclusively on things I want to do and neglecting things I need to do) Last Challenge (Part 1) Results Weight: Lose 10 pounds: FAIL Make Yoga a habit: FAIL Make Strength Training 4x a week a habit: Success Increase Steps to 10,000 (from 4000): Success Minimalize the Entire House: Success Failed at the most important part (weight loss), but also have several wins that I shouldn't overlook. I'll come back to my failures in a moment. #5 (Yin Yang / Balance): Nearly the entire main floor of the house has been decluttered, organized, and minimalized. In addition to every surface area, every single drawer, cupboard, and closet shelf has been minimalized (purged & organized). All I have left on this floor is the laundry room. In the downstairs (I live in a ranch with a finished basement), I have my studio/office/library (tons of books to purge), the "cupboard under the stairs" (arts and crafts to organize), and the kids educational closet left to organize (but the latter two have been purged and minimalized). Every single box and bin even the ones in storage (except for 2 more) have been gone through and all accumulated trash, junk, and unused and never will be used stuff has been purged. #4 Increase Steps: Almost every day I made it to 10,000 steps. I didn't actually write it in my journal like I should have because I didn't record in my journal for most of the month because I wasn't eating right or working out (back to his failure in a moment), so I can't say for sure how many days I actually hit 10K, but it really was almost every day. I know, because I wouldn't let myself relax for the night until I hit so most evenings were spent pacing my house until I hit 10,000 steps. I can recall two days where I didn't make myself do it at all, and a few other days where I only hit 5,000 because I didn't even put the pedometer on until later in the day because I spent the morning or afternoon at the pool. Which brings me #3. #3 Fitness: I joined a gym. This is rather shocking as it was not the plan at all. At the start of this challenge I had actually just added a few things to my home gym. But then I found out that there is actually a gym right down the street from me (didn't even know it was there, it's down a little side street that is a dead end) that actually offers free childcare to members while they workout. Since I homeschool and my children are autistic, they are in desperate need of socialization, which means I can't just think, oh I don't feel like going today. I have to go because I've been looking for something like this for them, it gives them up to 2.5 hours a day with other kids, and of course I'm paying for it. So far, I seem to work out for about 1.5 hours. I go in the late morning and do a combination of barbell, dumbbells, and machines and then hop on the treadmill until I hit 5000 steps. This pretty much ensures that I hit over 10K by the end of the day (usually around 13K). Also, I definitely work out longer than at home. At home I usually run through 1-2 sets and hit each muscle group 1x. My workout lasts about 10-15 mins. And, I would only actually do a workout (at night) if it was a "good" eating day (which means I didn't workout very often at all). But now that I go in the morning (when the childcare is), I probably do 2-3 sets and hit each muscle group 2x (because of the variety of machines and barbell stations). Because of life and the gym being such an unplanned thing, I have not yet had a full consistent week. I worked out the last 2 days in a row, but my son is sick so not sure he'll be up for it in the morning. But perhaps I will go in the evening when my husband gets home. Okay, so now on to the failures. #2 Flexibility: I think I did yoga, aka stretching 2x the entire challenge. And Tai Chi Sword 0x. #1 Weight Loss: After the first week of July in which I lost 5 pounds, I gained 2 back immediately and basically spent the bulk of the challenge at the same weight I started at until this morning, when I was once again down that 5. So technically, yes, I am starting this challenge down 5 pounds from last challenge but seeing as how I re-lost the same bloody 5 pounds at the end of the last challenge/beginning of this challenge it just seems like an overall failure. Especially, since it was suppossed to be 10 pounds. And was basically 3. And if that was my body just being stubborn and holding on to fat, then so be it. But it wasn't. It was do to my horrid eating (mindless snacking) habits. And not working out for the bulk of the challenge because I got completely demotivated over my thyroid test results (which I thought indicated that I needed a higher dose and so didn't eat right or exercise while waiting for the doctor to call it in only to find out that my prescription does not need to be changed and weight loss at 45 is just hard. Grrr.).

I am super stoked. I am out of the 170's!!!! Last night I went to a social event where this is typically a lot of food. I considered not going, but told myself I'm a big girl and I don't HAVE to binge just because there is food. Because they decided to go out to the fire pit to make s'mores, there was much less other food. I had one cracker with meat slice and cheese and 2 s'mores and skipped everything else (fudge, popcorn, and candy). Then, something happened that was rather stressful, and by the time I got home , I needed to do a massive vent. BUT I did not allow myself to stress eat. I had a small handful of baked crackers and cream cheese (not planned) and then 2 rice cakes with cream cheese and my dark chocolate (planned) and I actually weighed LESS this morning than yesterday. I never lose weight over a weekend. My weight typically jumps up 4-5 pounds over the weekend (water retention due to saltier snacking, I assume), so my goal was only to maintain last week's loss, not to actually lose more. I only did the intermittent fasting Monday and Tuesday and then ate regular the rest of the week. I am going to eat regular today and then intermittent fast (stop eating after supper) tomorrow and then decide what to do Monday morning. @Elastigirl No worries, I do eat a bigger supper on the nights I know I'm not going to eat anything else for the night. And, I know I won't keep losing this fast. I put on 9 pounds last month so I'm sure that 9 pounds will come off faster. 4 more pounds to go of that 9 and then I probably won't lose more than 1-1.5 a week (my normal loss on a diet when I cheat on the weekends). Maybe, I can actually lose 2 a week if I don't cheat on the weekends since I proved last night that I don't have to. Very proud of myself.

Breakfast: Coffee w/ Collagen 2nd Breakfast: Coffee Lunch: Vege Shake Snack: Protein Shake Supper: Chicken with sauce or cheese in low carb wrap Snack: Mini Chicken Wrap w/ veggies & cheese or sauce Snack: Fruit and/or Veggie Straws Dessert: Block or two of 90% Chocolate That's what I'm suppossed to be eating. Intermittent fasting cuts out everything after supper. My plan for maintenance is that same meal plan but replace the low carb wrap with a REAL roll or bun and add in an additional mini wrap for lunch. And maybe a third block of chocolate, lol. I think I will do another night just to see. Talking about it here is motivating me to do it again.

So, I just looked up how many challenges there are from now to the end of the year and there are 4. That means, if I lose nothing this challenge, I will have to lose 10 pounds each challenge to meet my goal of losing 40 pounds by Christmas. So...the more I can lose this challenge, the less I will have to lose for the others. I would love to get it down to 8 a challenge but that means losing 8 this challenge and not sure that is possible. However, I did FINALLY make the scale move but I'm not sure if it "counts" or not. I basically did an intermittent fast yesterday: stopped eating after supper yesterday, which means I skipped 1-2 snacks (usually fruit and maybe a small bag of veggie straws or 1/2 a grilled chicken sandwhich) and desert (usually a couple blocks of 90% dark chocolate). The scale hadn't budged for 2 weeks or so after starting my diet and hiking/strength training/10,000+steps so I was getting discouraged. (It actually went up a pound after the weekend, despite my not drinking or eating any dessert but dark chocolate). But I saw a 2.2 drop this morning after fasting. Yay! But...not sure what that means. Real fat loss? Water loss? My body: "Oh, she's serious about actually losing weight, so I guess I drop a pound or two" loss? So now, I am tempted to do it again tonight. But only if it is actual weight loss. I don't want to eat a bowl of fruit in two days and it all to come back on again. But I was 166 for 2 years. And now that I am finally at a point where I can focus on weight, it jumps up to 175 in the last month and won't budge. Grrrr. Point is, I want to get back to 166 as fast as I can and then just focus on strength and a healthy eating lifestyle rather than a weight loss diet. If anyone is wondering why I have 2 snacks or chicken and a dessert AFTER supper, it's because I don't go to bed until 2 am. I get up around 9 am and I don't get hungry until around 1 or 2. So except for my morning coffee which has sugar free creamer and splenda, my eating window is typically 1 to 11. So it's not nearly as bad as it sounds, lol. In fact, cutting out that 1/2 chicken sandwich is why I was so hungry last night and why I am not really looking forward to doing it again if it's not even real fat loss. Anyway...enough complaining. I am now 172.8. If 2 or 3 more days of intermittent fasting can get me under 170, it would totally be worth a chicken a sandwich and some hunger pangs.

It's called the Naismith’s Rule. You allow 20 minutes for every 1 mile forward PLUS 60 minutes for every 2000 feet of ascent. That is average. So the quicker you can do the more fit you are. The slower it takes you the less fit you are. I had never heard of it before, but apparently it is the most common standard used to know how long a hike will take.

I love the concept of archery, but yea, I suck too, lol. I've only done it at the Renn Faire so maybe I should sign up for lessons or something. Though what I really want to learn is some form of Chinese sword fighting. Alas, so many interests. So few years to live. Lol

So, I finally got my charts done.

I just binge watched a ton of their videos. I'd never heard of them before, but mobility as I age is also very important to me. Glad you didn't' get hurt falling!